LAST DAYS IN DEMING

This little desert ground squirrel was cavorting near the motor home just before I hauled my backpack out to the Bronco. It was leaving day for me, but Jim has friends in Deming I wanted to visit before I caught my train.

At the Hi Lo Ranch we spent a short fifteen minutes with Jim’s  long time friend Bob Gambol, who took his motor home to the Panama Canal and back with Jim and Bud Kuball in 2004.  Bob was just out of the hospital so we didn’t stay long.  Bob has  traveled  the world over with nothing but a back-pack, an interesting  story I’ll blog another day.

Jim agreed to supply lifetime pizza to a woman who edited his book on that 2004 trip to Central America and the Panama canal.  (She  prefers not to be named or pictured in our blog.)  Her little dog Pixie didn’t mind having her picture taken.

She took us to the Senior Center to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with two of her closest friends, Mary Berg and Pat McKay.  Pat is a person Jim and I  specifically wanted to meet-more on that tomorrow.

Since we both love museums, we went to the Luna County Museum.  We arrived  late in the afternoon and the museum is huge. The collections and variety are among the best we’ve seen.  From  many beautiful china cabinets, how do you pick one item? I  like unusual  the tea pots.

An excellent gallery of beautiful paintings.

An excellent collection of home-made lace.

A hand cranked bell wheel caught my interest, but even more their extensive bell collection.

Three cases of bells, I estimated to hold 1000 bells in each case, with bells from all over the world.

One of three beautifully designed church pews.  I couldn’t take it all in. I expect to return to this museum some day. And, I will post more pictures I took as well.

 

From the museum we headed for the local Moose Club which just happens to be near the Amtrak kiosk. I changed into my traveling clothes  and we had a beer in the bar. And, doncha know, we ran into two women full-time RVers Jeannie and  Leah both from  the LOW’s, a Singles  RV  Club, Loners On Wheels.  Jim had met them in the past at various functions shared with his singles club, the WINS.  They thoroughly enjoy the lifestyle on the road and handle their own rigs. Single women on the road amaze me.

Jodie, (missed her last name)  came whisking through the bar and gave everybody a kiss both males and females.  She is a happy distant cousin of Jodie Foster and looks a bit like her as well.  Jim delcared, “Wow, this is the friendliest club I’ve been to.”  Truth to tell, we find many, many friendly people on the road with wonderful stories to tell.

 

 

Titan Missile Museum, Sahuarita, Arizona

Yesterday Mary and I took the Bronco about 10 miles south of our current Moose Club RV parking location. We went to the Titan Missile Museum which is located about 20 miles south of Tucson, Arizona. The site is an actual former ICBM launch site. It is the only one that has survived to become a museum. After the Cold War ended all the other 53 silos were destroyed per the SALT Treaty.

Here’s The official museum website link…
http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/

and here’s a Wikipedia informational link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Missile_Museum

Here are a couple of Google Earth images. First a general site view…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

And then a closer view of the missile silo half-opened…

Under terrible photography conditions…harsh sunlight on a bright white light-colored structures and dimly lit interiors…we nonetheless ventured forth. Here are some of the photos that I took…

In the above photo all three underground components of the site can be seen. The middle is the access portal. On the left is the control center and crews quarters. On the right is the missile silo. The highest state of alert ever reached was on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. On that day the launch keys were taken out of the safe and set on the control console desktop. They were not inserted into the control panel. This complex was built for a one-time only launch. None were ever launched.

We spent two hours here…one hour of which was a guided tour. Another enjoyable day of full-time RVing.

In other news…

More than 12 hours late with today’s entry. A 2.5 hour Verizon Internet signal outage early this morning…then another full day out exploring…then an evening meal at Moose Lodge #1964…the friendliest Moose Club in the United States where we are currently parked…and finally a little time to post today’s Blog entry this evening.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

TRACI VAGABOND

Living on the road like we do, people always ask, where are you from?  The answer  is complicated  for Jim since he is in his sixteenth year of  living  full-time in a motor home. Many askers claim they would do it if only…

It takes courage to sell what you own, give up a complete former lifestyle and hit the road full-time. Many do it in stages by  simplifying home life, taking longer and longer trips. Or, living in two places in their RV, a summer climate in winter, and a winter climate in summer.

Traci, raised six children, her youngest just leaving home at 18, and she is rarin’ to go.  Over the years Jim has figured out how to live  life on the road economically as a  full timer.  When Traci wanted to make her dream come true, she found out renting an RV, paying mileage and then paying park fees, the cost for even a month was more than she wanted to pay.

She, and many who ask, are probably not going to be full timers on the road, but there are millions of full and half timers on the road, enjoying a carefree life, free of  responsibilities, living  simply and enjoying it.  I found links to three informative sources of information for wannabees, and there were several more.  If that fits your dream, have a look.

http://www.betterrving.com/subscribe2.aspx?gclid=CLaMrOyJxasCFSg1gwodMBFb2Q

http://rvliving.net/

http://www.isnare.com/?aid=548350&ca=Travel

We enjoyed an evening of sociability at the Moose Club in Wilsonville, OR.

We watched the Thursday Night dart games after the potluck dinner. New to me- electronic dart boards. Players insert money and enter their name. The board tracks the score, and flashes the name of the next player up . Each team plays two games.

It is competitive game, but the players were obviously having fun.

Also new to me was a battery operated wine cork remover.  Not a bad idea considering how difficult it can be to remove the new plastic corks.

Earlier in the day we went to the grocery store and I took this picture of the parking lot.  You would never see a parking lot with beautiful shade trees at a shopping center in California. They would have mowed those trees down for a few more parking places and less maintenance and given you pure,  hot asphalt.  Reminds me of that  song…”pave paradise, and put up a parking lot…”

FRONT ROYAL, VA. AND A FAMILY VISIT

From Mary’s Desk:

Front Royal has signs downtown for the Civil War Trail that leads to 10 points of interest during Stonewall Jackson’s Campaign in 1862. Plus there are two Civil War Museums to visit, the Belle Boyd Cottage and the Warren Rifles Confederate Museum.  Battlefields and cemeteries are all over the state of Virginia.
With one day to spend, it was my plan to concentrate on a family get-together with Glen and Karen Littlefield.

As it turned out, Front Royal was celebrating crafts and wine and I was celebrating seeing my “adopted” daughter, Karen, after a separation of six years. Glen, their daughter, Sherry Lynn, and granddaughter, pretty Penny, arrived in the new touring car, a Mini Cooper.

Grandpa patiently removed and adjusted the car seat for Penny, who adores her grandfather.

Downtown was mobbed;  the locals were having a good time. The food booths enticed us with crab cakes and chicken on a stick, but no one was hungry just then.

I loved these shirts but knew I’d never wear one.

The Get The Hell Up coffee gets to the point and made us chuckle.

There were games of chance and drawings and a couple of good bands playing music.

The sun was bright but two year old Penny was a trouper all day.

We repaired back to the Moose Club for a long lunch and played catch up with each others lives. The quilts we haven’t finished. The braided rugs we both made.  A dream coming true for them, working toward building a new log house on their lot. The joy of grandchildren. Looking forward to retirement and travel. And, all to soon, we had to say goodbye with regrets that we see the people we love not often enough. We took pictures. Karen and I,  with me squinting against the bright afternoon sun.

Sherry and her mom. Sherry’s sister, Kelly, was unable to make the trip with her two year old son, Adam. Having two so close in age is like babysitting twins, Karen quipped.

Jim took a group shot and then everyone piled into the Mini Cooper and returned to Bristow. For me, visiting with family eclipses everything.

The last 36 hours…

Yesterday morning I left Mary’s home and drove the about 75 miles to Thousand Trails RV Resort in Manteca, CA after a visit to Costco to shop for food supplies.

During the afternoon while I was attempting to get my new Verizon Internet device to work, the glass repair guy came by to fix to small rock chips.

David from Speedy Glass repairs one of our two rock chips.

That was the only thing that went right for the afternoon. I spent in excess of three hours on the phone with Verizon trying to get my new USB760 loaded into my computer. You already know the scenario…install…uninstall restart…install…uninstall…restart…etc…
No matter what we did, it would not connect. Grrr! I ended the day with instructions on how to find a Verizon store in Bakersfield, CA, about 235 miles south which I drove today.

Immediately getting off of Highway 99 I was in city traffic…many cars, narrow streets, construction,…where I got to practice my in-city driving skills. Of course the Verizon store was in a small strip mall with no room to park the motorhome. So, next stop was the local Moose Club where I unhooked the Bronco and headed back to the Verizon store. The tech rep was very competent and congenial and one-half hour later I was headed back to the motorhome.

Now it was time to go online and set-up my account. What a hassle! Two hours and three phone calls later, I finally got my account established. it was almost as much fun a visiting a dentist! Oh well, as RVers say…some day you’re the windshield, some days you’re the bug!

I’ll tell you more about my new Verizon device tomorrow. Bye for now.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2009
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.panamaorbust.com