Because We Can

Linda has been checking lately to make sure the Bob she married and the Bob who is getting ready to leave for Norway Wednesday morning are the same person. It seems her former Bob was a wait until the last minute person and this Bob is getting everything done a day early. The fabulous person that is me still remembers the kind and considerate way Linda explained to me before we left for Australia last fall that I was never again to put things off until the last minute. It just goes to show that if she threatens me with dismemberment after being disemboweled, I do pay attention. Smart Bob. I will have the final weights of our bags tomorrow, but I must say that for having to pack far more in the way of clothing than we ever have before, we are really looking good. With each of our bags weighing in at 18 pounds. I always get a chuckle out of the comments of the over packers who say they could never pack like we do. They are absolutely correct. Our snow boots. Love the slogan: Ove...

  Since we are now back from our European vacation, posts will once again be on the website we have used during our nine years of fulltiming. Click on this link, www.because-we-can.net , to be taken there. Or if you prefer, type www.because-we-can.net into your browser. Click on the Daily Journal for the latest post. Older posts are found under achieves. Remember: Life is not a dress rehearsal. Don’t be afraid to love, laugh and retire early.

  My bags are packed, I'm ready to go, even if you're so slow. I hate it when you make me wait, but the dawn is breaking this London morn, the tube is running, and being late is your norm. Already I'm ticked off at you, so don't try to kiss me and say sorry, just get your bag packed so we can go. Cause the plane is leaving, and don't you know, I'll be on it, even if alone I go. So many times you've dawdled around, so many times I've waited for you, but today that doesn't mean a thing. Every place we go I wait for you, but starting today that’s not the song I’ll sing. So, kiss me and smile for me, but I'm walking out this door and you'll follow now, if on our plane you want to go. I'm leaving on a jet plane, I hate to say goodbye, but you've dawdled a time too many, Oh, Bob, I'll not be late so I must go. So Bob, I must go. Leaving on a jet plane…. (Not my best effort, but still, better to try and miss than not try at all, e...

First off, today was unusual in that neither of us took a single photo. Second, the couple that were supposed to be on duty today were sick, so Linda and I got a heavy dose training and experience, which goes a long way in explaining why we took no photos. It wasn't that bad, but we are going to be on duty from 8:30 tomorrow morning till 8:30 on Monday morning, making for two very long days in a row. As we are learning, it goes with the territory of volunteering at CARE in summer. It seems that everyone wants to volunteer in the spring, fall and winter when the weather is much nicer. At those times they usually have seven volunteer couples, meaning light work for every one. We have two couples and two singles, so we really get to be busy, but the people who utilize CARE are all so nice it really isn't work. Just a little bit on volunteering here. You are furnished one of the seven free sites behind the CARE Center. They are 50 amp FHU back-in sites, and you pay for the electr...

What you see here is the application of the old adage: "I'd rather be lucky than good." Translation: It is good that I was in the process of putting the tire covers on the coach. The lucky part was not the what, it was the where. Just to the back of this wheel and about two feet out from it was a fire ant mound that I was totally unaware of. I can't imagine what would have happened had I laid down and stretched out the way I am, but behind the tire instead of in front of it. I was very lucky and I know it. PS, the fire ant mound has been treated with ant dead. We had another training day today, and while we learned a great deal, only time will tell if we retained what we were told, and also if we were told all we need to know. When the trainer is being trained by the trainer trainer as the trainer trains the trainees, it isn't too difficult to believe more than a few things get lost in the process. Still, it's the great thing about having volunteered...

6:45 came earlier than we thought it would, likely because we were still tired from yesterday's drive from Marshall to Livingston, then the four hours of training we had. It was really more a mental tiredness, probably due to trying to remember all the information we had received. Of course as soon as we started walking the few steps to the Care Center, adrenaline took over and we were fully ready to go again. As far as the morning mist and dews and damps, we were told it was unusual. Time will tell. We were breakfast help this morning, but it turned out to be fairly easy as the breakfast most mornings is cereal, toast and an assortment of beverages. As we learned, things are not put out in just any order, it has to be the same way every time. That is due to the limited eyesight of a number of the people who eat breakfast. If you are blind and eat bran flakes every morning, they better be in the same location every day. They key here is that the people who utilize the Car...

A fairly short drive today, but it resulted in a fairly a major change in lifestyle. For the next month we are going to volunteering at the Escapee Care Center in Livingston, something we have wanted to do for some time. As time goes on we will be describing more about what it is and what we will be doing, mostly because we have already had our first "trailing" experience tonight at dinner. Think trailing around with someone who has done this for five different volunteer stints. We know nothing, they know everything. Yet after four hours of this we actually think we have a reasonably good understanding about most of the things we will have to do on our own in a few days. It's not a case of fast learners, rather it's a case of excellent teachers. Much more to follow on this experience, but for now I think we both are looking for some rest as we have to start at 6:45 tomorrow morning. Hey, we used to get paid to go to work that early, so now that we are retired we d...

Given another set of circumstances, this could be Linda, but thank goodness it is not. I can only wonder what conversations took place between husband and wife before they left home for the start of this trip. While she loaded the car with more plants than we thought it could hold, he was busy unhooking the sewer, water and electric. It looked to be a case of, if she wants to bring them, she can take of them. It reminded me that no matter how bad it is, (which it really isn't) some other husband has it far, far worse. I always chuckle as we approach a state line because of the comments coming from the navigator's seat. It is a running count down of the miles as we get closer and closer, then on occasion she still misses the sign. Not today, and being the good person she thinks I can be at times, I slowed down as we approached it. It felt good to be back home in Texas, even if the thermometer was registering 101 at the time. Looking at the right way, it was still cool...

We got our Norcold safety module replaced early this morning, when Murphy showed up just before 9 o'clock. We had originally thought we would be staying in Hondo for two nights then stopping at Seminole Canyon State Park. Checking we found there were no tours at the State Park until Wednesday, which would put us into Columbus, New Mexico on Friday at the earliest. Major change in plans. We headed out to Fort Stockton as soon as Murphy was finished, and will continue on to Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, NM on Tuesday. At least that is the plan at this moment. No telling how many times over the years we have filled the coach with diesel, but today was a little different. Small town, big service station, but their cut-outs in the curb were sized for cars, not trucks. While there we saw a semi do an unbelievable rock and roll as he entered the lot. While ours wasn't that bad, we did do a little shaking. This was the truck pump, but the turn was so tight I could only...

Time to move on, though not that far, and not with the start we had planned. It turned out that the route we had planned on taking to I-10 was going to be down a road that was being reconstructed. After seeing all the dust and debris at the entrance, we decided to turn around and go another way. Maybe it would have been no problem on that road, or maybe we would have been kicking ourselves for taking it. Regardless of how we felt about it, the GPS was really upset with us for not following its planned route, meaning it spent the next 20 minutes or so yelling at us. As Linda said, "Let's see how long it takes before it gives up and accepts the way we are going." Life is what you make it. You mess with Linda, you better be prepared to pay the price, which was something our GPS hadn't understood when it kept trying to tell Linda its route was better than hers through San Antonio. We wanted to take Texas 90 straight through the town, while the GPS wanted to route ...

Travel day today, but before we actually got on the road, or at least heading west, we had to get our coach inspected. We have to laugh at the people that pick South Dakota as their residence because Texas requires you to take a driving test if you have a motorhome over 26,000 lbs, or because of the annual vehicle inspections. If you're looking for an excuse they are both pretty good. But they should never be the reason you pick another state than Texas as your domicile. Unless things that go bump in the the night scare you, that is. We hadn't been on the road long, or at least it didn't seem like it had been very long before we were crossing several appendages of Lake Conroe. All summer long during our travels people were asking us about the terrible drought that Texas was under going, and we would always say we were so glad to be where ever we were than back in Texas. Today we go to witness first hand some of the devastation the drought conditions brought to the area...

This was the day for finishing up a few odds and ends before we start heading west. First off was installing additional cup hooks in the wood trim at the top of the front road slide. We have strings of LED lights along both slides and across the front of the coach, but they did not look the same. Now that we have installed the additional cup hooks the sides still don't look the same, but at least there are the same number of cup hooks at similar spacing for all three places. Who knows, maybe we will tweak them some more next year. The only purpose of this photo is to show that Linda has kept intact her record of doing a load of wash every day since we built the drying rack. As far as the post on how we built it: The photo's have been taken. Finally!! A rough outline was written and the beginnings of the web page is on the computer. Now I just have to finish it, but as I might have suspected, I was a little optimistic in when I would have it done. I do promise though, it...

Most of what we did today shall remain just that, which is what we did without anyone knowing what it was. As far as what we did that you should know, here is an example. In the afternoon we walked up to the Activity Center, then over to the Mail Center, where Linda was happy to find we had a number of pieces of mail. She was going to be a happy girl when we got back to the coach, but before that she had a problem. A massive boulder of at least a micron in size found its way into her Keen sandal, meaning she had to stop and remove it. If her parents would have had the gift of precognition, I have to believe her name would have been Woody Footie ********. Don't think for a minute that Linda doesn't enjoy getting her mail, because truth be told, there is nothing that she enjoys more than getting the mail. At least nothing that we talk about in the presence of others, that is. I have to think that one of the reasons she likes staying at Rainbow's End is exactly because...

Another day, another load of wash. Maybe I have unloosed a monster. No maybe about it, this is happening everyday now. I get up, I fix breakfast. The grizzly stirs in the back. The coach begins to rock as the washer begins to do its thing. She comes out. I ask, "Is the washer running?" She says "Yes." And so begins another day just as the day before and the day before that. Verily I say unto thee, "A monster has been loosed upon the coach. A monster of the washer and drying rack kind." Don't think we didn't do anything today, because we certainly did. Linda had an early morning appointment for several more well woman checks, while I went off to get the Explorer inspected. That presented a small problem when they asked me for a copy of our current insurance card and a call to Linda resulted in the fact that said card was on the dash of the coach. I said nothing to her, and retrieved it from the coach, eventually getting our inspection sticke...