The views out my RV window

This stream is about 20 feet behind my motorhome at my campsite at the Thousand Trails campground in the Rondout Valley area of New York. Two nights ago, the view out the front window of my motorhome was of the Statue of Liberty: I was camped in Jersey City, NJ, right across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

I think one of the best things -- one of the most stimulating things -- about traveling with your very own moving house (an RV), is you never get bored with the scenery because it keeps changing. Some days are better than others, yes. But the difference from place to place always keeps the view interesting.

The endangered pay phone

It won't be long before the last pay phone disappears, at least as we know it today, where you deposit a coin and then make a call. Cell phones have made pay phones obsolete. Years ago, if you owned a business and you had a pay phone installed inside or outside your store, you got a cut on each call. It was a good deal for a small business person.

Many of today's pay phones look like the one in the picture. And more look like it every day. And not too long after the phone is gone, so goes the pedestal.

A few years ago, as my then-16-year-old daughter and I passed a pay phone, I asked her if she had ever used one or if she knew how to use one. She answered "no" to both questions.

New York City and chocolate pizza

This is a pizza. But there's no pepperoni or sausage. It's a marshmallow and chocolate pizza served at Max Brenner's in Union Square, New York City. Almost everything on the menu at this most unusual eatery is filled, smothered or prepared in some way with chocolate. If you love chocolate then a visit to Max Brenner's is pretty close to visiting Heaven. I didn't try the pizza because I was already filled with a concoction that involved a waffle, Rice Krispies, a sliced banana, powered sugar and lots o' chocolate. It was my breakfast, a vast departure from my usual ham and eggs. Lucky for me I walked five miles around the city afterward. Maybe I worked off the calories.

I didn't spot the pizza until I was leaving the restaurant. It was displayed for all to see with a price tag of $6.50 a slice. But I didn't take a piece to go. My stomach would have erupted like a volcano.

My campsite and the Statue of Liberty

I am camped in the overflow area of the Liberty Harbor RV Park in Jersey City, New Jersey. My "campsite" is right up again a Hudson River marina with four or five dozen very nice boats and small yachts. But what is super great about this campsite is that you can walk a few blocks to a subway station and be in downtown New York City in about half an hour. It's a terrific place to stay if you want to visit Manhattan. This photo is from the front window of my motorhome, looking across the marina. Do you see what's in the distance? The Statue of Liberty! How about that? Tonight as I type, it's all lit up. I can't believe I am camped with a view of the Statue of Liberty.

And the cow said

A guy was wearing this tee-shirt today on my bus tour of the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. There is nothing to laugh about on the tour, where you learn about one bloody battle after another, sometimes on the ground right where you're standing. But even during all this seriousness, when I spotted this shirt, I laughed.

Watch out for snapping turtles

It's pretty interesting for me to be traveling around the East. I know the West very well after exploring it for 25 years. But I am not very familiar with the East, and that includes its wildlife.

So, visiting with my neighbors Bob and Shirley here in the Sterling KOA park in Sterling, Connecticut, I asked if there were fish in its small pond. I thought I might try to catch one. But they said they didn't think there was anything in there worth catching. But they said that what is in there are snapping turtles. They said they are aggressive. For example, if a duck were to land in the pond, a snapping turtle might sneak up on it, grab its legs, drag it down, and then have a tasty meal.

I walked around the pond this morning but could not see a snapping turtle. I saw big polywogs, minnows, and every so often a frog would jump from shore into the pond. But I did not see a snapping turtle. Bob camps here a lot and he says you hardly ever see them. But he has seen them on occasion. He said they are about a foot long. I did a little research on Wikipedia and learned they can be a lot longer and weigh up to 75 pounds.

"Snapping turtles are omnivores, consuming both plant and animal matter, and are important aquatic scavengers," said Wikipedia "but they are also active hunters that prey on anything they can swallow, including many invertebrates, fish, frogs, reptiles (including snakes and smaller turtles), unwary birds and small mammals." It also said that "common snappers are noted for their belligerent disposition when out of the water, their powerful beak-like jaws and their highly mobile head and neck."

I have never heard of snapping turtles in the West. Maybe you have. If so, let me know. At the KOA here a sign says, "No Swimming." No kidding.

The moving house where I live

This is the house where I will live for the next two months. It's a 24-foot-long motorhome with a diesel engine in front. Here I am at work. My kitchen table is my office. Across the room is a couch where I can take a nap or watch TV. In the back you can see the small bathroom. There's a shower, too, but it's out of view. The kitchen has a big sink, a three burner stove, refrigerator with freezer, and a microwave/convection oven. The RV has hot and cold running water, and storage tanks to hold waste water until I can find a place to dump it. It has a high definition TV and DVD player.

A heater keeps the motorhome warm in the winter, and the air conditioner keeps it cool in the summer. Really, the big difference between this house and my real house is that this one is much smaller, easier to keep clean, and it moves.

My bed is behind the camera in the photo above, over the cab area. It's called queen-sized, but it's really just a double bed plus a few inches.

I can live and work here just as easily as back home near Seattle. A Verizon Air Card connects my laptop computer to the internet at broadband speed, and I have my cell phone, which is what everyone calls me on at home, too. I can also video chat on the internet with my friends and co-workers. It's almost like sitting across a table from them.

These days I use a Garmin GPS system to tell me which road to take to get somewhere. I call it Eleanor because it has a female voice.

Today I am in Connecticut, where I will be for at least two more days. Then I don't know where I will be. The view out my windows changes a lot, but inside, my little home always looks pretty much the same. This the life!

Welcome to Welcome. Not!

Most towns, big and small, try to attract visitors. They come up with slogans to put on billboards. Yakima, Wash., for example, calls itself the "Palm Springs of Washington," which is not true, but it says so on a billboard coming into town. So when I neared Welcome, Minn., I got excited, because I was pretty sure there must be a "Welcome to Welcome" sign at the city limits. That would be an excellent sign because people would take pictures of it and send them to their friends, each time adding a bit of fame to the small town. But, alas. . . guess what? No "Welcome to Welcome" sign anywhere. A big disappointment to me, for sure.