Now for some of the mundane stuff associated with our lifestyle.  The Flying Scotsman, while our home, is still a motor vehicle, needing periodic maintenance and inspections. You can see the RV sticking out of the barn to the right.

Needing the lube job, oil change, and state inspection, in the car, is a half-hour operation at worst and about $40 bucks, right ... not with the big bus .... noooo.

OK, make the appointment with the Freightliner dudes in Bryan at 9am. Wait. This is our home now and we need to do something with the pets for what may be a day long operation ... pet day care, eh, just down the road.

So at 9 Jo-Anne takes the pets to day-care and to hang out at the mall for the day and I unhook the bus from its tether at Aggieland and head for the truck place in north Bryan. I settle in for a long day. The normal oil change is about $400 bucks for this type of diesel and they do a good job at it for the four hour planned time. Oh then the air filter ($100) needs changing so that is another hour of labor and time involved.

When the day is over and we regroup at the RV park it is 3pm and I have spent over $500 on the bus for its routine annual oil change and inspection ... big machine and big process and cost. Then there's Jo-Anne's 6 hour venture at the mall and the pet care.

Wow, but the lifestyle we love!