A Tribute

When I stay at home, it is easy to forget how large our part of the planet which we call the United States really is. The faster one travels, the shorter . . .

Parting is such sweet sorrow

"Parting is such sweet sorrow" has been the major theme for this trip. After my visit with my Kansas family/friends (from here on out I'm going to say frams) I headed into . . .

Baby, it's cold outside

The temperature outside is a chilly, cold 32 (that's 0 centigrade for my European friends) so I'm not anxious to . . .

Wrinkled Land

I feel so wealthy for all the people in my life, my support, my family/friends (friends so close they are like family and family so close they are like friends) (FF). Parked outside my FF's home I am able to . . .

Beautiful tailwinds and dogs!

It's interesting the role that winds have played in my life, in all our lives for that matter. I've had several careers over the years, I tend to call them lives. In one life, . . .

Glass Ceilings and Bravery

Breaking the glass ceiling is not just for working women trying to get into executive positions but also for women who travel by themselves. When telling people of my plans to . . .

Know each other's job

Well, I left the house, as the doctor had ordered, although I don't believe I left the way she intended. With my loss fresh and wound cut deep, I gathered things and packed the Casita and truck, and called friends. I hitched the Casita and was ready to go the night before leaving. The morning of departure, I found my hands shaking. Dogs jumped in the truck with enthusiasm which helped my mood. Gathering all the strength I had, with trembling hands, I grasped the steering wheel and headed out on my first lone journey. Charley set me up well. While we had our departmentalized jobs in our relationship, I was keen to learn his and he mine. Knowing each other's job allowed me to do this, to take our Casita, Tara, out by myself.

The trip did add a distraction from my current state of mind. It also showed me I could do it, even though I knew I could. Doing it made it just made it a reality.

So my advice for all you in joint-travel mode adventures, whether pulling a Casita or something else, is to know each other's jobs. Know how to pack, to hitch, to drive, unhitch. Know what needs to be done on the inside: closed, turned off, buckled down. That way, you can continue because if your partner in life is like mine was, s/he would want you to continue.

Dawn in Dixon, NM (Odin and Cassie at the ready)

The Precarious Adventure

Life

This precarious adventure

Feels so real but is so very ephemeral

It should last forever

Then there are signs

Aging signs

Body indicators that tell you that things are changing.

Things are changing.

Life

The precarious adventure.

Experiences flow in

Memories are made

Shape our thoughts

Sculpture the bust

Poetry made and songs sung

Once in duet become a song sung solo

Solo

Alone

Alone but not lonely

You are with me in my spirit through to my bones

And so the next adventure goes.

Prepared or not,

Here I come!

I want to remember the fragility.

With all my being and all my love, Kamala

Charley Land

Ah, the Casita Cult!

We're always excited to see another Casita on the road! We flash lights at each other, honk, wave. 'Why?', you may ask. Well, it's because we share such great taste.

On our trip along the Alaska Highway up to Fairbanks, we did not see very many Casitas. In fact, we 

Sleepy Homey Doldrums and Some Info from our trip to Alaska

As soon as we arrive home we have to leave to the hardware store. We grab the keys to our Caravan, now anchored with spider webs to the carport, to buy a water pump for our evaporative cooler. Our home, made of fired adobe, while good insulation holds the predominant temperature. Since we were gone and El Paso was hot, guess what?

Just one more night!

We find ourselves in our familiar southwestern desert, greener than I expected, rain--good. This rich, beautiful landscape of mesquite bushes imitating short trees, sage brush, and creosote bushes with a backdrop of rugged rocky mountains is my home. I love it! Our trip is coming to an end. We decided

Another love of mine

What I like most about my Casita are those with whom I share it.
Okay, I stole the lead-in quote. It should be home, and not Casita.  And to make it worse, I  don't know who to give credit to, only that it fits. Our Casita crew (two of the 2-legged type and  two of the 4-legged variety, a big one and small one) is top notch. We've been on the road now for over 60 days. All of us have honed that Casita Dance down to pretty smooth set of transactions of avoidance, space and tasks. All in all, it's a great crew that brings laughter and smiles to the team.

But this note is about another Love of mine, Tara, our Casita. Oh come, I bet a lot of you out there

Reflections of the Great Northern Trip

June 27, Vancouver, BC
The situation has determined that I spend the afternoon babysitting our two canine companions that have developed less than thrilling case of liquid stools. Upon leaving, Kamala sweetly suggested that

Does it ever end

Holy Shit! We finally made it to Fairbanks Alaska in our little fiberglass bubble. I was beginning to think that the road would never end.  That traveling along the Alaska/Canadian Highway was some kind of Twlight Zone plot where a small group of travelers traveled on and on forever on a road that
just never ended.

 "And did they ever return? No they never returned, they just chugged along forever in land that just

Deviation can bring lovely surprises

We will meet our friends, Lori and Lynn, the Barksmore sisters, at our rendezvous point in Fort Collins Colorado. Lori and Lynn are their actual first names, but Barksmore is a cute little handle that derives from the fact that they have 4 dogs (n'uff said).  Everything is going as planned. Before they arrive a late snow storm hits the plains and the rockies. We wake to a white blanket which quickly disappears with the warmer winds. Our son and family have recently relocated to this beautiful area where the rockies meet the prairies. Fort Collins, along with the rest of Colorado, is an outdoor-thinking area so there are well used bike paths and walking paths EVERYWHERE! So as we wait for

Sometimes Sweethearts can be Heroes

A hero is someone who, through skill, intelligence, fortitude or some other neat attribute saves the the day. Now if you're one of the Avengers and have those superduper type skills like throwing big hammers across football fields, or turning into an angry, very angry big green man, well then they make movies about your deeds.  But even us mere mortals can be heroes by excelling in tough situations.  Ok, so, I'd like to nominate my wife for getting us out of a tough situation.

Today we're driving in the high country above Boulder Colorado, looking for a

Curtains!

Curtains......Afraid of the dark? I think not! But I've come to a conclusion that most of America is. Everywhere you go, there's light. Neon lights, street lights, security lights, porch lights, and I can't forget the cute little solar butterfly lights that brighten the path in my backyard. I get it. I do. Security, safety, and attempting

Paranoia and mudflaps

A story of rumors and quandary

This is a blurb about mud flaps, well fear too. Yeah, mud flaps and fear, but first let me preface my tale by telling you that we're a couple of weeks away from lift off to Alaska and points north. Because, we're going to share this little excursion of Northern

Casita on the Casa for the Casita

 We had the guys from  Chaparral Steel Supply put up this little metal roof awning (we call it a techo here in the border area) 20' X 12' to protect the Casita.  Great! So what now? Top's protected, but the sides look naked.  We decide that we can put up a side and a back ourselves. So it's off to the local salvage lot (Yes, it's a junk yard, because we're responsible, green, and, of course cheap), Used 3/4 inch plywood sheets at 5 bucks a piece with a whole lot of nails to pull. But, hey, did I say we were cheap?

So now, we're cleaning, cutting and painting a base coat and I'm thinking maybe we'll paint stars, or symbols, or how about a fire breathing dragon, (Dragons are cool). But Kamala says it's a Casa for

Sweet anticipation

Ah, the sweet feeling of anticipatory planning for a trip--well, actually two trips (there be more on the second trip later). Right now, we're in between trips. I'm in limbo. With launch date set at the beginning of May and lots of to-dos to check off, I find that while I 'gotta' live in my house to prepare for the trip, I 'gotta' pack also. 

Usually we leave the house with a general idea, general direction, and general timeline. We adopted this overall idea while riding our recumbent tandem on our first long 2,800 mile bicycle tour from El

Perception, Such a Narrow View of Life

See the Elk?There's actually more than one. It's all about perception.

Sunshine streaming in the window, jump out of bed, fling open the window and I'm treated to colors of a beautiful sunrise, so full, so magnificent and to complete the perception, a cool breeze and a cacophony of birds, dogs, and morning sounds. So big, so filling, so complete...well not quite, but, damn, it sure seems like it from a perceptual point of view. And, for the most part, we walk around

Taking leaps

It's difficult to get away if you work at a job that only gives you two to three weeks off per year. When I was a CPA, that was all I was given for vacation. I started to take time off during slow periods without pay. Weekends were precious and we would take many mini-vacations to surrounding areas by taking off Friday after work and returning home on Sunday. 

Personal time is worth so much. What were we working for

Birds of a Feather

I find it very curious the almost instant bond created by commonness. 

I can remember very clearly my first few hours of hours after arriving at Marine Corps boot camp. We had our heads shaved, we were relieved of our "civilian" clothing and handed boots, olive green pants and a yellow sweatshirt. In other words we had been stripped of our old identity (they were going to build us a brand new one, yeah sure!).  But standing there, everyone having the same dorky bald canary look, we talked and the first groups that

10 Reasons why I don't like my Casita Travel Trailer

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How did we get to our Tara, our Casita travel trailer?

Our travel journey has been long. Our first trip together was back in 1975 to Telluride, Colorado, when it was a still a little sleepy mining town that hippies were rejuvenating. While it was just a trip back then, it has since been referred to as our 'honeymoon.' We took it in a VW converted bug known as a Baja. Charley made it so we could actually sleep in it. We took pride that the little trip only cost $100.

Then we have the 'antique' years. Years we traveled to Mexico to buy rustic, handmade, primitive furniture from the homes of the inhabitants, brought them back, stripped the paint from the tables, benches, trunks, wardrobes, kitchen cabinets, etc., then traveled Stateside to sell these jewels to antique stores. We have never been the travelers who travel

Ontological Research

On the side of our little fiberglass bubble we light heartedly placed this little tag to guide is in our travels. It has some noticeable side effects. First, like all little meditations, it brings our attention back to why we are roaming around in this reality. Second, it gets a lot of questions at gas stations and parking lots about "Just what the hell does that mean?" Apparently, 'Ontology' is not in a lot of people's vocabulary and I can find no fault in that.  But it makes

Coffee for light travel and packable

When packing for a bicycle trip, weight and size matters. When packing for a tandem, two people on one bicycle, weight and size becomes even more important. One of the main questions people would ask us is, "How much gear weight do you pack?" We weighed everything one year and our gear turned out to be 100 pounds. That's really not bad considering that single cyclists (people traveling on a regular bicycle (not tandem)) carry 50 - 75 pounds of gear. 

Now we travel in, what some people would call, a tiny travel trailer. We call it a luxurious mansion on wheels, our 17-foot Casita Spirit Deluxe travel trailer (all things are relative). While we can pack a lot more, space still plays an important part. I've seen all sorts of inside trailer modifications just to accommodate a conventional coffee brewer. One of the items we've taken from those bicycle

Wagon Spokes

Can you believe that our last bicycle tour was the fall of 2011? Wow! Over 12 years of bicycle touring. The pain, the joy, the conquest of miles over landscapes forever etched into my soul. During our current motorized trips (more on that in just a minute) we constantly drive along or crisscross places we previously cycled. Did I say etched? We remember the moment clearly, as if it were yesterday. We remember the weather, the shade (or lack of), the road surface, the thrill of the downhill, the work of the uphill, and oh, don't forget that nasty headwind or the joy of the tailwind, plus the sighting of something that would have been lost traveling at a greater speed. Yes, it is etched.

We saw a lot. But then there were times we lost out on moments. We missed a play in a town, a carnival, a festival, or a boat ride, to