Saturday, January 21, 2012

Boston

I have a 2-week job in the Boston area, so I flew north to the frigid tundra while Nan waits for me in Florida. Today is Saturday so I took a trolley tour around Boston. The tour was $42 which was worth it, but the nearby parking garage was $35. That seemed a little steep. The tour guide had an interesting story about Paul Revere and his midnight ride in 1775. Apparently Paul picked up 2 other men on the way. One guy fell off his horse and broke his leg. Paul got captured by the British. The other man, Samuel Prescott, finished the ride and warned the people that the British were coming. Then in 1861 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow decided to write a poem about the midnight ride. Unfortunately for Samuel, not much rhymes with Prescott. But there are a lot of words that rhyme with Revere. As a result, Paul Revere got all the credit. In Boston they also have a statue of Christopher Columbus who was a slave trader that decided to call Native Americans indians only because he was lost. But that's a whole other story.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Tampa RV Show

We stayed with my mom until 1/1/2012, then headed to Clermont, FL to one of our favorite Thousand Trails campgrounds. We can stay for free but had to pay $30 for our 10-night stay to get upgraded to 50 amp electric service. That was no problem since they have 2 Texas Hold-em tournemants each night that only cost $6.00. The first night I got first place each game and won enough to pay for our electric. Nan and I played each night and won much more than we lost.

We left Clermont on 1/11 and went to Tampa for the big RV show. We stayed in a space at the fairgrounds that had electric, but no water or sewer. We came with 90 gallons of fresh water in our tank. I wasn't sure how hard it would be to live for 5 days with only 90 gallons for showers, toilet, kitchen, etc. But we leave tomorrow and have plenty of water left. Since Nan did such a good job conserving water I'm going to let her take a shower tomorrow morning.

Nan and I have talked about getting a motorhome in a few years after getting a house. It would be easier for me to go on jobs by myself in a motorhome rather than our current rig. We saw some nice ones that should be in our price range once they are a few years old and being sold as used. We also looked at the Prevost motorhomes that usually go for $1.7 million to $2.4 million. If I ever become a lobbyist I may be able to afford one of these, but for now I'll stick with something less expensive.