Author: sandcastle

Graduation

The Escapees Class of 2008 held their graduation to full time RV living exercises and party on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at Las Posa South LTVA near Quartzsite, Arizona. All members present who met the requirements received a diploma.

Those who had sold their houses, thereby ridding themselves of mortgages, received documentation of that; said documents then being consigned to the fire in representation of burning those mortgages.

Members of the classes of 2005 and 2007 attended the festivities making for lots of new stories to tell around the fire. Much food was eaten, much wine was consumed, and a good time was had by all.

TTYL,

Linda

Bug

For two days I’ve been suffering intestinal distress. Lying down made it worse. Can you imagine what it’s like to be sick but be unable to go to bed?

One advantage of living in such a small space is that everything is only a few steps away. One disadvantage is that so is your sleeping spouse. Dave says I didn’t wake him EVERY time I got up.

I actually saw the sunrise this morning. I’d spent the last hour or so reading in the bathroom because I didn’t want my light to bother Dave and our RV only has two rooms with the bathroom being one of them.

Today we needed to replenish our supplies. Since our car is also our house we set off to town with me still in my pajamas. I never went outside but it still felt weird to be in the grocery store parking lot in my pajamas.  So on one of our stops I got dressed.

 Steve and Carol have been in camp two days now and I’ve yet to say hello to them.  If we lived in a house no one would think a thing of that but with the campfire only a few feet from my window I sit in here and wave at people out there which is very awkward.

I’m feeling better now than I have since this thing struck.  Maybe it’s a 48 hour bug and my time is almost up.  Maybe I’ll be able to go to dinner with the group tonight.  If so, maybe we’ll take our house with us just in case.

TTYL,

Linda

Hijacked!

As you all know by now, we are camped near Quartzsite, Arizona, on Bureau of Land Management property with the Escapees Class of ’08. The area is huge! There are many hundreds of groups parked here using many different methods of finding one another. Our class chose four methods: 1. tie blue and brown ribbons on our RVs, 2. post pictures of the access roads on the class website, 3. put up signs showing the class logo at the turnoff from the main road and the one to our site, and 4. post the GPS coordinates of our campsite on our website. So it’s fairly easy to find us.

Yesterday Steve and Carol were scheduled to join us in their Allegro Bus about noon. They didn’t come and didn’t come. Now, we all write our plans in chalk but I knew if there was a major change, they would call. They have my cell phone number and, I think, the numbers of others in our group.

They finally pulled in about 3:30 and announced they had been hijacked! It seems they were stopped by the side of the road in Quartzsite with their blue and brown ribbons flying from their antenna when a guy in a pickup truck drove up, welcomed them, and suggested they follow him to where the group was camped. So they did. But, when the got out of Bessy Bus they didn’t recognize anyone from the class even though they had met several of us. Then they recognized the RVs parked nearby. It seems they guy who welcomed them was from a group of Allegro Bus owners who just assumed Steve and Carol were here to join their group.

So, they met some good folks, said their goodbyes to them, and came to find us. We are glad they are here.

TTYL,

Linda

The Desert Bar

It has become a tradition among those of us camped near Quartzsite, Arizona, with the Escapees Class of ’08 for Mike & Julie to go out exploring then come back with the name and location of a restaurant we should all go to. This time the place is called the Desert Bar. It is literally out in the desert north of Parker, Arizona. The site used to be a mine and the current owner is building a major complex there all off the grid. So far it’s a bar and grill all powered by solar panels with water from his own well. Come along as we go out for lunch.

You start by traveling four miles of road clearly labeled “primitive”. Our group went in three trucks. Other went by other modes of travel.

  

In the parking lot you have the opportunity to go to church. Since the bar is only open Saturdays and Sundays, some people may use this church to ease their consciences. We went on Saturday but these four members of our group checked out the church on their way in.

This covered bridge is the access to the bar itself. Those towers in the background are the cooling system. Wetting the tops cools the air passing through them down into the rooms below. The weather the day we were there was perfect–needing neither heating nor cooling. 

Nearly everything on the premises is built from scavenged materials and those that aren’t are picked to blend in with those that are. Check out the faucet on this sink in the ladies room. The stalls are made of recycled hammered metal.

Here’s our group ready to tackle that four mile primitive road back out again.

The Desert Bar is a place you go for the atmosphere and the experience. Anyone passing this way should go there at least once. But take a truck not an RV.

TTYL,

Linda

Self-sufficiency

Self-sufficiency. What does that term mean to you? I’ve decided its meaning changes as you live your life. As toddlers learning to feed ourselves and learning to walk we were taking steps to self-sufficiency but for most of us the first time we thought of ourselves as being self-sufficient was when we moved out of our parents’ homes and began paying our own bills.

The most recent update of my own sense of self-sufficiency is when we learned we could live in our motorhome without being plugged into a park’s utility systems. As long as we start with enough food and water and fuel on board we can now live “off the grid” for five days at a time. Then we need to go to town to restock.

Our daughter, however, has spent much of her life learning true self-sufficiency. She once lived in a house with a windmill and enough solar panels to be able to sell electricity to the local co-op. She learned enough blacksmithing to be able to make basic tools. She learned that if you hang laundry outside in the wintertime it stays hard until all the water evaporates from it. She learned to harvest wool and hair from living animals and spin it into yarn to make clothes. She learned how to sew using a treadle sewing machine. She learned to plant a garden that provides food and how to cook that food. Next month she is going to learn to butcher a rabbit and a chicken and to tan a deer hide. She already knows how to shoot a gun. If our world really does go to hell in a hand basket, she will be more prepared than most of us to survive. Is that what self-sufficiency really means?

TTYL,

Linda