O.K. I Lied

Well, not intentionally, but I didn't get on the road at the end of October as I had hoped.  My brake lights weren't working as I thought.  I want to know who's 'brilliant' idea it was at Dodge to not have separate wires for turn signal lights, brake lights, and tail lights???  Really, how hard can that be?  But NO, I have to get a car who's brake light wires are just a few filaments of wire INSIDE the turn signal wires!  Would that little bit of extra wire for brake lights have put the manufacturer over their wire quota or something equally absurd?  Such cockamamie designs these car companies come up with (my Ford Focus had an air filter that was $400 to replace!  And that was a low-end model car!) Well, after several more days of waiting and fixing, I finally got the brake light problem solved and can now tow Zelda legally.  On the bright side I did learn some interesting new things (in addition to the obvious wire shortage Dodge had in 2007), like there is such a mechanism that converts separate turn signal and brake light wires on a car to a combined circuit for a trailer's single lamp type lights.  That seems to be pretty common.  Of course I can't have anything common, so what I needed was a mechanism that UN-combined these two circuits going to the trailer.  Yes, I have to be difficult.  Makes life so much more interesting.

After a couple more days of madly purging and packing and repacking I was on my way - or so I thought.  [Insert minor anxiety attack on the amount of stuff I was still trying to take].  I thought I was doing so well, but when I finally got the car & trailer all packed - I freaked.  So, I made a trip to my friend's house, where the last of my belongings are stored, to purge & repack once more and I was (FINALLY) on my way to Minnesota the morning of November 3!

Grania and Zelda packed and ready to hit the road!

Two days to get to Minnesota to visit with my aunt and cousins for 5 days then I headed to Nebraska for a visit with the master craftsman who built my tearbaby.  He helped me take care of a few projects I wanted to do to the trailer and now Zelda is all tricked out!

So patient readers, today, November 12 is the first day of my new life adventure!!  It marks the first day I don't have to be any place by a certain time or particular day.  I am totally free!  It is a great feeling, but I will admit a bit discombobulating.  I am still living out of my car and trailer instead of living "in" them.  Everything is a mess.  I am making my way southwest to (I hope) warmer weather so I can set up camp for a week or two and try to get organized.

Tonight I am in northern Kansas camping at a "free"/fee-by-donation city park in Concordia which happens to have electricity (a very good thing since it's supposed to get down to about 29 degrees tonight and I wanted to be able to plug in my heating pad to stay warm in bed).  The coolest thing about this camp is how I found out about it.  I stopped at the local Wal-Mart to pick up a few groceries for the next few days on the road and as I was walking to my rig a man who had just parked next to me commented on how he liked my trailer and asked if I was camping.  I responded that my set-up was my home and he went on to tell me about this city park right across the street!  I feel like I have been inducted into the full-times club now!  Locals are telling me about campsites!  Way cool.  And Kansas seems to have a LOT of free / very inexpensive camping parks - way to go Kansas!!

My "free" campsite in Kansas - right next to a National Guard Armory and a small municipal airport.  I'm not sure who gets to play in the awesome tower in the background but I sure want to! 

So the next leg of my journey will take me diagonally across Kansas to its southwest corner then through the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas and down into New Mexico - where PLEASE Weather Goddess, let me find warm days and pleasantly cool nights!


(And are you hating these ludicrously short days as much as I am?)

The Plastic Platinum Panacea

I am getting ready to FINALLY head out for my life on the road - neither rain nor sleet nor flying monkeys will stop me this time - I am GOING!  Don't get me wrong, minus the challenges thrown at me the past year and a half, I have enjoyed the time I've gotten to spend with my family and friends here in Ohio, but it's not where I belong.  I plan to leave Ohio towards the end of September to visit some friends and family, none of which are in the southwesterly direction I plan to head of course (some are actually north or east).  After saying good-bye to everyone till next spring I'll finally be heading west to visit Egon, the designer and builder of my tearbaby, and his wife before turning southward to winter in warm, sunny Arizona.  After the past 2 abominable winters in northern Ohio I can't wait!

In the meantime, I am working on resolving some basic living issues.  One of which is my cold food storage.  I ended up getting the 52 Qt. Coleman Extreme cooler - I have a feeling I should have gone with something smaller.  Either way, this will be a big learning curve for me.  I haven't really used a cooler often.  Those few times I was only gone a couple of days and had use of a freezer beforehand and all the accouterments for food packing.  I thought I'd see if I could find any tips on how to pack a cooler for extended trips on the internet - didn't find much useful information that I didn't already know except . . . there seems to be a big debate on whether to drain or not to drain the water out of a cooler.  It was quite interesting.  Views on the subject ranged from 'that's how I've always done it' to "scientific proof" explanations for both sides of the debate.  I guess I'll just have to test the water for myself (pun intended).

I've also discovered something about myself.  (Well, actually I've known it for a while, but shh, don't tell anyone!).  I have a serious problem - I'm addicted to plastic food storage containers.  I can't NOT save them nor can I seem let myself get rid of them.  I have no sentimental attachment to them.  I am simply a food storage container hoarder!  It's truly pathetic.

This is my collection (many of the containers are stacked inside each other - there are probably at least 65 in this picture).  Pretty impressive I know!  Unfortunately I don't have room to keep them all.  I feel a purging coming on - Oh my giddy aunt; give me strength!  

"Hi, my name is Jordan and I am a plastic food container hoarder."  

Anyone know of a 12-step program out there for me? (I've already completed step 1!)

I'm still working on my composting toilet design.  I think I've decided what I want but still have a few more details to flush out to make it work (yes, I did go there).  There are some great composting toilets on the market that are well designed and work great for a mobile lifestyle, but for me personally, they pretty much have 2 flaws: 1) most of them are way too high for me to use comfortably, and 2) I just can't afford or justify spending upwards of $1000 for a toilet.  Even if I had that kind of money, I'm still not sure if I could justify it - at least not with my current car/trailer set-up.  That's just me.  I don't have any problem with anyone choosing to get one.  I say go for it!  Some are really awesome - if they didn't have the 2 personal "flaws" I'd get one.  I also understand that these come from small businesses and without a large pool of customers their costs are much higher to make a profit.  As a soon to be small business myself, I admire them and the products they are putting out.  I really wish I could afford to support them.  Maybe someday (if they would design a toilet for shorties!).

I still have a lot to do before I go.  I have to make a decision on my internet set-up, and if I should get a signal booster or internet antenna or both.  I have to figure out how best to set up my online business. (Even after a lot of research, I feel like I have a long way to go to get my head around all the tech gear and language I need to understand to earn a living on the road).  I still have too much stuff, so more purging is in order - Ouch!  My car needs a check-up and serviced for traveling, but I'm not sure how much that will cost or if I can afford to have everything done right now.  Brakes, brakes would be good!  My list seems to get longer instead of shorter as I think of more things I need to do or get; so I am prioritizing what is necessary now and what can wait till later so I can spread out the expenses.

If only plastic food storage containers sold for the same price as platinum I'd be all set.