Will we make it?

I've never planned a trip quite so haphazardly. For someone as anal as me, it is hair raising.

The hotel rates have not really gone down as reported. I have made reservations for the first two nights, and I haven't noticed a great difference. The clerk at the first place, however, saw that we were returning for the 3rd time and knocked off $5. Woo and hoo! No such luck with booking a second night in Texas. Bah and humbug.

It has been promised that we will sit down tomorrow with a map and a notepad and plot out what to do after that.

Generally, I make lists weeks in advance. This time? No time for lists. Yikes! My pseudo Virgo self trembles in fear.

Another Year/Another Trip

For a while there, it didn't look like we were going anywhere any time soon. We thought we needed a new roof, and the $12,000 is was going to cost to get it put an immediate damper on everything we had planned for the foreseeable future. As it turned out, a $100 repair did the trick.

The roofing "scare" did get us started down a home improvement road, though. We're repainting our bedroom and recarpeting all the bedrooms. We had the porch rescreened. We're looking into flooring for the rest of the house, new cabinets for the kitchen....etc., etc. It means $$$ for the next year or two.

We are not taking one of our epic trips this year. Two weeks and we're done. We haven't chosen a date to leave, but it will no doubt be in the next few weeks. The route remains the same out to New Mexico, but we'll detour around Van Horn and drive through Gaudalupe Forest NP in West Texas before heading up through Carlsbad Caverns. From there perhaps Roswell, Ruidoso, and beyond that we haven't planned. We know we want to go back to the Gila National Forest, and Albuquerque is always on the itinerary.

Right now I'm in Phase I of planning. I have some hotels written down and keep adding more each day. I'm ready to make reservations in St. Charles, LA (same place as always - and the same restuarant for dinner because the catfish is to die for) and Ozona, TX as soon as we have dates set. Call the vet and set the cat up with a "camp" stay. Stop the mail. Hold the paper. Line up the daughter and her fiancee to take care of plants and lawn. Get necessities. The list is endless but the same. I just need dates!

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

DJ JD'S TRAVEL MIX

People who know my musical tastes will find this a typical playlist. Those who don't, let me explain that we are an eclectic family when it comes to music. My kids have been trading music with us since they were teenagers. While most people our age listen to nostalgia, we have been listening to groups with names like Weezer and Beirut. They send us the latest from Modest Mouse, and we send them the soundtrack from La Vie en Rose or an album of Native American music. Everyone agrees it's all good.

So when my daughter said she was making us a CD of tracks she thought were appropriate to a road trip, we knew it would be fun, and it was.

I'm working on finding a widget that will allow me to add these songs. In the meantime, here's the list of songs on the Travel CD my daughter prepared for us (I've added links for the people some of you in my age group may not know):

DJ JD's TRAVEL MIX
1 America - Simon & Garfunkel
2 Florida - Modest Mouse
3 Walter Reed - Michael Penn
4 Going to Georgia - The Mountain Goats
5 Walking in Memphis - Marc Cohn
6 Homecoming - Kanye West
7 The Wings - Gustavo Santaolalla
8 Cold White Christmas - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (I wish this group had a site - I couldn't find one)
9 Silver City - Ghostland
10 New Orleans Waltz - Grayson Capps
11 Youngstown - Springsteen
12 NY I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down - LCD Soundsystem
13 AEnema - Tool
14 Atlantic City - Springsteen
15 Brooklyn's Finest - Jay-Z
16 Ghost Dance - Robbie Robertson & Red Road Ensemble
17 San Francisco Days - Chris Isaak
18 Walcott - Vampire Weekend
19 American Girl - Tom Petty
20 Heartland - U2

p.s. If there are people who don't know the ones I have not linked, I am without words to explain. lol.

Wrapping Up the Loose Ends

We've been home almost a week now, and I still don't feel like I'm completely "here." There are still things lying around to be put away, and I'm still working my way through all those pictures. I subjected you, dear readers, to every one of them. I'm in the process of editing and filing, and then I'm going to put together an album of the "best" (or my favorites, really), which I will post here.

I also have not forgotten that way back at the beginning I promised to post the playlist of songs my daughter sent as our Travel Music.

Now that I'm home real life keeps interfering. Drat you, real life! You are boring but you keep dragging me back in!!