No, it was not planned.  We were supposed to begin our thousands of miles voyage by land, sea, and air yesterday.  But, an unexpected snow storm prompted us to remain in Brooklyn for an extra day.  That way I got to shovel snow in two states.  It also gave us another day with Elley and Roman.

Returning home on Friday, on Saturday we furiously opened mail, paid bills, downloaded tax forms and 1099’s, laundered, cleaned, and threw items for packing onto the living room floor.  On Sunday we powered up the motor home, turned on the fridge, and made three trips to the rig with provisions.  It rained and rained, so we left our “Harley” under roof nearby.  I was afraid it would sink into the mud if I brought it home. 

We also celebrated my birthday yesterday as it is hard to party when you are driving and driving and driving.  That is the plan for today.  The air has cleared but turned colder and a strong wind will slow us down, but we will follow the road out of the forest to Chambersburg, climb onto I-81 and roar southwest, probably for two days, until we reach a place where it will not freeze at night.  Then we will slow down and start exploring the countryside.  We will also be able to fill the water tank.  Meanwhile we will make do with bottles of water.

We leave Pennsylvania in the heart of winter.  The trees are naked and gray.  A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers mined deadwood in our yard yesterday morning as we packed.  They added to our still short Year 2017 list of birds in the “ABA Area” (U.S. and Canada.)  We will have to find most of our Eastern winter birds in December.  I had hoped to bird a bit around NYC, but our duties there kept us too close to (Elley’s) home.  We enjoyed finding our first American Robin of the year at D.U.M.B.O. 

Plans for our trip are in place, but we still have not reserved a camp site.  After the first few days when we will only stop and not camp, we will choose a route based on weather and call ahead for reservations.  We anticipate reaching Knoxville tonight and Memphis tomorrow if the ship and all systems do well.  Then, if the weather is favorable we might continue west into Oklahoma.  More likely we will dive farther south toward Dallas and El Paso.  Somewhere there we will settle in for a week and start looking for birds we don’t see around here.

Wish us well.  We will keep you posted here.