2010 update: Bob has begun writing again here: http://catchbobifyoucan.blogspot.com

Hello there. I'm Bob Giddings.

Welcome to Short Attention Span Theater.

In early '01 I bought a 5th wheel trailer and started taking extended trips throughout the US and Canada. Since I retired from the Austin Fire Department in November of '02, I've been living in it full time.

As I went along the road, I began writing home about my travels, to friends and family. Just little anecdotes about stuff that happened along the way to make me stop and take notice.

I call'em "speed bumps" - things that make you slow up, willy-nilly. Some were slight. Others made my teeth clack together. No broken axles yet, though.

I posted most of these as a series of desultory intermittent travelogues to a newsgroup, rec.outdoors.rv-travel. Subsequently they've morphed into an irregular journal, and lately into a companion of sorts.

I know. Sounds weird. Bob and his Journal. Like the Lonely Guy and his Dog.

Well, it's not so bad as all that. No poop to pick up. And a Journal doesn't usually shed all over everything, or bark in the night. At times there's even a bit more conversational variety.

But it still has to be exercised. I'm tempted to give it a name, dangerous as that sounds. How about Wordsworth? Here, boy.

Oops. Almost forgot. The Innocuous Disclaimer. There's always one of these around, oozing innocence. This site owes its existence to Don Bradner, who has kindly offered a virtual bookshelf from which you may retrieve my adventures occasionally. Like when you're really bored.

Don also did the HTML coding, and he has my gratitude for that. I might have gotten around to it myself in a decade or so. Right. Sure I would.

However, though it pains me to confess it, I made all the smartass remarks myself. And most of the pictures. If something here ticks you off, I'm the guy to blame. Send your complaints to the email address below. I'll be sure to file them in an appropriate place. On the other hand, if you have any practical and positive advice on how to improve either content or website, I'd be interested to hear it.

I'm a little vague now about the provenance, but I think it was Winston Churchill who once said, between brandies: "I am always ready to learn, though at times I do not like being taught." Gotta love that guy.

One more thing. These are the impressions of a traveller, passing through. They are therefore idiosyncratic, blinkered, momentary, oddball, and sometimes even (gasp) wrong. I wrote them as one-off items, literally on the side of the road, to placate the incessant clamor of my 2 or 3 fans.

After a while, they just growed, like Topsy, into a startling pile of stuff. I'm putting it all here without much attempt to edit or correct in hindsight. Might turn into work, and I'm retired.

I have added photos where they are available. Just click'em to see a larger image. Many episodes have none. I never knew I'd need'em.

See what you think.


Bob




2000 The Letter That Started It All
2001 Dapple Days
2002 Diary of a Desert Trip
2002 Wandering Into Retirement
2002-2003 Living in the Driveway
2003 Travels in Texas
2003 Second Wind
2004 A Deliberate Year
2005 North to Alaska


Latest Adventure: 05 October 2005 Feeding the Fantasy


Comments are welcome in the rec.outdoors.rv-travel newsgroup,
or to bobgiddings0@yahoo.com.
© Copyright 2003-2008 Bob Giddings, All Rights Reserved
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