First trip-home from Chico where we’d bought her

We drove Little Green home over Saturday and Sunday, boondocking at a rest stop in Tulare.  The kids settled right into their bunks, no problem, but Timmy was very mosquito bitten from being outside last night in Chico.  They slept well; we all did.  At one point a cop drove through the lot, but didn’t bother us.  Nobody did.  Not even the trains that came by several times in the night.  I woke up early, probably around five, but wanted to sleep a bit more.  I kind of wish we’d gotten up then, as driving home to Vegas on the Sunday of the fourth of July was a bit of a mess.  We overheated (nearly) and had to pull over a few times, as there were two accidents that had us in stop and go traffic for over an hour.  Stop and go traffic, going up the Baker grade, coach air conditioner wasn’t working.  Not fun, but not entirely discouraging either.  We will try to do our summer desert driving much earlier from now on.  And we figured out that the air conditioner had tripped a switch…..

Prior to getting into the desert we stopped near Tehachapi at a place called the “National Chavez Center” which is where Cesar Chavez is buried.  There was a nice rose and botanical garden with fountains, but my favorite part was being able to take a small walk to look at the “golden, rolling hills of California”(from either a Bruce Cockburn or an old hippie buddy Jon Sikora song).  I love those hills, usually dotted with California Live Oak trees.  I want my kids to know and love them also, as we really are Californians even though we live in Nevada.

The kids had school Monday morning and popped out of bed no problem.  Good sign.  The trip was refreshing, not exhausting.  Steve and I ventured off to The Oasis RV Park in Vegas to empty our ‘black water’ tank.  It wasn’t hard at all.  So now we know.  I was so proud of us.  We also went to LV RV which is right next to Camping World to see about getting our air conditioner fixed or replaced.  We got a nice guy who finally came out to look inside, and he showed us how the switch had tripped, and gave us a bunch of good advice.  We are finding that rv people are friendly and helpful, so far.  Steve keeps bringing up how we could be fulltimers.  We could.  We’ll see. 

meanwhile, today I put our bumper clothesline on all by myself, as it was quite a simple deal.  Makes me think that I should invent some products to make rving simpler and more like home.  Maybe make some money that way.  Our little wooden folding dining table is finished and ready to go.  I need to see if our chairs are going to fit behind the front seats.  Lots to do and miles to go before we finish…at least we have a vehicle for our dreams now.  We are all very happy with our choice.  And working together to get all the carpet ripped out.  Not as easy as I’d hoped.

The day we met Little Green

At the National Chavez Center

The Golden, Rolling Hills Of California (Near Tehachapi)

 

home with the rig

Amazingly, I feel quite ambivalent towards our home now.  It feels disgustingly large, and I can’t believe we are paying good money to try and keep such a large space cool.  All those years I’ve spent looking through magazines hoping to find the perfect colors and storage ideas to make this place wonderful, beautiful and comfortable seem wasted now.  We are all ready to ditch it and live in our tiny new home that sits on wheels.  Timmy wants to sleep out there in the driveway, but I told him no since we are hovering around 110 degrees these days.  Yes it has a working air conditioner, and a generator to run it, but, no, you need to sleep inside while it is so hot outside.

I started tearing out the thirty year old carpet, but realized I needed a knife to do the job right.  It is way too hot to work, but for early morning or after six.  We also removed the ‘doghouse’ which covers the engine that sits between the two front seats only to find that it is somewhat burnt out (the cover, not the engine) and in need of new insulation.  Spent some time online trying to find what to get, and also found that the engine is very hot because it is missing a heat deflector to channel heat away from the engine (and my leg on the accelerator, which is just a few inches away from the engine while driving).

So we have lots to do, and a new family project, and our heads are full of travel dreams.  She gets about 12 miles to the gallon.  Not bad for an entire house on wheels.

 

that 70’s stuff

I shopped four thrift stores today for towels, tablecloth and napkins, bedding and fabrics to make curtains and quilts for our Little Green.  I love fabric, love the colors, love finding things that work together but not in a matchy-match way.  I got Timmy a striped white, avocado and subdued lime green colored twin sheet, with a solid avocado sheet to match.  I want to make him a simple quilt with the two fabrics, and Anna Joy one also with the pink, orange, gold and avocado colored ones I got her.  Both are poly cotton which means that they will last forever, and from their colors I surmise they have been around since the 70s.  I also got two twin lime green jersey like t-shirt fabric bottom sheets, two flat sheets and two pillow cases of the same color.  So each will have a different, gender specific quilt, but they will coordinate and the sheets will match.  I will use the twin jersey sheets to back the quilt so the stretchy, 100% cotton will be next to their skin.  And I got two nice woven cotton blankets to use as batting.  This is going to be so fun!  I called my friend Donna who quilts to see if she had an idea for a pattern.  She said she’d think on it, but I’m thinking I should just design one myself.  I need to give myself more credit for being able to actually design things that are pleasing.  Esp. things having to do with color and patterns and fabric.  So there.  Only I wish I’d paid more attention when we did a quilt in a day class.  I can’t remember the short cuts.

So I have knitting on the needles, two knitting projects in the cue, and two quilts, plus curtains and cushion covers to make.  Maybe I am creative?  I sure enjoy the planning, execution, problem-solving and usefulness of each piece when finished.  So, get off the computer and get busy with the creating already!

 

I can already feel people looking at us like we’re crazy

Gas hit $4.19 yesterday.  The rv is 29 years old.  We can’t park it at our house.  But we can’t think about any of this right now. Fact is, we are following a dream, and we are all in it together.  The kids are just as excited as we are.  Steve keeps saying, maybe we can go on the road full time.  Yep.  The old hippie dream.  Right here in the suburbs of Southern Nevada.  You can take me out of Sonoma County, but the hippie heart remains.  Which is why I had the idea to only use thrifted fabric for curtains and cushion covers in the rig.  And Steve and Timmy will install solar panels so we don’t have to use a gas-burning generator.

We are working on coming up with a name for our little rig.  I like ‘Little Green’ from the Joni Mitchell song of the same title.  The song ends with “have a happy ending” which can be our gospel reference painted on the back.  Little Green was the name Joni gave to the girl child she bore and gave up for adoption at age 19.  That brave act always haunted her, and she actually met her daughter not very many years ago. I love the lyrics:

…call her green and the winters cannot fade her, call her green for the children who have made her, little green, be a gypsy dancer.  Just a little green like the nights when the Northern lights perform, there’ll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow…there’ll be icicles and birthday clothes, and sometimes there’ll be sorrow.

Life is like that, full of wonder (icicles), blessings (birthday clothes) and sometimes there is sorrow.

 

Road Art, or, We Bought a Motorhome This Morning

A week into planning for my dad’s recent triple by-pass surgery I developed an obsession.  There is nothing like the stress of a family member in a health crisis to get one to crystallize one’s ambitions.  We have always talked about wanting to travel as a family, to see America and the rest of the world, if possible.  Alas, rarely does the teacher’s salary afford such luxuries.  A small inheritance, however, has given our savings a nice shot of cash, and I began the quest to find the perfect motorhome that might allow us to get up and go much more easily than trying to save for a trip.  Facing my father’s mortality has made me join a gym, start a diet of sorts, and want to get on with our dreams of travel.  So, this morning I bought a motorhome.

Steve and I have, of course, discussed the idea of buying an old one in good shape for the past few weeks.  We looked at some new ones and some old ones, so we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted in terms of size and style.  I have been scouring craigslist Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and the Inland Empire, making alot of phone calls, asking alot of questions.  Most of the smaller ones only have two beds.  We need at least three, one for the kids to share and one for each of us, as I cannot sleep with my heat emanating husband in a bed smaller than king sized, and rv beds are small.  Most of the ones in our price range were either really beat up or missing an essential part, like a generator, fridge that works and/or airconditioner that works. 

I finally realized that I could also check Craigslist Chico, as with my sister living there, we could maybe get one there.  Yep.  Found a keeper.  1979 Dodge Vaquero with four beds(cute bunks for the kids), kitchy 70’s wallpaper and paneling and everything else in great working order.  The owner was hoping to find a family like us to buy it.  Plus he is a math teacher, so he gets the whole teacher-family-wanting-to-but-unable-to-afford-travel issue.  Sweet guy sent me maybe twenty pictures so we could get to know it from afar.  He drove it to my sister’s house this morning so she could drive it and check it out.  She loved it, wrote a check for us and will keep it at her house until we can come up and get it.  And for only $3,800.  A steal.  The owner says to call him anytime we ever have any questions or trouble with it.  Feels like a dream come true to me.  He wants to stay in touch, also, because his eleven year old son loves the rv and wants to hear about our trips and have us send pictures.  Fun!

So I went online to find some rv books we might need, realized that there are some well selling ones written as memoirs of rv trips and realized I wanted to keep a record of our life as rv owner/travelers.  Creativity with a motorhome will be a no brainer I’m thinking. My brain is fried now from little sleep taking care of my dad, but I wanted to start since we have made the purchase.  Not up to figuring out how to post photos right now, but one of these days I will.

Little Green