I’ve spent some of the day in San Diego. I flew down for an interview (whch seems to have gone well, but we’ll see). The weather here is nice, but a bit humid. The traffic, however, is lousy! Many of the streets around the airport are under construction and there is no way to get to the airport except over city streets. It feels like really bad traffic planning, actually.

The bad news is that Robert Jordan, my most favorite author, died yesterday afternoon without having finished the twelfth and last book in the World of Time series. Oh bad karma! There’s definitely no joy in Mudville today! Rest in Peace RJ and my sincere sympathy to his family and to the millions of fans worldwide.

I was talking on the phone with grandson Michael today when, in answer to my question, he said that “school was fantastic … brilliant!” I responded that he should write about it in his blog. Then I thought about how I haven’t been all that regular about writing either! So, Michael, I’m repenting…. Tag, you’re it!

The past several days have been occupied with cleaning out the closet in the office/computer room. I’m about half way through one side of the closet and haven’t really gotten to the difficult part. There are so many “treasures” in there that I’m going to have to make a decision about. They got tossed in there because it was then easier to procrastinate the decision, but now the closet is full and the weeding out has begun. But what do I do with all the foreign electrical adapters that I have? I’ve got them for England, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines. I can probably go anywhere in the world and be able to plug into electricity. Throwing them away is such a final thing. If I make room for them in the storage room downstairs, I’m probably just postponing the decision once again.  I think I’ll just move the pile. Who knows, I may be back in those parts of the world once again! The employment possibilities are starting to come to fruition. It looks like I’ll just have to make space in my life once again to go to work…. But not just yet. On Monday the 24th we’re headed to Seattle to spend a few days with Jared and Arlene as well as Wendy, Aaron, Kendra, and family. While there we’re going on a six to seven hour whale watching cruise. The trip back will include a couple of days on the Oregon beach. So, in August we were on the beach on the east coast. In September we’re on the beach on the west coast. Life is good.

I’m pretty late to the eBay selling experience but I’ll have to say it was pretty darn amazing. I had a battery charger and two batteries from my Konica-Minolta digital camera that was stolen on my last trip to the Philippines. Neither work for the new Sony digital camera I bought as a replacement so I decided to sell them. I’ve had an eBay account for years and have occasionally bought something on eBay so I set up a seller account and listed the charger and batteries.

The listing process was very straightforward. I was able to look up the model number of the charger in their database and see what others like it had sold for. There were some small fees for listing, all of which were clear and very reasonable. In total I paid much less for selling on eBay than I would have for a newspaper advertisement (which probably wouldn’t have sold these items, anyway).

The standard selling period is seven days. I might choose a shorter period next time, depending on where the weekend falls. The first bid appeared on the first day. The last day saw several bids and the final bid was at a very reasonable price … more than I had expected for a used battery charger and two batteries for a digital camera that isn’t manufactured anymore! Then the amazing part happened. They buyer (from Los Angeles, California) sent the money through PayPal about a half-hour after the bidding period closed! Nina and I were in Idaho Falls when the bidding closed and the money was in my PayPal account before I even knew what the final selling price was.

Shipping turns out to be simple as well. In PayPal I was able to print a shipping label and pay for shipping at the same time. All I have to do is put the items in a box, attach the label, and drop it off at the post office (or call them and they’ll pick it up!). Voila! Done. Amazing! What else can I sell….

So, I wonder how it is that I ever had time to be working? I probably will start a new adventure in the next few weeks, so I’ll need to get a little bit less busy so I can work that in! I needed to do some rearranging in the computer room so we would have a bit more space and less clutter so I built a couple of tables to go into the room to replace an outsized card table and a computer rack that wasn’t being used anymore. The yard work that I started before the Big Road Trip needs to get finished and it takes me about five hours to mow the yard. I’ve been working on a couple of things in the motorhome that I should be able to finish today. We spent Wednesday in Soda Springs and yesterday in Idaho Falls. What should have been a routine dental hygiene visit turns out to mean several more trips to the dentist as a crown has a cavity underneath it and another bridge has come loose. Being in a dentist chair is a significantly unfavorite activity. The crown will be worked on next Tuesday with several possible outcomes: (1) everything works out OK, the cavity isn’t too big and the crown can be replaced, or (2) the tooth requires a root canal but then can be salvaged and the crown replaced, or (3) the tooth has to be removed and then the bridge expanded to include this tooth. While we have good dental insurance, the options all have a price and the third option would be rather expensive even with insurance. So that’s the option that I’m expecting to happen.

Nina got the canning bug (see her blog) and we now have a delicious two-year supply of canned peaches. I am very happy. Life is very good!

I’ve listed my first item on eBay for sale … a Minolta battery charger and two batteries. eBay created a widget for this that I can put on my blog (but it doesn’t work!!). Anyhow, I’ve a number of other items to sell and this seems like an easy way to make it happen.

The Big Road Trip is finished. We arrived back at the house at about 6:30 p.m. this evening. By 8 everything was out of the camper and in the house … and mostly put away. We had been gone 23 days had had driven the motorhome 5,204 miles at an average speed of 52.6 mph. I have many more statistics which might come in handy the next time we try to put together a Big Road Trip. The planning worked out pretty well. Over all we drove 305 miles further than I had originally estimated, but at a miles-per-gallon rate better than I had estimated and a price per gallon significantly less that I had expected. The most expensive gasoline was $3.049 per gallon in North Platte, Nebraska (we bypassed North Platte on the way back). The cheapest gasoline was $2.629 in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

We’re both tired! I’m looking forward to sleeping in my normal bed and I’m not setting an alarm clock. The original plan had us arriving home tomorrow evening. That means tomorrow is a “free” day! Anything that gets done tomorrow is, as Nina says, a “Bonus!”

We’re a day ahead of the original schedule and are safely ensconced in a campground just south of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The WiFi connection is very sketchy and quite frustrating. I’m hoping it’ll stay connected when I post this so I don’t lose it! I’ve already lost one post earlier on the trip.

We left Gretna, Nebraska at about 9:30 a.m. this morning and arrived in Cheyenne about nine hours later but having gained an hour when we moved into Mountain Daylight Time, we actually got here about 5:30 p.m. That doesn’t matter very much … even though the clock says 9 p.m., I’m more than tired enough to be in bed. So I think after posting this, that’s where I’m headed.

For some reason, we’ve gotten back into thundershower country again! As we crossed into Wyoming we were in a huge thunderstorm with some pretty gusty winds. The weather map looks like a line of thunderstorms is headed through this area for the next several hours. We’ve had plenty of rain on this trip!

Tomorrow we’ll drive through to Pocatello, stopping by my favorite brother’s place for about a half-hour and perhaps seeing mother and dad for a few minutes as we blow through Soda Springs. Tomorrow night we’ll be back in our own beds once again. Then we can start planning the next trip! We’ve still got a trip to Seattle and to Chandler to do yet this year. I think the motorhome will get a pretty good workout this fall. It’s been a good trip and it’ll also be very good to get home.

We’ve stopped on the way back at the same KOA campground we stayed at on the way out. The biggest difference is that WiFi is working this time! That is very important because I can now update the blog and, more importantly, Nina can finally download her email! She’s been disconnected for almost two weeks. I’m not sure I could go that long …. I did find WiFi at the public library in Carthage, Illinois and slipped in twice to download email and make one quick blog entry. It’s nice to actually be connected!

The campground we stayed at near Carthage was probably once a very nice campground but those days are long gone. We did see a couple of other campgrounds that weren’t listed in our campground book, both of which looked to be much better than where we stayed. However, it worked and we had a good time in and around Nauvoo. The swimming pool at the campground was OK and the grandkids had two evenings of swimming, which they really enjoyed.

Nauvoo is a wonderful place to visit. Even though we spent two days there, much is still left to be experienced. The highlight, however, was a session at the new Nauvoo Temple. That building is exquisite. The workmanship is magnificent. There are not superlatives enough for the temple! For instance, in one room there is some coping work that goes most of the way around the room. On the coping was a painted design repeated around the room. The design exactly fit the coping … at each corner the precise same position for each repetition of the design. Whomever did that work had to have spent hours planning for everything to come out exactly correct without people being able to see differences in the sizes of the design on each side of the room. All the carpets fit exactly … meaning that they had to have been woven specifically for that place in the temple. It is such a beautiful building. The murals on the walls were spectacular in their color, composition, and detail. What a nice experience, one that we must repeat.

The original plan was to stay through Sunday evening and leave on Monday morning. However, Jim needed to be back at work on Monday and we weren’t interested in spending another (disconnected) night at the Carthage campground. So, after church this morning and having lunch together, Jim and family headed back to Springfield, Missouri, and we headed north to I-80 and then west into Nebraska. If we wish, we could be home on Tuesday evening, a day early. We’ll see what tomorrow brings as we drive westward. The Big Road Trip is almost finished. We’ve now been in the motorhome for three weeks straight and we’ve learned a few things. I’ll probably write about them after we get home. Meanwhile, Nina’s crashed and it’s time for me to make an end to this day as well.

We made it to Carthage last night about 6 p.m. CDT. It was a long day of driving through some very weird weather in Ohio. In fact, we had a major wake up on Tuesday morning as a line of severe thunderstorms moved through the Columbus area at about 5 a.m. Sleeping was finished. The visit with Ralph and family was very nice … including some very good pizza for dinner (finally!). We parked in front of their house (as well as on the side yard of a neighbors. Much of their family arrived during the evening and we had a great visit.

Jim and family were already at the campground in Carthage when we arrived. The thunderstorms continue … some of them quite significant. We’ve spent the day at the Carthage Visitor’s Center and at the Hancock County Museum (well worth the visit). We drove up to Nauvoo and made reservations for temple sessions and then back to the campground. Nina and the grandkids are at the pool swimming while I’ve run back into town to get some lettuce and do a quick check on email. I’d sure vote for it to either cool down or significantly decrease in humidity!