We sputtered our way through the night with the empty water tank then got up and went to the farmers market. It was small, a dozen booths at most, but great local stuff, elk sausages, organic pork ribs and bacon. There was a woman cooking chicken legs and a mix of peppers and onions on a huge piaya pan over a flame. We got some grass fed Italian pork sausage to make spaghetti, some beets and an onion. You can cook down the leaves of the beats like spinach and the onion still had long green onion stems.
We went to the coffee shop for internet, coffee and this time a pound of their fresh roasted beans.
We went back to the bus and got it ready to drive a couple of miles to dump and fill the water tanks.
Last time I got the idea to shower at the dump station to get a “free shower”; a shower while hooked up to their water while the drains are all open too. This time I was going in with a plan. Trinity would shower and I’d start the dishes, then I could shower quickly and she could finish the dishes. Two free showers and free dishes. I know it’s stingy, but the last tank of water didn’t last very long.
The plan was working. We had both showered and the dishes were mostly done. I was still filling the fresh water, watching the level get closer to the top of the tank when I realized the bus happened to be leaning toward me pretty far. “That would make the tank look full when it’s not”, I thought. I felt a little silly, but I had to unhook, turn the bus around and see. While I was jimmying the bus back and forth in the tight lot the owner, an older man watched and looked perplexed and frustrated with me.
The tank was full facing the original way, but turned around in the same spot the water level was nearly 3” from the top of the tank. I ran the hose under the bus, hooked it up, got it filling and went to explain to the old man. I told him the wondrous amazement of what I had just discovered. He seemed deaf, but maybe it was just my content. He said, “You’re gonna’ run my well dry” and drove off on his golf cart. I left happy to have figured out the water supply problem and with a full tank, not knowing if he was kidding.
When we got back Jack and Beverly were gone. We now had the back woods all to ourselves. It did seem lonely without them. I always feel safer with good neighbors.
I backed in without Jack. There is really only one spot where the coach is truly level. All four tires must be within inches of their spot. It takes awhile to get it right, but when you do it’s remarkably level considering the terrain.
After I spent too much time backing in the bus I remembered that I wanted to finish rearranging the underneath compartments while they weren’t blocked by trees. I pulled the bus forward 3’ anyway and reorganized my stuff.
As the sun was setting an early ‘90s white ford pickup pulled up and backed into Jack’s vacant spot. Two young men got out and started running through the woods. They gathered wood and started a fire. I was worried they might want to ravage my glorious wood pile. One of them had a long machete that he was swinging at the rocks of their fire pit and making sparks. It was Saturday night and we were worried that they were going to have a big party. We remembered what people did at big parties in the woods when we were in high school and laughed that that is why we were worried.
As I watched them interact around the fire and struggle to put up their tent I realized that they were only about 15 years old. They seemed like good kids. It was starting to look like a Norman Rockwell painting to me. Now felt like giving them some of the fire wood that I was so protective of earlier. I pictured me and Trinity approaching them with fire wood and realized that in this scenario we are Jack and Beverly.
They were quiet kids. We thought it would be funny if we crawled up just inches from the tent late at night and made angry animal noises, but then figured we might get shot.
We finished watching a movie on DVD on my laptop and went to bed.
We went to the coffee shop for internet, coffee and this time a pound of their fresh roasted beans.
We went back to the bus and got it ready to drive a couple of miles to dump and fill the water tanks.
Last time I got the idea to shower at the dump station to get a “free shower”; a shower while hooked up to their water while the drains are all open too. This time I was going in with a plan. Trinity would shower and I’d start the dishes, then I could shower quickly and she could finish the dishes. Two free showers and free dishes. I know it’s stingy, but the last tank of water didn’t last very long.
The plan was working. We had both showered and the dishes were mostly done. I was still filling the fresh water, watching the level get closer to the top of the tank when I realized the bus happened to be leaning toward me pretty far. “That would make the tank look full when it’s not”, I thought. I felt a little silly, but I had to unhook, turn the bus around and see. While I was jimmying the bus back and forth in the tight lot the owner, an older man watched and looked perplexed and frustrated with me.
The tank was full facing the original way, but turned around in the same spot the water level was nearly 3” from the top of the tank. I ran the hose under the bus, hooked it up, got it filling and went to explain to the old man. I told him the wondrous amazement of what I had just discovered. He seemed deaf, but maybe it was just my content. He said, “You’re gonna’ run my well dry” and drove off on his golf cart. I left happy to have figured out the water supply problem and with a full tank, not knowing if he was kidding.
When we got back Jack and Beverly were gone. We now had the back woods all to ourselves. It did seem lonely without them. I always feel safer with good neighbors.
I backed in without Jack. There is really only one spot where the coach is truly level. All four tires must be within inches of their spot. It takes awhile to get it right, but when you do it’s remarkably level considering the terrain.
After I spent too much time backing in the bus I remembered that I wanted to finish rearranging the underneath compartments while they weren’t blocked by trees. I pulled the bus forward 3’ anyway and reorganized my stuff.
As the sun was setting an early ‘90s white ford pickup pulled up and backed into Jack’s vacant spot. Two young men got out and started running through the woods. They gathered wood and started a fire. I was worried they might want to ravage my glorious wood pile. One of them had a long machete that he was swinging at the rocks of their fire pit and making sparks. It was Saturday night and we were worried that they were going to have a big party. We remembered what people did at big parties in the woods when we were in high school and laughed that that is why we were worried.
As I watched them interact around the fire and struggle to put up their tent I realized that they were only about 15 years old. They seemed like good kids. It was starting to look like a Norman Rockwell painting to me. Now felt like giving them some of the fire wood that I was so protective of earlier. I pictured me and Trinity approaching them with fire wood and realized that in this scenario we are Jack and Beverly.
They were quiet kids. We thought it would be funny if we crawled up just inches from the tent late at night and made angry animal noises, but then figured we might get shot.
We finished watching a movie on DVD on my laptop and went to bed.
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