In the Now, Looking Back, Looking Forward

sassypickins · Mar 6, 2013

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ontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]-->IÃ¢Â€Â™m new here.  Thank you to rvBob for this site and thank you to everyone for making it valuable and wonderful in so many ways. Some of you may have noticed I've practically been living here for the past week.  I canÃ¢Â€Â™t seem to tear myself away.  I started out looking at small house design a few months ago and ended up here.  I'm a northwest mom and wife and apparently I have a hankering for some travel again after years of being settled in.  I normally am quite reserved about sharing information about myself.  Charlene is the only person I have talked with a little bit, in private emails.  But for whatever reason, this feels ok, and since I so enjoy hearing about you all and your adventures, I thought I should open up a little and I hope you will enjoy hearing about some of mine. <img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" class="emoticon bbc_img">I was up for any adventure when I was young.  My dad wanted to pay for college but I thanked him and turned him down.  I knew I would not be able to stay put or stay focused.  I hitchhiked around the U.S. and in Ã¢Â€Â™70 went to Europe, on a one-way ticket from New York to Brussels, with 50 bucks in my pocket.  I ended up living in a tiny attic space in Zandvoort, Holland, and worked in Haarlem for a year or so, then trekked to Afghanistan and back over a 3-month period.  Then home, office work long enough to know I hated it, commercial salmon fished for a summer, had the best job ever -- working in a car wash, traveled around with my first husband and his band.  <img style="width: 199px; height: 149px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" rel="lightbox" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSwSvLnZFpcz7vYhVRkMz8QM1i9AS_GAirtTBI4cNC8jUXj7tpT" class="rg_i bbc_img" data-src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSwSvLnZFpcz7vYhVRkMz8QM1i9AS_GAirtTBI4cNC8jUXj7tpT" data-sz="f">Then, a great adventure living in a 1950-something Ford Boyertown body step-van like this one (hope it's ok I borrowed this photo from the net)  that someone else had put 2 windows in and a couple of a/c outlets and insulated walls and ceiling.  Perfect!  My daughter was born in it out in Tennessee.  I loved that home and I loved coming up with cheap, innovative ways to feel like a million bucks without having more than a few bucks.  I donÃ¢Â€Â™t think I made any trips to the big box (were there any then?), just scrounged up stuff.  My dishpan sink had a radiator hose going into a bucket and a shelf above with a bungeed 5-gal water jug with a spigot.  Old medicine cabinet up on the wall, long plywood kitchen counter with plenty of open ply shelves under with front slide stops.  Goofy front wall with a plywood door to separate the living space from the driving compartment, which also doubled as the bathroom.  Rocking chair, fold-down ply table, washable rugs, high curtained-off 6 x 6 (YES!) platform bed with divided inside/outside storage, big homemade screen on the back double doors for stargazing.  LetÃ¢Â€Â™s see, Coleman campstove, cooler, lanterns, bookshelves, cello, guitar.  Extension cord for shore power to light and heat now and then.  Oh, bassinet on a wheel well when that time came.  Later I added a woodstove.I am sure I am mixing it all up <img src="/images/boards/smilies/confused.gif" class="emoticon bbc_img"> as to when and what I did to that van over those years, but it was all good.  There were so many special moments never to be forgotten.  Early morning at Joshua Tree, stuffing jalapenos with havarti and frying, spooning salsa and celery over cheesy scrambled eggs, looking out the window at the sunrise Ã¢Â€Â“ everything was so colorful, both the breakfast and the viewÃ¢Â€Â¦ time just froze at that moment... oh, and hauling my cello out into the desert to play for the coyotes at sunset...  Somewhere between the baby and the woodstove, the van got emptied out for a while and was used to haul dead trees to cut and sell as firewood in Oregon.  <img src="/images/boards/smilies/love.gif" class="emoticon bbc_img">'d that old truck.  The flat 6 was so easy to work on, tooÃ¢Â€Â¦well, my kind of Ã¢Â€Â˜workÃ¢Â€Â™.  One time out in the middle of nowhere, headed to Chaco Canyon, the accelerator cable decided to snap in two.  After scratching my head for awhile, I got an <img src="/images/boards/smilies/idea.gif" class="emoticon bbc_img"> and donated the C string on my cello to the cause and with a couple of big paper clips at each end, got back on the road.  Sometimes the gear linkage would get stuck and I couldn't shift so I'd lean over and open the engine cover while I was driving and just reach down in there and unstick it.  I used to do that during rush hour on the freeway in Nashville on my way downtown to some temp job. Good grief.I spent a cold and sometimes lonely winter once near Four Corners but I was cozy and warm in my little house.  I wrote a lot of deep and meaningful songs that winterÃ¢Â€Â¦ <img src="/images/boards/smilies/wink.gif" class="emoticon bbc_img">.  I remember scoring an old wood pallet somewhere. I used it for a patio/shower platform off the back doors.  For my Christmas present to myself I bought a couple of those emergency space blankets and fashioned a curtain/sun reflector around the pallet and both showered and sunbathed there.  Being able to bask in the sun in the middle of winter was a real treat and it helped chase away depression; in fact, I am pretty sure I had a big <img src="/images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif" class="emoticon bbc_img"> on my face when I was out there except it was sunburned, not blue.Anyway, I look forward to reading more about everyoneÃ¢Â€Â™s adventures.  I am trying to pay attention and wrap my brain around the whys and wherefores of RV power, lighting, plumbing, venting, maintenance.  I learned a lot by designing and doing a good share of the remodel of my current little house but thatÃ¢Â€Â™s different than 12V and inverters and all kinds of new things I want to learn about.  Now my hubby keeps asking me when weÃ¢Â€Â™re going on the road.  I think that is a good sign!

teetaw259 · Mar 8, 2013

What interesting and educational life experiences! I feel so sorry for those who don't travel and are born, raised and die in the same town. Keep up the fun. Life's too short to do otherwise! Dan

blkjak · Mar 8, 2013

welcome .... blkjak

sassypickins · Mar 8, 2013

teetaw - thank you for saying hi.  I think life might be in our heads, really.  When I was in Istanbul back then, my friend and I, just a couple of dusty travelers, received a very special invitation to be dinner guests at a family home.  We made our way there, down narrow streets and finally through a gate in an endless stone wall of gates.  It opened into a cheerful courtyard, where the family had set up a wonderful dinner on a long table by a fountain near a small garden.  A really old grandmother was there, minding her business, taking care of her part in the family duties.  I was told she had never once been outside that courtyard; it was all she had ever known of the world.  I looked at her and she looked at me and we both smiled at the same time and hugged.  Somehow, though we could not say it with words, we exchanged respect at that moment. Strange as I, a young woman far from home, must have seemed to her, and strange as she, being cloistered always, seemed to me, we validated each other.  We kept sneaking grins at each other the whole evening.  I wonder if she forgot me.  I never forgot her. blkjak - thank you for the welcome.  It has been a pleasure to read about your adventures.

Pikachu711 · Mar 8, 2013

Welcome to the group sassypickins!

sassypickins · Mar 9, 2013

Thank you very much, pikachu. Love your kitty's name.  Our 24-yr old kitty Sable recently moved on to her next adventure.  We miss her.

wagoneer · Mar 9, 2013

Welcome, quite an adventure with lots more to come ( i hope) the good thing about 65 plus years is looking before you leap, falling is a bit more frustrating.

sassypickins · Mar 9, 2013

Hi Adrian, thanks!  Yes, I wanted to go roller skating last month but thought better of it.  I want to go skiing but won't.  Instead I'll settle for a nice walk and remember the days when we took the free shuttle from Government Camp up to Timberline (Mt Hood, Oregon) and skied down the Glade Trail back to Gov't Camp, bussed up, skied down... free fun all day long!  Hope you find your way to some great free spots soon.  Sassy

rokguy · Mar 10, 2013

Sassy, You have travelled far and wide. Welcome. Geoff

sassypickins · Mar 11, 2013

Hi Geoff!  Thank you.  Your motorhome conversion happens to be one of my favorites.  I was immediately captivated by the roomy design and the unusual bed/bath curve and full use of that space.  Love that you can easily remove the entire kitchen unit.  That is so smart yet everything looks great at the same time.  Same with the lower curved cladding.  I image you can slide lots of things in the tubing there.  Sassy

peacetara · Mar 11, 2013

Hi sassy!

Your story is beautiful and inspiring!

Welcome and much love to you! I hope your next adventures are full of success!

With love,
Tara

CrossCountryGal · Mar 11, 2013

Look forward to more of your posts and experience ~ welcome!

sassypickins · Mar 22, 2013

Thank you for the kind welcome, Peacetara and CrossCountryGal.  I've been away for almost 2 weeks and have missed reading about everyone's adventures.  I took my computer with me, hoping I'd have spare time, but that didn't pan out.  Today I will enjoy spending time here.  I take away inspiration and motivation each time I am here.  Though I am not a traveler now, I aspire to be again, so I am keeping my eye on that prize!  When I traveled, there were no computers, no cell phones. Of course, when you don't have things that aren't yet invented, you don't much care and make do nicely with life as it is.  But I do have an excitement to see how it is different next time, having the ability to connect to the world in so many ways.  I love to read about the plans many of you make to visit one another or have group gatherings where I'm sure you can do plenty of sitting around visiting or plenty of outdoor activities,- whatever suits you.  What could be better than to make friends who share the traveling spirit, whether full-time or as they can between other life commitments?  Ok, going to go get my fill reading now and drool over everyone's rigs.  Sassy  <img src="/images/boards/smilies/wave.gif" class="emoticon bbc_img">

In the Now, Looking Back, Looking Forward

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