Tuesday, April 29, 2003 – Seville
Just sitting here enjoying my morning cuppa coffee as the airplanes fly overhead (I mean, Right Overhead) and the neighbor is showing off his cool remote controlled Caravan. This is the second one we’ve seen so I’m not all that impressed, but he’s drawn a crowd. Very nifty gadget. On the tongue of the trailer is a small box that contains a battery and electric motor that drives the little wheel that supports the tongue. He parks his car out in the road, then with a little TV sized remote control, drives his trailer out to the car, easily lines up the hitch and ball… a couple quick flips of cranks and levers and he’s ready to roll. Yes, he is German, how did you guess?
The neighbor on the other side has a different approach. An older, bulky motorhome, nothing fancy, newer than Commander Rabbit (Mom & Dad’s oldie) but about the same size, with a Vespa scooter mounted to the back. He dropped it down off the rack, he and his wife buckled up their helmets, and off to town they went. Hopefully they stay off the Autovia (Spanish for Freeway of Death).
Yesterday, after a major shopping expedition, we drove outside town to visit Italica – Roman Ruins. They are closed on Monday, we learned. Even dead Romans need a day off, I guess. So we drove into Seville. No, I haven’t been that eager to deal with city traffic, but we found a public parking lot on the edge of downtown. Major accomplishments for the day included finding an auto parts store that had the heater hose I’ve been looking for. The problem (not a major one so far) has been that the heat control doesn’t work… I tore the dashboard apart trying to find the end of the cable but it’s buried in the heater itself, and I’d have to tear the front end of the truck off to get to it. The existing heater hose looks pretty shabby anyway, seems to have been patched at one time. So my fix is to get a replacement hose, install some kind of valve in it, then, just open the hood and turn it off when we don’t need heat…. Well, got the hose, now to find a valve that will fit. Where’s the damn Home Depot?
Oh yeah… in case anyone is wondering… our vague concept of an itinerary is like this right now – We are hanging out in Seville to see and participate in the Spring Feria. Supposed to be a Million Tourists here for the thing. This afternoon will be our first taste of it… Evidently the party doesn’t really get rolling until around midnight. We’ll just see how that feels to us. Once our curiosity about the Fair is satisfied, we’re heading for Portugal. We’ll explore up the coast, visit Lisbon, and see if we can find a fun beach town to spend a week or so.
At this point, Morocco is a question. I’m hoping to meet someone along the way who has recently returned. There are really two concerns – as Americans are we likely to run into hostility or worse from our Muslim brothers, but perhaps more realistically, will the Spanish Customs tear our little bus apart looking for hashish when we return? I mean, if I was into it I’m sure I could hide a couple hundred pounds of contraband in the thing if I wanted to…. And if the Customs officer thinks I might have, the search could get interesting… I’m thinking about the scene in “The French Connection” when they disassemble the car with power tools…. As far as terrorism goes, what I’ve read so far is that there is no danger to Americans from Moroccans… but there may be a possibility of international Arab terrorists operating there… There haven’t been any incidents I’m aware of, but Rhona is concerned, and I’m not about to take her anywhere she’s not comfortable.
Okay, this is bizarre… one of the biggest motorhomes we’ve seen here, every bit as tall and wide as the largest American monster, maybe a few feet shorter, just rolled in and parked behind us. In big letters on the huge back wall just below the rear view TV camera I’m reading “COMMANDER”.
Okay, so Morocco or no Morocco, the plan is still to head up the East coast of Spain, visit a couple spots in Southern France, then Italy. I think if everything goes well we can visit Greece, maybe Turkey, then north. Yes Ida, Budapest has a big red circle around it. I am looking forward to Eastern Europe, especially Prague… up into Scandinavia, should be August by now… Only real target is late September - I’ve got a date with a few Steins of Munich’s finest. Hopefully Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand will follow… putting us down under for summer part two.
I have more faith in our ability to make good decisions as we go along than my powers to predict the future. Financially things have been going okay… maybe been eating out a little more than we planned to, but we’ll make up for it next month. Campsites even at their most expensive have been 15 – 20 bucks a night, and that’s pretty much a fixed cost, unless we do more free camping… which really doesn’t seem worth the effort. Hot showers in the campgrounds mean a lot to us. The health of the van engine and transmission are big issues, of course. Before we leave Seville I’m changing the oil and the transmission fluid, putting the Spanish version of STP in both.
Well, time to get off my butt and pack up for a trip to town… Spring Feria, Seville, 2003 waits for us.
12:39:16 PM 
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