Days 2 & 3

I woke up Day 2 sleeping in my camper. This was my first night sleeping in it.  It was in the 20's overnight and I was plugged in to Brent's house getting heat & electricity.  The heat came from the the roof HVAC heat pump.  It kept up with the cold ok, but as the temps go down less heat can be extracted from the air.

Days 2 & 3 were filled with family time.  Day 2, Saturday was granddaughter Avery's & my mom's birthday.  Our day started with errands to get ready for the afternoon/evening party.  Avery's first haircut at Cartoon Cuts was a real joy.

Day 2 night was my second night staying in the camper and it was the coldest at about 19 degrees and the heat pump couldn't get the camper above 50 degrees.  I plugged a small ceramic heater I brought in place of the heat pump but it was not working well,  so I just bundled up and made it through ok.

To digress a bit, I never had time to try out/set up the built in propane heater before I left, but it wouldn't had been usable as Brent's driveway is on a significant incline  that the heater would not work correctly.

So, Sunday I went to Walmart for a new ceramic heater for Sunday night,  although not quite as cold the small ceramic heater did it's job and kept the camper about 70 deg.  

Sunday we went back to the mall to Picture People to have Avery's 2 year old pictures taken.  Then watching the Patriots loose and on the way to dinner at Red Robin a stop for the parents to Urgent Care with Avery for possible ear infection. We got dinner & parents took Avery home & had party leftovers.

Mayor of Meadowridge Landing

Mike is the proclaimed Mayor for Meadowridge Landing housing development.  He got this title as he is retired and is around most of the time and helps others to keep busy.  As the Mayor he also takes on the dubious role of overseeing cleaning the dog poo dropbox in the common area for the the development's organization.  

Mike lives diagonally from our son Brent's house and Brent was out talking to him on the street on this (today) warm 50 degree day.  Although the warm temps Mike was bundled up with hooded sweatshirt over his head sporting a baseball hat under the hood.  On top of the sweatshirt he had a medium weight jacket on.  He was wearing bifocals with a plastic sun shield hung on the inside of his frames.  What he was wearing was more fitting to yesterday morning's 20 degree temps.

You can tell by the way Mike talks he loves to help his neighbors when not helping his wife who is also retired and has mobility issues.  Today the Mayor was looking to visit a neighbor who doesn't get out much to enjoy today's warmth before tomorrow's snow and well below freezing temps.  A testimony of his helpfulness, the "Maror" recently shoveled snow from Brent II's

drive and walk while they were visiting us in MA.  

All communities could use a Mayor!

Sam at Party City

Brent II and I wnt to Party City to buy some balloons for Avery's birthday party this afternoon and I met Sam, one of the sales staff, and saw this as an opportunity to have her my first interview of the trip.

With long dark brown hair, bright dark eyes, and slender face Sam is an attractive young woman in her late teens who has been working at Party City for about a year.  Working in the balloon department today she waited on us for our order of one Disney Aeriel, 3 pink and 3 aqua balloons.

She upsold us for $.15 for each of the six latex balloons to put a solution in them so they will last 12 to 24 hours vs. the expected 4 hours without the solution.  It sounded like the right decision as Avery's birthday party was about 4 hours away.

While processing our order it was easy to strike up a conversation with her.  I opened the conversation by asking her what the most popular balloons were.  She eagerly pointed out the favorates that included ones with fur-like fringe and then the large 50th birthday by saying that the series was popular including 40. I turned to Brent II and commented that he was getting close to that number.  He then reminded me if my 40th birthday party, not mentioning the belly dancer that Denise had gotten for me that I know we were both thinking of.

Sam likes her job as it is mostly layer back for being a minimum waged job.  I mentioned that there must be seasons to the business, getting a reply from her that Halloween was the busiest time with all registers open including the extra one in the balloon area.  

In addition to providing great service, and accepting Brent II's offer to jump for a balloon for another customer that had gotten away, she was articulate and engaging giving hope for my future interview attempts.  

The reason that Brent II had to jump for the balloon was that they tie all balloons off to the ribbon and let it go to the ceiling and cut the ribbon.  In this case the other sales attendant let the balloon rise to the ceiling only to run out of ribbon and then being out of reach to both young woman.

Day 1

My pre-trip reservations about driving a 20 year old camper van across country subsided slowly over the first days 430 mile trip to MD.  The weather was great and the vehicle ran so well that I soon didn't think about it.  I couldn't ask for more.  Our evening arrival brought us dinner with son Brent & family followed by going out for frozen yogurt.  

Then it was time for my first night in the camper.  I plugged in and ran the heater in the HVAC on the roof.  It started off at 67 deg and by morning it was 60 inside and mid 20's outside.  Completely acceptable for the trip.  The propane heater wasn't an option as I was parked on an incline and I haven't looked at using it yet.  I will save addressing this and other items for FL where it's warm.

Hitting The Road

Hi all,

Well we got off this AM on time.  The last few days have been very busy addressing home things including getting the tax information & software for the road, moving appointments, and fixing things.  For the camper lots to bring for a 3+ month trip.  I am sure I have extra stuff & have missed some things.

More later

A Travel Writer Keyboard

Going to Oakmont Regional High School had some advantaged over other high schools.  At Oakmont I got to choose what classes I wanted to take vs. either taking a business or college course structure like other high schools.  This meant that I got to take classes from both groupings.  

Oh yea, things like Advanced Science in the college line and yes Typing from Business.  Who would have thought that one of the most useful class for life long learning was Typing.  

As a communicator typing has helped me in so many ways and will help me in the future as a writer on my trip.

I had purchased a small Bluetooth keyboard a few months ago for traveling, but this week I ran into a problem with it. As a full finger typist I was not able to type without hitting unwanted keys.  I was typing the minutes for the Mid-State General Meeting and it took me at least twice as long as normal.  A trip to Staples  last night bought me a full-size keyboard.  

Today I was happy with the new size allowing plenty of finger room.  There was one minor drawback and that was the space bar.  It wasn't as reactive as I would like.  This from a guy that hits the space bar when I type so hard that I had worn a mark in the space bar on my desktop computer keyboard at my office at the Fire Station.

Problems With My Blog

HI all,

Sorry for the following problems:

1. It is hard to sign up for blog notices - I sent a support request a few days ago but have not heard back yet.  I think it is browser related as there are differences between the mobile and full version.

2. Unable to post comments - I reviewed this issue today and I also think it is browser related.

If you have other problems please send me an email @ macaloney@hotmail.com

You can also send comments to me direct if you wish

Thanks,

Brent