retirement activity

Yes, the 1st Earth Day was 50 years ago

/ Roadtirementvintage / 8 Comments

Big 4 Mountain, Cascade Range

Wow, April 22, 1970. Where were you on the first Earth Day? I was a freshman at a small liberal arts college in Illinois. I knew several fellow students who were really activist minded about the environment, anti-war movement and other social issues. My geology professor was already a hard core environmentalist. The Nation wide and world wide Earth Day marches were quite something to see/read about.

Here we are in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic. There have been many reports documenting the effect that all of the stay at home orders have had on Earth. Have you seen the air quality/pollution studies showing the very dramatic decrease in smog due to few people driving?  How about the video of the kangaroo hopping across an Australian city and only seeing one car?  Geologists studying earthquakes are seeing subtle readings on seismographs that before have been hidden due to human activity.

I read somewhere that the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is Earth’s way of scolding humankind and sending us to our rooms until we learn how to behave. Makes sense to me. It is my hope that the “new normal”, what ever that turns out to be, will show much more respect for Earth. Our existence depends on it.

— stay safe, wash your hands,  stay healthy —

Souvenir from a Jellystone Park

/ Roadtirementvintage / 10 Comments

A while back Sher and I met a lot of our family members at an RV campground near Cleveland, Ohio. We stayed at a franchised campground with a Jellystone Park theme. Yes, right from the cartoon series with Yogi Bear, BooBoo, Cindy and the hapless Ranger.  We had a wonderful time as this was a perfect place for family activities.

Souvenir ornament

Souvenir photograph

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “Airstream” style ornament , while Christmas themed, is now permanently hanging from the window over our table in the RV. This souvenir is cute, lights up and reminds us of that fun time we all had at the Jellystone Park RV resort.

Do any of you collect souvenirs from your travel adventures?

Please Remember to  Stay Safe and Stay Healthy 

Roadtirement’s colorful companion

/ Roadtirementvintage / 11 Comments

Meet our good luck Joker

This Joker has been our good luck traveling companion for quite a while. He has seen three different RV’s we have used: Two travel trailers and our current Class C motor home. Joker quietly observes where we go, what we see and also what we eat, as he hangs above the kitchen sink!

Just curious, do any of you  have a good luck object in your RV, car, truck, house or whatever?

Remember to  Stay Safe and Stay Healthy 

 

DIY RV plumbing repair

/ Roadtirementvintage / 6 Comments

The cracked pump

While we were staying at the La Hacienda RV Resort in Austin this past winter we had a little plumbing issue in our RV. One evening Sher was sitting at the table and said “Maj, my feet just got wet.” Well, wet where it’s supposed to be dry is always a problem.

Long story short, there was a crack in the fresh water pump that supplies fresh water to the HWH, shower, toilet and sinks from the fresh water storage tank on board. After a check online and checking the leaking pump, I determined what replacement pump I needed. Ordered from Amazon, it arrived at the RV park 3 days later.

New pump ready to be connected

Installation finished. The white tank is the fresh water supply

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was not very difficult to remove the old pump and install the new one. The pump was in a compartment under the cushion for the table, easy removal. Two wires and two pipe connections were easy to hook up.  Fortunately the base plates on both had the same screw hole patterns. After about an hour I tested the newly installed water pump. It worked!

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema schedules Planet of the Apes

/ Roadtirementvintage / 10 Comments

Full size statue from the from the 1st movie

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is a nation wide chain of “dinner and a movie” entertainment. While they are closed due the COVID-19 restrictions, their website still shows a scheduled showing of the 1968 cult classic “Planet of the Apes” for August 30th this fall. Whether this showing happens remains to be seen.

Sher and I and our Austin family went to one of these theaters during our Winter Texan stay this past year. The seats are large and comfortable, and the table for your dinner is more than adequate. Food was good, too. We saw and enjoyed  Little Women.

Anyway,  I wanted to show you the huge statue in the lobby of the theater we went to

Ad for an Ape movie marathon

in Austin. The statue is from the actual movie Planet of the Apes. I asked one of the employees where it came from. Turns out the owner of the theater chain also owns the rights to the Planet of the Apes franchise. There were movie posters for all of the Ape movies displayed in the lobby as well as ads for an APE movie marathon of the original five movies.

Have you seen the Planet of the Apes movies? Can you name the original five titles? Might be a good topic for a “stay at home in isolation” set of trivia questions. Stay safe, dear readers. Don’t go ape!

 

Yellowstone bison owns the road

/ Roadtirementvintage / 28 Comments

Sher and I are not traveling now due to coronavirus, so we thought we’d share some of our BC pictures with you. (BC = before COVID-19)

We had just entered Yellowstone National Park from the East Entrance. As we saw Lake Yellowstone on the left we suddenly saw stopped traffic ahead. I thought maybe there was a crash. But no. Here came this magnificent bull bison just sauntering along, taking his time as if he owned the road. Wait! He did own the road.  Quite a start to our Yellowstone adventure.

Will COVID-19 restraints end and safety return?

/ Roadtirementvintage / 17 Comments

We and millions of others around the world are intimately aware of the terms shelter in place, isolation, quarantine, stay at home and social distancing. Trump and Pence and his experts are starting to hint about “re-opening” the country.

Our 2019 Highway 40 Yard Sale set-up

All of the Flea Markets and Shows we usually go to are closed due to COVID-19 mandates. One of our best is the annual Highway 40 Yard Sale which follows US 40 across the country. It is held in May.

Even if things are “open” in May, will it be safe for us to be out mixing at all with the public, no matter the conditions? Right now we are thinking we best not get out until there is a proven treatment for this killer virus.

What information/news is going to be enough for you to get back to “normal” activities? Will we ever see BC normal again? (BC = before COVID-19)