Planning is progressing for the next phase

It’s pretty amazing how the time flies when you are sitting on top of a mesa!  We have spent lots of it (and miles, too) getting to Santa Fe where there is a Trader Joe’s and a Whole Foods and concerts (we just saw an amazing performance of an opera that is a combo of Japanese Noh and Western revelation by  Benjamin Britten), and stores and museums, etc.  We have spent some of it exploring the area, including Taos (what a GREAT IONS group!) and Los Alamos (talk about negative vibes).  We’ve gone to special dance ceremonies at a couple of pueblos (there are 7 or 8 traditional pueblos where the heritage is really honored) and we’ve spent as many as 10 days in a stretch mesa-bound in the snow, ice and frigid temps.

Susan had her knee operated on, and had an MRI on the other one – both are functioning but are definitely in line for knee replacements one day as far in the future as possible   David is seeing a Swiss-trained osteopathic physician (operating with a massage license) to try and make his gut behave like a newborn’s.

And, the majority of our time over the last 6-8 weeks has been devoured with scanning in all our files (we aim to be paperless) because we can’t take paper files with us where we are going, in finally converting our Palm Pilot files to Yahoo contacts….and most recently in the actual planning of our next moves.  The current version of the itinerary is up to 12 pages.

Here’s a photo of the planning implements.

We are really excited about returning to Pueblo Ingles in Spain in early April where we will volunteer  helping Spanish teachers  improve their conversational English in the world heritage town of La Alberca.  From there we will love being in Seville and Jerez de la Frontera for Holy Week and the Semana Santa processions.  Then we’ve rented an apartment on the Costa del Sol for the month of May – we have an extra bedroom that Shirley Freriks (a friend from Mendocino) will use initially but that will be empty (hint, hint) from the 2^nd thru the 23^rd.

From Spain we will fly to England where we will kick around in Susan’s Father’s home town (Lytham St. Anne’s).  We’ve rented Tewit Cottage in Clitheroe, Lancashire and Payson and Chris are going to join us!  From there we go to Israel from 6/8 thru 6/22.  We will spend time with friends from Tucson who have visited before and will travel from Tel Aviv up to Safed, to Galilee, to Jerusalem, and all over that country (it’s the size of NJ) learning as much as we can as fast as we can.

Then it’s back to the UK and on up to Scotland where we are hoping to rent an apartment for July, August and then maybe Ireland for the beginning of Sept.  From there, back to Spain to do another volunteer gig, then home to the US on October 2^nd.  Because Medicare does not cover anyone for medical care off shore, our supplementary policy will take over but is only good for 6 months, so we need to return to the US for 3 months before it kicks in again. 

We have no plans after all of that….none at all.  We will fly back to NYC and hopefully, by then will have decided on some place to spend some time….but, right now, we will go into “let the Universe tell us” mode and see what happens and what opportunities arise.  Any ideas???  We are perhaps the luckiest people on the planet!!