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When our children are little we parent them to the best of our ability. We do our best to teach them the things they need to know to get along in the world.

When our children get older we turn them loose and watch as they make their way in the world.

We know we have done something right if, when they get older yet, they come help us when we are having our own problems.

Maybe I didn’t do so badly after all.

Alexa came to visit for four days. Chores I could not do on my own have been done. All my clothes are now clean. And I have prepared foods in my fridge and freezer thanks to her being willing to bring her own pot and burner over to my rig to cook for me.

And we talked and talked and talked.

And I helped her explore her responses to living in an RV vs. converting a van to suit her own needs. She now knows she does not want what she calls “umbilical cords”. The process of dumping the gray tank after cleaning up from all that cooking was not pleasant.

She may be all grown up but there are still a few things I can help her learn. I’m glad to have that be so. And I am glad that she is willing to come help me when life gets a bit much for me. I’m so proud of her. And I wanted you all to know that.

TTYL,

Linda

 

I have often heard that there are wild burros around Emerald Cove Resort. Rumor has it they are a protected species and you are not to feed them. There are signs along the roadside warning you to watch for them. But, I’ve never seen any here. This year though, I saw scat alongside the road indicating to me they might be in the area.

Then it happened.

I had been out for the afternoon and returned by a different road inside the park. As I walked around behind my rig to reattach my hookups I saw this:

Once we all got over our excitement and went back in the burros wandered down the road behind me eating the palm tree leaves. So here they are again as seen out my back window.

 

These burros are leftovers from the days when miners used them to haul their equipment then just turned them loose when the miners left. They seem to be quite content to lead a semi-wild life. Just like me.

TTYL,

Linda

I’m getting the best Christmas present ever.

Dave is coming!

Just for a week but I am as excited as a kid waiting for Santa Claus.

My insides are all wiggly. 🙂

TTYL,

Linda

I spend a lot of my time alone. Part of that is because I have social anxiety. Joining people in any event can quite literally make me sick. Yes, I have medicine I can take for that but it is addictive so I don’t like to take it too often. But, I do need to be around people sometimes.

Like Thanksgiving day. I took a couple pills and joined the van dwellers group for Thanksgiving dinner:

I hugged some old friends and enjoyed meeting some new ones.

Then I moved off into the desert on my own for two days to recharge for the next event.

 

These people are part of my Escapee’s family. As many of us who can make it gather in the desert every January to catch up with one another. Sometimes our paths cross other times of the year and we meet along the way. This group all happened to be in the same place on December 1st so I drove a couple hours to join them for a meal.

Then I retreated to the desert once again.

My next planned gathering is in a couple of weeks when my daughter is hoping to come help me do some chores. She wants to learn more about RVing in the desert and I am thrilled to have her cook for me. Hopefully, I will have a freezer full of food when she leaves which should help with my energy crises.

Then there will be the January gatherings. I have several groups I can join during a couple of weeks then if my body will let me do so. If you are among those groups and you see me staying inside instead of coming out to party, please, understand: It is me; not you.

TTYL,

Linda

 

I am having a personal energy crises. Let me give you an example.

I am parked in the desert with no hookups. I want to take a shower. I need to strip my bed so I can convert it to a couch so I can see under it to my fresh water tank to be sure it has enough water in it that my water heater will not run out before I finish my shower. Then I need to turn on my inverter to power my water heater for ten minutes which is enough warmth for me to take a shower. Then I need to set my timer for ten minutes to remind me to turn off the water heater so it doesn’t run down my batteries. During that ten minutes, I need to remove everything from my bathroom that I don’t want to get wet because my shower is the entire bathroom. Then I need to remember to close the waterproof curtain over my window so I don’t soak the day/night shade in it. Then I need to get out my clean clothes to have ready to put on because I will be too tired to do that once I wash myself. Now I can actually take my shower, while mostly sitting on the toilet because there is not a lot of room in there which, at least, gives me some recovery time from all that prep. Then I have 2 1/2 gallons of warm enough water to wash in. So I wet my hair and body, turn off the water, wash my hair and body, turn on the water and rinse as well as I can before running out of warm enough water. Then I have to dry the entire bathroom because I sprayed water everywhere. I must also clean the toilet because if I forget to dry it I will get wet the next time I sit down on it. And I need to wrap a towel around the shower head because it will continue to drain for some unknown amount of time which means it will drip on me the next time I enter the bathroom.  Once dressed and combed I need to check my shower drain to be sure all the water went down because if it didn’t I need to drive to the dump to empty my gray water tank. But first, I need to put back everything I took out of the bathroom–like the extra toilet paper.

And that’s not even taking into consideration how many times I have to unload then reload the Scoot to buy groceries because the odds of me getting to park in the only spot within walking distance of the grocery store for me in which my over-sized vehicle will fit is not good. And my Scoot doesn’t hold a lot of groceries so I have to make more trips if I can’t park close enough to use a store cart.

And doing laundry? By the time I park as close as I can, haul everything, in, do the actual wash, haul everything back, and put away only those clothes that will wrinkle right away if I don’t I am exhausted.

Part of that is because I am neither eating nor sleeping well. And I’m paying for both of those by being tired.

You tired yet? Me, too. And those are just a few examples of taking care of myself out here. I miss being able to stand under warm running water in the shower at the apartment. I miss not having to think about if the shower will back up while I’m still in it. I miss being able to have groceries delivered. I miss having a washer and dryer right in our apartment.

And I miss so many things about sharing my life with Dave.

If I was healthy enough to be able to walk long distances I could go use campground showers. And buying groceries and doing laundry wouldn’t be so tiring. But I’m not healthy and I appear to be getting weaker. I even had to ask for help getting the cover off a dump the other day.

It is still November and I’m ready to go home.

Anyone want to make a good offer on a fabulous RV?

TTYL,

Linda