Lots happened in 2025 – but the most exciting for me was moving back to NYS in October.  Here is the new and my last ever address – 27 Greentree Dr. S, Hyde Park, NY 12538.  I thought about it and counted how many addresses I have reside at since my parents brought me home from the hospital to my grandparents’ home in Brooklyn – it is 15.  Jerry outnumbered me by one.

Again, we traveled a lot this year and because we were without a primary address from September 5 to October 30 we were traveling for 28 weeks, or 6 ½ months this year.

We started January with a Blues Cruise to Mexico.  Mexico in January with 24/7 blues music was not hard to take.  We had a great time.  We saw artist we knew and some who were new to us.  We stopped in Key West; I had never been and have always wanted to go.  Then Cancun where I got to put my feet again in the Pacific.

February, I went to London to be grandma for school vacation and we went to the London Zoo which I loved, maybe more than the grandkids!

March and April were pretty low key, no travel.  We did manage to spend time volunteering and visiting with friends.

May began RV travels in and around IL and WI that extended into June.  Sometime during this time, I had a strong desire to move back east.   By July I knew we needed to go to where I felt called to live with great urgency.  Jerry needed to see it and if it was the life he would be happy with.  Beginning the last week of June, we drove out to NY/NJ and spent 10 days just driving around looking at areas.   We visited several towns in NJ but neither of us were feeling it.  We drove from Northern NJ to Highland and up the Hudson River on the west side as far as Catskill and crossed the river to Hudson and then drove down the east side to Beacon looking for where we might like to live.  We stopped at every town on the way and while some were okay, none “wowed” us.  Then we stopped in Red Hook and that was it – it was where we wanted to live!  Andrew had a friend from when he was in college who is a realtor in the area and she started sending us home listings.

The problem is we plan our travel during December/January for the year so many plans had been made.  Besides the Blues Cruise, we had planned a cruise to Alaska with Jerry’s cousins Brenda and Mike.  We were spending two full days before in Seattle and then getting on the ship.  We drove back from NY arriving in IL on July 7.  We left for Seattle the morning of July 10!  Alaska was amazing.  We enjoyed Seattle and I met IRL an internet knitting friend Helen, and she and her husband joined us for lunch one day and brought me to a knit shop!  While we were on the cruise, we visited Juneau and Tracy’s Crab Shack – my third time.  We sailed through the glaciers, went on a whale boat and saw whales and sealions, went to Sitka and the Alaska Raptor Center and the Sitka National Historic Park which is a rainforest.   We returned very late on July 19^th.   July 29^th we were leaving for a month in the RV.  That gave us 10 days to prepare the RV and have the house ready to show.

Those 10 days were spent going through closets and weeding out things we did not need.  We knew we would be going someplace smaller so not only was it clothes and other belongings, it was furniture.  In 10 days, we sold a full bedroom set – between the two of us we had 3.  Sold all the living room and dining room furniture.  Sold more than half my card making supplies and storage, a lot of my knitting needles and yarn I no longer used.  Books were weeded and sold to second hand books.  CDs had already been in the process of loading on to the computer but that had to be completed.  Packing started.  We hired someone to clean the windows inside and out, a handy man to fix the things that you ignore and two women to clean the house.  We had sold or donated more than half of what we owned.  And we still had too much stuff.  My dear friend Nancy is a realtor in IL – anyone in IL who needs a realtor she is your woman, just let me know.  She put the house up on the market while we were gone.   I knew between the dog and Jerry I could not keep the house “show ready” if we were home. 

We had lots of showings but no good offers.  We were coming home on August 29^th and it was August 22^nd with no signed offer.   I was worried.  I said a short prayer – God you know how messy Jerry is and how Ernie sheds so much if we are home and need to show the house, I might kill them.   I know you don’t want Jerry to die so please help us.   The house showed on August 24^th and the contract was completed by e-mail before we got home.

Now I should tell you about the trip because it was great fun.  We went through WI to MN and visited Duluth for the Bayfront Blues Festival.  You park in a lot with electric and water and you   walk to and from the venue.  It was so nice.   You could hear the music outside the camper but it was about a bazillion degrees when we were there (actually high 90’s and no shade) so we did not do that.  We were mostly able to find a shady spot to sit and again we had a great time.  There is a nice area with restaurants you could walk to as well.  Then we did something we don’t usually do, we rented a car when we left Duluth for 2 weeks since we were making a circle and returning to Duluth.  We rented the car at Duluth International Airport that has no right to use that name!   There was one luggage return carousel, about 100 parking spaces which more than half were vacant and 2 gates.  I saw the TSA guy go into the bathroom and get a cup of coffee while I was at the rental counter and there was no one at security – but then no one to go through.  During the trip we visited two National Parks – Voyageurs and Isle Royale.  Voyageurs is completely water and we took several boat trips including one fishing charter which was Jerry’s birthday present a bit late.  It is completely lovely and the car helped us get from dock to dock for our boats.  Isle Royale is actually part of MI but easier to get the boat from MN – only 1 ½ hour trip as opposed to a 2 ½ hour boat ride from MI.  All of it deep in nature and we loved it.

We arrived back in IL August 29^th and the moving van was coming to pick up our things September 5^th.  We had a week to finish packing and get out of town because as soon as the van left, we were leaving to go to NY house hunting again.  While on the last RV trip, the battery was acting up so we needed to make an appointment for that and have it replaced before we left for NY since we drove the RV, found a rental space to leave it in so one vehicle out of three would be on the east coast.  This was about the time I was beginning to doubt the whole process, our IL home was sold, we had no place to live in NY, we would have to pay for storage for our belongings and RV, still had two cars to go to NY and were going to London on September 16^th.  Another prearranged trip to visit Laura’s family and go to a huge yarn festival on September 27^th planned in January.  When I had been in London in September 2024, I met people going and wanted to go so much.  So, we packed so much and sold and donated more things, we still ended up with 78 boxes and 148 items.  When we were finished with the moving and storage the reasonable move was ridiculously expensive.   We also had the RV and my car – second trip to NY in 3 months – fully packed with things we put in storage in NY.  Jerry’s car was in the garage packed with boxes and more were in the garage waiting for the return of my car.  We would be back in IL September 29^th, the closing was set for September 30^th, and we would drive back to NY October 1^st ideally to live in our new home!

We left on September 5^th in the RV and car and camped along the route.  The RV had a tire blow out someplace in OH on a Sunday and that kept us trapped until it could be fixed on Monday.  Now if you follow along with our blog, one by one the tires have given us trouble.  Some were replaced and some repaired.  I had had enough!   I ordered 6 new tires to be done with it.  We slept in the back of a Walmart, thanks to our solar panels and some cool weather continued on and arrived in NY September 9^th.  We had several homes in Red Hook to see and were excited.  We found nothing!  Red Hook was either out of our price range or what we could afford was not in good shape.  We returned to Bloomingdale and left for London.   While we were there, the purchasers wanted to move the closing date up to September 26^th.  We still had our cars in the garage and things in the house.  We cut the trip short; I did not make the yarn festival and returned to IL September 24^th.  We stayed in a local hotel until after closing just in case anything went wrong and then set off for NY in two very packed cars.  We got the RV out of storage and set up for 32 days in a nice park near Red Hook.  We hit house hunting like we were on a reality home show.  We found a house in Red Hook walking distance from town and had it inspected – it had mold.  Move on.  Looked at many other homes that were too small or in need of a great deal of repair.  We finally conceded we needed to look outside of Red Hook.  I was completely wrecked.  I did not want to live any place else.  Thank God for our realtor Stacey, she said let’s just look at this house in Hyde Park.  I DID NOT WANT TO LIVE IN HYDE PARK!   Jerry loved the house.  I said it was a nice house but in the wrong location, but after looking at some other things and riding around the neighborhood, I began to change my mind.  Our offer was accepted on October 8^th and the closing was October 30^th.  The RV Park closed on October 31^st so we took the things we needed out of the RV and stayed in the house.  We arranged for painters and a floor refinisher to work while we were in London, another prearranged trip for my 70^th birthday.  We found the location closer to shopping and activities than we expected.  We found a group of older hikers we have been out with.  We are close to a church we like and I have joined two knitting groups and a book club.  The house is large enough to hold what we kept, but small enough to manage easily.  We have a huge backyard and it is quiet.  There are so many trees and birds I feel I am in the forest with indoor plumbing!  I missed the yarn festival in the UK but was here for the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival in October.  I spent the entire day there having a ball.  We were able to spend Christmas Day with my son and Krissy his wife and my sister-in-law and nephews and niece and their families.  It was so great.   Then a few days ago Andrew and Krissy came to visit us.   They are just a train ride away and next month we will go down there for the day. 

Our last adventure of the year was our month in the UK.  We rented an Airbnb about a 10-minute walk from Laura’s house.  We helped with school pickups and dinners.   Laura made a delicious dinner and cake for my birthday.  We all went to Bath for Thanksgiving and spent it with Alex’s dad and brother.  The food was so good.  We also had a day with Alex’s mom, grandmother and sister.  And another day just wandering around Bath and the Christmas Market along with touring the Roman Baths.  We went to a football game for the team that Theo likes and had very good seats.  We saw a funny show with Laura, Alex and the kids.   Jerry and I took the train up to the north near Scottland and spent a few days with another one of the International Internet Knitting group.  She took us around to many towns and knit shops!  We ate dinner one night in a legit British Pub that dated to the 1670’s.  I was so excited!

2026 is on the way and Jerry and I agreed we want to be home more!  NYS had so many different and beautiful State Parks and as a senior we can enjoy them all.   Our plan this year is to take shorter trips closer to home and visit friends and relatives in NY, NJ and PA.  Hope to see you soon.

I sort of think of Jerry as coming from another country to NY. Robin Williams is always fun!