“There’s a race of men that don’t fit in, A race that can’t sit still; So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the world at will. They range the field and rove the flood, And they climb the mountain’s crest; Their’s is the curse of the gypsy blood, And they don’t know how to rest.” Robert W. Service

I lied when I said the next episode was going to be about preparing. Leaving Babylon (and yes, I understand we are really still on the fringe of Babylon, but you know what I mean) is apparently never easy. Getting out ‘responsibly’ took all our time and effort (despite my heavy campaigning for using the matchbook and gasoline method of moving), so we are no more prepared than last time. Well, maybe a little more prepared and much better equipped.

This is the first episode coming to you live from the back of the van. Let me set the scene a little: The wind is blowing outside with intermittent cold November rain. ‘Torrents’ is how I’m told to describe how this rain is coming down. The lighting inside is soft lantern light and the decor is classic post-modern neo-gypsy hippie renaissance. It is truly the epitome of a modern caravan (not to be confused with the high top station-wagon with the misleading name). We aren’t camped out on the beach tonight, but we are still in the tsunami hazard zone…which has us wondering if our home owners policy (ie car insurance) covers tsunami damage.

This first week has also been about remembering a lot of things we forgot about, that can make living mobile easier. One thing that comes to mind is scavenging gas stations…not because you are too cheap to buy condiments, but because of how convenient those little packages are. I’m not big on canned tuna, but two mayo packets, a mustard packet, an onion packet, a relish packet and some salt and pepper make a tuna sandwich tolerable. It would be a major movie, and take too much space to carry all that stuff in the van. The little onion packets are the most useful to me personally, and I would buy those in bulk if you could get them at the grocery store. Another great gas station score are those little International Delight creamers, they’re great in instant oatmeal. My preferred recipe is one french vanilla and two regular half & half with brown sugar cinnamon oatmeal. Remember to use common sense when raiding gas stations. Take a couple extra packets with your coffee or hot dog. Do not fill your backpack! If you ruin it for everyone, I will hunt you down!!

Due to our lack of prep time, we made what I’m calling a ‘soft landing’ to give us a little time to get our road legs back. This ‘soft landing’ involves an RV resort in Seaside, OR with full amenities that include a hot tub and sauna (a DRY sauna…don’t even get me started on these so called ‘dry saunas’). I do feel like a bit of a sellout staying in RV resorts, but I get some pleasure from how much we stick out, and the fact that I think I scare some of the other residents a little.

To make this a little more educational and informative, I’ll talk about this RV park a little. We’re not really ‘RV type’ people, but we decided to give this Thousand Trails camping pass a try. The pass was like $500ish for a year and includes the first 21 nights free, then is $3 a night there after. There are resorts (“preserves” is the word they use) from Vancouver, BC to southern California we can use. Like I said, we aren’t really RV types, but it breaks down to around $45 a month, so we figured it’s worth the risk to give it a try. The specific preserve we’re at now in Seaside has bathroom and laundry facilities, WiFi, pool/hot tub/sauna, and a bunch of other stuff we don’t really care about (has anyone ever heard of pickleball??). Even if we can only tolerate staying in these places a few nights a month, it will be worth it to soak in a hot tub, get a hot shower and get back on the road with clean clothes. I’ll keep you posted on how that works out.

We didn’t actually get time to test all the systems in the van before leaving. I am happy to say we have water, AC power and refrigeration…we do not have auxiliary DC power, a functioning bathroom or heat.  The bathroom will be functional in a couple days, after a minor repair we will make in between here and our next stop. The DC power situation won’t be fully resolved until spring when we add a solar system. I hope I already fixed the other problem and we have some auxiliary power as soon as I try to charge the battery bank again. As for the heat, the major challenge is space, we just don’t have space for heaters…but the wife informs me we’ll find it somewhere.

Well that’s about all the time we have this week. This edition was a little light on adventure, but then it was a ‘rebuilding’ week. My hope is that this blog will eventually tell a story of not just ourselves, but of american gypsy culture at large. Until next time my friends, you can find me sailing down my highway in the wind.*

* Blatantly stolen from Arlo Guthrie