{"id":10305,"date":"2015-07-26T03:03:36","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T03:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=10305"},"modified":"2015-07-26T03:03:36","modified_gmt":"2015-07-26T03:03:36","slug":"this-journey-is-going-to-test-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=10305","title":{"rendered":"This journey is going to test us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A big trip is in our future. I’m not nervous about it, but I am a bit anxious.<\/p>\n

We’ll be on the road for two weeks and one day, if all goes according to plan. It’s going to be an in-state adventure with our fifth wheel RV, which my wife some time back nicknamed “Sally,” as in the late astronaut Sally Ride. You see, our RV will ride<\/em> it us, get it?<\/p>\n

We’re planning to head east and south through Texas. We’ll go to a state park just north of the Dallas area, where we’ll visit with our granddaughter and her parents. Then we’ll mosey southward toward the Beaumont area, where we lived for nearly 11 years before moving to the Panhandle more than 20 years ago; there we’ll catch up with some dear friends. Then we’ll head to Houston to see more friends. Then it’s on to Corpus Christi for some sand and surf. Our last stop will be the Hill Country to see\u00a0more family and some friends.<\/p>\n

This trip, though, is going to have an important new wrinkle added to it.<\/p>\n

My wife and I had been thinking separately about what to do with our 13-year-old kitty, Mittens. Then my wife broached the subject out loud this weekend: Why don’t we take her with us?<\/em><\/p>\n

OK, there you go. No worries, then, about keeping her in the house. We’ve known all along we didn’t want to board her somewhere; she wouldn’t do well in the care of strangers.<\/p>\n

So, for the first time we’re going to take her with us. It’s going to be something of a trial run, as we intend to travel more extensively as we inch toward full retirement.<\/p>\n

Mittens is in good health. We have some time plan how we’re going to do this. We’re kicking around a few options to employ while we’re on the road. We’re confident she’ll be just fine once we stop and get comfortable in our sites along the way.<\/p>\n

Oh, of course we have Toby the dog, who’s proven to be a tremendous traveler. He’s one cool customer.<\/p>\n

Mittens, though, might present some challenges for us.<\/p>\n

Keep us — and her — in your thoughts as we ponder our plan of action.<\/p>\n

We haven’t told her yet. We’ll save the best for last.<\/p>\n\n

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This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement. A big trip is in our future. I’m not nervous about it, but I am a bit anxious. We’ll be on the road for two weeks and one day, if all goes according to plan. It’s going to be an … Continue reading This journey is going to test us<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1726,3858,3920,4826],"class_list":["post-10305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news","tag-fifth-wheel","tag-recreational-vehicle","tag-retirement","tag-toby-the-dog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}