A clean front cap

I was out early this morning determined to clean the front cap of the 5th wheel. I backed the truck up to the cap, lowered the tailgate so I could get close, and then set the stepladder into the bed of the truck. I was able to reach all the way to where the cap curves, and I'm not sure how much is left before the cap meets the roof. When I get on the roof one of these days I will be able to lean over the edge and get whatever I missed.

This is a really tiring job for me. First I use Oxygone, and then follow it with Dri Wash & Guard. I end up with a clean smooth surface, and hope I can keep it clean by having it washed somewhere. I don't ever want to do this again! As it is, I'm sure I will run out of product before I'm finished. I will probably try to do the back of the 5ver next since it will be easy to use the truck bed as a base for the stepladder.

I came indoors to check my email and read some blogs, and have spent quite a while reading a new one I discovered: riverearth.com. I was particularly interested in this man's journey in a small wagon pulled by a mule, Polly, and following an ancient inland sea that stretched from Neptune, Saskatchewan to the Rio Grande at the Texas/Mexico border. It is a fascinating read, although the entries are grouped by month, and to read the account in chronological order you need to go to the bottom of the page and read up - no easy task as some of the entries are quite lengthy and filled with beautiful photographs as well as audio portions. I wish there was an easier way to read a journal or blog from the beginning up to the present, but it seems they are all stored in this format. MyTripJournal is fairly simple to read as you can start with the first entry and then click an arrow to go to the next rather than having to remember a date. I keep thinking about switching my blog to MyTripJournal, but the longer I stay with blogger the harder it is to switch, for some reason. I have gone back, however, and transposed my own entries, earliest first, and organized them into book order with each month being a separate chapter. It involves a lot of cutting and pasting and gets boring after a while, but if I ever want to read it from beginning to the present, or if anyone else wants to read it, then I will be glad for spending the time converting it. Maybe one of my grandchildren or great-grandchildren will someday wonder about the travels of their gypsy ancestor. (How I digress and get off on a tangent of one sort or another! Can't help it - that's the way I am.)

Back to Bernie Harbert's Travelogue, Riverearth.com, I find the slow moving travels of Bernie and of Bob Skelding, the man who traveled in a wagon pulled by four draft horses, to be amazing. Since they stay on the country roads and lanes and away from the interstates and primary roads, and since they travel slowly and stop to meet, talk, and share meals and activities with people along the way, you get a better sense of the American spirit. (My perception of "American" is actually "North American" and I include Canadian and Mexican in this term. You don't have to agree with me and I'm sure most folks won't, but those are arbitrary borders, at least to begin with.) The true American spirit is never featured in the national media, and you won't find these little vignettes on CNN or ABC. But people like Bernie and Bob get out and meet the heart and soul of America, and you can meet them as well through the travelogues and blogs, and you can be uplifted to find such wonderful, plain and simple people leading ordinary lives.

All this talk of American Spirit has me craving one. American Spirit is a brand of tobacco and also comes in packs of cigarettes. Gotta find something else to do until it wears off!