The Blog

The months of March, April, and May were all spent house-sitting in Colorado. We took care of 14 different pets in 7 different households which we lined up with our Trusted House Sitters subscription*. Our main focus, besides taking care of our furry charges, was selling our van, Ballena Blanca. You can read all about…

Ballena Blanca is gone. Off to new adventures with a new owner. On May 10 we signed the papers, deposited a check with my phone, and gave Ballena Blanca’s keys to her new companion. Ballena was our only permanent home for 8 years. Greg and I lived in her longer than any other home we…

The start of a month of house sits We rang in the New Year in Mexico City, mostly recovered but still feeling the effects of whatever bug we had caught. Three days later on  January 3, we flew back to the US. We picked up the van that night from the hotel parking lot where…

February 22 – July 4, 2023. Five years ago when we were traveling around Mexico we discovered Mezcal. Since then we have been on a quest to learn more about this distilled liquor. When we found ourselves stuck in Oaxaca for 4 months, we had the perfect opportunity. To be considered a true mezcal, it…

November started out special. Greg’s mom, Dossie, had mentioned visiting Brevard College where she and Perry first met. So on the first of November, we all hopped into the car, including Dossie’s miniature longhaired dachshund, Penny, and drove a few towns over to pick up Aunt Sheila. Memories started flying as we passed the house…

One of the fun things about the area of Oaxaca we were stuck in for 4 months was the variety of small towns that were excursion-worthy. Many of these towns specialized in a craft or event or a special natural feature. I always had a hard time remembering the names of these towns so I…

On August 14 of last year, Greg’s father, Perry, had a stroke. We were in Cabbagetown (Atlanta) at the time house sitting for friends. After Greg got the call, we made a quick trip to the grocery store, and then Greg took Ballena Blanca and headed to his mom’s, Dossie, house in Lowesville, NC, outside…

In July we finally landed at our first house sit of the summer in Cabbagetown. After a month of driving and visiting friends and family in June and visiting more friends and family during the first week of July, we were glad to only have the company of, Cosmo, a very affectionate cat. We tried…

January 26 – April 18, 2023 This post is all about the ruins we saw in Oaxaca. I know, if you have seen one crumbling building you’ve seen them all. Still, for me, like everything else, there are subtle differences, that one thing that makes a site special compared to all the others. And sometimes…

We had just crested an incline when the whirl of Ballena Blanca’s engine suddenly went quiet and stopped. We were on the Horace Wilkinson Bridge crossing over the Mississippi River into Baton Rouge, Louisiana. With the forward momentum we had left, Greg maneuvered the van through the traffic whizzing by us into the right lane…