CHANGING COURSES

About nine a.m., Jim checked his tires…

…his tail and brake lights, a complete walk around the motor home and toad.  One thing I appreciate about Jim is his safety and his safety record. He always does a complete inspection before hitting the road and maintains the vehicles in tip-top condition. He will not return to Murphys for two years.

It is a long time,  and it was sad to see him drive away. However, I’ll be flying to meet him sometime in mid January to continue our ramblings together.
Together we wander through
The wooded ways.
Old beauties are green and new
Seen through your gaze.     By Anne Campbell
You are never alone with a poet in your pocket.

THE BEST LAID PLANS

Traveling as much as my partner and I do is an art. Finding a dump station precisely when needed, getting your vehicle needs attended to, planning events during hours and on days facilities are actually open. Finding recycling centers is particularly challenging. Then, you assume the weather man is correct and that Google Earth maps are accurate...Yes, its much like being a detailed travel agent, except its done on the fly day by day.

  For instance, Friday night we sat at the table above, in the Great Smokies National Park, sweltering in the heat, with a cool wash cloth across our shoulders and a beer wrapped in a foam holder wishing it would cool down. Our plan was to hike the Roaring Fork nature trail Saturday with a cooler weather prediction and only a 20% chance of rain. Except, it poured during the night, our campsite was lush and wet, the grasses and bushes as high as our chest. Neighbors hung out their ground cloths and tent to dry.

 We decided to move on and get the oil changed in the motor home in nearby Newport before getting up on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We never did figure out what went wrong and why the route set by Google led us astray from 321 to 70, or maybe it was the highway department. But, the rolling hills of the Tennessee countryside were green and peaceful with little traffic on a Saturday, and I just took pictures of old barns as Jim trustfully kept driving and driving and driving.

It was definitely the long way around. But, we reached green, green, Greenville. Its also Green County, TN. It was late and we didn't get to see the Andrew Johnson home or museum. He was President after Lincoln, a southerner who didn't exactly settle things after the Civil War as equally as Lincoln had planned to.
The barns ARE lovely. I couldn't always get them in passing, but they were numerous and different.

Of course, its Jim who finds us a safe place to stay at the end of the day and unhooks the Bronco and sets us up on  level ground. He knows where to shop and what stations he can get into and out of for petrol.  He researches the way before us and  gets us ready for the next destination or activities if there are interesting things to do and see on the way.  He never moves without checking his tires and considering our safety. Its an art. So, I salute Jimmy the Artist, and my three daughters on Mother's Day.
(I know he'll laugh loudly when he learns I consider him and artist.)

GOODBYE TO THE BULLET HOLES

I posited yesterday that the time comes for the old stuff to go and be replaced with new stuff. Its a bit sad to watch Jim remove stuff from the old 1984 Bronco and fit it into the shiny "new" 1986 Bronco. Realize that the Bronco is a "toad", vernacular for the vehicle you tow behind your motor home. If I'm remembering right, the 1984 has 275,000 miles on it, probably half of them towed miles. What I'll really miss is the looks people give you on the freeway or in a parking lot when they see all the bullet holes in the old Bronco. Jim's rig has been to Panama and back, eight countries and 16 border crossings in 2004, which he advertises on his toad and motor home. Truth be told, those marks aren't bullet holes. They just LOOK like bullet holes. Even so, its fun. Some people gape and appear frightened by you. Others curious from a distance. Some, affable, friendly, ask questions outright, and they learn there are NO bullet holes.
Shucks, life would be so much more interesting if we could get the 1986 to wear in the same manner, doncha think?

BACK ON SCHEDULE, SORT OF.

December 17th.
I’m learning the mottoes of the road warriors, such as All Who Wander Are Not Lost. And Go With The Flow. And IDAAT which means One-Day-At-A-Time; this same motto is the special license plate on Jim’s Bronco.
At the Slabs, Jim and I hiked each morning with his friend Leo, 77, who winters in Slab City and goes home to his lady in Oregon during summers. A loveable guy with a crusty personality and an affectionate doberman named Juno. We became instant friends. Juno found a dead body under a desert bush last year, Leo told us. Life in the desert is harsher, decidedly different than the city. Characters abound, here, a niche for wandering souls who care not for prescribed life in the fast or slow lane.
Took a Slab City Shower in the outdoors, a sort of rite of passage and very enjoyable.


On the way to Yuma, we crossed the Mighty Colorado River where it dwindles to a trickle, but explorers traveled to Yuma for this crossing because there were few places to get across the raging waterway. It was 1200 miles between crossings, then.
Nearby the Dunes Recreational Area, seven miles wide and 10 miles long, a vista of drifted sand. The modern bridge rises above the sand dunes for an easy crossing but the dunes were a difficult place to traverse in the "old days". The famous “Plank Road” was in view from the bridge, the only way to navigate the sand before the invention of dune buggies and fat wheel ATVs, other than on horse back, donkey or camel.
We arrived in Yuma, parked at the American Legion until we decide where to hook -up.
Yesterday, we crossed the border into Mexico at Algodones for my dental evaluation. It will take three weeks to get my teeth fixed. Arranged to rent a place for a month so we will move today. But, hey, if the rain, which is heavy right now, persists? We can move tomorrow. A smooth advantage associated with life on a “Magic Carpet”.
Christmas seems surreal on the road but we have a wreath on the Motor Home and another on the Bronco. A first for Jim. Several choices of where to spend Christmas and the New Year from an activities list in Yuma. In the new park we will have a mailing address, HOLY COW! Time to order some movies from Amazon.com. Don’t sweat the small stuff and life flows.
Hasta la vista.