Update and stuff from Coffeyville, Kansas

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything to this blog as I've been getting used to working ten-hour night shifts at Amazon.com and trying to get used to this change in lifestyle for a few months. The work really isn't hard -- I'm in Receiving--and we have rubber mats to stand on and our own fans. However, I'm not used to standing for so long and by the second break, at 1:30 a.m., I'm pretty much ready to go home. But, the money is good, and it's only until the end of December. So I can usually hold out until time to go home at 3:30 a.m. Plus, all the box lifting, item sorting, and walking the long distance to the break room and back three times a night has already helped me lose six pounds in three weeks.

It's good to be living in the RV again in a beautiful area, meeting lots of new friends and reconnecting with people from last year. My friend Carol and I been doing lots of geocaching in our spare time- - have found at least twenty in the past week -- and will do more with Natalie tomorrow around Independence.

Unfortunately, my pickup decided this was the time to make its wishes known and did that with brake squealing and heavy clunking sounds from underneath. There was no way I was gong to continue driving it the three miles back from the laundromat yesterday, so used my Good Sam Emergency Road Service for a tow back to the campground. A friend here with automobile experience is going to take a look at it tomorrow. Hopefully it won't cost too much to fix - at least my fingers, toes, and eyes are crossed. In the meantime, I'm glad I've got a motorhome instead of a 5th wheel or trailer as I can put everything away and drive it in a pinch. I've also got my bike as well as friends to get rides from. It's like a small town here where everyone knows everyone else. And, people have such a wide variety of interests and talents. All it takes is a lack of shyness and the courage to actually reach out to people, so different in many ways from places I've lived before where no one talks to anyone else unless they're good friends.

Several weeks ago, before they had to leave, my friends Val and George invited me to visit the Dalton Defenders Museum here in Coffeyville, Kansas with them. So, here are some of the pictures from that trip as well as photos of the area surrounding the campground and my site here. Coffeyville Photos

We begin overtime next week, so that will add much more money to the bank account to pay off bills and more fatigue to the legs and back. However, if I can manage to get enough sleep on days off and not work too hard on those days, it will be possible to stick it out. Having been here during the winter last year, I've been making plans for weatherproofing this little RV. I bought some four-layer thermal shade fabric from Fabric Depot in Portland, Oregon for the windows. We've also arranged with farmers at a nearby Co-op to have bales of hay delivered to put around the bottoms of our rigs to keep out drafts and keep things from freezing. We'll encase them in heavy-duty plastic bags to keep out little critters wanting a nice warm bed. The carrot at the end of my time here will be several months in the Southern California desert around Blythe, as well as visiting friends and relatives in San Diego. Oh, and many paid-off bills. That will be worth the hard work and cold weather.