» traveling

Picking up the trailer, Cajun style

Published on March 24, 2010 by Katya in the category RV life | 1 Comment

So we spent the entire day picking up the trailer and had a pretty great time on the way. We hired a guy off Craigslist who had a 3/4 ton truck and experience, pretty much all we needed. His name was Joey and he picked us up around 10am with his brother and wife; all friendly, no room for awkwardness allowed. Almost as soon as we left, getting on the freeway a woman was blocking a lane of traffic with a flat tire, Joey insisted they stop and change her tire while his brother directed traffic, finishing in about 7 minutes. They made $20 doing it but it was clear they were generally pretty decent people. The drive was supposed to be 60 miles but we took the scenic route, cutting across from the freeway to the highway Dehnam Springs was on, winding past country homes, and taking enough turns to feel we were going in circles. We didn’t worry much though, Joey had been driving these roads since he was 12 when his dad threw him in a semi, strapped wood blocks to the pedals and told him to drive 150 miles to Lafayette to drop off a load. Stories like that and others were the theme of the ride to the trailer, between harassing his wife for driving so badly (she was texting while driving and took pain pills before they left), and picking on his brother for taking her side.

(skip this paragraph for more trailer trip adventure or read on for a Joey Story) One of the especially hilarious stories, Joey and his former wife were traveling with his uncles carnival with a truck camper combo. While driving down the freeway on the way to a new town late at night, a Camaro hit him them from behind, tipping them onto two wheels, nearly causing them to roll. Doesn’t sound very funny? Wait theres more! The corner of the trailer they hit was the corner where the bathroom is and subsequently the black water tank full of poop, pee and toilet chemicals – all which was now covering the driver and passengers of the Camaro through their smashed out windshield and crushed hood. It gets better (or worse). The Camaro didn’t stop, it sped up with every intention in the world of getting the hell out of there (though I cant imagine how they stomached that decision covered in shit). When Joey and his wife gained control of the truck (his wife driving, him pulling on the steering to untip it), they sped up after the Camaro for a swirvy 80 mile per hour chase till the Camaro finally pulled over on a country road (maybe not the best idea after you’ve hit and run a Cajun in the middle of nowhere). Joey of course responded as any Cajun would, he walked over to the car with a gun, broke the driver window with the butt of the gun and held the gun to the drivers head. “You almost killed us you mother F$%&er and you were just going to drive away!” he yelled at him, then noticing everyone covered in shit and a small glass tray covered in white powder. “How much money you got to fix my trailer?!”, the guy had about $100, his passengers another $75 – probably not enough, not to mention the trauma of almost dying. Just as he was about to explode he noticed a rather bursting bag of white powder in the console. “I’ll take that too”. Remembering that he has a gun, is this a robbery or a reasonable transaction? Imagine someone almost killed you then drive away, and you happened to have a gun under your seat… hmm, yeah will depend on more than that. Anyway, they try to refuse (presumably because its not their drugs, but know they don’t have much choice in the matter) “if we give you this you could tell the cops”. Joey laughs “why the hell would I tell the cops about your damn drugs if I haven’t called the cops on your almost killing me” – they hand it over. As the transaction was ending and the gun was being put away, police lights were seen in the distance. Joey hurried to hide the bag of drugs under a rock while the guys in the Camero grew increasingly nervous and still covered in shit. As the cops drew closer, the driver of the Camaro said to Joey as if they were old friends “I really hope they dont search me, I got a trunk of this stuff”. The cop had received a report of a hit and run from someone else on the highway. He understood already who was the victim and who was the culprit but Joey got a sufficient payment for his losses and decided to help the Camaro driver out. “No sir there was no hit and run, we just followed them till they found a place to pull off the highway”. The cop kept insisting what he was told warranted a hit and run and that he would have to search the Camaro. “Look officer” holding out a wad of cash, “they already paid me for the damages and we were just about to settle up and go our ways”. Eventually this worked and everyone went home happy, although covered in poop, without a toilet or not having made a huge bust. The world went on with carnivals, drug dealers and country cops as it always will. Joey and his wife returned later, picked up the drugs and sold them to employees of the carnival who snorted it right before your kid got on their rides.

After this story and many others we arrived at the dealership (of manufactured homes), happily and speedily finished up the paperwork and had no issues hooking up the trailer. Those came later when just out of town we got a flat. The dealership, because they build manufactured homes, had about a million nails and staples in their lot and one of them was in the front left tire. We had noticed, annoyed there was no spare and Joey pissed he hadn’t brought one, we assumed it would either hold out or we’d stop and get some ‘Fix-a-flat’; unfortunately it did not and we were forced to drive on the shoulder of the highway for while, though luckily being within a mile of a middle of nowhere tire shop.

Doug runs to help a driver

a couple or rural LA kids at their dads tire shop

Everything couldn’t go perfect so I wasn’t too annoyed, more annoyed that we were using up these peoples time. Joey’s wife Tabitha was having trouble finding a ride for her daughter from school and Doug got several calls from a girl wondering where he was. During the drive I snuck in some audio recordings, video and photos(will post if I can). Partly because they were really interesting people but also because we’re so cut off from other people most the time, I’d probably record and spy on anyone we met at this point. Joey cant read, and aside from being a really nice guy who walked us through every single thing we might need to know about trailers and towing them AND telling us some of the best stories I’ve heard in a while, he is really racist though aware that he might offend others at least. Doug reminded me of my brother, the good parts of my brother; big, funny and tattooed. He seemed fairly smart, interested in technology and much less racist. Tabitha and I had some moments of “freakin men” to share along the road while she suffered through Joey’s criticism of her driving.

As a family they make pretty good money hauling junk cars, cutting down dead trees and picking up trailers for people like me and Ross and were completely genuine people. Growing up in Montana and Idaho, around hunting, racism, trapping and strong chauvinism they actually reminded me of where I’m from… so to speak. I am/do none of those things but I guess I’ve learned some level of tolerance of peoples faults. In short, I’d hang out with these people again, just like I’d hang out with my racist, hunting, trapping, chauvinistic step father again, not because hes my step father, because aside from people’s faults, they can still be pretty awesome people. The racist thing does suck allot though… it’s really ingrained down here too. The whole city of New Orleans is crime ridden, and no sociology statistics needed, the majority of the crime, and a big reason why there is so much racism against black people down here – is because most crime happens in poor black communities or involving black youth etc., especially after Katrina. That doesn’t forgive it obviously but its a peer and family driven belief that makes things like racism last so long over generations. Generalization builds fear and so on.. anyway. Doug got our number and claimed he’d call us for a house warming party which would be awesome. They spoke of banana, mango and strawberry moonshine – clubs on the bayou that rock the swamp at night and don’t do drugs anymore so it seems they’d probably make for a pretty interesting party. It’s really hard to express how animated and alive these people were – ill try if I can get any video off my phone ever.

We got homes (haha cause we have 2 for now!) at about 5:30pm, having not eaten anything all day, drinking one Gatorade and half a soda we were fairly exhausted. Joey made backing the trailer in look easy and they were parked and out of here in under 10 minutes. Too late to work, hungry and tired, we started to unpack the RV and didn’t eat till 9 (haha we’re dumb), we ordered a pizza, hooked up the TV and … I sat here for hours writing this blog while listening to cartoons.

Night!

Fredericksburg Texas for Christmas

Published on December 21, 2009 by Katya in the category RV life, RV Parks, travel | Leave a comment

This is our second week in Fredericksburg. We ended up here sort of by accident – while on the way to Spring Branch Texas we were looking for somewhere to eat. I looked up the next town’s selection of food on my Urban Spoon app on my iPhone and found a strange collection of German restaurants and pubs. Curious, I looked up more info on the town in Wikipedia and found it was a historically German town and one very hooked on its heritage. When we drove through downtown we were greeted by actual signs of life. Every town in Texas before Fredericksburg lacked a certain something – somethings like edible food, movie theaters, people outside of their cars and a at least some modernity – something as nerds we haven’t let go of yet.

We got into town relatively early considering our usual arrival time in of 3am – rolling into a super cheap RV park at 8pm was some kind of miracle. We wanted a place near the center of town to get a chance to do something, anything, during the week. It would be the first time we were near anything at all really. A part of me just wanted to be able to walk to a store or ride my bike to a bar after spending the last couple months in the boondocks. Of the 2 closest to the center of town, Hill County RV Park was the cheapest at only $20 a night or $100 a week. It was almost as cheap as some of the non-hookup sites at state parks and featured free wifi, cable TV and the usual hookups. They even had a gray/black water hookup unlike all the parks so far. For everyone who doesn’t know what gray water is (and I barely know), its the water from your sink and shower, basically anything but your toilet. Black Water is toilet water + the rest – anything you should be embarrassed about. We still don’t use our toilet and don’t plan on it. There is a bathroom with a shower about 40 feet from the RV and as usual we are some of the only people using it so it’s not bad.

Since this is technically the first RV park we have stayed at (everything else having been state parks or parking lots) we were skeptical about sharing space so closely with so many people. Turns out people tend to leave you alone, especially if you leave them alone or look different. They have a rec room we haven’t used for anything yet. It has a TV, books and 2 computers with internet. They are planning a Christmas potluck – probably consisting of a few of the many full time residents at the park. There’s are 64 spots here and less than half of them every seem to get new people in them. Most of the people seem older, many working locally and all of them spending most of their time inside.

Fredericksburg has so far proven interesting enough to keep us here 2 weeks. After we were here a couple days we took a bike ride into town to find a place to get a drink. The highway is the only way into town from where we are and it’s definitely not meant for bikes. It was already dark, naturally (since it gets dark at 5:30) and we hadn’t made the attempt in daylight to get a feel for it. People travel down the highway at about 50 to 70mph, most any intention of giving us any space. I can ride my bike in the dirt if I have to but Ross’s bike has small road tires that pop if you look at them wrong. We had to share a headlight and tail light, me in the back with the flashing red – and probably the only thing that kept us form being smothered. The ride into town is about 2 miles up a slight hill, which wouldn’t have been a problem if I had ridden a bike more than once in the last 3 years. About half way there we found a place called Mamacitas and stopped for something to eat. I thought it was locally owned but we were immediately greeted by a Starbucks inside (the first in Texas) and a possible sighting of a Bush family member (this is a leaping guess, but he looked like Bush). After some soggy spinach on tortillas and cheese we headed off to find another place to grab a drink – someplace Texan this time.

We rode downtown with the expectations that a weeknight would not keep Texans out of the bars but found only a completely dead downtown. All the bars and restaurants on main street were closed and it was only 8pm. We quickly scoured the annals of our iPhones in search of nearby late night beverage sales and came up with Buck O’Brians – an “Irish bar” who was close and open. We walked in to a bar full of cowboys and hunters listening to country music I haven’t heard since I was 12 in Montana and my mom worked in bar. The ride home was cold but at least downhill and we didn’t go out again til this weekend.

Xmas obsessed Fredericksburg:

Santa-Garlic in Fredricksburg Texas

santa on crutches

Spunky Monkey and the Xmas dog

We will be here until Christmas and 2 days after. We don’t expect to do much on, around or after Christmas but I guess that all depends on our willingness to face the highway, pack up and drive somewhere or socialize. I’m sure something will drag us out before then.

To New Mexico and Beyond

Published on November 4, 2009 by Katya in the category RV life, travel | 2 Comments

Driving to New Mexico with 3 cats, a dog and 3 people in a 19 foot RV is about as fun as it sounds. Well, it wasn’t that bad, especially since my mom spent every night with the cats in a hotel. Surprisingly I was able to find hotels for her that take pets and cost under $40 the entire trip, Motel 6 being the most common one she stayed at. Often we were even able to use the shower in her room – less often the internet but that was usually our own fault for not asking for the password.

A couple nights we stayed down the street from the motel, once at a Walmart, other times truck parking outside Casinos or we were able to stay in the parking lot of the motel – Motel 6 being the coolest with using showers, bathrooms, internet and their parking lot.

The first part of the trip went smoothly. We didn’t run into any mechanical problems and covered allot of ground the first couple days. After the first night in Goldendale Oregon, an uneventful place where we spent hours at a kinkos just slumming the parking lot and printing services, we headed on to our shortcut to New Mexico, a mix of small curvy highways across Nevada. The first highway between the I5 and Reno is a horrible, dark little highway over a tree filled, icy mountain range. We had allot of trouble staying awake for that stretch and ended up staying in Susanville, CA rather than pushing on to Reno, our goal. Susanville was a horrible little town 80 miles from anywhere and next to a state and federal prison. Susanville didn’t have a Motel 6 but we managed to find a Motel 9 that was open ( not any sort of chain, nor an upside down 6). When we went into the office to get a room, for only my mom, the concept of my asking how much a room is for one adult – while being in a group of 3 was too confusing for the rude bastard behind the counter. About the time his blank face got its blankest, I explained we had an RV. His response “what do you mean you have an RV – I have an RV too – I dont think this is going to work” – having the assumption that we planned to use the shower and bathroom in the room, while sleeping in the RV in the parking lot of his hotel. I promptly told him “no, we plan to go park at a Walmart or something. You could have just asked rather than assume we plan to scam you.” (being the blunt person I am). He soon got much less assholish and told us a decent place to park since Susanville has no Walmart. The hotel was a total piece of crap and just to make sure we didnt scam him, he put my mom in a room directly across from the office and was standing outside in the morning watching us load her things into the RV – making sure we didn’t take long enough to shower or flush a toilet. We were glad to leave.

The next night we made it past Reno and on to central Nevada – somehow convinced we would make it to Vegas. We would have, even if it would have been 2 am by then – had the alternator not died on us 20 miles out of the closest populated town, Tonopah. We were in a town when we noticed the but a town without a gas station open after dark was no place to be stuck the next day. We limped back to Tonopah after our trusty iPhones told us they had a Napa Auto parts and a Motel 6. The next morning we went straight to Napa who told us they would have to order a part that would be in the next morning at 9, then gladly referred us to a mechanic just across the street. Since we were running only on battery, driving the Brougham all over town was risking a worse fate, needing a tow (really we would have just had to charge the battery with our generator or drive with a house battery but I like to dramatize). Next day we were there and ready – completely unaware of whether the mechanic could see us right away or we would be waiting all afternoon. Luckily he was ready for us right away, even putting off picking up a stranded hunter (we liked that) to install our shiny new alternator and fan belt. We left full of hope, heading to a casino/restaurant next door and returning just before he was due to go to lunch. “Ive got bad news for you” was the first thing we heard walking up. The new alternator had fallen apart after running for about 30 seconds – just literally cracked open. The mechanic blamed the defect on it having been rebuilt in China. Lucky for us this wasn’t your average shop or average mechanic (like the ones we often get) and while we were gone he had already scouted out a used alternator to install. This was great, even if the arrangement for the used one meant the owner of the used one got our reordered one (to come the next day), we still didn’t have to wait another day in Tonopah and that was great. We got out of town about 1pm, having to stop only once in Pahrump to get a voltage regulator (to stop the new alternator from frying our stereo) then on to Kingman by midnight.

Arizona was a great state to pass through and we did it in only a day. The highways were smooth and pale pinkish black (if that wasnt a color it is now), and we had no mechanical troubles till we met the bumpy rugged roads and insane freeway drivers of New Mexico. About the time we passed Gallup by about 20 miles (our lucky breakdown number), we stopped at a rest stop to find radiator fluid under the cab. We lifted the hood and concluded it was a fat short hose going from the radiator to the engine, filled it up a little and headed back to Gallup for the night. Gallup also being a town with a Napa and Motel 6, our new favorite types of towns. We were able to stay in the parking lot of the Motel, use their showers and make a pizza before bed. The next day we messily replaced the hose in a Denny’s parking lot. We later noticed it was not that hose,… but the one next to it. We bought more hose, and sealed the pinsize leak with electrical and duct tape till we had time to change it (which worked great for a day by the way).

The next day – late at night. We made it to Santa Cruz, NM. The drive after Albuquerque to Santa Cruz was a rough stretch of angry drivers and rough roads destroying the frame of our RV. It was much colder than we expected, getting down to 35 at night, and my mom’s place was without heat when we arrived because of something wrong with the heater. We loaded her up with blankets, helped out a bit, hung out a bit and went to bed. The next day we worked most the day and quickly realized, especially after I was reprimanded by AT&T for “off network data usage”, that we would not be able to work from her place. We had planned to stay a week but with the work issue and the weather planning to drop to 24 degrees at night that Wednesday, we left for Arizona.

By the time we got to Tucson we were so completely drained and behind on work, well, it took us till now to blog about it. Our normal traveling time was intended to not be a rush but getting my mom to New Mexico was a bit of a rush job for many reasons. We’re vaguely keeping track of mileage and gas costs and rushing across the country as fast as possible is not the cheapest way to travel we are discovering quickly. I also didn’t get to stop as much as I usually would to take photos so many are from Tonopah during the 2 days we were stuck there – so here’s a few at least. Many more to come as the wandering becomes more paced out and we can hang out, work and enjoy our trip!