Not The Painter

November 11, 2023 – Day 44 Some of you may know the song 500 Miles by The Proclaimers. Here’s the chorus. But I would walk 500 milesAnd I would walk 500 moreJust to be the man who walks a thousand milesTo fall down at your door “500 Miles” – The Proclaimers That was the plan for today. Technically it was 496 miles but it’s close enough to call it 500 miles. We were curious whether we could manage that big a drive. We were simultaneously looking forward to it and dreading it. We had no idea how easy or hard this would be. It was hard. Remember we said it’s…

November 12, 2023 – Day 45 (Claytor Lake State Park, Dublin Virginia) Today was going to be an easy day. We were here for 3 days to relax and do some chores, this was purposefully scheduled since we knew we had just come off of two hard days driving. We did that on purpose to see what our limits are and now we know. Paul went out to empty the trash and spoke with some park rangers, they said we had a great site because the deer hung out in the fields next to us, they were right! We saw them every day, and several time we saw a herd…

November 10, 2023 – Day 43 We woke pretty early and broke camp. Not super early, but early we thought. It was so gorgeous outside! Here’s the view from our “dining room” window. Campsites always have that something like that hanging thing. We’re not sure what they are for but they are useful, we’ve hung our water from it so it could filter into our water bladders, run some paracord for drying towels, etc. We finally figured out what they are for. To hang the coax for the ham radio antenna, of course! The view outside the door was equally impressive. We really liked Daisy Hill State Park and plan…

March 16, 2024 – Day 1 Wait, wait. You can’t leave, you’re not home yet. Last time we losers published we were doing nothing in the rain but writing blog entries in Daisy State Park somewhere in Arkansas. We wrote 8 blogs that day, blogs that you haven’t seen. Suspenseful music plays. Until Now! Let me ramble on some. Writing the blog goes like this. We have adventures and take 1,00,000 pictures. Then we park for the night, trim the pictures down to something manageable and Paul writes the blog. Then Susan tarts it up. That’s an exact quote, she’s sitting across from me and said “You’re the facts guy,…

November 9, 2023 – Day 42 Remember those clouds we saw yesterday? It turned out that a storm was coming through. The ranger who checked us in told us about that. At first we were disappointed because we wanted to explore the area. When we woke up we realized that we needed a break from driving and adventures. A very rainy day was just the ticket to force a day of rest on us. We stayed put, we wrote and re-wrote blogs, Paul did radio, Susan knitted some. And it turns out neither of us took a single picture! It was a much needed day “off.” We’re realizing that the…

November 8, 2023 – Day 41 Today we decided to drive! We’ve never done that before. The good news is that today we were able to clean the windshield. (kidding) It was going to be a short day. Our drive was just 260 miles. During the day Susan checked the weather back home. We were very happy to be not home right now. Definitely pleased that we wouldn’t be driving in what was coming the next day. Partway through today’s drive we noticed that we had left the flat, dry part of the Southwest. We now had rolling hills and trees with “normal” fall colors. And the first clouds we’d…

November 7, 2023 – Day 40 Nothing happened today. We drove, we got gas, somewhere in there lunch was had, we drove some more. There’s something surreal about the photo, the bugs on the windshield, the odd reflections on the glass. We guess it fits in with the otherworldly landscape that is the rural southwest. We didn’t have nothing all day. In addition to buying gas, we got to see them process the oil. This operation isn’t nearly as big as the miles of refinery you see in Houston. It smells just as bad though. It’s the kind of bad that gets so far up in your sinuses that even…

November 6, 2023 – Day 39 Today was a travel day, not a super long one because we needed to do life maintenance and to that end we were up early. I hope you’re not getting tired of sunrise photos. As photographers, we tend to dislike them. They’re all pretty and pretty gets overdone. But man, they are nice. This was taken right out the bedroom window. Check out the vintage RV on the far left. We love seeing the older ones. Notice that it isn’t very tall. Back then they made them much shorter. This had advantages and disadvantages. Shorter is easier to store, is less affected by wind,…

November 5, 2023 – Day 38 In 1969, Robert Lamm and the band Chicago released their first album, Chicago Transit Authority. On it was the single, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? That’s been us for most of this trip. At home our lives are guided by the clock but on the road our natural rhythms take over unless it’s interrupted by the noise of trains. Paul woke up at 1:30 AM to the sounds of a train. No big surprise. Also a no big surprise is that Susan slept thru it. He wondered, which 1:30 AM it was. First 1:30 AM or second 1:30 AM because it…

November 4, 2023 – Day 37 Paul had a lousy night’s sleep, really lousy. You see, Billy’s RV park is wonderfully close to the wildlife refuge. It’s also incredibly close to a very active train track as in right across the street. And did you know that trains blow their horn when they cross a road? And did you know that there was such a crossing right down the road? So we were camped about 800 feet from a train when it would blow its horn. At 1:30AM and 3:30AM. They also make a lot of noise. They make a lot of noise when they’re 75-100 cars long. That’s something…