Traveling at the speed of...time

Well, here we go again!  Another Spring and another chance to SEE THE WORLD!  Or probably just the grandkids!!  Who needs to see Yellowstone when you can see your granddaughter learn to run? Who needs time at the beach when you can take your grandsons fishing?  The Bible says that there is a time for everything---and I am thankful that I have this time to spend with family.
The Washington Monument has been standing there for...well...a long time and not once did it need me to hold it or read to it.  It will probably be there for another hundred years or so without ever wanting to 'sleep in the RV'. But our grandkids cherish the times they can be with us. That maybe why grandkids are so special--they WANT to be with us, while our kids just endured us until they could move out!  :)
There are many places I would like to see--but it's the faces that mean the most to me. The time I spent and, hopefully, will spend watching our kids and grandkids play, listening to their laughter and sweet songs is priceless. And treasured forever...
And we can get there for only $4 a gallon!! What a bargain!!

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...

Traveling at the speed of ...well...not.

It's been almost 6 months now that we have been in the RV. Amazing! In the first 4 months, we went through 12 states! I guess we wore ourselves out, because in the last 2 months we have only seen 2 states. After thousands of miles, we decided to sit still in August. It is cheaper to be on the road when you are not moving! Besides that, I would rather watch our grandsons play soccer (or anything) than to see the world.

So August was fun, but too much Grandy is too much! So we pressed on--4 hours down the road. We went to a major league baseball game and moved on--3 hours down the road. We parked for a week, were awed by the sights and sounds of Niagara Falls, met 3 couples who are also RVing, and found mundane things, like cooking fresh produce from the farmers' market, are also rewarding.

Now here we are in central New York with nothing to do. We found a great park where we can exercise and try to shed some of those 'banana-split pounds'-- (We decided that it's okay to have banana-splits for supper when our grandsons are with us!)--but it started raining and has only stopped for a few hours. And it's cold! So we drive to the casino to swim in the indoor pool, have breakfast, clean the RV, go to Walmart, visit with the neighbors and cook supper. I could be doing THIS in a house! Perhaps, I'm just missing that Vegas sun!

Another day or 2 of waiting for better weather and we will be off again. Here's hoping we will find a rhythm of traveling and stopping with less time just sitting!

Traveling at the speed of life

Life and travel was, at once, simpler and more difficult in Biblical times. Traveling on foot, on horseback, and/or by boat, you could get where you were going, but there was no telling when! Wonder what Paul, God's great missionary, would think about RVing. His journeys took him from Israel to Rome and places in-between. A motorhome would have been a great asset to him. I can imagine that he would have shared the gospel with people all over Europe! Can you picture him at the wheel of a Winnebago that has Romans 1:16 artfully emblazoned across the sides, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ..."? Mail was much simpler then--hand delivered letters--that is, of course, if the messenger was not eaten by a lion along the way. Simpler and yet more difficult--the speed of life in Biblical times.

Today, the speed of life can be fast, but not always. Sometimes, we, in our motorhome, need to let life (bills) catch up to us. Sometimes, we are imprisoned by repairs or maintenance. And, sometimes, when our welcome at the RV park has run out, (usually 14 days) we must move on. Our speed varies from week to week--never as slow as Paul but sometimes hindered and sometimes enhanced by the same thing--life.