Archive for ‘July 13th, 2007’

“Journey or Destination” or “How I got into RVing”

My friend, Carolyn, who I credit for some marvelous health improvements (see bioflavanoids in previous post this morning…) made the following comment about travel after having perused my recent travels on this blog:

“For me travelling is simply a way to get from A to B. I LOVE to go places but the getting there is not that fun.” 

The classic “Journey or Destination” paradox…  It really made me think – which I LOVE by the way!  And as a side note, if you want to read about some young women who are living – and I mean LIVING life and being thoughtful, world-caring, world-changing people – visit Carolyn’s blog and then her blogging friends (links from her site) – and their friends….  These are people that give me hope – they have committed to God, marriage, family, people in need, the environment – and they have committed in LOVE – not necessairly huge “in the news” things – but simple daily acts of thoughtfulness, random acts of kindness, “doing unto others as we would have done unto us” lives…  Sharp contrast to the “me-me-me-ness” that seems to make the news. 

 

So, back to topic… Before I had the motorhome, I would have said that the same was true for me – “the getting there is not that much fun.”  Somewhere/somewhen after much business travel and a few cross country car trips my travel philosophy changed a bit.  It was so gradual and sneaky that I didn’t consciously see it happening.  The last car trip in 2000 – Montana to Maine to Nova Scotia and back – that was the first conscious thought of RVing.  I spent 7 weeks “on the road” and except for one week in a Maine cottage, I was in a different hotel every night – with a dog and cat and their respective beds, food, dishes, litter box…plus my computer and my stuff.

 

There were many times that trip when I fantasized about being in a little rv… and that’s where I started – looking at camper vans – mini-motorhomes.  It wasn’t just the in and out of motel thing, it was also that I realized that I really LOVED “road” travel – wandering around the country on the highway, listening to local radio and at night, tv – talking to people – What’s important to people here vs there?  What’s life like in this place?  It was realizing that I loved the journey.

 

Fast forward to summer, 2005.  I had off and on looked at vans, travel trailers, truck campers, motorhomes – everything!  They each have their plusses and minuses and I dithered.  But in early summer ’05 a number of things happened – I had sold a house I loved and did not find another, a relationship ended, I had a 1-2 year work committment with a long-standing client, i.e. didn’t matter where I worked from – short story, I was “footloose and fancy free” and somewhat in need of a distraction… oh, and I turned 50…

 

In true mid-life crisis fashion, I went to an RV dealer and bought the Winnebago.  As it turned out, it was perfect for me and the boys (Karl and Bob).  At the time, buying the RV was a “means to an end” – a way to look around the country and see if there was somewhere else I’d rather live – while having the comforts of home and ability to take my pets easily.  I never expected to like the “rv lifestyle”…I thought – I’ll look around, decide where I want to live and then sell this thing and get back to “real life”. 

Ha!  Turns out that I love travelling in my “300 square foot 1 bedroom/1 bath home on wheels”.  The pets adapted beautifully and now I can’t envision traveling any other way and additionally the whole rv thing has become a hobby and the travel an addiction of sorts.  I haven’t really had a hobby before – it is incredible to me that I have become so enamored of all things RV and in the process, I hardly care WHERE I go, I just enjoy the going – with the paradox of loving Montana, my little house and the beautiful forest I live in.

 

So, maybe it is more than the RV journey – the journey of life and of discovering my place in it – on wheels or on ground.  Either way, now, for me, it is the journey.

Breakfast on the front porch and THE blender…

Berries

I’m still in my VERY early morning wake-up pattern – 4 a.m. this morning, but it works with the heat wave. After coffee and a few quiet moments it is starting to get light and cool enough to do outside stuff… this morning checking the strawberry patch was on the agenda.  You can’t see in the photo but there were a couple of raspberries also!  I also messed with the motorhome as it is driving me crazy that I can’t get to the fuse box which I think has the fuse which I think blew causing the hydraulic failure – shop appointment next Tuesday and I guess I have to wait as this morning’s attempt was unsuccessful.  The last morning chore was a bath for Karl as he spent some of his morning finding something horrible to roll in…

While I’m on a food topic… a short story about THE blender…  A young woman that I worked with briefly and since have kept in touch with – now via her blog – took a nutrition course and then wrote (with the help of her new husband) a really great and fun poem about bioflavanoids.  And since bioflavanoids help with some minor problems I was having – I paid attention and did some more reading and started adding whole citrus particularly to my smoothies.  However, an older “regular” blender left things pretty thick and pulpy and not all that appetizing and to get things smooth I had to food process and then blend which left a lot of cleanup.  Then, oh darn, the blender gave up the ghost – quit, kaput.  So – great excuse to now buy my dream blender – a Vita-Mix – mondo, 5 hp blender said to liquify most anything – and it does!

Drinks

Pineapple

In goes lemon-ginger green tea, pineapple (which I learned how to cut at my Mama’s), swiss chard (fresh from my folks garden and transported home), cabbage, ginger, parsley, jalapeno (NOT very much jalapeno!), beets, orange (peel and pith – the bioflavanoid), some lime also, blueberries, stevia extract (natural plant sweetener), protein powder, plain yogurt – I know how it sounds – it tastes great!  Fills me up between meals and I get rid of a couple of the annoying problems!

The thing whirs so fast that there is enough friction to heat things up so soup for one is a breeze.  I love the darn thing and it is now on the load list for the motorhome – yea, I try to have the motorhome stocked so there is not much to load/unload but I can’t swing 2 of these – however, said young friend who got me going down this path just acquired one of the magic bullet blenders – similar thing just smaller – might work!

TGIF! – this weekend through Tuesday – high (100-102) heat forecast, plus very low humidity and possiblity of dry thunder/lightning storms – I dearly hope we come through it without a fire start(s) – now until September rain/mountain snow is always a scary time.