50 AMP VISION QUEST

While we have been here in Lyons at Bohn Park we have been working pretty darn hard during our work days.  The Park, as I mentioned earlier, is wonderfully envisioned and maintained by the summer seasonal crew who cut the grass and weed whack around the trees and such.  A top-notch irrigation system waters the grounds at specifically timed intervals and throughout the Summer the grass and many flower beds have remained deeply green.  Even in late August they’ve retained the look and feel of an early June…

Part 1

Throughout our travels in the 50 Amp Vision Quest we have spent a good deal of our time during the summer months enjoying working and playing under the umbriferous Rocky Mountains.  We seem to dart in and out of them along the entirety of their spine in America.  Something always draws us back here during the long hot summer solstices where we work and play under the rarefied azure skies and multi-hued, billowing cumulus clouds tumbling over the peaks.  This particular summer it is beneath the Eastern…

We held our daughter and her children tightly for as long as we could in the parking lot of the busy restaurant that Suni chose for brunch.  We whispered in their ears thoughts that we hoped they would keep until we meet again in the Fall.  I shook Dane’s hand and told him again how proud I was of him with a solid hug for good measure.  We bid our compadres and new friends at Cedar Breaks goodbye for now after 6 months of camp hosting.  Lately we had fallen into hosting little impromptu parties at our camp…

The so-called Big Freeze of ‘23 continues to occupy most of our time these days when we are not performing our camp hosting duties. After removing the downed limbs and trees to the side of the road we uncovered a seemingly unending discovery stream of what we here call ‘hangers”. Hangers are dangerous limbs that are literally hanging from the trees above campground, ready to fall on an unsuspecting camper. These are the remnants of the ice storm that bore the added weight of the ice and didn’t completely…

After we took to the road and fully embraced The 50 Amp Vision Quest, our name for this extended motor home adventure, we noticed small changes in our lives.  Oh sure, living in motor home is inherently a major change is one’s life. Besides joining the general diaspora of folks more or less constantly on the move, America’s 21^st century Gypsy/Romas, and all the obvious trade-offs between living in a house with a foundation versus living on top of wheels, there are unexpected changes that sneak into your…

This is the time of year, especially, when sentimentality can saturate your emotions. It can also be a time of depression for some whose darker memories are summoned to the surface. As spilled oil lays on lake water and discolors its surface until many days of sunshine dissipate its ruinous effect, dark memories, or even loneliness can linger uninvited during these bright holidays, triggered by the same themes that bring happiness and light to everyone else. Oh, how we miss those who no longer gather at the…

As we’ve traveled now these past 5 years and I record some of what we’ve seen and experienced I seldom write about political events and the larger issues of the day that make the headlines. Surely, historians will do an excellent job of that down the road. Since I publish my musings on line at my personal website I believe my contemporaries aren’t interested in my rehash of what they hear on radio, see on television, or read on line every single day of the year. There’s only so much of today’s news one can…

What are Friends For? 

My good friend, Dave Cochran, whom we also call Lamont, as we all in that particular group of friends use alter-names, texted me late one afternoon to ask it I would like to go see Rodney Crowell live at the Off Broadway Saloon in the old Soulard neighborhood of South St Louis city.  Off Broadway is a cool place to see acts perform as you can get up close to the stage and the sound system is generally very good.  Dave had tickets as he was offering me the opportunity to go with him…

The last time we were in Washington, DC was many years ago.  I had been here since Diane had as I traveled here for a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Video Software Dealers of America.  That was when I worked as Executive VP, Sales And Marketing for Sight and Sound Distributors.  Those were good days, but they ended in 2000 when the entire video distribution industry evaporated nearly overnight.  That story, the story of the Video Software Industry, is a stark lesson in American business that one…

We could have stayed at Gateway RV Campground in the center of Nova Scotia longer than our two days. It remains a gem of a campground that is owned and managed by an affable character who puts his heart and soul into making your stay rustic in the best sense of the word as well as comfortable.  Time is marching on, however.  We wanted to stay and luxuriate in the semi-solitude along the Medway River but we felt the clock ticking withal.  There are many miles to go before we sleep as the poet said.  If we…