Thursday, April 23, 2009

Travels with "ARTIE"

For the past few years, it was my dream to be able to travel further on painting trips and see more of our beautiful state and country. It seemed as though retirement was the logical time to consider adventuring out like this... but then one day I thought "why not now"?  

Suddenly this simple thought set into motion a series of events.  I started looking seriously on Craigslist in the RV section.  For more than a year became familiar with the types of vehicles and the prices by scouting on a regular basis.  Since my price range was in the lower echelon, we looked at some real clunkers until one day January of 2009 we came across a vehicle that was made in 1989 but only had 13,000 miles.  That day we set up a meeting and by nightfall it was ours. I guess it's true that having a goal can help one focus on achieving success.  

We named him ARTIE because he was our artmobile.  He needed the roof sealed, new tires, a new stereo (of course), but basically he only needed a cleaning. 

We planned our first trip in late January and headed to the Mendocino, Ft.Bragg area.  It was a beautiful week and we painted some real winners.  Artie performed admirably.  After a couple of weeks at home, we headed out again for a longer trip to Southern California to see the William Wendt show at the Laguna Beach Museum of Art and then due east to Arizona. It was a magical two week trip and we have thousands of photos and some paintings too.  We even connected with the Windrush Gallery in Sedona, AZ that now represents both of our work.

We now have a new dimension added to our lives... just because of a dream to travel more.