It's Memorial Day weekend and the weather is conditional on your location. On the mid-atlantic coast it is one of the best Memorial day weekends we've had in years. If you are in the heartland you have your heart in your mouth as tornados rip through the country side. The west has it's usual fire season and the northwest it's late snows. Whatever you want, weather wise, you can have if you're a MHer and plan ahead.
This weekend we traveled to Forest Lake TT. Some 550 or so miles from home as we make our way towards Winston-Salem NC. Never have I seen traffic so light on the highways except about fifteen years ago when we traveled I-85 to Duke. This time it's not traffic patterns it's gas prices. Almost $4.00 per gallon. I feel that has kept most people closer to home base. For us it's bring home base with you.
What do you do on these long drives when you are the co-pilot and DW is at the wheel. I decided to play a few children's games. I counted the road pizzas for awhile and watched the feathered cleaning crews have a raw meat cook out. That got boreing since there wasn't enought roadside meals to keep my interest. Kids are like that. So I switched to counting MH vs trucks. Now that was interesting. For the first time I noticed more MHs on the road than the big boys. Sometimes as many as two to one. For the first time we MHers are king of the road.
I expect all this to change as the night draws closer and delivers must be made to the freight stations on Tuesday. But I do know that the cost of fuel is taking it's toll on the trucking industry. Jevic, a company near our stationary home has been in business for almost three decades. We would look at their trucks on the road all across the country. No more. They just went belly up. Bankrupt with, I'm sure, fuel being the nail in their coffin. On the road I spotted a trucking company building with a big banner announcing "Space Available". Lifestyle changes caused by a crisis's our leadership knew was coming and did nothing to change our dependency on fossil and foreign fuels.
The Forest Lake TT is loaded this weekend with members and guest. Tomorrow we will see if people are staying longer in one place to cut down on their fuel expense. MHers will probably not adjust their lifestyle but will adjust their budgets. I've now adjusted mine to $5.00 per gallon for travel purposes. Life and MHers roll on
Monday, May 26, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Journey to full-timing
A lot has happened since our return from Quartzsite. The first was the return journey itself and the changes in the scenery on the way back. The next in the doctors visits and the blood test by the vampires that the many different doctors require.
You do get a check up of your MH don't you? That's when you find out about all those minor things that your winter travels have pressed upon your rolling home. You do get the same for yourself to don't you? That when you find out about personal deterioration of one's body during the rusty years.
Well my check up caused my primary physician to plop down in his chair. He had trouble finding a heart beat. After a few words he told me I needed to go to the emergency room. Eight days later I returned home with a Pacemaker. That 's the short story.
Now back to the important part. Our intent during our brick and mortar home visit was to prepared it for sale. My suggestion to anyone his is really considering to make the transition to full-timing is to start early. You have no idea how much stuff you may have accumulated over the years. Stuff that means a lot to you and nothing to anyone else. Stuff that family members pass on to their children when they die and the kids have either no use or desire for it.
We have pictures from forty years ago that are our memories. We've gleaned through them, got some laughs, shed some tears and in one box went those that we will scan into our new 500 gig drive and the rest went to the land fill. Furniture that we gave away to charity. We did not want to spend the time having a yard sale. Besides the heart condition took more than a week out of our lives.
There are minor repairs and painting to be done and we rusty folks will have to do it ourselves. Our young ones are too busy to and distant to be of much help. We really don't care and realize it's stuff. Plus they are getting rusty too. We even had to get rid of some of their stuff we have been storing for the past fifteen plus years. No matter how many times we asked them to come get it over the past years they never seem to have the time. Of course there was no hurry since we will always be around. In order to expedite the extraction of their stuff I just told them it didn't matter if the came to get it or not. I gave them a date when it would be put out for trash pick up. Now those words were a mover. Stuff went quick.
It's true when they say one person's trash is another's treasure. We put junk on the curb that hardly stayed there long enough for us to walk back into the house. I'm afraid someone will think we are putting our MH on the curb.
Why did we buy all that stuff? we should and could have used those funds for something more use full. Oh well. It fit our needs at the time. Our needs are now to get rid of this elephant that we neither have need or desire to continue feed. And if you are considering the same make sure you start early.
You do get a check up of your MH don't you? That's when you find out about all those minor things that your winter travels have pressed upon your rolling home. You do get the same for yourself to don't you? That when you find out about personal deterioration of one's body during the rusty years.
Well my check up caused my primary physician to plop down in his chair. He had trouble finding a heart beat. After a few words he told me I needed to go to the emergency room. Eight days later I returned home with a Pacemaker. That 's the short story.
Now back to the important part. Our intent during our brick and mortar home visit was to prepared it for sale. My suggestion to anyone his is really considering to make the transition to full-timing is to start early. You have no idea how much stuff you may have accumulated over the years. Stuff that means a lot to you and nothing to anyone else. Stuff that family members pass on to their children when they die and the kids have either no use or desire for it.
We have pictures from forty years ago that are our memories. We've gleaned through them, got some laughs, shed some tears and in one box went those that we will scan into our new 500 gig drive and the rest went to the land fill. Furniture that we gave away to charity. We did not want to spend the time having a yard sale. Besides the heart condition took more than a week out of our lives.
There are minor repairs and painting to be done and we rusty folks will have to do it ourselves. Our young ones are too busy to and distant to be of much help. We really don't care and realize it's stuff. Plus they are getting rusty too. We even had to get rid of some of their stuff we have been storing for the past fifteen plus years. No matter how many times we asked them to come get it over the past years they never seem to have the time. Of course there was no hurry since we will always be around. In order to expedite the extraction of their stuff I just told them it didn't matter if the came to get it or not. I gave them a date when it would be put out for trash pick up. Now those words were a mover. Stuff went quick.
It's true when they say one person's trash is another's treasure. We put junk on the curb that hardly stayed there long enough for us to walk back into the house. I'm afraid someone will think we are putting our MH on the curb.
Why did we buy all that stuff? we should and could have used those funds for something more use full. Oh well. It fit our needs at the time. Our needs are now to get rid of this elephant that we neither have need or desire to continue feed. And if you are considering the same make sure you start early.
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