Category Archives: Randomness

The Ocean Time Zone

30 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by in Randomness, Travel

≈ 5 Comments

I am in the ocean time zone.

I have no idea what the real name for the ocean time zone is. In fact, I didn’t even realize I would enter it. Last night, I was actually extremely confused when some of my clocks changed time.

“How did it get so late?” I wondered. “What was I doing for the past hour?”

It felt so truly mystifying that I actually turned the van back on and checked the time on the dashboard, because the dashboard clock has to be changed manually. I was relieved when I got that hour back. The over-active imagination was conjuring up alien abductions and trauma-induced fugue states before looking at a map and discovering that sure, it was highly likely that there was another time zone in eastern Canada, because I believe I am as far east as I’ve ever been in the continental Americas.

But let me backtrack for a day. On Tuesday, I went to visit a reader in Quebec City. (Hi, Mireille!) I’ll admit that I was kind of nervous, but I only told one friend that if I disappeared it would be an internet serial killer plot. It would have had to be very long-laid plot, because when Mireille invited me to stay in her driveway, I recognized her name from years back. I thought maybe she was even in the Eureka fanfiction community, that was how long ago the familiarity was from, but she was actually from arghink.com, Jennifer Cruisie’s blog. (If that link doesn’t work, it’s because I’m writing this without internet and will post it via my cell phone, so can’t test the link, but the name should be right. I hope so, anyway.) At any rate, Mireille invited me to stay, I was a little anxious but mostly excited about the idea, and so I did.

It was lovely. She and her beautiful look-alike daughter live in a terrific neighborhood in Quebec City. I obviously am never going to live in Quebec City (there’s a citizenship problem), but if I could dream up my fantasy semi-urban neighborhood, it would be much the same. I wish I’d taken more pictures, although I probably wouldn’t post them even if I had, because I have no bandwidth today.

The three of us and Zelda went off to Montmorency Falls, a waterfall that’s taller than Niagara, with a walking bridge over it. The truly ambitious could climb down (and then up, or vice versa) a steep and very long flight of stairs, to see it from the bottom (or top, depending on where you parked), but I didn’t think Zelda’s leg was up for that much yet. I suspect our six-year-old companion would also have complained, but it was such a hot day that such complaints would have been justified. But we admired the falls and then drove a small way around the tip of Ile d’Orleans, the nearby island.

Gorgeous island, with beautiful houses. It would definitely be a fantasy place to live, except probably not so much in winter. It’s like admiring Vermont, so beautiful, but winter is always coming. Quebec, in general, has been notably beautiful. It’s sort of a surprise, because it’s not in my head as a gorgeous landscape, but I think that’s because I think of it as a winter place and I am not a winter fan. My mental picture of it is barren trees and bleak landscapes, but at this time of year, it’s pine forests and rolling hills. (Yes, the one other time I was in Quebec, it was in January.)

Back at Mireille’s house, I used her washer & dryer, her internet, and eventually her shower. (Thank you, Mireille!) I would really be hard-pressed to decide which of these luxuries I loved the best. I have clean sheets! Her internet was high-speed! I conditioned my hair! 🙂 It was lovely. And it was fun hanging out with her. It didn’t feel like spending time with a stranger, but much more like being with someone I knew but hadn’t seen in a while and needed to catch up with. We ate quinoa bowls for dinner and chatted until M2’s bed-time, when I headed back to the van to finish reading Magic Triumphs, the last book in the Kate Daniels’ series, which released that morning. (It was a great conclusion to the series and if you like the others, you’ll like it, too.)

Mireille invited me to stay as long as I liked, and I was really tempted to stay for longer. I wish the weather had been cooler because it would have been fun to wander around Quebec City. But I was worried about leaving Zelda in the van for too long, plus she would not quit barking — she won no points for well-behaved dog behavior! — so around lunch-time, I headed out.

The weather was horrible. Lots of rain, so much that I stopped at a rest-stop for an hour or so to wait for it to stop. It stopped, I started driving, it started raining again. Bah. But I was just thinking about stopping for dinner when an absolutely fantastic rainbow — quite possibly the best rainbow I have ever seen, and Florida gets lots of rainbows — spread across the sky. I took the rainbow as a sign, pulled off the highway and camped at the Walmart in Edmundston for the night. Somewhat mystifyingly, everything is still in French, but Google maps tells me I’m in New Brunswick.

And today will be a driving day. I’m not sure where I’ll spend the night tonight, but I’ve still got many hours to go on my route to Prince Edward Island. It is, unfortunately, still gray and cloudy, so I’m not feeling optimistic about the drive, but it was also so cold this morning that before I was willing to get out from under the covers, I turned the heat on for a while. So cold that Zelda also snuggled into the blankets and covered her nose with her paw. (Ridiculously cute!) It’s another reminder that winter is coming. I love the idea of a slow adventure down the east coast, with lots of long stops along the way, but I’m going to have to remember to watch the calendar. Serenity is not meant for snow.

Trois-Rivieres, Quebec

27 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by in Food, R, Randomness, Travel

≈ 8 Comments

I am sitting in a gray Walmart parking lot, as the sky slowly gets darker and darker. I count at least a dozen other campers and trailers here, so probably this town is a good place to be a tourist. It was certainly beautiful when driving around, despite the gray. I crossed a fantastic bridge, over a huge river that looked green in the foggy light. Then I crossed another bridge. Then another, then another.

Somewhere along the way, I thought, “Wow, how many rivers are there?”

And then I thought, “Duh, I need R in the van, so that I could have said that thought aloud to him for whatever his deadpan response would have been.” Pretty sure the name indicates that there might be three of them. Me driving over what felt like four was probably me getting lost.

I was headed to a beautiful church, one that I believe allows overnight camping in a parking lot behind it, but there was a No Dog sign on the parking lot. Alas. I might have been able to park on the curb of the very pretty river — it really didn’t feel like the kind of place where the police come and tell you to move on — but did I mention the gray? The fog was spooky. Yes, I literally had a lovely parking place on the side of a river that might have been a perfectly good place to spend the night, but I wimped out because the fog made everything just that slight bit surreal that makes you think about monsters rising out of the river. Sometimes my imagination is just too good for me. Or maybe that’s not good for me, I’m not sure which.

Either way, I retreated to Walmart. I was putting together a list of things I need — I know that there are several random things that I’ve been meaning to get, like another coat hook because one of mine broke — when I realized that the Walmart looked closed. Yes! It closed at 5PM. I was once again reminded that I am not in my own country, ha. I know that some Walmarts are not 24-hour, but 5PM? And actually, the reminder should have come from me needing to translate 17:00 back to 5:00. Or maybe from not being able to read any of the words on the sign.

So I have a random story from a while ago that I keep remembering, and I’m going to write it down because ten years from now it will make me smile should I stumble across this blog post. R and I ate well, of course, during the week that he camped with me, because I do eat well. We ate out a few times, too, because that’s definitely one of the pleasures of traveling with company, but I cooked most meals. We didn’t eat anything special, particularly — sausages on the grill with salads, risotto with asparagus, sautéed salmon, eggs and potatoes and blueberry pancakes… just food.

And he complimented it, but he grew up while I was learning to cook. He is the person who got to eat every failed experiment, every lesson learned the hard way, every “oops, maybe not like that,” and so he approaches my food with a little more wariness than the average person I feed. But on one of our last nights together, he said to me, “You really are an incredible cook.”

And I was sooo pleased. So delighted. So just a-glow with pleasure that my hard-earned skill was being acknowledged by my toughest audience.

And then I looked at what we were eating and laughed, and said, “Seriously? We’re having quinoa bowls. Not rocket science. Are you complimenting my vegetable-chopping skills?”

Because I make quinoa bowls ALL the time. It’s practically the TV dinner of my life. Put some salad greens in a bowl, add a couple big spoonfuls of quinoa, top with vegetables of some sort and protein of some sort and a dressing, probably based on Greek yogurt, but varying depending on what’s in the bowl. Sometimes even bottled salad dressing! I love the Simply Lemon vinaigrette. It is not a meal that requires any kind of cooking expertise at all. It’s just tossing a bunch of stuff together. Although I actually don’t even really toss it – I like having the ingredients be more layered.

But he said, “I’m serious. This is the best quinoa I’ve ever tasted.”

And so I went back to being pleased. But I also told him, as I will tell you, that the secret to good quinoa is to toast the grains before cooking them, which in my case means sautéing them in the base of the Instant Pot, with no oil or liquid. He asked how long to saute them and that’s a question to which there is no real answer, because it depends on quantity and the heat of the pan, but the effective answer is “until they smell toasted and nutty and delicious.” He has since made his own first quinoa bowl — he went with olives, feta, and a vinaigrette, and reports success, which adds to my pleasure. The only thing better than being a good cook is teaching someone else to be a good cook, too.

river view

I could have been parked next to this beautiful river for the night. I wonder if it was the graffiti on the rocks, unnoticed at the time, that made me feel unsure? Or maybe it was jut parking right next to a river when it was clearly going to rain? But no, I really just think I was worrying about the Loch Ness monster or some Canadian variant.

Camping des Voltigeurs, Drummondville, Quebec

23 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by in Campground, Randomness, Travel, Vanlife, Writing

≈ 14 Comments

I dreamed last night that the campsite I’m in turned to solid mud in the rain, two inches deep, and that Zelda ran out of the van door and straight into the mud, sinking in and leaving footprints all over it. I immediately objected, super frustrated because even though I’m supposed to have water at this campsite, it’s not at all clear to me where I find said water. There’s no hook-up within reach, not unless I had incredibly long hoses. No hook-up that’s obvious, anyway.

So she was muddy and I was upset, because I knew I’d never get her clean, and there was going to be mud all over the van, and although I’ve gotten used to being dirty, I’ve never really accepted it. I still hate it, especially when the van is dirty and it feels like there’s no escape from the dirt.

And then I woke up and it hadn’t rained, the sun was shining and there was no mud. Isn’t it strange how happy one can feel about something that one would totally have taken for granted in other circumstances? Without that dream, it would never have occurred to me to be glad that the ground was solid. I would have been mentally grumbling about the traffic — my campsite is across from a busy road, so even though there’s a line of trees mostly blocking the road from view, I’m again listening to a lot of traffic noises. But I don’t mind now, because at least it’s not traffic noises in the mud.

The part about the water is true, though. When I got here yesterday, I was mystified, but also much too tired after a really long day of driving to deal with going back up to the front and finding someone to help me. I’m not sure what I’m going to do. There are plenty of empty spaces, so I could go talk to someone at the front and maybe move to another site, but I could also just go without water hook-ups for a few days.

I’ve gotten pretty good at coping with water scarcity from all my driveway camping — water hook-ups are more of a luxury than a necessity for me — but I’m paying for the water so I sort of feel like I should have it. Paying a lot, too — provincial parks in Canada are not cheap, even with the exchange rate. On the other hand, I’m tired and unmotivated and don’t speak French. For the moment at least, I think I will survive without water.

But I will survive without water in Quebec! Where people speak French! Yesterday’s French adventures included a confusing stop at a gas station where the pump didn’t work and the messages on the screen were all in French, and then a confusing stop at a CostCo where my debit card didn’t work. In both places, the cashiers spoke perfect English once I made my confusion clear, so it’s not like I faced any true challenges, but it was rather fun. I like feeling lost in another country. It adds another layer to being tired, though — when I finally made it to my campsite, I really just didn’t have the energy left to have another confusing encounter.

A campsite with trees, a car going by, electric wires overhead and much dirt ground.

My campsite. Electric wires and traffic, but no mud!

I believe that this campground is next to an historic Quebec village. No dogs allowed, but I might leave Z in the van for a while and go wander around for a while. I’d feel okay about doing that, because it was 53 degrees this morning and is still only in the 60s. 53! I was too cold to get out of bed, because it hadn’t remotely occurred to me that I might want to run the heat. But it makes me really happy to be so chilly. Autumn is on its way, yay! I love Serenity, but I love her best when she’s not an oven.

But before I do that, I’m going to write for a while. Real words. Fiction words. Yesterday’s long drive (pretty close to eight hours, including two stops for gas, one dog walk, and one quick CostCo visit for Canadian blueberries) was rich with imaginings. My only problem is that I had good ideas for so many stories that I’m not even sure where to begin. It’s a lovely problem to have.

On the positive side

20 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by in Personal, R, Randomness, Travel, Zelda

≈ 9 Comments

Yesterday, I picked up R at the closest subway station (or light rail, I’m not sure which) and we set off for a day of city luxuries. It turned out to be a day of very minor city luxuries because we are too cheap for much in the way of city fun. We tried to go to Mission Impossible and it was $26 per ticket. $26! Thank you, but I’ll wait until it hits some television-type format.

But I’d picked out a restaurant for lunch that sounded like a bistro-type pub — interesting food, claiming to have gluten-free options. We got there and it turned out to be more like a combination sports bar/Applebee’s, with the only gluten-free items on the menu being pad thai or potato skins. We decided to pass and left.

I was frustrated, because we’d both spent quite a while browsing various review apps on our phones, trying to find the perfect place, but there was a Vietnamese restaurant in the same strip mall-type place, so we decided to go there.

Spontaneously.

Without reading any reviews.

Without consulting TripAdvisor or Yelp or even Google.

And it was delicious! I had mango salad and shrimp summer rolls and R had pho. I took one bite of his pho before he added hoisin sauce (which has gluten, so is not an option for me) and it was so delicious that I ordered myself a pho to go. I ate it for dinner last night and lunch today and it was so good that I’m now feeling in ridiculous harmony with the world. Good soup, that’s all one needs to cheer one up.

I liked the restaurant so much that I went to TripAdvisor to leave a review for it and… it doesn’t exist! Or at least not in Trip Advisor. But for anyone wandering around Toronto, it was called Good Pho You, and that’s the right address and the right menu, even if the name on the website is Mr. Ping’s Noodles. And it was very good for me, several times. If it rains tomorrow, I might have to go back there.

Why is rain connected to dinner, you wonder? Because R and his girlfriend are coming over. I’m planning on making chicken piccata, gluten-free, which is a food I don’t make when I’m on my own, because it requires wine and I need someone else around to drink up the wine. But dinner in the van for more than two people only works when it’s really dinner outside at a picnic table. Still, if my chicken piccata plan fails, we will have Vietnamese and I, at least, will be content.

In even more positive news, albeit already mentioned, R and his girlfriend are coming over for dinner tomorrow. I haven’t met her yet, but I’m looking forward to it. R paid her a compliment that I am not allowed to repeat (not because it’s overly personal, but because he feels it might stress her out to have to live up to said compliment), but it makes me highly inclined to think I’m going to like her a lot. I’d probably think that anyway, though, because R is so happy about their relationship. I told him that while I refuse to take on his unhappiness as my own, his happiness boosts mine by about 20%. So happiness boosted and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

In additional positive news, Zelda is doing great. She’s not limping anymore, even on long walks. And we’ve run into some other dogs on our walks and she’s been perfectly pleasant to them. I was worried that she might adopt an “attack first” attitude, but a lifetime of good dog encounters has not been jeopardized by the one Very Bad Encounter. At least not for her. I’m working on my own anxiety around the issue.

The only continuing problem for her is that after hurting herself when jumping off the bed a few times in the first days after the VBE, she’s decided against doing that anymore. I’m hoping she’ll get over it eventually, but right now, she jumps up on the bed and then gets trapped there until I realize she’s standing, staring at the ground, and help her down.

And another positive — I’ve made a decision about what I’m doing next! I’ve really been debating about what to do, where to go. I know I write better and more when I sit still. The past two weeks have been terrible writing weeks, because I’ve done so much driving. But what’s the point of living in a van if it doesn’t include some adventuring? If I’m just living in a tiny space, I could do that much more comfortably in one that had a permanent connection to hot water.

Anyway, I was debating between heading west and going along the north side of the Great Lakes all the way to Winnipeg, then south through North Dakota in order to see North Dakota (#49 on my list of states); or heading west to Michigan and visiting the upper peninsula, as missed earlier in the summer; or heading south through New York, over to New Hampshire and Massachusetts and then continuing south.

I decided to do none of the above.

If you were to take a list of the top 50 things to see in the US, I would have seen most of them. Not all of them. I’ve never been to Yellowstone, Glacier, Carlsbad Caverns or Denali. I’ve not watched Old Faithful or visited Craters of the Moon. And there are definitely places I’d like to spend more time, like the Great Smoky Mountains and the entire state of New Mexico. But the places that I actually want to see? Not just “will go see, because hey, why not?” but “want to see”? There are not so many of them left. In fact, when I — in exasperation with myself — meditated on that question only one popped into my head.

Prince Edward Island.

Which, conveniently enough, is actually in the same country that I’m currently in! Not exactly close to where I currently am, but close is relative, right?

So I’m heading to Prince Edward Island, hoping to find places to stay along the way that don’t involve too many parking lots. This last week of summer is a terrible time to find campgrounds and places are mostly booked. And I don’t want to brave PEI until after Labor Day if I can manage it, since this is peak tourist season. But Labor Day is only two weeks away. On Wednesday, I’ll head to a campground in Quebec for the weekend, and then after that… well, I’ll play it by ear, I guess. But I’m excited! Anne of Green Gables country! And the ocean! And then south through Maine and maybe even some New Hampshire autumn foliage.

Life is good.

spiderweb photo

It’s very hard to take a good picture of a spiderweb but it was a beautiful web!

Fifty Point Conservation Area, Grimsby, Ontario

15 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by in Campground, Grace, Personal, R, Randomness, Travel

≈ 8 Comments

I wrote the name of this campground as Conversation Area initially, which really amused me. And it would be so apt! This is a lovely campground on the shores of Lake Ontario. Our site is a pull-through adjacent to another pull-through pointed in the opposite direction, so we’re very close to our neighbors but facing in opposite directions. Conversation would be easy, but is not required.

the sun setting over Lake Ontario

Last night’s view of the sun setting over Lake Ontario.

The campground itself is pretty much everything I like in a campground — grass, trees, water, sunlight, space, beautiful walking, a dog beach where Zelda can play, birds, including the world’s cutest woodpecker working on the tree by the picnic table this morning and some unidentified species sauntering through the grass. Even the bugs were cute — I have no idea what the one crawling on the sink this morning was, but it was green and tiny, with long legs. Maybe some kind of aphid?

Also lots of birch trees, and I’ve decided that the wind rustling through birch tree leaves really makes a unique noise — it’s not the same as wind rustling through other tree leaves. The birch leaves sound like they’re whispering. And tons of cricket noise last night, or maybe they were frogs? But the night was loud and seventy degrees, perfect summer feeling.

So yesterday was Niagara Falls. It was crazily tourist-y, in the way all the main tourist attractions seem to be. Amazing people watching, and frankly, pictures of people would be by far the best photographs from any of the tourist attractions. Preferably pictures of people taking pictures. I started amassing a little collection of those in my travels, but then I realized that I would never be willing to post them anywhere, because it would feel so rude to post a picture of a stranger, but yesterday’s collection of strangers would have been amazing. It reminded me of being at the southern-most point of the United States, in Key West — lots of tourists, people from all over the world, there just for the sake of being there. That said, they were some pretty cool waterfalls, no question about that. And it was such a hot day that it was pretty lovely to stand in the spray of the mist.

Zelda in a field of wildflowers in front of edge of Niagara Falls

You can just see the top of the falls in the background. In order to get a real view, you walk down a hill to the right of the photo, and join a mob of people clustered at a railing, all taking pictures. We liked the wildflowers better than the concrete platform, though.

We also saw my very earliest childhood home yesterday — only somewhat out of our way. The interesting thing about that was not so much how different the neighborhood looked from my memory — very different, and so much smaller — but that I had the address wrong. The day before, when I was failing to find my other childhood homes, I told R confidently that my early memories were the most reliable and that of all the different places I’d lived in during my childhood, the only one that I actually remembered the address of was the first. Wrong! I had the street right, but not the number. I’m not sure that means anything, except maybe that none of my memories are reliable. But I had a very different feel looking at that house than at the others, much warmer and cozier. I’m glad we drove by, even though it was a very long driving day for me. It was worth the stop.

Today we’re headed on to Toronto. Our mattress hunt yesterday failed — perhaps the influence of the bed bug revival? Thrift stores don’t seem to carry mattresses anymore, unfortunately. But we’re going to check out Ikea this afternoon, so fingers crossed for good luck there. Otherwise, R might be going to steal one of the mattresses from the van for a few days while he orders a mattress online or tries for a Craig’s List find. Either way, he’ll have something on which to sleep tonight.

And somehow it is already 10AM, which means it’s time to get moving. Lots to do today, but much, much enormous thanks to the readers who have reached out to tell me that they read Grace — your words brought me much joy this morning! R and I had pancakes (gluten-free, of course) to celebrate!

Best of June 2018

02 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by in Best of, Pennsylvania, Randomness, Travel

≈ 5 Comments

June included three driveways, one independent campground (a KOA), and four state parks, three of them in Ohio, one in Michigan. Three states, too — Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan.

Lots of family time, including three different birthday celebrations. Some of it with family where the relationships require multiple hyphens and lots of apostrophes. (I.e, my sister-in-law’s sister’s husband baked some nice gluten-free bread for one celebration; my stepmother’s stepdaughter’s son was a fun conversationalist at another; I very much enjoyed meeting my stepsister’s daughter-in law; and so on.)

But plenty of quieter family time, too: walks with my niece and my aunt; video games with my nephew; gluten-free, healthy lunches with my brother; baking conversations with my SIL.

My favorite campground was definitely Maumee Bay — a beautiful place. But my favorite place to be was definitely my brother’s garden house. I went to sleep Saturday night admiring the sparkle of fireflies against the silhouetted trees, and woke up grateful to be here.

blueberries

And yes, the blueberries are ripe and delicious!

Van Buren State Park

25 Monday Jun 2018

Posted by in Campground, Personal, Randomness, Serenity, Travel

≈ 6 Comments

moon over a campground

Yesterday, I was midway through an entirely reasonable drive — three hours or so — when I decided I was too tired to keep going. So I didn’t.

I stopped at a rest stop, took a quick nap, then looked for a different, closer campground. I told myself that stopping early meant that I would have plenty of time to do useful things: work on Grace, write a blog post, sort my photos from the past several (busy) days, clean the van, wash the dishes, plan my next week’s destinations, walk Z, talk to R…

On that list of things, I walked the dog. That, I assume, is because she’s the only one of those things capable of nudging me in the leg and saying, “seriously, get moving now.”

Apart from that, I… honestly, I don’t know. Used up my time, anyway. I think I finished a jigsaw puzzle that took me far longer than it should have, and I know I made guacamole and salad dressing for my dinner. Oh, and I defrosted my freezer, which was urgent, because it had frosted over so heavily that I couldn’t get my chicken out. I then didn’t wind up eating the chicken, because it was so very frozen, but hey, it’s good to remember that I did something useful, however minor it was.

I did want to sort my photos, so I could post some pictures of the weekend, but I’ve used up my data plan for the month, so it would have been tedious to try to post pictures anyway. That’s to make me feel better about the failure. 🙂

But Tuesday of last week, I left my brother’s house and headed to my aunt and uncle’s. We had a nice visit — good walks, delicious food, ice cream at the famous State College Creamery, lots of conversation — and then on Thursday, I started on my way to Ohio.

My plans for Thursday/Friday were pretty vague: I’d been planning to maybe try to meet up with a stepsister and her family for kayaking and outdoor adventures. But the rain was torrential, so instead I camped for a night at Barkcamp State Park, right over the West Virginia border into Ohio.

I have absolutely nothing to say about Barkcamp. I got there in the evening, at almost 7, and it was raining. I left there around noon the next day, and it was raining. In between, I didn’t check out the trails, the bathrooms, the views, the utilities — I sat in the van and watched the rain. It was nice rain and a cozy day, but my opinion of Barkcamp is that it was very wet. I’m sure I’d have a different opinion under different circumstances. I should have taken a picture of the two inch deep puddle around my electricity pole, because it would have been an appropriate representation of my experience there. But I didn’t, because it was raining and I was wet and not interested in getting my phone wet.

After I left Barkcamp, I goofed around. Target, CostCo, parking lot adventures. I was headed to my stepbrother’s house for my stepmother’s 80th birthday party, planning to spend the night in their driveway, but I didn’t want to get there until after my dad and stepmom arrived, because my stepbrother doesn’t know me from Adam. Well, didn’t — I’ve now spent most of a weekend at his house, and he and his wife were warm and welcoming, so I’d feel a lot better about showing up alone at their house if I was doing it today. But on Friday, I didn’t want to do that. Alas, best-laid plans, and all that: C and my dad were delayed in a cell phone dead zone, so I had a chance to get to know my (warm, welcoming) stepbrother and his wife on my own.

Saturday was C’s birthday party. I really would love to post some pictures, because it was gorgeous. Pinterest-worthy in a major way. J, my stepsister-in-law, obviously worked really hard and has an eye for beautiful details, plus a green thumb. Or at least an ability to keep a lovely garden thriving and blossoming — the number of different flowers all in bloom was very impressive to me.

Fifty-some people came, including C’s brothers and a cousin and maybe a couple of their kids, plus seven of her children & stepchildren and some spouses, approximately thirteen of her grandchildren plus some spouses, and maybe seven great-grandchildren. Lots of food, lots of kids playing in the yard, and a day that after threatening more rain turned out to be beautiful.

Trying to think of the moments I would like to remember: a cousin of sorts (technically, I suppose, some sort of nephew) brought a drone and the whole party gathering on the porch for aerial photos. Sitting around the dinner table in the evening laughing about gout/misheard phrases. Stumbling across one of the kids who’d retreated to the house and was playing quietly by herself, and admiring her self-care instincts. Showing off Serenity to various people and wishing I’d washed the dishes and swept the floor. Helping M with flowers and later getting a chance to tell her how much I love her mom and how grateful I am for her presence in my life.

One of my stepbrothers — step-step brother, maybe? one of my stepmom’s first set of step-kids, anyway — and his wife managed to convince me that I really shouldn’t miss my chance to drive along the north shore of Lake Huron so I might be changing my travel plans to spend more time in Canada. I need to figure that out soon, I suppose, but it doesn’t have to be today. Fortunately, because somehow I am still really tired, far more tired than I ought to be.

And today is not going to be the day I would like it to be, because I need to get back on the road. Z has a vet appointment this afternoon — just for shots, not because her health has taken a downturn — so I’ve got some driving to do. And no set destination for the next few days. On Friday I’ll be in Michigan and all the people that I thought I was visiting there are either busy or non-responsive, so it’s probably going to be a much less sociable month than I anticipated, but that’s feeling sort of okay. Despite not being able to write for a few days and having spent far more time in PA playing video games than I should have, I’m feeling good about my progress on Grace. And looking forward to a few quiet days with nothing to do but focus on Noah and Grace and Dillon and Rose and bringing them all to their happy endings.

Oh, but I meant to write about Van Buren. I like it. I suspect it makes people driving big rigs and hauling big trailers sad, because the sites are not the biggest, but tent campers probably adore it. My own site has a nook — there is no other word for it — a little path into the woods and a space under a big tree that feels like wilderness, even though it is so not. It would be a fantastic place to place a tent. Or even a chair for some quiet time spent breathing in the green. Although given my current state of allergies and Ohio’s current state of bugs (soooo many flies!), I probably wouldn’t really enjoy it. There also seem to be plenty of trails, but all that rain has made them very muddy trails. I’ve walked a few steps into them and looked down at my little white dog, considered how excited I am about having a muddy little white dog (not) and not taken advantage of them, but if I was here for a few days, I definitely would appreciate all the places to wander. I don’t think there are showers, though, and no water hook-ups, so it’s probably not a place I’d want to stay for more than a few days anyway, even if I didn’t have to get on the road to bring Z to the vet.

And the other thing I wanted to at least mention is that today is the 2nd anniversary of Serenity’s arrival in my life. Later, maybe I’ll write some profound things about what I think as Year 2 draws to a close, and maybe a month from now, when it’s actually my second anniversary of being on the road, I’ll write more of a summary of the year, but today… well, it’s been a ride, that’s for sure.

Random memories

19 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by in Personal, Randomness, Zelda

≈ 5 Comments

Zelda under a blueberry bush

In another week, there will be so many ripe blueberries on the bushes that picking them will start to feel like an exhausting, never-ending chore. But I have basically missed them. Yesterday, my brother and I picked one small leftover container’s worth of the first ripe berries, just before a nicely torrential thunderstorm hit. Today, I’m headed off. I’m trying to remind myself of all the things that I’m looking forward to in the next week — family, friends, a birthday celebration, a state that I’ve never visited before. I know once I’m on the road, I’ll feel more excited. But it’s hard to say good-bye. It’s been a lovely few weeks in PA, perfect weather, great company.

Random memories that will make me smile:

Last night, we all played Exploding Kittens. Each of us, upon going out, made some sort of melodramatic sound of despair/explosion noise, and when my SIL lost, leaving my brother as the winner, she said to him, “I hope you’re happy, sitting there all covered in cat guts.”

One night last week, at the dinner table, we somehow wound up in a discussion of bears, and my brother told my niece that if she was ever trapped in a corner with baby bears and the mom bear was charging her, she should just pick up the baby bear and throw it. Just remembering the look she gave him — half serious consideration, half “what??” — makes me want to laugh. I don’t think she was worried about the impossibility of picking up a real baby bear, I think she thought throwing an animal would be cruel. But hey, she’s got a plan in the event she’s ever hanging out with some random baby bears and their mom gets upset.

My nephew invited me to play a video game and said he’d watch. It was a game about droids and Detroit and within the first twenty minutes, it had me cleaning a bathroom. I only lasted a few more minutes before saying, “yeah, no, I can do this in real life if I want to,” and went back to playing a game that let me shoot kobolds in a sewer instead.

In other news, not as much progress on Grace as I wanted to make. But! On a day when I was writing myself notes that included such constructive criticism as “abysmal,” instead of starting major revisions, I walked away. In some sense, I think I can call that progress. I actually wound up reverting to the previous day’s version that day (minus mean notes, therefore) before leaving it alone for a couple of days. But today I am going to try to get at least a few hundred words written before I start driving. I hope they won’t be words that I later label “abysmal.”

Aux Arc

26 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by in Boring, Campground, Randomness

≈ 4 Comments

I wonder how I’m going to remember places. And then I wonder whether it really matters. I’d like to live so mindfully that my present is always more of my focus than my past, that instead of trying to remember where I was at X date of years gone by, I’m always appreciating where I am.

That said, Aux Arc is the sound of trains rumbling by and Canadian geese murmuring.

Canadian geese and goslings

For some reason, when I arrived here last Friday, I paid for a full week’s stay. I didn’t know how I was going to feel about the campground, but I’d had a chance to drive through before picking a site, so I knew that at least I had a water view. And maybe I knew that I was getting sick. I definitely knew I was tired.

campsite at Aux Arc

As it turned out, my campsite was a peaceful place in which to be miserable. Not good for the writing, unfortunately. All my good intentions of progress on Grace turned into staring at the blank screen for a while and then going back to sleep. I wrote a few hundred words here and there, but mostly they went nowhere.

But I’d like to not remember this place as a place where I was miserable. It deserves better. It’s green and quiet and still and even though trains rumble by and barges drift down the river, I could easily imagine myself staying here happily for another week or even longer. It’s not wilderness, but it’s spacious nature. (Also a serious bargain — with an America the Beautiful pass, campsites are half price, so I’m paying $9/night for electricity, water, and a water view.)

But my time is up tomorrow, my tanks are full, my fridge is empty, and I have weekend plans. And then next week, it’s back to Florida. R texted me yesterday to let me know that he’d passed his thesis exam: it wasn’t a surprise, but I found myself unexpectedly teary with pride. I want to go back in time and tell the self that was agonizing over whether to try yet another new school to relax and just do it. And then in three weeks, I will get to watch him graduate from college: I suspect I should bring tissues.

A rolling stone…

12 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by in Campground, Randomness, Travel, Vanlife

≈ 6 Comments

a tree

Toad Suck is awesome.

I like it in every way, except maybe for the shower quality. But my site is beautiful, the view is amazing, the sunrises have been lovely, the walking is pleasant, the weather has been perfect… I like it so much that I’ve been struggling today to decide whether to stay longer or to move on. Struggling for an excessively long time, in fact! I’m actually quite annoyed with myself for how much time I’ve wasted trying to make this decision.

My routine — to the extent that I can be said to have one — has been to move every four or five days. Because I seldom get a site with sewer hookups, that’s about the perfect length of time to let me freely use water while I’m at a site, mostly for washing dishes, and then dump the tanks when I move. It’s also generally a pretty good time to hit up a grocery store. I can certainly last longer than four days on risottos and quinoa bowls, but I usually feel like I need something from a store about then.

But when I’ve found a really nice place, I’m often torn between moving on and staying. In favor of moving: maybe the next place will be even better. Against moving: why not appreciate what I have for a while longer?

This morning, I sighed and thought, “Well, a rolling stone gathers no moss.”

And then I thought, “But is that good or bad? Do I want moss or don’t I?”

I don’t know the answer, but I was pretty amused to discover that no one else does either.

It hasn’t helped me make a decision. But Eureka Springs is only about three hours away…