We've had a relaxing couple of days here on St. George, and are packing up to leave this afternoon.

Yesterday I finally made time to sit down with the maps and figure out where we go from here. Our only real commitment at this point is to be in Death Valley for President's Day weekend, which gives us almost six weeks. We want to stay flexible and take things as they come, but we now have an overall game plan as follows:

From here we will head west through Pensacola and on to somewhere near Gulfport, MS. From there we will hop to New Orleans and spend a couple of days -- that will take us to around the 15th or so. Then it's on to Avery Island, Port Arthur via the Cameron ferry, and in to Beaumont, TX around the 19th. From there we will head to Houston where we hope to get the main engine serviced. Then it's down the gulf coast of Texas through Galveston and Corpus Christi and on to South Padre Island where, if the weather is nice, we will stay for a few days.

From there, we plan to follow the Rio Grande inland, through Brownsville and on to Laredo. We will start the month of February in Big Bend National Park. From there we head toward El Paso, then cross into Arizona around the 6th. We expect to stop for a couple days in the Tucson area, where we have friends, and to see Saguaro National Monument. From there we head to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, then north to lake Havasu.

A quick jaunt through Lake Mead NRA will bring us to Las Vegas for St. Valentine's day -- we have two nights campground reservations here, and show tickets for the 14th. From Vegas we proceed direct to Death Valley, where we have one night at the Furnace Creek Inn before heading down to Furnace Creek Campground for the weekend.

After Death Valley, we will make our way to San Jose and the bay area for a few weeks, catching up with friends and family and taking care of some business.

This takes us into March, which is as far as we have scheduled at the moment. There are a number of items on the calendar beyond that, and we are working on integrating those into some kind of a travel plan, along with fitting in a one-month jaunt through Mexico with a caravan (including a five-day piggyback through the Copper Canyon by train).

Whew. Stay tuned for updates, though, because things can change in a heartbeat.