Tomorrow is the start of my last week of work for the season, and I’ll be off a few of those days so it will not even be a full week.

There are a few last-minute end-of-season things to wrap up and we will be done. During the winter there is mainly the maintenance on equipment and buildings needing to be done plus other projects that we are too busy to do during the summer months.

This will be my first winter not working (other than the time after my motorcycle wreck I needed to recuperate) so it is something that will be new to me. Having the time off to travel – a chance to go see some places and do some things.

I anxiously look forward to this time off and the opportunity to travel. I am in need of a reset right now and getting away is what I need. Working on the trailer yesterday got me fired up a little more to get my ass back out on the road for an adventure. Each time I go inside it it seems a little more real that it is mine now.

This year had some travel so it’s not like I didn’t get to go anyplace at all. I saw Meghan and Loran in Ennis, MT on the way to KS to pick up the Scotty from my dad’s house. I went through some nasty conditions but was able to dodge the weather for the most part. The only delay was the wind on the return tip across eastern UT, and that was three days in Fruita, CO waiting for the wind to calm down. I went to the San Juan Islands a few times for acupuncture and I drove to Meghan’s house in MT via BC and some beautiful Canadian National Parks. There were trips to Port Townsend and Sequim, the awesome MoPOP museum, downtown Seattle, Hendrix/Cobain road trip for Alexis with Angie, and a two-day trip to KS to be there when Rowan was born. So I guess I really went more than I thought I did once I start listing things off.

I do want to do some long weekends in a Seattle hotel downtown again – similar to our Hotel5 experience earlier this year. I can now ride the bus to downtown Seattle from home and that will make it much easier and cheaper so I could go a few times a month over the winter. Before that I have to take the trailer out and hit the road, ending up in places for a reason, or even for no reason at all. Just chance and the thrill of discovery. I am driving to MT in December when Meghan is having her baby. After I leave there, I may go someplace else before I come back home – maybe CO and /or KS. I probably will not have the trailer since I don’t really want to pull it around on the snowy roads. It sure makes for an expensive trip though, having a hotel every night.

Again, paying rent for a place tends to get into one’s budget a bit so I have to be careful and keep that in mind while traveling. It’s either drive to motels and dine at a restaurant 2-3 times a day, or take the trailer. You end up spending a little more on gas but MUCH less on lodging, and you can save $$ if you cook your own food or find a forest road to boondock on. I am trying to live as inexpensive as possible in some ways to enable the ability to take these adventures. Notice I say inexpensive and not cheap.

I don’t have cable TV; I choose travel and doing things over wasting my money on cable. I have internet and DVDs so I am good with video entertainment. The savings from not having cable is considerable especially given the fact I only watch two, maybe three, channels and that is it. It is not really worth it for me to have pay TV like that. I might sign up for Netflix in the future, though. It’s a cheap alternative with lots of choices.

There will be other things to do and see more locally so this winter should be exciting and lots of fun.

In case you were interested: Yesterday’s Italian chicken Instant Pot experiment was a success! It turned out quite good. It would be really good on a pita with some goat cheese – I guess that I’ll have to try that.