Thanks to everyone for your encouraging words and suggestions, which I have incorporated into my list of new ways to spend my time. Here is my list.

1) Some form of exercise… we walk the dogs 4 times a day, but we don’t walk fast. We mostly mosey along. There isn’t really a good place where we’re parked right now to walk a long distance. I have been thinking about doing chair aerobics. It can actually get your heart rate up and tone at the same time. I’m going to develop a routine and commit to doing it 5 days a week for a while and see how it goes. I’ll keep you posted.

2) Take more pictures. We’re not traveling for the next 3 months or so, but I used to take more photos of my humorous dogs. I can try to catch them in cute poses and write captions.

3) Forget about writing poetry, unless I get the urge, and focus on just writing prose. My stories can be about my everyday life and my successful or unsuccessful adjustments to RV living.

4) I get depressed when my living space, which is smaller than I have been accustomed to, isn’t neat, clean, and orderly. I will avoid being frustrated by keeping things in their place and cleaning more often.

5) Facebook… This one will surprise you. I actually love FB. It has helped me make new friends and keep up with existing and old friends. I have recently found my boss from 40 years ago. We have a date to talk soon. She was not only my boss, but she was a good friend. She gave me a wedding shower when Kip and I got married. I need to check on the friends who don’t show up on my daily feed and see what they’re up to. I love seeing pics of everyone’s kids, grandkids, and pets.

6) Write more cards and notes. I love getting mail, and it might give me a more cheerful attitude and help me to feel like I’m doing something nice for others. I’ll add to this… stay in closer touch with my grandkids.

I think the above is enough to get me started. One thing I’m going to have to get used to is being flexible with my schedule. I will commit to being mindful of my list, and instead of being woeful about missing what used to be, I’ll refer to my list and do something on it.

Thank you, everyone. (I’ll begin taking more pictures today.)

I’ve spent the last 2 plus years clearing out and minimizing. In the process, I tossed out, sold, or gave away a big part of my life. What I didn’t realize is that this preparation for my new life on the road left some empty space that, figuratively speaking, needed to be filled with something else. Is that sentence too long?

Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Christmas season have given me pause to reflect on what I can fill the space in my life with. How do I repurpose the time that I was accustomed to spending doing old familiar things with old familiar things?

I used to spend a lot of my time writing, which I enjoyed. I have been experiencing writer’s block for several months now. The poetry and stories are not top of mind like they used to be. I can’t think about the possibility that it might be a permanent condition. The thought of no more writing creativeness in my brain is unthinkable to me.

So what do I do to fill that empty space? That’s what I find myself thinking about tonight. I think I’m going to try to do what I’m doing now. Write even though I’m not having any spurts of creativity. I’ll try the fake it until you make it method. The question is, will anyone read it?

Since I can’t fill my life with the things I used to do, other than writing, I’ll find new things to fill that space. Maybe doing new things will help spur some brain activity conducive to writing. Do you want to come along for the ride while I explore? The first thing I’m going to do tomorrow is make a list. Any suggestions? As your thinking, keep in mind that Kip and I are together most of the time, we have two dogs that can’t be left alone in the RV more than a few hours, and we only have one car. I can get out by myself some, but not a lot or too often. I don’t want to negatively impact Kip’s life too much, either. There still should be some constructive and interesting things I can do with my time.

The pics of my RV Christmas decorations don’t do them justice.

By MG and Lav

MG: I’m spending Thanksgiving in Murdo this year. Not really. It’s just pretend. The nice thing about writing is you can change up people, places, and things and make them anything you want them to be.

I’m spending Thanksgiving in the house my parents built 70 years ago. It’s between the motel that used to belong to the Gonzalez family and the house that once belonged to Jack Mowell, the pharmacist and his wife, Helen. I think the motel and my house are now owned by Danny Iversen, and I don’t know who owns the Mowell house. I think at one point in time, it became part of Laura Hayden’s motel. (I’m not sure if I spelled Laura’s last name or Gonzalez right.)

Anyway, I digress. I’m having Thanksgiving in my old house and it looks exactly like it did 70 years ago. The furniture is the same and everything.

I’m making turkey and bread stuffing. None of that southern cornbread stuffing that they serve in Texas. We’ll have mashed potatoes and lots of gravy, sweet potatoes with toasted marshmallows on top, green bean casserole, Mom’s raspberry jello salad with frosting made from sour cream and marshmallows all whipped up after melting together all night, and jellied cranberries, just because. We’ll have eggnog, cream o cheese o cherry pie, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert. Oh, and someone needs to bring a relish tray. I hate the time it takes to put together a really good relish tray.

After dinner, we’ll decorate Christmas cookies while we enjoy a crackling fire in the fireplace. There will be freshly fallen snow…enough to make a snowman. I think I’m kind of conflating Christmas and Thanksgiving, but that’s okay.

Everyone who would like to come is more than welcome. There will be plenty to eat and do. I’m definitely inviting my cousin, Valerie. Someone has to do the dishes, right? How about it, cuz?

I’m adding lots of pictures of the inside and outside of my house. The basement is nicely finished, and there is also a fireplace down there. The pics are all between 60 and 70 years old. It’s kind of amazing that everything looks just the same, except for Val and me, of course. We’re 70ish.

~Lav: I am coming, Mary. Just gotta get my scarf, coat and boots on. Gotta get out the old door of the apartment and down those steep steps and into the sharp wind outside on Main Street, but I’ll be there soon. Takes me awhile since I’m 70ish. I’ll bring the electric portable mixer over that we bought at Sanderson’s Store for whipping the real whip cream. Plus I will be sure to bring an apron so I can wash all the dishes and help clean up. Your Thanksgiving menu sounds perfect. Can we have Coca Cola to drink? Or we could make punch. My Mom always bought a few bottles of Coke for the holidays. I made a relish tray with cold veggies and those little gherkins that I hate, but they look good on my Mom’s glass serving dish.

Later: Your 70 year old house looks cozy, modern and inviting. Your Dad sure knew how to design it with the planter out front, big picture window and breezeway next to the garage. I love coming inside seeing your beautiful brick fireplace, and all that real wood trim, balanced off with those bookshelves. It’s such a classy looking home. They don’t build them them like that anymore.

Okay let’s get ready. I think Mark is coming and a few Borks will drop by. Andrea said she would maybe stop in for pie and coffee later and are Bill, Liz and Gus coming? A guy named Ralph is too busy, he said. He and his millions of cousins are going hunting for pheasant down on the farm. Imagine that. You and I didn’t get invited to their family reunion. We never met a reunion we didn’t like.

I thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving. Thanks for coming over.

~ Oops- had to add a couple pictures along with yours, Cuz.

Okay. I’m going to set out the dishes and silverware. This will be the best Thanksgiving ever even if it’s just pretend. See you soon.

When we arrived at Yosemite and tried to get leveled and all set up, our efforts were thwarted. The jacks wouldn’t go down. Upon investigation, we found a new problem. I noticed all the hydraulic fluid was draining out of one of the jacks. Upon further and further investigation, Kip found that apparently something we ran over jumped up and broke some of the wires, which enabled the fluid to pump out of the top. Kip talked to a technician from the company who makes the jacks and was told not to worry about the jacks falling down en route because they are locked in the up position.

We have an appointment to take the rig into a place in S CA for hail damage repairs and a few other things on the 30th, so we’ll deal with it between times. We’ll level the best we can by running the tires up on blocks when needed. For all of you mechanics out there, I’m probably not explaining this right, but I’m a girl.

The bottom line is that we’re moving onto Sequoia National Park tomorrow.

Like all the other parks, Yosemite is beautiful in its own way. I didn’t get a lot of pictures because the scenes were too big and awesome for my cell phone camera lense. I’m an amateur picture taker at best.

Giant Sequoia trees dwarf even the largest pine and fir trees. The Sequoias can live for over 2000 years. Their trunks can reach over 25 ft thick.

A couple of interesting facts. President Lincoln signed the bill in 1864 that set aside the Mariposa Grove along the scenic Yosemite Valley. In the years following, a fire started in the grove and thus began a 100-year history of protecting the trees from fire. While the intentions were good, it was contributing to the loss of what we cared about so much. Through research and experimentation, it was discovered that fire actually promotes reproduction of the giant trees. It clears away competing firs and cedars and exposes bare mineral soil for the tiny seeds to take root. (This information was taken from the material the Park Rangers handed out.)

There are also many giant rock formations in the park that are totally awesome. It was a gorgeous day, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Now, on to Sequioa National Park. We were there 2 years ago and we want to go back. We’ve got some time to kill before repair time, so why not.

We have encountered a couple of problems that will delay the progress of our trip. Since our RV is our home both on the road and wherever we stay for months at a time, we encounter maintenance or repair issues just as we did when we had a house. At least, that’s the way I’m trying to look at it.

We are set up in a nice park near Clearlake, CA. It’s about 100 miles down the coast from Ft. Bragg, where we stayed for 2 nights. Our leveling jacks, which are a very important part of our rig, quit working. Kip talked to a technician on Friday, but they were unable to figure out the problem. As it always seems, problems happen on the weekend. Tomorrow is Monday, so we’ll try to get someone to come out here (there are mobile repairmen), or we will drive somewhere. The generator won’t start, either. Kip is going to try to jump-start it this morning. Maybe we just need a new battery. The good news is we are hooked up to sewer, water, and electricity while we wait.

I’m doing laundry here. They have one washer and one dryer, so it’s slow going. I’m trying not to be a complainer. How am I doing? The dogs are fine, we’re fine. As my good friend Pat reminded me, life has hiccups and snags. You just have to walk through the difficult times and do what you have to do. I’ll keep you all posted. Thanks for traveling along with us. Have a wonderful Sunday.

Except for the part about finding an RV spot for the night, which can be stressful, I love travel days. It’s fun to be where I usually haven’t been before. I love seeing all the different landscapes, and I especially like going through smaller towns. I love looking at the houses and churches and wondering about the people who live there.

We spent 3 days at the Peach Beach RV Park on the Oregon/Washington border. While there, we spent one day driving along Highway 14, which hugs the Columbia River. It was beautiful. We shopped at a fruit stand and bought fresh peaches plus jars of cherry butter, peach butter, rhubarb cherry jam, cherry cobbler in a jar and pickled asparagus. They didn’t have anything with huckleberries in it.

Saturday, we packed up and spent 2 driving days staying just one night at 2 different spots. We drove highway 101 along the beautiful coast of Oregon, and we’re now in Crescent City, CA, in the midst of beautiful redwood trees. Here are a few shots of all the beauty we’ve seen these past few days.

By the way, gas is $6.00 a gallon here. It’s a good thing we got to see all the sights for free!