Lunch with A Friend – Monroe, Washington

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 21st year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

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The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails Thunderbird RV Resort in Monroe, Washington. I’ve been here many times before. I’ll depart here September 20th.

 

I’ll be hanging out in this general area until about the beginning of October, taking maximum advantage of my Thousand Trails membership and very agreeable weather.

 

 

 

Today’s subject…

 

 

Yesterday I had lunch with my long-time friend Al Penta. We met 66 years ago while in the 5th grade in Revere, Massachusetts. Al has lived in Monroe for many years and we meet for lunch every time I roll through this area. He remains in really good physical condition because of walking a mailman’s route for 30 years. He remains a very active bicyclist.

 

 

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…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a picture of Al when he was 10 years old…

 

 

 

And here’s a picture of myself when I was 10 years old…

 

 

 

 

And here’s the latest photo I have of myself taken in November, 2015…

 

 

 

 

What a difference 66 years makes! Fortunately we are both alive and well and hopefully will be so for a while yet!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Yesterday was cloudy and 6 degrees. Forecast for today is cloudy/sunny and 69 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Washington. 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

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

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 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

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 works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet

A Tale Of Three Musketeers…

The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails Thunderbird RV Resort along the bank of the Skykomish River in Monroe, Washington. I’ve been here a number of times over the past years and always enjoy it here. My scheduled departure date is July 8th.

Mary is at home tending to personal matters…home maintenance, family, friends, rentals, etc..  She has made her flight reservations to meet me July 29th in Bellingham, Washington.

When I was 10 years old my family moved to Revere, 5 miles north of Boston, Massachusetts. I entered the 5th grade where I met Al Penta and Billy Gallagher and we became the Three Musketeers. If you saw one of us…the other two were very nearby. You can see us in the below 5th grade graduation photo…

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…

Billy is on the upper left and Al is on the lower right. I’m in the lower row…third on the right…

During our teen years we were the closest of friends. Al and I joined the Navy (not together) and Billy went off to college. We were not to re-unite…that is all three of us together at the same time…until June of 1991. That year we met once again in Revere, Massachusetts. By that time, Bill was living in Vermont and Al and I were living in the State of Washington about 100 miles apart. In 1991, I was back in New England to attend my son’s wedding. Al’s mom took the below photo of us. Al is on the left, Bill is in the middle and I’m on the right…

Unfortunately, that is the last all three of us were together at the same time. I last saw Bill, along with his high school sweetheart and wife of about 50 years, Loretta, in Revere during the summer of 2013 where I spent my time in New England last year visiting family and friends. They now live in New Hampshire…

I see Al every time I return to Monroe, Washington where he has lived for the last 35 years. He lives only about two miles from my current location at Thousand Trails Thunderbird RV Resort, of which I am a member. So, visiting with him is very convenient. For many years Al has been an avid bicyclist. He has ridden his bicycle in several different countries around the world. Despite the fact that he will be 74 years old in another couple of weeks, he says he is still riding about 100 miles a week. I get tired just listening to his bicycling stories.  🙂

I use Al’s home address for my towed Ford Bronco II registration address. Last Wednesday he arrived at my campsite to deliver my new license plates and tabs…

At which time we agreed to meet for lunch yesterday at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Of course he rode his bike to town so that’s why he’s wearing that colorful shirt that bicyclists wear…

Bill, Al and I keep in somewhat regular contact via email and an occasional phone call. Visiting with old friends is one of the primary joys in the life of a full-time RVer. I’m glad I is one!  🙂

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

Yesterday was a cloudy with showers day at 67 degrees. Forecast for today is cloudy with showers and 67 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Was. 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 500 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

A Visit With Old Friends…

The motorhome is parked it my cousin Bob’s home at North Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

Mary flew into Boston, Massachusetts to meet up with me once again the day before yesterday. We spent the night in a hotel at Revere, Massachusetts (about five miles North of Boston), and yesterday spent some time with some long-time old friends.

Yesterday was a semi-decent day. With a light cloud cover the high temperature was 79 degrees with 80% humidity. Still too hot and humid for my liking.

We met Bill and Loretta at 10:00 AM. I became friends with Bill at age 10 and Loretta at age 16…

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…

The four of us spent 1.5 hours riding around the area looking at old places we frequented 50+ years ago…reliving many stories from those by-gone days. One of the first stop was at Lee’s Trailer Court where my family moved to when I was age 10 and after my father’s welding business went through bankruptcy proceeding…so we must have been financially pressed. We lived there until I was age 14…

Then moved to this apartment building on Hichborn Street where I lived until age 18. The building was old when we lived there 50+ years ago and appears now to have received little care since that time. We lived in the first floor apartment, right-side…

We passed by Sufflolk Downs, a horse racing track where I worked from ages 14-16…

Among a number of other places we also went to the Old Rumney Marsh Burial Ground, one of the oldest graveyards in the area, where the first recorded burial occurred in 1693…

We finally ended up at Demaino’s Italian Restaurant on Malden Street where we used to go for great pizza at age 16…

This is the original area from those long ago days. Yesterday we sat in addition to the left…

At noon, we were joined by Dolly and Arthur…

I just had to have a sausage and pepperoni pizza…just like the old days…

Everyone enjoyed their favorite meal…

We had the waitress take our all-together photo…

Back at age 10, I also met Al, who now lives in the State of Washington and whom I will once again see in late September when we return to that area. Bill, AL and I were like the Three Musketeers… always seen together. As teenagers we were last together when I was age almost 18. Bill brought me a photo when all three of us met in Revere in June 1991…22 years ago. He printed this photo using his computer printer, hence some lack of definition…

I dug back in to my archives files and found this photo. Bill is in the top row, furthest on the left. Al and I are in the lower row. Al is furthest right and I’m the third from right…

Compare to above two photos and see what a difference 40 years can make!  🙂

So we ended up spending a total of four hours with these old friends. It was a great day. Mary and I departed at 2:00 PM to avoid the afternoon rush-hour traffic as we had to go through Boston to return to the motorhome at North Dartmouth…about 65 miles to the south.

Last night Mary and I went out with my cousin Bob and his wife Donna to a great Portuguese restaurant for another great meal. The annual Portuguese Festival in nearby New Bedford begins today and runs through the weekend. I’m betting Mary and I will both have gained a couple more pounds by time we depart next Tuesday. All in all, yesterday was another great day!

Enjoying visiting with old friends is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Massachusetts. 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 have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

She’s Back!

The motorhome is parked at my cousin Bob’s home in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts. We are planning to depart next Tuesday.

Yesterday was 84 degrees with humidity in the 70% range. Still too hot and humid for my liking.

Yesterday afternoon I drove the Bronco the about 65 miles to Logan Airport at Boston, Massachusetts. Mary has returned to me. It’s nice to have her back…

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…

Today we will be visiting with long-time friends of mine in Revere, Massachusetts, so we stayed in a hotel here last night. I lived in Revere from the ages of 10-18. In the afternoon rush (?) hour drive, the 7.5 mile ride from the airport to the hotel only took one hour. I wonder why it’s called rush hour?  🙂

This afternoon we’ll head back to North Dartmouth.

Enjoying meeting up with old friends is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Massachusetts. 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 have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

Step Back Into the 1950’s in Bisbee, Arizona…

We arrived in Deming, New Mexico four days ago. Mary departed three days ago for home to tend to taxes and other business. I’m at Rockhound State Park in Deming, New Mexico waiting out a forecasted very windy coming Saturday through Tuesday. Prior to arriving in Deming there was so much to see and do I didn’t get to Blog about it. Here is one now…

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Back when I was a teenager in the 1950’s, my family was quite poor and we lived in a trailer park in Revere, Massachusetts. Despite not being wealthy, I remember the 1950’s as probably the best decade ever to be a teenager. All that Doo-Wop music!

In Lee’s Trailer Park, where we lived, I remember there was a trailer that looked much like this one. It was the largest in the park out of about 50 trailers…

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...

The inside looked like this…

No, these are not photos that I took back then, but photos I took recently when visiting Bisbee Arizona. It’s called the Shady Dell Trailer Park and has a definite 1950’s theme…

At Shady Dell there are about 18-1950’s vintage trailers all restored to original condition. Here for about $100 a night you can sleep in a 1950’s vintage trailer while visiting the area.

To see the other 28 photos I took, click this link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/ShadyDellTrailerParkBisbeeArizona

Here’s a link to their website where you can see more of the Shady Dell Trailer Park…
http://www.theshadydell.com/

Stepping back into history is one of my very favorite things to do in my full-timing RV lifestyle.

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

A Long-Time Friend Visits…

Yesterday my friend of 60 years, Al Penta, stopped by the motorhome for a visit. I’m at the Thousand Trails RV Resort in Monroe, Washington and he lives on a peaceful 5 acre property overlooking the Skykomish River. It’s only a couple of miles from my campground and a place where he has lived for 30+ years. He came by bicycle…his favorite mode a transportation. In the below photo, he’s entering the motorhome…

The black patch-like device near his left eye is actually a rear-view mirror that attaches to his glasses so he can see vehicles approaching from the rear. The small black antenna on the left shoulder attaches to a radio device that allows him to talk with other bikers riding with him. Did I tell you he’s been an avid bicyclist for many years? He’s 70 years old and in great condition. Prior to retirement 5 years ago, he walked a mailman’s route for 30 years.

Al and I met in the 5th grade at the Liberty Grade School in Revere, Massachusetts in 1950. It’s no longer there…the land is now a condo parking lot.

We were both in the U.S. Navy…on different ships. In 1960 our ships were operating together and we pulled liberty together in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After that, we lost track of each other for 20 years.

In 1980, I moved to Washington State for employment reasons. I needed to hire some specialized skills, so I flew back to New England. Having a few extra minutes, I drove through our old neighborhood and saw an older woman sweeping leaves in the driveway of Al’s house.  I stopped and re-introduced myself to his mother and she told me he was living in Washington State.  She gave me his address and telephone number and upon return to Washington State, I contacted Al. We were just 100 miles apart! We got re-acquainted and our friendship continues to this day. I was quite the coincidence that we both ended up in Washington State, 3,000 miles from our childhood days.

16 years ago when I retired and sold my home, I went to the Department of Licensing to change the address on my driver’s license and vehicle registrations. All I had was a post office box address… I no longer had a house. I was told…”No post office addresses allowed…you’ve got to have a physical address!”  “But, I don’t have one”…I said. “Use a friend’s address”…I was told. Graciously Al has allowed me to use his home address and today, 16 years later…it still appears on my driver’s license and vehicle registration.

We get together every time I return to this area. One of the primary joys of the full-time RVing lifestyle is to visit with old friends. It’s always fun to reminisce about the last 60 years and yesterday we did more of that!

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://lulu.com/panamaorbust