Friday July 31, 2009-Green Caye, Dickinson

Today was a run errands and get things done day for us. After it took as long as it did to burn papers and receipts, we decided we would buy another shredder. I did some online research to see where we could buy the best shredder for the money and found that it was between Office Depot and Sam's Club. Office Max had some interesting looking units, but there weren't any store closer than Pasadena and we just didn't want to go that far. I also checked Wal Mart but everything that is in their online catalogue was only available online and not in stores. Kind of makes it hard to shop for the best one to buy doesn't it? Luckily for us, there is an Office Depot store in the same shopping center as the Sam's Club. We went to the Sam's store first and found a good looking Royal shredder but we wanted to compare to the others. We bought a few things at Sam's and went to the Office Depot across the parking lot. There was nothing there any better than the first, so we needed to buy groceries anyway, so we went to
Wal Mart. We made our grocery purchases and looked at shredders but decided that the first one was a better buy and went back to Sam's and bought it. Man, this comparison shopping is rough and it took all day! We were tired and hungry and came back home and Stella made us some Sloppy Joe sandwiches. We had not had any of these in years and they were very good.

While she cooked, I laid out a route for a trip next summer with Tyler and Cameron to the IRV2 national rally in Williams Arizona at the Grand Canyon for a week, over to Las Vegas Nevada for a couple of days since the boys can't gamble anyway, and then up through Utah to Island Park Idaho where we will visit the Yellowstone National Park for a couple of weeks. It was fun and pretty easy to use the sources online to map out the route. Since we will be somewhat of a time crunch because the boys will have to start back to school in late August, we will drive further at times than Stella and I would have driven if it was just us. We will drive 300+ miles on two days, but it will be worth it.

I later talked to Kim about the trip and she thought it was a great idea. She had gone to Yellowstone with a couple that had kept her when she was very young and we had stayed in touch with. She said she still remembers that trip and she was about 8 or 9 years old when she went with them.

I later talked to the boys about the trip. It was worth it to hear the excitement in Tyler's voice. He thought that going to that many states and the different locations that we will visit was "cool". Cameron was a little excited about it, but he's not really able to grasp this long of a trip. He didn't think too much about flying home from Idaho but there's really little choice. I could leave Stella in the trailer alone and drive them back, but it would take four days of 400+ miles a day and a stay in a motel plus meals and air flight costs $172 per person. Even if I had to fly with them, it would be cheaper to fly and of course, much faster. Even if I stayed overnight at Kim's house and flew back the next day, I would be back before I could drive through Colorado.

I am certain that there will be much more discussion and changes made to this trip. It's a year off and things will likely change before we leave.

So long.