Category Archives: Serenity

Not a dead end

29 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by in Personal, Serenity, Travel

≈ 8 Comments

It’s a misty grey wet morning in Pennsylvania, the kind where the sky is a solid mass of a lukewarm gray, not stormy, not cloudy, just overcast. I had my window open last night — no air-conditioning running for the first time! — and it was lovely, but this morning I discovered water dripping in and running down the wall.

I immediately jumped to full-blown paranoia. Oh, no, water in the RV: she’ll grow mold and delaminate and the walls will fall apart and she’ll be unlivable. And then I took a deep breath and exhaled and actually looked at that wall. Water in RVs is a big concern for those aforementioned reasons, but Serenity’s a camper van, not an RV. Her walls are metal and solid plastic, like the kind they make playground equipment out of these days. She can’t possibly delaminate, because her walls aren’t made of laminate. True, if I let her cushions stay damp for days, they could grow mold, but obviously, I won’t be doing that. In other words, it’s probably not a bomb. I wish my brain did not jump so quickly to worst-case scenarios.

So I made it to my brother’s house after a ridiculously long day of driving yesterday. I really should have stopped at a campground after about eight hours but I was close enough that I stuck it out. Rainy rush hour driving through a construction zone after nine hours of driving was probably not a good idea, but we got here in the end.

Last night therefore was my first night camping in someone’s front yard. Well, or sidewalk, rather. This morning after I walked the dogs, I took our empty water jug up to my brother’s front door. Locked. So I went around the side of the house, unlatched the fence and found the water spigot in the back yard. Filled up my jug with water, came home and made myself some coffee. I’m not sure why that was as fun as it was: obviously, in mid-winter, if it was cold outside, it would not be entertaining to be hunting down water. But it’s not mid-winter, it’s high summer. I had to push aside branches of an apple tree with little green apples on it to get to the water, walking by beds of strawberry plants, flowering bushes, and what looked like an ocean of squash. The raspberry bushes had a few last berries on them, but mostly I missed my chance at berries this year. Next summer, I’m going to try to make it here in time for the strawberries.

I’m not much of a photographer: I don’t think of taking photos often and when I do, they’re seldom as good as they were in my head. I’m sure I could get better if I put some effort into learning more but it’s never been high on my list of things to do. The world has plenty of photographers. But as I drove away from my house for the last time, I paused to take a photo.

dead end sign in the rear view mirror

Dead end sign in the rear view mirror

There were times when I wondered if buying a house with a Dead End sign in front of it would turn out to be prophetic. I’m glad that wasn’t the case.

Bass Lake, Dillon, South Carolina

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by in Bartleby, Serenity, Travel

≈ 6 Comments

376 miles today. I do not intend to do days like this often. I kept passing places that sounded intriguing and wanting to stop: historical sites and parks, beaches and artisan stores. But I just kept driving by. It is NOT the point of my adventurous life to always be moving. Well, sort of it is, but not moving without stopping at the cool stuff along the way. Once I get to Pennsylvania and unload the things that are making life in Serenity a little too complicated — she’s not really sized for carrying Christmas ornaments, china, and a large-screen television — I’m going to be slowing way down. When I see something that sounds fun, I will stop.

Not, however, when it’s a restaurant. What is it about road trips that makes unhealthy food seem so appealing? I wanted waffles today. And pancakes. McDonald’s french fries. Fried chicken. BBQ. Every time I saw a sign for restaurant I’d never heard of, I wanted to stop and check it out, and every time I saw a sign for fast food that I once liked and haven’t eaten in years, I also wanted to stop. I wasn’t even hungry most of the time. For breakfast, I had gluten-free rice Chex with fresh blueberries and coconut milk. For lunch, I had prosciutto-wrapped dates and cherries. And for dinner, I had turkey slices rolled up with peach-honey mustard, avocado, and arugula inside, with sliced radishes as a side. How could McDonald’s compare? And yet…

One of the reasons that I drove so far today was that it is seriously hot. I thought about stopping earlier in the day, but with the van moving, both of the dogs were in the front seat area, AC blasting on them, as the back got hotter and hotter. I knew if we stopped in the heat of the day, the AC would be hard-pressed to keep up. It can drop the temp about 20 degrees, I think, less if she’s sitting in full sun. So with the temp breaking 100, stopping earlier would have meant sitting inside an 80 degree van, at best, or staying outside in the heat. I could have done it and Z probably would have been fine, but poor B does not love the heat.

I accidentally gave B a full Benadryl tonight. I don’t know what I was thinking — over-tired, I guess — but I stuck the whole pill in the peanut butter and handed it to him and only thought, “Oh, wait, I usually cut it in half,” when it was already in his mouth. Not like I could get it back at that point, but I was filled with maternal anxiety. Not about whether it would be bad for him — a double-dose of Benadryl’s not going to kill him — but about whether his reaction would be stoned dog or hyper dog. Either was possible. I am feeling exceedingly fortunate that his eyes are glazed and his head nodding. I’m not exactly in the mood to entertain a bouncy ball of enthusiasm although it would be sort of fun to see B have crazy energy. It’s not his usual style. I should probably drag him out for a last walk before he completely crashes, though.

And then maybe I’ll start planning tomorrow’s journey. The question will be: zoom through North Carolina and well into Virginia, or take it easy and stop early? Except VA, it turns out, is only 3 hours away, and that seems like a pretty short day. But maybe that’s what I’m ready for. Decisions, decisions!

St Augustine!

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by in Serenity, Travel

≈ 8 Comments

But I don’t have any cool pictures because I haven’t done anything at all. Except pull off the highway, find myself an RV park (St. Johns RV) and after a reasonably brief time of getting settled, crash onto an unkempt bed and go to sleep. I didn’t even hook up the water and the sewer, despite having paid for the full service. But I was surprisingly tired.

Well, maybe not surprisingly. I think I predicted more than once that the moment everything was done I was going to sleep for three days. It’s been a busy three months and an intense last few weeks. I did have time for one last swim yesterday, and a lovely lunch with my dad, but when we returned to the house the buyer was there for the inspection and from then on, it was a whirlwind.

Eventually, I was on the highway, Serenity and I headed north, and two things were happening. First, my brain wasn’t letting go of house worries. I kept trying to convince myself that it was finally my chance to think about writing, nothing whatever to do except concentrate on how I’m getting Grace out of this boring scene that she’s in, but my brain just would not unlock. And second, I could feel myself getting driven to reach PA. I passed a place I’d thought about stopping in — Flager Beach, where there’s a campground that sounded nice — and I was tired, my back was sore, I was hungry… but I just kept going. As if I was going to make it to PA in the next two hours. Given that my destination is 800 miles away and that there’s no reason for me to get there before Thursday, I knew I was being stupid. Well, or rather High Persistent, which is one of my character traits that’s always been both a blessing and a curse. Another fifteen miles down the road, I pulled over in a rest stop, found myself a new place to stay, called ahead, and here I find myself.

It’s nothing special: your basic field with concrete pads. But there are some trees and a nice long walk for the dogs. Both of them refused to come back into Serenity this morning after their walk, so I got a chance to try out their new tie-outs. Z promptly wound herself around the tree. Ha. It’ll take practice, I expect for both of them, since they’ve never been tied up before.

Still, it’s getting pretty hot already — not quite 9, and it’s 86 degrees inside Serenity — so it’s probably time to close Serenity up, get the AC on, and get back on the road. I don’t wish I was staying because Serenity is filled with clutter that I’m taking to my brother’s house and the feeling of chaos stresses me out, but I am definitely looking forward to the day where my goal isn’t to get on the road, but to enjoy where I am. Soon!

The big day

25 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in House, Personal, RV, Serenity, Travel

≈ 5 Comments

Yesterday was a perfect day. Not just a nice day, not just a good day, but an authentically perfect day.

I’d been dreading it for weeks. My last full day in my house, my last moment to say good-bye. I expected loneliness and sorrow, regret and probably some worry about the future. Instead, I puttered around, moving stuff from one place to another. I went for a walk with a friend, cleaned and swam, saw another friend, ran some errands. Spent half an hour on the phone with R, made a snack sort of lunch, swam some more. Cleaned some more, went out and saw some other friends, made dinner in Serenity — a salad of mixed greens, turkey chunks, pecans, and dried apricots, with a balsamic and peach honey mustard vinaigrette.

And at about 9, when I was tired and ready to sleep, instead I went back into the house and out to the swimming pool and lit the torches and swam by firelight under a starry sky. It was lovely, so beautiful as I floated in the still water, watching the colors of the flames against the backdrop of the green leafy bamboo. The sweet olive tree was even blooming a little again, making the whole backyard smell tropical. It was as magical as I could have imagined, maybe even more so.

The only not quite perfect thing about the day was that poor Zelda was so tired from staying two inches away from me while I wandered around that when I swam she didn’t play with her ball. Instead she slept, as if she was grateful for the chance to get some rest while I was contained. She, of course, doesn’t know that it’s going to be her last chance to play in a pool for a while.

But even that’s okay. I’ve been fighting to keep her ears healthy — drops every morning, cleaning them every day — but I’m pretty sure that I’ve failed and that she’s working on infections, maybe in both. It would be impossible to keep her out of the pool if we were home, but her ears will have a chance to stay dry when we’re on the road. And if I decide in a few days that this is an infection that needs more than Zymox, I can find a Banfield on the road and use her wellness plan to see a vet pretty much anywhere.

And today — well, today’s the big day. I shouldn’t be writing a blog post, I should be finishing cleaning out the house, making last decisions about all the things left inside, dragging the trash out to the curb. Maybe scrubbing the kitchen floor — I did a fairly half-hearted job yesterday. Definitely finishing emptying the fridge and cleaning it out. Checking the laundry situation, maybe making a last run to Goodwill. Oh, and cleaning my bathroom.

I suspect that today is both going to fly by and have long moments where it feels like it’s dragging, but at 2PM, I will sign the papers. One set of dreams will come to an end, but another will begin. I have no idea where I’m going to be spending the night, whether I’ll still be in Florida or have made it to Georgia or South Carolina. For that matter, I have no idea where I’ll be tomorrow night either. How fun!

Peaceful mornings

23 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by in Personal, RV, Serenity, Travel

≈ 2 Comments

I slept in the house last night, but this morning I decided to have my first meal in Serenity. I brought my coconut milk, my gluten-free cereal and a nectarine out to the driveway and made myself a cup of coffee while I sliced up the nectarine. I sat on the edge of the van, the sliding door open, coffee on the floor next to me, bowl of cereal in my hand, adoring dogs at my feet.

A bird was flitting in and out of my crepe myrtle tree, which is in full, gorgeous pink bloom, and the sky was the pure blue of early morning with some wispy white clouds floating by. I took a deep breath and thought about how a peaceful morning just sets the tone for the whole day.

And then a dog walked by and Zelda went berserk and I grabbed for her (brand-new) tie-out cord, throwing my cereal into the air. Before we were through, I had nectarine and coconut milk and soggy rice chex in my coffee and on the floor and even on the comforter on the bed next to the door. Yeah, that happened.

I didn’t let either dog lick up the coconut milk and cereal, and I growled at Zelda as I cleaned up the mess. Literally, a low rumble of annoyance.

But now I’m sitting on the bed in Serenity, trying out my new mobile internet solution. I’ve been finalizing one room at a time in the house. My bathroom and bedroom are almost done–cabinets and medicine closet bare, dresser drawers empty. My living room is done, the family room, guest bedroom, Rory’s bedroom and guest bathroom are all complete. Most of my fridge is in Serenity — and the online wisdom that the small fridge is surprisingly big seems to have been accurate, I’ve gotten a lot in there already with plenty of room for more.

If I was really motivated, I could get everything I need out of the house within the next hour, take a load of stuff to the storage unit, and be living in Serenity by noon. But there’s the slight problem of no water supply, plus I do still intend to take as much advantage of the pool as I can in the next two days.

And I don’t feel done. I’ve still got a lot to do in the next couple of days, including the always really boring deep-cleaning done for the benefit of the next inhabitant. Something about scrubbing floors when I know I’m not going to be the one messing them up again makes me clean more sullenly. Still, I’ve got a definite glow of joy going as I sit here. This is going to be so much fun!

Playing house

21 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by in Randomness, Serenity

≈ 2 Comments

I spent a couple hours this morning moving into Serenity. Like, really moving into Serenity. Tomorrow morning when I want coffee, it’ll be in the van. When I get dressed, I’ll be running out to the driveway first. My cooking capability in my house is down to… well, nothing, actually. My frying pan and two pots are both in the van, along with all my utensils.

Does this make any sense at all? No! I’ve got four more days in my house and Serenity’s not hooked up to water, and the refrigerator’s not cold, so it’s impractical to think I can really just stay in her. But I’ve been having to make tough choices about what I can bring & what I can’t bring and tomorrow is my last trash day, so I needed to make decisions. The easiest way to decide was to try things out.

It was fun, actually. I put all my dishes and pantry goods onto the shelves, then realized that when the bed is made up as a double bed instead of two singles, one of the cabinets will be difficult to access. So I rearranged everything. And then I decided that my shelves didn’t work the way I needed them to, so I did it again. It felt remarkably like playing house, like being a little kid in a pretend kitchen, doing pretend shopping.

Analyzing the way I use my dishes has also been entertaining me. I have two pretty mugs, blue with red flowers, white interiors. I’m very fond of them. But I use them only when I’m having an extra cup of coffee. They’re “special” mugs. On a daily basis, they’re too small and they cool off too quickly. Meanwhile, I have four tall latte mugs, and I use them exclusively for tea. They’re the perfect tea mugs, because they heat so evenly and hold the heat so well. I also have two red mugs that I didn’t actually like very much aesthetically, but they were what I drank regular coffee from, because they were a good size and weight.

Eight mugs. Serenity does not have enough room for eight mugs. Also, I am one person. I do not need eight mugs. For a time, I had six in there — two of each. But even six didn’t fit. So then I had one of the pretty ones, one of the red ones, and two of the latte mugs. The reality, though, is that my perfect tea mugs are by far my favorite and the most useful to me. What to do? Finally I asked myself the daring question: could I actually drink coffee in my tea mugs? It turns out the answer is yes.

But it amused me to realize how rigid I am in my uses of specific things. I put almost all my knives in Serenity for exactly the same sort of reason: I need the small one for apples and other fruit, and the next size up for carrots and vegetables and the third for slicing meat, and the fourth and fifth and sixth… but I suspect that after I’ve lived in Serenity for a while I will discover that I can live with two or three knives. Fortunately they don’t take a lot of room, so I’m going with abundance when it comes to knives for now.

Ugh, and bowls… so many tough decisions when it comes to bowls, because apparently I need a certain bowl for scrambling eggs and another bowl for marinades and a third bowl for mixing salad dressing and a fourth bowl for making rubs. And let’s not forget cereal, fruit, and frozen treats! I could actually explain why each of these bowls is better for its purpose than another but I did manage to decide that I could adjust to having only a couple types of bowls. Well, four. Or five. Anyway, I still have plenty of bowls, but I picked ones that stack and reluctantly let go of the ones that don’t.

Spices and herbs have been fun, too. I think I wound up keeping almost everything except red pepper and pink Himalayan sea salt. Their containers were just too tall or I would have squeezed them in, too. Three kinds of vinegar — balsamic, red wine, and white wine, but I jettisoned all the oils except coconut and olive. I hardly ever used the avocado oil, the red palm oil, the canola oil and the other oils I had, so I can live without them. Soy sauce, yes, fish sauce, no. Four kinds of hot sauce and chili-garlic sauce, yes, but all pre-packaged salad dressing, no.

Tomorrow I take Serenity to the dealer and get her vent fixed. Saturday and Sunday — I finish cleaning the house, I guess. Do a last load of laundry. Swim and swim and swim some more. Spend some time with friends, I hope. And then I’ll be moving on. And getting back to Grace! I find it really very funny today that Serenity has stolen so much of my attention from Grace. Even funnier when I realize that my mental name for APB (which has also stolen attention from Grace) is Balance.

Serenity, Grace, and Balance — three very nice things to have in one’s life.