Thom and Dar's Sabbatical Journal

We've been busier than a three-legged squirrel getting ready for winter. Without getting into all the details, here's a brief list... install new solar system on little camper, trouble-shoot and fix battery problem on little camper, change bushouse oil and filter, wash/wax bushouse so it at least starts the winter gleaming like a new one, various suspension enhancements on the truck so it handles little camper better, moving stuff from bushouse... some of it to little camper and some to our apartment here at the farm... and then moving some of it back again. Then there's the long list of smaller jobs that seems to grow longer as things are completed and checked off... not unlike the parable of the loaves and fishes. It might be a miracle.

I've had a little more trouble sleeping these recent days... something I've rarely had trouble with before. Falling asleep usually isn't the problem. But if I awake during the night (a common occurrence, I'm told, with ol…

The annual migration of snowbirds, winter Texans, and other ice-o-phobes is well underway, with the most senior of our RVing elders leading the way south. I'm not sure why, but it does seem that the more mature of the lot has an innate need to head south earlier every year. At first they were fine with leaving in November, maybe even after Thanksgiving. But as the years tick off, they're soon leaving in early October. They're a co-dependent pack who look for support in their peer-group... a mutual revulsion society that shuns anything less than 80f degree temps and bright sunshine... and any mention of words like freeze, snow, sleet... well, they go into shock and may need a respirator to survive. Added to all that, there's also the side-effect of a lingering residual competitiveness that drives them to be the first at whatever they do... first to arrive, first to leave, first to bed... you get the idea. You gotta love old folks... they're so predictable.

Easy tr…

The other half of our not-so-secret lifestyle change is our new truck camper. During the last year or so as we were deliberating the evolution of our traveling life, much of the discussion revolved around a new rig. We had done six years in the 40' class A motorhome which we found very comfortable... so comfortable in fact that it would easy to continue as we have, for maybe another 6 years.

But life marches on... we're not getting any younger... and the long-term prognosis for continued good health and relatively robust physical condition is NOT good. If one in our position harbors any inkling or desire to do something unconventional (even more unconventional than living in a bushouse for 6 years full time)... something that pushes the boundaries of good sense and the extremes of what gentile folk consider reasonable... well, you'd best be getting on with it before you can't. To hell with what others think.

What we desire in this evolved lifestyle is simplicity, free…

It hasn't been a secret that we're in the middle of a lifestyle change. After 6 years of living and exploring with our Newmar motorhome (dubbed the "bushouse" by grandson Ryan) we're both ready for a change. This has been one of my quirks (or maybe "faults" is a better word) throughout life... every few years I feel a need to change things up, to move someplace new, take on a new or additional job, or do something in a different manner. Now it's happening again.

I've written about our thoughts on this matter before and won't bore the reader with a re-hash here... except to offer links to a few of those previous posts [here] and [here] and [here].

We still intend to travel and explore North America (we've really just scratched the surface of things to see and do) but we desire to do it differently... to find a way to more easily get off the beaten path, to be more spontaneous, and to maximize the time we spend in more rustic camping venu…

You may have noticed recent changes to the layout of this blog. Here's the quick story.

The RV Sabbatical Journal blog is now presented in a simple single column format. The focus is on the most recent post, which is where I'd like it... with little else to clutter the page. In my effort to define the blog's purpose and to feed my desire to keep it all clean and simple, I've removed that smaller right-hand column which included a bunch of things I thought I could do without or, at least, handle differently. Did anyone really care what were the most viewed posts from the previous month? Our story is best found on a separate page under the "About" tab, so the small sections called "What's This All About?" and "Synopsis" were deemed redundant and done away with. The Google search widget didn't seem to work most of the time so it too was deep-sixed.

The two elements that I felt still had some value were the previous post "Archi…

Rather than one long post (and, I fear, it would be very long) in which I try to cover this blog's recent dry spell, how about I break it down into a series of shorter posts as I attempt to bring the record up-to-date over the next few days. Maybe by then we'll be close enough to getting our Fall travels underway and there'll be more time to write... and more to write about.

Regular readers of this blog know that I've had periods in the past when writing has been a struggle. Without exception, those spells are associated with periods of time when we're sitting in one spot for a while. Probably because I don't have a clear purpose for the blog (is it a travelogue?.. a diary??... who really is the audience???) the words won't flow. I want to keep it interesting and fresh, but unlike some others in bloggerville who have no problem writing the same tiresome daily drivel... day after day after boring day, I just can't do it. I'm not a small talk kind of…