Thom and Dar's Sabbatical Journal

One of the joys of owning a bus-house is having to replace the tires every few years. Having first discovered sidewall cracks in our 5 year old tires more than a year ago, I've been procrastinating and delaying the inevitable ever since. Like most good procrastinators I guess there's a subconscious hope that the need for action was all imagined. If you wait long enough the problem simply disappears... evaporates into thin air.


Well, tires don't heal themselves and cracked sidewalls never improve. So over the past month I've been working on getting replacements. Got a quote here... another there... and a third down the road a piece. I wasn't happy with any of them. These things are expensive!... like more than 5 "Ben Franklins" with maybe another "General Grant" or two... per tire.  And every time I walk around the bus-house to count tires, I always come up with 6.

I'm happy to report that yesterday this project came to a conclusion. In conj…

Early voting in Wisconsin starts tomorrow and I'm facing a huge personal dilemma. Do I vote or not?

Consider the puppets we refer to as our Presidential candidates. Both of them are lying to us. They're both saying whatever their organizations calculate will produce the most votes and the best chance of winning. They are NOT saying what they'll actually do, what they actually believe, or which power groups are controlling them. It's really a sham. I have no way to determine which of them is the bigger liar. And the same goes for the Senate race here in Wisconsin. Liars all.

If I vote, I'll be buying into the game devised by those pulling the strings on these characters. I'll become a supporting cast member of the fictional play they've scripted in the name of democracy and the founding principles of this nation. Sounds good but it's all a sham. And it just doesn't feel right.

If I don't vote, I'm a bum in the eyes of many who believe votin…

For the past 10 years or more I've been using a hand-me-down Specialized (brand) hybrid bike as my daily driver. It's nothing to be proud of, but it gets the job done. At least most of the time.

I love being on this bike. It feels natural for me... very relaxed and comfortable. But I'm feeling the urge to change... to upgrade?? to something that might serve my needs better.

There are two things that I'd like to change about my bike. First, often I truly wish it were a mountain bike. I spend very little time biking on paved roads (consider it too dangerous as cars and trucks usually win any conflicts) preferring crushed rock and dirt trails... often the old railroad grades converted to bike trails. I'd venture onto more primitive trails, roads, and fields, but my skinny-ish tires prevent that. Thus, my wish for a mountain bike with wider tires.

Second, bikes get abused in this lifestyle... hanging out in the open on a car-mounted bike rack they're subjected to…

The first Winter of our Sabbatical (the Winter of '07/'08) we wandered pretty much aimlessly through the South from November thru February. Moving from East to West, we hit all the southern-tier States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I say "aimlessly", meaning we really had no pre-set plan, no reservations, nor any per-conceived ideas of what we were doing. It was great.

During that Winter we did stop for a few weeks in Rockport Texas, where we spent the holidays and met a bunch of new RVing buddies. Mostly snowbirds, they are an enjoyable group... so much so that we found ourselves spending most of the following 4 winters right back there at Sandollar Resort. We had fallen into snowbird mode and found ourselves in the same spot for three months each of those winters.

But not this year.

Perhaps we're trying to regain that feeling of discovery and adventure we felt during our first year on the road... chasing that first "high"... but this year will …

"I will not complain about the weather... I will not complain about the weather... I will not complain..." 

We're thoroughly enjoying our Midwest Fall experience this year. Wonder why we haven't lingered longer here in previous years. We've had some very nice days, with full sun, mild breezes, cool at night and warm during the day. Not as many as we'd like but...

"... I will not complain..." 

Printers
Our Canon i70 printer finally crapped out for good the other day. We've carried this old guy around since the beginning and even though we don't use a printer much, it has performed admirably for us for more than 5 years... and actually some few years before that even.  Tried what I could (which wasn't much) to rescue and resuscitate it, but it passed over to the other side and was buried in a local landfill after a brief service. No tears please. It had a good life.

Our requirements for a printer is that it be small and portable. Cheap w…