Time Zone: Eastern
Today's Weather: 65ºF, merry and bright
Length of Tour Stop: 6 days/6 nights
Next move: in three days
Jonathan, however, much preferred the casino parking lot to the Walmart parking lot. There were several RVs and also some trucks parked at odd angles around the casino's overflow lot like children's toys left on the pavement after a make-believe race. We arrived just after 9:30pm but it felt more like 3am, everyone appeared to be tucked in for the night. The lessons of the previous parking lot overnight taught us to use the car's engine to power the slide motor, so we had no drama concerning power, and water we had already successfully figured out. We even got to have a drink at the casino before heading to bed. Unfortunately I was too full of worry to enjoy it.
By the end of the following day I was living in a place where worries come to die.
And this is the great benefit of the RV. There are places you can pay the average overnight fee charged by a Motel 6 and for that you get to back your unit up to the edge of a massive natural body of water that glitters in the morning light.
On the first day I didn't quite process the profound effect of our current location.
"It's pretty nice," I said, when Jonathan asked me what I thought.
We've had some stresses here, questions of next year already looming on the horizon. But in a testament to the power of nature I feel strangely out of grasp to things such as anxiety and fear. We are parked in a waterfront spot on a small peninsula and so from every window one sees the water. In the morning as we sit on our deck, wrapped in blankets against the still-chilly start of the day, we watch the bay ripple, and whatever we say blends effortlessly into that charming, peaceful motion. As I wash the dishes after dinner the waves chop against the shore under early evening wind. When Jonathan arrives home after the show more often than not the bay is glassily still and the dogs lean down from the pier to sniff and make sure it hasn't magically solidified in the dark.
In that minuscule amount of time Chewbacca had found and exploited the weakness this new location revealed in our deck system, a gap between the RV door and the floor just slightly wider than her shoulders created by the uneven ground of this particular site. She had wriggled herself through the gap and that was that. I'm sure gravity wasn't kind as it helped her 32 inches down to the ground. But these are the prices one pays for being an evil genius.
"Chewbacca!" I called to her sternly, raising my voice against the whoosh of the wind off the bay.
She stopped short in her tracks and looked directly at me. Without breaking my gaze she squatted, and then pooped.
I walked up to her as she finished, still looking at me, unabashed. She did not run away as I clipped her into the leash. She danced the line all the way back to the trailer, seeming as joyful back under my command as she had been as a free agent moments ago.
As I consider the future and all of the stresses that surround us, I feel the same. This place makes you feel ok even if you're tied down. It helps you find and sing the song you most want to hear.
Miles Driven with RV: 4511.5 miles
Days Lived in RV: 72 days
Camps Overnighted in RV: 11 RV parks, 1 Walmart, 1 Casino Parking Lot
States Camped in RV: 9 (TX, AL, TN, IN, KY, IL, NC, WV, MD)