The start was inauspicious -- a seven day test tour with a broken toilet? But that wouldn't stop me! It looked bigger than a Greyhound Bus, but as long as I were willing to take up 2 1/2 lanes on the highway, I figured others would stay out of my way. IT WORKED! Monday evening, September 10th. We finally got to our first RV park in Chula Vista -- I swore we would get here early so my first hook up would be in the daylight. We got lost in the bonnies, drove for miles, at least 20 miles on a country road and wound up in a dead end. If you have ever tried to turn around a 40 foot vehicle at the end of a 20 mile dead end road, just as dark was sinking in, you know what it felt like. The end of this path was the state park ranger hut, with no one home! But, as I was backing and maneuvering those 40 feet, a car came -- a compassionate park ranger and family -- he offered to lead me to civilization. It was more than 20 miles out because he didn't quite know how to find the RV park we were missing. We followed him for 30 minutes and he led us to the Chula Visa RV Resort. Nice Place, but I had never before done one of those "HOOK UPS" SO WE ARRIVED AFTER CLOSING HOURS, but they left an envelop with my name and site assignment. Great. No trouble to find it, but I had never in my life hooked up an RV to the water and power, etc. So, I just turned on the generator and had dinner. That was fine until 2 AM when the guard finally woke us up - too much noise running the generator! So, he helped me figure out how to connect to the Park power -- water and sewage would come in the AM. I "went home" to read my eMail and found that wonderful testimonial from Finland. Asked Dennis to send it out as a new newsletter -- the RV Tour by Karl and Jean. Scotty? We originally wanted to try an RV because our little dog did not like riding in the car, vomit etc, so put him in a 40 foot monster? It worked fairly well -- he rode fairly well -- only vomited once. Right now he is still a bit upset with me for bringing him, but he has several months of this now to look forward to. He wouldn't get up in my lap as I paused in this early morning writing. I sit here now, in Chula Vista, on my laptop signed in to my home/office PC and publishing this page just as though I were home. From my remote locations, as I travel, I will continue my research, writing and publishing, currently about Biosulf - - news is coming soon. Today we walk over the bridge into Tijuana to visit our new dentist and explore more about this new RV life. Wednesday, September 12, 2007 Tuesday I learned that the Taxies would much prefer to take you to the border, $22.00, themselves, rather than the short trip, $5.00, to the trolley line. It was an amazingly short journey -- right to the border with Mexico, then a very short walk into Mexico, then a waiting taxi to the dentist where a young girl completed the root canal. But on the way there my cell phone rang IN MEXICO -- whish usually never happens -- a pleasant chat with my 78 year old Kung Fu Buddy -- see his photos at my Kung Fu School. Jean stayed back in the coach this day -- I went alone to the dentist. I downloaded some card games for her to amuse herself on the computer -- one of those first "reality checks" at a new environment when the usual 10 second download took 2 hours and 22 minutes -- the wi fi was in heavy use just then -- it is much faster at 2 AM when I typically get up to write. I've often felt about camping with tents and fire for cooking that camping is a game of returning to basic survival, and finding pleasure in just simply surviving -- where a true luxury is having a hot bath. There is an interesting complexity of that in a fancy RV. We have many luxuries with us, but there are also many things that work very differently -- like toilets and TV that, for now, still goes back to the primitive days of needing antennas. I'm not finding it as easy as I expected to "do work" from the laptop -- the familiar is gone and replaced with bare survival slow speed lap top and connection to the internet. Here is a bigger image of our RV:
Several tons of metal hurling down the highway -- even at 75 miles per hour part of the time. Old people don't much like much change in their lives -- or perhaps it should be written that when you change so that you are not comfortable with change in your life, you are getting old? It is an adventure, but then, "adventure" is all mental! My friend Mr. Hubbard writes, "Smile and you'll soon find something to smile about." That same philosophy governs all emotions. "Be enthusiastic and you'll soon find something to be enthusiastic about." I find new pleasures in simple things that mean a victory with some basic success in living -- having the salt shaker handy at a meal is now a big deal. When we started this journey Jean would joke and insist that I had to do my share of the driving -- I've done it all so far, but as I write this, on Thursday, our RV Park has reserved our space for another so we must move a bit -- I'm due at the dentist early and might leave it to her to move the rig -- It's a big deal. Scotty, our dog, is still wishing he were home. He'll mellow.
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