Travel Plans!!!

I haven’t disappeared off the face of the internet, I just haven’t been traveling since my last 4,000-mile trip. Well, that’s not exactly right either. I did take a trip at Christmas but (insert whisper tone) but I didn’t take the Casita. It was just a short trip from El Paso to Fort Collins and back and since I might run into snow, taking only the truck sans trailer made sense and I wanted to actually travel the speed limit. The decision was a great one: 1 - I received the best, warmest hugs when I arrived, and 2 - I did run into blizzard, white-out conditions on my way home once I hit Raton, NM all the way to Sante Fe. I wasn’t worried or scared because throughout my years, I have driven in all kinds of weather and terrain either pulling or carrying large loads--but that is for another day and another post.

I am excited right now because I’m about to take off WITH my Casita to the Fiberglass Rally in Quartzsite, Arizona! I have been sitting in one place, albeit home, for too long and I want to feel my wheels spin.

I love the way I winterize the Casita. I empty the fresh water tank and hot water heater. This is a great time to replace the anode. I shut the hot-water water bypass valve then blow out the water pipes. This lets me travel spontaneously because all I have to do (which I’m doing at the end of this week) is add some water to the fresh water tank. If you do it this way, always remember to make sure your hot water heater is filled so that you don’t burn up the electrical heating element.

So stay tuned because I’ll be posting about my travel experiences for the next couple of weeks. By the way, if you like the way I write, you can support my travels and blog by buying from Amazon through my blog by clicking on the Amazon link on the right column. Amazon gives me a small commission for all sales that are made through my link.

To help my audience grow, please feel free to share my blog with your friends and/or Facebook, Twitter, Casita Owners on Facebook, and any Casita or Fiberglass forums you may belong. Thanks for reading! I gotta get packing! I'm so excited!

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 

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

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

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

Enchanted bicycle tour

Kamala: Guilt trip or the road calling? Call it what you will, but one of those finally got to us. Yes, we know, we haven't taken a bicycle tour this year, until tomorrow. We take off north on our two-seated, two-wheeled chomoly steed heavily laden with cold gear. It's late fall and on top of that we're headed north into the Land of Enchantment. Are we nuts? A distinct possibility. But hey, it's a guilt trip or the call of the road and we are enchanted either way. Stay tuned for updates. Hey and now, you or your friends can sign up for an email notifications of new entries. Just look on the left-hand column of the blog--Kamala

Green Lake "Mystery Loves Company"

This is turning out to be a year that is a bit out of step with our usual. Usually, by this time, June, we are either spinning the pedals around, making our way across the country on a bike journey or have already gotten our yearly cycling tour under our belts. But this June finds us in Wisconsin attending a 'sit-down" Road Scholar program on the writing of mysteries and then a week in Eagle River canoeing.

By "sit-down" I mean that there were no outside activities like paddling, cycling, or hiking. While we brought the bicycle and we did get some rides in, it was outside the program. So during our first week in Wisconsin we found ourselves deeply involved with murder.

First I've got to tell you that while Kamala and I watch a few mystery programs on TV and have read a couple of Grisham novels, listened on Audible as Kinsey Millhone kicked some ass, and a few others over the years, we are definitely not experts on the subject and, God forbid, I cannot even tell you the name of Charlie Chan's number one son (oh the shame, because many of the other participants could).

Now Green Lake, is first of all a beautiful lake, the deepest in Wisconsin. And secondly, it is a conference center on the shores of.....you guessed it--Green Lake. The Conference Center at which we stayed is run by the Baptists, but open to all faiths (although I didn't see a lot of Muslims or Hare Krishna devotees hanging around). Actually, it was mainly aimed, if I'm reading this right, at fundamentalist Christians, especially ministers, who kind of needed to "rejuice" the joy in their spiritual life. At any rate it was a spiritual retreat of sorts and all the people I ran into were just as pleased as punch that we were there and treated us really nice. I couldn't get over the sense of irony that while everyone in the whole setting was there to find a "closer walk with God", there were thirty of us in a conference room spending our

time exploring all the myriad of ways to kill someone.

While there were some good points about the program there was way too much sitting and I think that, as much as we like the Road Scholar programs, that this will be our last "sit-down" type of program. Although there were a few times I felt I was sitting at an in-service meeting back at ol' Irvin High School (insert high pitched scream here), I'm still going to rate it a C+ because, the people were friendly, the presenters were really trying, the area was beautiful, the food was good and best of all I got to experience it with Kamala.

The art of travel

As our master canoe instructor deftly explained the art of canoeing with the use of a small canoe that he had borrowed from a local garden gnome, I was suddenly struck with a realization that was, at once enlightening and joyous, and yet stirred up an extreme sense of sadness of opportunities lost. As he held the little paddles in his fingers, moving them around in tiny circles as if stirring coffee, I flashed back to my days as a football coach and realized that I had really missed the boat by not using Barbie dolls to demonstrate blocking techniques to those freshmen.

Mastering the Canoe 101

Here we learn how to paddle a wooden dock. OMG, it was soooooo realistic! I mean after a few minutes we were expert canoeists, capable of paddling any canoe that sat 2 and 1/2 feet out of the water and anchored deep in the lake bottom. Bring on the whitewater! And on top of the wonderful life changing instruction I was nostaligically transported back to Miss Higbothom's 5th grade dance class with footprints on the floor and everything.

Okay, okay, so the start was a little slow. Maybe he hadn't quite realized that we were all old enough to be his parents and that he could have actually tried to pass on information in a bit more sophisticated manner (8th or even 9th grade level would have sufficed). Anyway the program was all uphill from there and in the end I give the week an A.

Eagle River turned out to be as beautiful an area as Green Lake was and the week was filled with paddling pristine lakes and rivers, sloshing across floating jelly-like bogs, calling owls, watching bald eagles soar, and meeting interesting people. Our guides were knowledgeable and friendly. Troy and Jill injected humor into the outings. The weather cooperated with pleasant cool days (I'm not really sure yet if they have summer up here).

The original plan was to find a place to leave the truck and trailer for a couple of weeks and cycle-tour Michigan's Upper Peninsula. After a long and serious discussion and reading the entrails of sheep (for clarity of mind), we have decided upon deviation.

"The art of travel is to be able to deviate from one’s plans."

This quote comes from a class B movie (plot quite forgettable) but the message has stayed with us. The Northwoods of Wisconsin have wonderful roads to cycle and plenty, I mean plenty, of water to paddle. Plus, someone has to feed these darn mosquitoes.

What? No Posts?

There's something magical that happens when we ride a bike all day. The turning of the pedals mile after mile; the reward of simple pleasures of becoming one with the landscape, butt breaks, food, downhills, scenery, being able to stop to take that breath-taking, awe-inspiring snapshots which all add to philosophical introspection which lead to magical notes. It's amazing that no matter how many years have past and the thousands (literally) pictures we've taken we can always remember the moment the photo was captured. The true ontological observations.

Floor art

Tiled counter

We've been busy. We've done home projects and we have traveled. Pics have a blur as the landscape rushes beside the car. We've used our little camper as a base camp and discovered areas. We went back to Palm Springs this past January to cycle the beauty and watch movies at night at their annual Palm Springs International Film Festival. Movies of note this year: Life of a Fish and the Japanese Wife.

Bosque de Apache Wildlife Refuge

New single kayak

We've hosted close to a dozen cross-country cyclists this spring via Warmshowers.org.  They arrive tired and grateful to have a safe place to bed down for the night as we surprise them with a good meal. We recently hosted a young man who flew to El Paso to start his journey to Canada via the Continental Divide. We recognized the anticipatory energy as he readied for his wheeled trek and we were infected with desire for our own bicycle adventure. While we have been preparing for an upcoming adventure, he just prodded us on.

So we are off Wisconsin with our little Ontological research base to do a little canoeing and then we plan to cycle-tour Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

New paint job

Enjoying a warm winter day in Palm Springs

Death Valley

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--Kamala