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I stumbled across this thread last night and finished reading it in its entirety today. It was like reading a great book, until I got to the part about you getting sick. I hope things turn out well for you next week, meo, and that you and Marigold will be on the road again soon as planned. As others have said, if this had to happen, it’s better that it did when you were at home with your family, rather than while traveling.
Your story brought back many fond memories for me. Thank you for sharing it. Warmest wishes for a speedy recovery so you can continue your journey and keep us entertained. You’re a rockstar!
Hi meo - sending you positive vibes from upstate NY. I did want to mention something on the off-chance your area may have a similar service. I work in healthcare policy and our local social services team up with rural county services to get people to doctor appointments. A lot of people don't know these services exist, or if they are aware of them, they think they live too far to receive them and are pleasantly surprised. Always worth looking into...you never know.
I believe there is something like that but not for a drive of 70+ miles. Besides, I don't like depending on people when I have a definite time I have to be somewhere. I always arrive early to an appointment and I just don't want to depend on someone else. I also don't know how long it will take as they will also be doing blood work, so a driver would have to wait around until everything was done.
Thanks mom22j. That must have taken quite awhile to read! Your post did convince me to take my laptop along and write more as I go.
If all goes according to plan I will be leaving here in October, not sure of the date yet. The plan is North Dakota, to Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and finally, Arizona.
I don't want to get to Arizona until the end of October or beginning of November. It was still too hot when I got there last year, in the middle of October and Minnesota fall is usually gorgeous with the fall colors.
I'm still not sure if I'll go with a caravan, which is what I want to do, or stay at one of the LTVA'S again. It depends on what's happening with covid. I'm not sure how they're going to ensure people are vaccinated in the caravans or is everyone going to wear masks. I do know I don't to get it!
At the LTVA, everyone kept the 6 foot rule or wore masks. I think in a caravan, people might be closer. These are things I'm looking into and paying attention to. No sense in taking chances.
Thanks mom22j. That must have taken quite awhile to read! Your post did convince me to take my laptop along and write more as I go.
That’s fantastic! We’ll all be waiting with bated breath! Thank you!
I was mesmerized from the start with your story, meo. In my younger days, I’d envisioned RVing around the US in retirement. Circumstances have changed, and that’s not possible now. But I did do my fair share of camping, so I was able to visualize just about everything you described. When you went home to your family with the two houses on one farm, well, that took the cake. My grandparents and one of my uncles and his wife lived exactly like that on their farm in South Dakota. (Maybe that’s common and I just don’t know it.) Fond memories, except for the water - from an Artesian well, I think. Yuck! This was decades before bottled water, lol.
Have you read the (nonfiction) book (by Jessica Bruder) or seen the movie starring Frances McDormand called Nomadland? It could’ve been written by you! It mirrors so much of what you’ve written. I’ve only seen the movie, but I think I’ll read the book - on my Kindle - too. It’s streaming on Hulu right now - I think you can get a free 1-week trial and watch it if you don’t have access to it. It’s on Amazon too for $3.99. Here’s the trailer (you might’ve even met some of the people!):
I learned so much from you and others on this thread. I learned about things I’ll probably never need like the Jackery 240 (plus solar panels) and the JACO Digital Tire Inflator, but I put them on my Amazon wishlist anyway so I wouldn’t forget them, lol.
One thing that pained me was when you said you started going without coffee. I get terrible headaches if I don’t have my two cups in the morning. Since you have the aforementioned Jackery (though I think you might’ve said you were having trouble with it), would you be able to plug a little coffee maker into it? I personally downsized to a Keurig 1-cup coffeemaker recently and I love it. It uses pods which are a lot less messy, but are probably more expensive, than regular coffee. I buy big boxes of the pods from Amazon, but everyone carries them.
Another 1-cup coffeemaker caught my eye while I was looking for the Keurig; it might suit you even better. It uses regular coffee, has a permanent filter, and even comes with a travel mug; you can get a storage case for it too. Pretty nifty!
Anyway, while I was reading your story, when I got to the no-coffee part, I was screaming in my head for you to get a Keurig (did you hear me?), so there you go!
Fingers crossed that all goes well for you this(!) week, meo. Please keep us posted.
I was going to respond yesterday but wasn't sure what to say.
I have the book, Nomadland and enjoyed it. Haven't seen the movie, have watched the trailers.
As for the coffee making; I have an aeropress, which I love. It's small and makes great tasting coffee. I normally boil water for morning coffee but, in my small car there is no room to set up a camp stove as well as too dangerous. If it was too windy outside, I didn't do it then either. I've thought of getting a usb water heater and may do that. It would have to be very compact as the Cube is small. Very small. All use of space has to be justified.
I found it was easy for me to not have my morning coffee and I actually liked that I could do without it if need be. It made the times I did have it very enjoyable. I like challenging myself sometimes to see what I can do and what I can do without. At any given time I could easily have gone to one of the truck stops in Quartzsite to get some.
As for the JACO, so far I've used it twice, both times in town. I've always had either triple A or roadside assistance with my insurance and have used them for emergencies. The few times I've had to do that, the wait time was always at least an hour. It wasn't until I started exploring nomad living and read that there were times you couldn't get assistance that I found out about other ways to do things. I'd been a city girl most of my life and hadn't thought about it.
The two times I've since used it I have to shake my head and wonder why I hadn't thought of it before. How easy it was to get it out of the car and pump the tire up. Next on the list is a tire repair kit, as an inflator wouldn't work if it was a total blowout. I do keep a spare though.
I was going to respond yesterday but wasn't sure what to say.
As I said, I read your thread, which was like a conversation between you and 50 friends, from start to finish in less than half a day. I jumped in at the end, and compiled what should/would have been a years’ worth of thoughts into one post. My apologies.
As I said, I read your thread, which was like a conversation between you and 50 friends, from start to finish in less than half a day. I jumped in at the end, and compiled what should/would have been a years’ worth of thoughts into one post. My apologies.
Wishing you the best, meo.
I was unsure what to say because, most, if not all, have found this lifestyle while researching frugal or cheaper living, which brought up Bob Wells. Jessica's book focuses on nomad living and the movie trailers center a lot on the RTR.
Nomad living is about living with less but it's more, in my belief, about exploring and appreciating living in nature and learning core values. For me it's been about finding myself, returning to the person I once was and connecting to nature.It's been an awesome adventure.
Since returning to family in Minnesota, there's been quite a few times I've had to grit my teeth and simply agree with things because I have to get through this health challenge. Many times I've wanted to just leave, not because I don't love them but because they keep trying to 'fix' me and I don't think I'm broken, outside of the health problems.
My sister is really into having gadgets and I think that's fine but I'm not. I've learned to live with a lot less and have found freedom in that. I used to want 'things' and there are definitely things I still want, and need, but they're more for survival than luxuries.
Take the coffee situation. While I'm here and have electricity I use an electric pot to boil water and the first thing I do is boil water for coffee. I didn't even know there was such a thing as an aeropress and always had a Mr. Coffee or a keurig. I bought the aeropress for camping but found I still use it here because it makes darn good tasting coffee. I bought the electric water boiler to save on butane more than anything else. And because it was on sale.
Yikes! I decided to stay the night in Fargo rather than trying to make it to my appointment tomorrow and worry all night. Fargo is a very confusing town, at least to me and it took me quite awhile to find the first clinic so decided afterward to find the second before I made a decision.
Then I decided to go ahead and stay at the hotel I'd booked as a just in case rather than driving in the morning. I'd chosen a motel from a list the hospital went me. I chose the cheapest one.
I'm dubbing it the motel from h***.
It's filled with flies, to start with. I'm spending my time killing them. I've gotten quite a few of them.
The window has a huge crack in it.
The door won't close properly without muscling it. Then, it wouldn't open without the same effort.
It's supposed to be a non-smoking room but there was a cigarette butt along with what has to be a marijuana butt on the windowsill behind the curtains which are missing hardware at the sides.
One of the reasons I took a room was so I could take a shower in the morning before my doctors appointment. That's not gonna happen. In fact, I'm not going to get undressed or sleep under the covers if I do manage to fall asleep, which I kind of doubt will happen. The pillowcase has dirt smudges on the turned over side. I found this out after killing one of the flies.
Yes, I chose the cheapest but you'd think the hospital would at least check what they put on the list. Never again.
The only reason I didn't sleep in my car is because all my stuff is in the trailer.in
I couldn't open that link. I'm sure it's a good one.
It's probably been done but I would not have thought to look into something like that with a list the hospital had given me.
I dozed off occasionally, can't call it sleeping, and am more tired than when I came here. I'll take some pictures with my phone and put them in an email to the hospital staff that sent me the list. Hopefully they will remove them from the list.
I'm waiting for daylight so I can leave here and go find some coffee. Nope, not even one of the complimentary coffee pots here.
I'm wondering if this isn't one of Fargo's solutions to the homeless problem or their version of skid row, or??? All I've seen are young adults, 20's or so.
I feel grungy and grubby after staying here. There's two tiny bars of soap, one washcloth and two hand towels here to wash with. That's it. But, I wouldn't trust that bathtub anyway to take a shower. I can't wait to get back to my sister's to take a shower.
Considering that I stayed over so I could be clean for the doctor's visit, it's rather ironic..
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