Apparently I startled a few people by casually mentioning that this blog will end in about a week. \u00a0 I’ve talked about this on and off for the past year, but never declared a firm end date until now. \u00a0 \u00a0 Here’s the official announcement: \u00a0 After the Balloon Fiesta, we’ll take a couple of days to get back to Tucson, and then settle into the house that we’ve never really lived in. \u00a0 At that point I’ll wrap up this blog.<\/p>\n
We aren’t about to stop traveling. \u00a0 We’ll do a little travel in October and December, but not enough to sustain daily blogging. \u00a0 I have many other projects that I want to turn my attention to in the coming months, including some refurbishing of the Airstream, and some work on the house. \u00a0 It will be time to start writing about something new.<\/p>\n
Now, having written this blog for three years, I’ve become rather accustomed to it. \u00a0 The task of summarizing my thoughts of each day has been good practice for me as a writer, and it has resulted in an irreplaceable journal of this remarkable period of our life. \u00a0 Without the blog, I’d probably have forgotten half the things we’ve seen and done. \u00a0 It has become a public extension of me.<\/p>\n
So I do plan to keep blogging. \u00a0 The question, which I have wrestled with for months, is what to write about in the future. \u00a0 I still don’t know. \u00a0 But I do know that once I have the idea, I will announce it to you so you can follow along again, if you want.<\/p>\n
The problem is that I don’t know who most of you are! \u00a0 So here’s the key. \u00a0 To be informed of the future blog, you need to do one of two things:<\/p>\n
And now, back to our regularly scheduled program.<\/em><\/p>\n The weathermen were right. \u00a0 Yesterday afternoon the weather steadily declined until finally around 5 p.m. some light rain arrived and the temperature dropped. \u00a0 We have had rain all night and \u00a0 although I didn’t get up before dawn again to see, I’m pretty sure the morning balloon launches were a washout.<\/p>\n I have no idea what went on last night because Emma got one of those unpleasant kid stomach bugs and kept us completely occupied until about 9 p.m., when she finally and very suddenly crashed in bed. \u00a0 We have some serious laundry to do today, and the comforter from our bed is not going to be usable for the rest of the week. \u00a0 (Note to other full-timers: Never buy a comforter that is “Dry Clean Only.”) \u00a0 This experience also reminds me why I hate carpeting in trailers — it’s very difficult to clean.<\/p>\n When we get back to Tucson I had already decided to completely remove the dinette and re-upholster it in some sort of easy-clean vinyl, probably the “Ultraleather” type. \u00a0 Ours is permanently discolored from dirty hands & feet, tomato sauce stains, and a thousand other kid-related spills. \u00a0 We’ve tried washing it but it just doesn’t want to come clean. \u00a0 The foam cushions are dead flat too, so it’s time for a makeover. \u00a0 This latest episode just sealed the deal. \u00a0 If I get really ambitious, I may even remove the entire bedroom and replace the carpeting in there with something more suitable for our lifestyle.<\/p>\n The loss of today from the Balloon Fiesta is not a terrible thing. \u00a0 We are paid through Tuesday morning, and the weather looks like it will be better on Monday, so we’ll resume that program soon. \u00a0 Having some errands to do in town gives us a reason to leave the grounds and see a little of Albuquerque.<\/p>\n If Emma feels up to it today, we’ll go to Petroglyph National Monument, which is right in Albuquerque. \u00a0 If not, we’ll take it easy. \u00a0 Given that this is our last week of full-timing, I feel like mixing in plenty of “doing nothing.” \u00a0 Il dolce far niente.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Apparently I startled a few people by casually mentioning that this blog will end in about a week. \u00a0 I’ve talked about this on and off for the past year, but never declared a firm end date until now. \u00a0 \u00a0 Here’s the official announcement: \u00a0 After the Balloon Fiesta, we’ll take a couple of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}