The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. My scheduled departure date is Friday, February 13th.
Mary continues to be overwhelmed with personal business. I am now not expecting to see her again until I arrive at her home in Murphys, California about the third week in April. It’s just the way things are and we just have to deal with it.
I’ve come to Las Vegas, Nevada several times over the years and have quite thoroughly explored the area. Rather than go back to these various places and re-create the wheel, (unless I do something different and unusual) I’m electing to republish some of my earlier blog entries…or discuss a different topic.
Yesterday I published a Blog entry about my son and the bad weather to which he was returning… http://wp.me/pDCku-bCP
It got me thinking about why I left the northeastern United States and continue my Ramblin’ Mans lifestyle. So here’s a brief recap of my almost 75 years of life and 50+ years of camping and RVing…starting at the beginning…
I never had a chance…by that I mean I was born December 5, 1940 in Gardner, Massachusetts. Right smack in the middle of the Sagittarius sign. If you study the character traits of that sign you will find that a primary trait is that they…Love To Travel!
I lived in Massachusetts until I went to US Navy Boot Camp late 1958.
Here’s a photo at age 18 just after arriving home from boot camp…
Most of my 3.5 years in the US Navy was as a Radarman on the USS Boston CAG-1, the World’s first heavy guided missile cruiser…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Boston_%28CA-69%29
That’s when my traveling life really began. I made cruises to the North Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea and the Caribbean Sea visiting a number of different countries. The below photo was taken in Amsterdam, Holland for the cruise book in 1961 when I was 20 years old…
I began my RVing/Camping life in 1964 when I bought an old International bread truck and converted it into a camper. I had it painted a beautiful metallic green with golden scribe letters that said…The Weekend Wanderer. Unfortunately, no photos remain of that camper. I had it several years and really cannot remember quite when or to whom I eventually sold it. In 1970 I bought a motorcycle and it became my camper. The next photo is what it looked liked in 1977 went I took it to Newfoundland, Canada for a three-week vacation…
I traveled extensively all over the east coast and went absolutely everywhere…going to the good places several times over. Needing new horizons I decided to move to the west coast (California). My motorcycle was in the moving van with my household furnishings. I drove in my 1977 Toyota Celica with my tent…
It took me three months to make it to California. See the below image. Most folks would have gone more or less in a straight line (yellow line). But not me. Leaving northern New Jersey where I was living at the time in 1979, I drove to visit some good friends near Detroit, Michigan, then north into Canada to the head of the Canadian Rockies..Banff and Lake Louise. Then I stared zig-zaging south down the Rocky Mountain chain. Every time I found a route over the Rockies, I took it, then crossed at the next available crossover all the way south to the Grand Canyon (red line) and then into southern California…
I took a year off from work, then ended up taking a job near Olympia, Washington in 1980. By that time I had acquired a tent trailer, but that was not suitable in the wet northwest environment…so I bought a used 11 foot travel trailer which I had for several years. In 1988 I bought a new 18 foot travel trailer which I towed with a Chevy Suburban.
I traveled extensively in the Pacific Northwest. In 1995 as I was approaching the age of 55…I made a rather relatively quick decision to retire and begin the full-time RVing lifestyle and headed south for the winter. Since that time my primary goal has been to stay in temperatures from 65 to 75 degrees all year long, as much as possible. Mary calls me The Weather Wimp! When it gets over 75 or under 65…I start complaining!
The next photo is of my 18 foot travel trailer and Chevy Suburban on a beach in Baja, California Sur where I spent 6 months during the winter of 1998-99. The poor photo quality comes having the film developed in Mexico…
Christmas in Baja, Mexico…
My friends had motorhomes and a tow car so they could go 4-wheeling in the mountains. I was time for me to make a change in that direction. By that time I was reading all I could about Central America…knowing I just had to go there. I felt that there was a 50/50 chance the motorhome and tow car make not make it back from Central America…so in September 1999, I bought a 1983 23.5 foot Suncrest motorhome and a 1984 Ford Bronco II as a tow car. In the winter of 2000-01 I spent another six month Winter in Baja, Mexico.
In November, 2002 I made the final decision to go to Central America. I set aside more than a year for planning and departed on January 2, 2004 with a total of 11 rigs and 17 people…
After 343 days and more than 16,000 miles (11,000+ on the motorhome and 5,000+ on the Bronco) …only two rigs and two people went the entire pre-planned route. All the others dropped out for various reasons…but all eventually returned to the United States safely.
We wandered a lot of back-country roads in Central America…
The next photo taken on December 9, 2004 in Douglas, Arizona shows myself (right) and Bud Kuball safely arriving back in the United States…
Through a great coincidence…Bud lives here in Las Vegas and I’ll be visiting with him soon. In October, 2008 I met my now (part-time) traveling companion Mary Matzek and my life has not been the same since… 🙂 …
In July, 2009 we bought a new rig…a 2006 26 foot Fleetwood Terra Motorhome and 1986 Ford Bronco II tow car as seen in the heading of this Blog. Since 2008 we have wandered all over the United States making two circumnavigations (2010 and 2012-13).
In that time we’ve had some unique experiences. May 27th, 2012 we survived this terrible accident in Canyon de Chelly in remote northeastern Arizona where one person was killed and several other were severely injured. Mary and I still carry aches and pains from that experience…
In February 2013 we met the Mayor of Lake Charles, Louisiana while there for Mardi Gras. Mary and I are both of French heritage. We managed to find the French folks there and got an invite to ride on the Krewe de Cajun float during the Mardi Gras Parade. Instead of catching the beads…we were throwing them… 🙂
The below map identifies six extremities I have reached on the North American Continent. #1 by motorcycle, #2 by Toyota and #3, #4, #5 and #6 by motorhome. In case you are wondering why I’ve not done Alaska…it doesn’t call me.
There are now over 600 Picasa web albums from my travels which you can see by clicking this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver
On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!
Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8
This year Mary and I both will turn 75 years old and we are both saying the same thing. I had a wonderful life and if I were to die tomorrow…I would not feel cheated. My Bucket List is empty!
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS AND VIDEO.
Yesterday was a sunny/cloudy and 71 degrees. Forecast for today is mostly cloudy and 73 degrees.
The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Nevada. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…
Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein
On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!
Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8
If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos
There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver
If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/
For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust
All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2015
Que Sera, Sera... Whatever Will Be, Will Be... 