Living In My Car

Adding a Screen Room to My RV

December 20, 2010 – 5:00 am

Here is my Christmas present from my husband! I was able to set up and dismantle the whole thing by myself. (I was worried, because the instructions say you need two people.)

The screen room was $139 and the rug was $59, much cheaper than the permanent screen rooms that attach to your awning.

Here is the 9x12 reversible outdoor rug I got for the floor. (It folds almost flat and weighs about 5-7 lbs.) It feels kind of plastic-y.

The 10x10 screen room is pretty compact and fits in my basement storage. (It's that blue thing.) It weighs 44 lbs.

I was actually able to get it back IN this bag after I dismantled it!

This would be the step where they think you need two people. I just had to walk around in a circle and keep extending each side.

(Though I'm sure I looked ridiculous making continuous circles around it.)

Roof canopy goes on before fully open.

Legs extend all the way out, then up.

Note to self: Don't stake the poles before putting the screen around them!

I accidentally put the screen on inside out. (Velcro holds it up inside.) Okay, now I am very confused as I see the Velcro on the correct side. Maybe they are on both sides!

The screen room is not tall enough to be placed in front of the door to my Mini. I'll move it back farther next time.

100 extra square feet of outdoor living space!

Happy Holidays! I am visiting family all over Texas and will be heading West again at the end of the month.

Here is a link to the screen room I got.

Here is a link to the rug.

I also got these sun/wind breakers.

By Jennifer | Posted in I did it!, rv maintenance, repair, and mods | Comments (24)

November Travel Expenses and Credit Card Debt Update

December 13, 2010 – 5:00 am

I’d rather not post this because I’m gagging on the numbers. That said, this exercise is not one in which I am intending to show you how ‘frugal’ I am, but more along the lines of when I posted “I can’t believe I am a drunk.”

Moving out of my house and into my RV did cut a lot of my expenses, but I started with a pretty high bar of spending and still have a lot of room for growth.

RV Insurance: $98
Diesel Fuel: $748 (this is one I cannot believe, but it is correct)
Propane $33 (I have a propane generator)
RV Maintenance: $9 (weighing my rig; she’s about 200lbs overweight)
RV Parks: $307 (more free/cheap camping this month)
Dining: $192 (includes taking a friend to dinner)
Groceries: $256 (artificially low as I’ve been trying to eat all the food I’d stocked in my pantry for Alaska)
Car Rental: $352 (This should be partially written off as a business expense, as I needed a car to go to a bunch of work meetings one week.)
Tourism: $42 (museum and three events at McDonald’s Observatory)
Internet: $64 (Verizon WiFi)
Misc: $50 (electric heater; I was blowing through my propane.)

***

Good news is that I am making progress on my credit card debt! This one I always like to show in context – from a high of about $51K (on three cards) in the summer of 2009 to one card:

American Express: $28,906

(Interest rate is prime plus 6%)

***

I get a lot of questions about ‘why’ I am paying off so much credit card debt and not just walking away. The issue is that my business is completely dependent upon my credit rating. (If I get a ding on my credit, it effectively shuts down my entire business.)

That said, my credit scores aren’t great. It seems owing a lot on your mortgage has become a bigger part of the scoring equation. These indicators of why my scores are low have a couple of new statements about real estate account balance. (I haven’t refinanced yet.)

***

I’m feeling better! Thanks for all the well wishes on the vertigo…

By Jennifer | Posted in credit card debt | Comments (29)

How many of you get vertigo?

December 8, 2010 – 5:00 am

I still can’t hold a coherent thought. I think it is a combination of too many new (and exciting) changes that have my brain going in a lot of different directions, a case of vertigo that has been stalking me since Thanksgiving (I’ve gotten bouts of it since I was 30), a bad cold, and loads of medicines that have been keeping me up for the last week or so.

I do have lots of random thoughts and things that are stacking up that I want to share, so here is a free-associative ramble…

***

I had no idea how much my car accident in 2003 affected me until I started to get over it the last two months. I’ve realized that it wasn’t just that I had become terrified that the world was potentially dangerous, but I had grown (irrationally) fearful that my presence in the world could be tragically harmful to others.

I’m now guessing that my desire to drive 10,000 miles across the continent (after being off the freeways for years) was a bigger part of that healing than I realized. It is so strange to me that I didn’t really connect those things, though.

(Note: What may not have been clear, but has been subsequently made more explicit, in my previous post is that two people were killed at the scene of my accident. THAT was the trauma/horror of it. I obviously still wasn’t able to write that part very clearly last December.)

***

On a lighter note, those of you who have been reading for a while know that Cherie and Chris of Technomadia have been an early and ongoing inspiration for me as I moved into a simpler, more nomadic lifestyle.

I’d been wanting to aggregate some of my favorite posts that I thought would be helpful to people reading my blog, but learned that they have finally put them all together in an eBook.

This book is 15 chapters covering the range of excuses they’ve heard over the years for why people can’t travel and, more importantly, the creative solutions they’ve discovered to overcome them.

It is a pay as you wish product. (This is not an affiliate link.)

Answers to Common Excuses to Not Travel Full Time

***

I went to McDonald Observatory and, in a small group of 12 tourists, discovered another woman who was fulltiming in her van! We spend three days together and I was so inspired by what she’d done that I got a couple of video interviews with her to share with you guys.

(The first one was actually taken second. The second video was more rushed as I didn’t know I’d get to hang out with her for a few days.)

***

I am shocked by the growth of the Women Go Solo Yahoo! group and can hardly keep up! I expected to create a small question and answer group for 10-15 women who were thinking of going full time solo, but we have almost 100 members now! It is an amazing group of women. I am trying to make sure I can keep it functional with the bigger numbers and high email volume, but adding and welcoming new members is sometimes the only thing I am getting done each day. ; )

***

A group of the women on Women Go Solo are talking about going to the Rubbertramps gathering at Quartszite, so I think I may go. Is anyone here planning to attend? It will, of course, be my first year, so I have no idea what to expect. I have already RSVPed yes.

That’s all for now.

I’m on the mend, but pray that I can keep my head straight. ; )

Take care,

Jennifer

By Jennifer | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (29)

Writing about Writing

November 30, 2010 – 5:00 am

I still feel like I’ve gone into a bit of a hibernation/quiet mode. My travel experiences have been wonderful and I want to share them with you! I just feel at a loss for words when I sit down and try to tell you about them.

Sometimes it feels like so much is changing with me on an internal level that I don’t even know what to write. The travel stories end up feeling like superficial anecdotes over these larger tectonic shifts that I can’t explain.

I’ve never written much about the work I do for a living. Mostly to protect my husband’s privacy (we have a business together), but also because I have absolutely no emotional connection to that work. One of the things that has been coming up lately is a new desire/insistence/need to do work that I do feel connected to.

I think that impulse is partly because of this blog. I’m reflecting more deeply on the process I’ve been through in the last few years and have been thinking about doing that more formally through a larger writing project.

I’ve resisted the idea of writing a ‘book’ about my experiences because I found the short and interactive blog format to be such an unexpectedly healing tool. I didn’t want to change that into the solitary experience of writing a book. But what started one morning as a brief synopsis of my trip is growing into a much larger reflection of the last few years.

I’ve written pretty candidly on this blog about the fact that I had a suicidal breakdown, but couldn’t ever write about that in much more detail. I think that is partly because I knew I didn’t completely understand what caused it. Now I’m surprised by new things feeling ‘resolved’ that I was unaware were even a part of my unraveling.

So, I think my new personal writing project is stealing from my blog writing.

I’m also confused by the fact that I have so much less to say, but that my blog traffic is way up. I think, Why are these new people here? Do they want travel stories? RV shop talk? That sends me into blog-post paralysis.

But I know it is important that I keep this blog as the deeply personal space that has turned into an accidental tool in my personal growth. I need to write what comes up and not try to force myself to stick to a particular theme/topic, etc.

So, I may start to post a bit about the stuff I’ve been writing in the morning. It still feels pretty disorganized and personal – a lot like this blog post!

Take care,

Jennifer

***

By Jennifer | Posted in mental health, on blogging, reflections (mine) | Comments (30)

One Year of Sobriety Today

November 23, 2010 – 5:00 am

What a year…

I’m feeling quiet lately, but all is well.

Oliver Lee State Park is beautiful.

The 4,000 year old Dog Canyon Trail

By Jennifer | Posted in I did it!, beautiful places, mental health, national/state parks | Comments (42)

Strange Places in New Mexico

November 15, 2010 – 5:00 am

“You should go to Three Rivers”

Sitting in the small cabin that serves as check in lobby for the resort where Susan is working, I’ve told the retired owner we’re caravaning to White Sands National Monument the next morning. Selected from my 1,000 Places to See Before You Die! book, he suggests that instead of camping at White Sands we should head farther out to the Three Rivers Petroglyphs Site for the night.

I’m trying hard to drop my Excel-spreadsheet-every-trip mentality, so reply, “Okay. How do we get there?”

***

White Sands National Monument is strange. A waterless environment, the sound of a nearby missile run adds post-apocalyptic ambiance to our one mile hike over the hot white gypsum. Signs explain that desert animals get their hydration by drinking the blood of other animals they kill and eat.

The place is worth visiting, but is more creepy than comforting.

Back at Susan’s RV, I’m scraping off the microscopic sand that has made its way through my shoes and socks, anxious to drive to the more ambient sounding Three Rivers. We depart separately,with plans to meet up at the site.

A few hours later, I am in the middle of the New Mexico desert, not a soul or building around, with a GPS lady insisting, “Destination is on your right.”

A panicked call to Susan, “Where are you?”

“In hell!” Similarly lost, she sounds as flustered as me, but calms me down and guides me to our camp.

hello from the Jornadas

At Three Rivers, we climb the short hill to the petroglyph site and wander the sacred space separately for over an hour. Both abstract and intimate, the hill is covered with thousands of hand carved petroglyphs scraped into the rocks by the Jornada Mogollon people. Another trail leads to their small village, where they lived for over 400 years between 900 and 1400 AD.

Back at our small campsite, we end our day watching a sky of everchanging blue, pink, and red as the sun sets over the desert and mountains. A pack of coyotes howl.

I wake up in the middle of the night to a blaze of stars coming through my skylight. Grabbing my pillow and blankets, I crawl through the skylight and onto the cold roof of my Mini. Snuggling back under the warmth of my comforter, I’ve never seen so many stars in my life. I fade in and out of sleep on my roof, listening to the night sounds of the desert.

Susan has to leave the next morning, but I decide to stay another day. Back out on the petroglyph trail, I meet a woman hiking alone.

“Where are you going after this?” she asks.

“I don’t know.”

“You should go to Oliver Lee. It’s even more beautiful than here.”

“Okay. How do I get there?”

***

I’ve continued to add a bunch of links from solo women travelers. If you know of any solo full time woman blogs that I’m missing, please send me the link. Thanks to LG for sending me this laugh-out-loud one. I dropped my book and read the whole thing.

Gone Scamping: One Woman, a Tricked-Out Trailer, and Miles and Miles of Two-Lane

***

I just finished the book Land Beyond Maps by Maida Tilchen and loved it. For lack of a better description, I’d call it a ‘coming of age’ novel for the woman over 40. If you’re a woman who dreams of going west and finding yourself, I highly recommend it!

***

By Jennifer | Posted in I did it!, beautiful places, national/state parks, nomadism | Comments (18)

October Travel Expenses

November 9, 2010 – 5:00 am

I’ve been really sick. (Warning to solo travelers – always have any and all medicines you think you might need in your RV!) So, I’ve been laying in bed trying to figure out what I’m spending each month.

Here are some very rough numbers from last month in case you are interested.

October:

RV Insurance: $98
Diesel Fuel: $334
RV Maintenance: $149 (oil plus filter; I did the oil change)
RV Parks: $521 (Includes one propane refill purchased at RV park.)
Dining: $157
Groceries: $346
Car Rental: $168 (I rented a car in Santa Fe.)
Other Travel Expenses: $894 (Includes planned $500 monthly travel budget to see my husband ($440 actual); $341 payment on my satellite phone usage in the Arctic; $80 National Parks annual pass renewal, Good Sam membership.)
Internet: $64 (Verizon WiFi)

That’s all I’ve got for now.

Take care,

Jennifer

p.s. I finally relented and am on antibiotics, so am starting to feel better.

By Jennifer | Posted in money | Comments (25)

Learning Nomadism

November 3, 2010 – 5:00 am

Learning to live as a nomad continues to be a new practice for me. I enjoy it, but still feel like a novitiate.

When I left Truth or Consequences, I checked into an RV park outside of Santa Fe and quickly ran out to do some touristy things.

I took the trip to the Pueblo ruins, which I had been looking forward to, but then decided to extend my stay by several days. After those were up, I extended my stay again.

Each morning, I would open all of my windows, drink coffee while watching the sun rise over the desert, and then spend the rest of my day getting caught up on work.

After four or five hours of working, I’d feel a nagging sense of, “I live in an RV now. I need to go do something fun!”

I finally realized that I was missing the very point I had just declared to myself. I live in an RV. I am not on perpetual vacation on an RV. I have work to do, bills to pay, a home refinance, laundry, grocery shopping, and doctor’s appointments – all the basic stuff I had in my sticks and bricks house.

It is more enjoyable to do those things with an ever changing view (and following the pretty weather), but, for me, getting use to being nomadic means getting used to being in a new and cool place and not being a tourist.

I actually think this lifestyle may be easier when you still have to work. I wasn’t expecting that.

Hope you all are doing well.

Take care,

Jennifer

sun rising over the desert

***

p.s. I did get a chance to visit some cool places with Susan this weekend. I’ll post about that later this week!

By Jennifer | Posted in nomadism | Comments (18)

Remembering Things

November 1, 2010 – 5:00 am

Walking through the ruins of the ancient Pueblo people’s homes in Bandelier National Monument, I was thinking of Dan’s comment about our attachment to items that function as placeholders for our important memories.

When I felt the urge to give away my things, it was only with regard to meaningless items that felt like heavy, material obligations. Most represented a failed effort to comfort myself through acquisition. I never intended to part with any of my sentimental objects.

But the accidental reality of living in such a small space is that I no longer see most of them.

And now, I am having a new and unexpected experience and it is going to sound kind of loopy. But I am feeling it, so I am going to share it with you.

The loss of objects that function as an external placeholder for special memories is fostering the growth of a new interior space. I feel like I am beginning to hold these memories inside of me, rather than outside of me, in objects.

The experience is almost inarticulable, but gives me a deep sense of comfort and connectedness. It is another unexpected re-filling of empty material space.

At Bandelier, it was mistakenly believed that the inhabitants of these ancient Pueblo ruins simply ‘disappeared’. Years later, their descendants began their educational campaign of “We are still here.”

The homes in this canyon were left behind when the Pueblo people packed up the few items they could carry and moved south. Now settled along the Rio Grande River, modern day Pueblos still remember through storytelling and traditions.

Their stories and traditions teach them that their ancestors are not absent, but present and living in the ruins.

I expected to find Bandelier interesting and beautiful, but was struck by the spiritual presence I felt there.

I used to fear the loss of objects that I believed comforted me. This new growth of something that can’t be lost is an unexpected and blessed gift.

***

“Through oral traditions and dances we know that the spirits of our ancestors are still present in our homes on the Plateau.” – Gary Roybal, San Ildefonso Pueblo

***

By Jennifer | Posted in beautiful places, national/state parks, reflections (mine), simplifying | Comments (21)

RV Remodel

October 27, 2010 – 5:00 am

Okay, I finally took a video of my not-yet-finished updates!

I still want to add carpet, as well as re-think the electrical storage box behind my chair.

Can’t hear the video? Click here for the transcript

***

I also updated my About Me page. (It’s now a shorter version of the whole blog.)

By Jennifer | Posted in rv maintenance, repair, and mods | Comments (36)

It’s Getting Simpler

October 25, 2010 – 5:00 am

I’m loving simplifying and continue to do so. The longer I live in my Mini, the more I let go of. I used to have two closets full of really expensive clothes, and now I wear the same few outfits over and over again.

I’ve learned to shop for food more simply (and frequently), buying fewer items that I know I will use that week. There is a novelty to always buying your food in a new place. I’m learning to stop and turn around when I see a roadside vegetable stand.

This has been a real growth process, a culture shock in many ways, but I feel like after almost seven months this life is starting to feel familiar. With the thrill of the first few months, “familiar” is a significant phase. I think you all have seen me go through it, kind of flailing around, trying to figure out if I was bored, still whipping back and forth across the United States.

There was a lot of empty space in my life after I let go of things and self destructive habits. It was a leap of faith and the re-filling of my life with more deeply fulfilling aspects wasn’t immediate, but has crept in slowly.

I am out of doors more often. I am hot more frequently, cold more frequently. I’m no longer inside a sealed up building, obsessed with keeping my environment a perfect 72 degrees.

Last night I was driving back to the RV park and the full moon was high over the desert. I thought, “Oh, it’s the 23rd, the full moon!” It was as beautiful as you can imagine over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and I felt such a deep sense of peace and joy. It then occurred to me that this was the first time in my life that I had spent weeks in awareness of the phase of the moon. I’d never moved slowly or attentively enough before to care.

I loved connecting with Susan, and feel so inspired by her. She doesn’t own anything. After four months of being on the road, she cleared out her last few storage items - giving away the last of even her sacred and sentimental possessions. Everything she owns is in her RV, and it looks pretty empty to me, so I’ve decided to do the same. Sometime this fall/winter I will be heading back to Austin to get rid of the last few things that I couldn’t give away before.

I hope you all are doing well!

Take care,

Jennifer

***

p.s. I get a lot of emails from women with questions about solo RVing, so I’ve started a Yahoo email group for aspiring solo women RVers. If you are a woman hoping to simplify and go nomadic, I hope you will join! If you are a solo woman already are on the road and are interested in helping other women, I really hope you will join as well. Women couples are also welcome. (Basically, if you are a woman who drives and maintains her own rig, this group is for you.)

Hopefully this will be a better forum for answering (and archiving) questions specific to solo women RVing. And, since most of you don’t blog, I am hoping it will be a better place for all of us to connect.

You can find the group here

By Jennifer | Posted in mental health, reflections (mine), simplifying | Comments (14)

Girls Gone Wild

October 21, 2010 – 5:00 am

“I know you!” we say in unison.

The woman walks around the check in desk and, despite having never met before, we instinctively hug.

Susan (of Minnie Minerva) is workcamping at a luxury hotsprings resort in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. With me being unsure of where to head when I hit the road, and feeling inspired by Cherie’s recent post on developing nomadic connections, I decide to take Susan up on her invitation to visit.

I have had a wonderful time. You know that I am typically running for cover after an hour of being social, but I was following Susan around, constantly trying to engage her in conversation for two days!

I mean, how often do you get to have a conversation that ranges from, “When I gave away all of my things” to “Show me your sewer connection?” I felt a strange sense of comfort and familiarity with her, like she was a long lost sister with whom I was just catching up after a long absence.

Truth or Consequences is a serene desert town, with the classic big skies and magical light of New Mexico. Bordered by the Rio Grande and surrounded by mountains, this place feels like a combination Old West/Mexican town that was abandoned and then repopulated with artists, bohemians, and others who simply felt drawn to this healing place.

I love it here and know it will be a community I visit forever.

I’m heading out to meander through New Mexico, but already have plans to travel with Susan to White Sands National Monument later this month.

I think we’re starting a gypsy caravan!

***

p.s. Susan let me take a video of her rig, but my Internet connection is to slow to upload it. I’ll post it soon!

***

I was able to upload it! Sorry about the camera movement.

By Jennifer | Posted in beautiful places | Comments (15)

Going West

October 15, 2010 – 5:00 am

I think I have a year’s worth of travel booked with all of your recommendations on my last post! (If you haven’t read the suggestions on where I should go, I recommend you take a look.)

For now, I’ve decided to head west, to New Mexico.

I’ve stopped in Austin for some basic appointments (psychiatrist, psychologist, and getting my grey hair colored).

I was also able to run by my old auto mechanics school to do some routine maintenance on my Mini.

I’d grown used to the students being familiar with me last spring, so forgot to be prepared for the looks of shock and hilarity when I pulled up to work on my RV.

It was fun to be back there.

**********

Upgrades and mods to my RV are still a work in progress!

By Jennifer | Posted in rv maintenance, repair, and mods | Comments (14)

Destination Unknown

October 11, 2010 – 5:00 am

I have been in Texas for a couple of weeks and am feeling extreme wanderlust…

But, where should I go? I always have a very detailed plan.

I don’t have a plan.

I think I’m just going to start driving.

I’m leaving today.

(Any ideas?)

By Jennifer | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (30)

We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please Stand By.

October 2, 2010 – 10:32 am

I know that the site keeps crashing and that you can’t leave comments.

I don’t know why.

I found a Wordpress expert, though! She is going to save me.

Jennifer

By Jennifer | Posted in on blogging | Comments (8)

Living In My Car

Adding a Screen Room to My RV

November Travel Expenses and Credit Card Debt Update

How many of you get vertigo?

Writing about Writing

One Year of Sobriety Today

Strange Places in New Mexico

October Travel Expenses

Learning Nomadism

Remembering Things

RV Remodel

It’s Getting Simpler

Girls Gone Wild

Going West

Destination Unknown

We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please Stand By.

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