A sort of typical day between home sites

What do fulltime RV'ers do on a typical day?  The short and probably best answer is, nothing.  Nothing is typical, that is.  In the true spirit of American Independence, libertarianism, and the open road each person, couple, or family who live full time on wheels spend their days on site or between sites as they see fit, or as circumstances demand they see fit.  Today was sort of the latter for us.

We began by saying goodbye to another of Jim's many good friends. This time at the guest reception counter of the Lodge at Nederland, where we domiciled for the weekend before picking up our coach again. Nate was a room mate and boarder of Jim's years ago when they worked together in the areas of high finance best left to Jim himself to explain.

Nate is a former US Marine (kudos to our fav Marine Ryan Best!) and loves photography too, but says Jim's just really, well, this is my phrase but, 'knocks his socks off'.  Though to our knowledge Nate had socks on each time we saw him over the weekend. 

He told me Jim must have gotten all his skill and his eye for wonderful composition from me but I disabused him of that notion.  The 'eye' Nate spoke of skipped me and moved directly from my dad, John Henry DeWalt, who was an amateur competition photographer for many years in the Harrisburg Pa area, 1935-1960.  

These samples are from the Ringling Brother's and Barnum and Bailey Circus setup in Harrisburg in 1954

Dad taught me the techniques of black and white work in a dark room (Dad built his own in his home; in a  depression era coal cellar, from parts literally junked by others) and Jim has learned maybe a couple usable tricks from me, though he has and is being trained through some amazing networking he has set up for himself with accomplished photogs in the Denver and New York markets. But the 'eye', that is something no one trains you in.  God gave it to my dad, and to Jim.  

Check out Jim's website and see for your self:

http://jamesdewaltphotography.8500lightlab.com/

Back to the typical day between home sites...

We rolled down Boulder Canyon into Nederland about 9:30 and hit the library and a few errand stops before sharing some corn chips and enchiladas at a reasonable Mexican chain, 'el Tapatio, near Arvada.  We went to Camping World's body shop where the coach has been for a week now and learned that the RV door factory cannot rebuild the storm sprung door the WRV placed in our coach.  Too expensive, and if it doesn't fit, it's their loss.  So Dave, the TECH at CW, and his boss, Pat, are going to work on it themselves the week of July 14.  This time we'll be living in the coach outside their shop in Arvada.  They'll make it OK with the local fuzz, we think.

Then we headed into the mountains.  Up route 6 past the former gold and silver mine, now casino,  towns of Central City and Black Hawk.  Up further into the mountains on the Peak to Peak Highway, Route 119, which eventually goes right past Jim's door in Nederland, to Base Camp, a small private park under some lovely mountains near a state park. There we were greeted by a neat cloud show offered us as FROG was  leveled and slid out into our home shape.

 

Mona did her thing, and caught up on her Mahjong skills and emails on the smart phone while I finished hooking up the water and electric. And enjoyed the view out the front windows.

PS:  NO Verizon cell signal in this location, even with the Wilson antenna's, sleek, and jetpack doodads.  But the camp has sporadic free internet so, well, I'm typing, right?

 Then we enjoyed a wonderful meal frozen month's ago from Dutch Way Farm Market in Myerstown, PA.  The flavors brought back some great Pa Dutch memories!

A neighbor, not met yet, set up their fifth wheel next to us as darl was settling down.  They've got some cute kids, from the bit we saw of them till they battened down their hatches for the night.  

And then we did what we do every night.  Some catch up book work for Mona on the sale of our home, a little bit more for her from the sale of her store, and maybe a little, very little, deposit to our bank by our auctioneer as proceeds from the auction held for the last of our goods a week ago.  Hey, auctions are what you do when you don't have time for yard sales and ebay stores. They are to get rid of stuff, not get rich on it!

And me, well, I'm still doing it. This blog.  While Mona reads herself to sleep in her next adventure in BOOKLAND.  She travels well realistically and virtually, without the need of an e-book, thankyou.  :)

It's soon time for me to pick up my latest read, a seventies spy thriller from the pen of John Le Carre'.

Tomorrow we hook up with Jim again for his 40th birthday.  He's called all friends via Facebook to join us at a Nederland restaurant he worked in and managed part of for several years awhile ago, FIRST STREET PUB.  He says it will be a mellow gathering, maybe befitting his maturity, and maybe also because his retired pastor dad will be present.  Though he's never let my sentiments get in the way of his fun before!  And quite frankly, I have mostly enjoyed the kind of fun he has.  Watching it, if not joining in (think hiking part of  the Pacific Coast Trail; living rent free in a tepee for a couple of mountain winters, and rock climbing higher than my height limit... about 5 feet).

Yawn!!!!  Time for beddy-bye...

-Ken