Don Bobbitt on HubPages

Hi!   I'm Don Bobbitt.  I grew up in Virginia, and I served a stint in the Navy in the late 60's, where I received some good basic Electronics Training. 

When I got out of the Navy, I returned home, went to work for a major electronics maufacturer as a Technician, and got married to my wonderful wife (41 Years and counting).

It only took a couple of years before I recognized the "you don't have a degree" ceiling over my head, and spent the next 13 years, getting an AS in BA, and then a BS EE degree. 

By this time, through a lot of hard work and study, I had become something of an expert in High-Volume Electronics maufacturing, and was promoted and relocated to the company R&D Center (the old company had been bought out by a major International Cellular Systems and Phone company).

We were located in Raleigh, NC, and II soon started a team of EE's, ME's and IE's that had the responsibility of negotiating International manufacturing deals with Contract Manufacturers around the world.

I was having a ball, and then in '93, I caught a rare disease (Wegner's), and pretty much wiped out my Kidneys. 

After a period of several years and a number of experimental surgeries and treatments, my Kidney function was elevated to about 22%.  So, I went back to work with a bag of drugs and a disability.

I lasted until '96 when my Kidney function degraded below 20%, and I ended up with a transplant Kidney.  I soon went back to work again, with a larger bag of drugs, and a different disability.

All of this sounds bad, but I was in a "Damn, It's Good to Be Alive" mood myself, but I did have to live a life with challenges, especially whe traveling (I use challenges, because I hate the word limitations). 

Overall, though, I was a thankful and happy person.

In my job, I traveled extensively aroud the world, and spent a lot of time in; Brazil, Malaysia, China, and Sweden among other countries, and there was a lot of stress, managing multi-millon dollar contracts and contractor jobs. 

Eventually though, the constant Hotels, Airports, and Conference  Rooms, became boring, and I was looking for new challenges, when suddenly, my wife's health went downhill.

She had a severe back problem, and went through 3 back surgeries over an 18-month period.  And, when the dust settled; my wife's back had been "Fused".

Several doctors, and medical support services, and hospitals were somewhat richer.  But .... again, my wifes back was no better, and she could no longer work.

All of this sounds sad and frustrating when I review it, but we consider it a turning point in our lives. 

We sat down, and looked at all facets of our lives, our ages, our physical challenges, our SAVINGS, and our debts.

We had many glasses of wine during some serious conversations over several months trying to decide what we could do to be productive in some way, have fun when possible, and also live an interesting life over how ever many years we had left.

So ..... one thing I had immediately did was take an early retirement to care for my wife through her pain, and surgery recoveries.  That was a done thing, as we both knew neither of us could work a regular job again.

Within those bounds we began to travel and re-discovered our old love of Camping. 

Well, not the Tent Camping of our youth, with cutting wood, setting up campers and tents and campsites like when we were young and healthy, but RV camping.

We evolved through several RV's and now have a great unit that we can take around the US, live frugally, and still enjoy the variety of sites and people of this country. 

Oh, and we can carry our drugs, favorite foods, etc, that we require to maintain our health.

By the way, I have always been an Amateur Photographer, but since our "retirement",  I have been able to expand my range of subjects and am into Nature, Landscape, and Color/Texture photography. 

And of course, I don't have a team of Engineers to boss around. But considering that my wife knows me too well to take most of what I say seriously, I had to have an intellectual outlet of some kind, so I have started several Blogs and now Hubs, that I add to every few days or so.

One Blog is one I started to help other RVers with problems that you encounter when you own an RV, and travel and camp.  It is called Things You Probably already know about RVing, but .....  Check it out and see if it might help of help to you.

Another Blog, one that is a little more personal, is a diary of my wifes and mine, as we travel in our RV, and the things and people we encounter. 

And finally, with our health situations, we have a lot of built up knowledge and experience in how to keep Healthy and RV at the same time. That means the Do's and Don't's, as well as recipes and food savings ideas we have deeveloped or gotten from others, etc.  This Blog is called RVwithDonandHelen 

What is next? 

We accept no Bounds, and plan to keep on until our Bodies Stop Us.

Our Motto: WHERE EVER WE GO .... THERE WE ARE!