Cage Free Family

As we approached Aspen our cell phones picked up service again and began chiming with email and voicemail deliveries.

Since the road doesn't actually go straight through Aspen, we got to take a pretty good tour of the town, wondering at the desire for manicured lawns on the side of such a beautiful mountain.
If what you are looking for is mansions on the mountain, then Aspen is truly gorgeous, but I think we all preferred the natural beauty of the the little cabins occasionally and unobtrusively spotting the sides of the mountains.

We left Aspen (and it's shopping ;-p ) behind us and headed toward Wyoming.

With the children asleep in their carseats we made it all the way to Meeker, CO before Jeff and I were so tired that we had to pull over in a wayside for the night and collapse into our beds for a brief but heavy sleep.

We woke up at 6am as Jeff's phone began to ring with troubles at work, and stumbled around getting ourselves ready to hit the road again.
We ate a quick breakfast of migas and decaf coffee, and pulled on our clothes as the traffic started to come through and rock our RV.
The kids played games and the dogs wrestled in the field nearby.

We loaded into our seats around 7am and were immediately appreciative of our auxiliary battery as our parking lights had drained our engine battery.

We revved up the engine, warming it from the cold air, and pulled onto the road toward Craig, CO.
We made it about 30 miles before it became clear that something was really wrong with our RV.

With the gas pedal floored we were topping out at about 30 mph and the engine was screaming as we reached a well placed auto parts store in Craig.

I was thankful to find that the road down was less intense than the road up and we were able to enjoy the view with a new sense of peace that comes of scaling a literal mountain.
We drove so close to the rocks that they knocked our mirrors. Cars had to stop to the side to allow us to pass safely, and water cascaded down the mountain side, spraying through the window screens and across the road.

The light took on that purple/gray etherealness that comes with storms, and we gaped at the greenness of the trees and valleys against the dark sky. Thunder rumbled and rolled, echoing off of the mountain sides that surrounded us, and the lightening cracked and filled the valley with light, changing the whole scene.

As the rain started to pelt our windshield the pine forests changed to forests made entirely of Aspen trees. What a site! Spindly white trunks reaching to the sky, topped tufts with soft, arrowhead leaves, fluttering overhead. It looked like a combination of one of those little brass tree sculptures with the twinkling little leaves and a Christmas card. We were approaching Aspen, Colorado.
If one were going to live in a town, Aspen must be one of the most beautiful.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

We're less than two hours from the Gathering now, but I wanted to check in and say....

OH MY GOD - INDEPENDENCE PASS!!

We sat for some time, staring at the map in southern Colorado, trying to decide if we would heed everyone's advice and take the interstate through Colorado, or go it our style and hit the secondary highways and county roads. Finally, we both just decided to go with our guts and take the back roads.

I am so very, very glad that we did. Scaling the mountain toward Independence Pass was one of the most intense and beautiful high-points in my life. That's saying a lot, being that it hasn't been 18 months since I labored and delivered my second baby, at home.

It was incredible, and we didn't have a clue what we were in for! We had already scaled thousands of feet over many passes, but this was quite different. As we approached the mountain we wondered how high the road would take us through and Quinn asked if we would drive through the snow. "No, Baby, the snow is on the top of the mountain. You can't drive over the top of a mountain," was our reply.

Bwahahahaha!!
Can't drive over the top of a mountain! Hahahaha!

We were a quarter of the way up before the first sign reading NO VEHICLES OVER 35 FT BEYOND THIS POINT was posted.
Errr...I wonder what that means we said at the same time... Our RV is 30 ft!
About a quarter of the way up we found out as we approached our first switch-back (180 degree turn)
A vehicle much larger than ours would not have been able to make the turn. 10mph was the posted limit. I think we took it at -2 mph.
It was a two way road hanging off the edge of a mountain with no guard rail and it just kept climbing. We were seeing RVs come down and Jeff kept saying, "See they did it."
As we went, I tried to make myself feel better by checking the side mirror to see how much room we had to the edge.

I think that is the point when I stopped breathing.

Our tire was firmly resting on the inner edge of the white line... The white line that had a tendency to be the crumbling away at its outer edge.
I think I may have held my breath for the 15 hours that it took for us to scale that mountain.
12,092 feet we climbed. About half way up, after a few switchbacks, we were able to see where the road was taking us...

Over the top of the mountain.

I tried so hard to peel my eyes away from the road and appreciate the truly unbelievable view. I told myself that no amount of leaning was going to keep our RV on the inside of the road and no amount of smashing my foot into the dash was going to make us stop.

Quinn was awestruck, running constant chatter about the snow and the trees, and if Quinn was interested you better believe that Neeka was taken too.

There was snow on the left of us and flowers on the cliff to the right, and our view of the valley kept getting more and more incredible. It was sort of hard to look out at it and realize that it was real.
Still holding my breath, with tears streaming down my face, I took in the scene. I'm afraid my words will fail me here. There are no words I know to describe it.
When we finally reached the very top I broke into sobs. Crying at the intensity of it all...the fear of climbing, the beauty of everything surrounding us and the shear fact that I, never in my life, knew that I would do anything like this. I never knew that anything like that existed. Existed in a place where I could touch it.

At the top of Independence Pass we sat for a minute just trying to take it in...what we had done...where we were...where we had been....

Then Quinn started jumping up and down! LOL
Mama, Mama, Mama!! Mama! Can I touch the snow?!

Awesome.

We piled out of our seats and set to changing into some winter clothes to head out to the snow and the over-looks. People were everywhere; some scaling the peaks nearest to us, others snowboarding down, some skiing across the tundras, cross country style.

Quinn took off running and slid down the biggest pile of snow he could find. Neeka was content to take it in from the safety of Jeff's arms and the dogs reached a height of energy that I'd never seen in them before...LOL mountain dogs, finally in the mountains!

To say that we had a great time would be an understatement of epic proportions.
Coming out here, doing this...this is the best decision we've ever made for our family.

We stayed until we were all lobster red from the cold wind and snow, and stayed beyond that, until we couldn't ignore the lightening and black sky approaching the nearest peaks.

Not wanting to hit those twisty roads in a storm we had to book it to the RV and say good-bye to the mountain tops.

What would the road down be like we wondered.

For the past few days I've had a verse from a great Led Zepplin song in my head:

...Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams
Telling myself it's not as hard
hard
hard as it seems....

Last night we headed out of New Mexico into Colorado, up the San Luis Valley. This is our first time seeing snow capped mountains, and our spirits were high as we decided to keep on despite the later hour.
We usually try to set up camp before dinner, but last night we had dinner a la carte, on the road, and kept on driving. As the sun set we were approaching Pancho Pass and our first night time drive in the mountains.

Jeff and I felt secure in our ability to make it up to the summit and find the public campground just off the pass highway, so we kept going, though I think we topped off at about 30 mph for the sake of my nerves ;-)

The kiddos played so happily yesterday and we were still singing Three Blind Mice when we realized they had fallen asleep. I think we've finally hit our groove and figured out the best way to get through the days. Our house and old life seem like a long ago dream now. Every few days we have to check the calendar when we try to figure out how long we've been on the road. Every day is a new world, and somehow, every day is better than the last.

As we approached the area the map claimed the turnoff would be had to turn on our spot light to locate the unpaved county road that took us off of the highway and into the mountains. It was pitch black and I have never been on such a pitted road; we felt like we might shake apart and could not believe it when both kids stayed asleep through the whole banging three miles that we had to take at a crawl.

We pulled into the campground and moved Neeka and Quinn from their carseats to their beds and stepped outside for some fresh air and to let the dogs walk.

Holy Mackrel! I've been to some pretty remote areas before, but I cannot recall ever seeing so many stars before. It was just unfathomable! We stood outside for the longest time, freezing in the cold mountain air, just staring up at the sky at a breakneck angle.

Today we're headed toward the Rocky Mountains and are stopped at a great little laundomat called Wally Lu-Lu's that comes with free WiFi, a kids play area, and showers.

I'm feeling especially grateful for the kids area and WiFi because just before we arrived, one of Jeff's servers went down and it is not wanting to come back online. But now it looks as if all of his machines are down, so some healthy-happy-server vibes would be awesome if you could!!

Some luck in general would be good because we're low on gas money and still 2 days from our destination too!

:-)

Never Boring!!

xo

Journal Entry for Wednesday, June 18th -

As we entered into New Mexico, the landscape was awe inspiring. I'm afraid I'm not up on my geographical terminology, but the hills are grand enough to be mountains and their shape is so dramatically geometric, yet soft. Speckled with green shrubs, the purple dirt gives a mystical sort of appearance to the view. Sometimes you can see for miles in every direction and others we are surrounded by rising land on all sides, and while the sun is hot and the breeze is warm, the air is so dry that it smells sweet and pleasant.

We were cutting through Las Vegas, NM to hit the highway north to Taos when Jeff called out, "Hey! Grass finished beef!" and we looked over to see a little natural food store nestled in amongst some beautiful, mature landscaping in a residential neighborhood. I would have missed it! I still can't figure out how he managed to see a little 11x17 sign on their door about beef when I missed the store altogether. ;-p
It was deceptively large and carried everything we needed, and more, with more integrity and significantly less space than Whole Foods. They did not stock anything containing corn syrup and their entirely organic produce section came in at less than half the price scale of WF. To top it off, everything was truly fresh.
Awesome.

At the checkout counter we got to talking to a beautiful woman, who's name I failed to get, who told us that she was hoping to make it to the Raw Spirit Festival in Sedona, AZ this September. We're going to have to look that up because it sounded right up our alley.

From there we headed over to the little local hardware shop to pick up some repair supplies for the RV. Again, I was amazed and delighted. The men were so helpful and cheerful and I could not help but comment on how awful our experiences had always been at Lowe's and Home Depot and that I truly hoped that I could continue to shop solely at these small, local businesses in the future.

Our RV seems to have developed some very loud and vibrational exhaust troubles and the engine is bogging down badly on the steep hills as we head into the mountains, but we are in love. In love with everything and everyone that we are meeting.

And now we are in Taos. I will have to write an entire post or two about the beauty and my love of Taos.
Today, in Taos, we have found a connection for raw milk as well as a mechanic who may be able to assist with our continued fuel system troubles.
I love it here so much that if our RV burned to the ground and we could never leave I would be no less happy. We will be back here. No doubt about it.

Last night we camped in the Taos Ski Valley for free. As we drove in I alternated between slack jawed gaping and repeated utterances of "It's SO. BEAUTIFUL."
We rolled in to the very end of the road and found a deserted ski villiage completely surrounded by mountains.
Mountains green with Pine and Aspen and the air completely and heavily infused with a smell so sweet I couldn't quite put my finger on it...it was like a combination of fresh pine, and earthy lavender with a sweetness of honeysuckle or lilac. I couldn't get enough and felt like a dog, endlessly sniffing the air.

The sky overhead was so blue and filled with huge, billowy, cottony clouds and the sun was literally pushing rays out over the tops of the mountains. It was like falling into some sort of utopian movie. To good to be real.

We changed into our sweaters and boots and went for a hike up the trails with the kids and watched the sky change to an awesome display of purple and red and yellow and orange. The mountains and the clouds were on fire and we found ourselves staring in complete awe again.

Then then if all that wasn't enough; the stars came out. All around. There were so many and they came down and touched the tops of the mountains.
If I tell you about the shooting star I think you might reach the level of disbelief that I felt, so I'll leave that out ;-)

Oh. My. God.

Taos, I love you.

Deeply and madly.

And I haven't even begun to enjoy the amazing people you are home to .

We are on to Colorado today and I feel a painful longing that I know will draw me back here very soon.

xo

I'm here! Internet is spotty in the desert ;-)

Let see, where did we leave off....Oh, yes....living in our minivan with a South Korean film crew...how could I forget?!

During this time the film crew wanted to get footage of our old house, so we took them by so that they could get that, and some interviews with the neighbors. The interviews were great as our kind neighbors told fun stories about us, missed us, and wished us well. They also pointed out how very sad they were when they saw the landlords come by and mow down the beautiful organic garden we had put in. We were pretty sad too, though not nearly as sad as we would be when it was pointed out that they also came in a mere days after we left and removed the hideously dangerous items from the back yard that we had been asking them to take care of for a year. These things, including a jagged, rusted, sharp metal gas pipe (that was leaking gas when we moved in) kept us from being able to relax in our back yard with the kids. It was just too dangerous. How very sad that they would refuse to remove them for the safety of our children (though par for their course) but would come out days after we left and take them down.

After a fun three days of that, we finally received the call from the automotive shop around 6pm on Thursday (I think) that our RV was good to go! Wahhoooo!! We all, film crew, family and photojournalists alike, did the literal happy dance; complete with jumping and arm waving. ;-p

So we all loaded up in the minivan, with Ben in his truck following behind, and headed back to Georgetown to pick up our RV and move it to an actual RV park. By 10pm we were finally hooked up at the New Life RV Park, showered and oh so very, very ready for bed.
Ben kindly dropped our Korean friends at their hotel on his way back to town as they had come with no car of their own. ;-p

Moment by moment the minor dramas and excitements have kept up, leading me to have a new mantra "It's never boring!" that seems to have caught on within our little group. LOL

We hit the road from Georgetown to Brady, TX and found a beautiful little park and campground and a brief reprieve from the excitement.

I want to tell you more about Brady and the beautiful girl that I met there and I'll also throw in a bit about a madwoman chasing us from the San Angelo State Park ;-)

Yesterday, after a truly excellent trip to Well Body Natural Foods in Lubbock we were stocked, well fed and ready to hit the road to Santa Rosa, New Mexico.
About halfway, we stopped in Clovis and spent a really peaceful, rejuvenating few hours at their park and zoo where Neeka communed with the monkeys.

By 5 pm we were in the RV again on the highway to Santa Rosa. Not far into the trip though we were stopped for a little over an hour because the little two-way highway was shut down due to an accident. We, and many other people, got out of our cars and walked in the cool breeze brought by the desert evening and watched the rainstorm off in the distance. It's the first time that I felt good about being stopped in traffic.

We rolled into San Angelo around 7:30 last night and found paradise. The Santa Rosa Campground is awesome. We couldn't have asked for nicer scenery and the cool, dry breeze is positively heavenly. I woke up this morning having slept so well with the fresh air coming in the open windows, in the absence of the drone of the AC, that I didn't want to leave.

I feel such a sense of relief here with the heat of Texas behind us and all the peace and beauty ahead of us.

Today we are moving on to Taos and will be staying there for a few days, taking a breather from the road and enjoying what Taos has to offer.

If you're in the Taos area, drop us a line! We'd love to meet some new friends in person!
I hear there are more than a few like-minded people in the area ;-)

I am without a camera, but Ben is going to share a few pictures of the things I've written about so far. I hope to get them posted today.
I'm working on the camera issue...

On Wednesday morning, almost a week ago, we pulled away from the Round Rock RV park and over to the mechanics who had last worked on our RV. It was unable to idle, so the engine was dying at every stop, corner and hill. Oy! Not so good.
Thankfully, Christian Brothers Automotive in Georgetown was able to work our RV in that day after we explained that, well, it was our home. Unfortunately, they were not able to diagnose the problem that day and at 7pm on Wednesday we found ourselves stuck in an RV that no longer ran, in a parking lot with no electric hook up, and therefore, no A/C in Central Texas.

Why didn't we run the generator you ask? Well, as it turns out, running the generator sets off the carbon monoxide detector that we installed inside the RV.
Wait! Don't laugh yet! It gets better! So much so, I will probably have to break this up into multiple posts! ;-p

So, there we were in the middle of central Texas, parked in a broken down RV in blacktop parking lot with no AC and no idea when things would look up again.
Needless to say we were feeling a little down and out, and our dogs were about as happy with their 18 sqft patch of grass.
Then, the sky opened up and brought us our first miracle: a couple of wonderful strangers in a minivan. It turns out that somehow they were able to spot our dogs from the relatively high speed road that ran past the automotive shop. Having a Great Pyrenese themselves, they stopped to meet ours. Jeff and Quinn went out to talk to them. My face was still wet and puffy from crying so Neeka and I hung back for a bit as Jeff talked to them about our story, why we were in a parking lot, etc. They said good-bye and drove away.
Then they came back and offered us a place to shower and cool off.
Yeah Baby! I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed a shower so much, and being able to head into a nice cool room, tuck the kids in and let go of our worries for the night, knowing the dogs were peacefully hanging with their new pal, Gracie, and had access to grass.
These kind strangers then kept our dogs safe and happy for two days because, as it turns out, it took that long before our RV was running again. In the meantime we had acquired a South Korean film crew filming for a S.Korean public television station interested in voluntary simplicity and the 6 of us were now living out of our minivan during the days while the RV was being worked on.
Okay, I don't mind if you laugh at that picture ;-)

I'll leave you with that for now, but now that I have internet access for the first time in days I will log on again soon and tell you all about moving to the New Life RV park (yes that really is the name), the,um, fun? of Friday the 13th, and finally hitting the road.
There's more fun in there too...well, more like serious drama and excitement...

Right now, we've made it to Lubbock, and though my computer took a bad hit two nights ago and no longer has a working screen, I'm set up for now and will stay here until I get the story posted for you!

Also, we're thinking of installing forums for discussion...whaddaya think?

Who's still out there?? Drop us a line and send us some luuuuuuuuuuuv!

If I had more than a few seconds to sit I would tell you quite a few stories about what has been going on that would keep you very entertained!

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to leave you with this teaser for right now as I've stolen a few minutes just to type it up ;-) I haven't even had the time to brush my teeth...Eeww ;-) Just ask the South Korean film crew, the total strangers who's house we stayed at, or Ben Sklar who have been here with us for the past few days. ;-p I'm sure they were all relieved when I ran away to take a shower at 10pm last night!

Wait here! I'll be back! I promise it'll be worth it...pictures and all!



xoxo

I wanted to post a quick reply to everyone who has asked about our diet and symptom relief.

We've been doing the healing diet prescribed in the Gut and Psychology Syndrome book.
So, we've temporarily removed all grains (whole, soaked, rice, everything) until the gut is strong enough to reintroduce healthier grains such as sprouted and fermented grains.

It seemed difficult and overwhelming at first, but we just tackled it in baby steps.
Before we eliminated the grains we were eating sprouted and fermented grains and found it to be very easy once we learned the process.
The sugar was tough to eliminate because it has so many forms/names and seems to be added to just about everything...so insidious. Even Whole Foods Market puts sugar/cane juice/etc. into most of their products. We had to give up on all of their salmon and other prepared meats because of the sugar content. Crazy.

The way we went about it was to get the Nourishing Traditions cookbook first and really learn about everything we were putting in our bodies. When we felt good and secure within that diet we were able to more easily tackle the heavier change of the GAPS diet.
I still find myself doubting the necessity of eliminating all grains/beans/sugar and trying to add little bits in, but I regret it every time. This week has been rough with figuring out how to store the food we eat and manage all of the errands, and we have had grains, beans and pasteurized dairy a few times.
Because of that I have been struggling with feelings which are entirely too like Fibromyalgia for my comfort (phys. & emotional), Neeka has a rash on her back, Quinn is struggling with some hyperactivity and Jeff is also struggling with ADHD symptoms which had been absent while we were eating appropriately.

I look forward to the day when we are able to have a slightly less restricted diet, but I can honestly say that the convenience of eating the way we have this week is not at all worth the health price we are paying now.

We find some relief of the symptoms from herbal supplements, but when the symptoms get to be chronic, the supplements are rather like a bandage too small for the wound. To make up the difference we work on dis-identifying from the mind/body as self. There are many schools of thought on this throughout all spirituality. I have found the most digestible form (hehe) to be in Buddhist writings and, of course, in my favorite books by Eckhart Tolle. The Four Agreements is another great book for this purpose. I can honestly say though, that nothing compares to the health brought of eating right. There are many diets that we have found symptom relief with...some more stringent than others, but anything from Dr. Christopher's Mucousless Diet to the GAPS diet; the Body Ecology Diet to the Nourishing Traditions diet: it all works and it is all SO very worth the trouble of learning to eat differently!

I wish you the best and hope that you are able to find the pain relief that I have!

Yesterday was a little rough for us. We woke up with that heavy, throbbing fatigue that comes with exhaustion wrought of long stressful days and short sleepless nights.

We moved our RV to the new park, which turned out to be more of a small, unshaded plot near the freeway. ;-p Can't say Austin RV Park-North lives up to is claim of seclusion, shade and quiet. But, it is a place to park, and it hasn't much mattered because we have not been able to be at the RV these past days because of all of the errands we have been running to get things in order.

Following the RV (in our van with the kids) I began to realize just how tired I was when I had to question whether I was able to stay focused enough to continue the few miles to the park. Thankfully, we arrived moments later and I teetered off to the bedroom to lie down for "a few minutes."
I woke up about an hour and a half later with a splitting headache that clung on for the rest of the day and that same heavy fatigue. Bleh.
Luckily Ben Sklar came by and infused us with some fun energy and fresh perspective and we got to planning our route. Yay!!

We're planning to hit the road on Sunday, headed West, out of Texas and into Hobbs, New Mexico. From there, we're planning to head North through Roswell (how could we not?) and out through Taos, into Colorado.
So. Excited.

Feeling a little more energized, we ran a few more errands and planned to go to my father's place to sort through the boxes of sentimental items and precious books he was hanging onto for us. We had hoped to downsize the stack, but had to admit defeat as I lay face-down on the floor begging for mercy! We were so used up from this past week that the task was plain impossible. We gave it a good go, but we just could not sort, piece by piece, through the items which held the very most value to us and try to let go of anymore. One little family can only take so much change in one week. So, due to time constraints, we'll be loading a few boxes of books and three small boxes of personal keepsakes into a storage unit on Saturday. We'll come back through in November and try to take a fresh look at it then.

Today, Jeff is in the office to get things in order for his absence. The kids and I are presently parked outside the Tax Office; Neeka napping, me Blogging and Quinn Lego-ing. When Neeka wakes up we'll head inside and wait 4 hours ;-) so we can transfer the title and register the RV.
Then we've got to head over to our local food co-op to pick up a national co-op directory so that we can plan our route to get us as close to the organic food places as we can.

If anyone has anything to recommend along our route through West Texas and New Mexico, we'd love to hear it!

" Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way"
-Steppenwolf
-

We went to pick up some raw milk this morning and another mama there mentioned that she knew us through a mutual friend, M. Then I came home and read a post about friendships that make your heart soar and thought again about my very good friend M.
We have known each other for more than 5 years, but over the last year, I have begun to think of her as one of my very best friends. We have so many things in common that it is almost silly, but that doesn't even matter. It is her amazing energy that I love. It is the sweetness in her voice to our kids (4 between us) and the sincerity of her caring that I miss already. M is the kind of friend that I could picture a life with. The kind of friend you watch your kids grow up together with.
M is the kind of woman who shows up to her friend's house every day to help pack, clean and move. M is the kind of woman who comes packing food and doesn't miss a beat in conversation with a babe on her hip and a broom in her hand to sweep floors that aren't even hers. M is the kind of friend who stays way past bedtime to help, knowing she is needed, even when her silly friend claims otherwise.

M is many times a great woman, mother, friend and I miss her very much...already.

I have so very many beautiful and wonderful women to call friends and my only regret is not having spent more time with them all when I had the chance. The stories of support, love and kindness I will share....

We mapped out our route from Texas to Wyoming today, excitedly discussing all of the things to see through New Mexico and Colorado, but I couldn't help the flickers of friendships left behind playing on the back of my mind.

Bittersweet.

Ahh...my to-do list...it Just. Won't. Die.

There are so many things which must be done before we are able to leave Austin, and nowhere near enough hours in each day to accomplish them.
Title, register and inspect the RV... replace hoses...ship packages...stock the fridge...build an herbal first aid kit...donate some more stuff....and on and on...

We spent the day running errands, and I swear, somehow the list grew!

Tomorrow we head out to our new RV park, and with any luck it will have some grass for the kids to play in! They've been such troopers; dealing with all the craziness that is trying to get ready to go. Who thought simplifying would be so complicated ;-)

One day soon we will get to bed before midnight and it will be so sweet!
For right now, we remind ourselves why we're working so hard and try to shower each other with love and support through the difficulties of this transition.

On the up side...after about 16 hours at the Container Store, and 16 more hours sorting, our clothes are finally stacked neatly and accessibly in our little closet!
Yay!!

Tomorrow I will tell you what it's like to live in 200 square feet with two kids and two yetis, but for now, it's off to bed for me!

Amazing the difference a reasonable bed time can make for your day ;-)

After some errands today we had our first home-cooked meal in our new place; salted bison, broccoli, carrots, beets and daikon radishes...served up on our little set of enamel coated tin plates. The meal was great and the dishes were so much lighter and therefore easier to wash than the heavy ceramic plates we used to have.

Quinn and Neeka took their first showers today! They were both so excited. Neeka was thrilled with the sprinkles on her face and Quinn was so very happy to learn that he could shower without getting his face wet...totally opposite as usual!

We picked up a copy of The Swiss Family Robinson at Goodwill today and read two chapters before bed. It seems like such an appropriate story to be reading right now. Quinn was noticing the similarities in our family learning to live in an RV and theirs in a tent.
Never mind that we're walking distance to the Whole Foods ;-p

We stocked up on our staples today...bison and grass-fed beef, dried fruit, seeds, nuts, nut butters, raw cheeses and eggs. Tomorrow is the farmer's market, where we will get our fresh veggies and fruits.

The kids are both sleeping and I'm sitting here at our dinette with a cup of steamy tea and my lovely new internet access. We set up our cellular WLAN card today so we will be able to work from anywhere that has cellular coverage now. Wahooo! No more sitting outside of a closed coffee shop at 1am picking up the Wifi in order to get a post up before bed.

A friend asked us today if we missed any of our stuff and after a little pause we both chuckled and realized that we do not. We have wished for a couple of new things though...a wash tub for cloth napkins, towels and other daily wash items and a outside rug to reduce the amount of dust and dirt getting tracked in.
Otherwise...I can't say that I want for anything but wide open spaces. That will come soon enough too.
We have a ton of things to accomplish before we can hit the road, and are trying to figure out how to accomplish them all before we lose our spot here at this RV park.
We hear that there are a couple of nice parks just outside of town, but would really like to avoid having to drive all the way in to town everyday if we are able.

Wish us luck...our to do list is so long...first aid kits, trying to turn our rings into a digital SLR camera, RV repair items, etc., etc., etc.

Sleep was much easier last night with the absence of the train and all.
We woke up, still a little tired and sore, but ever so happy to be free of the house, the slum-lords and all of the stuff. We moved from train central to a little RV park, called Pecan Grove, nestled in the center of Austin.

Jeff headed into work for the day, and the kids and I walked to Zilker park early enough to beat the intensity of the heat. We played in the sand and met some new friends. I even got to talk about lusting after spiritual enlightenment books with a fellow junkie and the beauty and difficulty of healing diets. Then it was off to the Zilker Zepher train for a scorching but beautiful twenty minute ride around town lake and Zilker. And, in the spirit of Austin, we even had the treat of live music as we rounded the corner of the tracks. The train slowed to a crawl for the guy with his guitar and harmonica; playing away for the occasional dollar and delight of the passengers. We had the pleasure of passing him twice, and being that we were in the very last seat, got to exchange a few words about shyness, creativity and brilliance ;-)

In my lap, Neeka dozed off in the balmy heat and I quietly said good-bye to all of the things that make Austin so very unique.

We grabbed some lunch from the nearby Whole Foods and met some of our full-timing RV neighbors on our way to the park's laundromat.
Neeka delighted in checking out the different RV's and gardens and Quinn added to his rock collection.

The truly awesome people we bought our RV from continue to inspire us every day... Mike and Leslie, We love you guys!!! I could not have asked for better people to make such an important purchase from. Anyone else and I would have had, at the very least, a little worry about the security of an older vehicle like this one. I don't have that. Mike and Leslie have gone out of their way and remind us that there are still, very much, kind, caring and inspiring people all around us.

Pictures coming soon!

On our list for tomorrow:

Try to trade the van in for something tow-able
Acquire the few things we still need for the road
Ship some packages to family

On a side note, on our way into the RV park( in a town who's motto is Keep Austin Weird) we saw a sign saying No School Buses
I inquired about why they had this rule and was told that it was because of appearance. "They don't look nice" I was told. As opposed to the many mildewed, duct taped and otherwise weather beaten, decades old, RV's I thought to myself.

I suspect this is a rule rooted in more upsetting prejudice than vehicle body-style and am wondering, as we daydream of painting paisley on our RV, just what "looks nice" to the various park owners across the country...
Do you suppose a prayer for world peace on the side of our RV will keep us from hooking up on the road?

When in Rome, or Let it all hang out??

Last night was our first night in our new home.
What a night!!

We wound up parking the RV in the parking lot of Jeff's office building because it was so close and well shaded with trees. Sleep was amazingly heavy...between the hourly FREIGHT TRAINS that is. Yes, we were so very tired that we just wanted to get somewhere...anywhere...and forgot that on the other side of the lovely trees was a freight line. Sleeping like the babies that they are, the kiddos were oblivious, but I had some mighty interesting dreams as the sound of the train approached and began rocking the RV. Never boring ;-p

We pulled away from the empty house, loaded down with stuff at 11:20 P.M. There was stuff everywhere and no time to sort it and store it before we left. It was all we could do to place our hands on everything we've ever bought and make a value judgment about it...Why did we buy this? Do we need it? What is the inherent value of this thing???

Sentimental items like baby books, pictures, and childhood keepsakes where boxed up and handed out to family and friends. Practical items, like blankets, folding chairs and tools were sorted, cleaned and loaded up. Everything else went on the donation truck.

Some things were easy to let go and even went with a tinge of guilt for having even acquired them in the first place. Other things were a little more difficult to let go of, but once my mind released it's grip the relief and freedom came quickly. Amazingly, the two most difficult things to let go were our Tempur-Pedic mattress and the wooden train set. I spent daaays clinging to those two things believing that I couldn't live without one and would cry to see the other go.
Alas, neither scenario turned out to be true. I am sleeping fine on the new bed with it's knock-off tempur topper and the train set isn't missed.

We spent our first day unpacking and trying to find the best way to store the things which we've chosen to keep. Clothing for a family of four with only one closet is a real challenge ;-p but we will be making it work with new shelving in the closet. We had to let go of the kombucha brewing crock and our towels seem to have bred so we'll be re-homing those too.

Otherwise, it is amazingly and satisfyingly comfortable and liberating!