Dick Eastman's RV

Mother Nature Provides an Obstacle

I arrived at the RV resort in Sorrento, Florida today (near Sanford). This place is surrounded by 9,000 acres of conservation land and there is a lot of wildlife here including bears, alligators, and all sorts of birds. Before I could back into my camping spot, I had to chase three large birds away. I only got a picture of one of them:



These birds are about four feet tall!

You can click on the image above to see a much larger picture.

 

On the Road Again and Again

To my friends following my travels and to anyone else interested: I'll be leaving the Birmingham, Alabama, area tomorrow morning, heading to an RV resort near Sanford, Florida where I spent a month last year. I rather enjoyed the place and hope to stay there for several months this winter.

I do have a lot of other travels scheduled, however. Most of the time I will be delivering presentations at genealogy conferences and meetings around the country. I plan to frequently lock the motor home and jump in the Mini-Cooper. Sometimes I will drive to a (nearby) event and other times I will drive to the Orlando airport to jump on a plane. Florida will simply be my winter base of operations for the next few months.

The campground had rather good wi-fi access last year and I assume that will be the same this year. I should be able to remain online.

 

RV-based Workers Telecommute from Anywhere

Interesting article from NBC News: http://goo.gl/IcCEI

On the Road Again

It's travel time again. So what else is new? If you have been reading this blog  for a while, you might not realize that I have been home for three weeks. However, that is about to change.

On Tuesday, I will fly to Birmingham, Alabama to attend this week's conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, co-sponsored by the Alabama Genealogical Society. This year's conference will have a theme of Indians, Squatters, Settlers and Soldiers in the "Old Southwest." I wrote about that conference earlier at http://goo.gl/ypPf9 and again later at http://goo.gl/NDMrU. If you are thinking of attending this great conference, you might want to read those earlier articles.

I was in Birmingham three weeks ago and left my motor home there in an RV resort. I flew home to find cooler weather. I will move back into the motor home Tuesday evening and will remain in town for about a week, then will move to Florida to prepare for the next few events I will attend.

How to Hide a Cell Phone Tower in Arizona

David Castillo’s ‘Alaskan Cruiser’ - a customized Harley motorcycle motor home.

David Castillo’s ‘Alaskan Cruiser’ - a customized Harley motorcycle motor home. One of a kind. It is described as a "customized Harley motorcycle motor home" but I doubt if Harley-Davidson manufactured many of these parts!

Click on the image above to see a larger picture.

 

The Motor Home Sprung a Leak

I woke up to the sound of water running. I hate that.

It seems that a valve under the dining room seat burst and was spraying water. I am not sure how long it was spraying before I woke up, but there was a lot of water on the floor. I opened the door of the motor home to retrieve a mop from my "basement storage" and the ground outside was wet with little puddles all around the motor home. Water was dripping from several places under the motor home.

I shut the water supply off.

That "Funny Looking" Airplane

Several people asked about the picture of the "funny looking" airplane I used in the previous article. I saw this up close at the Oshkosh Airventure airshow. It is an airplane/motorcycle "hybrid."

Look closely at the tailwheel. Actually, it isn't a normal tailwheel at all. It is a motorcycle.

After landing at an airport, the pilot/driver folds the wings, fires up the motorcycle engine, and drives out onto the highway to the final destination. I saw it driving up and down the roads at the air show and it seemed to work well.

Here is another picture:

Oshkosh or Bust! I Made It

To anyone who cares and perhaps has been watching my travels: this morning I arrived at the big airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Details of that airshow may be found at http://www.airventure.org/ and at http://www.airventure.org/live/.

This is believed to be the world's largest airshow. For one week every year, the small airport in rural Wisconsin has the world's busiest control tower. I brought an aircraft walkie-talkie and have been listening to the tower frequencies. They are busier than New York City's airports.

This place is a zoo! Tens of thousands of motor homes, camping trailers, tents and pup tents, are stretched out as far as the eye can see, along with hundreds of airplanes of all sort: antiques, military, homebuilt, ultralights, trikes, powered parachutes, helicopters, and more. Almost anything that can get into the air is here. I'll post a few pictures later.

There's a Hole in the Roof

From the song We're Gonna Move, written by Vera Matson and Elvis Presley, as sung by Elvis Presley:

Well there's a hole in the roof where the rain pours in
A hole in the floor where it drops right out again
Well there's a leak in this old building
Well there's a leak in this old building
Well there's a leak in this old building
We're gonna move to a better home

I had a strange feeling this week that Elvis was right. It seems that my motor home has developed a hole in the roof.

After a six-week trip home, I retrieved the motor home Tuesday from a storage facility near Dayton, Ohio, and drove to Indianapolis. A heavy rain storm Tuesday evening produced an unexpected result: a steady drip-drip-drip of water from the air vent over the bed. Oh-oh!