WELL I THINK WE ARE ALL READY TO ROLL

I just got the OK from my doctors so that we are clear to leave for Texas.  This weekend we took the car out to Jack and Susan's (where we leave it for the winter) 

The truck is all prepped and ready to go.  We are now in the process of packing it with all the stuff, that has been cluttering up the condo for a couple of weeks or so.  

 Hopefully we will get away nice and early tomorrow morning and try to make Sioux Falls SD or Sioux City IA or maybe even Council Bluffs IA.  That would be a good first day.  

 

Then day two we have the long drive diagonally across Kansas then through the state of Oklahoma, and hopefully make it into Texas.  How far into Texas depends on how far we made it on our first day. 

Then on the third day we will drive the rest of Texas and our arrival time will depend on traffic and our starting point that morning.  

WE'RE OFF!  

I WILL POST ALONG THE WAY.

WE ARE FINALLY GOING TO BE TRAVELLING AGAIN!

Seeing as how this blog is called "Travels with Linda and Dan"  it has been rather frustrating to be stuck waiting to get on the road.  

Finally, my medical testing is done.  I even have a letter to get across the border.  Apparently I am going to be radio active for a few days and they will stop me at the border if it's still in my system.  We are hoping to get the results ASAP as we would like to set our departure date for Monday or Tuesday November 16th or 17th. 

Almost everything has been packed up and ready to go for some time.  Now we just have a few last minute details to see to.  

The contents of my freezer will go in my cooler and we have to buy some dry ice to go over it.  Then I have to empty all perishable and salvageable  stuff from the fridge and put it all into the Kool-atron. 



READY TO ROLL!


 

MY TESTING IS UNDERWAY

Well the first days testing is over and that wasn't so bad after all! I was rather nervous and tense the first day, not knowing what to expect.  From where to park, to what are they doing to me now?  

 

The second day will be much easier and will be much more routine.  The only thing to worry about now is "What will the results be?"  and "What do the results tell them and how soon can I get those results?"  



ALL QUESTIONS THAT ARE UP IN THE AIR

 

LEST WE FORGET

 

Rememberance Day has always been rather sacred to me, but after doing a lot of Ancestry research I have even more reason to keep this day.  

  WWI     James Goodwin

              Gladstone Ewart Baker

WWII    Herbert Baker

              William Baker

              James Baker

              Harold Whittaker

              John (Jackie) Whittaker ...killed in action

              Elmer McLay

            

  

STILL MORE BOAT PROJECTS

Well, seeing as how we are stuck here waiting for medical procedures. we might as well keep busy.  During our spring work on the boat, we realized our mast on Thunderbird had some serious rot problems.  So, we dismantled it to assess the situation.  

It's obvious that the mast is purely decorative.  As we have been without it this whole summer and never really missed it.  The only function it serves is to carry our top white all around light, and our forward facing white light, that is only used for night running and anchoring out, which we never do.  It also has a spar and was originally intended with a manual pulley system to lift a dinghy onto the roof of the boat.  But we have never used it for that either.  We just never trusted it's strength.  Once completed and re-assembled perhaps we will be able to use it for that purpose. 

There was no rot on the spar, so that will simply be re-attached.  We have a new 4X4 post that is now being shaped to replace the original.  Thanks to our son Ken's wood working skills.  We are also adding some length back onto the mast as we are aware that it has been cut down a couple of times. (due to said rot)  It has been suggested by some that we save ourselves some work and do away with the mast and spar.  But real Trawlers were working boats, and conversions,  and I like the utilitarian look of this equipment. 

SO THAT IS THE PROJECT WE ARE WORKING ON NOW, TO KILL TIME.  

MORE ON COMPUTERS

I am sure glad I am fortunate enough to own two computers.  I have updated my desktop computer to Windows 10, but left my laptop running with Windows 8.1. 

There is a REAL problem, with how this new Windows 10 handles or should I say "Does not handle" photos.  All of the photos I have taken since the change in programs are useless to me.  They are almost impossible to find, and when you do find them you can not do anything with them.  It won't let me edit them, move them, use them in my blog,   Nothing. 

On the Windows help site there are pages after pages of everyone complaining about this since the launch on July 29th, but so far no fix has been forthcoming.  So, I will not be updating my laptop to Windows 10 until this problem is resolved. I will clean up my good old laptop as best I can and get it ready to use in Texas.  I will leave my Desktop computer on Windows 10 and wait and see if they have found a fix by the time we get home in the spring.  If not I will remove the update if I can. 


COMPUTERS : IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING.  


 

ANCESTRY RESEARCH IS FASCINATING.

(This is from my family research and will be of more interest to my family members than the casual reader.)

  HOW DID THE DODSONS COME INTO OUR FAMILY

The Patriarch of the Dodson family was John "Joe" Dodson.  And the family story goes, "In 1908 when the Goodwin family, James and Elizabeth and their three daughters,  Adeline (my grandmother) Carmen, and Hilda, were immigrating to Canada on the "Tunisian", they met a young man named Joe Dodson.  He was from the same area of England that they were and at 14 years old, he was an orphan with no adults with him, just a label addressed to Winnipeg Manitoba.  They took him under their wing so to speak and sort of adopted him.  He lived with the family when they first arrived in Winnipeg and became like a brother to their daughters.  The next generation always called him "Uncle Joe" and future generations grew up together as pseudo cousins.  

A very nice story, but like most family stories, not quite true.  As I started to try to pin down this information, facts got in the way.  I first found the ships passenger list for the "Tunisian"  and sure enough, there on the same page as the Goodwin family was an entry for a single male, John Dodson.  But his age was listed as 18 years old.  Not exactly the child in the story, but a grown young man.  He was actually the same age as their oldest daughter Adeline.  Perhaps they were looking for a future husband for her.  Later research revealed that James was inclined to arrange marriages for his daughters.  The other untruth in the story is that Joe was heading for Winnipeg, as they were.  Well, the ships manifest shows that John's passage was booked for London, Ontario.  They would have had to part company at that point, as the Goodwins continued on to Winnipeg.  Perhaps Joe got off the train in London couldn't find work there, then followed on later.  Knowing he had friends here in Winnipeg, would have been an incentive, because we do know he ended up here.  

My grandmother Adeline later married Tom Baker.  I have heard it quoted that,"James and Elizabeth Goodwin, didn't much like Tom Baker, So they made sure they picked the husbands for the other two daughters".  They married Carmen age 16, off to Harry Stewart at the age of 29, then later, Hilda age 17 was married off to Harry Whittaker at the age of  34.   

GIRLS NOW A DAYS DON'T KNOW HOW LUCKY THEY ARE TO GET TO CHOOSE THEIR OWN HUSBANDS.