All Gussied Up

During my lifetime I have reinvented myself a number of times. 

 

Once again, I find myself adjusting the sails of life and moving forward in an altered direction.  When I first began full timing I started out in Lolita my vintage trailer.  I knew that it would not be a forever living situation, but I was not ready to make the change....so I just began.  I knew when the time was right I would make the change.  Circumstances with the back pain, have dictated  now is the time so ready or not....it is time to make the change.

 I found this hanging sign on our first outing in the RT

At different times in my adult life, I was a military wife, mother, childbirth instructor, foster parent and, single parent and for the last 28 years that I worked at a non-profit helping parents with children with disabilities learn about educational and legal rights within the educational and community systems.  At home, there was always a houseful of children and a barnyard full of animals. 

During each period of my life, changes needed to be made some complete transformations.  Some life modifications are easily made while others are met with fierce resistance.  Currently, I am certainly struggling with the implications of my spinal injuries and resulting limitations but it is what it is... so I have been moving forward with changes that will simply our travels and give me greater comfort to do the things I love......... Travel still calls to me.

Once I make a decision, I have always plunged ahead and begin the work needed to make the decision a reality.  While my heart still feels attachment and a sense of longing with the vintage trailers groups,  reality is pulling me another direction.    

While waiting for the weather to warm I have immersed myself in  some redecorating the RoadTrek and making it my own.  I have made curtains and sprinkled some dark red accents through out the RT.   There was nothing wrong with the curtains....except they were pink, dusty blue and minty green.  I am just not a pink kind of girl so the curtains became a neutral beige strip with red trim in the bedroom area.  The cushions are all in perfect condition and I want to keep it that way so I also made a cover for the bed cushions from a comforter that I cut to fit the odd shape of my bed area.                             

                         Before                                                                                              After

 

                                                                                                                              

                                                                                             
                                                                                               

I decided on using the U-shaped bed set up which gives more width at the shoulders and hips for the greatest comfort and the cutout allows greater access to the cupboards above the beds and the drawers below the beds.  The beds are actually wider than the picture shows as the cupboards block some of the sleeping space.  Elastic straps hold the cover in place, but it is a bit like wrestling an alligator to get it in place.

I made sleep sacks using two king sized fuzzy blankets, folded in half and stitched around the bottom and up to the knee area.  Each sack cost $20.00.  I carry an additional blanket for each bed and store them in the pillowshams.


From the back looking forward.

I think the curtains with the contrasting ruffle turned out nicely!

I store a folding captains chair at the foot of each bed with the sleepsack and blanket held firmly in place, still allowing for a place to lay down when needed.

In the bathroom/closet, I have mounted a small set of drawers to house the stuff that had no home..... The basin is used for a bathroom sink since this model of RT did not have a bathroom sink.

I am reusing many of the items and decor from Lolita which I love.

This pillow was the inspiration for Lolita and I am using it again in the RT.   It pulls all the colors together with the green without looking like Christmas!

                 "Cowgirls Just Want to Have Fun"       

 The "Lounge Area" up front

                        Before

 

                                                                                                                   









                                 After

 The drivers seat is so difficult to turn around and we don't really need the extra seat, so it will probably be used to store the outdoor captains chairs overnight.  Nothing else really needs to be moved overnight.


Everyone is staking out their territory and finding their own spot to call home

                             .............to be continued.

Making the changes in the Roadtrek are making it seem like MY cozy home.....

                                                          What do you think so far?

~ Happy Trails ~

Medical Test Results

This year the normal winter doldrums were punctuated with getting caught up on medical tests and procedures.  It certainly makes sense to get it all taken care of during the time of year that I am housebound.   Rather than focus completely on the medical aspects, I'm choosing to focus on the promise of spring.... the emerging brightness that punctuates my day if I only look.

The irony is not lost on me.  Within the scabland of Eastern Washington is emerging beauty that can easily be lost if you only look at the basalt rock and sagebush.

 

I won't bore you with all the details but I am generally in good health though aging takes it tole on the old bones and the Doc's are watching a number of issues.  A little tinkering with meds and I am good to go again for summer.
 

I have been waiting for the results of bone scans (I have the beginnings of osteoporosis which explains the recent broken bones) and the MRI on my back.  I have a wedge deformity in the mid back.  It's location makes any treatment difficult and risky (as in move my heart and lungs to get to the  collapsed area.) without promise of any improvement.   The bottom line is to keep doing what I am doing to strengthen the support muscles and rest often to relieve pressure on the nerves when needed.  Prolonged upright activity produces pain so moderation is necessary.

It is not going to get better, rather it will become more painful as the scoliosis progresses. 

If I were looking for reasons not to travel, I guess I would have them.  But I'm not. I'm looking for ways to adjust and look forward to a future that still includes exploring and travel as part of the plan.   The new Roadtrek is just such a modification.  (So nice to have a bed handy to lay down when pain dictates the activities for the day.)  I will need to adjust my activity levels.... my desire to see beyond the next bend of the trail will need to be tempered with reality.

There is so much to see, so much to experience, I want to see it all.  

Life often requires us to adjust our sails to the wind.... 

 and so I shall.

A shattering week......:(

If things happen in three's I should be covered in the broken glass department.  Last Sunday, I took Auntie and Hailey for a good ole fashioned Sunday drive, like I remember when I was a kid.  After church we loaded up and headed out to the Colfax Fairgrounds where they were plowing fields with teams of horses. 

It was a sunny day perfect for a trip down my Aunties Memory Lane, so we hear the stories of my grandfather who worked the farm with horses. 

Auntie told stories of riding on the various equipment with her Dad.  Some of the stories I had heard before and a couple I heard for the first time. 

I have always felt that I was born past my time and I always identify with the stories of early pioneer women.

Auntie doesn't enjoy camping and traveling as much these days but still loves a good day trip!

I love finding activities that start the stories flowing.

 

Strike One

When we arrived home, the first thing I noticed was the umbrella which was housed in the stand on the real of my little trailer......was no longer in the stand, but was smashed through the glass and screen on it's back door.   (A trip to the glass repair shop came in at a mere $70.) 

I can't come up with a satisfactory explanation.....which in the end doesn't even matter.  It just is what it is.  The more I looked at it....vandalism seems to be the culprit.   If that's the case, I choose not to dwell on it.  Stupid people do stupid things.  

I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of the shattered window..... 

but here is the trailer, good as new!!  It goes to show me, I certainly can't keep up with the upkeep on two rigs... Ugh!

 Lolita, returned to her former glory!

 

Strike Two

I visited an old friend this week... She fell a couple of weeks ago and broke her hip.  We have shared so many good times through the years and have so many shared experiences.  This is one experience I hope not to share with her!  On the way home on the interstate a truck passed me by leaving a rock  flying chipping my window (sigh, complete with a spider run )

 

Back to the glass shop, but this was not repairable, it would require a whole new windshield.  As much as I hate it, I am not going to repair it at this time.  The run is small and who knows after the summer trip other chips might be added.  

 I will probably wait and do the replacement before winter.  Now, I'm not a suspicious person... but even I was becoming a bit gun shy....Twenty odd years without visiting a glass shop and I've been twice in one week..... 

 

I decide to take a little weekend trip to one of our favorite little lakes.  Hog Lake. 

It's on BLM land and Free, (did I say FREE!) with great weather for a little paddle about on the lake with a water fall for a destination.  There are a few hundred thousand people in Spokane to watch and participated in a jogging event called Bloomsday of 7.2 miles.  In my younger years I participated until I came to my senses and have since found all kinds of creative excuses to get out of town.   

I made a good choice.... no people except the occasional fisherman, hiker or kayaker. 

 

It is a perfect day for a kayak float.....

 

 

 First CampFire of the season

But you would think I'd be walking a wide birth around anything glass....nope not me!!  I know you are waiting for it.....

 Strike Three......

While helping Hailey make the fire.....my new phone dropped out of my pocket...... and you guessed it.  The glass protector broke.... lucky for me the protector was on, as I had only bought it on Monday.

As I started writing this post, I was in a pretty grumpy mood....I'm feeling much better now....thanks for listening!    :)

I hope this means I am done with breaking glass.....  If not I will be in hiding until this passes.

~Happy Trails~