Who are you people?

Have you notice the counter on the right side of this blog? Under the Cognitive Transporter? We get a weekly report of page visits. An average of 9 users/day last week.

Who are you people? We hear from a few readers, mostly our friends and relations with a morbid curiosity about our life. Like,
“Are they still alive?”
“Have they come to their senses yet?”
“Have they killed each other in that tiny space and the dog has eaten them to survive?” (Of course not. He can’t type nor remember the blog password.)
That kinda thing.

But even they don’t match those numbers. (Not that many people like us.) So who are you people reading this blog? And don’t you have better things to do? (Or as Click and Clack on NPR would say, ”You wasted another perfectly good hour listening to our program.”)

C'mon now, speak up. Make a Comment just below the signature. Reveal yourselves as we have opened our lives to you (sorta). Or just make something up in the spirit of this blog. Creative writing. Did you really think I ran over cute women with my electric cart at Costco? Shoot, they walk too fast to catch 'em with those puny carts.

Bruce

Home improvements

Today the cabinetmakers installed the desk and cabinets for the back of our trailer. The RV came with two large swivel rockers. Nice, but heavy. To use them, you would pull them out from the wall with great effort. To close the slides, you would push them back to the wall, again with great effort and some profanity. No can do. We sold them within two weeks of moving in.

BEFORE


With no desk space for two computer users, who read newspapers and blogs all day, our kitchen table turned into desks. NG also.

AFTER

So we found a cabinet maker in Phoenix, who designed a deskspace for us plus two three drawer cabinets. Very nice.

We are happy for work space plus return of our dining room table.


Again, you say, what does have to do with RV adventuring? Fortunately this is not a dialogue.

Just be patient for another two weeks, when we hit the road again. We promise you gripping dramas, extended vistas, and detailed analyses of our septic system.

Bruce

We decide!

Two events today in the Brod trailerhold.

1. We drive north to Prescott, AZ, just to get out. Nice little town, with a beautiful court house and a series of shops all around. We stop in the local brewpub for lunch. This qualifies as a big outing around here. For more information…there isn’t any.

2. We decide on a departure date. Rather than leaving our plans to the condition of Bruce’s knee, which could care less about our feelings, we decide to stay for another three weeks of physical therapy, then continue our travels on Sunday, April 13, 08. We make our third set of reservations at Zion National Park, where we will stay for eight nights following a week or so at Lake Mead, east of Las Vegas. For further details, read the earlier blog post. Naah.

Looking for more excitement in a blog? Us too.

Bruce

Sooner, or later

Physical therapist disabused Bruce of his notion that he is ready to move on right now. Maybe in a few weeks, with more flex and strength in the knee.

Move plans again. Sighhhh.

Bruce

Maybe go soon?

Today Bruce’s physical therapist revealed that he is aiming for his release by the end of this month, that being March, rather than April. Huh? That would register in the GOOD column of coming events.

One more month of travel this Spring. One less month of sitting around listening to moaning (Bruce). Flee Arizona in April, as most of our neighbors intend due to rising temps.

OK, calm down. Let’s get some information next week.

WHAT? Leave in March??? Like in nine days?

Bruce

PS We sent in our applications for host positions in OR parks. Last night we looked up vacancies for October. Two docent positions in coast lighthouses. Cool!

Hosts with the mosts

Tho seemingly somewhat premature, we are making plans for the rest of the year. We stayed in several state parks in Oregon and heard praise of that system from the campground hosts therein. So we hope to serve as Hosts in a coastal OR state park in October, as a first run on this new way of RV life.

Reading the Escapees forums about volunteering, you can find a lot of fulltimers who go from park to park throughout the year. Not just state parks actually, but federal parks and forests, Bureau of Land Management and National Wildlife Reserves, lighthouse societies, Nature Conservancy land, and much more.

In exchange for light duty work, you usually get a free RV spot with utilities and a chance to live in these beautiful areas much longer than a camper could. A wonderful opportunity to offer service in such settings. We plan to try it.

Look for us this Fall. You’ll know us by our little brown vests and funny hats, holding sticks with nails on the end, spearing candy wrappers and the odd $5 bill. Like juvenile delinquents in community service.

Bruce

Healing

Readers have asked about Bruce’s condition following his leg surgery. (Well, no one has actually asked, but we’ve never found the truth very interesting anyway. Besides, half-truths cost less.)


Here’s a picture of Bruce following the first phase of surgery.

The doctors discovered they didn’t have a leg in his size. After an overnight delivery from Walmart, surgery proceeded without further incident.
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A discerning reader might ask, “What does this have to do with RVing?” But then a discerning reader would never read this blog anyway.

What’s new?

Nothin’ much. Bruce is still going to physical therapy, still getting better, still groaning on a regular basis.

Jenna listens and waits.

We both look forward to hitting the road. But then you know that, don’t you?

In the mean time, Jenna’s brother Walt and his girlfriend are traveling out here in his small motorhome. They will spend this coming weekend with us.

An uninteresting stationary life. Get them big wheels turnin’!

Seven weeks to go.

Bruce

Rekindling the illusion

OK. We decided to pursue our earlier plans, just moving the dates one month out. Thus Lake Mead for a week in early May, Zion National Park one week after. Olympia by early to mid June.

Questions? See our travel agent.

Planning your life is an illusion

Three days after Bruce’s surgeon said we could leave in a month, his physical therapist said two or three months. Let’s see now, 30 days has September….

So now we’re planning on leaving at the end of April instead of March. Likely the same itinerary, tho compressed by 30 days. Tho again, we’re one month hotter in the Nevada and Utah deserts.

We’ll get back to you.

Bruce

Hitch Itch Hobbled

Young readers of this blog (under 50), if any, will remember an earlier post about Hitch Itch. (Readers 50+ likely will not remember back that far. They will simply say, “Ummm…yeah sure” like we often do.)

OK, comrades, Hitch Itch is full-timer talk for the urge to move on, to explore. (“Oh sure, I remember now.”)

We got it. Three months now in the Arizona desert, while varied, is enough. Plus Bruce’s incapacity and planning for it have restricted our travel for months now.

But likely we will end this confinement at the end of this month, as Bruce’s surgeon predicts sufficient recovery for us to move on. Our eyes sparkle with anticipation.

We have begun planning. North and west to Lake Mead National Park and Las Vegas. After a week or so, drive northeast to Zion National Park, where we have already secured reservations for April 10 thru April 16. During this period, we will obtain a Geezer Pass for the national parks that reduces camping and entrance fees to a pittance. Bring it on!

After this, the unknown so far. We intend to return to Olympia sometime in June to visit friends, on our way back to Concrete and our beloved RV lot at Lake Tyee. Recall (if you can) that we spent last summer there engaged in two activities – Jenna ridding us of much stuff from our housey worky life and Bruce finishing up his job. So this time we can enjoy Lake Tyee as retirees.

Bruce