Your Questions and Answers
ANSWERS!
Here are your 10 questions… and answers…
What are you knitting with the brown and multi colored yarn I see peeking on some of your posts?
It is a shawl, wrap, scarf called Reyna from the Ravelry website. I was on my final few rows when I noticed two glaring mistakes about 20 rows back that I couldn’t live with, so I’ve still got a bit of work to do on it. In the past three
years, I’ve only completed one knitting project…… Just don’t have the desire like I used to. The yarn I’m using is called Frolicking Feet, made in Maine and the colorway is called Octoberfest.
Are the girls homesick at all?
In order to answer this fairly, I asked them. Yes. And no. They miss their beds, they miss their dog, they miss playing with their friends, but when I asked them if they wanted to go home or finish the trip, they both said that they wanted to finish the trip. I’d say that’s pretty good for two younger ones! Each day, they do wake up and ask, “What’s our destination today?” and they have made a lot of friends along the way to play with, which is nice. When I get home, they have one day at home and the next day I take them to summer camp for a week! HA HA!
What is on the cards you have been handing out?
Three years ago, when my mother was still battling Alzheimer’s, John and I started fundraising for research for the disease. We participated in an event called, “The Longest Day,” where you registered and picked a team and an activity to do from sunrise to sunset on the longest day of the year, summer solstice.
John and I decided to go geocaching, and I made a little calling card to leave behind in each cache we found. On the card it had our names and a picture and explained why we had been to the cache that day. It also had a website link in case anyone wanted to visit our fundraiser. The card was easy and fun to do, so the next year we did it again while on our trip out West to Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone.
So, the idea of making a calling card for the trip came to me pretty quickly.
The front of the card is just a generic picture of a road in the mountains with the name of my trip and the website. On the back, is a map with the major destinations marked and a very brief description of why I’m doing this. I’ve handed out over 250 of them already.
How many times have you needed to wear earplugs?!
HA! I love this! That would have been a great thing to pack! John and I were surprised two years ago to learn that the littles actual travel really well! They are calmer and quieter when we are on the road, go figure! I have friends who will attest to this. But, that doesn’t mean that they don’t get ridiculous, and when they do it takes a lot to get them to settle back down. So, I had to figure out where I could send them to “regroup” and where they could go to remove any audience and reset our engines. The bathroom! If they start acting up, all I have to do is say, “Do you want to sit in the bathroom?” and they usually calm down pretty quickly. The bathroom has no window and is pretty bumpy while I’m driving (I imagine.. I haven’t been in there WHILE I’m driving, so I don’t know for sure) When I was in the mountains and needed to concentrate, they didn’t want to be trapped inside. So, bathroom time-outs have been my earplugs!
How many times have you been hit on?
Too funny! John would get a kick out of this and say, “She wouldn’t know if she were hit on to begin with!” which is true! John said that he had to “hit on me” for months before I even had a clue as to what was going on! So, if I have been hit on, I haven’t noticed.
How many gallons do you get to the mile?
CeeCee is 32 feet long, which by motorhome standards is, “Not huge, but not little.” I met a guy in Oregon (who wasn’t hitting on me!) that asked me the same thing. CeeCee is NOT environmentally friendly, but she was purchased so that John could get out and be in nature while still being able to move around in a camper. The man from Oregon was surprised when I said that I get between 6 and 9 miles to the gallon. The better mileage is on flat land and the poorer mileage is when I’m in the mountains. I thought he was shocked because of the poor gas mileage, but I was wrong! He asked how I did it! His motorhome, which is smaller, got worse gas mileage than me! I had done my research before the trip and found that the way to get the best mileage is to pack light (which I think we did), and keep the tanks as empty as possible. Before heading out on a travel day, I empty the grey and black tanks where our toilet and sinks drain into, and I fill my fresh water supply to ⅔ instead of filling it all of the way. I can go for three days before needing to dump and refill again. So, this has worked out pretty well.
Do you eat out everyday?
I wish! We eat out usually once a week with a few stops to McDonald’s in between for a treat and free WiFi. I brought several different cooking tools with me so that it would be easier to make meals after a day of driving or a day of touring around. I have a pressure cooker, a 12 volt slow cooker that a friend gave to me which works brilliantly, and a thermal cooker. I also have a stove, oven and a microwave, so the options are pretty typical to being at home, but in a much smaller space. With the heat of the desert, we haven’t been interested in eating as much, so cooking has been even easier!
Have you had enough of driving yet?
Nope. Nope. Nope. I’ve clocked over 7,000 miles so far and I estimate that I will have 12,000 – 14,000 by the time I get home. I planned the trip so that most days I don’t drive more than 5 or 6 hours. Sometimes I drove as little as 2 or 3. But there are “big travel days” where I need to get 7 or 8 hours in so that I can stay on schedule. Which, by the way, I am!
Did you find any jobs? Are you moving?
That would have been a good idea! I should have printed off my resume before leaving so that I could just drop one off at schools that looked really good! I’m moving every few days! HA!
So far, if I were to move, Oregon and Washington would be the places I would want to go. But I have a lot more to see, so who knows?
Biggest surprise?
This person didn’t specify… good or bad surprise… so I’ll answer it both ways.
Worst surprise? Well, to be honest it wasn’t a huge surprise, I knew that I would see it, but the reality of it was a sad surprise. The homelessness and poverty is astounding. People living in trailers parked in WalMart parking lots, people living in tents under highway overpasses, people living in houses that look like the next strong breeze would topple them over. It’s sad.
A BIT OF A SOAPBOX MOMENT HERE:
I’ve always wondered about the different groups in our country that go out into the world to help others. They go and help build houses, or schools, or get better drinking water in poorer countries around the world. They raise money for clothes and blankets and other supplies for people that do truly need it, but why do they always seem to go out of the country to help others? We have a ton of families needing those same things right here in our own country. I’ve driven hour upon hour past communities where I’m shocked that people are actually able to live there under the conditions they are in. I knew there was a lot of poverty and poor living situations in this country, but it has really hit me hard to see the reality of it.
And to end on a more positive note:
There are actually two good surprises that happen everyday. The kindness of people in general, which is good to see, and the fact that to the RV community, I am not weird! I am disconnected from the news (have been for a few years really) and I chat with lots of people each day, mostly RVers. There have only been a handful of surly people so far, and most of them were surly because they were working! In RV parks, you chat with your neighbors, you chat with the people in the laundry room, and you chat in the office. I was surprised to learn that I’ve found “my people.” My travel in an RV isn’t surprising to them, except that I’m packing it into such a short period of time, and that I’m the only adult. When I explain why, they completely get it. I’ve met a lot of full-time RVers who inspire me and make me wish that I could find a way to live the gypsy life.
I enjoyed reading and answering your questions! If you have any more, just send them my way, you don’t have to wait for a formal “Q & A” session!
