Sugar

The other day at the amusement park I watched a group of girls go by, I suspect they were of Jr high - middle school age. They all had candy, those large tubes of colored sugar.
All the girls had more than one tube and these are 18"-24" long with a good sized diameter.
I thought back to the affect a large amount of sugar had on my kids and was glad I wasn't on the bus for that ride home.

My next thought was of the "60  Minutes" segment I'd seen on sugar, it appears to be a highly addictive drug with some other serious health risks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n29ZIJ-jQA


I made spaghetti sauce from canned tomatoes & spices the other day, after I got it warm I checked it to see if the spices made it bitter.
Turned out it was sweet!
I'd used diced "Italian" tomatoes, when I looked at the can there was the sugar.
A lot by the taste.

That's when I thought of those girls with the sugar tubes the other day.
 
I had a spoonfull of sugar in my oatmeal today....

Memorial Day

For a few years we lived in Fern Township in Hubbard county Minnesota.
Every Memorial Day at the Fern Township Cemetery there was service followed by a potluck in the township hall.

Part of that service was reading the names of all the veterans buried there.
They were not forgotten.

Lifestyle choices

Our current lifestyle choice is a nomadic one, we live in an RV.
The plan (when we left) was to travel slowly, find a place & stay for awhile while the area was explored.
Then move on.

It hasn't worked out like that.  We traveled to Quartzsite Arizona, then spent two months there.

Quartzsite

Quartzsite

  When we left Quartzsite it was with the intention of arriving at our first workcamping job in Iowa a month later. 

Iowa RV park

We spent a season (6 months) working in Iowa then headed for the Gulf coast in Texas for another workcamping gig.

Rockport TX RV park

Six months later we were on our way back to Iowa to do it again.

Over the winter we did leave our RV & took a trip in the van.
I really thought the van trip would last 10 days or two weeks, we were gone for a month.
It was fun.

Van back open for cooking

breakfast

Now here we are in Iowa working for another season.

I have a little better understanding now..
An RV as a home is needed, but an RV home can be stored while you flitter from one place to another.


A full sized van could be turned into a home away from home and tow an RV.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/563313/Stealth-Climber-Van-Conversion-OT-lots-of-pix

Or

A motorhome could tow a small van that could be used for more than a trip to the grocery store.
http://thegroveguy.blogspot.com/2011/06/toyota-sienna-van-conversion.html

A Passport

I was reading a book, "Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day" & I was intrigued by Rome, the city. 

How old it is, how big is (how big it was).

It is something worth seeing and  there is more than just Rome that I'd like to see.
I'd like to see a walled city & last I heard Cleveland didn't have one, it doesn't have the Crown Jewels or the Mona Lisa either. 

For these things a passport is necessary.

I have an  "enhanced" Washington drivers license, with that we can do land border crossings. It worked coming back from Mexico.
We should have just gotten a passport instead of the "E"-drivers license.


A passport...
I went on line, the State Department web site had all the information I needed.
We had the birth certificates, the IDs.
It's $110 for the Passport book, the $25 fee for the people taking the papers & the $15 for the color photo ("chin down a little and a natural expression").
I used cash so I needed another $1.25 for a postal money order (the State Department wanted a check).
We called the post office, agreed on a time and showed up.
That part really didn't take too long, but it's 4-6 weeks before the passport shows up. The process can be a lot faster for additional fees....

They kept the birth certificate, she said it would be mailed back and should show up within 10 days after the passport arrives.

A passport, it's almost like I'm growing up!

I needed a picture, any picture. This is a VW collection off I-5 in Yreka California

Bumper cars & clocks & rain & stuff

I should have titled this "Random thoughts"

I spent a day running the bumper cars, part of the process is telling the riders that the direction to go is counterclockwise.  I wonder if the younger people know what counterclockwise is?

I saw three teenage girls texting in the bumper cars.  I'm sure that means something but I'm not really sure what!

My bike's basket

We had a Washington state style rain day here in Iowa, light rain all day long. I'd forgotten what it was like for the rain to not stop... it did stop & it did it before July!  It reminded my of why I left Washington state.

Sitting here in an RV park while working at an amusement park gives me a different set of observations than I had while traveling (when I started this blog). Then again since I started the blog I've done more sitting & working than traveling .... Does this all mean anything? Na... I have just over an hour before I take the short walk to work and was thinking on paper.

A short walk to work is a good thing! I was going to give Amazon a try in Nevada but after getting reservations at an RV park 40 minutes away I had second thoughts.
For years I worked at a 10 hr shift at a warehouse 40 minutes away before & that was a long day. I asked myself "do I need a 14 hour work day again?", the answer was "no".
I didn't need it or want it so I contacted them and said "sorry"

It is nice to be able to do what you want to do rather than what you have to do. I did want to give Amazon a try so I'm going to Kentucky after I finish here at Adventureland.

Most of the houses around here have large yards, really large yards. This being spring the grass is growing, I was on my bike the other day and was noticing all the people cutting the grass.
From the little old lady on the ride around mower to the young guys loading mowers in the back of a minivan after cutting someone's grass there were mowers everywhere!  Several of the commercial zero turn mowers too.
A lot of grass & none of it mine!

Large yards with a lot of grass

Speaking of a bike, when you are using one as transportation you have to stop & think when you go shopping.

This was a touch too much for the bike basket

You can get large things on a bike with bungee cords

 We'll probably get a car of some sort next month.