Personal

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Journey to the Mothership

This morning, I awoke with a shock around 4, the enormity of yesterday’s events and the gamble I took finally making a full impact.

If I’d been turned away at the border yesterday, that would have been it for me regarding the US. Good luck ever coming in again, even for a day trip. But I did make it in for an extended period of time, with my rig, and as a pre-retirement age full-time RVer with no stable source of income. I set one hell of a precedent. Next time I want to go in under similar circumstances I can say that the folks in Sumas, WA, felt that I posed no threat and also proffer the paperwork yesterday’s agents told me to have on hand for future crossings. I opened the gateway to future American adventures and suddenly started a new chapter in my full-timing life. I expect that border crossings will always be difficult, at least until I retire, but this precedent is an excellent step for me and a good note on my file.

So, I awoke to the smell of the sea, bright blue skies, and a radiant sun.

I’ll pause here to say that I’m within Blaine city limits, about fifteen minutes from Pacific Border RV Park. I spent four months living on the border with Blaine and never once set foot in the town! Kind of funny in a way.

For the first time in months, I bounced out of bed. I hadn’t realised how much my fear of crossing the border with the rig had been weighing me down. I spent the morning puttering around, walked to beach, and fiddled with my fresh water hook ups; not managing to get a leak-free set up.

Being forty-five minutes away from Camping World and having never been there, I decided it was time to go!!! I hit the road around two, enjoying the drive down I-5. It reminded me of being in coastal Maine, except that the ocean was on the wrong side.

Camping World was awesome!!! Sure, it has a lot of the crappy products you can find at Canadian Tire and Walmart, but they also had better quality options, plus tons of gadgets. I found a much higher grade of water hose, but, like all water hoses, it had crappy fittings. I ended up stopping at True Value on the way home and getting better fittings, which were easy to install. I also found the fluorescent bulbs that I needed for the light fixture under my sink, something I have been hunting for for months. I’ve missed it so much!

I got in and installed my new water system: house-grade pressure regulator, brass quick connect, new hose, and a new high-grade washer at the city water intake on the rig. For the first time in two and a half years I hooked up my water and did not have to swear! Hooking up fresh water has always been the most onerous part of RVing and it is now much easier.

Tomorrow, I will make it a point to go for a long walk with my camera. I picked a great spot to hole up for a month!

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Feeling ‘Off’

Once I got settled in with groceries and started on dinner, I realised that I was feeling really unsettled. I couldn’t figure out why because the feeling didn’t have anything to do with being in the States. And then it hit me.

This is the first time since landing in Dawson in June of ’09 that I don’t know what my next step is going to be. Once I got settled in Dawson, I knew what was next: a Vancouver Island winter then a second Klondike summer; the fall in Osoyoos then the RV show. I didn’t want to make any plans for after because I didn’t know what doors, if any, the show would open for me. The only certainty for me right now is that I have guaranteed jobs in the Yukon this summer if I need them. I’m sitting where I was at the end of April ’09, staring at a gaping unknown, only this time I don’t have anywhere near the financial safety net I had back then. I put everything I had into getting the seminar and book ready and there really is very little left with which to pick up the pieces. I have no regrets. I finally made my mark on the world, and is that not what we all want, to leave something meaningful behind?

Being in the States for a couple of months is going to stop the financial bleed and give me time to focus on something other than sheer survival. I’m at a lovely park that is costing me a third of what I was paying in Osoyoos. Plus, all the parks in Vancouver said that a ‘month’ is from the 1st to the 31st, so I would have paid for 30 days and only gotten 21 (still cheaper than daily or weekly rate) while the folks here assumed that wanting to stay ‘a month’ meant staying till the morning of March 8th. Groceries are also much, much cheaper. Gas prices are a joke. Even though I can’t technically work in the US, the laws are clear that I can continue with my existing contracts with non-US clients and I’m pretty sure it would be okay to work on another book so long as I don’t market it until I get back to Canada. So, I’m really in a good place to pause for a bit and figure out the next stage of this wondrous, crazy life of mine.

As I said in my seminar, I started from scratch when I hit the road and I have to be patient as I figure out how I’m going to make it. I remain committed to the open road and know that many fantastic adventures lie ahead. I’m just a little discombobulated right now from the adrenaline of the last week. Settling back into a semblance of a routine is going to help. So is knowing that I’m going to Seattle this weekend to meet up with a longtime blog reader/friend and that I won’t have to factor an hour’s wait at the border both ways ‘just in case’ in my schedule!

I’ll finish off with a few random pictures:

Miranda parked in Tradex overflow at sunset

Nee this morning, enjoying some rare sunshine

Washington sunset

Washington sunset, redux

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What's Next

I’ve just ended an incredibly public week, something that was very difficult for me, much as I enjoyed it. I’d like to thank everyone who stopped by to speak with me.

There are a number of things that could happen in the next days and weeks, but I need a timeout, so I’m not going to discuss the options on the blog at this time. I’ll check back in once I’ve had time to process the last few days.

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Feeling Smug, Like I Know a Great Secret

As we approach the opening of the Early Bird RV Show (24.5 hours to go!) I am struck by the number of people who don’t get my lifestyle.

-I’ve been asked if I would be staying ‘in the RV’ for the week;
-the radio announcer interviewing me this morning said that he liked how I called the RV my home;
-the reporter for the Vancouver Sun said that she likes how I call my RV ‘my rig’;
-this morning I went to the Tradex admin office to get details on my move to a site with power and was greeted by someone who was very concerned and holding a printed copy of Donna’s post announcing my departure from Osoyoos, worried that she had announced to the world that I’d left my house empty for the weekend

I feel like the keeper of the greatest secret in the universe! I think that if more people with wanderlust or a desire to be more mobile (example snowbirds who own a home in a warmer clime or mobile workers) understood that an RV can be a very comfortable and luxurious home on wheels, our nation’s highways would be choked with innumerable rigs!

Today is my last down day for a bit. I need to hit the road early tomorrow to get to Burnaby for my 8:20 interview with Global morning news, then race back to get set up up for the show. My talk ‘Travels With Miranda: Two Years of Full-Time RVing Pre-Retirement’ will premiere at 3PM tomorrow and I will be doing it all over again at 7. Then twice a day again Friday and Saturday, and once Sunday. I will be on site all day, every day. This is the moment I’ve been working for for two and a half years and I plan to savour every moment of it!