Refreshed and Renewed

Minnie was in desperate need of a good cleaning after a year's worth of travel and life on a dusty street while in T or C.  Perfect timing for Perfect Choice to show up in my life.

Carpet, chairs and cushions were all steam cleaned and I vow to have this done once a year.

I also decided to make further improvements to my living space.  Jennifer inspired the idea for curtains and small table and my friend Gloria helped with the curtain selection as well as the driving around for all the new purchases.

Loving my new space.

Welcome to my new home

Total Serenity

Italy

As soon as I voice it, "I have no desire to go to Europe again", Boom, there it is, a tantalizing tidbit calling to me.

It is not a casual calling, it never is, but something wanting my attention, something cosmic calling to me, asking me if I will make this one more journey into the unknown, for some unknown purpose, of unknown importance.

I know I can do it, I have the time, resources and willingness.  My only question is how strong is the calling, is it a whim or something that cannot be denied.

I will sleep on it, asking for guidance, direction, hoping to know in the morning the path that lies ahead.

It's My Year

The Chinese New Year is about to begin.  It is the year of the Rabbit.  It is my year.

In the Dagara Cosmology we have entered the Water element.  It is my year.

Jupiter, chief god of the Capitoline Triad, with Juno and Minerva

Jupiter has moved into Aries.   It is my year.

Let the Year begin.

Mesa, AZ

Minnie in Mesa

I miss New Mexico.  My parting has been unusual in that I still feel very connected to that land and that place.  I want to go back.

I drove to Benson, AZ my first night on the road.  It was my third time back in Benson and this time I decided to stay at a different park so I chose Butterfield RV Resort which is the only park in the US that has an observatory.  Even with the moon nearly full we were able to view a bi-nary star, Jupiter with three of its moons, a garnet star and the craters of the moon.  While in T or C I had nightly watched the movement of Orion so to be able to view it up close was a particular treat.  That was all wonderful but I also felt claustrophobic.  I am not sure if in reality the site was particularly close, or that after the wide expanse of New Mexico things felt as if they were closing in on me.  Also while I was there my computer would no longer run off electricity and would only run on battery power.  How odd...seems it should have been the reverse.  I purchased a new power cord and hoped for the best.

The next day I pulled into Val Vista Resort in Mesa, AZ and stepped into yet another strange, unknown world.  It is a retirement community that feels eerily like junior high school.  Dances are held weekly, clothes are a hot topic, lots of giggling and prancing about and I sense there may also be particular cliques.  I find myself doing a lot of smiling and laughing as I stumble upon various areas of discovery.  While watching people play shuffle board I heard a distinct tapping sound and sure enough, there was a tap dancing class just about to begin in the neighboring building.  I was offered tap shoes if I would like to join but I had just come from the pool and was ready to head back to my site.   They offer just about any activity you might want to explore.

For me, most days I walk to the salt water swimming pool to swim, lounge and sun, just what I asked for.  I feel no need to socialize and am happy to live quietly within my own neighborhood.  Ken and Glorida, my friends from Mt. Hood, are workamping here and live just a few blocks away and I visit with them from time to time. 

With the help of Gloria and Ken I did buy a new computer and I have a few more purchases and upgrades yet to make.  I am taking advantage of this time off to work on my *list* of improvements to Minnie and my lifestyle, adjusting and refining.

I am also taking time to reflect on my personal life.  Where do I go from here, what roads do I want to explore.  What internal corridors are yet to be walked and what doors will I choose to open.  And more importantly, what will I find when I open them.

New Community, New Computer

It was finally time for a new computer so I am currently in the process of getting re-organized and familiar with my new device. 

In the meantime, I am living in a retirement community:)!  How bizarre, how bizarre...

More later.

Till We Meet Again

Riverbend Crew

Good-bye my friends.  I hope our paths will one day meet again.

It is Done

Finished my last day of work.  It was a Saturday so very busy and fast paced, but I tried to savor every moment of it.  As I closed each of the private pools I bid them good-bye and tomorrow I will sit with Mama Rio and say my farewells.

I have enjoyed this community and the 3 1/2 months went by very quickly.  Today there will be a pot luck (they love pot lucks here), I will soak in the pools tonight, gaze into the skies above and be thankful for the friends and people it has been my privilege to meet and greet.

I have reserved a site in Benson, AZ for tomorrow night and am excited to once again be out on the open road, heading into a new adventure. 

Round and round and round she goes........ where she stops, nobody knows.

Toxic

I am still relatively new to this workamping experience but what I have learned in the two places I have worked is that there is one workamping couple that will stand out.  They will not stand out in an out-standing way, but in a way that makes the rest of the workampers want to retreat to their inner sanctums.  It is the worker that brings toxins to the work place.

I know this happens in work places, but when you are a workamper you go home and they are still there.  They live in your neighborhood, and it can be a very tight neighborhood.  They create a certain tension when they enter the small workamping family and there is just no way to avoid them. 

It is when the toxicity starts to spill over and take up too much room that I feel the need to speak.   I will not tolerate anti-Semitic comments or sexist behavior.  I will call you on it every time.  When I start to feel a tsunami of  negativity, I take myself to a higher ground and try the best I can to avoid the waves.

There was a time that I was very fearful to confront such behavior.  I was a female living in a male dominated world and a workplace where men were allowed to massage your shoulders and demand you get them coffee and any objection would find you without a job.

I am thankful to live in this time that no longer tolerates un-consiousness and a time where I no longer fear using my voice.

Time Collapse

Days no longer have a particular feel for me.  I could usually wake up in the morning and have a sense of what day it was.  Friday, Saturday, Sunday Monday...they were ingrained into my sensory field and I knew what they felt like.  For awhile I could continue to find the day's energy if I put some effort into it, but I have now lost even that ability.

For me, time has collapsed.

Harold, Sue and Keith

Harold and Sue live behind me.  We arrived at Riverbend the same day and have been friends ever since.  They refer to themselves as ex-hippies but what really intrigues me is that they are ghost hunters.  They avidly try to find ghosts, I avidly try to avoid them.  Our conversations are always interesting.

Today is Sunday, my work day Friday (the days do get confusing), and they persistently kept trying to wake me up this morning.  By the second time they knocked on my door I finally opened up my bedroom window to see what all the ruckus was about.  They wanted to take me to brunch, and they were paying.  Seemed very generous, how could I refuse, and then they let me in on the plan that they and neighbor Keith have been hatching.

Ornery Boy Keith

Presently, I am part owner in a travel trailer that Sue and Harold purchased.  I loaned them the money for a down payment until they can get to their credit union in Phoenix and Saturday is moving day.  The plan is that Keith will help me unhook Minnie, she will need to be moved, and then help me hook back up after Harold and Sue have moved their belongings from their old home into their new home.  They need my space for ease of moving and this was the plan they were formulating before my eyes were even open.

This plan may even work to my advantage.  I am thinking of all the necessary chores I can complete on Saturday while I am unhooked that will allow me an earlier leave time on Monday.

Sometimes sleeping in can be a good thing.

Time Draws Near

It has begun.   I am starting to feel the  inevitable sadness that begins as my departure date grows nearer.  I feel it coming as I sit with Mama Rio, feeling such peace as I spend my last days sitting with the Rio Grande. I have sunk myself deep within this land and it will not be an easy thing to say good-bye.

It is my life, this coming and going, and sometimes saying good-bye is harder than other times.  I remember my time spent with the Santa Rosa Sound, Mt. Hood, the Tor, the three Silver Birch Trees in my Eugene backyard and so many other Nature elements I have befriended.

They travel with me as I travel down the road to meet my new friends.

Hitting the Wall

On day 4 I hit the wall.  All of a sudden the phone didn't work and I could not turn off one of the lights.  That was all it took to hit the wall.  When the manager walked in I had such a dazed look on my face he asked if I was ok, but I made it through my 6 day shift.

During those 6 days we had frigid weather.  It was so cold that some nights pipes froze, the drinking fountain froze and I needed to salt areas of the deck that became icy.  I was ever so thankful I did not work the 10PM - 12AM shift on New Year's Eve and instead spent those hours soaking in a pool and looking at the stars overhead.  Because my body was so warm I neglected to think about my face being exposed to 15 degree temperatures and ended up with some very chapped skin, but oh, it was worth it.  First time in I don't know how many years I didn't have an alcoholic beverage.

On New Year's Day a belly dancing troupe showed up requesting a private pool.  These four women carried a certain dark energy which made me unwilling to bend to their ways and there were several go-rounds and a call to the manager before they paid in full and were allowed into a private pool.  Before long one of the women came out dressed in a towel and proceeded down to the Rio Grande, took off her towel and went skinny dipping in the water.  I had to remind her that the public area was not clothing optional.  If one of the men were working this may have gotten a different reaction, but I knew these women too well.  When they left, they left their towels and cups in the pool area for me to clean up.  Even to the end they had treated me as if I were their servant.

Turn On

 He walked into the office, tall, young and good-looking.  He had a wonderful sparkle to him.  So did his girlfriend.

After they had soaked he stopped back into the office to wait for his girlfriend to change.  Within a few minutes time we had talked of the tiny homes movement, Native Americans and Druids.  Then the phone rang and he left, leaving me wanting more.

Conversation can be such a turn-on.

Review of Class C Minnie Winnie Winnebago

First picture of Minnie

 I have been full-timing for over a year in my 1996, 25' Minnie Winnie Winnebago (24.6') and have found it to be the perfect fit for me.  I knew nothing about the RV life, had never lived in one and didn't even drive Minnie before I purchased her.  All I knew was that was to be the next phase of my life and I jumped off the deep end and never looked back.  Another factor was that the home I was living in with my then husband sold within a week of going on the market and closed within 30 days.  Nothing to do but find a new home:).

I did do a lot of looking online and spent time going to RV dealerships sitting in various styles to get a feel of what might work.  I liked the vans and Class Bs  because of their size, ease of driving and good gas mileage.  I was glad I did not buy the smaller size while I was living in Oregon and the rain kept me mostly inside for several days in a row.  For those times I really needed more indoor living space.

I almost bought a Class A because I loved the living space.  It was a 29' Rexhall Aerbus but when I took it for a test drive, I didn't *love* driving it and got cold feet when in the process of signing the purchase agreement.  Still thanking my nervous system for that one:)  It would have been wonderful to live in, not so wonderful to drive.

I did like the Class Cs and the #1 criteria for me was the bed in the back.  I am too old to be going up and down a ladder to my bed each night and I do love my bed:).  So I had basically decided on a Class C.  They looked roomy enough and easy enough to drive, almost like driving a pick-up truck.

To make sure I covered all my bases, I posted a wanted ad on craigslist.  In return, this is the email I received:

"Hello,

Are you still in the market for a motorhome? My husband and I have decided to sell our 1996 24' Class C Minnie Winnie, as we just aren't using it anymore. It has the cabover bed as well as a double in the rear. It's really clean with less than 35,000 miles.

We've added a fully automatic power awning as well as headers on the motor.

I've enclosed a couple of outside photos, but can certainly send more of the inside if you're interested.

We'd like to get $17,000 for it.

Let us know if you're interested!"

The next day I went to look at Minnie, knew she was the one, asked if they could hold it for me until our house closed and I could return with a cashier's check and several weeks later she was mine.  Then the real adventure began:)!

I have purchased new tires, new car battery, new microwave, new heating element for the fridge, new motor for the power awning and had a few minor repairs.  This Winnebago is solid, has a great engine, fairly well insulated (withstanding 11 degree temps) and I have never second guessed my decision. 

The problem will be if I ever decide to sell her.