August 14, 2018:
We've been off the road as a full time RV-er's for about 7 weeks now and as a community service I feel obligated to report on how it's going. Actually it seems much longer than 7 weeks as my days have been filled with much work and expense. I knew what I was getting into here, the house had been neglected for many years, especially the yard. It’s been nonstop activity in cleaning, painting, sorting of storage boxes, working in the yard and assembling many pieces of Ikea and Home Depot furniture. Everything has involved much lifting and bending over which is causing much back pain.
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On one of many trips to Home Depot I saw this Jeep in the parking lot, I thought
it was really stupid but on looking closer it all made sense |
A former bedroom is now being lined with shelves to be my library, it will eventually document about everything in my life, a personal museum of sorts. It’s fun to open the boxes that haven’t seen daylight in decades, many old memories and so many books that I can’t bear to get rid of. It’s not just books though, there are also boxes and boxes of other old keepsakes. We have books and pamphlets from every place we have been to for the past six years of RV’ing. I also have mementos from about everyplace I have been to for the past 50 years. This room will be crowded, but I am trying to keep one wall open for a rotating gallery of photos, art work and other curiosities. Years from now, when I'm really old, I’lI be able to sit in my little room and relive my glory days ?
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| That's a start |
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| Part of my New Jersey Transit Railroad collection |
I work a few hours outside each morning on the landscaping, pulling out the dead and planting new, moving rocks, pondering what to plant and where, watering and trying to nurture the plants back to life. I find this very satisfying, it must come from my farming roots. I have been able to trace the approximate 300 feet of half buried irrigation tubing around the house and make some temporary repairs. After putting new batteries in the controller it initially appeared to be working, but unfortunately it soon died. Regardless, I am able to turn the water on manually and have been able to get the system working. This activity usually goes on until about 10 AM when I am a soaking wet sweaty mess with the temperature approaching 100 degrees. I have found that during the “monsoon season” the dry heat here is not so dry ! On many days the storm clouds build to impressive levels, it looks like rain, we see rain in the distance and all around us, but nothing happens here. It is a very interesting time here in the desert and it’s a big deal when it does rain.
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As I was leaving the 36th street trailhead I saw this storm approaching with our house
straight ahead, it somehow missed us ? |
I have only taken a few photos in the past month and haven’t made any progress on organizing the ones taken since the start of the the year. It’s just as well as I am totally overwhelmed with all the other stuff to do. That being said, I recently discovered that the Barrel Cactus were blooming and went for a short hike from the 36th street trailhead where I took some photos. That prompted me to set up my photo printer. Amazingly, I found my power cords, was able to download and install a new printer driver and was able to print out a test photo. The printer ink cartridges have been sitting in the heat for a long time, I hope they are okay.
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| The flowers are huge and beautiful |
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| I climbed uphill to see this impressive cactus |
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| The Cholla are also flowering |
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| The stone house really stood out against the storm clouds |
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| I'm still searching for the perfect full circle of flowers |
Twinkles has been equally busy setting up her sewing room where she is dreaming up endless top secret projects to do, no photos allowed !
The 38 Dodge has only been taken out of storage twice as it’s really not much fun driving it when the temperature is near or over 100 degrees. The good news is that since the garage has been cleared out, I brought it to the house and it fits in with a few inches to spare. Additional room on the ends would be nice for easier access to the laundry room and it could eventually happen, at a cost, by extending the garage door a couple of feet into the driveway.
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It's the first time the car has been garaged where I live, it feels
so much safer this way |
It’s real nice to have reliable internet again and to be able to stream videos and we now get a ton of programs on our TV. I’ve been having a great time watching rock star videos and other documentaries into the wee hours. My recollections of the Beatles, George Harrison, the Doors, the Eagles, The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards, Jimi Hendricks, Bruce Springsteen and the crazed drummer Ginger Baker have been reinforced. Twinkles has also purchased a new Amazon “Echo” that with a voice command to Alexa will play many thousand of songs.
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Ginger Baker really does look demented, I need to read
his book Hellraiser, I believe he qualifies ! |
It’s also nice having available live music again at the various places around town and I’ve been busy making the rounds to about nine live music venues. Last weekend we attended the Mermaid Festival, a strange festival for this dry desert area.
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First and foremost it's always Kevin Pakulis and his Sunday Sessions
at Borderlands Brewing |
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Billy Sedlmayr opening for Decker
at Club Congress |
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| Old School Hype Band at the St Charles Tavern |
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| Reed Turchi at Monterey Court |
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| Little Cloud Band at the Public Brewhouse |
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Flamenco en la Noche with Domingo Degrazia, Gabriel Ayala
and Ismael Barajas at the Congress Hotel |
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| Mermaid Band at the Return of the Mermaids Festival |
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| Another Mermaid Band on 4th street |
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| Many weird costumes as expected |
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| It's a family event too ! |
We finally made it to Bobo’s for breakfast, highly recommended and rated, it did not disappoint. The building and the interior appointments are not very inspiring, but the food and service are excellent. This is about the only place in Tucson that I would say qualifies as a real “Jersey Diner” experience.
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| I even liked the sign outside |
Alice (The Cat) has adjusted nicely to the house after a very nervous start. She has a favorite table to sit on in front of our front window where she can bird watch and sometimes even lizard watch. It’s interesting as the window is reflective, you can see out but you can’t see in from the outside. The birds will sit on the ledge on the other side of the glass right in front of her which drives her frantic. The best visitor has been a roadrunner who put on quite a show.
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| The birds have no idea that Alice is on the other side |
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| Twinkles has also adjusted nicely to her large kitchen |
Often during the day when I’m hot and sweaty and my back is hurting, I start thinking, How did this happen, what happened to “living the dream” ? Twinkles and Alice (my girls) are not showing any inclination to go back to the RV for any road adventures in the future. I suppose this fixed house is their dream ? As a result, when the lonesome road starts calling me, and it is, it looks like I'll have to continue solo, on a part time basis. I fine with that, it's possibly the best of both worlds ?
Twinkles and Slick
