Hi everyone!

While this blog remains as it is named, I have just renamed my former “Family and Friends” blog “Travels with Charlie.” You may remember a wonderful book by that name by John Steinbeck. It’s a wonderful accounting of his trip in a small camper across America with his little dog, Charlie. If you’ve never read it, it is a very entertaining and heart warming story of his encounters with numerous ordinary Americans and their extraordinary tales. I think it should be required reading in our schools. It would be a quite appropriate voice for America’s real people at a time when anger and hatred scream at us constantly from electronic boxes.

I may not be able to head back home as soon as I planned since I have to do some repairs to Buford’s roof before I can leave. On my way out here I drove through some sixty mile per hour winds that blew out the left side of my roof. I didn’t know it until almost two weeks after I arrived here when I discovered water leaking in over the driver’s seat. When I got a ladder and took a look I discovered more than half of the curved section of the roof was missing–about eight inches wide by twenty feet long. I patched it up to keep the water out and ordered a repair kit ($600.00 worth) to fix it. When I finally found a Winnebago repair shop abut fifty miles north of us I took it in for an estimate. Would you believe $4,000.00 to repair the roof and clean up the water stains on the inside? Since the shop couldn’t schedule the repair until mid May I decided to make the repair myself. I have all the necessary tools with me and It’s not a difficult job, just a long tedious process. I figure about four full days if it ever stops raining like it has been the last eight days in a row!

I need at least three dry days in a row, preferably five, to tear out the edge of the old roof about nine inches wide, fasten and seal an aluminum channel on the flat rooftop from front to rear and then insert and seal a new fiberglass sandwich piece. The new piece is a sandwich of fiberglass and ABS plastic that is far tougher than the existing roof material. I think it was a design flaw in the original unit, but I’m getting nowhere with Winnebago with that train of thought. If it isn’t a design flaw that has blown up many times before why is it they have a kit available for just such a happening?

When I do head back I’ll run I-80 all the way to Elkhart, just thirty miles from home. I made it out here in three days so should be able to do the reverse in the same time period. That is if it ever stops snowing on the pass to Reno. I-80 has been blocked with snow for several hours numerous times in the last few weeks and they won’t even let you drive it without chains most of the time. I might as well wait for an open day as it adds at least two days and more than 900 miles to go the southern route.

I just received a nice email from Pam. I have decided to give her and Elbert the Mercury Marquis and the power wheelchair that served Barb so well. I built a waterproof carrier that fits in the receiver hitch and enables the power wheelchair to be easily taken along. She seemed so excited at the prospect of greatly increasing her mobility. I’m sure my little guardian angel will be pleased that her chair and car will be put to good use. See photo for what the rig looks like.













I know the next month promises to be a full schedule for me so don’t be surprised if this is the last epistle for a while. I know it will take at least a week to repair and pack Buford before I can hit the road home. That is, of course, if the weather cooperates.

Now I have another happening I would like to share with you. Last night I went to sleep on the couch while watching TV. Of course I’ve never done that before. [choke][choke] Any way, I awoke about 1:00am and turned off the TV. As I leaned back on the couch and prepared to head to the bedroom I was suddenly aware of a very faint fragrance. At first it was familiar, but I couldn’t quite recognize it. Over the next few minutes it steadily grew stronger as I moved about sniffing many nearby items trying to find the source. All at once I recognized it, Windsong, the fragrance Barb always wore from when we first met. By this time I was making a serious effort to find the source; pillows, the couch, the floor, my clothes, nothing seemed to be the source. The fragrance was with me wherever I turned or moved. I checked the clock and realized I had been awake for at least fifteen minutes with that fragrance slowly intensifying until it was almost overpowering.

I sensed nothing but that fragrance, no tension, no person, no entity of any kind. I decided it had to be Barbara so I called out her name. Instantly the fragrance was gone. It didn’t fade away it went from powerful and intense to absolutely and totally gone in an instant. It never returned. I am completely baffled and can’t imagine where it came from and why it vanished so quickly. I refuse even to speculate. One thing I do know–I was not dreaming! That fragrance may have been completely in my head, but I was fully awake with it for at least fifteen minutes. That was an experience the likes of which I have never known. It was not frightening or worrisome, but it certainly did pique my curiosity. It also did make me think, but not speculate–about a lot of things.

Until the next time I can write to you all!