Hi It is DA ROSE'S signing in again!!!! Several of you asked to see a picture of our home...well almost our new home...if all goes well it will be when we close on 1/30.. It is not on the golf course but it is only a short golf cart drive away(when I get one). It does have a 3 car garage so Joannie said I can still have my man cave!!! It also has 3 bedrooms so we are hopeing to have lots of visitors...so conside this your open invitation...we are only about 15 miles from the Sacramento airport and 2 hour drive to San Francisco International airport...which is also close to where Ben lives. Thanks and hope to see you all soon. ... read more

GUESS WHAT????We BOUGHT a house in Sun City Roseville...a suburb of Sacramento, California. So if all goes well we will not be HOMELESS for much longer. We close on Jan 30th so Mexico is off but Hawaii is still on for April. We are staying in Pe Ell, Washington with Dwight's sister and brother-in-law. We will head for California on Jan 25 for a final walk through. Once we close we will move into the house with our sleeping bags and blow-up mattress and camp until our household good arrive from Chicago...Hopefully they will arrive shortly after we close. Roseville is about 2 hours from Taho, 2 hours from San Francisco and about 1.5 hours from Napa Valley. Plus the Sun City has 27 holes of golf, tennis courts, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, exercis room, ... read more

After driving 2800 miles we finally made it to Dwight's hometown....Pe Ell, Washington!!!! Population 599...it was 600 before Dwight left..... On our way through California we did visit the Del Webb Sun City in Roseville, Ca (near Sacramento) and saw a few houses we liked....so there is hope that we will not remain "HOMELESS" forever!!!! We will be splitting our time between Dwight's sister in Pe Ell, his brother in Olympia and our grandkids in Seattle. Because we are still homeless the plan is to stay in Washington through the holidays and for most of January. Then it is on to Mexico unless we get a better offer. Hope all is well with our friends around the world and in case we do not get a chance to update our BLOG we would like to take ... read more

After celebrating a wonderful Thanksgiving in Iowa with Joan's cousins we headed for Kansas City where we spent the weekend with good friends from Joan's college days. We are now in New Mexico and based on the weather reports it appears we left Chicagoland just in time to stay ahead of the cold weather!!! Our next stop is Tubac Arizona where we will meet up with Dick and Jennifer Bek who also decided to abandon the midwest for a warmer climate. Then we will spend a week in Palm Springs where we will celebrate Joan's Birthday with our maid of honor and her husband. We hope all of you had a Happy Thanksgiving and like us have a lot to be thankful for. Please stay tuned because we have just started this Odyssey so there will ... read more

Well the movers just left and we are sitting in an empty apartment getting ready to take off for Iowa for Thanksgiving. This will be the first leg of our 2011-12 adventure. The difference this time is that we don't plan to return to Illinois in the Spring. We had a difficult time saying our good-byes this time. We have been here almost 40 years and have made so many wonderful friends. You will be sorely missed. But we're not burning any bridges in case this adventure doesn't work out. Stay tuned for our next update whereever that may be. You are welcome to make comments on this blog and we would love to hear from you. We can always be reached by our email addresses: vwjoan@aol.com and drose45572@aol.com or our cell phones: Jr 630-865-4126 or ... read more

We decided the easiest and fastest way to wish all our friends around the world a HAPPY 4th of JULY was to do an entry in our BLOG.... Yes we know that maybe not everyone celebrates the 4th of July...especially the BRITS...but there is a 4th of July everywhere around the world....so here is your opportunity to raise a toast with us...at least in spirit!!!! Further news.... We are enjoying our stay in the two bedroom apartment...there is something to be said about not having to do yardwork or maintenance...just call the landlord. Our plan is to leave Chicagoland about November 10th and head WEST permanently. We still have not finalized our final residence but a DEL WEBB community in Roseville (located near Sacramento) is on the top of the list. So at that time we ... read more

We are back in Chicagoland and semi settled into our apartment in Warrenville. We decided the best way to wish all our friends a HAPPY EASTER was to send out one more BLOG entry before we signed off for the season!!! So HAPPY EASTER..... Our address is: 32505 Village Green Blvd Warrenville, IL 60555 Dwight 630-865-4127 Joan 630-865-4126 We have a 2 bedroom and apartment so plenty of room if/when you are in the Chicagoland area....matter of fact we are looking forward to our first guests...Helen and Terry O'Reilly from Australia!!!! We have an 8 month lease so the plan is to head West next November which is when we will revive our BLOG....in the meantime if you want to contact us our email addresses are: drose45572@aol.com vwjoan@aol.com Thanks for being part of our Odyssey...stay tuned!!! ... read more

After 3 hard days of driving we are back in Illinois. We arrived Saturday afternoon and moved right into our apartment. Our new address is: 32505 Village Green Blvd Warrenville, IL 60555 We are still using our cell phones and our same email addresses. It is a little like camping, sleeping on a blow up mattress with sleeping bags and using our camp chairs and our cooler as a table. But we are glad to be here and our furniture arrives tomorrow. YIPPEE! All in all it has been a great 5 months. We saw a lot of the country, spent lots of time with family and friends and explored the West and South for our future retirement home. We narrowed it down to two areas, each with their own positives and negatives. Our biggest problem ... read more

Our time here in the Palm Springs area is coming to a close. And what a great time we have had! A beautiful house, lots of visitors, sunny days, golf, museums, art fests, street fests, trips to near by areas of Joshua Tree and Idyllwild. It has been a busy month. We were so ready to unpack and stay in one place. It was great having a well stocked kitchen and fun to cook after 4 months on the road. House rules: everyone who stayed 3 days or more took a turn at cooking and we had some wonderful and creative meals followed by hours of card games. We have attached pictures of some of the highlights. If your picture did not make it, it is only because we took a terrible picture and not because ... read more