This "camping" thing is a real test of my ability to "play well with others". I think I am a people person but I DO have my alter ego that is one step this side of hermit. I LOVE my alone time and having my space to do what I want when I want so driving 3,300 miles sharing a space the size of a booth at Mac Donalds is quite a challenge.
Yesterday we arrived in Fairbanks and I will admit I have very mixed emotions. I'm sorry to see the "adventure" part of our journey end but I'm very happy to finally have a place to park "The Bee" for a couple of weeks and have some space to roam. Dwayne's son had a huge piece of property in a wonderful wooded community with dirt roads and a river just a short walk away. (There are also bears and moose in the woods so I don't roam very far off the roads. Being a "city girl" I don't like the idea of encountering anything larger than a squirrel or a neighbors dog. 0 There are plenty of dogs in the neighborhood, 4 of them live right here at DJ's. Dakota and Coffee are 11 and poor old Dakota is showing her age since the last time I was here. She sort of walks like I do when I get up in the morning and every bone in my body hurts. Coffee is still going strong and is one of the sweetest, mild mannered dogs I have ever met. Then there is DJ's dog who is 7 and Ava's (Dwayne's grand daughter) dog who is a 1 year old PUPPY with way too much energy. All 4 dogs are LARGE to say the least. Add to the mix the neighbors lab and it is a free for all out in the yard. Living in the country all the dogs, except the puppy, run loose so it is an obstacle course to get from the RV into the house. D and I are living in the RV in the driveway for the next two weeks because both grand daughters are here and we don't want to take a room away from the youngest, who is here for a month with her dad. (Emmy lives in GA with her mom most of the year)
So, even though we have landed in Fairbanks for 2 weeks we are still living in our little home. If I ever thought living in a 4 bedroom house with 3 kids and Get were a challenge this is a true test of sharing space. The BIG difference here is the man that I am sharing the space with, unlike my past experiences, Dwayne actually is AWARE of his surroundings. If I am standing in the front of the RV and need to move to the back it is not like passing a water buffalo in the aisle of CVS. D sees what is going on and actually moves to make things easier. It is amazing the difference this makes in keeping sane. For what ever reason, maybe because he was in the Army all those years and learned how to play and live with other people in close quarters, it really has been NICE living in this little space with this man. (With the exception of the 3 miles of oxygen hose that I have already written about.)
Our biggest challenge is what to do with the laundry. No matter how you do it there is ALWAYS laundry accumulating somewhere. You take off dirty clothes, (and I do mean dirty, considering we are camping) and they need to go somewhere. There are no closets to toss them in, no space under the beds to hide them in, the refrigerator is full of beer and the bathroom barely has enough room for a body never mind a bag of wash. There is the shower, (YES, we actually have a shower), and so that is the space used to toss the laundry. Except when we want to take a shower we have to move the bag onto the step into the RV. It is a juggling game but if this is the least of the problems of space we are doing good. I have considered just opening the camper door and tossing underwear out into the yard until there is enough of a pile to do a wash but I think the neighbors may have a problem with their dogs running over, grabbing my dirty undies and dragging them through the neighborhood.
This little house on wheels is very well laid out with more than enough closet space over the beds. Trouble with this is I have the need to FILL the space so I will continue to buy souvenirs to fill the closets. No thought given to how all this is EVER returning to Florida with me at the end of this journey. Hopefully I won't be filling my suitcase with dirty laundry so there will be room for extra stuff.
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