The Mission

I'm not really sure when the mission started.

I had been suffering from severe arthritis for about 2 years. I guess it was the pain and the pain pills(morphine) that sent me into severe depression. Daily crying jags were a common occurrence. After I retired from the US Army Green Berets, I became an undercover narcotics agent, so for me to cry was embarrassing to say the least. But, since I was living alone in my RV while waiting to start my divorce procedure, I was spared any embarrassment.

I had decided that after my divorce I was either going to Houston or Las Vegas. I have no idea why I had made these two choices. Gambling did nothing for me- I could take it or leave it. My 2 previous trips to Las Vegas had ended in moderate losses, so gambling was not an attraction. And I had left Houston some 20 years earlier because I absolutely detested the 24 hours a day traffic jams there.

In January, 2002, I had stopped taking the pain pills and my depression was minimized. I owe this improvement to a change in diet and lifestyle. Little did I know how significant this would be later.

Houston

Also in January, I met Martha on the internet. We shared a lot of common interests, so I decided to head for Houston which was near the little town where she lived.

Things went well between us, and shortly after my divorce, out of the blue, for absolutely no reason, I asked her to move to Las Vegas with me.

She agreed. She was a heart patient and we rationalized that the dry weather there would benefit her health.

By the last week in August, although we had sold or given away most of our belongings, we still had an RV jam-packed full. No doubt it was overloaded but I decided to keep everything and dispose of unneccessary items when we got to Vegas.

Since she was a heart patient, and had had some problems recently, I decided to drive alone to Vegas and have her fly there to meet me. When you read about my trip in "The Journey" you will see that this was a wise decision. Not only did I have major repair problems along the way, but the electric generator set would not run so I had no air conditioning for the trip across the desert in the August heat. This could have been very dangerous for her.

So, in the last week of August 2002, I left Houston in my 15 year old, 1988 Pace Arrow motorhome and headed for Las Vegas. I still had no idea why I was really going to Las Vegas.