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We arrived at the North San Franciso/Petaluma KOA on Friday, April 20 and made final arrangements for storing Bubba in Petaluma while we traveled to New Orleans, Houston, and Arkansas. On Saturday, we drove to Sonoma to visit Jerry’s brother, Jim, and his wife, Sally, then spent Sunday packing for our four-week trip away from "home". Jim took us to the Oakland airport for our noon flight to New Orleans where we spent three nights with Jerry’s nephew and wife, Doug and Wendy, and their precocious 4-year-old, Adam.

Adam is a remarkable child. He was born with spina bifida and hydrocephaly. None of us expected him to live – but live, he does. Heck, I’m not sure I have ever known another child who is so full of life. Adam wakes up happy and goes to sleep happy. And he makes everyone around him happy. Doug, Wendy, and Adam stayed with us for a month in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. And, although it was a terribly tough time for them, it was a month filled with love and laughter – a month that we will never forget. Adam stole our hearts then . . . and he continues to hold them in his tiny hands. And besides, he’s the only niece or nephew that either of us has ever had that calls us "Uncle" Jerry and "Aunt" Ann. That is special.

We also visited with my niece and her husband, Michelle and Scott Slatten. Scott, like Wendy, is a native of New Orleans. His family owns a tug boat business to help transport goods from the mouth of the Mississippi some 120 miles north to the port of New Orleans. Scott is President of the company. He and Michelle have three children, Allison, Katherine, and Michael. They are great kids, full of energy and involved in many extracurricular activities. It is wonderful to see family succeed and be happy. They, too, were displaced for months by Hurricane Katrina. In fact, Michelle and the kids spent one whole semester with Michelle’s dad and mom (Mack and Carolyn) in Memphis. But they seem to have adjusted well and are settled into their lovely restored home in the Garden District.

While in New Orleans, we toured some of the neighborhoods that were heavily damaged by the flooding. It was really sad to see how slow recovery is. New Orleans has always been one of our favorite cities but the city as we knew it is gone – perhaps forever.

On April 26, we flew from New Orleans to Houston to spend three nights with Jerry’s lifelong friend, Sam Brown, his wife, Maggi, and their sweet dog, Lucky. We had a marvelous time visiting with them and spent an afternoon in College Station where their son, Jordan, was a senior at the time. We had lunch with Jordan at a great little barbecue place and congratulated him on having persevered to achieve his degree. We also enjoyed a baseball game between the Astros and the Mariners. The Astros won 10-1! During our visit, we were reminded that there are no friends like old friends.

We flew to Little Rock on Sunday, April 29 where we spent two nights with our former neighbors, Helen Herr and Brad Jordan, then two nights with our good friends, Bert and Robin Parker. On Thursday, we drove to Memphis where we spent the night with my brother, Mack, and his wife, Carolyn. On Friday, we drove from Memphis to Devil’s Den State Park where we camped for two nights with our good friends, Bill and Diane Pharis, in their new Winnebago. Ah, how good it was to be back in the Ozarks and back with old friends!

On Sunday, May 6, we drove to Mountain Home and spent two nights with our friend, Heather Knight. We have decided that Mountain Home will be our permanent home once this road journey is ended so we spent a couple of days looking at property. We haven’t found that "perfect" piece of property yet but we feel certain that we will and there is no doubt that it will be in Mountain Home.

We spent the next four nights relaxing at our cabin near Alread. We had been on the run for almost three weeks and we were exhausted! Then, on Saturday, we went back to Little Rock where we spent two nights with my friend of 46 years, Lou Ellen Stevens.

On Monday, we had lunch with Jerry’s Uncle Dan and enjoyed happy hour with our friends Chris McCreight and Ashley Coldiron, at Chris’ home. We spent the night at a hotel near the airport to make our early morning flight easier.

We flew from Little Rock to San Diego on May 15 where we were met by our new friends, Carl Lee and Cheryl Lane. Carl has a house in Baja between Rosarito Beach and Ensenada. We spent six nights there and it was glorious. The house is in a beautiful development and faces the Pacific Ocean – wow! And we got plenty of "doggie time" with Buckeye and Bucephalus, Carl’s yellow labs.

We flew back to Oakland on May 21 and moved back into Bubba – ah, home. I know it is hard for those who haven’t experienced this lifestyle to understand how we can consider Bubba "home". I guess it is best stated on a pillow that Wendy gave us while we were in New Orleans: "Home is where you hook up." I love it! Bubba IS home. We are comfortable and have everything we could possible need. We love the lifestyle and are in no hurry to give it up. Maybe by fall, 2008? We shall see.

We spent the next eight nights in Petaluma with frequent visits to Sonoma to see Jim and Sally. Unfortunately, Sally was a little under the weather following her second back surgery so we weren’t able to engage her in our external activities. But we did enjoy several meals together and Jim, Jerry and I went to see Michael McDonald and Smokey Robinson in concert, as part of Sonoma’s jazz and food festival. I loved the concert. The OLD men thought it was too loud. We also visited several wineries in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys. Sonoma is still our favorite, by far.

Also, during our time in the bay area, we drove south to Half Moon Bay and had lunch with Jerry’s best Army buddy in Vietnam, Rey Urmanita, and his wife, Mary Anne. Unfortunately, we don’t see them very often but it is always a treat when we do.

We left Petaluma on May 29 and drove to Reno where we spent seven nights at the Sparks Marina RV Park. It was a great park close to all the action and we had several good dinners/lunches out while we were there – you know dining out is always cheaper in a casino town. And you know how Linesteen loves that! We spent the week working on our website and our personal affairs, including washing and ironing, my favorite chore, and buying and installing some new software on our computers. We also bought new tires for Pearl, in preparation for the bad roads we are told we will encounter while in Alaska. And we took a day trip to Lake Tahoe. The last time we were there was in 1990 for my fortieth birthday and all appeared pretty much the same. However, since that time, there has been much growth and we were shocked and saddened to see that Rev. Love’s Stateline Wedding Chapel has been torn down in the name of progress. We were married there on January 1, 1977 with Jim and Sally as our witnesses. How sad to know that this landmark, so important to us, is no more.

We left Reno on Tuesday, June 5 and drove to Winnemucca where we would spend one more night enroute to Emmett, Idaho to join friends Netty and Bob Kaskel, from our caravan trip to Mexico, for a few days. More about that later.

For now, happy trails to you . . . til we meet again!