Trike trip 2018

September 5, 2018.  The twins birthday.  We said goodbyes to the kids and headed out.  Took 90 to Monticello and took hwy 19 on till we got to 84.   Travelled on hwy 84 all day to Laurel, MS.   The morning was nice but the afternoon ride got really WET.... it rained heavy on us and lots of water in the road.  It really makes me nervous when there is lots of water on the roads and Jan can barely see through the windshield..  I mean after all he does need to see.   Well we made it through the storm safely.  Thank GOD for that, I was praying all the way.    We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Laurel Mississippi.  We ate supper at Buffalo Wild Wings, it was right next the the hotel..
It was raining early this morning.  We are getting ready to head out now, hope we stay dry....

SarahTfromFlorida

Life as it is now...

well here it is May already and I haven’t posted in a while, I’ve just been busy.   You would think when you get in your 60’s life slows down some but it hasn’t for me.   I am doing things I really love though so I can’t complain too much 🙂.  
   I have ongoing projects that never seem to get finished (ongoing😄). Like organizing my pictures for one thing.   I try to put them in albums in year order and somehow they get mixed up and I have to try to guess what year was that..but you have to understand I have thousands of pictures so it gets real time consuming.   I remember things by looking at my pictures, like how cute my girls were, (they still are❤️). I remember all of our vacations, clogging performances, fishing trips, fair rides..and the list goes on.   Now I am taking pictures of my grandkids, so I’ll have more to keep me busy into my 80’s I guess.   I was listening to my daughters podcast last week @sweethomesouthcast,   www.sweethomesouthcast.com and they had a guest photographer and she stressed the importance of printing out your pictures, so I still do print out a lot of my pictures.
I also make Shutterfly books for my kids so they’ll have pictures in print.
     I babysit for my kids as well, I don’t really consider it babysitting though cause for me I love to spend time with my grandchildren.  I know these young years pass by too quickly and soon they will consider me and Janjan, an obligation and not want to spend time with us.  It’s really sad for me when I know that time will come when they say “I really need to go see Maemae & Janjan”. We’ve all been there if you’ve had aging grandparents.  So I try to play with them and spend time with them often.
     Another activity that keeps me busy is exercise, almost daily I try to get in walking or weightlifting 🏋️‍♀️ so I can play with my grandchildren and ride motorcycles with my hubby.
     Every year Jan and I make a trip or two on the trike, usually out west, but sometimes to Nova Scotia or Canada.   We have had some great travels on our trike, some with friends and some alone.  You can see a lot of pictures on facebook, wwww.facebook.com/sarah.touchton or on Instagram SarahTfromFlorida.
     Ok I’m  signing out for now but will be back soon...  oh our trike trip starts in June so stay tuned.  🤗

New year in process

Well here it is 2018 and again I haven’t done so well at keeping up with this blog.  I mainly do this to remind myself of what all has happened and the trip memories we make.  Just a little recap of the last few months....  we had several hurricanes to deal with here in North Florida, but non too serious for us.   We were without electricity for 7 days but the generator kept us pretty comfortable.  There were others a lot worse off than us.  So I’m THANKFUL for ny blessings and a generator.

We made several trips to Tennessee to support my very best friend that is going through breast cancer.  This is a really hard battle for women.  I am so sad that anyone has to deal with the effects of this terrible disease.
We took one of our daughters and granddaughter on a road trip down the Natchez Trace in October.  Along the way we visited Maggie Valley and parts of Tennessee to see all the beautiful leaves. In November we had a short vacation in Daytona Beach with all the girls and the grandkids.  We go a few days before Thanksgiving and come back on Wednesday the day before so we can do all of our cooking at home.   December rolls in with Christmas on the square and  Rod’s (my brother-in-law) oyster roast get together.  It’s easier to just say the Touchton reunion, but he likes to call it a get together.
Then here comes Christmas and all the preparations for the big birthday of Jesus.  On one of the trips to Tennessee we stopped off at my Nieces house and got us a fresh blue spruce for our tree.  We shopped for all the grandkids and for our daughters and son-in-laws, wrapped them all up and was ready for Christmas morning.
New Years Eve is usually a hot dog roast and watching the ball drop of TV.
We are in the planning mode of our next trike trip adventure.  Planning on going back to Colorado in June and riding around the roads less traveled, then on to Moab for a jeep adventure in Canyonlands.


 I’m gonna try to post some pictures now, my IPad and phone don’t always cooperate very well so I may have to change to my computer.

in Daytona beach with all the grandkids.  The weather was nice enough in November to enjoy the sun and sand a couple of days.  We also took a stroll through the Christmas lights at Daytona National Speedway.  We hoped to ride on the track like at Bristol but weren't allowed.  The lights were pretty and the grandbabies & us adults love Christmas lights.   

The Natchez Trace  from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS.

Touchton's get together December 2017

The second Saturday in December we get together at Rod's for oysters and smoked mullet. yum

2017 Santa Picture of grands

our first year decorating gingerbread houses.

New Year's Eve hot dog's and marshmallows.  Don't forget the scrumptious gingerbread cookies my daughter baked.  The recipe could be on the @ www.SweetHomeSouth.com web page.

the cold here in North Florida has been awful. look at all the icicles.   really cold.....

All is Well and been back to normal.

I haven’t posted as you can see since the hurricane came through.  We were without power for 7 straight days.  We did have a generator for water and lights and used our griddle for easy food, so we were just fine.  I’m thankful for our minor inconveniences when so many others had such major damage.   We had lots of smaller limbs down and the yard was a big mess ,,, but after a few days of cleaning it was pretty much ok.  Jan had to make a few repairs to the kids climber and slide and it was  back in operation.   Our house was fine and my palm tree survived. 😊🌴

Awaiting Irma

The last few days we have been securing everything around the outside of our home and our river house in O'Brien.   Took in all the patio furniture and grand babies' toys.  You don't realize how much outside stuff you have until you are picking it up and putting it away somewhere so the wind doesn't blow it all away or into your house windows.   We are in North Florida so I'm not really expecting it to get too awful bad here.  We're all praying for safety for all the people in the path of the eye of Irma.  I feel so sad for people that lose their homes or all of it's flooded and have to start over after the storm goes through.   It's a little breezy outside but not expecting much until early Monday.  We have a lot of big old oak trees around our home and I'm praying they don't fall on our house.  I know we'll have a big mess to clean up after it's over, but nothing compared to the people on the coast where it hits.
Our town has been infiltrated with the south Florida people.  The traffic has been bumper to bumper and our store shelves have been emptied of the bread, water, can food, peanut butter, paper bowls and potatoes chips.   Hope everyone has all they need and the electric doesn't stay off for very long. Hoping my palm tree is still here Tuesday after Irma.   My twin grand babies on the climber gym their Jan Jan built for them.   Also hoping the climber survives all the big trees.  

Home and settled in again

Well we pulled into our house Sunday evening.  Our girls all came over with their families, with all our sweet grand babies.  It was so good to get hugs and kisses from everyone.  We all celebrated our safe trip and Praised Almighty God for HIS amazing grace.  We had pizza, which I haven't had for 3-4 weeks.  It was so good too.  😋😋😋. It is always fun to go on Vacation but it is always good to get home again also.    Now putting everything thing away and doing laundry.  Of course had to go to the grocery store and restock our frig.    Then we had a couple of birthdays to celebrate.  Elsa and Nora were turning three on Tuesday, September 5th.  Sure love these little rascals.

Still on the road

Sep. 1-Friday.    We pulled in yesterday at Skip and Cheryl's house about 11:30.  Spring Lake Park, Minnesota is where they live, that's where we left from on August 17, headed for 🇨🇦 Canada.  We crossed the border at Portal into Saskatchewan Province and spent the first night in Weyburn.  The rest of the trip is in the blog post.  We said our goodbyes and got in our truck and headed out.  I won't lie, it felt good to be in the truck again, that morning ride was cold.   There is good and bad traveling on a motorcycle.  I do love it when the weather cooperates.  It was mostly good weather our entire two weeks on the bike. We didn't have any rain and hardly any clouds.  The sunshine makes a big difference on the temperature, thankful that it kept us warmer.    The mornings were cool but I've been in snow and hail on the bike.  It warmed up in the

I remember a trip November 1, a few years back with my sister, Molly and husband Ronny to Dahlonaga,GA.  It was an unusual occurrence they said, but it snowed ❄️❄️❄️❄️and was so cold.☃️  It's times like those that it's not so fun.   I usually have a scarf tied around my face to protect it from the sun and weather.  When the weather is beautiful there's nothing like seeing the world from the bike. Will post more pictures when I get home. Cheers!