On Beyond the Holidays

Faywood Hot Springs, Faywood, NM

Damn, we're already one week into the new year.  The holidays here were pretty social with gatherings of our rv neighbors at the clubhouse almost every night.

Our contribution to the New Year's Eve potluck

The rv sites here were mostly filled for the last two weeks, despite the pretty chilly temperatures.  Just in the last day, everyone except the long-timers (one month or more) has pulled out and we're back to relative tranquility.  Mid-afternoon we went to the tubs for a soak--and by a strange coincidence everyone of our long-term neighbors was there at the pools. 

Nothing dramatic to report.  The weather has been unsettled for the last few days with lots of interesting clouds scuttering through and intermittent spots of sunlight.  Earlier today there was a double rainbow that lasted only a few brief moments.  My camera has been acting up and I have to shut it off and turn it back on between every shot.  Consequently I haven't been taking as many pictures.

Yesterday I took my first trip into Silver City.  I didn't see much of the city at all, really just the outskirts, since my mission was to wash the mounds of dirty clothes and towels we'd accumulated.  I'm just now realizing that we hadn't washed clothes since we were at the hotel in El Paso and that was the middle of December.  Gulp.  This trip has been a compromise between hauling along as few clothes as possible, and not having immediate and easy access to laundry facilities.  There are no laundry facilities here at all.  Before we left home, I'd imagined that I might wash some clothes by hand and air dry them but when it comes right down to it, I'd rather wear my pants another day than heat up a pot of water and wash them by hand outside in the chilly air.

Driving back from Silver City, toward Deming

The drive to and from Silver City was stunning.  The landscape was variable with lots of interesting rock formations.  The play of the sun and clouds across the rock faces and the valley floor moved me deeply.  I can't find the words to describe the reaction that these wide open landscapes and the variability and movement of light have on me.  I feel wide awake and open to the world.  At the same time, I'm hypnotized and entranced, like a cat chasing the light from a laser pen across the floor.

Our tent, with a brief rainbow, today

My frustration at living in such a small space waxes and wanes.  Today, it's high.  It's difficult maneuvering around and in and out of our tiny space, especially when one of us is working full time with lots of conference calls, one of us barks whenever there's a noise outside, and one of us wants to engage in normal daily activities like making lunch.  And the weather is just too chilly for any of us to be outside in for very long.  We have the canvas tent and we need to make better use of it.  But it's not currently set up as office space--it needs a heat source and a better chair for working.  That could be remedied with a trip to Walmart.  Sometimes it takes awhile to recognize that a particular thing is the source of frustration and then to realize that something can actually done to address the problem.  I amaze myself by how long I will put up with something before I have a brain storm and realize that I can do something about it.

Even as there are frustrations from living like this, I've been thinking that I want to stay on the road longer.  The cold weather really limits where we can travel and there are lots of places I'd like to visit that are just not possible at this time of the year.  The call of our sticks and bricks home is not as strong as I expected, though I'm drawn by the desire to watch the plants germinating in the beds we created in our front yard last year.

This hawk roosts in the trees by our campsite every night.  Before bed, it hunts the rabbits that come out for a last snack on the adjacent lawn. 

Today I started looking at bigger rvs.  It's a can of worms I'm reluctant to open because there are so many options available.  If we do stay on the road past our previously projected date (the end of March),  it's a puzzle to figure out how we'd swap out our current get-up for a new one.  What will we do with our current car and trailer if we find something new?  And how would we handle registration while traveling?  Other problems would have to be solved, too, if we stay out longer: the biggest one would be scheduling appointments with doctors.  I have a slew of specialists that I see in Maine, as well as my primary care doctor, and I'm scheduled to see all of them all in the spring.  I'd have to make arrangements for another set of doctors out West if we stay beyond March.  That likely is do-able (I could go back to the doctors I had in New Mexico before we moved to Maine two years ago), but would take some work.  It takes some explaining for people such as doctors and medical insurers to understand non-standard lifestyles.

Sunset over Faywood Hot Springs this evening