Getting Ready to Go

Skip and I are heading out on Monday to our southern home - South Padre Island, TX. We don't own property - we rent - but because we spend almost 1/4 of a year there or travelling to or from there (it's 5 days in the car each way) it feels like we live there during our winter holiday. We settle into the condo (not always the same one) with many of our possessions and just live. The condos are outfitted with almost everything one would need but we do take our favourite kitchen tools, towels, placemats, etc. etc. for our 2+months there.

Our life there is pretty relaxed. When one is away from home, one can't be doing home repairs or maintenance - cleaning out closets, etc. etc (not that I do a lot of that when I'm home). We don't have to shovel snow. We don't have to put on scarves, mittens, boots, coats, and hats just to run down to the store for provisions. We eat out fairly frequently as we enjoy many offerings in that area (tacos de barbacoa, tamales, enchiladas, etc.). We go birding with a local group once a week - organized by a retired school teacher who is used to 'herding cats' (picking the locale, keeping us together and looking in the right direction). Birding with lots of folks is great because there are so many more pairs of eyes and ears for spotting and many of our companions are much more knowledgeable than we are.

We've been preparing to pack up the car. I usually take one craft suitcase containing knitting and stitching projects, a big suitcase with my warm weather clothes and a small suitcase for our various hotel stays en route. We have laundry facilities in our unit down there so we can wash the few clothes we take as we need to.

I've cancelled our papers and have made my travel advisory with my credit card company. Many companies don't require this any more but mine still does. Do you have high internet/home phone/television bills? Did you know you can suspend service while you're away and save money? We pay a $49 fee to suspend our account with our provider and have a net saving of over $500 during our absence of 2+ months. As we have gmail and yahoo email accounts, we don't rely on our Internet provider go check our email.

One thing I traditionally do is knit a dishcloth for use during our stay.

I usually knit it in the car on the way down on the shift that I'm not driving. I started it today

and will probably finish it en route. I have lots of stitching to do on the latest piece I'm doing for Teresa. I'm loving the colours. I've set myself a deadline of Feb. 15 to have it done so I can mail it back to her in time for her to FFO it for display at Market in Nashville the first weekend of March.

She has sent 'Heaven and Nature' out to be framed in time for Market. I am looking forward to seeing it in its splendour.

So I'm hoping to get stitching done in the car over the next week. I'm fortunate I don't get motion sickness and can knit or stitch in a moving vehicle.

This afternoon I hope to get most of my craft suitcase packed.

Tomorrow a bunch of us are going on a birthday road trip to celebrate Barb's birthday. Jen1 is great at planning these events. We will be hitting a quilting shop that we've never visited before plus a few others in the area as well as a couple of knit shops. Most of us don't need to augment our fabric stashes but one never knows what one will see on these outings. And it's so fun to spend time with my like-minded friends. I will really miss them while I'm gone. I do plan to Skype or Facetime some of them.

I have lists all over the house and on my phone. I need to get off the computer and get some packing done.