The In-between Time

    How is your "in-between time" going?  In between Christmas and New Years.   Christmas has been in the forefront of our lives for more than a month. We had a great Christmas with friends on Christmas Eve and with family on Christmas Day.  The decorations have not been taken down yet.  Randa still has at least a half-dozen Holiday movies recorded for future viewing.  Remember when the day after Christmas was a big shopping day?  Doesn't seem to have the emphasis that it used to.
    For us, this is the time to be thinking about our trip south.  What clothes to take. (we will be gone 7 months so we will need clothing for all climates.  What tools, what equipment?  What to include and what to leave at home.  Weight and space are factors.  Every pound we leave here with will be pulled 1500 miles to Kartchner then 500 miles to Pecos then another 1400 miles back to Canby.
     In Arizona we will be 10 miles from Benson and in NM we will be 3 miles from the tiny town of Pecos and 30 miles from Santa Fe so shopping will not be a problem.  We have not spent much time to the Benson area and have never been to northern NM so we plan to do some exploration and shopping will be part of that experience.  Gotta have a new T-shirt or two.
     The other thing that I am doing is watching the weather.  It's always a bit foreboding driving over the mountains to this time of year.  My preferred route is Willamette Pass on Hwy 58, but there are a couple of other choices too.  I really don;t want to drive down I-5 into California and then cross if I don't have to.  I-5 is crowded, lots of hills, and California has a huge gas tax so fuel is expensive.  (about a dollar a gallon higher than it's neighboring states).
     So we move through the in-between time.  Packing we can control.  Weather .......