So we’ve been on the road since October of 2009 and have been in New Orleans since March. We didnt intent to stay so long but upgrading our travel equipment (a 73 Dodge RV to a 2000 Truck and 2006 Trailer) has cut into our funding to keep moving. Luckily we’ll be leaving again soon but the oil spill has really put a damper on our options.
Today is the 4th of July and although I don’t usually watch local news anywhere, I’ve been keeping my eye on Hurricane Alex (because being in a travel trailer in a hurricane is a death sentence) and of course watching news on the oil from a very up close and personal point of view here in the South. Our plans originally intended us to see as much of the country as possible and have a nice hot summer. As far as the South goes, we haven’t stayed in Florida yet, still need to see an Alligator in the wild and have only been to the beaches of Gulf Port, Mississippi for a couple hours one weekend. When we went to Gulf Port the oil leak was only a couple weeks old and hadn’t reached any marshlands or beaches yet. We swam, along with 2 wind surfers nearby, and although it was warm and overcast, there were no other swimmers on the beach. We later wondered the reason, sharks? because it certainly wasn’t oil. Either way, now the beaches have potential swimmers and open beaches but tar balls and oil are all over the beach and getting on anyone brave enough to swim. Other places like Grand Isle, Louisiana, a place we had wanted to go months ago, are completely empty of tourists. Today being a day that the island depends on its usual 20k tourists to keep the economy alive.
The news cast about Grand Isles problem reminded me of the movie Jaws which we just watched last week. In Jaws, the Mayor insisted the beach stay open because he decided the small shark they caught the day before was the man eater the were searching for – Selfishly putting lives at risk to keep the economy going. For Grand Isle that’s not even an option. The Mayor cant lie to everyone and tell the public that there’s no oil on their beaches. Unlike a man eating goliath shark, oil is something that cant be stopped, hidden or avoided.
New Orleans is still happening, Essence Festival is in town with Janet Jackson and many other top r&b artists. Downtown is pretty busy with tourists going on their little mule rides through the French Quarter and booking their Haunted Tours for this evening. Even swamp tours are still going on since the swamps nearby are far from the gulf oil invasion, but the mood is somber among some locals. The other day we worked all day in a coffee shop, overhearing conversations between locals about the oil affecting someone they know. People being forced to look for work elsewhere, moving away from family and friends to cleaner water. Businesses suffering from the lack of tourism in areas and of course the dwindling of the South’s famous seafood industry. The moods were surprisingly matter of fact and hopeful besides all the complaints. After living through something like Katrina and spending years rebuilding, although the problem is much different and will have continual environmental effects, no one really knows what else to do but be hopeful.
My fashion related statement regarding this issue is that in my very strong opinion people should NOT be buying Anti BP t-shirts from the hundreds of companies doing their best to market on this disaster; but rather give that $30 you planned to spend on the shirt to the National Parks (DONATE NOW AT WWW.NATIONALPARKS.ORG OR TEXT “PARKS” TO 90999) or the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund, a New Orleans based organization.
Of course we all want to tell the world how much we hate BP’s irresponsibility and the whole disaster itself but think of other ways please. Handmade posters, take a marker to your own shirt for godssake.
But unless the company is giving all or most of its profits to the oil spill fund, they aren’t helping.
If a company gives 100% profit donations it is a true favor to the gulf. If they only give a small % of the profit just to keep from getting a guilt trip, they should just stick to making tees with gangster bears on them and stay out of the “profiting from disaster” market.
But unless the company is giving all or most of its profits to the oil spill fund, they aren’t helping.If a company gives 100% profit donations it is a true favor to the gulf. If they only give a small % of the profit just to keep from getting a guilt trip, they should just stick to making tees with gangster bears on them and stay out of the “profiting from disaster” market.But unless the company is giving all or most of its profits to the oil spill fund, they aren’t helping.
If a company gives 100% profit donations it is a true favor to the gulf. If they only give a small % of the profit just to keep from getting a guilt trip, they should just stick to making tees with gangster bears on them and stay out of the “profiting from disaster” market.
As you can tell I feel strongly about this and I will not write about or feature any company who markets on disasters.
Here are some designers donating 100% of the sales to the Gulf:
Susa has been doing really well on the leash. I had put the harness on her a couple times in the house before finally jumping into the leash on her first visit to the vet. She was really good besides destroying my shirt at the sight of people, cars and especially a weed whacker. She sat in the waiting room and watched the other animals go by, not even flinching when a huge hyper dog went by. We don’t have a cat carrier but who needs them anyway when you have a leash cat! I’ve always wanted a cat that would walk on a leash. Shes got the leash part down, and she doesn’t struggle with it or freak out at all.. but the walking has actually yet to be seen.
Chena is as always adorable and unconventional. I got her into the habit of climbing on tables and walking on concrete walls in Argentina during walks at the park. Though once she went to jump onto a wall, unleashed, that had a 12 foot drop onto concrete on the other side. Now I make sure to keep a close eye. I guess I got into the habit of wanting dogs comfortable with height having had a wolf hybrid as a kid that would climb trees and a boston terrier as a teen who would walk up and over cars while we walked and balance on my wood fence. Plus I’ve always wanted to be in the circus (my own of course) so strange animals is kind of my thing.
New Orleans jumped right into summer. It seems like only a couple of weeks ago that we were using a wool blanket and keeping Chena close at night. Now almost without warning it’s over 80 every day, often with 80% humidity or worse. Today is nice though, bearable and the air isn’t as thick as it has been. The billboards on the freeway reflect the weather clearly. They were up the first hot day as if the billboard hangers were just waiting around a corner. One with a picture of Louisiana and the word “hot” next to it and a bottle of Tabasco that says “hotter”; Billboards for beverages “give HEAT the COLD shoulder”, ac repair, roach infestation… We had our first taste of a that a couple days ago when a 2.5 inch roach was hanging out on the counter while I played with Susa on the floor. Susa nearly went feral trying to help us catch it. It got under our couch and ran like lightning across the floor – straight for our bedroom. I’ve never seen a bug run so fast, or anyhing really. If it made it into the bedroom the chances of finding it amung dirty clothes, shoes and a multitude or gaps worsened our chances of catching it. As soon as it entered the bedroom I was committed to sleeping on a bunk bed. I grabbed Susa with the intention of letting her do what she so badly wanted to do, murder the bastard, but the roach paused just inside the door long enough for Ross to get a sneak attack and squish the hell out of it. Roaches are probably my least favorite bug on the planet so I spent the next 2 days convinced every black spot on the wall or brush on my arm was a roach. After living in Argentina wth roaches twice as big, I knew that havig a cat would be my savior as it was there. Instead of coming home to dead birds or mice, on the 11th floor with a massive balcony, I would return from a night out with friends to dead or mostly dead giant Roaches and my cat Gata proudly sitting next to them. I hope that’s not the case in the trailer with Susa but at least we have a cat for when it is the case. It was my own fault for the roaches in Argentina really because I kept my cat box on the balcony and therefore had to leave the door open. It worked out for everyone anyway because I never once saw one alive (inside at least).
With all the time not moving so much, I’ve started making some more time for crafts. Trying not to spend every waking hour at the computer though I certainly have enough work, projects and photography to occupy me for years. I bought pewter trays for necklaces and tons of jewelry stuff, though still having trouble perfecting the drying process of the epoxy on the trays, I can use my own photos or drawings in each. I also made a hideous little felt monster of which I hope to improve on soon but I mostly don’t have time till the weekend.
Susa and Chena suffer much from the heat and my crafts. Susa is often in trouble when my craft things are out because she cant keep her paws off them and Chena is forced to lay on the floor while I use the couch. When the AC is not on they pretty much just rest and wait for it to come back on. Once in a while the AC throws a switch so we don’t push it too hard. Yesterday the power got shut off outside because of a short or excess power usage (no idea what caused that except the AC) and we had to flip a switch at the source. Hopefully the AC holds out for us, this weather is mostly too much to bear alone, especially when we’re trying to work all week.
Rent is due tomorrow and it’s looking like we’ll be paying for another month. We didn’t want to be stuck here this long but don’t have much choice without a truck. I’m not so sure the people want us here too badly anymore though. There are several long term people here but I get the feeling with the combo of us technically being “stuck” and the Brougham taking up extra space (and looking funky parked out front like a car - or even in the back covered with a tarp), they are starting to get annoyed. I’m paranoid though, especially when it comes to what other people expect of me – so maybe Ross should just talk to them.
We started the day with Apple pie, ice cream and coffee, then headed out. Since the new trailer we’ve rented a car once but mostly use the RV for our around town car. While empty it’s great. We don’t have to worry about our things crashing around and with all the weight gone it actually drives like a pretty decent van. This weekend we finally decided to commit to riding our bikes and went to the great and awesome New Orleans City Park, a park that spans about 60 square blocks with several lakes, rivers and bayous. throughout. We had gone there previously while looking for a dog park I saw from the freeway, a dog park that turned out to be a members only club with a yearly cost. We ended up just going to some great abandoned buildings nearby with a big open field for Chena to run unencumbered by other peoples lame dogs.
After taking Chena for a bike run, the most exercise she’s gotten in months, we went on our own, leaving Chena in the RV in the shade. Since pretty much everything east of central Texas is flat so far, it wasn’t a very challenging ride but it was nice. We rode along StJohn’s Bayou and saw baby ducks, fish jumping like skipping rocks and the worlds ugliest duck-geese-turkey things. Ross forgot his clip-in shoes but it didn’t stop him from some track stands.
I found a new use for my luggage carrier on my bike, poop carrier! Since the park had garbage bins every 3 miles, it was a fun and exciting challenge to see if I could make it to one before the bags hit my tire and exploded. I did, but just barely.
Sunday
Once again, we started the day with apple pie (no ice cream) and coffee.
Since we didn’t get to it Saturday, the plan was to clean and recaulk the roof. We spent a ton on all the supplies the day we got the RV and have been either busy or putting it off every weekend. After I cleaned the house and was midway through 5 loads of laundry, we climbed up on the roof and started scrubbing the areas we needed to recaulk with the gallon of rubber roof cleaning solution we bough. After a couple minutes it was clear to me that there was no way to really clean the areas without cleaning the area around them, and at that point it looked so good clean, I had to clean the whole roof (or try). Ross scrubbed the old sealant and I scrubbed at everything in between. Eventually having to rinse, rescrub and rinse again, making it over a 2 hours aerobic workout – trying to avoid actually getting on my knees and pushing sponges and scrubbing brooms non stop. I intended to start on the Brougham too but by the time I was 2/3 done with the trailer roof I knew my arms or legs would give out on me (and 14 feet up is not the best place for that). While I was scrubbing on the roof, Ross suffered my water heavy endeavor on the side of the trailer struggling with our loose and funky black/grey water outlet. Surrounded by cat shit filled grass (from the tons of strays around here) and at constant risk of touching old poo from the previous trailer owners who never cleaned their tank, he further suffered from my constant splashing and dripping from above.
Roof 1/4 clean.
Roof Half done and the Brougham
Roof 2/3 clean!
After I finished as much as I could muster, I was going to move on to installing a shelf in the pantry but decided since it was 5 and we hadn’t eaten all day I would start up the BBQ and make us some corn on the cob, grilled squash and tofurkey dogs. I hadn’t actually hooked up the grill, to the potentially explosive 20 gallon propane tank, nor had I BBQ’d since I was.. um.. well maybe never, but I learn from watching others so the cooking part I knew I had down. I managed to hook up and even light the BBQ without catching on fire and cooked for 40 mins while Ross finished up the caulking on the roof.
While we ate, in came the clouds and we watched a thunderstorm make its way our way, hoping to hell we could finish our food before we had to put the tarp on the RV. We did! A first even.. Now we sit here not moving much, suffering from the busy day, considering going to the hot tub in the thunderstorm.
I think its a plan.
(Katya) and 
(Ross)
