Week 2 Report From the Road
During Week 2 I have been truly on my own, without even my dog Sadie to keep me company. She was unable to travel with me because the campground where I will be staying for a week at the end of the month does not allow dogs. This meant that she could not come for any of the trip, which meant that solo really means solo!
Here’s what solo road-tripping looked like for me in Week 2 of my month-long journey:
Venturing into uncharted territory
When I drove away from the safety of my family on the morning of July 7, I really didn’t know how the next few days were going to go. My first stop was to see my former colleague from my Framingham days. It had been almost 15 years since we had spent any time together or even talked. Sure, we were FaceBook friends, but that doesn’t require a lot of work because you can post anything at any time and people can like it or love it or ignore it. It doesn’t really matter because with the algorithms selecting what you see, you have no idea what you or any of your FB friends are going to see on any given day. It’s fun to check in on your friends on FaceBook but it isn’t like having a real conversation, and the posts are by definition a self-selected snapshot version of someone’s life that they decide they want to share.
I contacted Martha when I knew I was going to be in the area for an extended time and had the flexibility to schedule a visit. She responded immediately and with enthusiasm, and that made me very happy! That said, I didn’t really know what to expect once I got there and spent the two hours it took to get to her house pushing the nervous uncertainty away from my consciousness. You see, deep inside me is the shy little girl that always feels awkward in strange and unfamiliar situations. My solution to this over the years has been to “fake it til I make it” and that usually serves me pretty well. If I pretend to be confident, then I take on the persona of a confident person and then I become the confident person I’m pretending to be. This strategy has gotten me through a lot of court hearings, jury trials, board meetings, professional presentations, job interviews, and class lectures over the years.
True friendships stand the test of time - 15 years was nothing at all!
As it turns out I needn’t have worried at all and I didn’t have to pretend anything. Martha was the same Martha I knew when we worked together, and my excitement at seeing her completely erased any trepidation I might have had. You know you have a good friend when you can just pick up where you left off and it’s like no time has passed. I was so happy to rediscover our deep friendship we had when we worked together!
I stayed much longer than I had intended, and we barely scratched the surface of catching up. This experience bodes well for the bigger potluck reunion coming up in a week or so with a larger group of my former colleagues. I’m super excited about that so stay tuned for the report from Week 3!
Pushing Further Beyond My Comfort Zone
After my visit with Martha, I made my way to a private resort campground to meet up with some fellow women van campers. Someone who lives in New Hampshire near the Maine border organized this rally and invited women van campers who are members of the same FaceBook group to join her for the weekend.
This was a totally new experience for me, but I figured “why not?” and decided to jump in with gusto. It turned out to be a small group of women who were able to make it on this particular weekend, but we had a great time together.
We went for walks, kayaked, rode bikes, and played games (I learned a new one called Qwirkle, similar to dominoes). The conversation was rich and engaging and quite easy (I pushed my shy little girl to the side and tried to encourage the gregarious wannabe to take the lead). I also learned how other older women manage their camping lives, and picked up a few new tips and tricks. Such as:
You can hold a piece of paper to your ceiling fan and if it sticks to the fan then you know the fan is pulling the air out and not pushing it in. This is useful when you have two fans in your ceiling and want the air to be flowing in one fan and out the other. Some of you may think that this is a painfully obvious fact that everyone should already know or be able to figure out easily and you would be right. However, sometimes even the most obvious logic can elude me. Between Jay, Conrad and me I was always the dingbat. (in case you’re wondering, Jay was the curmudgeon of the family and Conrad was the goofball)
I have several items in my Amazon shopping cart that weren’t there a few days ago: sliding door stop so that my van door can be positioned halfway open instead of either all the way open or all the way closed (who knew anyone even made such a thing???); a screen cover for my front windows so that I can have those windows open but still keep the bugs out (again, had no idea such a thing existed, or that I needed it…); dots that you can put on your clothing to keep mosquitos away - these seemed to work and eliminate the need to spray foul-smelling, sticky Deet all over yourself. And I am now searching for the perfect screened canopy that doesn’t take up much space in the camper, doesn’t weigh a ton, and is easy to put up and take down for one person (apparently the one recommended by my fellow camper is not currently available, so I need to find a suitable substitute).
Rainy Days.
This topic deserves its own subheading, given the epic proportions of rain I encountered on my last two days at the camping resort. I was totally left to my own devices for dealing with a steady, nonstop downpour that lasted over 36 hours straight. I decided to stay an extra day at the campground where the fellow women van campers had been, but they were all gone by the time the rain began in earnest, leaving me to deal with it by myself. Here are my insights on how to give yourself the best chance of surviving a solid downpour that has virtually no letup.
First and foremost, embrace the rain! You can’t change it and you are stuck with it no matter what. So make the most of it and choose to enjoy the experience! This is easier said than done, but I think I get an A for effort.
Batten down the hatches. Keep an eye on the weather reports and if rain is predicted overnight, then by all means put chairs and other items away so that you don’t have to do it in the pouring rain. I’m proud to report that I thought of this one ahead of time and so saved myself the problem of having soaking wet camp chairs, tablecloth, tarp and other odds and ends that had been lying around outside. On the other hand, keep in mind that nothing dries out when the air and humidity levels are drenching with moisture.
Seek other shelter. If there is a building nearby where you can go for a change of scenery you are lucky. In my case I had a clubhouse near my campsite that was part of the campground amenities. That’s where the internet was and some tables and chairs. I hung out there for several hours writing and posting the article from Week 1. Given the location of the campground, and the fact that my van was in no position to be moved, simply leaving my location lock, stock and barrel was not an option for me.
Make a list first thing in the morning of rainy day activities that you can do inside your camper, and then check them off throughout the day. Some examples:
Read a book! Be sure to have several choices so that you aren’t stuck with one that you don’t really enjoy. If you pack several books, be sure that at least one of them can hold your attention for longer than 10 minutes during those long periods when all you are thinking about is when the rain is going to stop. Otherwise, you’re going to go shopping for new and more interesting books the first chance you get.
Indoor craft day! Work on your crochet or other craft that you so carefully packed for just such an occasion. Ok, this one made the list but sadly did not get executed. Why? I really can’t say, just wasn’t feeling it…
Take a nap! Who’s there to stop you? The sound of the rain falling nonstop for hours and hours on the roof of your camper will no doubt lull you to sleep, which may be preferable to trying to work up enthusiasm for something you don’t really feel like doing, like crocheting. This one I did do hoping that the rain would dissipate by the time I woke up. Nope. I think it was raining even harder.
Make yourself a gourmet meal! My refrigerator was full of fixings and I made quite the mess putting it all together. That was a good thing because it meant that I was focused on something other than the rain while I was getting everything out, cutting everything up, sautéing the meat, and then cleaning it all up when I was done. One caveat: be sure to have both of your fans drawing air out of the camper so that when you produce the steam off the hotplate that is cooking your meat and veggies you don’t blow it directly onto the smoke alarm, thereby setting it off six inches above your head. On the bright side, I now know that the alarm works…
Camper Pilates! Biking, swimming, and kayaking are off the table for the day. You don’t need much space to do many of the moves, you just need to adapt yourself to the space you have to work in. I was particularly excited about this one when I thought of it and wrote it down, but again, somehow I never actually put the idea to the test to see how camper pilates works in practice. I think I need another rainy day to try again…
Practice banjo in the privacy of your own camper music studio! Unfortunately, by the time I got around to taking the banjo out and tried to play it, I was totally done trying to embrace the rainy conditions and just needed it to stop. All motivation had left me at that point and even my banjo couldn’t perk me up.
Tidy up the camper! The more clutter there is, the more hemmed in you will feel as the rainy day progresses. That said, after living with rain a solid two days, I’m here to tell you that no amount of cleanliness and neatness will erase the feeling that the walls are closing in on you and you are living in a small shoebox.
Back on the Road
After all that rain you can imagine that I was happy to hit the road again and make a fresh start to my camping days. As I write this I’m in Maine, the days are gorgeous and I will be reporting about that phase of the trip in my next article.
