January 18-20, 2025

This is a more rugged experience – no water or sewage hook-ups, electric only.  It’s camping (finally), not an RV park.  Roughing It?  Well, I do have to walk to the rest room next door to shower – does that count?  What if I tell you I am sharing the restrooms with about 50 boy scouts who are camping in the sites the next loop over?  For some reason, the restroom seems to be a destination gathering spot – they travel in twos but congregate in dozens.  The little shower/restroom complex is probably a place where they can sneak away from the scout masters to tells stories that wouldn’t pass muster around the campfire.    LOL – tomorrow I move to a site where I have water and electric but no sewage.  This is when having at least dump stations in a park is a little piece of heaven on earth (don’t get me started on black water tanks!).

65 degrees, bright sunshine in a semi-desert location.  Took a nap feeling the slight breeze, a little chilly and the warm sunshine.  Have always liked the sensation of solar warmth v. cool air – what temperature will win when they compete for control of my skin reactions?  Happy to report the warmth won. I practiced a meditative activity I used to do as a teenager (but didn’t realize I was meditating at the time). 

As a teenager in San Diego, I often headed to the beach early – at times when it was still overcast and chilly.  My mental game as the sun broke through the clouds was to lay on the beach and direct where I would feel the heat, concentrating until I felt it only on my back, my legs, my arms.  Now they sell apps to help you do that.  Was I ahead of my time?   But I digress.

And today, I laid back in my big, cushioned camp chair and played the same game. Of course, at 70 I wore #50 sunblock, a hat and prescription transition glasses, but I did manage to get so relaxed I fell asleep.   No other word for it – bliss.  Great start to this portion of my wanderings.

Have walked over 7 miles today – two trips through the campgrounds to the pedestrian or camper entrance to the little ghost town – a busy tourist attraction. It was fun – first trip with Audy, then after my nap, returned to go through the gift stores.  I didn’t find anything unique enough to capture my attention and reminded myself I have a lot of miles and gift shops ahead of me to locate something out of the ordinary as I go.

On my second trip into the ghost town, I got ice cream (can’t say that’s a highlight, hard to believe but the treat wasn’t that good) and watched people.  Lots of families, I’d forgotten this was Martin Luther King’s birthday.  Many different accents, and clothing styles and as the day passed, tired parents chasing tired children.  It was a warm day for me, but there were people wearing winter jackets to people in T-shirts. There was a family I believe were from India were bundled up – looking like they had layered their entire wardrobe on themselves.  Many may have been southern Californian’s were wearing sweatshirts/long pants. (some were shopping for sweatshirts in the gift store).    Not seeing any other license plates from Oregon or Washington state, I represented the Pacific Northwest in shorts and a t-shirt.   However, rocky trails kept me in my walking shoes.  Don’t worry sandals, your day is coming soon!

And the end of this day, after finally grilling dinner and using my little tabletop fire pit under the stars brought me back into my Wandering Spirit where the propane fueled heater keeps me nice and toasty as the temperature dips to 30 tonight.  Hard to come inside when the never-ending sky is filled with twinkling lights – it still puts me in a state of awe.  Namaste.

January 17, 2024

I’m now about 10 days into my travels, but have been visiting, driving and working through the unexpected making time for my thoughts limited.  Yes, I do feel I am living the dream – and tomorrow starts the path towards the south, with a left turn to the east.  Hopefully leaving the practical, time-consuming reality behind for a while!

My trip started as planned, left my holiday stay-over RV park, boon-docked at my daughters and then made my appointment with Camping World in Wilsonville for the oil change and road ready check. First dose of reality – a leak in a differential seal discovered.  A warranty problem for the Chevy chassis.  I am forever thankful for my brother and his connections in the mechanical community in Medford, Oregon!  I want to give a special recognition to Pro Service Center for getting my RV in and fixed in one day when no Chevy dealer had the bay size or capacity to see me sooner than 30 days!  (it’s warranty work, so had to make a choice of waiting or getting it fixed – I choose the latter and will do battle with Chevy at my next RV Park).

Once the RV was back, while my brother was installing my new TV, I discovered that the awning wasn’t working.  Dead, no matter how I pushed the button – nothing.  So, after spending time at both my brother, Brad and sister-in-law Colleen’s place (I give this location 5 stars.  A nice, rustic setting, but nice gravel lot with deer who grazed next to the rig. And the host is very helpful with technical advice and installation services), I moved to my sister Julie and husband Mike’s place.

I rate my RV pad at Julie and Mike’s place at 5 stars also – the host and hostess were delightful, and the pad was very level, in a farm setting.  Plus, she offered a tour of local shopping hot spots to pass the time.  Plus, I got the bonus of leaving with fresh farm eggs! 

Before I left Southern Oregon, I was able to make an appointment with a Camping World in Anderson, California.  After driving over the notorious Siskiyou Pass on a dry, sunny, 51-degree day, I stayed on track by staying at the Win-River Casino RV Park overnight in Redding, California.  Great steak dinner, and after playing $20 on the pennies slots, I won back the cost of the RV spot plus a few bucks (I mean like $3.00).  It was fun and I loved coming home from the casino (via the little shuttle v. walking 4 minutes) and being welcomed to a cozy, warm bed by my travelling companions, Spirit and Audy-wee.

The only change I’ve had to make was having to cancel my first night at a winery via my Harvest Host winery.  I spent most of the day at Camping World getting the awning fixed. Audy-wee did his job as social director and before we left, we’d met all the employees, people buying new trailers and people waiting for service on their RV’s.  There is really a community feeling among RV people, time passed quickly talking about travel tips, places to visit and of course, dogs. Audy enjoyed hearing what a great, handsome dog he was – the cat slept through it all in his carrier with his back to the commotion around him. 

I made it to Sacramento that night and stayed at the fairground’s RV park.  Nice, accommodating staff – but had to question their engineering.  It appears that whoever designed this RV park may had it confused with a drive-in movie theater – the spaces were skewed down-hill.  The slant was so extreme that even my self-levelling jacks couldn’t get my rig completely level, they were extended so far that the front wheels were far off the ground.  So, I gave up, the bed was level across, so I slept with the slant.

Made it to Visalia, after a brief detour to Lodi, where I went to visit the winery where I had planned to stay – these Harvest Host host were understanding of my delay and ultimate cancellation and told me I could pull anytime of the night if I needed a place to stay overnight – even though they required people to be there by 6 pm.  While I missed my wine tasting and watching a sunset in a vineyard experience – I was happy to stop by and say hello.

I’ve had a great visit with two of my cousins here in Visalia, California – shared memories of family gatherings over our youth, with some more recent visits when our parents were still alive.  I look at them, remember our youth and see us all aging, and as Bonnie Raitt sings “I see my folks are getting on and I watch their bodies change, I know they see the same in me and it makes us both feel strange”. 

I have always felt blessed to have an extended family that I’ve kept in touch with over the years, my parents taught us the importance in family.  I feel lucky that I’ve been able to see so many of them on this trip, including another cousin I visited in Medford while there.

My adventures are about experiences, reconnecting with people, seeing beauty and trying to understand more about this human existence.  This past week plus has been about spending time with loved ones. Tomorrow – well that is the beginning of exploration, seeing beauty great and small, and coffee at sunrise and wine at sunsets.  I’m ready!

So, my remaining time is short in my holiday layover location – in 3 days I will pull out of here and begin my trek southward.  More about the planning and preparation in a minute.  However, first I’d like to share how thoughts/priorities begin to change as you adapt to this RV way of life!

You know you live in an RV when:

• You have an urge to check your tank levels* at bedtime.
• Your new favorite reading is a road atlas, and your favorite app is RV Life’s Trip Wizard.
• You have a 3-way garter device securing your mattress cover to the mattress.
• Your dish drainer sits partially on your stove.
• The floor of your passenger seat has a litter box in it.
• When you drive by a gas station you don’t notice the prices, instead you are trying to determine if they have a propane tank for refilling your tank and if their ceilings are over 11 foot tall.
• You purchase chains for your house.

Yes, in a few days I’m pulling out.  After another overnight boon-docking stay at my daughter’s home, I will spend part of the following day with my cat and dog in the customer lounge at Camping World while I get my rig serviced and checked out to make sure it’s road-ready.  I’m happy to report that last weekend I started up the rig, Wandering Spirit, and she immediately warned me to consider changing her oil – LOL, I was way ahead of her – the oil change was already scheduled!

And then, making me even happier, the generator started up easily – good news since I’d had to invest some major bucks and warranty to get its jets. filters and pump replaced earlier this year. Long story, after initial warranty work on the generator I was told to run the generator monthly after driving the rig for about 30 minutes. Then when it gummed up again, I was told that driving it around probably stirred up stuff in the gas tank that gummed it up? – Learning, generators run off gasoline and share the rigs gas supply – so the quality of gas impacts the function of the generator more than it impacts the vehicle itself.

Anyway, all seems to be working well now.  And the forecast is looking good to get me over all the mountain passes and on my way into California without hitting snow or ice.  Since I’m feeling lucky, I scheduled my first night in California at a casino with an RV park – the fees were good, but they know that I’ll make up the difference in the slot machines.  The rest of the trip includes an overnight at a winery, visits with cousins and then a couple of state parks – a few days of camping in the desert and along the Colorado river in the sunshine!  I’ve planned through the end of January, which will see me crossing the state line from Arizona to New Mexico. 

My preparations included pulling my summer clothes out of storage and washing my winter clothes.  Next will be making those take/store decisions for the summer clothes. For the past week, I’ve been going through my original choices and pulling out the excess for putting in storage.  I will now focus on major house cleaning, which will be an exhausting 45 minutes.  By the time they pick up the propane tank, I will have the slide in and the mirrors out – and it will be wings up for flight.

I’m looking forward to being in places where I can set out my comfy camp chairs and use my tiny tabletop fire pit – and to grill my meals on my bar-b-que (imaging cooking without 25 MPH winds bringing the internal RV temp down to match the 30 something degree external temperature to avoid the smoke alarm going off).   My current location has served its purpose, I was here for the holidays with my family.  And I learned how to live comfortably in a tiny space. 

I’m ready to take my home on the road – and hoping I won’t have to chain it up along the way!

*For those unfamiliar with RVs, mine has a three-tank system onboard – fresh water, gray water (sinks) and black water (toilet).  My RV can go about 4 days until the gray and black tanks need to be discharged into either a site or public dump station.  I’ve got this activity down pretty well now!

I’m two weeks away from moving on, starting the grand adventure. Been in a holding pattern for a few months as I learn this lifestyle and spend the holidays around my daughter and her family. When I woke up this morning on Christmas eve, I felt a heaviness in me. And on top of that, I sat on the brass tray where I sit my coffee while journaling, turning over the cup and spilling hot coffee all over me and my cushion!  Living in an RV park with long-term renters has been a good experience, however it was marred by two experiences that were weighing on me.

First, unfortunately, I attracted the attention of a neighbor who lacks filters, boundaries and cannot recognize social cues.  I believe him to be harmless, I suspect this person may be on the autism spectrum. He began ambushing me when I was out walking, and I had the feeling he was watching me to accidently “run into” me. I felt a little stalked and trapped – hard to pull out when your rig is connected to a 120-gal propane tank.  I would feel special that he chose me, but my neighbors have stories about escaping his oversharing of medical, dietary and employment issues and showing up on their walks. However, I think he developed a crush on me, for he talked about having 2 venison steaks to share, even though he told me he was vegan? Even added, for my listening pleasure, a long medical explanation about needing more protein and all the bio-chemical digestive changes that occur, in graphic detail, from eating too much bean soup (won’t go there, but cloudy urine was mentioned).

For my HR friends – this experience was like living next door to your worst RTW employee, lots of excuses for not working and lots of complaining about physical issues, even though the doctor said he could return to work… My brain said run, run – don’t get sucked in, don’t think/say terms like ADA, Paid Leave, Short Term/Long Term Disability, modified work, accommodation – run!

Next, and more devasting, 12 days ago I opened my door to put my dog out and Spirit, my cat, went flying out, across the drive and over the bank towards the creek. I was stunned. For the past week plus, I’ve been calling him and shedding a few tears because he is old, on thyroid medicine and has a heart murmur. I felt terrible, thinking I’d never know what happened to him. Just this morning, I was talking to another neighbor who asked if I’d found him yet. I talked about my hope leaving me as the days go by. Last night, I reluctantly threw away his litter box and today, I put his food into the back of my car to take to my daughter tomorrow.

It was a mild afternoon for a Christmas eve – I cleaned out my car and the front of the RV. Then two things happened that lifted the weight. First, when my intrusive neighbor stopped by, uninvited, started playing with my dog and talking to me, I firmly stating “Please do not come around me, my dog or my RV anymore” (what I didn’t say earlier he was starting to show up in the dark, which did freak me out a little). I repeated this three times, and he walked away. I finally feel like I took control back in this situation. I have compassion for him, he is lonely, but I’m interested in any role beyond “neighbor” with him.

Next, and here’s the Christmas Miracle. Shortly after running off the stalker, I was looking towards the creek. I saw a little black head behind a neighbor’s RV right at the edge of the bank to the creek. Was it a squirrel or could it be? I got on my shoes, ran over and suddenly, to my disbelief – there he was, my Spirit Cat! He still had his collar on. Skinnier, skittish but verbally responding to my calls. It took an hour of offering food and several unsuccessful snatches at him, but I got him. I laid on the muddy ground tossing him canned food with my fingers until I finally got a good hold on him, put him in his carrier and brought him home! I felt such great joy and happiness.  Spirit is in good spirits, the Christmas kind I think, just waking up from naps and yelling for food. He is probably as surprised and happy as I am that we found each other again.

We’ll be making some changes in our routines, but in a good way.  Like Spirit will wear his halter during the days and we’ll start some outdoor leash time to let him get out occasionally. And with two weeks to go, I’m thinking my potential suitor (not) will avoid me now. It is a great Christmas – all is shiny and bright. Love, Peace and Joy – and I hope that once I start my grand adventure, Spirit will accompany me instead of going on his own.

Namaste.

It’s only been a month since I started this retirement adventure. And I’ve moved 3 times.  Not finicky, all is going according to plan – 2 nights dry camping or “boon-docking” at my daughter’s, 4 days and nights in the forest to unwind and now have settled into my holiday home on the Sandy River, in windy east county Portland.  Some things I’m discovering have morphed into some learning or lessons about this adjustment for this Wandering Spirit (the rig, now aptly named), as follows:

1. You will always have to move something to get what you need.
2. It isn’t where you thought you packed it.
3. When turning on the hot water, it’s the other direction or other handle.
4. Training your dog to travel comfortably on the couch/lounge area means ownership of space. You may be allowed to use ¼ of that space if you are also willing to share that ¼ space with the dog (lots of snuggle time).
5. Don’t place the dog’s water bowl in the cat’s exit path from the litter box. This will reduce the number of times you need to wash the bowl during the day.
6. What you thought were good storage solutions are subject to change after you lifted and/or moved those solutions a few times. (On to plan B, a shopping trip to Ikea – soft, squishable containers work better).
7. Your bed will always look like it was made by a 4-year-old.  On a good day, it may look like a 5 year did it.
8. It is no longer “my bed”, it is “community bed” and you are allotted 1/8 to 1/14 of it, depending on preferred sleeping configuration for the cat and the dog for the night.
9. Wearing a bicycle helmet for when you are working under the slide-out in the storage bay looks ridiculous, but it helps.  Enough said.
10. If you are a stick in the mud kind of person, pull the rig forward a few inches until the jack releases.  Consider this free advice, it cost me $425.
11.  Long handle grabbers are your friend.  As are step stools for the height and reach impaired.  Same goes for the bending over or reaching under the table for the mid-section impaired (if you know what I mean).
12. A good smoke alarm will let you know when you are cooking a steak, eggs, or making applesauce– well just about anything really. Best to bundle up and open all windows, vents and doors unless you like fire drills.

So, the adventure begins.  And I am learning every day.  Good thing I’ve got a little time to figure it all out before I hit the road.

This dream manifested itself decades ago, I just didn’t recognize it as my retirement dream until about more recently – 10-15 years.  I lived another lifelong dream which came to a sad end when an economic recession took it from me.  As I looked through old journals, I saw periodic references to travelling and seeing the USA, camping, visiting national parks.  At one point, I considered buying a small camping trailer since pitching and sleeping in tents was getting old.

Once the vision of this life clarified, and I knew it was how my retirement would begin.  I saw 3 basic steps to make it come true: work until 70 to maximize social security checks, save as much money as possible and buy a small, manageable motorhome in the year before I retire.  Here I am, beginning my adventure after following the plan.

After retiring on October 1, I went into sorting, donating and packing mode – aka “downsizing”.  The objective was to store all my belongings in minimal storage footage.  It took most of the month and in the end, I still had to rent a larger storage unit for my belongings.  I turned in the keys to my home of 11 years (a large apartment) and moved into my RV.  But before that I did meticulous planning with timelines and saved as much as I could to achieve my goal.  I have the notebook to prove it – down to who to send change of address notices too.

For the prior 2 ½ years, I attended RV shows – dodging salespeople and taking photos of rigs that appealed to me, making notes on the units and what I liked.  Then I put together a must/wants list (that business training paid off) and reviewed ads for over a year, learning prices, features and options.  Finally, I travelled farther north where there was more inventory of the size and type of rig I was looking for – and found my rig, made my purchase and experienced my first long drive in it in Seattle rush hour traffic!  Later I realized that this 24 ft Thor Coleman motorhome model was photographed many times when I was at the RV Shows. And it met 99% of my must/wants off on my checklist.

But preparation didn’t end there – I customized my rig with self-levelling jacks, blind spot cameras and a good sound system for driving.  I read the manuals and created my own set-up and close-down guides. I went to a friend’s house to practice backing up.  Then I did my first camp, not far from home on a flat pad and learned that the gray water tank fills quickly, which led to my first lesson on dump stations.

I took a long, multi-state trip and learned a little about trip planning, RV parks and practiced my hook-up skills.  By hook-ups, I mean water, power and sewage – no dating apps were required or used.  I got comfortable driving, filling it with gas and generally loved the experience of travelling in my own home, with Audy-wee keeping me company.