Old Friends

One of the best parts of this on-the-road lifestyle is getting to visit farflung friends. Right now I'm visiting Marty, who I haven't seen for many years. We worked together in Computer Training in Florida. Here we are: And here she is with her son David. The last time I saw him he was about 7 years old. My how time flies!

Home Repairs

It sure is a totally different thing to take your vehicle to the shop, when that's your home too! I'm a little discombubbled. And, don't ever give a repair shop your whole laundry list of things you'd like fixed ... the estimate will kill you! So, now I'm going thru the list and deciding what REALLY needs to be fixed. Brakes (yes, the brakes we just had replaced are making bad noises :-( ) and muffler are top on the list, so I'm letting them have my home again today. Jim is still on the road, in Mission Texas, with Frank. Odie keeps looking out for him.

Alone at Last!

Here I am in Austin, Texas ... yes, that's Austin, the capitol of Texas where George W. Bush was governor - and the vote count here was 42% for Bush, 56% for Kerry. I'm happy to be in Austin. Take a look at this cool architecture in the Austin skyline: I'm in Austin, and I'm alone! Frank took Jim with him to visit the Coach Connect Wi-Fi installations in Mission for a couple days. Here's Jim and Frank yesterday - computers in front of them and phones in their ears. Think these two can be trusted together down by the Mexican border? I used to be very accustomed to being alone - lived alone, traveled alone. I loved to go out to dinners and movies alone. Even after Jim and I got together 11 years ago we both had many activities we did alone - including traveling alone. But, ever since we left Florida, 6 months ago, we haven't been out of each other's sight! This feels very strange. If I could just stay in the motorhome, I have plenty to do on the computer. But, this is the day scheduled to start the service work. So, I have to stow everything and drive the motorhome to the service bay. hmmmmm ... it'll actually be quite luxurious to curl up on a couch in the waiting area and read a book. And, of course, I'm not really alone - I have Odie. He's allowed in the waiting room - RV service centers know they're making you homeless while they do their work and they're very accomodating.

Election Day in Austin

Ahhhh ... sitting still today here in Austin feels good. It's cold outside (56 degrees) and we've had the heater going all day while we're staying in the RV park attached to the service center. They can't even look at our problems till Thursday ... so, we get to sit. We even have a cable hookup here which means we'll be able to watch election coverage by The Daily Show's John Stewart. We've really been enjoying video clips of his show. It's a comedy show, but with a lot of intelligent foundation. Whatever the results of this election, it's exciting how it has motivated people to vote. I so enjoyed getting an email today from a friend in Florida who recently passed his citizenship ...

"I never thought that the sole experience of voting was going to be so special. I never got to vote in Venezuela becuase I just didn't really care, perhaps I was still too young mentally, but after today, there is no way that I will feel that I don't care about these things any more!!"

I'm so glad you're here Gil. You remind me that we should never take our democracy for granted. Austin has a beautiful capitol building. We got to see it thanx to our host and tourguide, Frank! Then he took us to his family's home for a fabulous dinner. We met his family, and fell in love with them, at the RV rally in Hutchinson in June. We were thrilled to get to see them again. Thanx for the wonderful dinner and evening Frank, Frank Sr., and Carol.

Texas is on the Map

The rule for putting a state on your map is that you must spend the night there. Just crossing over the stateline doesn't count. Texas fills out our map quite nicely don't you think? We've covered a lot of ground since leaving Florida in April. This will be the last state we add for a while since we will be going to Mission, TX next and spending a few weeks. The plan after that is to go back west to Quartzsite, AZ for Christmas where we will spend some time with friends. Then down to Casa Grande, AZ where there is a big Coach Connect RV park - Palm Creek. We hope to stay there for a couple months doing seminars and other computer work. Here's a west Texas highway - pretty awesome. Right now we're in Fredericksburg - because we were told about the Museum of the Pacific War that is here. Why? Because Admiral Chester Nimitz, the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific, was born here. It was an amazing museum - I could spend a lot more time there. Two things struck me: 1. computer nerds won the day! the code-breakers were extremely instrumental in Allied victories. An interesting story is the "Navajo code talkers"- who we also read about in Arizona. 2. the war was essentially about control of resources - primarily oil. We need to learn from history ... not repeat it.