Making Lemonade Outta Lemons

Sue's Incomplete List of Rules for RV Living, Part 1

2011-07-10T18:29:00.000-06:00

Living in an RV is not for everyone, and requires some important bits of knowledge before embarking on an adventure like this. So, as a public service, I have created a list of rules you might want to follow if you ever find yourself considering this unique housing option:

Sue's Rules for RVing

#1. Try to make sure the RV park you pick doesn't suck

We began our stay in Tijeras, a little town in what are called the East Mountains. Tijeras is about 8 miles east of Abq. I picked this particular RV park because it was cheap. In the Albuquerque area, RV parks generally run from about $300 - $600 per month, and we could only consider places on the low end of the range. The place we chose was quiet, but it was a mishmash of prickly, tall weeds, rocks and dirt. No club house or pool, and we couldn't connect to their "free" Wi-fi. Free wi-fi my ass!

Our lovely RV Park in Tijeras!

After only a few days we realized it was a sucky campground, but we had already paid for a month. You can pay nightly for a few days until you see if you like it. Most parks cost about $25-$30 a night. But when you're poor, it seems crazy to put out $60 or $90 for a few days to make sure you like it there, when you know you could just put down the $350 for the month and be done with it! So, let me amend my first rule: if you're low on cash, just pay monthly and deal with it!

#2. Be friendly, but not too friendly.   It was a small RV park, but out of about 50 spaces, there were only about 7 RVs camped there. (That should have been my first clue to Rule #1). I had imagined bonding with all these older, retired RVing couples, listening to them talk about their travels, the good old days and life on the road.

But that didn't happen, especially at that first park.

There was one guy whose family was in Texas but he had a job at Kirtland Air Force Base in Abq. He lived in a fifth wheel instead of an apartment, and was gone to Amarillo every weekend. There was a 30's-ish couple who had a lot of visitors nightly, and they would light a small campfire and sit around drinking beers and hanging out, but they weren't friendly to us.   There were a few RVs with people who almost never came out. I wasn't even sure some of them were occupied until I caught a glimpse now and then of someone opening a door and slamming it shut again.

And then there was Mabel.

She lived 2 spots over from us, and welcomed us warmly when we first arrived. She was in her 60s, she said, and had lived there for about 2 years. 2 years!! People live in RVs for years and years! The thought made me a little sick to my stomach. Mabel started coming over on a regular basis: to give us some basil from her basil plant, to give us a DVD she had already watched, etc. Not long after we arrived she gave me a loose-leaf notebook and told me it was the book she had written. She wanted me to read it and tell her if I thought it could be published. Okay, I thought, I'll read it fast and praise it no matter what.

Whoa, Nellie! I was not prepared for this story! It was a memoir about the years she spent being homeless! There were many, many personal details that I felt uncomfortable reading (probably similar to how some of you might feel reading this blog!) and knowing about this woman I had just met. It detailed dumpster diving, breaking and entering, hygiene issues, and much, much more. It makes me cringe just thinking about it! This is not because I have an issue with her having been homeless, but because of the forced intimacy imposed on me. It was as if the natural way of becoming friends was to make a little small talk with someone, and then exchange notebooks with all of your dirty laundry spilled across the pages for the other person to read. I didn't want to know her that well! I don't think I want to know anyone that well! It was depressing and icky.

Some of you reading this know that I have had a rough couple of years dealing with poverty, foreclosure, surgery for an ectopic pregnancy, unemployment and generally feeling like a failure. Then we make this cross-country odyssey in order to start fresh, begin anew, and she gives me this piece of dreck detailing just how much worse life can get. Gee, at least we haven't had to eat garbage yet! Oh, and we haven't slept in barns yet! I guess things really are looking up for us! We're almost at the end of our money, we need jobs, and we're living in a bus, but boy are we lucky!!!

Between the writing and the endless tales of desperation, I was in hell.

I felt a little traumatized when I was done, but I managed to tell her it was good but sad and I definitely thought it could be published. It could, I guess...

After that, I avoided Mabel at all costs. I had to. I couldn't deal. Yet she seemed to be waiting for us every time we came home. A minute or two after we would drive up to our spot in our car, she would be knocking on the door to Old Gal. She asked us to watch movies with her, play board games, and just come and talk with her.   I know she was lonely and just wanted some company, but I couldn't listen to more of her bad luck stories. We did spend some time with her, but it was getting to the point where I fantasized about leaving our car out on the main road and sneaking up to our RV so she wouldn't know we were there!   That might work, but since her rig was only 10 feet away, when we got to Old Gal we would have to come in and sit in complete darkness and silence.

We considered it.

I'm ashamed to say that on our last day in Tijeras, Mabel happened to be at work, and we not-so-coincidentally forgot to tell her we were leaving.   Okay, I'm not ashamed. I couldn't take anymore, and even though we were moving across town, I didn't want to take the chance that she would find us.    Maybe I'm the worst person in the world, but if I saw her today I would hide. Definitely. Be friendly, but not too friendly. Please.

#3. Get someone else, like your husband, to deal with the gray and black water tanks. This is a very important rule!   First, maybe I should explain about these tanks. When you get to an RV site, you have a water spigot nearby, which you hook up to your rig with your own hose, like a garden hose. Then, when you need water, like in the kitchen sink, the water comes through the faucet and everything is grand.

But what happens to the water after it goes down the drain?

Well, it goes to the Gray Water Tank in the bowels of the RV. You need to check it periodically (or get your husband to do it) so it doesn't fill up and come back up on you.

Any of you wondering what happens with the commode??? You don't really want to know, but you're a little curious, aren't you? Come on, admit it! Okay, I'll tell you about The Black Tank. When you use the toilet, you step on the flush mechanism near the floor. That causes the bottom of the toilet to open up and drop all the goodies directly into the black tank.   This tank is exclusively for toilet goodies. Before the black tank fills up (and believe me, you'll know when it's time), you attach a large-ish hose on the outside of the RV that goes from the black tank to a hole in the ground. Each site has its own hole, and I guess each hole leads to some fabulous septic system underground.

Well, when you want to flush all of this yukky water out of your tanks, both gray and black, you open a valve and the gray water flows through the black water tank (to help clean and empty it) and all of it goes into the hole in the ground. Or that is what is supposed to happen.

We went on RV websites like Good Sam (www.goodsam.com) to get tips before we left, and apparently many people have unfortunate incidents when emptying black water tanks. Sometimes they don't attach the hoses very well, which leads to spilling and spraying of "black water". Or they forget to wear gloves, or the tank overflows, etc.

Just thinking about it activates my gag reflex! Ack!

I'm a girl from suburban New Jersey. We never had to deal this intimately with the most unpleasant of all bodily fluids/emissions! We barely even needed a plunger in the 20 + years I lived in my parents' house!   Before I agreed to this nutty, hair-brained scheme, I told Jimmy in no uncertain terms that I would only do it if I never had to deal with the poopy tank. I never did, thank god!

Luckily, Jimmy is a crack hose-attacher, and I'm proud to say there were no black water tank incidents during our entire 6-month stay in Old Gal.   Whew!

Don't be a hero - get someone else to do it!

There are more rules for RV living, but these are the ones I consider the most important for now. Don't stay at a sucky place, don't talk about your stint as a homeless person until you know someone well, and don't go near the poopy tank & hoses. Follow these rules - you'll be glad you did!

Stuck Inside of San Jon, With the Abq Blues Again

2011-05-31T18:52:00.000-06:00

So, It's Monday night, June 7th, and we're boondocking at Terry's Truck Service in San Jon, New Mexico. Old Gal is sad and wheezing, we are exhausted, and none of us is going anywhere anytime soon. The only one who seems relatively cheery is Freddie, our sweet 13-year-old pooch, who has no idea what's going on, but is going with the flow. The owner of the shop let us plug in to the building, which means we had enough electricity to turn on a few lights and possibly watch a video on our little 9-inch TV-VCR combo, but not much else. We fell into bed and prayed for sleep.

The next morning, we used their restrooms to wash up, made a space for Freddie in the back of the car behind the driver's seat, and took off in search of a way to spend the day. On the advice of a mechanic, we went to the only major 'city' in the region, Tucumcari. We set off west on Route 40, and 20 minutes later we came to a town whose most striking attribute was a mountain with a giant "T" painted on it.

We found a great diner on Old Route 66, found a spot to park the car in the shade, opened all the windows wide, and left Freddie to get some breakfast. It was hot hot hot, in the 80s already in the morning, and I was very concerned about leaving her. But I checked on her every 10 minutes and I can assure you she was happy and cool in the shade!

Unfortunately, breakfast can only last so long, and we soon found ourselves driving around trying to eat up some time. We drove the entire length of Old Route 66 through Tucumcari, which had many of those classic kitschy motels that made 66 famous. Well, it used to have many of those motels. Now most of them are mere shells, long closed, neon signs dark and windows broken. There is much nostalgia about Route 66, but no one seems interested in maintaining its character. And even if these motels did get new owners who spiffied them up, would anyone want to stay there instead of a Days Inn? Nostalgia or no, there seemed to be very little thriving commerce on Route 66. It was kinda depressing.

After a thorough tour of Tucumcari we reluctantly drove back to Terry's Truck Service. We were hoping that they were close to fixing Old Gal, but found that they hadn't even brought her into a service bay yet. Clearly we were going to be there for the entire afternoon. What to do? We explored San Jon (at first I pronounced it San "John", but later learned that it was pronounced San "hone"). This town was like something out of a movie - it had one traffic light, one crumbling motel, a small school and a tiny post office. There were a few streets of modest houses, and a gas station/truck stop just off the highway. The entire town is located just south of Route 40 & Old Route 66, except for Terry's and a convenience store, which were across the highway to the north. Much of the surrounding landscape was made up of cattle ranches, though we rarely saw any cattle.

We checked out a wind farm up on a mesa to the south of San Jon, then went north for about 45 minutes until we reached Ute Lake State Park. What a beautiful lake! It was surrounded by a light rock that looked a bit like limestone, and had water that was bright turquoise. Wow! By now it was 105 degrees outside, and we were hot and cranky, but all that changed the second we saw the water. There were a few people swimming and they looked so happy that we decided to go in in our clothes!

Two words - pure heaven! The water was crisply cold and refreshing, and made me happy beyond reason. Freddie even loved it! She's not usually a big fan of water, but she walked right in up to her neck!   After that she proceeded to roll all over the sandy beach until she was one big yellow ball. That's a happy dog! It was a wonderful way to spend the day!

We got back to the truck shop in late afternoon, but had to sit and wait until 8pm for them to give us any news on the RV. Once again the mechanic said he found the problem, then realized he hadn't when he and Jimmy went on a test drive. I was upset by their seeming lack of concern over the amount of time it was taking or the quality of work by their mechanics, but where else were we going to take it?   It was getting harder to keep our spirits up.

Another day passed waiting for them to fix Old Gal, and again Jimmy went with the mechanic on a test drive at about 9pm.   Jimmy didn't think the problem was really fixed, but Old Gal was running better, so we paid them a whopping $800 and finally continued down the road toward Albuquerque.   On our way again!   Only 200 miles to go!

We made it about 20 miles, to just outside of Tucumcari, when Old Gal sputtered and died by the side of the highway.   We had to call Terry's to come and tow Old Gal back to the garage, which took an additional 2 hours. For the third night in a row, we were stuck in San Jon, with Old Gal no closer to being back on the road.   We took showers in the truck stop across the highway and felt dejected and depressed.

We had been going like gangbusters since January when we bought Old Gal! Jimmy drove her up to PA from Florida, we cleaned her, fixed her top to bottom, sold all of our stuff, did research on Albuquerque, planned our route and our job-hunting strategies, moved into our house on wheels, and drove 1,700 miles cross-country - only to get stopped dead in our tracks 200 miles from our destination. Unbelievable!

The one bright spot in being stuck in San Jon was the little take-out place in the convenience store next to Terry's Truck Service. When we first walked in to get some water, we were greeted with the unmistakable and delectable aroma of Indian food!   I mean East Indian food, like you can find all over New Jersey! My brain wasn't quite able to comprehend these exotic spice smells coming from this store in this town. And it tasted as good as it smelled! Delicious samosas and tandoori chicken as good as I've ever had! What luck!   There's not a single restaurant in San Jon except for one that just happens to feature Indian cooking! The people were friendly and all the food was made by a woman who seemed to be the elderly matriarch of the family. If you ever find yourself near San Jon and you're feeling like a nosh, drop by this place for a great meal. I don't remember the name, but trust me, it's easy to find...

We sputtered into Terry's on Monday afternoon and were finally out of there on Friday afternoon. By Friday morning, they finally decided to switch mechanics, and the new one seemed to get it right. We left San Jon at about 2pm, but without the same feeling of joy and anticipation we had the night before. However, Old Gal was able to make the trip. We had to stop every hour or so to let her rest, because she was still having trouble getting up hills.

Finally, finally, a few hours later, we saw the Sandia Mountains up ahead, and we knew we were close to Albuquerque. We had reservations at a campground outside of Abq in a little town called Tijeras (pronounced "Ti-herr-ahs") and we felt like the Hebrews must have felt after their little 40-year-hike around the desert. Ok, so instead of 40 years, it took us 11 days. But we too had reached our Promised Land, and we were grateful.

New Mexico Here We Come!!

2011-02-04T17:58:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning. We woke up outside of Carthage, Missouri to cooler temperatures and lower humidity. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and we were excited to get back on the road. We spent the day driving through Oklahoma.

There were so many cattle!! Lots of ranches but not all that much to see. We stopped at an awesome tourist trap called Cherokee Junction. They had all manner of Route 66 tchochkes, leather wear, and Native American style artwork, pottery,and woven baskets. It was a fun diversion, but also a little depressing. I love big tourist traps, including South of the Border and any Stuckey's, but there's a whiff of desperation and sadness about them too. This place was supposedly run by the Kickapoo Nation, but I can't say I saw anyone working there who looked native at all. But what do I know? There are supposed to be a lot of fun stops along "Historic Route 66" in OK, but we had to stick to the highway, so we missed all of that. Here are some fun pictures of things we missed:

Boy it would have been fun to see those, huh??? Anyway, after Oklahoma City, my favorite sight was the wind turbines. You could see them from 12 miles away! There were hundreds of them!!! At first I couldn't tell what they were, but as we got closer they seemed to multiply and spread, and they were just beautiful against the stark, brown, flat landscape.

Not the best picture, but hey, we were driving! Please note the bug splatters on Old Gal's windshield! Gritty realism...

We stayed at a campground that was more like a glorified parking lot near Elk City, and the rest of the night was unremarkable except for the fact that there we saw some men in a restaurant with cowboy hats on! For this Jersey girl, it was kinda cool; a real indication of how far we were from home.

The next day we went through the panhandle of Texas. It was filled with ranches and cattle and open land and those windmills you see in old movies.

The highlight of our day was our lunch at The Big Texan - Home of the 72 oz. Steak, near Amarillo! We had seen this place on the Travel Channel but had no idea where it was in Texas, and never expected to be there. But how can you not stop when it's the only thing for miles and they advertise it every tenth of a mile from 50 miles out???!? Plus, depressing as they can be, you know how much I love a good tourist trap! And this was The Best !!! They had a fantastic Route 66 tchochke collection in the enormous gift shop, plus steer heads and cattle horns, and a lot of Native American items similar to what we'd seen before like dream catchers & woven baskets. Some even made in China!

The restaurant was as big as a barn and two floors high. Heads of every animal imaginable were mounted to the walls around the entire perimeter of the room. It was so stereotypically "Texas" it was a little silly, but the steaks were not. They were seriously juicy, seared to perfection and delicious.

my normal-sized steak!

They are semi-famous for their 72 oz. steak contest. If you can eat an entire 4 lb. 8 oz. steak with all the sides (baked potato and 2 fried shrimp) in an hour or less, you get it for free. As if this weren't enough, if you do decide to take part in this meat-fest, you have to do so sitting at this table you see here with a spotlight and a big timer. No thanks, and Yuck!!! My arteries hurt just thinking about it!

We goofed around and took some silly pics for a bit, and then got back on the road.


Jimmy in the giant rocking chair

They have big boots

Jimmy is such a good sport!

I'm not sure if Amarillo is that windy all the time, but it was intense and non-stop the whole time we were there. I was glad to move on. We had another 2 hours or so to get through Texas. The wind made it difficult to keep the car in my lane and the flat brown landscape was dull and featureless, when suddenly the land got a little grassier and then it opened up on either side of the highway into small gorges as if we were on top of a mesa when before it was nothing but flat. It was a welcome change and so beautiful!   Gradually the land became hilly, until finally we made it to NEW MEXICO!!!! It took us 7 days and a few setbacks, but we made it!!!

However, all was not well with Old Gal. The hills were a problem, and she was going slower and slower on every incline. There was nothing but open scrub land on either side of the highway, and Jimmy was getting worried that she was going to break down altogether at any moment. We got off at the first stop, where the lone gas station was closed. We continued on but now the adrenaline was coursing through my body, not knowing how far the next exit was and if anyone there would be able to look at our RV.

Relief came another 10 minutes down the road, where Exit 2 had an establishment called "Terry's Truck Service".   What dumb luck!   Old Gal sputtered into the lot, and they were able to take her into the garage and get started even though it was about 4:30 pm. We pulled out our portable chairs, and sat in the parking lot with Freddie for the next 5 hours. At 9:30 the mechanic told Jimmy he thought the problem was fixed and the two of them went for a test drive. A half hour later they returned.   Jimmy said they barely made it back. It wasn't fixed.

Old Gal wouldn't be fixed for another FOUR days.

Those next 4 days were the longest month of my life...

Westward Ho!

2011-01-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

Ah, Columbus, Ohio. Nice. Kinda pretty. Wish I could say more about it, but we didn't get to do much exploring while Old Gal was being fixed. We might have been able to, except for one thing: Freddie.

That's her in the front seat! She was almost 13 years old when we started this trip, and I was a little worried about her. Every time we stopped, we had to think first about what would be best for her. We didn't keep her in the RV for very long without us (and when there was a cross breeze, she was quite comfy sitting up front in one of the captain's chairs, as you can see)! At the truck stop, we sat with her on a leash in one of the few shady spots or walked around and made sure she had plenty of water. So when Old Gal had to be fixed, we made a nice space for Freddie behind the driver's seat of the car. But it's a little hard to "sight see" when the car is stuffed to the gills and there are kayaks on top. One stop short and Freddie could be flattened!

Instead, we found a place to park under a tree and waited for them to fix our house-on-wheels. And waited. And waited. I read, did crossword puzzles, checked out all the new Chevys in the dealership out front, walked Freddie 4 times, and tried to nap. We sat there for 7 hours! It was so tough to be patient. This was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime! We should be doing something fun! But making sure sweet Freddie was well taken care of was more important than anything else.

A few hundred dollars later, we got back on the road and zipped down Interstate 70 through the rest of Ohio and Indiana.

We stopped for the night in Terra Haute, just on the border of Illinois, boondocking in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Another night with no water hookup or electricity, and we were dirty, hot, and tired. This feeling began to gnaw at me in the pit of my stomach. What the heck did we do? Is this one huge mistake? What are we going to? Albuquerque is some place on a map, in the middle of a rectangular state that I've never been to, and we are headed there why? I couldn't remember.

I should mention that Thursday morning I got a call from one of the districts where I was substitute teaching in PA. It seems they wanted me to interview for an elementary teaching position! The woman on the phone wanted to know if I'd be available the next day. I told her I was currently in Ohio, on my way to relocating to New Mexico, so no, I wouldn't be available for an interview anytime soon. Sometimes you just have to laugh and keep going! What is there to say about that???

We pushed on through Illinois and into Missouri. I saw the Gateway Arch in St. Louis from the highway, and Jimmy took a picture when traffic had stopped on the bridge over the Mississippi.

That's our tour of St. Louis! Wish we could have stayed longer and looked around, checked it out, but that's what traveling with a 23 year old RV, a full car with kayaks on top, and a dog is like!!

Missouri was beautiful! What an unexpected surprise! There were really pretty mountains and everything was very green. It was 95 degrees and oppressively humid. From I-70 we got onto I-44 and went southwest to Carthage, MO. We splurged and stayed in an RV park for the night. Electricity! AC! Water! Cable TV! Showers!!! For those of you keeping track, we hadn't showered in a few days, since Ohio. Yuck!

This meant showering for the first time in Old Gal. J had used the shower when he first got her, but I had been dreading it. It's this tiny little space - maybe 2ft by 3 ft. There is just enough room to get the job done. Plus, you have to take a "Navy Shower". This is where you only use water to get wet and to wash off. I had scrubbed the shower top to bottom before we left so I knew it was clean, but it still seemed icky. Not so! It was great! Nice and cozy, and you don't get cold easily because it's a small space! Why would you waste the water by keeping it on the whole time? This process of moving and changing our lives continues to show me how things I thought I needed turned out to be unimportant in the end. We had each other, Freddie, a shower, and a comfy bed. What more do you need? For the first time since our trip began, I felt completely relaxed, grateful, and excited.

In 2011, I Resolve To Continue Writing My Blog...

2011-01-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

Hi all!
It's been a looooooooong time since I've written anything, I know! Many people have been asking me to keep writing, but for a long time I just couldn't do it. First, because it was hard being in a new place, and we were spending all of our time trying to find work and having no luck. I wasn't inspired to write about how scary things were becoming for us! Then I actually got a job, and had to devote all of my time to it, and writing seemed like something I could skip in favor of a little more sleep or a little bit of fun.

However, now that I am relaxing / convalescing after the hardest 5 months of teaching I've ever had, I think I'm ready to continue writing about our experiences. **SPOILER ALERT** For those of you who just want to cut to the chase, we made it here safely, I got a job, and we're surviving. For those of you who want to hear the story, read on!

Isn't she a beauty???!!!?

So...where were we? Oh, right! It's Tuesday, June 1st. We were boondocking in Akron, Ohio. Boondocking, for those uninitiated to the world of RVing, is when you basically just pull off the road and stay somewhere overnight. You don't hook up to anything like electric or water, and most times, it's free! There are also very few places where you can do it. Camping World and Wal-Mart are two places that will let you park overnight in their lots. So we parked in the Akron Camping World parking lot, and settled in for the night. The only problem was that no electricity also meant no AC, which meant sleeping with the 2 tiny little back windows open and praying for a breeze. We were trying to be as careful with money as possible, so we planned to boondock a lot during our trip. I'm sure it's great in the spring and fall, but in summer, not so much!

Feeling grumpy the next morning from lack of sleep, I settled into the difficult job of resting under a tree with Freddie (our pooch) while J worked on the RV. It was having some charging problems and the batteries were getting low, and he wanted to see if he could get it running better before we took off and possibly broke down on the highway. He worked on it for a good two hours, but still wasn't happy with it. Time was passing and we were still only in Akron!

J decided to keep going and get some more miles under our belts. We got about a half hour down the road when J told me over our walkie talkies that we had to get off the road again. I felt panic rise in my throat. We were still only 5 hours away from home!! He said we needed to find someplace to plug in to charge the batteries. We then spent a good bit of time trying to figure out where we were and if there were any campgrounds nearby. We had hit a rural area! We looked in our trusty Woodall's Camping Guide and found a place about 5 miles away. J was really afraid that Old Gal would get stuck on one of the small country roads we had to travel to get there, but she made it just fine!

The campground was quiet and serene. I could see a pretty lake down the hill, gorgeous willow trees and oaks and many RVs in evenly spaced rows. My first RV camp ever! They had a pool, and I was dying to get into my suit and dive in. But before I could do that, we needed to find our site, hook up the water, electricity, and the poo tank (more about that later!)! As we were setting up outside, we heard a strange 'clop clop' noise coming down the road, but the foliage was so dense we couldn't see what it was until it went past us. An Amish man driving a buggy! It was an unexpected & cool sight that made me smile at the end of an otherwise frustrating day.

We left early the next morning, ready to get back on the road. We got about 20 minutes away from the campground when J pulled into a Flying J Truck Stop. Apparently, even though we plugged in the night before, the electrical system still wasn't charged, and J decided it was time to call a professional. This is where having an iPhone or other smart phone comes in handy! We called around and found a Chevy dealership in Columbus, about a half hour away. They said they could take us first thing the next morning. J didn't want to run Old Gal anymore that day, so we couldn't go back to the campsite, which meant we spent a whole day at the truck stop.

For those of you who've never spent much time at a truck stop, I can tell you they're quite interesting! We perused the extensive Country Market, sat in the trucker's lounge and watched an uncomfortable 15 minutes of something on TV, then did a little laundry just for kicks. The best part was at sunset when we walked over to the "pickle park" - the giant parking lot for the tractor trailers. J used to drive a truck for awhile way back when, so be brought me over there to watch the semi drivers back expertly into spots with only 5 or so feet between them and the trailers on either side. Pretty cool! But did you know that in summer, every tractor trailer that stops off for the night will keep his or her engine running all night so they can run their AC? We watched for about 15 minutes when I noticed that all the trucks were running, not just the ones coming in and out. No wonder we use most of the world's fuel! Do you know how many trucks there are on the roads at any given time??? I have to say, though, that we met quite a few truckers on our trip, and they were some of the nicest people we've ever met. They work long, hard hours and they spend a lot of time alone, so they're a friendly bunch in general. Finally, the smell of diesel was becoming overpowering and we went back to the front parking lot and sweet Old Gal, where we sweated through another night of boondocking.

Back to Writing! To The Journey...

2010-07-24T20:35:00.000-06:00

Hello! I'm back! Well, I was always here and giving friends little updates on Facebook, but I have not been able to bring myself to continue writing here until now. All I can say to sum up the last 2 months is:

Whew! What a long strange trip it's been!!!

For those of you who don't know (are there any of you?) we made it to Albuquerque! We're here and living in our RV and ... well, let me start from where I left off...

So - it's Monday, May 31st, Memorial Day. Jimmy & I had spent the entire holiday weekend filling bags of garbage, carting usable things to the Salvation Army, and packing the car and the RV. It was meltingly hot and oppressively humid, and we talked little and stayed focused on getting done. We both had this sense of being "late" for our departure - we had been ready to leave for so long in our minds, but the task of emptying the house was bigger than we could ever have imagined (and this from a girl who's moved a gazillion times!) We were feeling dispirited and hot and exhausted, and just done, and yet the task was not yet done. We ended up having to leave more things in the house than we wanted to, but if we waited to leave until we could clear out every last scrap, we'd still be there right now! We left the few things we thought family members might want or might want to sell in a cluster in the living room, and left.

At about 5:30 pm, we got everything on the bus, I jammed every last thing I could into the car, and drove away from our little house for the last time. It might have been sad, but we had done that already so we focused on what exciting and interesting things lay ahead of us. Freddie, as usual, just took things in stride - she hopped up into the co-pilot's seat in Old Gal and seemed happy to have a full view of the road ahead. We drove past the beautiful and serene lake that marked the entrance to our little development, and began our epic cross-country journey.

45 minutes later, we arrived at our first stop - Avoca, PA, halfway between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Okay, so it wasn't exactly a long trip, but the important thing was that we had FINALLY left! I had a gigantic smile on my face the whole trip, and sang with abandon to a favorite CD.   At the Petro truck stop, exhausted from our long day of work and short bit of driving, we wolfed down some dinner and collapsed into bed.

The morning proved interesting, as I had my first shower in a truck stop! Jimmy had worked for a short while as a truck driver, so he was familiar with these showers, but I imagined some giant room with a bunch of shower nozzles, and a bunch of sweaty, hairy men all trying hard not to drop their soap! Clearly I've seen too many prison and football movies! After Jimmy had a good laugh and spent some time assuring me that they were nothing like that, I agreed, mostly because I was so gross and smelly from the day before! For a small fee, you get a towel and a key to a shower room. It was pretty wonderful! A very clean, big room with a nice hot shower, a bench on which to put your things and sit down while you're dressing, and a sink for brushing teeth and such! We had been gone for less than a day and I had already learned so much! Ah, travel!

Our day of driving was relatively uneventful, but it was a nice rest and change of pace from all the work we'd been doing to prepare for our trip! I'm sure many of you have driven the length of Route 80 across Pennsylvania, so you know that it's really a magnificent road! It's long - about 310 miles from end to end, but what struck me most about it this time was just how unbelievably GREEN Pennsylvania is. The most luscious and varied shades of green as far as one could see. The highway meanders through rolling mountains and valleys. I was also grateful to see that it has not yet been littered by endless billboards or lined with strip malls. I followed behind Old Gal, who was journeying at a steady 60 or so miles per hour, and it was a relaxing and slower pace than the rest of the traffic. Easier to enjoy the scenery!

We got to Ohio, made a left turn at Youngstown, and stopped for the evening in Akron. We headed for the Camping World there, and camped in their parking lot. We needed some parts for Old Gal, and had to wait until morning to take care of business. One full day down, another 4 or so to go! Unless, of course, we ran into technical difficulties...

Won't Be Long Now...

2010-05-25T08:17:00.000-06:00

I just want you to know that we left! We drove out of our front yard the other day and Old Gal was great! Her springs were squeaking and there was some moaning and groaning going on, but she was awesome!   The engine sounds strong and her brakes are tight, and it was so cool to finally get her rolling!

Then we drove around the block and came back, but our maiden voyage was a great success!

The fact that we haven't left yet must be pretty annoying to some of you who just want to hear about how the trip went! Well believe me, it's annoying to me too, because I am tired of going through my things and packing, packing, packing! A number of friends have called or emailed asking, "So where are you right now? Are you on the road? I hope you guys are ok!"   I feel bad when I have to burst their bubble and tell them we're still here. I am very concerned about money and finding work as soon as possible, but we need to do this right, and rushing will not help. Add to that the fact that we are both physically and emotionally exhausted, and wrapping everything up here has been more of a challenge than we could have anticipated.

But we're getting there!

Packing an RV with all of your belongings isn't like packing a moving van. There are nooks and crannies in an RV, and in order to find a place for your things, you need to use as many of those as possible. This means looking at a space, estimating its size relative to the things you have, and then actually putting things in there. The first thing you try doesn't fit and then you panic about where you're going to put that thing while you find another thing to fill the space. Then you find something else in the house that you need to bring and you realize that this thing will go better in that space than the other thing, and you keep putting things and taking them out and arranging until hopefully everything fits just so.   There are overhead bins throughout the RV, and those are relatively easy to fill. I made sure that things we use regularly would go in the most accessible bins. Music and DVD's? All taken out of their cases and put in albums, which are stashed above the couch in the 'living room'. No problem! But there are also two smallish nooks under the couch that are only accessible by pulling the front off of it. You really have to get down on your stomach to access that space, but I have put at least 20 books in there. Nice! In the 'kitchen' there is a lot of room under the bench seats at the table, but there's a water heater taking up part of the space on one side, and the benches have an aluminum frame that makes it hard to slide things in. If it won't fit in between the frame rungs, it doesn't go there! We also have space underneath the bed frame in the back (which J ingeniously built in 4 pieces that all come out). It's a pain to wrangle the mattress out of the way to put stuff back there, so we have to put things there that we don't need to access very often, like winter clothes and photo albums! She's getting pretty full, and we have to be concerned with weight - Old Gal won't get to New Mexico if we make her too heavy! I'm almost done with the packing, and it can't be finished soon enough for me!

We have to take some "after" pictures today, but very soon I will post before/after pics so you can get an idea of where we're living and how far we've come in making Old Gal a home! It's pretty cool!

We drove down to Wilkes-Barre yesterday to an RV parts store. J. needed a new voltage regulator, which we think is what's causing the fridge and the electrical to go crazy. He'll put that in today, and hopefully it'll take care of a lot of the problems we've been having. I get to do all the packing because J has to take care of all the really important stuff! I love our division of labor...
I fold towels and figure out where to put the Q-tips, and all J has to do is make the 3,000 parts of this rig run! Nice!

We're planning our route, and for those of you interested in the journey, here is our approximate route: we are going to Ohio via route 80, then making a left in Youngstown and heading southwest. We'll be traveling on route 71 to route 70 and then route 44 to route 40 (old route 66) until we pull in to ABQ. Along the way we will be going through Akron, Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, and then New Mexico. Not the most exciting places in the country, perhaps, but I've never been to MO, OK, or TX (or NM!) so it should still be interesting! We are going to stop in St. Louis and visit the Gateway Arch, and then maybe find the world's largest ball of string or something along the way!

It's a bit of a bummer that I am going to be driving our car separately and following J in Old Gal, because we had hoped to be together on the journey. But towing the car just wasn't feasible, financially or practically, so we'll make the best of it!

My birthday is Saturday and J was hoping to have me in ABQ by that day, but I think we might not make it. Just a hunch I have. We're anticipating that it will take 4 or 5 days for the whole trip so we'll be on the road that day, but we'll celebrate when we get there!

It should only be another day or two, tops, until we leave!   I think we should leave tomorrow, because we would be leaving on the 3rd anniversary of the day we met, May 26th, 2007. That would be cool and meaningful in some sort of way, right?

If we're going to do that, I'd better be off to cram some more stuff into those nooks and crannies!

Thursday

2010-05-20T09:38:00.000-06:00

It turns out that the fridge is still working, and the electric is blinking on and off, and J doesn't know why - yet! In the mean time, we're off to have work done on the car (I'm driving separately now - we're not going to tow it) and then he'll figure out what is going on, but the good news is that it won't keep us from getting on the road. If the fridge wasn't working, that would be different!

Slept in the RV again last night - boy it's fun and cozy in the bedroom! Don't know why I couldn't sleep before, but now I love it!!! Yay!

We went to an RV store yesterday for some parts we needed and checked out a bunch of new 5th wheels and toy haulers (for those of you who are not RVers, they are the kind you tow behind a truck; ours is a 'motorhome') and they were really nice and all, but I am happy with our slightly more modest and slightly older girl. Or should I say 'gal'. I can't believe it, but I'm falling in love with Old Gal!

I'm feeling a bit rejuvenated this morning and ready for another day of errands, packing and preparations!

Yeehar!

Moving In!

2010-05-18T08:49:00.000-06:00

It's Tuesday, May 18th, and we have finally moved into our new home!!!

We wrestled our mattress into the back of the RV on Sunday night, and slept in Old Gal for the first time. It was - not bad! We have a queen-size Tempur-pedic mattress (bought in better economic times) and it is so comfortable that it makes any space you put it in better! Not that the bedroom in Old Gal is bad by any means. When we got her the bedroom had two single beds and a small console in the middle. J. took out the beds and built a frame for a queen-size mattress. He built it tall enough so that we have space underneath the bed for storage and for our pooch Freddie's crate. It's like a cozy little nest back there!   Ok, I admit that at first I vacillated between feeling it was "cozy" and feeling it was "claustrophobic", but after only 2 nights, I'm feeling the cozy!

Sunday night I didn't sleep so well. J. was out in no time, but I have legendary insomnia, and it doesn't take much to keep me from sleeping. If I come to your house to stay for a night or a weekend? You can bet I'm up late, probably reading to help ease me into dream land. Well this is no different! Same mattress, sheets, comforter, pillows and husband, but stick them all in the back of an RV and there's no way I'm going to sleep anytime soon. So, by 2 am I was back in the house. Practically the only furniture we have left in the house are two reclining chairs, and I slept in one very happily. I told myself that I was like the kid in the children's book who's too scared to sleep over all night at his friend's house, so when he calls his dad to pick him up, his dad tells him not to feel too badly about it - they had a 5 hour sleepover the first time instead of an all-nighter. I decided that I'm like that kid, and I had a 3-hour sleepover in Old Gal the first night. I wasn't ready for an all-nighter.

Last night was much better! We cooked in Old Gal for the first time (portobello mushroom burgers! Yummy!) and then I was the first one to the bedroom where I could stretch out my sore body. And oh, was it comfy! I was out in mere minutes and slept there all night! And I have to say, I think it's gonna be great!

Packing an RV with all of your things is interesting. I underestimated and overestimated how much space we would have for various items, and there's really no way to know what will fit until you're actually putting things away. It's going well, but we're quickly running out of space, and still have many things that need to be packed. Our house on wheels is 23 years young, so we're concerned about adding too much weight. We only have a few days left here (cross your fingers!) and we can't make her too heavy, so some of what I had my heart set on taking will not make it. But that's okay! I've had to prioritize and re-prioritize our belongings, and things I thought were very important before turn out to be mere trifles in the overall scheme of things. We've taken our time in the packing, because everything needs a place, and certain things have to be more accessible than others. This is such a huge life change - it's not like we're just going on a vacation, so if we do a good job now we won't have to repack, or forget where important things are and turn the place upside-down later.

When we first hatched this wacky plan, I set April 1st as our moving date, more as something to aspire to than as a realistic deadline. That only gave us 2 months to move and do everything we needed to do! I knew it would take us longer to move, but I didn't think it would be this long until we were ready to leave! We couldn't have planned for my surgery or any of the other snags we've run into along the way, and I guess it's good we don't have a deadline so that we don't have to take off in a rush and leave things here in total disarray. I am anxious to get going so we can find jobs and start working again, but every day I have to take a deep breath and focus on what needs to be done now to get us toward our goals and not worry about what I can't control. There's a constant battle going on in my head:

"We have to get outta here!"
"We can't yet. We have to be patient and just focus on today and what we need to do. We'll be fine".
"We have to get outta here!"

I'm driving myself insane.

We have to wait until Thursday to get the car aligned (long story but it's in the category of "things you can't control") and we have to have Old Gal ready to roll tomorrow for inspection. She hasn't been on the road since J. drove her up from Florida, but he's taken this time to make sure all of her systems are working before she went for a PA inspection. Other than that and packing the last of the stuff, we're really close to getting on the road!

We're thinking Friday might be the day - but don't quote me on that.

Tuesday

2010-05-11T08:45:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a busy day!!! We took down the tent garage and gave it to some nice neighbors from the next block. Then we went to register the RV but forgot to bring the papers! Oops! (That was my fault - I'm especially scatter-brained these days!)

Most of our day was taken up with work on the RV fridge. The part came in and it was huge! That 'coil' is a mass of metal tubing the length of the fridge! J. had to take the whole fridge out of its cubby hole, then figure out how to position it so he could work on it!   The bench seats at the kitchen table stick out far enough that we couldn't get the fridge past them, but then J. took out the table and the seat cushions, and we lifted the fridge over the back of the rear bench and laid it face down across the wooden seat bases. Perfect! We got the old coil off and put the new one on before it was time to call it a day! Today we will finish attaching the new coil and putting the fridge back where it belongs. Cross your fingers for us that the fridge will work now!

We will try to register the RV once again (with the papers in hand, this time!) and we'll move the leftover furniture from the moving sale into the living room until we know where everything's going. Then it's more packing the RV and that will be a full day!

The hardest part of this last phase of moving is figuring out what to do with all the rest of the stuff we have leftover! We can't just stick it all in some boxes and add it to the moving truck to deal with when we get to our new house! We have to deal with it now, and frankly, it's just a pain in the butt!

I think large garbage bags will help.

Monday

2010-05-10T06:05:00.000-06:00

Ok, it's time to do a countdown to launch, because this is ridiculous already! Let's get outta here!!! But there are so many details to take care of, it's tough! Well, it'll be a count-up to launch, with the hope that we are gone by the end of the week at the latest!

We should be getting the part for the fridge today. If so, we will be installing that asap!

Still packing the RV, trying to make sure every bit of space is being used to the fullest extent!

Need to plan our route to ABQ - we're probably going through St. Louis. Anyone know fun things to do in St. Louis?

We have a million little things to cross off on our To Do list. Here's hoping that we cross off a whole bunch of them today!!!

Moving Sale, Moving On

2010-05-03T10:46:00.000-06:00

It's getting to be that time, when we're actually going to get in the RV and live in it. I can't tell if I'm excited or I want to throw up - maybe it's a little bit of both! The other night (maybe last Thursday) J. asked me, "So, do you want to put the mattress in Old Gal now so we can sleep in there?" Without a moment's hesitation I cried, "NO!!!" Feeling panicked but needing an excuse for this I said lamely, "Umm, I mean, I don't want to sleep in there until we get the fridge fixed. It still smells a little like ammonia". J. did not question this, and instead said I had a good point.

Phew. Close one!

While I love the idea of this plan, I am terrified at the actual implementation of the plan. A lot of my friends say that we are so lucky to be able to do something like this and that it will be an adventure, both of which are true. But let's be real: it's close quarters, there's not a lot of space for stuff or moving around, and it's all a little odd. Oh, I think that all my friends are right and it will be an awesome adventure, but until we actually set off, it's anxiety-producing. I try to keep myself calm by just focusing on the tasks I have for each day, without thinking too hard about the next step. We just finished our second week of Moving Sale, and I am so glad it's over! It was such a lot of work!! But overall it was successful. We met a lot of nice people, a few wacky people, and some of our things found new homes. Now we have to figure out what to do with what's leftover (and there's a lot of it), finish packing the RV, finish emptying the house. I'll try to focus on those things and not the fact that we're about to actually walk away from our house and it's foundation, and board a bus in which to live. It's cool, but there's always that little teeny tiny 'but what if...' in my head. 'But what if this happens or that happens? Then what?' is a streaming ticker-tape on the bottom of the screen in my head, like you see on CNN or CNBC. No matter what I'm doing, that endless repetition of doubtful questions buzzes in the back of my brain.

I have let fear make decisions for me before, and I've always regretted it. I admire people who aren't afraid of everything, the way I am. I've had to be brave many times now in my short life, and I've always survived, so I have to trust that I'll deal with whatever comes our way. One of the things I love about J. is that he just isn't as afraid of things as I am. He's not afraid of much. Amazing! He helps me to keep growing as a person, and to keep taking chances. He is just the person I need to temper my fears. I also admire and trust his ability to drive, fix, and maintain an RV, and to keep going even when things are tough. So for now I'll focus on packing the RV and the other priority tasks and try not to focus on fear!

We are planning to leave exactly a week from today! Woohoo! Oh Crap!!!

I packed some of my clothes in the RV, and it's just not a lot of space! I have a little closet about 18 inches wide and an overhead cabinet the size of 2 drawers. I've gotten rid of bags and bags of clothes, and I feel like I have nothing left, but I will have to get rid of more. I knew we weren't going to be able to bring a whole lot with us, but the reality is really starting to hit home. It is hard to let so much go, but I just keep telling myself, "I am not my things! I am not my things!"

In the house we have 2 recliners and a bed left in terms of furniture, and a fridge but no oven or stove, because we sold them. We have a working stove in the RV but no refrigerator (the part is coming Wednesday). It's a little crazy! One of the TVs didn't sell (25 bucks for a perfect 25" TV and no takers!) so we still have some entertainment at least! My poor dog Freddie doesn't know what to do with herself! She knows big changes are coming and she's doing that thing where she's afraid we'll leave her behind or something. Can I blame her for being scared? I know the feeling. Just one more week, and then we're going. The empty house makes it feel real. I am excited! This is going to be so cool! I can't wait to get to New Mexico - oh wait, I'm not feeling so good...

The Moving Sale, Part 2

2010-04-27T05:42:00.000-06:00

Who would have thought people would come out in the rain??? Not me! But some did, and they bought some good stuff, and all in all it was a successful sale! However, we have so many things that we are going to do it again next weekend. It's hard to try and sell everything in your house in 2 days! We sold some things at crazy low prices but it's found $ and people have new stuff that they like. I'm a big fan of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle", so I feel like we're not being wasteful even if we're practically giving things away.

This week we're packing up the RV with all of our stuff, which we've been trying to do but haven't been able to get to yet. Although I've been looking at and analyzing the storage space in "Ol' Gal" for a few months now, I still have no idea how well our things will fit. We are packing a few boxes with things like Grandma's china for shipping later, but most of our stuff is now or never! My job for today is to pack the RV. At least it stopped pouring! 2 days of intense rain and many big muddy puddles in the front of the house will make it messy but still feasible.

One big note: J. was showing some family members the RV on Saturday and when he opened the refrigerator door, he got a blast of ammonia. I looked it up online, and it probably means that somehow in the past few days the cooling mechanism broke. Big money to fix - but Ol' Gal is 23 years old, so you have to expect some things are going to stop working even though she's been pampered over the years by her first owner! J. is handling that, as he does all things technical/mechanical. I get to pack our clothes and make her look pretty! Fine with me as long as it gets fixed! We are planning on leaving within the next week or so, so hopefully we can get it done by then!

Oh, one last thing. We sold the Civic! I had a '95 Civic that I drove forever and loved dearly, but it's time to part with it after 202,000 miles. We sold it to a kid down the street who's gonna put a lot of love into it and who's very excited to have it. Makes me happy to know my baby is going to have a nice new home, but I'll miss that car!

That's all for now. We are SO exhausted and have so much work left to do that I'll keep updating but it'll be short and sweet. Sorry in advance for any grammatical or syntactical errors! My editor is tired, too!

The Moving Sale, Part !

2010-04-25T05:49:00.000-06:00

The moving sale Day 1 went pretty great!!!!!! We are exhausted both mentally and physically but we have another day to go. However, it's pouring out this morning, and has been raining all night, so I'm not sure how this will go, but it's all okay!

This is a HUGE step in being able to take off! By the way, after all my angst about giving away/selling all my stuff, I have to say it's liberating! It's really been fun and people seem so happy about the things they're getting!

I feel like this is really happening - we're outta here really really soon! Yay!

Stuff, Stuff, Stuff

2010-04-23T08:07:00.000-06:00

Do you know how much stuff you actually have???

I do. I can quantify it by saying I have way too much stuff. Since college, I've moved a total of 13 times. THIRTEEN times! And I've never even been a part of the military - or been transferred for a job!!! I've carted my stuff around from apartment to apartment. I moved home twice. I went from New Jersey to Atlanta and back again in less than a year. I even moved to the townhouse next door to the one I was living in because my roommate was impossible and mean to my dog! Each and every time I move, I spend days and days packing up the same picture frames, the fun, eclectic tchochkes, and the books. Oh, the books! I love my books like cherished friends, and I feel all warm and fuzzy each time they reemerge from their boxes. I've filled up giant trucks and enlisted armies of friends, and every time, every time, people say to me, "Is all this stuff yours? Man, you've got a lot of stuff!"

How did I get all this stuff, and why have I made my life miserable by dragging it from place to place all these years? It's as if it just snuck in through an unlocked window one day and stayed very still until I decided it had always belonged to me.

Okay, okay, I know my stuff didn't sneak in a window. I know how I got a lot of it - I engaged in what we now call "retail therapy" I convinced myself I needed the Hawaiian print sneakers and the purple patent leather loafers because one can never have enough pairs of cute shoes! Many things are gifts, and giving away gifts would be akin to turning my back on those friends who gave them to me. And as for the books? I...just...LOVE...books!!! I have art books and great literature and trashy mysteries and fine kiddie lit (I am a teacher after all) and a book of MASH trivia and a collection of gardening how-tos and even a handwriting analysis book!   I keep giving away books, and yet I get them as gifts (my favorite kind of gift!) or I find something I need, reallyreallyreally NEED, like the book I bought a few months ago about how to get rid of all your clutter. It was somewhat helpful, but is currently cluttering the space on one of my many bookshelves.

We all do this - buy more than we need, shop sometimes for fun or to cheer ourselves up, get something fun just for the heck of it - and before we know it, our spaces are full and our things are a burden instead of a joy.

I realize that it is not exactly news that we Americans are a consumer culture and we buy stuff simply because we can. But what happens to your sense of self when you have to sell or give away almost all of your things, as we are doing now? I'll tell you how I felt when I realized that was just what I had to do - I was terrified. It was unthinkable really. I have collected things I love and things I like over the years with hard-earned money, and my things make me happy.   I used to say that they reminded me of who I am. But this experience of having to liquidate our lives has made me stop and reevaluate that thought. Am I my things? Do my things make me who I am? Why am I constantly looking outside of myself to find ways to bring me pleasure? Will amassing enough books lead me to nirvana? And will letting it all go make me lose an essential part of myself?

I've talked here before about being poor and not being able to buy new things, and how difficult that was sometimes. But the truth is, I still had plenty of stuff, so it wasn't all that hard once I got used to it. Now, however, J. and I have to get rid of most of what we've been carting around all these years too. Lest you think that I am the only pack rat in my little family, you should know that J. has a great love of tools. Mechanics tools, building tools, finesse tools, this boy has them all, and uses them on a regular basis. He prides himself on his fine collection, having hand-picked each one. Two days ago, he sold his complete set of mechanics tools to his nephew for a fraction of its value. When the set was gone, he was a bit emotional. He had dreamed of opening his own auto shop when he was a teenager, and even though he chose not to pursue that dream, letting go of his tools meant letting go of his dream. Heavy stuff!

J. and I are having our big Moving Sale in one day, and we hope to empty out a good portion of the things in our house. Hopefully we'll be left with very little furniture, a small set of dishes and cookware, and yes, a few tools and books. Intellectually I know that losing the things I've held onto and treasured for so long is the only thing for me to do, but it terrifies me because I feel like I'll be exposed, like I won't have all that stuff to hide behind or protect myself with. But in truth, having things hasn't led me to happiness, and of course I know that my things are not me. One of the best years of my life was the one I spent in Israel, when all I had were two small suitcases. I had the barest of wardrobes, but clothes mattered so little when every day was full of new and thrilling experiences. That is what I wish for J. and I. We have new dreams to seek, and thrilling experiences to find. We'll be living in close quarters in an RV, and we won't have room for a lot of stuff, but we'll be in a new, beautiful place, meeting new people and doing new jobs. Why would I want to hide behind a mountain of books?

Plus, we're bringing our bikes and our kayaks with us. Those aren't going anywhere! We'll need them to explore New Mexico! I picture us kayaking down the Rio Grande River (in a section with mild rapids) and I know that in that moment I'm not going to be missing my purple patent leather loafers.

And at least I can breathe a sigh of relief that, for now, I won't be featured on "Hoarders"!

Wish us luck for the Sale - it'll be hard if a lot of people come and buy up all our things, and it'll be hard if no one comes and our beautiful things could be thrown away. I'll just keep telling myself that life is not about things, and I don't need to hide. Then we can get busy living, and when we do move into a place of our own, no one is going to say, "Wow, you have SO much stuff!"

By the way - does anyone want a size 10 pair of purple loafers?

Ready, Set . . . Ouch!

2010-04-17T09:39:00.000-06:00

There I was convalescing from my surgery, almost completely better. A week - shmeek! It took the better part of 12 days to get better, not a week as my doctor suggested.   But at the end of those 12 days I was feeling pretty great and ready to start packing the RV. We've got to be getting on the road already!   I spent the evening hanging out with my oldest friend D., and we were laughing and being silly as usual. I went to sit back on her couch pillows when I felt a little 'pop'! in my back. It didn't hurt much until I got up to go home. My back was spasming! Yikes!

A feeling of dread washed over me, but as I tend to be a bit of a hypochondriac, I figured I shouldn't get too excited. I've had back spasms before - a little rest and I'll be fine in the morning.

I woke up at about 3am and had to go to the bathroom. When I went to get up, I had forgotten about my back issues and couldn't move. What the heck? 'No, uh-uh, this is not happening; I'm just really groggy and tried to get up the wrong way', I told myself. The next 5 minutes or so were a blur of grunts, groans, and blankets flying as I tried to get both feet on the floor. I imagine I looked something like a giant tuna that's just been caught and thrown on deck: I flopped this way and that, trying in vain to get myself overboard. I tried facing up, facing down, and some twisty-sideways moves that would have made Elaine from Seinfeld proud. It was pathetic, really, but somehow I made it to vertical, swearing like a drunken sailor all the way.

My sweet husband J., who is the lightest sleeper I know and who wakes up when the dog snores, remained blissfully asleep throughout the whole endeavor. He never gets enough sleep, so I could hardly get angry at him, but oh, I wanted to...

I stumbled to the bathroom, and spent the rest of the night in a chair in the living room.   This was last Saturday night, and today is Friday. For 6 days I've been a slave to my aching back, and I'm only now beginning to get better. Normally this would just be an annoyance and a short break in my routine, but, um,    WE'RE ON A DEADLINE HERE!!!

Unfortunately, we're late as usual. Late, late, late!

Okay, let's review.
Late Jan.: we made the decision to buy an older RV and move to ABQ.   I wanted to be out of here by April 1st because I was hoping to get down there for teacher-hiring season. There's usually a short window of time in which teachers get hired, and I figured it would be much easier to get a job in New Mexico if we were actually in New Mexico.

Late Feb: BIG snow, then we had to wait a few weeks to find out whether or not I needed surgery. Turns out I did, as you know, and the surgery was on March 31st. Clearly we weren't going to make that April 1st deadline. Surgery went well, and we hoped to have our garage sale April 17th & 18th.

April 10: I then hurt my back, and now we're hoping to have the sale the week of April 24th & 25th. As soon as we get rid of all of our stuff and pack up the RV, we're gone. I'm still only at about 50% usefulness, and oh - did I mention it's supposed to pour the 24th & 25th just in time for our garage sale?

Someday we're going to look back on this and laugh... I just know it!

Why Albuquerque?

2010-04-09T04:40:00.000-06:00

If you've spent most of your life in New Jersey, Atlanta, and Pennsylvania, why in the world would you decide to move to Albuquerque, New Mexico? Especially when we've never been there?

Are we just crazy?

Perhaps!   It was a long decision-making process. As it dawned on us that relocating would be our best bet for a productive, work-filled life, we spent a lot of time talking about where we would want to go if we could pick any place in the Continental U.S. Our priorities were: weather, cost-of-living, unemployment, ease of getting certified to teach, and finding a place with the right vibe for us. We looked at everything. Here is a (very) brief summary of our process.

J. said he was tired of years of shoveling snow, so that immediately eliminated large swaths of the country. Plus, living in an RV is much better suited to milder climates, I'm thinking!

Pacific Northwest? Too rainy - although mild climate is nice! Unemployment seems to be pretty high, at least in Portland.

Florida? Too humid, high cost of living, low teacher pay. Plus, it's Florida. We've both spent so much time there. Time for something new!

Atlanta? I went to college there, but it seems too crowded to me now. It's like living in New Jersey, only with less snow and funner accents. I do have a lot of friends there, but I just can't go back again unless it's to visit.

I nixed Texas immediately. Maybe I've seen Thelma & Louise too many times, but I just don't see myself living there.

I made a push for Boulder, CO, but it snows too much for the husband. People have often told me that I would love Boulder for it's 'crunchy' nature and outdoor sports, etc., but I couldn't convince the man. Moving on!

Arizona's too dang hot - it's like Israel! I don't care how 'dry' the heat is, 112 degrees is 112 degrees. I can't do it! I'll melt. Plus, Phoenix is having issues with overcrowding and unemployment, etc.

The last consideration was to find someplace with a Jewish community. A decent sized Jewish community where I hopefully won't hear anti-Semitic remarks on a regular basis. I have had issues with anti-Semitism up here in the Poconos, and it stings. During my 2 years of subbing I have heard a lot of nasty comments from students concerning Jews, including a group of 8th graders playing not "Monkey In The Middle", but "Jew in The Middle". What's up with that???   I know there are haters everywhere and there are amazing people everywhere too, here included, but I wanted to have a better chance of not having to break up another one of those games. So we looked for a relatively large city where there are many different kinds of people. At least everyone can hate everyone else equally! :D

Well, Albuquerque fits the bill in many ways. The cost of living is fairly low and teacher-pay is respectable. Also, New Mexico must need teachers because the process of getting certified could not have been easier! Thank you New Mexico for recognizing my previous accomplishments without making me prove myself over and over again!

Have I mentioned that they have 310 days of sunshine per year??? That's my favorite thing about ABQ so far! It's high desert (5,000 ft. above sea level) so it's not as hot as Arizona, and they actually have winter, but not much snow unless you drive to it in the mountains! There are teaching jobs, and a blossoming solar-energy industry which J. is interested in. It's supposed to be beautiful and has a laid-back vibe. Also, it's been listed as a top 10 city to live in the U.S., and has great biking and hiking.

Plus, as J. says, if we hate it and things aren't working out, we can always drive our house away and find somewhere else!

Do I Need This??!?

2010-04-05T07:16:00.000-06:00

We bought an RV.

An older one, that had been sitting in south Florida for 3 years.

Can you say 'musty'?

How about 'smelly'?

Oh, and everything has a light green coating of fuzz!   J., my hubby, was so excited about it when he drove it home and into our yard. It was really hard to put on a happy face when I first stepped inside it and the smell hit me like a basketball to the head - jarring, dizzying, and nauseating.

"Isn't this great?" J. said with the excitement of a boy getting his first dirt bike. "Well, it's something!" was all I could say. I sat on the off-white leather couch - hmmm, comfy. I tried to imagine us living in this thing full-time, but the thought made my stomach lurch so I pushed that out of my mind and tried to breathe. Uck, that smell! This was not good. He says I ruin everything he's excited about by my negativity, and I didn't want to do that this time around, but he knows me too well to be fooled by some false optimism.

"I'll get used to it. It'll take a while, but right now, this is the best I can do". Honesty being the best policy, I figured I would have time to get excited about it for real. In the meantime, we set about fixing it up - I washed every surface, drawer, and closet, eliminating the green fuzz, and he gave it a new bed frame. We changed it from 2 twin beds to one queen-size platform. He worked on various mechanical issues - it's a 1987, and even though it has a new engine and a new generator, there are a million little things that don't work and need attention. Then we got 2 feet of snow. That put us off our schedule - we were trying to leave by the beginning of April. The snow melted, we got back to work on the RV, and then I found out I needed surgery.

Do I need this? Someone came up with the saying "When it rains it pours" for a reason! It's because it's true! It turns out I had had an ectopic pregnancy and it had to be removed. This was not a planned pregnancy, but it made us sad just the same. We had created a baby, but it couldn't survive. Don't ask me how we would have raised a newborn in an RV, but that's something to ponder another day. I went into the hospital for same-day surgery last Tuesday, and all went well. The doctor did it laporoscopically, meaning he only made 3 small incisions, but he said I had been bleeding into my belly and my fallopian tube was a mess, so he removed it. I've never really had surgery before, so I was scared to death, but I made it through and am recovering nicely. I got sick from the anesthesia and my doctor had me stay overnight. Other than that, it went very well and the pain in my abdomen from the incisions gets a little better each day.

As I've been convalescing, it made me think: how many stressors can one person have at any one time? As many as you can handle, I suppose, but I really don't want to find out how many I can handle. We don't have steady jobs, we're losing our house, we get calls from creditors all the time, we have to ration money for gas and anything else we need, we have no health insurance, we have to sell most of our possessions as fast as we can, and on top of all that, I had to have surgery. It's a lot to juggle.

The one thing we do have is each other, and that's a lot. J. took such good care of me in the hospital and after, and I have been able to be much more positive about the RV in recent weeks. I have learned that 'things' don't matter, but people do. As corny as it sounds, go and hug the people you care about, and be present when you're with those you love. The love and support of each other, family and friends are what have kept us going. That love will continue to sustain us, because that's all that really matters. So when all these stressful things rear their ugly heads, I think about the amazing nurses who made me laugh and gave me pain meds; the friends and family we laughed with yesterday at the Easter lunch; and my friends who don't live close but are only a phone call away.

So maybe i did need all this, to show me what's really important. I thought I knew, but now I really get it. I hope all of you do, too!

We're hoping to be outta here in 2 to 3 weeks, but we still have a lot to do to make that happen!

Oh, New Mexico!

2010-03-29T05:03:00.001-06:00

In my last post I said we were moving, but I didn't say where. Or how we were going to get there. Well it's time to share the news. We're going to Albuquerque, New Mexico!

Shocking, no?

Wait - it gets better! I had mentioned that we were going to be like the Joads in "The Grapes of Wrath", moving west with all our things heaped up on our vehicle, looking for work and a better life. Well, we're following the Joads quite literally.   We bought an old RV, a 33 foot Holiday Rambler that has good working parts and a pretty interior, and we're going to live in it for awhile! We are in the process of packing up, selling, and giving away much of our stuff, and we're planning to leave PA in just a few weeks. It's a kooky idea, but it is going to work! This will enable us to get back on our feet and be productive again!

When my husband first suggested this to me, I laughed. Actually I laughed the first 3 times he said it. Then I got nervous that he wasn't kidding, and then I got angry. "We are NOT living in an RV! I'm not going to talk about this seriously with you!" I shouted at him. Still, he persisted. He presented an interesting idea, and gradually I started to listen. Then I actually started to come around, to think that maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all.

We're losing our house. We're too far behind in the mortgage payments, and we still don't have real jobs. I've been working for 2 years as a substitute teacher in 3 different school districts, and the work is not steady. J. continued to look for work after the car dealership where he was working closed down, but he had no luck. He applied for jobs big and small, and didn't get any of them. We could continue to stay here and drown slowly as we've been doing, or we could do something more drastic.

Once I jumped on board, things moved quickly. J. mentioned our idea to a friend who's brother-in-law happened to be selling an old RV. The only problem was that he lives in Florida. We had been watching various ebay auctions of older RVs, and realized that we would probably have to travel far to find one in our meager price range. Why not talk to this guy and see what he was offering? So J. traveled to FL, saw the RV which is named "Old Gal", and fell in love. A very reasonable deal was struck, and J. found himself driving a Class A motor home from South Florida to PA. He had to stop a number of times to get a few things fixed - Old Gal hadn't been on the road in a few years, and needed some TLC.   Finally he made it to South Carolina and we were chatting on the phone, when I suddenly realized he was driving right into one of the largest snow storms the east coast had ever seen!

"Um, honey? Have you looked at the weather forecast by any chance?"
"No, what's up?"
"Well, basically, there's a giant snow storm coming tomorrow that's supposed to cover the entire area from Virginia to Pennsylvania, and it's going to be bad."

I won't share the epithets that came after that.

He found himself a campground in North Carolina and laid low for a few days. When he finally made it home a full two weeks after he left, I took one look at that giant behemoth in my yard and knew that my life had irrevocably changed.

A New Start

2010-01-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here, mostly because I was watching our rapid decline and thinking, "Who the hell would want to read this???" But it's time to move on, literally and figuratively.

I've been substitute teaching in 3 different school districts, and J., my wonderful husband, hasn't been able to find work for the past 2 and 1/2 months. He was working at a car dealership for a few months, but they closed down after he was there for only 3 months, and he hasn't been able to find anything since.

We're drowning in bills, and we're never going to be able to catch up. We're doing everythng we can, but it's not adding up.

So, we're moving. We're planning on selling as much of our things as we can - books, tvs, furniture, tools, and then we're going to use what we get out of that to start over. For many of my friends, this economic downturn has been a cause for concern, but hasn't changed their lifestyles in any way. For J. & I, we're living a modern day Depression, complete with food stamps and very little money coming in, and a bleak forcast for our employment future in our current location. So, like the Joad family in "The Grapes of Wrath", we're packing up all we can carry, and moving to warmer climes with hopes of better prospects. I know the Joads started out in Oklahoma so the warmer climes part doesn't really apply to them, but we're starting out in the Pocono Mountains in northeastern PA. It's cold here. Really cold.   We figure someplace warmer will mean less heating costs in the winter!   And hey - in a warmer climate, if we can't find a place to live that we can afford, we can always stay in my tent!    We have some cities in mind - well, we've really narrowed it down to one area, in the southwest. It'll be completely different environs than what we're used to - we both grew up in the suburbs of NJ, and neither of us has ever set foot in the state we're interested in, so it is going to be a bit of a culture shock! But they say when you're falling, dive, and that's what we're doing. We're diving. We're moving on with intention, not just letting things happen to us until we're literally out of money and on the street. I like to think that this experience will make me a better person, or enrich me in some way, but really I think I could have done without it!!! Or maybe not. Maybe this is going to be the most exciting and wonderful experience of my life! At this moment, anything is possible.

Possible New Job!

2009-08-19T14:24:00.000-06:00

I can't express how happy I am that I have a job interview tomorrow. SO happy!!! And guess what? It's for a part-time job as a retail worker at a local Turkey Hill store - a convenience store attached to a gas station. I haven't worked retail since my 2-week stint at Caldor's as a senior in high school! But I'm stoked! I will be the hardest worker they've ever seen - I will clean the bathrooms, make sandwiches, hand out cigarettes (but only to people who look over 27) and anything else they want me to do. I don't even know what minimum wage is these days - $7 an hour? Something like that. I don't care! If I work 20 hours a week, at $7/hr. that's $140, less taxes, which would be, okay, only about $100/week, but it's something. As opposed to what I'm making now - nada. However, I don't have the job yet - I have an interview tomorrow. Hmmm... what does one wear to an interview of this type? A suit seems like overkill! Wish me luck, because the way things have been going, I'm going to need it!

I'm eagerly awaiting the start of school, but I have to remind myself that subbing is not regular work. Teachers try to avoid being out as much as possible the first month of school. It messes things up. So I may not be subbing very much during the month of September. I'll keep my fingers crossed that some teachers have an unexpected (and not too bad!) bug that will get me in the schools and making some money. I want to have the luxury of being upset about not having a regular job teaching yet, but right now all I'm really concerned about is survival. We need to be able to keep our house and keep the lights on, but it's tough going. Right now J. is only bringing home $300 a week - his draw at his job selling automobiles. We are having trouble paying bills and living on that, which is why my new possible job will be a welcome thing.

I have been feeling so very down that I haven't wanted to write this blog at all, but I will keep attempting to work on it, because writing is good and it's supposed to be cathartic! Things just have to get better! They have to! They say that the one constant in life is that things will change. Well, they can always get worse, I know that, but I'm hoping that we've been through enough hardship for a little while. Please god, help us be strong enough to get through this with a roof over our heads and love in our hearts.

No Fat Waittresses!

2009-07-28T16:12:00.000-06:00

I understand why restaurants wouldn't want to hire waitresses who are, well, fat. I could say plus-sized, or zaftig, or Reubenesque, or one of those other euphemisms, but we know what we're talking about here. Fat is fat. They don't want to hire fat people because a) They don't want you to be thinking about what you could look like if you eat/order a bunch of their food, and b) They don't want you knocking over people's plates with your big butt.

But what if you just need a job and you happen to be, well, zaftig? It's not like half the population can't relate! A good many of the people eating out are obese themselves, so what does it matter? We're all friends, right? Apparently not. In case you haven't guessed, I'm pretty large myself, and have been applying for waittressing jobs. I was hired at one place, and worked for 2 days and did a great job, I thought! The customers liked me, and I made about $50 in tips! But then the owner seemed to have a change of heart, and didn't want me to come back... hmmm. Since then I've been applying to everything I can find, but no bites. They sound interested on the phone, but when they meet me, there's some obvious disappointment. I'm not ugly, I don't think, but the extra weight makes people look right through me. It's not like I didn't know that we live in a very visual, thin-obsessed society. But I keep hoping that someone will look past the fat girl and just see the girl who just wants to work hard and make some money.

To be fair, I only have teaching jobs on my resume, and the other aspect of this is that I think some places see me as overqualified, and even if I tell them I want to work part-time during the school year (which is true), they seem to think I will leave when school starts. But if they were interested over the phone, when I show up, I see the disappointment in their eyes and I leave feeling incredibly foolish.

So the obvious question is, "Well why don't you just lose weight?" Yeah. I know. But when you've got no money to go out, and you're worried about how you're going to make the next mortgage payment or any payment for that matter, and you like to eat, food becomes one of your few comforts. I feel like I've had to give up most other things, and I'm not going to give up food. But maybe enough's enough. I wish I were more accepted for what I look like now, but it's not like I'm happy being overweight. So maybe I can find some other comforts to keep me going. Like exercise! In the meantime, the search for a job continues.

Looking for a Job

2009-07-23T14:24:00.000-06:00

I don't really have any idea what I'm doing, but I felt the need to start writing about what's going on in my life, and maybe someone might read it and have suggestions or support or just laugh! I've written in a journal sporadically over the years, but I don't like writing to myself. I'm critical of my own writing, I talk back to myself, and it rarely helps rid me of the angst or whatever motivated me to write in the first place. So I thought I'd try a blog. If not one single person ever reads this (which I realize is a distinct possibility) that'll be okay too. Just need to do something different.

So I had a great job teaching English in NJ, and then I met my future husband. I wasn't happy in NJ - all my friends had moved away and I spent a lot of time visiting them, grading papers or going on bad eharmony dates. After a year of dating and driving 2 hours each way to see each other, we decided to get married and merge our lives. I had no great love of New Jersey, although I did dearly love my job for the first time in my 10 years of teaching. I had been there for 3 years, and had just gotten tenure. The pay was decent - not at the top of the payscale for the area, but not at the bottom either. I had great benefits, good work friends, and I loved the kids. It was a small town, and the people were generally very friendly and kind. I had just created the middle school's first newspaper, and would have been the coach of the JV softball team for the high school the following year. Things were going well - but my fiance was a realtor and it wasn't feasible for him to pack up and start his business all over again. Also, he owned his house and I was only renting; it was much more expensive to live in NJ than in the mountains of PA where he was from. I rationalized that it would be easy for me to find another job; afterall, I had always found a teaching job when I needed one; I was a great interviewer, and I had the aforementioned Master's Degree. So, with some sadness and trepidation, I made the decision to leave my job and move to Pennsylvania. I loved my fiance dearly, and we were both hard-working people. We'd find a way to make it work! Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into...