Traveling at the speed of clothes!

They're everywhere! They're everywhere! I think the ugly ones are multiplying!

When we packed the RV, I left most of what filled my closet on the sidewalk. (No need to throw them away. If you leave it, they will come.) It seemed reasonable to have 2 pair of nice slacks, a few blouses to go with them, a nice jacket, 2 dresses, several pairs of jeans and lots of t-shirts in various colors. Oops--almost forgot the work out clothes, bathing suits and pajamas. And I've gotta have a coat or 2 or 3. Of course, hubby is packing his side of the closet, too. More clothes!

But everything fit.

A week later, we added 2 little boys and, of course, their clothes! "But, it's temporary," I told myself. "I'll just stack them here for now." By this time, we also had DIRTY clothes. I told myself, "I could put them in the washing machine while we're traveling." No, the washing machine was full of clean, but WET clothes! Okay, let's move these clothes, put a hamper here and put DIRTY clothes in it.

Then we parked for a week and clothes began to appear on the bed and the backs of chairs. "What's that doing there? Why isn't it in the dirty clothes?" I'm going to wear it again. It's not really dirty.

So...now...we have CLEAN clothes in the closet, DIRTY clothes in the hamper, WET clothes in the washer, TO-BE-FOLDED clothes in the dryer and NOT-SO-DIRTY clothes hanging here, there and yonder. When I want to go to bed, I have to move clothes from the bed to...somewhere else, take off my DIRTY (or NOT-SO DIRTY) clothes, find a place to throw them and look thru all the other clothes to find my NIGHT clothes.

When we traveled up north last fall, we needed different clothes, sweat shirts, etc. So, to our list of CLEAN clothes, DIRTY clothes, NOT-SO dirty clothes, WET clothes and TO-BE-FOLDED clothes, we now have WARM clothes. Since many of our clothes are SHRINKING clothes, we have had to add BIG clothes!

Somewhere along the road, we established a rule: If you buy something, you have to get rid of something else. But that hasn't seemed to help in the area of clothes. I have thrown out most of the NICE clothes. We don't go anywhere nice enough to need them. I have thrown out some of the SHRINKING clothes. Yet, the closet is full, the drawers are stuffed, I'm wearing some and still the bedroom is over-run with clothes.

Now that we are on the beach, COOL clothes have invaded the bedroom, the bathroom and the folding chairs outside. Where do they all come from?

As I said, I think when we turn off the lights, they multiply. Now, if I could just convince them to produce PRETTY, WRINKLE-RESISTANT clothes that put themselves away...

Traveling at the speed of cleaning!

Joan Rivers won me over when she said, "What's the point of cleaning house? You mop, you dust, you wash dishes---6 months, you have to do it all over again!"

Well, I gave it up for longer than that. Some 20 years ago, I was able to hire someone(s), to do the difficult housework for me. I have been blessed to not have to clean toilets and mop. The cooking and washing dishes is the easy part.

THEN, we packed up the RV and hit the road. It never occurred to me that Merry Maids would not be coming with me! And, though we have traveled thru half of the US, I haven't found an RV cleaning service--not for the inside anyway! Sure, near almost every truck stop there is a truck wash where you can drive thru and 3 or 4 little men (well, they look little from where I'm sitting) come out and wash the OUTSIDE! It probably wouldn't be good for the TV if I had them bring their high-pressure hoses inside.

So... I am back to cleaning the toilet, mopping, dusting, etc. My goal is to spend one day a week cleaning and today happens to be that day. Of course, it seemed more important to write about it than to actually get up and get it done. But it's small, right? How long can it take? One bed to make, one bathroom to clean, two rooms to vacuum/mop, a few dishes and a small countertop to clean---"what's the problem?", you say.

I say, "You don't have to wash the windshield or the steering wheel or the gas pedal when YOU clean house! You don't have to move the driver's seat so you can clean the little gauge covers and cupholders. You probably don't even HAVE a dashboard that needs scrubbing in YOUR house."

Oh well, at least, I don't have to wipe down the walls and dust the pictures---I don't HAVE any!!! My walls are all covered with cabinets--wooden ones that need to be oiled--or mirrors so big Dolly Parton could see both of her boobs at once--or windows with cute little red handles next to the sticker that says 'Emergency EXIT Only'. Like I might jump out the window even if the RV is NOT on fire!!

At this rate, it may take me six months to get it all done. I wonder if Joan Rivers ever lived in an RV.

Traveling at the speed of maintenance...

Here we are--back home in Indiana. Not that WE are from Indiana, but "Coach" is. So we brought him home to have his folks (the Newmar factory) check him out. After a few days here, we will be on the road again--up to Michigan to see the other side of the family! The Spartan plant will check out (and do necessary repairs) on the chassis.

The yearly trip is relatively (pun intended) easy for us and helpful to keep "Coach" going! Once we are sure he's okay, we'll go back south to Cincinnati to spend most of the summer there enjoying time with the grandkids. They love "Coach" as much as we do!

See you down the road...

Traveling at the speed of retirees

HOLA!

We thought we were going to an RV park in south Texas just to avoid the harsh temperatures of winters up north. However, we discovered that we had entered a 'parallel' universe that I now refer to as "Use-ta Land". It is located in an area that 'use-ta' be a citrus grove. A local citizen told me, "There use-ta be nice oranges on those trees, but back in 'ought-four' a freeze kilt 'em (she didn't really say kilt, but she just as soon have). Now those oranges are only good for making lemonade." I guess they use-ta be sweet and now they are sour.

Almost every conversation includes some reference to 'use-ta'. "I use-ta play tennis everyday, but that was when I use-ta have good knees." "I use-ta shovel snow all winter up in Canada, but they didn't use-ta have as much snow as they do now." "We use-ta be full-time RVers, but we got off the road years ago." "We use-ta winter in Arizona, but the wind is too bad." "We use-ta go to Mexico, but now it's too dangerous. Besides, the booze isn't as cheap as it use-ta be."

The nice thing about 'Use-ta Land' is that I can tell folks, "I use-ta weigh 120 pounds." And I don't have to tell them whether it was 4 years ago or 40. Maybe I should tell the truth--I use-ta, but...