The Eyes Have It

Just a little "Clean Up" post to answer a few questions that some of you have asked concerning a couple of the things we've talked about on our blog.

First of all, Marti's eye is doing very well.  She had a macular  pucker, which basically was a wrinkle in her eye.  Surgery removed the wrinkle and she's sees clearer every day.  Not sure its such a good thing, though, because one morning she'll wake up, see what I look like clearly and be scared half to death.  In a couple of months her eye will be perfectly normal.  Hope her pulse will have recovered from her scare by then. ;c0

We want to do some volunteer work with the SOWERS group, which goes to different building projects around the country for churches and other faith based organizations that don't have the money or labor to construct needed facilities by themselves.  The receiving organization, in exchange for free labor on their construction project provides a month of free camping for the volunteers.  The volunteers put in six hour work days, five days a week for three weeks and then can remain the fourth week to sight see in the local area.  Building projects are posted on line and you can sign up for opportunities that work with your schedule.

Many folks have commented on my technical posts that I must have been a mechanic in a past life.  That is actually true, I was a mechanic in my past life.  I always was a tinkerer and was fascinated with mechanical things.  As a boy, I was building go carts and mini bikes.  In high school I got a job at age 16 washing school buses in my town.  That job turned into me helping the mechanics who taught me a lot of things and trusted me to do minor repairs on my own.  That led me to attend technical school for automotive and diesel vehicles while still working part time at the bus garage.

Upon graduation from technical school, I was hired as an assistant mechanic and began to do all kinds of repair and maintenance work on school buses, vans and other school board vehicles.  I eventually was promoted to the head mechanic position by age 21.

Eventually I moved on and worked for a GMC truck dealer, then a large tree company, repairing all kinds of equipment.  When the economy turned sour in the early 80's, I joined the Coast Guard as a machinery technician, maintaining the engines and gear on the boats and cutters.  While servicing in this capacity, I went to college at night and obtained a degree in Criminal Justice.  I remained in the maintenance field until I changed careers in 1992 and became a special agent in the Coast Guard Investigative Service, where I served the last 19 years of my career.

I never regretted getting a technical education first, it has served me well being able to do my own repairs on my vehicles and motor homes.

Our immediate plans are now to leave Virginia this Friday after Marti's last day of work (Yippee!) and head to NJ to our son Corey's house for the weekend to attend my dad's 90th birthday party and spend the rest of the weekend with Corey and DIL Amanda.  Monday, 5 December, we're leaving for Sioux Falls, SD to get our residency established, new drivers licenses and register the Journey, the Element and our two scooters.  Then it's off to Oregon to our son Ryan's house to spend Christmas with his family, DIL Amber and granddaughters Taylor and Kierra.

We are going to watch the weather carefully and alter our Westward trek as needed to avoid that funny snow stuff.  We'll wait out things if we need to.

In early January, we're heading South to Quartzsite to visit with many of our RV blogging friends.  Phew!

More of our plans to follow.

One more fly in the ointment.  I've just been diagnosed with an early cataract in my right eye, causing some blurred vision.  I'm going to see about getting it removed while we're in Oregon.  After all the fun we've been through getting on the road, this seems to be just a minor bother.

Tonight we had Marti's retirement party, but that's for the next post.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.