THE DOORMAN HAS SPIDERWEBS

I've always been a traveler, but RVing for long periods of time is new to me. Homecoming is wonderful. But...things have a way of changing in your absence. The doorman has cobwebs.

The candles melted in that week of 105* temperatures.

The apples are numerous and small sized because they didn't get thinned.
But, I came back to a new deck, picnic table resurfaced, my gate posts widened to accomodate the new, wider motor home, a new set of stairs. Magic?
No. My talented son, Doug, the carpenter and caretaker, produced the magic. How nice it is. Makes me think If this life style catches on, who would want to stay home?

BOB GAMBOL, NOMAD, SEEKING EXOTIC CHINA

Everyone tells me they love my excerpts from Bob Gambols backpacking trip. Bob is in China walking and hitching, avoiding the ordinary, finding the extraordinary. He got a connection out of Lanzhou to Urumqi the Western terminus of the Chinese rail near Kazakstan on the Russian Border.
“This connection was a 3½ day trip, which took three engines to get it over the hill. It had a diesel engine, one coal fired engine and one steam engine, but the smoke in there from the coal was horrible. Plus everybody smoked cigarettes. The smoke was so heavy I had this artist I befriended make me a No Smoking sign. But, when I’d put up the sign they’d all vacate. Later I got friendly with a Chinese Fuller Brush man and he told me my no smoking sign was offensive because everyone thought I was contagious. What it actually said was, Stop Smoking. I Cannot Breathe. They thought I had a disease", Bob chuckles.
“On this trip, I befriended a conductor and I admired the pin on his hat and he gave it to me. That is a souvenir I really treasure, the insignia of the Chinese Rail System.

To be continued...

ABOUT NOMADS AND WEATHER FREAKS

Women are from Venus and Men are from Mars, so, the story goes. Married women tell tales, (its universal,) about men being terrified of running out of toilet paper. My guy has no such peccadillo. A true snowbird, he, instead, is terrified the weather might turn cold and he could actually experience rain!!. He diligently reviews the weather channel and drools over a good weather report. (See his tongue hanging out?) He puts a T shirt on every morning, and resents it if he has to change to sweats. That, and, now that he is down to about 5,000 plastic bags, its possible he could run out of them. He is avoiding California where they may be passing a law to charge consumers a clean-up fee for each plastic bag they use. O’ woe. What can I say! I, the Greenie cheer, while he scowls.
I do love to have fun at Jim's expense, but on a more serious note, I wasn't quite sure I understood the nomads that are part of the RV culture. The book, Back Roads America, has a statement by the author that defines Jim, so I will repeat it here. "I had grown attached to my nomadic existence, wandering the highways free to go anywhere, passing in and out of people’s lives with the impermanence of a weather front. Each day brought novelty-the narcotic of the traveler, and I was hopelessly addicted."
Adios Amigos