Happy wanderings

We have been on the road for almost a month, and it has been a great time! Starting where I left off…

We arrived in Piedmont, SC on Sunday the 6^th of Jan. There we had a few uneventful days at a hotel, while Johan went to work setting up an EzEddy. From there on, our trip actually began. We took the Southern route and drove I-20 followed by I-10 in Texas. There was a storm in the north, but we managed to keep clear of it. En route we checked out museums and attractions.

We saw the Soule steam feed works museum in Meridian Mississippi. It had some well kept steam engines and the longest operating line drive shaft (106′) in the US.

We then visited the WASP museum in Sweetwater, TX, which features Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) that flew during WWII. They came into existence when male pilots were in short supply (1942-1944). Interestingly, when WASP sought an official designation as members of the military in 1944, the Congress said “no”. But after a prolonged fight, the WASP did get military status in 1977. The museum was touching in the way these pioneering women flew and have since struggled to maintain the museum.

We then stopped at the Petroleum museum in Midland, Tx. This area is interesting in the number of pumpjacks for crude oil production. They also had a lot of windmills! Crossing Texas takes a long time, especially when you are not going too fast. We saw mountains in Mexico and the landscape change to desert as we moved westward.

After a long haul, we finally arrived at Quartzsite, Az on Jan 17th and have been here ever since. We first attended Skoolie Palooza where a bunch of school buses converted into campers camped at a location. We checked out other peoples’ conversions and they checked out Dory. All in all, it was a great time. One passerby told us that there was a ham radio group at a different location in Quartzsite. I mentioned to Johan that I had wanted to be a tech when I was 16, and lo and behold, he went and got us signed up for it on Jan 25th. We learnt that there was a technician test the next day, and so we moved in with the ham radio group and started studying! We took our tests on sat and proudly passed!! So now Johan and I are ham radio technicians.

Leena had her birthday yesterday and we did a treasure hunt for her in Dory. In the evening we had cupcakes. So altogether we had a lovely time. We will be moving towards East Arizona soon and then go back westwards in a few days.