Clarksboro, NJ - China, Morocco & Alaska

‘Boy, you must spend a lot of money on gas.’

‘What kind of mileage do you get with your RV?’

And, I answer with: ‘We spend $5000 a year and that’s for both the RV and the Jeep. How much do you spend for gas for your vehicles?

Usually it’s much more than what we spend. Everyone assumes that we drive from 0 dark 30 to 0 dark 30, all day, every day. Nope, we spend a week or two at most of our stops and don’t use a dime of gas during that whole time. Then we drive between 200 and 300 miles to our next stop and spend a week there. When we do stop for gas, we take out a small mortgage and fill our tank but it lasts for a long time.

We spend more on food than we do on gas, lots more - and that’s not even counting donuts.

I often buy magnets in places that we visit - about the only souvenir that I can buy while I travel in an RV. Today I bought a Liberty Bell magnet, turned it over and, you guessed it - ‘made in China.’ Call me patriotic but I think that a Liberty Bell magnet should be made in the US. And, then to add insult to injury, it doesn’t stick very well onto our refrigerator. Ah well, it is what it is. I was able to exchange this magnet for one that grabs the refrigerator for deal life and will be there - until I take it off - if I have that much strength. (guess where this new magnet was made? China? you say - you win the prize. (By the way, that magnet is not tarnished, that's just the way the shadows landed on it.) 

Oops, but of course, the original Liberty Bell wasn’t American made either, it was made in England. 

We have two friends who are traveling to Alaska for the summer driving across the Big Sky country of Montana right now and another two who bought a small B-style RV in Holland are are journeying through Europe for the next year. Right now they are in Morocco heading down to Casablanca, watching herds of sheep cross the road. And, here we are in Philadelphia. Nothing against Philadelphia and we have had a marvelous time here, but it’s not Morocco. Personally, RV campgrounds are not what I would expect in Morocco. But, yes, they sent a picture and I think he’s sitting at their site with a stone table and pillowed bench. How cool.

And our friends in Alaska - do they look excited? Hi, Shirley and Jerry.

Today, we spent time in the RV. I had planned to do this and this and this - all 3 items lined up on my note pad. But, I did that and that and that, none of which took anything off my list. It’s not as if the that, that and that were more exciting than the this, this and this. But, I got distracted and the time went by and there I was. Funny, how life gets in the way.

‘A father was reading Bible stories to his young son. He read: "The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked back and was turned to salt." His son asked: "What happened to the flea?’