Thom and Dar's Sabbatical Journal

Steady progress as we play the waiting game here in Southern Oregon. Truck camper number one (the Northstar) hasn't sold yet but we remain hopeful we can find a good home for it soon. Truck camper number two (the Four Wheel) is in production and we have an appointment to have it mounted mid-May. There's a lot of "behind the scenes" activity here at Timber Valley SKP as Spring breaks out and warms up the turnover rate in memberships a bit. Having a stable community with little turnover can be a good thing if you're already a member, but if you're high on the waiting list and waiting (and waiting...) it'd be good to see a little quicker pace. Based on what we know it'll be "nip and tuck" to have our membership and lot before heading back to the Midwest in mid to late June. And the ever-exciting "baby-watch" is also proceeding along a natural course toward an approximately early June delivery. Son and DIL Kaytlyn are ready... to s

For those naysayers out there who said we'd never be able to live with a truck camper... that it'd be way too small, too cramped, too uncomfortable.... well, we put the Northstar TC on the sales block today. We've decided we can't live with it. But NOT for the reasons you might think. We're selling it because it's a little too big for our new style of travel. That's right, we actually desire something smaller . I guess that means you doubters out there can remain comfortably entrenched in your negativity.  I mean, there's always a chance we'll eventually see the light and come to the realization that we Americans really must have 40 or 45 feet of decal-covered fiberglass with full-wall slide-outs in order to see North America. But somehow, I doubt it. On the off-chance that someone out there finds this and happens to be looking for a really nice like-new Northstar truck camper, contact me and we'll chat about it. My email is ksdp39-10 at ya

As recently as a year ago Dar and I were getting along with two computers on-board the good ship "bushouse". Both Windows machines, Dar's was an elderly Dell running XP and mine was a slightly less elderly little Acer running Win7. For years we worked away on these two machines, Dar processing photos and me writing, with only the most minor problems. We had reached the point where we considered them "appliances"... not unlike a toaster or a microwave oven. They performed the jobs they were built for, reliably, with little intervention or "tweaking" from their users... us. But like all living things and most machines, time takes a toll. And technological advances with microprocessors and other gizmos and systems means the future is quite grim for any computer for which the fingers on both hands are needed to count years of service. Dar's Dell was becoming sluggish and temperamental. And then, a few weeks ago, the event every heavy computer user fe

Yesterday, April 2, with a strong desire to get out and explore, we set out to find the long sought shortcut between Sutherlin and Glide (both in Oregon). Separated by perhaps 15 miles (for a crow) and terrain rugged enough that there's no easy or paved direct way, we'd be feeling our way through wilderness on little used and poorly marked BLM and logging "roads". Using MS Streets and Trips and a new Delorme Oregon Gazetteer Atlas, we plotted two possible routes through the rugged forested mountains between our start and end points. Then, with Lewis and Clark-like resolve, not to mention a good dose of optimism, we mounted up and headed out into the unknown with the low-clearance one-wheel-drive Ford Focus - probably not the optimal thing for what most would consider jeep roads. Our truck and camper is up in Camas WA awaiting an adventure with the two grandkids next week. Thus, our need to take the Focus. There's no point in getting too detailed about the ensu