A Snag

We have already hit a snag in our travel plans. Ten days ago Paul's sciatic nerve decided to act up. If you've ever had a sciatica problem you know how very painful it can be. The doctor told him that the worst thing he can do right now is to get behind the wheel for a LONG drive. So while my designated driver recuperates with ice packs, Motrin and short walks, we are in a holding pattern in Green Valley. Keeping fingers crossed that we'll take off in early-to-mid-March, just in time for tornado season.

Can you imagine?

This has nothing to do with our travels but everything to do with someone else's. That someone else is a young man we met this afternoon.

We were at a storage yard here in Green Valley, Arizona where we're keeping the trailer until we take off. I was puttering around inside when I heard Daisy barking. Paul called me outside and there I spotted him against the chain link fence. A man with all the telltale signs of the border crosser: tattered clothes, hands bloodied from scraping against cactus, tired, hungry and thin. He spoke not a word of English but I was able to speak with him in Spanish.

Turns out he crossed over illegally from Mexico a few days ago. But this man isn't from Mexico. He came all the way from Honduras. Can you imagine? All the way from frickin' Honduras, and most of the way on foot. And we think the U.S. has it bad. It can't compare to the desperation in Mexico (forty miles south of here) and central America.

This man had nothing but the torn clothes on his back and four oranges in a plastic sack. Nothing. We gave him what we had: a baggie with a handful of nuts, a bottle of water and a few dollars for food. You'd think we'd have food in the trailer but we don't since we haven't stocked it yet.

All this man needed was a job. He asked me several times for work and said we didn't even have to pay him. Can you imagine? All he wanted was a place to rest and a meal or two.

We figured the best thing to do to stay on this side of the law was to point the man in the direction of the Catholic church down the street. The chances are good that he'll find a meal and a kind word. The parish priest speaks Spanish. At least I believe he does. I hope he does.

Launch Date

We launch -- take off -- on Tuesday, February 17th. Stay tuned for photos of our rolling "dream home" on wheels.

Testing the waters

This is a simple test to see if I can master the art of blogging. We don't take off on our road trip until February 16th so I have some time to perfect or at least improve my blogging skills--along with packing up the trailer and buttoning up the house. Open road, here we come!