Today is Sunday, August 14th. The weather is steamy, summer is still gripping us by the balls, and it’s the last day of my two week vacation. I’ve never taken two weeks off in a row before and it was a novel and enjoyable experience. We hit the road on Friday afternoon, July 30th and didn’t return home until late Wednesday (or early Thursday depending on your particular view of the clock) of this week. We spent Thursday recovering from being exhausted, Friday in peaceful relaxation, and the last two days we’ve been picking up the pace and getting back into the groove of life again.
One thing we’ve learned: we really want an RV. Hotels are nice enough, but the costs rise pretty quickly and the quality varies so much that it would be nice to be able to rest our heads in the same bed each evening. Plus I am a forgetful man and left behind a couple of minor items along the way (a power strip we were using to charge devices, and a mostly empty bottle of e-vape juice… nothing too terribly dramatic frankly and thank goodness). Right now we are priced out of the market of what we would like, but I have my eye on some of the newer small class C RV’s coming onto the market that use the Ford Transit platform, which makes them cheaper and more fuel efficient than most of the others. The Winnebago Fuse is of particular interest since they have a slide out in the back that allows for a queen sized bed, which is a nice amenity in a small camper that still has a shower and dinette and kitchen. But 77K for the current crop of used models is still a bit too steep for our wallets, particularly since we have yet to sell Jen’s house.
The trip started as a way of visiting kitsch sites across the country. We did a lot of that, too, from “Foamhenge” in Virginia – a life sized replica of Stonehenge made out of styrofoam blocks – to the world’s largest ball of twine (43 feet in diameter, and it grows a little more each year when the town adds to it). On the way I had favorite states and not so favorite states, and I’ll do a couple of posts about various legs of the trip starting later this week. But it was an awesome 5,400 mile drive in a big loop around the United States, and we loved every moment of it until the sprint home, which was a bit of a grind. Long drives… you sometimes think they’ll never end, and even when you get home you think “am I really here? Maybe I’m still stuck in that damn car on another freeway.” Bit of a horror show there for sure.
Everything turns. Tomorrow its back to work. And I’ll apply for a new opening that’s come up, something I think is right up my alley and will move me along towards the next step of my career. But of course, I want to change course completely and write books, but until I start selling anything – short story, novel, whatever – I have to focus on what I do already, and do well. So that’s the plan for now. But if you see any really cool, inexpensive RV’s, drop us a note.
Tomorrow… I write again. About time!