shelter in place

When Roadtirement meets Indiana’s shutdown order

/ Roadtirementvintage / 10 Comments

Sher and I have been in a stay at home situation since we got back a month or so early from our usual stint as Winter Texans. Since our return to Indiana on February 25th we have been really in a stay at home mode courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic. With our ages and my “underlying health issues” we have to be careful. So we thought we’d share some of what makes up Roadtirement’s self-isolation environment. What do we have,  how do we live day to day, and what’s some of the stuff we’re doing when we can’t go to the casinos, live theater or set up and sell at festivals and flea markets.

Pictured is a very nice and vintage hiking trails map from Tucson. The topographic map is dated 1967 and was published by the Southern Arizona Hiking Club. The map centers around Mt. Lemmon, north east of Tucson, in the Santa Catalina Range.  Mt. Lemmon is a very popular recreation area with miles of trails in the rugged terrain of the mountains.

Details of Mt. Lemmon w/trails

The map legend

We got this map when we were visiting Tucson a few years ago. I spotted it in a listing for an estate sale and was the lucky bidder. I did my graduate work at the University of Arizona in the early 70s and made many of the 2 hour trips from Tucson to the top. That sparked my interest in the map that now lives on our living room wall.

Do you have anything in your house or RV that reminds you of experiences from decades ago?

LEGO long distance babysitting

/ Roadtirementvintage / 12 Comments

Our 5 year old grandson lives in Seattle with his parents. Both our daughter and son-in-law are currently working from home because of the coronavirus, work that requires both phone calls and meetings via video-conferencing, as well as other tasks that require their giving full attention. Our grandson is also staying home from his pre-school.

Sher and I have the absolute pleasure of distant babysitting our grandson via video conferencing technology. He loves building things with his extensive LEGO collection.  When we connect, we are treated to a little show complete with his latest Lego creation and its associated story line. We get to see a new play each time complete with a song! We absolutely love talking with him and seeing all those LEGO creations he is working on daily. Being home is hard for him as he is used to being in preschool with his little friends. Lots of pent up energy there!

Not only do we get to “babysit” our grandson which is a treat for us, but we can give his parents some time while they are working from home that they can have to themselves. Plus it gives us something else to do. This isolation thing does get rather boring at times.

What are you doing to pass the time during these tense and uncertain times?