A Wedding on a Rainy Saturday

Saturday, September 13, 2008 -- Beaver Dam, WI

I've been in a bit of a funk the last couple days but I think I'm working through it. My best explanation is that we've been rushed much of the past week to go here, go there, do this, do that -- and the contrast to the three weeks at the quiet lake in the Upper Peninsula is too much for me to adjust to this quickly. That's the way I used to live, but not anymore. I think there's an element of "hitchitch" to my emotional state too -- the growing need to explore new places. Be patient, Thom, all in due time.

Today we're going to attend the wedding of my niece Erica and her chosen partner-for-life Paul. I'm looking forward to the party and socializing to help turn my thoughts outward, to listen to what others are thinking, to tell stories and laugh. I'm sure it'll be a great time.

My last post was a few days ago, just after I'd finished with the service work on the bus-house at Spartan Motors and driving back to that nice little park in Kalamazoo. The following morning, Wednesday, we left for Newmar Corp. in Nappanee Indiana to have an exterior panel on the lower portion of the bus-house secured. It had worked loose with all the jarring from our wonderful Interstate Highway system. Our service contact at Newmar determined that the quickest way to resolve the problem was to have Duncan Systems, an excellent RV repair company just up the road in Elkhart, do the repair. So by Wednesday night we were parked in Duncan's RV parking area with an appointment for first thing Thursday.

Trying to get RV's repaired is a crap-shoot at best. There just aren't that many truly knowledgeable technicians out there. It's not uncommon at all that the person trying to resolve one problem creates two or three more. But Duncan, being in the heart of RV country, has the volume of business to attract and keep a collection of the best RV technicians around. Our tech, Joe, completed our repair in less than an hour and took the extra step to make sure it won't happen again. I was impressed and am not hesitant to recommend Duncan to anyone.

Since we were done and on the road by 11am, and would gain an hour driving west into the Chicago Metroplex, and because the day was sunny and good for driving... we decided to drive all the way to Beaver Dam. It would involve a couple hours of clenched teeth as we endured Chicago traffic. (Have I mentioned lately how much I dis-like big cities??) The reasons people collect in these massive pools of population and become desensitized to the numbing congestion and frantic pace of living must be economic. That was certainly the case for me, for us during those 13 years. Having spent much of the last year in sparsely populated places, interacting with people with completely different values, the contrast is more sharp than I've ever sensed before.

So, here we are back at the Farm in Beaver Dam. We'll be here for a couple weeks for this wedding, my Mom's birthday, and a couple doctor appointments. But then, as autumn deepens, we'll be on the road again, slowly working our way southward and exploring small town rural America.

T