kenny bloggins

Well after five days on the road, lots of tears, stress, tons of small mechanical failures, three hitchhikers/travelers, and a little robbery, Estelle called us last night, in Richmond, ready to meet us and give us her baby.

Met her at a shopping center right off the interstate, she was super emotional to let go of her long time home and adventure mobile. Lots of hugs and tears later, she was grabbing andrews beard and hair, calling him a hippy, and the smiles started from there. She'd picked up a traveling companion back in Texas that turned out to be a mechanic...he wasn't even hitch hiking necessarily, he was just walking down the road. She pulled over and hollered at him, taken aback by her upfrontness, he took her up on the offer to go to Virginia. Good thing he did, cause he helped her replace the points, tune the carb roadside, install a new muffler and more, but his biggest contribution came in the form of emotional support and company for the long drive.

We took em the house to drop off the RV and meet the dogs. Regrouped, then we took em out for a good meal of their choice...pizza! Estelle had been livin hard and lean, for the trip they bought a loaf of bread and deli meats for their meals, they kept it in a little styrofoam cooler that didn't do a good job keeping anything cold. as the ice melted, it soaked the bread and meat, and they kept eating it on the trip because it was all they could afford. soggy sandwiches, a joke that kept coming up all night. we got em some good beers and bellytimber pizza, filled em up. i've never dined with anyone that salted AND peppered their beers...the waiter at bellytimber was clearly put off by their appearance, but whatever. the traveling friend had a huge weed leaf tattooed on his hand, and hardly any other visible tattoos, i can understand being taken a little aback. haha. put em up in a hotel so they could shower and sleep in a real bed before they embarked on their journey back home. Estelle wanted to travel home with her new friend, so they decided to bus it together. We hung out long into the night before we said our goodbyes. Definitely sending her some postcards in the future, this was a week I'll never forget and the same can be said for her and her friend. Sometimes things just work out, we looked at a lot of travcos here on the east cost and they all kind of sucked. Rotten, hacked up with years of poorly done repairs, damaged shells...you name it, we saw it. The right one came along, in the exact size we really wanted, and it worked out. I really wasn't believing it, I refused to even hardly talk about it until it was in the driveway. Well, here she is, she made it nearly cross country safe and sound. A testament to her condition.

This morning I found the original owners manual in it, a very awesome suprise.

Three ring binder/history book. Feels like striking gold.