RVing--It Ain't All Campfires and Kumbaya

My Last Reading.  Acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14 in.

I got to go into town for some culture recently.  By town, I mean Tucson, and by culture, I mean a Dixieland concert at the University of Arizona.  It was really great fun, the most smile-inducing, foot-tapping concert I'd been to in years.

It got me thinking about the future.  Steve and I think maybe someday we'll want to get an apartment in Tucson.  It'll be when he's tired of moving solar panels around and fixing things and dumping Blue Boys.  For now, he still enjoys this sort of puttering around.   

 Green Thumb.  Acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14 in.

I like Tucson.  It's got good food and interesting groups of people.  There is always something going on.  Parts of the city are beautiful, with pockets of untouched desert in between developed areas.  I love some of the spaces that have been set aside for public enjoyment.  On my way home, I stopped at Ironwood Picnic Area in Tucson Mountain Park.  If I lived in Tucson, I'd want to live fairly close to this lovely spot.  

I also bought art supplies while in town.  Michael's was having a 50% off sale on their canvases, so I bought four big gallery-wrapped heavy duty canvases for less than $100 to use in a show later this year.  Such a deal!

While I was in Tucson, Roxanne was staying at Coyote Howls, taking care of Sonja.  How nice of her!  Normally when I go to town, I have to limit my visit to two nights because I leave Sonja locked up in my RV.  This time, Sonja got to go in and out and in and out and so on.  

 Roxanne registering our surprise visit to Organ Pipe.

Last weekend, before I went to Tucson, Roxanne and I took my Geo Tracker out for a Sunday afternoon drive.  We headed out Bates Well Road, on BLM land near Ajo, Arizona.  It turned out this road eventually goes to a back entrance to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.  Roxanne had her federal lands pass with her, so we drove into the Monument a little ways, until the roads got really rough and we decided to turn back.  

 Being a gimp, I didn't get out of the Tracker, so I'm taking a picture of Roxanne taking a picture of an organ pipe cactus in front of an interesting rock formation

Since getting back from Tucson, I made another quick trip up to Phoenix to take care of some business.  So now I am happy that I have no more little trips to town to make for a while.  I can just hunker down and work at projects for a while.  My next commitment to go anywhere is in April, when I'll head to Truth or Consequences to hang a solo art show at January's.  This week I've completed a couple more paintings for that show.   

Update from a Norwegian-American Sitting Quietly in the Desert

I'm continuing to do mixed-media decoration of little boxes, journals, shrines, altars, etc.  All of the small places where we keep God.  I find nice wooden, cardboard or tin boxes at various thrift shops when I'm out looking for eBay fodder.  I also find some pretty great magazine photos, wrapping papers, scrapbook papers, etc., in my wanderings. 

These boxes are for my "Faces of God" show at RioBravo FineArts gallery in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, at the end of 2014.  There will be a table in one corner of the gallery with an installation of dozens of little boxes.  The other pieces for the show will be BIG.  

This peacock hexagonal box attracted some attention when I showed it to my FaceBook friends, so now it's in the mail to Joe Possley, a friend from my college days back in Wisconsin in the 1970s. 

This mixed-media mostly-painting is called Amour-Dillo.  It was suggested by my friend Cindy Mitchell, who knows how much I like to paint animals weirdly.  I'm entering it in The Red Show in Ajo, Arizona.  

Ajo is 10 miles north of Why, and it's where we go to buy groceries, get library books, mail my eBay packages, etc.  There is a lively arts community in Ajo.  There aren't as many opportunities to show work as there are in Truth or Consequences, because there are few galleries.  But the community definitely supports its artists.  The International Senoran Desert Alliance (ISDA) rehabbed the old Curley School into artisan apartment/studio spaces. 

Besides doing artwork, I've been having a little more social winter here in Why than I have in past years.  As I mentioned in my last blog, several TorC friends have camped here at Coyote Howls, and my friends Susan and Dan from Eugene, Oregon, visited for a few days.  I've also gotten to know Michael and Pam, a couple from Albuquerque who are new to RVing--they also happened to stay at the Artesian, the same place I was in Truth or Consequences, but I missed meeting them there.  The longer I stay in this area, there are more parallels and ties between TorC and Why.  I look forward to my friend Janice coming to visit me from TorC next weekend.

I've been up to Phoenix a lot lately.  Five trips up there in about a month.  Really a lot for me, since I prefer to sit around by myself most of the time.  I ran across the perfect meme on FaceBook to describe my attitude:  It's not that I'm anti-social, I'm just pro-solitude.  But I needed new glasses, which took a couple of trips, and then my younger brother Sheldon, his wife Lori, and their four younger children were vacationing at a resort in Peoria, so I went up to spend some time with them.  In the picture above, Sheldon is whistling and acting innocent.  I can't explain why. 

Here's a picture of most of the family--Andy (14), my sister-in-law Lori, Elena (16), Charlie (the small person turned away from the camera), and Sheldon.

 

Here is a picture of seven-year-old Charlie, whom Sheldon and Lori began to adopt when he was an infant and were finally able to bring home from Guatemala last year.  Lena is in the background.  Charlie's favorite thing is to tickle and be tickled. 

 

Val (age 18) did not make it into the family picture in the kitchen because she'd been working out and then showering.  Sorry about the wet hair pic, Vali!  

On my latest trip to Phoenix, when I visited with Sheldon and family, I also got to have lunch with Roxanne of Good Luck Duck fame!  

I've been keeping busy with eBay in addition to artwork.  Yesterday I mailed out some borderland cowboy boots to a New Yorker.  I'm trying to stay focused on work right now, during this quiet time in the desert where I have good Internet access thanks to the cell phone tower at the nearby Border Patrol Station, because I simply do not know what's next.  I'll definitely be here through the beginning of April, when I'll have a show to hang at January's gallery in Truth or Consequences, NM.  But after that?  Steve and I are undecided.  Maybe a work camping job somewhere, maybe wandering the New Mexico state parks for the summer, maybe a knee replacement.  

Living the Good Life in Why, Arizona

 Our Christmas tree--a thrift store wooden saguaro cactus that I painted

When I last wrote, I was struggling to get ready to leave Truth or Consequences, NM.  I had to replace all of the batteries in my motorhome, and get some work done on both the Beluga and my new Tracker in order to tow. 

Steve came over from Why, Arizona, via public transportation, helped me get ready to go, and then drove back with me, which made the trip much more pleasant.  We both drove and found that driving a big rig with a car behind it isn't that much different than driving a big rig without towing.  It takes a little longer to stop, you have to consider the added length when you are changing lanes, and you never ever want to put yourself in a situation where you'd have to back up.  But since most of the time, you're just tooling down the highway, it's really not that big of a deal.  

Getting the car unhitched once we got here was a little more of a challenge than I'd realized.  But, like everything else I've learned since taking up RVing several years ago, it's just a matter of getting used to stuff like this.  Eventually hitching and unhitching will become routine.

Baskets that I admired at the Heard Museum in Phoenix

I have had one more hiccup with this Tracker.  Once we got the Beluga to Why, we turned around and drove the Tracker back to Tucson where Steve could pick up his truck at his sister's house and I could get the Tracker retitled and registered in Arizona.  But, after spending several hours at the Motor Vehicles office, it turned out I could not get the Tracker street-legal because there's a restitution lien on the car.  A previous owner had a DWI and owes money to the court.  I had to file a motion with the court, asking that they remove this restitution lien, since the guy who owned it hasn't owned it for several years and there have been several sales of the car since he had it.  We'll see what happens.  In the meantime, I've got a 90-day temporary registration sticker in my back window. 

Oh, and the Tracker has some sort of a short that makes starting it interesting.  If it won't turn over right away, I have to get out and wiggle some wires until it does.  It's better when I have someone with me to act as Wire Wiggler while I stay in the driver's seat.  

My friend Feral Willcox is a great Wire Wiggler, but she's leaving.  I've had a really nice time getting to know Feral, first in Truth or Consequences and now here in Why.  I met her at the TorC Poetry Reading one Sunday this past fall.  We sat next to each other and quietly introduced ourselves.  The following week, I must have seen Feral a half-dozen times at various coffee shops and stores.  Finally, I thought maybe I'd better sit down and talk with her, before I get hit on the head with a 2 x 4 or something.  Well, it turned out we have lots in common--both former pottery, tile, and mosaic artists who are now doing lighter forms of artwork due to health issues and having a mobile lifestyle.  Lots of other commonalities as well.  The type of person I could talk to all day, probably, if I wasn't quite so introverted.  

As a result of our first meeting in TorC, Feral came to Coyote Howls for a month!  She was heading west towards LA, anyway, and wanted to try some inexpensive camping for a while.  She tented and hung out in her pickup truck.  Feral told me yesterday that she's basically treated the front bench seat of her pickup like a couch.  At dusk, she'd sit there and watch nature unfold just outside her truck.  Coyotes would walk into her campsite and she watched lots of birds, rabbits, and ground squirrels.  I had never thought to do that in my several years of coming to Coyote Howls in the wintertime.  I'm usually fussing with making supper about that time of the day, but maybe we'll just have to start eating earlier or later.

Feral has probably already pulled out of camp this morning.  She's heading to LA to stay with friends and get things arranged to leave for India, where she hopes she can live and get needed medical care more cheaply than here in the U.S.  I may be following her sometime in the future--not to live in India for very long, but perhaps to have a knee replacement done there.

My friends Pat and Fred from TorC just pulled in to Coyote Howls on Sunday and plan to spend about a month, maybe more.  They have been full-time RVers for years and usually are either work camping in a park or boondocking in National Forests, and this is their first time to Why.  

Sly on a day trip to the Tohono O'odham museum

We celebrated Christmas with a nice dinner at the Why Senior Center, and we went to a lovely open house on New Year's Day at the new home of Donna and Noel, the managers of Coyote Howls.  Then my son Sly visited for a little over a week.  I went up to Phoenix the last two weekends, first to get him from the airport and then to take him back up to the airport.  It's only a couple of hours to Phoenix, but each time I made a little overnight trip out of it, doing some tourist things and shopping at thrift stores and staying in a motel.  It was nice.  Sly and I especially enjoyed the Heard Museum and a nice dinner out one night at a Thai restaurant.  I hadn't been to a Thai restaurant since my last trip to Seattle over a year-and-a-half ago.  Sly is doing well--he's been on the same job as a barista in a coffee shop for over a year, and he is moving this week from a residence for at-risk youth to an apartment with a friend.  

These two panels provide me with enough power to run my computer or sewing machine in the Beluga, and also run the furnace for a little while in the morning to take the chill off

Today is one of those much-needed days when I don't have anywhere I have to go.  I relish the thought of staying home and getting things in better order and doing some artwork and eBay work.  I've already cleaned the fridge, and Steve threw the uneaten leftovers over the fence for the coyotes, so this evening might be a good one to follow Feral's lead and sit in the driver's seat of the Beluga and look out at the wildlife.  I feel so fortunate to have such a great set-up for my lifestyle here in Why.  Steve is lending me a couple of solar panels until I buy my own to install on the roof of the Beluga, and I can spend time in my own rig doing my art and business, so I don't have to drag everything into Steve's space, which we reserve more for relaxing. 

A God box in the works

Art-wise, I have started on something for my "Faces of God" show that is scheduled out about a year.  As part of that exhibit, I envision having a table full of mixed-media altars, shrines, reliquaries, God boxes, journals, etc.  All of the small places in which we keep God, y'know.  So I'm acquiring boxes and stuff as I browse thrift shops and eBay, and I'm doing a mixture of collage and painting to richly decorate them.  

A small completed God box, formerly an Altoids tin

My First Blog Post from Why, Arizona

Steve paints skulls and hangs them on his walls

Wow, I am so far behind on blogging. Or I guess I would be if I had publication deadlines, which I don't. But I have tried to blog every week or two since I left Eugene, Oregon, on February 14th of this year.

The last few weeks were harried--well, harried for a marginally employed, basically lazy, gimpy old gal like me. I gave notice on my apartment in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and needed to be out by the end of October. Steve and I decided to head up to visit friends in Santa Fe and Taos before leaving the state, so we went on vacation the week before I planned to vacate my apartment.

We visited Steve's friends (and now they're mine, too!) Dusty and Arnold, who have homes both in Santa Fe and Ajo, Arizona, which is the town of 4000 people that's 10 miles from Why. They'll be heading to Ajo after Thanksgiving to spend the winter, so I already have friends here.

We also got to see Conrad and Susan De Jong. Conrad was my favorite undergraduate music professor at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in the mid-70s. We had a delightful lunch with the De Jongs at the O'Keeffe Cafe which, unfortunately, was going out of business a few days after our fabulous meal there. It was very fun to catch up a little bit on the many years since I'd seen Conrad and to meet his wife, whom I just missed meeting when I was an undergrad--she started teaching at the college right after I graduated. They have very active lives (tennis for him, dressage for her) and are a great example of how to live happy and healthy.

Bridget (right) and me at lunch in Taos

We spent one day driving up to Taos to meet Bridget Boyle, a friend I've known online for several years, initially through Sparkpeople.com and more recently through FaceBook and our respective blogs. Bridget and her husband are retired school teachers from Southern California who now own a ranch outside of Guadalupita. They are growing organic vegetables and trying to keep their small herd of cattle out of the crops. Always an adventure to read Bridget's blog! And it was a pleasure to finally meet her in person.

Fabrics from a collection of Andean art

We did a few touristy things on our trip...visited the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, looked at Indian jewelry at the Santa Fe Plaza, saw the Kit Carson House in Taos and the Taos Pueblo. But really the best part of the trip was the people and also the beautiful drive between Santa Fe and Taos, where we saw some nice fall colors along the Rio Grande.

Fall colors along the Rio Grande north of Santa Fe

It was very relaxing and rejuvenating to go up north for a few days, and I came back feeling ready to really get some work done--which was great, because I had a lot of work to do! I had one more mosaic project to do for La Paloma Hot Springs & Spa before leaving TorC, plus I had to pack up The Guppy and clean the apartment. Fortunately one of the La Paloma housekeepers came over for a few hours and cleaned all the major surfaces for me, leaving me with only the smaller jobs such as cleaning the oven.



We left TorC last Wednesday morning, drove to Tucson to spend the night at Steve's sister Mary's place, and then drove the rest of the way to Why the following day. I didn't see much of Tucson--we mostly just ran a few errands while we were there--and, again, the best part of traveling was meeting Mary, who made me feel very welcome.

When we arrived at Coyote Howls, I was a little freaked. It appeared to be a big flat spot with just a scattering of mostly older RVs. After I'd been here a little while, it still looked like a big flat spot with a scattering of old RVs, but by then I'd also found out how quiet, relaxing and beautiful it is here. The night sky is amazing--I have never seen so many stars in my entire life. The sunrises and sunsets are wonderful, too. I woke up one morning to see a wild burro walking past, and I hear coyotes playing at night.

Burro on the road that goes by my new home
(Roxanne! I need a clever caption here!)

Since arriving here last week, I've been pretty busy getting acclimated. First we did some cleaning because Steve's 32-foot 5th wheel (which doesn't have a name!) had been closed up for six months or so, and a pack rat had been in here. Then I started fitting my clothes and other possessions into Steve's place. Now I'm back working on my eBay business, which I'd shut down for a few days during the transition here, and I'm getting acquainted with neighbors and with the amenities in Ajo. Today I am taking the bus from Coyote Howls to the Ajo Library for a drawing class that will run every Wednesday afternoon for six weeks. I will be in town all afternoon (the bus only runs out to Why three times a day), so I'll arrange to get a P.O. box and take time for coffee at the Oasis Cafe, which is on the beautiful little plaza in Ajo.

Looking across Ajo Plaza from the Oasis Cafe towards the library

Life is very relaxing here. I've started work on some multimedia art pieces that I've had in mind to work on for a long time. I'm reading a lot. I spend time cooking slow food such as chili from scratch, including soaking and cooking the beans. Sometimes I sit and do very little at all. I think it's going to be a great winter.

Sunrise as seen from my front door

Why? Gearing Up for a Move

Sonja in a shopping bag, ready to move on again

I've been in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, for three-and-a-half months and I am beginning to prepare to move on.

This surprised me at first, because TorC has so much to offer me--friendly coffee shops where I've met very nice folks, a couple of thrift stores to replenish my eBay inventory, a great recovery community, places to sell my artwork, and more.

However, I've also found myself back in the trap of being a wage slave here. My motorhome is large enough for travel, but is too confining for everyday living, so I rented an apartment. But, to afford the apartment, I needed a job.

Now the job has overshadowed my life, mostly because of the arthritis I still have in my knee following arthroscopic surgery. As I whined in my last blog entry, working just two days a week takes a lot out of me, because I tend to hurt pretty badly for several days after a work day. So two days of work means five or six days of pain every week, which has affected my productivity in other parts of my life...my eBay business and my artwork.

Surprise! Caught in the act of being helpful...

The obvious solution was to quit the job (done!) and live on my earnings from self-employment, while reducing my living costs. I asked my landlord about having Steve move in with me here in my nice little casita, and the answer was, NO. There's much that could be said about that, but I will refrain, except to say we each live in our own dream or version of reality.

I contemplated looking for a new place to rent with Steve here in TorC and decided against it. Much as I love this town, I am ready for new horizons, new experiences, new faces and places. It's who I am. I used to wonder what was wrong with me, that I am so ready to move on, but I've finally accepted that I am simply a traveler. I've never worked my genealogy back far enough to verify it, but my Scandinavian roots must lead to Vikings.

Recently completed shelf

So I'm giving my notice on the apartment, and in a month, Steve and I are heading for his place at Coyote Howls in Why, Arizona. I'll spend the winter there rent-free and be able to meet my expenses (health insurance, phone, Internet, food, vehicle insurance, and a life insurance plan to leave something to my kid) through self-employment.

Why is a very small town about 10 miles from Ajo, a metropolis of 4000. Surprisingly, there is public transportation. I'll be able to go to Ajo or even to Tucson (100 miles east) for the day whenever I want. Steve's sister lives in Tucson and we'll probably visit her fairly often and take in some entertainment there. Ajo has a lively artists' community where I might find some opportunities to study, volunteer or work.

Coyote Howls is a primitive RV park in the Sonoran Desert that's off the grid, except at the clubhouse. Steve's 5th wheel has solar electricity, but I'll probably need to head up to the clubhouse with my sewing machine when I want to sew. I'll have the Guppy with me, of course, and plan to use it as my little art studio/eBay office so I don't have to impose my stuff on the space that Steve will share with me. The Guppy can also serve as a guest bedroom for visitors.

Because "Gesundheit" wouldn't fit...

I expect to be back in TorC once or twice during the winter. My kid Sly will visit me during his winter break from college, and I'd like to show him TorC and introduce him to some of my friends, particularly the gallery owners who may be willing to show Sly's work. And, if things go according to my own dream, I'll have artwork of my own to bring back here for sale at January's Gallery.

In the meantime, before heading for Why to spend the winter, I have much to accomplish here. I plan to use up some of my art supplies, especially vintage fabrics, so I'll have less to move with me. I've been commissioned by La Paloma Spa to do some mosaic work, and I'll still be filling in there occasionally, but not working the long 9.5 hour shifts that aggravate my arthritis. I'll be taking a short trip north to meet my friend Joni who's flying in from California for the Albuquerque Balloon Festival.

And what's next, after wintering in Why? Hmmm...the choices are endless. Steve and I are thinking of some possibly extensive travels in the Guppy before heading back to TorC. The Pacific Northwest, maybe Alaska. That remains to be seen.