Oof. Working. Driving. Doing. These things leave little time for reading or updating as I’d like. But the trip is going well, if a bit slower than anticipated initially. When you stop to see and try to do as well, or the weather decides to become an obstacle, things change. Thankfully, there is not a…
This will be my fourth opportunity to cross our wonderful country. The first three times were pretty harried and hurried – the first a true unknown adventure full of break downs and roadside kindnesses in a dilapidated van (I didn’t know it at the time of purchase, but it had a blown head gasket!) which…
Today on a break I sat outside, away from computers and phones, and practiced just being. Why is this so darn hard?? Thoughts came floating in and I let them float by. I looked at the ground. I looked at the sky. I looked at the golden air where sun streamed between tree limbs. Here…
Shabbat is always good for a lazy, reflective, do-nothing-much day. Today it has rained on and off. So I fired up some wax tarts (Cinnamon Roll and Orange Spice), took out the sketch book (if you can call what I do at this stage ‘sketching’ lol), and connected the phone to the laptop. Yes. I…
Trees are such an amazing part of our world. They provide shelter, shade, food, heat and suck up all of that carbon we’re emitting! These two caught my eye, appearing to be a long-time partnered couple, supporting each other through thick and thin. Or maybe he’s goosing her…knots? 🙂 Instead of the more sentimental limb…
Today’s trip to the lake was simply sublime, and a perfect post- work unwind. I love woods and water, especially the rocky shoreline type. So I was primed for some zen rock sitting, watching the water do its thing. I got so, so much more! First off, there is nothing like occupying a waterside picnic…
At the same time I am embarking on poking my writing muse, I am also doing an art journal…finally. I follow an artist whose books I own, and I’ve been watching little clips for probably close to a year now, contemplating doing one. What held me back? I sketch like a kindergartener, lol. Plus, you…
In order to reinvigorate my writing activities, I thought I’d once again attempt a post a day. I did this once, several years ago and it led to both good and bad. Good, because I was thinking like a writer again, and bad, because I got burned out. This time I start with a 30…
Ah, I can remember when sixty was a distant thing, and how wise and patient I’d grow to be by that age – if indeed I’d live that long. Now that it’s here, what is it really like? Am I wiser? A life of ashes and rebuilding teaches one a great deal. Things like: Nothing…
She’s damp, dark and cold, with dead leaves scattered in and around doorways and windows that don’t quite shut all the way. But she stands just as I left her – in disarray from hurried packing. Freshly decorated rooms with art both purchased and created hanging on the walls, candles arrayed on platters waiting to…
When I went on the road, I had no idea one amazing benefit would be dark skies by which to grow much more appreciative and aware of celestial happenings. Over the last fourteen months I’ve seen dozens of meteor showers, gobsmacking full moons, lunar eclipses and now the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Last night…
I’m poised once again for take off, but first a little backtracking. After a couple of days at Caliente, I ambled south towards one of Nevada’s amazing places, Valley of Fire. I had really good intentions of going to the park, but it didn’t happen. I did drive past it, does that count? After a…
It has been over eleven years since I went to the eye doctor. I know, because my late husband drove me there. Today’s visit was an eye opener (no pun intended, hah!) Things have really gotten high tech in the eye exam world. Little lasers to measure your retinal thickness. Video game type tracking of…
After coming out of a marvelous camping, photo hunting, van selling, working week, I had a little surprise on the dash of Just ENuff. A little always-on glowing engine icon. I wanted to ignore it in hopes it was a false reading. But since it’s new to me and diesels are a bit fussier in…
After leaving Hope behind, the path southward down Idaho became one long, undulating journey through the many shades of dun. I drove mostly in solitude, seeing more cows than cars, past miles and miles and miles of hay stubble. With the combination of the wildfire haze and the pallid, wan disc of the sun, it…
‘Tis done. I’m now traveling in my new-to-me rig. After tires, brakes, differential fluid and new batteries for solar, I was a lot lighter than when I arrived to pick up the little E-Nuff bus, wallet wise, lol. First stop was, aptly, Hope, ID. What a beautiful place for the first real road camping I…
Oh my, my, how I had forgotten the joy to be found in driving – particularly driving a responsive, well-functioning vehicle where gauges and issues did not have to be monitored. It’s glorious. You feel one with the car. The radio playing classic sounds – The Cranberries, Aerosmith, The Beatles, Panic at the Disco, Plain…
.. Where angels fear to tread, as the saying goes. I’m fairly certain I’ve discussed my sometimes resemblance to this persona on the blog a time or two before 🙂 Idaho was gorgeous. I really enjoyed my time there, as well as the friendships that were formed. It’s nice to get missives and pictures about…
… And other musings. Ruby had been sputtering along in a stoic way on seven cylinders but she finally complained loudly enough, and refused to signal when turning, so I bit the bullet (wallet?) and took her in to a mechanic referred by another nomad friend. Whatever gremlins have been rambling around in my other…
Yesterday we took a ride up to the Dixie National Forest in Utah. It’s the first time since my trip to Anza Borrego that I’ve seen trees with real leaves, like, oaks and pines. And my first time by living water since the creek at the canyon in Arizona at the beginning of fall. I…
This life is about freedom, exploring, community and nature. Much about van life though is naturally self isolating, or at least involves very reduced social contact within small groups. Yes, we stopped game nights and yarn-spinning around the campfire, even though no one in our camp had been sick. We stay a few feet apart…
The title may be a tad misleading… There is a river, but no one’s running 🤣I do ride my bike beside the Colorado, though. As our camping group breaks apart bit by bit, the pace slows considerably. As folks move on, more arrive. Sometimes we have visitors for a few hours and then they mosey…
After almost two weeks of talking mainly to myself, plants, and inanimate objects, I need some socialization. Yes, an introvert just wrote that sentence. I too, am surprised. I’ve figured out that introversion is how I process the information I take in over time, but it doesn’t really define my personality type, now that my…
The wonderful thing about Google photos is that it sends you reminders of where you were x years ago and what you were doing. Well, sometimes it’s wonderful; other times, painful. Today it reminded me of where I was five years ago. I was camping, alone, down in Florida, under another full moon. I hiked…
I’m nearing the end of twelve work free days, a luxury I’ve not had in over five years. But today I had to start easing back into my normal sleep/wake patterns for work on my East coast timeline. So I was up at 0300 Pacific time. Music kept me company for a while, checking email…
And so it goes! After traversing Arizona moving south and westward, I finally arrived at the RVing Nirvana known as Quartzsite, or “Q”, as one mountainside proclaims visually. I had seen a video or three on this place. Seemed cool enough. However, after having the freedom of truly boondocking, this is just a leetle different…
It’s funny sometimes, how things happen. I stood in the chilly darkness before work this morning straining to see a falling star. It was breezy, quiet and dark. Only the sound of the wind in the junipers, the rustle of grasses, and the trill of unseen insects kept me company. But no such luck. Tonight,…
So, I bought a campervan. Nothing big, nothing fancy, nothing new. Just new to me. I want to approach this kind of like a fiddler crab, edging sideways towards a new hole in the sand; or maybe a hermit crab, checking a new shell for a better fit, always remembering that it is me…
The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living A decade. One hundred and twenty months. Three thousand six hundred and fifty days. And so on. The pain of missing has diminished, except on the days when it has not. Those days have at least become less and less frequent. Philosopher and Poet David Whyte says of…
What does that word really mean? The technical meaning is to slaughter an animal, or to offer a person or possession to the Almighty. Yet I have heard that word related to what I am about to embark upon; the taking on of a six-year-old boy to raise for a while, to help untangle a…
Ah yes, I bet you thought the topic would be more romantic when I caught up on the blog, yes? Actually, I’ve been so mentally busy that the title choices were difficult to narrow down, but since I’m coming off of a serious (for me) illness, this was that one which stuck. I should back track…
So what, you may ask, can one DO when there is no internet to absorb, delight, educate, aggravate and titillate? If you are a geeky person like me, you read. Yes, those book things that we house in places called libraries and line up in bookstores filled with the intoxicating aroma of, well, probably glue,…
“Plop.” The sound came soft and clear from somewhere in the fading dusk. I looked around for what it might be and there, unmoving in the dark, was the shape of a frog. As I approached for a better look it shook off the fall and hopped away. It made me smile. Back to reading.…
It has been a stretch of interesting days. I’m not certain how my life always seems to amble along like a comedy, but it does most of the time. It could be that I am just silly 🙂 I ran up against a wall this week that I’ve not encountered ever I don’t think, since…
Just like going to the Doctor for a check up is not intimate when compared with the touch of one who knows you, neither is having professional movers wrangle your stuff from one place to another. But to have people who know me trail their fingers through my things is something quite different for me. It is…
Catchy and academic-sounding title eh? My brain works weirdly in sleep deprivation mode. I also love to make up words that have meaning probably only to me. Last night was a late night (morning) working as the next in line is out for medical assistance for his partner. That left me in charge of herding…
I feel like I’ve joined the ‘writer’s abstinence club’ of sorts lately. I think of great things to write, but I’m busily doing something else, and then I have tasks to tackle or familial bonds to reinforce with listening, advice, interventions or the like, and a dog to walk and a job, and well, then…
When you begin to consider carrying all that you need on your back for a few months, the contents of your home begin to loom in the mind as well. The idea of ‘comfort’, ‘luxury’ or ‘morale’ items becomes a topic of thought. We really don’t think about these things day to day, just like…
So I am on site in the midst of the great Polar Vortex caper (hmmm, didn’t I mention flailing in the vortex a few posts ago…prescient of me eh?) I like to camp. A lot. So in order to give the new widow some personal space I brought my camping gear since there is acreage…
Going to a salon is not really about vanity so much. It is about going some place where someone takes care of you. I was reminded of this yesterday, as someone brought me coffee, I read magazines I normally do not see and enjoy human touch while having my hair washed. I don’t go any…
The Daily Post popped into my Inbox tonight, for minimalist photos. This one immediately sprung to mind.
Stark. Past prime. Depth. Beauty.
In bloom, the Zinnia is cheerful, multi-layered, attention grabbing. But even here, there is a shadow of its former life.
Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.~Rumi
Shabbat shalom.
~SE
Delicious Fall has fallen upon us for a brief spell and I am relishing it! Doors and sliders thrown open, fans positioned to bring all of that fresh, low humidity air in has really boosted my spirits. It makes working out an invigorating thing rather than a flirtation with heat stroke and misery. I wrote…
Okay, so there isn’t really a vortex in my life, but there are times as I stand beside my life and look at it that I could swear I can feel the sucking sounds at my feet and hear the power of the strength of the pull away from those things I desire to accomplish or…
Leave-taking is always bittersweet when it is a long-time friend who is often more family than actual family. I’ve spent a lovely nine days in the Midwest in marvelous company, been fed delicious food, gone out and about, and now am sitting in the airport waiting to return home via Chicago. The trip in was…
Hint: Click to full-size. “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” — John Muir ~SE
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Sunflower Solace Farm 