Blabbin' in Blythe

Something must be wrong with me...I haven't picked up my camera in almost a week. I actually don't even know where it is right now! I just don't see the point of taking pictures of the same thing day in and day out...but hopefully that will change soon. Each day we get closer to January, which means (for us) Quartzsite. I know there are some people (who have been there before) that won't be there this year, but we have never been and it's been a major to-do since even before we started our journey...so we will be going this year and are pretty stoked about it. So, right now it's a little bit of a waiting game but it's giving time for J' to grind it on the work-front and for me to find all the stones in the world to wrap as jewelry! I'm going to have to go through them soon and maybe weed out some of them...and maybe not, hee hee! I am having a hard time finding a place to put them...we'll see. I also haven't really been doing much lately due to my shoulder dislocating a couple of nights ago. The first time my shoulder went out was probably around 2002, I was making a salad at work...go figure! I went to a doctor and he told me surgery wasn't really a possibility due to the flexibility of my muscles and bones because of swimming. He said my shoulder would just stretch right back out to where it is now in time, so he gave me exercises to do and saved me a ton of money! It goes out a few times a year now and when it does, it's so amazingly painful...it takes my breath away. I'm very thankful to have J' around (most of the times it happens) to be able to put it back in place. This time I was pulling the blinds down on one of the windows...POP! I was stuck in between the bed and the ceiling and couldn't move to a better position, it actually paralyzes me...hurts to move, to breathe, to think. After it gets popped back in, the crying and the pain starts...it's just so freakin' painful. For about 2-3 days I can't really do much with it: can't raise it, lift anything over a lb. with it, sleep on it, and walking Savannah has to be done all left handed so she doesn't yank it out of the socket again. It stays sore and spasms for a few days, it's just a real big pain in the butt. I've been having a hard time sleeping due to my shoulder (and the cold) and the other night I swore I was going crazy! I was in between barely asleep and barely awake, actually having nightmares when I heard this noise and started seeing what I thought were lights. At this point I didn't know if I was in my dream or if something was actually going on around us, so I laid there trying to wake myself up. I thought I was hearing cars racing...? What a weird noise right? I mean we're in the middle of the desert it's about 12:30 in the morning, pitch black, freezing cold outside...who would be out here racing cars at this time of the night!? Just as I was trying to make sense of things I see headlights coming straight toward my window and hear a car motor, could have been a Mustang? Then I see this car whizzing by my window...what the crap!? I raise my blinds and see taillights of not just one car but two more ahead of the one that just whizzed by my window. I looked at my watch, in my mind it was like 3 a.m., it was only 12:38 in real time. Savannah was very interested in the whole thing, she was puffing her cheeks, getting ready for a fight. I cracked my window with the screen on it because I heard voices. I have to say, it's kind of unnerving to be where we are and have cars this close to you and able to hear voices...almost like they are walking toward the van. I haven't been this 'weird' feeling this whole time we've been doing this, but I was actually scared at this point. I couldn't see them due to us having our shades in the front windows (keeping cold out, warmth in) and also being in bed...still trying to wake up 100%. They sounded like they were only about 50 yards in front of the van, they were blaring music, hootin' and hollerin'. I just couldn't wrap my mind around why people would come out here at this time of night and hang out, outside...it's like 30 degrees outside! After J' heard me moving around and Savannah huffing and puffing, we started talking about it and he said it was probably just some high school kids drinking with nothing better to do. This was probably true, I just didn't want them to start messing with us because they were bored. I stayed up and tried to watch out of the window...couldn't see anything but pitch black. I finally heard them turn the music off and doors shutting, then heard what sounded like a Jeep climbing a hill pretty close to us. I opened my blinds back up and there were lights coming up over the hill on the side of us, then the lights were coming straight for the van at a pretty good speed. There's no way these people didn't see us. The "Jeep" turned and drove behind us then came up from behind at probably about 30 mph then swerved around the van, got back on the road and finally left. Jerks. It took me about 2 hours to finally fall back asleep, Savannah just wanted to keep looking out the window as she laid her head on the sill. I have to say that as small as she is, she's a great protector with super good hearing!

Other than that it's been pretty darn quiet around here. I think all in all we've only had 6 buggies pass by the van during the day, the entire time we've been here (2 weeks). We haven't even send a ground squirrel in over a week, nor any Coyotes. The cold doesn't just keep us in the van, it also gets the critters! Where do all of the Coyotes go, we wonder? I mean, they still have to eat, they can't just go to Burger King! Now, that's a funny image...haha

I was just looking to see what my last 'photo session' was of. I had actually hung my camera up outside to take pics of my "skinny" jeans (well they used to be) to send to a friend of mine. A few days ago, I was talking to a girl of mine about weight loss and I had actually come across a picture of me a couple of years ago with these jeans on, they were skin tight on me...looked like they were painted on me they were so tight. That same day (we had this conversation) I noticed I was wearing those same jeans. I now call those jeans my L.I.M.P. jeans = Load in my Pants! I swear they are so big on me now I can take them on and off without unbuttoning or unzipping them! So I did a side to side picture to show her...

[caption id="attachment_2996" align="aligncenter" width="232"] Whoa vs. Whoa[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2997" align="aligncenter" width="225"] L.I.M.P.![/caption]

If you're looking for a new "diet" just join us Vandwellers! It's a little different when you don't have fast food on every corner calling to you because it's easier, an oven to bake your favorite pies and cookies in, or a refrigerator to store all your yummy leftovers in, that mostly never get eaten! If you want to lose those extra few pounds that just won't come off,  just live in your van for a few months...works every time! haha

PEACE

&

Chicken Grease ya'll!

Things that go BAM in the night

So...we're laying in bed last night. I had been tossing and turning and staring at the stars through the window. J' was in sleepy land.

BAM!

It shook us both up and alert. It felt like we were just rammed by, a, well... Ram! We both looked out the windows, watching for movement. We put on the headlights...nothing. We laid back down after a while and going through different scenarios. We figured maybe we fell off of the rocks we were leveled on...went back to sleep.

A sleeplessness night later...

We got out of the van to investigate what had happened last night, as we came around the driver side we saw something that didn't look so right. The frame looked like it was sitting right on top of the tire.

[caption id="attachment_1599" align="aligncenter" width="300"] What's wrong Joon?[/caption]

Running through what might have been the problem, nothing looked broken, ripped, cracked, popped... nothing. J' opened the hood to make sure nothing popped up and through something in the engine compartment. Everything looked fine.

After some research and talking to some peeps on a forum about it, J' found out it was most likely the torsion bar. For those of you that don't know what a torsion bar is or what it does, here's a quick lesson:

The torsion bar is a suspension component.

It twists ever so slightly to adjust ride height. 

[caption id="attachment_1600" align="aligncenter" width="300"] That's not right![/caption]

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to break it free. It's just too wide one way and too long another way (yeah, yeah...that's what she said).

We needed a contortion bar! haha ka-dink-shh...Get it?

Anyway, we're not too worried about it. We are close to town so that's a plus, for walking or short trips if we decided to go that way. It's nothing we can't handle, we're in a good place. I'll let you know how it goes and how it goes down!

Catch ya' on the flip side, yo'!

Snuggle Bums, Saws & Snow

Wow, what a day we had yesterday, huh!? While we were sleeping we got the storm we had waited for all day and J' wasn't even awake to enjoy it...boooo. I woke up by the van violently shaking back and forth, the wind was blowing super strong and the rain was slapping against every surface pretty loudly, it was crazy! I was up for about three hours after that, due to not being able to fall back asleep. I told J' this morning I was afraid to look out the window for I thought there might be 6 tornadoes sitting there waiting for us, haha. We were lucky enough to wake up to sunshine though...that makes the solar happy!

[caption id="attachment_1414" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Tired baby[/caption]

We stayed in bed and snuggled a bit longer than usual, due to how chilly it was. We turned the tube on and watched bits and pieces of different morning shows, hearing about the crazy storm last night. There was major flooding all over the city, up to peoples' car doors, into their houses...what a storm! When we finally got out of bed, it was a rush to get dressed. It's going to be a chilly day today! I think we were maybe up, dressed and an hour or so into the day and we already had the heater out and turned on with the doors closed...brrzies & freezies!

[caption id="attachment_1415" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Toastin' our tootsies[/caption]

Even though it was cold today, it was nice. A different kind of day...again. I tell you this desert thing is something else! I took Savannah on a very small walk, really only down to the main road and back which isn't more than 25 yards or so, but she's off-leash so she can roam a bit and get her exercise. I still can't walk on my foot 100%, I can tippy toe and walk a little on the side of my foot, but then I start to get a large charlie horse in my calf so I have to stop and stretch it out. What a pain in the ass!

[caption id="attachment_1416" align="aligncenter" width="300"] This is what I stepped on[/caption]

I love the different views we get here.

 As I was coming back, J' came out of the van and wanted to go on a short walk. I told him I'd come but didn't know how long I could make it, so we walked. J' and Savannah were a little ahead of me so I started walking where I could see more flat stone than the small hills and big rock I was on. I then came upon what could have been three things: 1- A grave for a person or animal 2- X marks the spot for treasure or 3- A sun or decoration of some sort. We did no further investigating but it makes you wonder...

[caption id="attachment_1418" align="aligncenter" width="225"] What is it?[/caption]

I called J' over and we sat and made up stories of what it could be, that was funny. Oh and as we were walking back to the van we saw one of the biggest holes we've ever seen in the ground, as of yet...I hope they don't get any bigger. I wonder what lives in there?

[caption id="attachment_1419" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Who goes there?[/caption]

When we got back to the van J' decided to make things a little easier on us and split one of the boards from one big board to two smaller boards, to be able to access things a little easier. Since our bed rolls up to the back of the van, it sits on a majority of this board, so when we need something out of that cupboard we have to move the bed to one side which usually unrolls it a bit, making it a pest to get back in its spot. We then either have to get out of the van, open up the back doors and get what we need out of this cupboard (which isn't practical sometimes) or rummage through it inside of the van with the bed unrolling onto you the whole time making a huge mess. So Mister Smarty Pants put on his thinking cap and sawed it in half...ta da. No more stinkin' thinkin' here folks!

[caption id="attachment_1420" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Put the line on the cabinet...♪ ♫[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1421" align="aligncenter" width="300"] You know I slapped that ass![/caption]

There was nothing I could really help him with (and I just saw a post from our new friends, Jim & Colette, that there was snow on the top of Mt. Charleston, which is right in front of us. Since there was cloud coverage all day, I hadn't noticed it) so I went outside to have a look. Yep, there it was, snow all over the damn thing!

[caption id="attachment_1422" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Mt. Charleston[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1423" align="aligncenter" width="300"] So many different hues[/caption]

 The day started sinking to night pretty fast and getting exceptionally cold, so Nana and I hopped back in the van to see how Daddy was doing. He was working hard for his honey..bum bum, bum bum (you have to sing that part, I'm not a bum!)

[caption id="attachment_1424" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Workin' hard[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1425" align="aligncenter" width="300"] She's shivering here[/caption]

J' had sawed that piece of wood into two, just like he had set out to do with a lot of elbow grease and maybe a God'damnit or two! haha Now thanks to him we have much easier access to things and won't have to play musical chairs to open it up for a second! Woo hoo, thanks babaa'!!

And I made sure that the baby was warm and snuggled as much as possible...poor baby! What would she do without me...well she probably wouldn't be this warm, that's for sure!

[caption id="attachment_1426" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Looking at daddy to save her[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1427" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Where'd Savannah go?[/caption]

Another desert day in the books my friends. I'm still very much contemplating choppin' the afro. It's only been like,what two days, since I washed my hair and it feels more like 9. That is ultimately disgusting to me and I just don't know if I can take one more day of feeling like this. I'm going to sleep on it and decide in the morning. I just don't think long(er) hair is for this lifestyle unless you have unlimited amounts of water, lots of free water or you just don't wash your hair to begin with. For me, I loved my long hair but cut it about 7-8 inches shorter to start this adventure, now I just don't think with our amount of water and now having to pay for it that I can deal with it anymore. If we lived in a house, I never would have cut it to begin with...but we don't, we live in a van.....it's starting to sound like a superb idea, isn't it!?

Have a warm and peaceful night.

PEACE

 

Birds, Baskets & Bedtimes

Okay so I know the dates are a little screwy but that's what I (& you) get when I don't keep up with myself! So the last post was about the 2nd when we went and did all of our schtuff in town and so today's post will be about the 3rd when we got to go through everything. Hooray, fun times! First things first, the fruit. Remember I was telling you we got a whole big box full of fruit, plus some free goodies...I wasn't joking.

[caption id="attachment_399" align="aligncenter" width="300"] ♫ Fruit, Fruit it's good for the Heart!! ♫[/caption]

We accomplished to walk out with, let me see if I can get the numbers straight... 6 potatoes, 6 yellow onions, 4 big mama tomatoes, 5 avocadoes, 7-8 nectarines, 4 peaches, and a bushel of bananas for $16.34 and then the "mom" (the lady that owns the stand) gave us 4 dandy dapple plums and a couple of peach doughnuts for free. Man do I love that fruit stand!! Even J' was impressed and excited...this NEVER happens over fruit and veggies for this man! After digging through the fruit and enjoying a peach doughnut I looked over to find J' pulling our new basket out of the box.

[caption id="attachment_401" align="aligncenter" width="300"] It's a peach that looks like a doughnut! How cute![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_400" align="aligncenter" width="300"] He's a basket case[/caption]

We got a basket to put on the roof of Joon Van behind the solar panels so all of our crap wasn't always floating around the van. You know what this means? Yep, more room but also more holes in Joon Van...scary stuff! I helped a little bit, it wasn't that big of a project but I helped by holding it up and in certain places and then ratcheting some things. Sounds like I know what I was doing, huh! Everything fit right into place and now we have a basket to put stuff in...now, we just can't get any more stuff! haha

[caption id="attachment_402" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Lookin' good[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_403" align="aligncenter" width="300"] It can be done[/caption]

It was pretty hot all day until we were done with the basket, then it became really overcast all of a sudden. It stayed overcast for the remainder of the day with a few light sprinkles here and there, nothing to write home (wherever that is) about. The birds came out too....the BIG birds. Usually we'll see Crows flying overhead or by us on a daily but today these Hawks were circling us, stalking us and I'm pretty sure they were sizing Savannah up.

[caption id="attachment_405" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Sizin' Nana Bug up[/caption]

She's just a bit too big for them, but after walking around the van and looking up into the trees and seeing 5 of them just sitting and watching, I brought Savannah into the van for a while...I don't need a heart attack happening right now!

[caption id="attachment_404" align="aligncenter" width="225"] This was taken from the side of the van. Do you see all the birds? There's at least three in this shot, 2 on the left in the back and one on the right. There were two more not in this pic![/caption]

The next couple of days were pretty much blah for me. I went off of all of my medications and started using supplements and vitamins in their place and changed my diet so you could imagine the fun I was having..woo hoo (very sarcastically). I've learned how to "whip" up (in 45 minutes of course) some brown rice and make some pretty good mixtures in the last week. J' said to me the other day, "I think this is the most I've ever seen you cook." haha I said, "Me too!" My mother would be proud I'm sure!

[caption id="attachment_406" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Brown rice, french green beans, mushrooms and chicken with some gravy[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_408" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Brown rice seasoned with soy sauce and sweet potatoes[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_409" align="aligncenter" width="300"] An ultimate fave; tomato & avocado on whole wheat whole grain bread. YUM![/caption]

Sleep has not really been happening for me at night, I mostly want to do that during the day but pass on it thinking if I do nap then I won't get any sleep at night, then I still get no sleep at night...it's a vicious cycle. Sometimes I can hear that sleep medication calling out my name, but I need to figure something else out for when I'm out of that, I'm out. I've tried Melatonin, it keeps me more awake then restful. I've tried Passion Flower Extract, Trace Minerals, tea, magnesium, all of that together, all of it at different times...I don't know.

[caption id="attachment_407" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Trying to figure out sleepy time[/caption]

It's a learning process and I'm learning what works for a lot of people doesn't work for me but there's gotta be something out there that can get this girl to sleep! Insomnia is a bitch and runs in my family but there's gotta be a natural cure, there's just gotta be...and I'm bound to find it! So yeah, I got my guitar out a few days ago thinking if I saw it on a daily I would pick it up, but that motivation thing has just not been there since "the change". I'm sure it will pick back up... so she sits waiting for me. It's just so hard to sit and be motivated to do something you don't know how to do and have to teach yourself when you don't know what you're doing! haha The few videos I downloaded before we left Georgia are getting old to me, but we can't really afford to be downloading a whole bunch of crappy videos to go against our data if I don't know if they are even going to help me. I know, I know, the things I have to worry about! I guess I would rather have this problem then the thousand I would have otherwise in 'that other life'. Keep wishing me well on this transition...and wish J' well too, sometimes I think he needs it more than I do...poor guy. We'll get through it, we've been through much much worse together. Keep us in your good juju as you are always in ours.

[caption id="attachment_410" align="aligncenter" width="300"] She lives the roughest life![/caption]

PEACE

Bellies, Beds & Bells

Waking up to hard wood in my back is not as sexy as I thought it would be!! We woke up about 2-3 times last night to pump up our 'trusty' air mattress...and still woke up laying flat on the boards the bed lays on. Not cool, man. We figured now is as good a time as any to head down to 'the city' (Fresno-Clovis area) to get a new bed and pick up some things we can't get here in the mountains...or we don't want to pay for here in the mountains! We drove down and hit up the R.E.I in the good part of Fresno....sorry for giving Fresno a bad name in the previous links, this area was not bad at all but I still would not go to Downtown Fresno. R.E.I. was fun to walk around, we looked at everything; shoes, socks, sweaters, jackets, pants, little camping items, etc. We bought ourselves a solar shower (made by Seattle Sports) for a great price of $20.00 and a little 'shampoo' holder (hopefully this one will hold up, I think this is #3...they all seem to explode & break in the high altitude and heat!) We stopped for lunch at Chipotle, yummy yummy in my tummy. We drove in a big circle, trying to go to what we thought was a mall but was just outdoor shops, that you would find in a mall. Our main objective was to find a new bed so after we found ourselves from being lost, we were in a Jo-ann's parking lot...perfect! We looked at the foam padding they had, measured it, laid down on it (yes on the ground) and made it super dirty and after talking it over decided to look around before making a final decision. The foam at Jo-ann's was 2 inches thick or 5 inches (I think) thick and only 24 inches across. When we laid down on it, we bottomed out; touching elbows and knees to the tile. Plus, it wasn't wide enough to fill the entire space we need it to fill and to get what we needed would have been about $80+ for something we didn't really love.

We looked at some bells for Savannah (to keep track of the lil bugger)...the jingle wasn't loud enough for me so we left. Our next stop was going to be Home Depot to look at the carpet padding, we thought if we could get three layers of carpet padding it may just work (but honestly that's too many layers for this girl to roll up every day). On our way to Home Depot I saw a sign for a Fabric/Rug store, I told J' and since it was cater-corner to Home Depot he parked and we walked across to Home Fabrics. They pointed us to their foam and to the foam we went! This place rocked, there was no guess work here. They had a price chart alongside the size chart, we just had to know our measurements...60 x70. We went straight to the letter, "N" 60 x 72...perfecto!! We put them down on the ground and yep, we tried them out again. Guess what!? We laid down on 2 inch foam padding and did NOT bottom out... I think we found our match baby! We paid $107.64 for two foam pads and put a new definition on Happy Camper, haha. I told J' if we could only 'finish' them with some material my momma would be so proud!

[caption id="attachment_750" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Mr. Foam pad tester man[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_751" align="aligncenter" width="300"] So many to choose from[/caption]

We scratched Home Depot and went to Wal-mart to buy our necessities; toothpaste, toilet paper, paper towels (a must in my world) and some other little odds n ends...thank you to my peeps who "Back my Blog" you helped with these necessities and you rock so thank you. J' also wanted Spaghetti and for once it didn't sound like a bad idea to me (for those of you who don't know me, I'm not a huge spaghetti fan). I have never seen sooo many people at Wal-mart in my life, I mean it was disgusting, icky, ugh, gross. As we were walking out we saw the dog tag kiosk so we got lil 'Nana a new tag with updated info on it, important if she's going to be running around like a mad woman! While we were in town we thought it would be super fab to get the van washed and the sheets washed and dried. Making many circles around town to find them, we stopped at other places we needed to...and yes, we do have a GPS but sometimes she gives us the silent treatment and we can't get a straight answer out of her. On our way to find a laundromat and/or car wash, we found a Petsmart, so we popped in to get 'Nana a bell, I knew they had them in the kitty aisle (3 bells for $5.99). This place was just as crazy as Wal-mart, they were having adoptions so there were kids screaming over the puppies and puppies barking for the screaming kids...Savannah was as scared as I've ever seen her. Still driving to find a wash we came across a JC Penny, we stopped in just to see what they had for jackets...yeah, that was funny! Looking for jackets in the middle of summer in California...yep, funny joke. This place, however, was a full-on mall, Fashion Fair Mall. We walked around, did a big loop and left. I felt a bit like a minority there, never felt like my safety was a risk though (and there is a TON of security here, like Military style security), but we had stuff to do anyway so we left.

After our chores (yes we finally found a laundromat and car wash), we headed to the Wal-mart we were going to stay at for the night, but before we stopped we grabbed a not so impressive bite at Wendy's, although the Frosty was super delish. Since we loaded the van this morning all crazy, everything was still piled in the middle (yes this happens a lot...we live in an Astro van people!) We still had to get the foam pads down into place to make a bed, so we found a vacant parking lot and started the transition. Our stuff was in the van, on the van, and in the parking lot but after about an hour everything fit in just fine...right back into their places. Now with the foam pads we are not smooshed up against the ceiling, it'll be so nice to not bang our heads, shoulders, knees...whatever on the ceiling as we are sleeping. With the air mattress we only had about 2 maybe 3 inches of move-around-room, now we have feet! After our clean-up we drove to our Wal-mart and got out the computer so we could watch The Bachelorette. We missed the last one and since it is the last day of the month, we don't feel bad for using our data for it...hee hee It was a good day although we had to spend a little bit of money, but we got a new bed, new bell for Nana and some yummy goodies for our bellies. I don't think you can complain about a day like that!

PEACE