Derecho

I'm sure some of you have been thinking ok great thanks for the vaca update but what about the garden?  Well here it is.  I don't need to say too much except that most survived Derecho the tomatoes were pretty sad and so was I being without power in my office all week (insert sarcastic comment).  After assistance from the support team (mom and dad) for allowing Yoshi and I to stay with them for a couple of days and two attempts to upright the tomato plants we all seem to be getting along just fine.  

remarkable recovery

I can't wait to eat you......

As for the couch to 5K it did not survive the Derecho.  The record setting temperatures and stress associated with temporary relocation are not conducive to new exercise program.  I haven't given up, just taken a break.  I appreciate the supportive emails and facebook message.  Keep them coming and don't hesitate to comment here too....

Florida

For those of you that know the Keely's we love to take vacations but are not good at relaxing.  It seemed fitting that I took a week of vacation and spent half of it in a car driving across the country and the other working.  Not the kind of work I do all day but more of I enjoy and what inspired me to start this gardening project.  Good old-fashion hard work.  The goal of second half of this trip was to prepare my brother's house in Pensacola for new renters.  He didn't realize he brought along a professional.  In his words, I was a machine.  We cleaned everything from floor to ceiling replacing all the light bulbs, (who steals light bulbs?) drawer pulls and fixing leaky toilets.  We even flew in our support team (Dad) from Roanoke.  After two full days of work and some help from my sister in-law's sisters husband James (again I should just stick with calling them what they are...family) and many trips to Lowes and Home Depot we were able to make the place livable again.  We even had time for a quick outing on the bay on Saturday.  I wish there were pictures of that event.  I can only say that it if were not for the quick thinking of James we might be at the bottom of that bay.
Note to others:  Don't overload an already infirm pontoon boat without the expectation of getting a little wet and maybe heading bow first into shark infested waters.

KVLN

KLVN (Keely’s Leave Vegas Now) officially began 18 June2012 with an early morning exit.  I had grand plans of taking actual pictures of Vegas in the rearview but with the amount on things loaded in the Subaru that proved to be difficult.

So instead a picture of Lake Mead

The stops along this epic journey are multipurpose so there are lots of pics from the car.  We are on a mission you know.  The following pictures were taken in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas (in that order).  I thought when I took them I would be able to tell the difference when I got to a place where I could blog about them.  The jokes on me. 

The first night after 9 hours of travel we stayed in Albuquerque New Mexico with my sister in law’s Aunt Connie.   I tried to figure out how that makes her related to me but after spending the evening with her I just settled on family.  It was nice to get out of the neon jungle of Vegas and have a home cooked meal where the volume was low enough to carry on a conversation. 

We also stopped in San Antonio to see my brothers college roommate.  I would've taken pictures of his beautiful new home but we got there late and left very early.   While in Texas we also made a stop to see a friend of mine from high school but again it was little more than a drive by so no pictures.  I will say that when I walked in the door is mom said immediately that I had not changed at all since high school.  (even after three days on the road).  It made me feel like a million bucks.  


On the final day of the first leg of our journey we traveled through much more Texas (who knew so much state could look exactly the same) and then Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and finally to Florida.  

When I started this adventure I promised myself that I would not be one of those bloggers that just quit posting or did not post on a regular schedule.  Like many things in this gardening project This is a learning experience.  I have not kept up so I am going to attempt to catch everyone up in a couple of posts and then return my previous promise.  (see second sentence)