We crossed the state line between South Carolina and Georgia at 1:02 EST on Thursday, February 5. We said, “Hooray, we’re finally on the move,” but we also felt twinges of regret and sadness. We had been in South Carolina since October of 2014 and were getting pretty use to life among the Game Cocks. The sugar and cream on the grits of South Carolina were the times visiting with my niece and family. We count ourselves lucky to once again having the chance to hang out with them. April, Drew, Ian, and Angus are the tops, and we will miss them. April and all, thanks for your hospitality, taking such good care of us, and introducing us to Cachaca.

We got the all-clear signals from our respective health care professionals. Most important word was from Shannon’s cardiologist. His diagnosis was that she does not have a-fib but “premature heartbeats.” He did explain the difference sufficient that we bought the diagnosis, but Shannon will be more diligent about regularly seeing a cardiologist. We both left the cardiologist feeling much more confident for the road ahead. And my eyes are good, but I am tied to reading glasses. It remains to be determined how long I’ll put up with juggling a pair of reading glasses before going back to wearing a prescription bifocal. But for now, no glasses, and now I can live out my secret wish: being Joe Cool.

As I write this, we are spending three days at our first stop on our trip westward, aka THE PLAN 1.0. We are in a KOA in the St. Mary’s, GA/Jacksonville, FL area. After having spent more than 30 days in a state park in SC with campsites spread out and no long term residents in the campground, being here at this KOA is the pits. We will be gone tomorrow and staying in a FL state park in the Gainesville area. We look forward to a much nicer campground.

The mention of the state park is a nice segue into THE PLAN 1.0. WARNING: THE PLAN can and will be revised faster than I can type. For now it is version 1.0 and roughly follows: As mentioned above we will be in the Gainesville, FL area for 3 days visiting volunteer friends in the area. We then head westward through the FL Panhandle to a LA state park which is very close to where Shannon’s brother and sister-in-law live on the Toledo Bend Reservoir that separates LA from TX. We will be there for 3 nights and then head toward San Antonio. We will stop off there for a couple of days to visit once again a great city and the Riverwalk. Then, we go onto Seminole Canyon State Park where we had our first volunteer gig in March of 2011. From Seminole Canyon we will travel to Deming, NM where we will visit with another volunteer couple. Our final leg for this part of THE PLAN 1.0 is to arrive in the Tucson area for a gathering of Escapee Club members in a rally called an “Escapade.” That will start on March 5. When that is over, we will make our way to Petrified Forest National Park where we will volunteer until early May. In May, we travel to Ridgway State Park in Colorado to spend the summer campground hosting. Whew! (See WARNING above.)

Along the way, we plan to play the role of tourists as much as possible. We have stopped in the St. Mary’s area to experience Cumberland Island National Seashore. As it turned out, we only experienced the National Seashore from the visitor center on the mainland, but we did have a wonderful time touring and experiencing Historic St. Mary’s. This does not constitute enough of a change to warrant a 1.1 revision in THE PLAN. We’re moving on following THE PLAN.