Hello, again....

"My name is Toni, and I'm an addict!"
I am not kidding.  Traveling is the most soul satisfying, inspirational, mind-opening addiction I can attest to.   Even the hot, noisy, bumper-to-bumper, exhaust-smelling gridlock as I crawled through Phoenix yesterday afternoon did not dampen the absolute thrill I felt to be back on the road.  Could be that what I was leaving behind had something to do with my feeling of euphoria.
Returning to my house after 4 months in steamy hot Texas was not the pleasure it should have been, although getting a chance to spend some time with good friends helped a lot.
Leaving the house in the care of the real estate company may not have been the best idea.  Upon departing the house in June I turned off the water to the toilets and emptied the tanks.  Surely, no one would use toilets that were devoid of water--wrong!
 I also emptied the refrigerator, filled it with crumpled newspapers and baking soda, left the door slightly ajar, and turned the motor off.  It was probably some thoughtful looky-lou who closed the door.  It took two weeks of daily scrubbing to finally rid the fridge of the mold and smell.
And finally, I returned to find the yard overgrown to the point of 'jungle'--isn't this the desert?  An unusual amount of rain during the summer made the cacti and mosquitoes multiply to biblical proportions.  For the last three weeks, when I wasn't cleaning the fridge, or scrubbing a toilet, I was taking a break and pulling weeds.
So, today, I am sitting in my little Halcyon II, in a Cracker Barrel parking lot,  at 5 am, having a cup of coffee, and luxuriating at the sense of freedom this whole silly lifestyle gives me.  In a few minutes I will dress, start the engine, and head west to Santa Barbara for Ron and Loretta's wedding.  I expect it to take about 4 days for me to drive the 600 miles--there is a lot to see along the way.