Blog 871 – 01.11.2018

The Road And Snow

I am a man of many loves, two of which are the road and snow. I am a southern boy, born and bred, but as I tell all of my friends, I must have been a yankee boy in a previous life for I dearly love the cold and snow. An eleven month long hot summer in Vietnam as a young man and thirty five years in sweltering hot and humid Houston, Texas might also have had something to do with it, but whatever the cause, I love snow like a boy out of school because of it. For the last five years my traveling work life has kept me on the road and mostly in the cooler north and northwest of the U.S.

Carol King sang in my college days, “So far away, doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore…I sure hope the road don’t come to own me.” But for me it has and I love my life on the road. In fact these over a year long assignments in any one locale get me feeling a bit antsy. A lot of men my age are thinking of buying a home or a cabin in the mountains to retire to. Me, I am trying to figure out a way to save for or just manifest the smallest Airstream camper/trailer they make to be my retirement home on wheels for the last forty or so years that I intend to have of this life. I just don’t think I could ever be satisfied again for very long in the same spot. There are just too many things to see and too many wonderful people to meet down life’s road.

Oh, I know some of you, especially those my age, might think, “Why, Dave, that’s crazy. Don’t you miss home and family?” Well, I carry my home and family in my heart and this world is my present address and everyone and everything on it my family – but too many the members I have not even met yet.

As this may be my last winter in Wisconsin I am hoping it is a very snowy one. Surprisingly many in the local branch here of my family don’t seem to relish the snow and cold as much as I do. Maybe they were southern children in their past lives or maybe living a lifetime here they have gotten more than their share of cold and snow. The road also leads to Florida and warmer places if they like. As for me I’ll keep asking for assignments to cooler country and continue enjoying the road and the the snow.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White