On the road again

Wow, we are finally here in an apartment and our things from NY storage finally arrived! We spent a week in a hotel and found a 3 bedroom apt to rent while we await the closing of our new condo. We were going to stay in this rental for awhile and try to sell the condo, but it's looking as though we will be moving into it even before Christmas! WOW! So, we have a current address of 3702 Hillmeade Court, Nashville, TN, 37221 with a phone of 615-760-5851, but write it down in pencil!
Tomorrow Enzo signs a lease on a gorgeous 5 treatment room office in an area of Nashville known as Green Hills. It is very exclusive and wealthy and right where we wanted him to be. He already has a few people awaiting the opening, which will be first week in November after Anton's wedding! We expect things to pick up very quickly in this new and exciting market.
I also got a job and will be starting after the wedding. I decided to wait a bit on the real estate, so we could show income for the properties that we have to close on soon, so what do I love best after real estate? CARS! So, I will be working for Nissan (they have their main headquarters in Nashville) selling Nissan, Mazda, Subaru and Infinity, as well as working on corporate sales in another very wealthy, but more suburban part of Nashville known as Cool Springs! I am so excited!
We have been enjoying our time getting to know Nashville. It is more beautiful than we initially thought, even more open and progressive and the people are so friendly and want to do as much as they can to help you get started. We joined the Green Hills YMCA, which is the 6th busiest Y in the country! It is huge, clean and offers everything type of fitness program and activity you could imagine. I see us both networking there too! Enzo's office is in walking distance from the Y and the top shops and restaurants in Nashville. It's so amazing and is everything we have been expecting to occur. When you work it, it works!!!!
This will be the last blog posting and I will post some Nashville photos at msnusers.com/ourtripphotos for the last time too! Thanks for being a part of our journey!
To friends,
Jackie and Enzo

We finally made it! We got to Nashville Tuesday afternoon and in true Sinatra style already have found a place to stay. We rented a spacious 3 bdrm apt in a wooded development with 2 pools, tennis courts and a fitness area. We are 4 miles from everything going on downtown, including Titans football, 2 miles from a great state park, Percy Warner, and 1 mile from malls and shopping galore! We move in Monday! Both our properties are on the market and once they are sold we will be looking for a home to buy. Today we are beginning our search for an office space for Enzo. I will be starting classes for my real estate license as early as next week too! Everything is falling into place and we are thrilled to be in this exciting, small, friendly, cultural city! We are grateful for our dear friends back in the beautiful Hudson Valley too. When we move in I will take some photos of the area for our last installment on the blog and photo site. We love and miss all of you and appreciate all of your love and support for our crazy endeavors!

Love, laughter, prosperity and health always,

Jackie and Enzo

We bid a fond farewell to the Palm Springs area. We loved the warm desert air and the resort, but the shopping and the Mercedes' finally get to you. We headed about 40 minutes NE to Joshua Tree where we immediately felt relieved to get back into a campground/park! We stayed one night, but before evening rolled around, we were able to get in three great hikes. The park is small and while you can stay forever and climb and hike, we decided to just stay one night. The park has some of the most interesting rock formation and cactus gardens we have seen. Rock climbers find this heaven as you can scramble and boulder, as well as technical climb anywhere. We have posted some great photos on msnusers.com/ourtripphotos.

We left the park after another great sunset and are heading toward Nashville. We initially wanted to travel for 2-3 months and it's been about 6 weeks, but we are ready to start our new lives in Nashville. We also want to be settled before Anton, Enzo's son gets married on October 28th! We are now in Gallup, NM, and hope to get east of Amarillo, TX tomorrow. Then another day or two to Nashville. Unless something out of the ordinary happens, we will post a blog and more photos when we get settled in Nashville. In the meantime, feel free to email us at jsinatra59@msn.com or Enzo at drqi625@msn.com.

Thanks to all of you for being good friends and sharing our adventure with us!

We are at a gorgeous resort, the Embassy Suites in La Quinta, Ca. Palm Springs becomes one town after another, each more gorgeous than the last. We are in La Quinta now. We needed some rest from all the travel (I know your heart is broken for us). The room here is like a beautiful one-bedroom apartment, with a great pool and gym and even a fabulous library, as you would have in a beautiful home, all wood and leather.  We are suffering through though. We will leave here either Wednesday or Thursday and spend a couple of days camping and hiking in Joshua Tree National Park, then back to Nashville. The resort is great, but I need a little more hiking and woods before we return. We will find something to rent in Nashville until our condo is finished around January. I'll be taking the real estate course and will try to start an organization business too. Enzo will start a new acupuncture office. So, sometime in early October, we will have real contact info and will no longer be homeless! We are excited about our new life!

After two wonderful, but chilly days in the Monterey Peninsula, we headed south to soak up some southern California sun. Unfortunately, much of California was having unusual rains. Ugh! So after one night in Ventura, we headed east to Palm Springs. Finally, the sun is shining and the area is just beautiful with a lot happening and everything you could ever want. Hmmm, maybe we should live here... ;) We are ending up spending four days at a resort hotel to relax before heading back toward Nashville. Tonight, we just got back from an outdoor shopping and gathering spot where they have live music on Saturday nights. The band was just amazing, incredibly talented and could play any kind of music imaginable, including originals. They are called the Michael Anthony Band. Turns out that Michael is from Long Island like I am, only three years younger. We grew up in almost the same town and we get to talking. Next set, he tells everyone our whole story...about upstate, selling our house, travelling, Yosemite and Nashville. Too, too funny. We are in the middle of Palm Springs, Ca., and they are talking about Enzo and me! Too, too funny.

After this, we plan to spend a few days in Joshua Tree National Park, and then will probably head back to Nashville. We have had a fabulous trip and are feeling ready to get back to civilization. It will have been six weeks, less than we planned, but enough. We will definitely travel like this again and I recommend it to everyone!

We just spent two gorgeous days in Pacific Grove in the Monterey Peninsula. Believe it or not, this weekend starts the famous Monterey Jazz Festival, its 50th year, but we decided not to stay. Finding a room would have been tough anyway. It was absolutely gorgeous, right on the rocky Pacific coast! We stayed at a quaint B&B and just had a fabulous couple of days. But it never gets all that warm here. Days are only in the high 60s and nights are very cold. The beach is not for swimming, as the photos will show (msnusers.com/ourtripphotos), but is just pristine. There is a lot of money here, but everyone is so laid back, you cannot tell if someone is a multimillionare or homeless.

 We left this morning and drove along Route 1 down to St. Luis Obispo and are now on Highway 101 heading toward Ventura Beach for a day or two. This should be a real southern Ca. beach! We are just reveling in this trip and trying our best to enjoy and delight in every moment and every experience. I highly recommend a trip like this at least once in your life. You do not need to quit jobs and sell your home, just take some time to see the places you wonder about and slow things down a bit. It reminds you of what really matters in this life!

Wow!Today we had to finally leave this magnificent natural beauty. I could write forever about everything that we did, but it would take up way too much space. I will try to be brief. After leaving Tuolomne Meadow, our hiking really began. We did Half Dome, Lower and Upper Yosemite Falls, part of the John Muir Trail (JMT) and the Mist Trail. We did some easy flat walks by El Capitan and all around the Valley with my fabulous brother, Richard, and his remarkable daughter, Jessica. We watched technical rock climbers climb the scary sheer face of El Cap, and even saw a climber stranded whom we found out later had two broken legs and a broken nose, perhaps by a fall, we are not sure. There was also a search going on by helicopter for a 58 year-old photographer who was lost by Glacier Point. Fortunately he was found and was fine. These mountains are serious and should not be underrated.

Our hike to Half Dome was the most difficult, exciting and dreamed about climb. It started at 6am. The hike is a 17 mile round trip which ascends 4900 feet in total to the top of Half Dome at 8800+. I have wanted to summit this rock for about 25 years. Enzo had done it about 35 years ago with a friend, George. We took the JMT up and up and up. It was extremely hard and often was so steep we could not speak and stopped every few yards. Above the tree line, there are rocks made into steps that switchback over the rock at the edge. At the end of this very strenuous part, one has to walk (scale) the cables. They are bolted into the rock for the last 400 yards at a 60 degree angle. It is slippery and took all my strength to hang on to pull myself to the top. Two people fell off and died this summer on those cables. But when one musters the strength and gets to the top, the views of the other peaks and the valley are just breath taking! Then the descent must begin. It's scary going down the cables, allowing for the folks heading up to climb around you, but easier than the ascent by far. The way down was so much easier than the way up, and we took the Mist Trail past Nevada and Vernal Falls on the way down. See amazing photos of the falls and the turquoise pools of water and rainbows at msnusers.com/ourtripphotos. The hike is said to take anywhere from 9-12 hours and we did it in just under 9! WOW!

Our hike to Upper Yosemite Falls was also quite strenuous and possibly the most beautiful hike I have ever done. Took about 4.5 hours of climbing past some of the most beautiful rock formations, clouds, changing hues and trees! The falls are dry in the summer and fall, bt the hike is spectacular all the same.

 We also heard a live talk by world-renowned rock climber, Ron Kauk, and viewed his great film on climbing and nature conservation called Return to Balance. As I used to do some rock climbing in the Gunks, this was incredibly exciting for me.

On our way out of the park, we drove to the top of Glacier Point where the views of Half Dome and the valley are tauted as being the best possible. We would have hiked it if we had more time. It's another grueling hike. We then drove to Mariposa Grove to see some of the thousand year old magnificent Sequoias!

 It was very sad to leave Yosemite today, but we may actually look into becoming national park employees for some period of time! Stay tuned!

We are spending the night in Fresno and heading to the coast tomorrow!

We finally found a way to access the web. So, here goes...We got to Yosemite, a day earlier than anticipated, due to being unable to access Kings Canyon and Sequoia from the east. On our way here, we went through Death Valley. It wasn't as hot as we anticipated and also not as amazing, but interesting all the same. Did I already mention all this? Uh oh...it's happening. We had a great campsite at Tuolomne Meadows for two nights. We met two very kind people right next to us named Minnie and Herb from Anaheim, Ca. But, after two freezing nights (30s)and two rainy afternoons, we decided to move into the Valley. It is much warmer and drier here due to much lower elevation. It is also where all the big granite peaks are; El Capitan, Glacier Dome and Half Dome. Tuolomne is at about 9,000' and the valley is around 4,000. We are staying at a very popular spot in a tent cabin called Curry Village. Like Grand Canyon, there are stores and restaurants everywhere. Too funny, but nice actually, although I hate to admit it. We are at the age where a few comforts are welcomed! Before we left Tuolomne, we hiked up the Lembert Dome to 9,600'. It was a moderately strenuous hike of only about 2 hours, but the view from the top, after a fun and scary rock scramble is just spectacular! The whole Meadow and surrounding mountains too! Now, we awake every morning to the sun rising over Half Dome, which we will be hiking tomorrow. It is a 17 mile hike that goes up 4900' to the dome. It is marked as very strenuous, one of the hardest non-technical hikes in the park. We hope to be able to do it, but it's a hustle to get it done in one day. It is only 8,800' above sea level, but since we are now much lower, it towers over us, as do all the giant, granite spires! My brother and his daughter are meeting us here for the weekend (all days are weekends now). That will be great, and we will take many short, easy, but beautiful hikes together. Check out our photos of Tuolomne and Death Valley at msnusers.com/ourtripphotos.

Yes, we came, conquered and are leaving. We got great news here about our condo; that we will be able to market and sell it before we close on it. This means we can definitely keep our beautiful Nashville place! We are thrilled because LV is now so over-developed and crowded and hot and we want to land in Nashville! It all stems from asking for what you want, expecting it, and accepting it when it comes! Tomorrow, we leave for Sequoia National Forest and Kings Canyon National Park via Death Valley! We will be on scenic route of highway 190. It should be absolutely spectacular. On the msnusers website where we have our photos, there is a limit. Therefore I will be deleting and adding new ones almost daily, so log on regularly if you want to see everything. Tonight or tomorrow I will be adding some photos of Red Rock Canyon in LV. Then it will be all California! We miss Grand Canyon!

Wow! There are no words to express the absolute stunning beauty and majesty of the Grand Canyon (photos will be on msnusers.com/ourtripphotos tonight). As soon as you leave the desert for Northern AZ, the landscape changes dramatically. No cacti, and pine trees begin to dot the mountains, which are now green instead of rocky. We enter the GC at the South entrance and travel a few miles to the Mather Campground. We set up our tent, quickly and smoothly this time at #248 in the Oak Loop, and breathe the delicious mountain air. It went from 102 degrees in Prescott to 82. Absolute perfection! We immediately head out to the South Rim, one mile from our site. The Rim Trail is paved around the South Rim and allows for anyone, including wheel chairs, etc. They want everyone to have access to this American jewel. As soon as you turn off the path and onto the Rim Trail, there she is. The majestic canyon! Even I was speechless! The colors, shapes, depth and grandeur is overwhelming. Just overwhelming! We walked the Rim Trail for a few miles, stopping every second for another photo op. Along the Rim Trail there are hotels, restaurants and Native shops. I can't believe it. At least there is no Wal Mart...yet.  As we head back to our tent, we see the Market Plaza, with a general store, Chase bank, post office and cafe! As shocked as I was, we stopped for a salad at the cafe. Cheap and good! Who knew? In the evening we walked to the Amphitheatre for Ranger Bob, who told stories by campfire of the canyon, sharing stories of death, life, connection, joy and beauty. He was great and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening; thoroughly. Then most people got into cars to head back to camp, but we were on foot w/o a flashlight, because "I" said we wouldn't need one and we could not see one inch in front of us. Finally made it back the mile, but it was truly a miracle that we found our tent. Funny and typical!

Day Two - we awoke after a quiet, peaceful night at 4am to head out to see the sunrise. Enzo was of course on no sleep, but ready and able as ever! We got to the Yavapai Area and witnessed some stunning views. The colors are so magnificent as they change with the sunrise. Then we headed back to camp for a delicious breakfast at our tent, fruit, nuts and pbj on rice cakes, with a hit of soy milk..no kidding, that is our favorite! Then Enzo took a much needed nap and I did laundry. Yup, doing laundry in the GC. Then we headed out for a trek into the canyon. We took the shuttle from Mather Point to the Kaibab Trail. There we took the 3 mile trail into the canyon. It was just stupendous to be walking IN the GC! The way down was very easy, although scary when the wind picked up at the edges. The way up was steep and tough and hot, but well worth the views. One place was called Ooh Aah Point and it was appropriately named! As we finished this spectacular hike, we had a salad at the cafe and then headed out to Grand View at the east rim for a fabulous sunset. Sunrise and sunset in one day at the GC! Someone pinch me please! The sunset here was beyond amazing and this spot just happened to be where Enzo, Anton and Enzo's late brother were the last time Enzo saw him. His words were, "makes you want to live forever." That was in April, 2003 and he died in August, 2003. This was a special moment all around. Then we headed back to the amphitheatre for a presentation on bats by Ranger Pam Cox.  It was great and interesting and informative. Then back to our tent for bed. We drove this time! After a better night's sleep, we broke camp at 6am and headed out of the GC, sadly. We are about to get settled for a couple of days in Las Vegas, what a change after GC! In four days, we spend at least a week in Yosemite! This trip has been everything we could have imagined and everything has gone so smoothly, like we wrote the script! And...there is still so much to come.