weird signs 9/4/09

i took this picture last summer in fort bragg, california :-)

i intend to go back there to live someday. well, for a good bit of the time....i love it there and know some great people. it's on the coast and near mendocino, another cool place. real active program there. it's where i first saw the ocean....

weird signs 8/22/09

i love weird signs. this one seen at a state park in york county, on a kayak trip last year..... my thanks to michael for permission to use his photo :-)

Oxymoron

Http://twokniveskatie.blogspot.com

slab city photos

we spent some time at slab city in niland, california. i took a bunch of pics, but can only post a few at a time. it's hard to tell from the thumbnails which ones i'm getting, so these will have to do for now.
there is a sweet little pet cemetary near where we camped. some of the headstones made me cry....


blame mutt for the spots....they are dog slobber. he was smart enough to not slobber until after the adoption papers were signed......
the sunset off in the direction of the salton sea.

there were 2 cool trucks like this. unfortunately, i downloaded 2 of the same truck....
this is salvation mountain.....probably the worst shot EVER :-) i am gonna dedicate one whole post to leonard's mountain.
this one is for michael :-)
mutt gazing affectionately at sheriff victoria.......
a group from the christian center is organizing clean-up projects.
if you click on the post title above, it will take you to a wiki article about the slabs!

heading for warm

well, the first week of the trip has passed in a flash. i was determined to get to warm as quickly as possible, but did take some time to meet up with a few vandwellers on the way. i got to meet judith in north carolina, and she is sweeter and gentler in person than she is online. her place is tucked into a quiet piece of woods, and mutt was delighted with a little off-leash time there. i got to see bernie and mar again....i had met them at the mini vandweller convention in early november at john nomads place during my first kayaking adventure with michael. while at judith's we spent time touring and comparing our different rigs.....it is always such a learning experience and very inspirational to see how everybody is set up. judith seemed to like the astro rondyvan for it's compactness and good gas mileage. it sure was cluttered at the time from my frenzied pack job the day before.....

the next day i met possum in south carolina for breakfast at perkins. it is amazing how comfortable i feel with people i have never met in person before, having only established on-line friendships, but possum and i were yakking like the old friends that we were, chowing down and surfing the fastest wifi i had ever seen. it was so good to finally meet up, possum!

now the trip gets a little fuzzy here. i drove straight through the day and evening. it turned out that by altering my trip south to I-10, i would be able to meet up with phoenix near baton rouge. i know i passed through atlanta that night.....the skyline of the city was breathtaking. what i can't remember is if i made baton rouge that night, or if i had a stop in between. either way, i finally met up with phoenix at the tiger truck stop, where i had my first cajun food. it was good, except the part where he told me that the crayfish etoufe had frogs in it! ewwww. our visit was, as always, too short!
something about gas pumps makes people spit out their gum. look at this gum universe. i never see that anywhere else. this truck stop is called the tiger truck stop for a reason. there is a tiger there. things in cages really grieve me, and i had to be convinced by phoenix not to set the tiger free. the next morning, i was excited to see a sign that said "save the tiger" but when i got closer
it was nothing about saving the tiger, it was about saving the profits they made by having an exotic animal in their truck stop :-(
tony has never known anything but captivity in a tiny cage. he has no tiger family, no companions, no purpose. while i was there, he simply paced, around and around, in an endless circle to nowhere. it was a stark reminder of the gorilla in "ishmael" who banged his head slowly and endlessly on the bars of the cage, not knowing what freedom was, but instinctively knowing there was something else beyond this existence.....
i hate cages of any sort, but a zoo would be a blessing for tony, with more room to move and other animals around. i hope they lose their bid to keep the tiger in grosse tete.
okay, on to happier stuff. i was having a hard time keeping the kayak from shifting to the right and off the siderail of the roof rack. a little duct tape, and a hammer, and that baby hasn't moved in over 2,000 miles :-)
the "islands" in truck stops are mutt's oasis. we always park with the sliding door next to one, so we can look out at something besides asphalt. this one was in mississippi, and one of the prettier ones i've seen.
and finally, texas! in a truckstop outside of houston, i traded out my mukluks for my teva sandals! one of my first "vandweller" dreams actually involved a horse and saddlebags, where i would roam the west with what i could pack on the back of my horse. of course, i was in grade school, and mad to meet johnny yuma, but the same essential theme repeated itself throughout my life, trading the horse for a bicycle and panniers, or a stick and a bandanna, a backpack, or a van....it took a few decades, but i'm living my dream, and it makes every day kinda breathtaking.....

stay tuned, because on my way to austin, i stumble across my first cowboy and the coolest house of worship i have ever seen......

mendocino and points north

mutt at camp outside crescent city ca.
the rondyvan in the redwoods
camp in the mountains of southern oregon. what a treat to spread out and have running water and a hot meal. i am going to try to do this more often.
i emptied out the van and gave it a good scrubbing. note the lazy dog napping on the furthest right side of the photo. he was off-leash for two days and never left camp.
camped in the redwood forest for 2 nights. this was my view out the van window from the cot when i woke up one morning.......first thing you see.......
mutt's new friend at the fort bragg dog park.the funny part of the shot i missed was when mutt looked upwards to try to make eye contact. then he just did the sniffing thing.
mutt on the pomo bluffs. i love it there, and do alot of knitting there.
mutt running from a wave at noyo beach in fort bragg.
mutt hiding from the waves at pt. reyes national seashore. he has since actually let a wave touch him.
sunset on the trinidad bay.
couldn't decide which i liked best, so you got both. i tend to travel rather impulsively. trinidad is where i landed one evening after pushing up the coast til it "felt right". ended up sleeping at a casino parking lot. i miss the more vandweller friendly mendocino coast.
elk....... bruce and keith and mike z......eat your hearts out!
this past week we have been moving north up the california coast headed towards the 10kways gathering in southern oregon. the redwood forests are just amazing. here is mutt inside a tree.
my dear sweet jonna wanted to see redwoods. well, here ya go sweety!
a path through the forest. it is so silent and peaceful here. didn't hike far because dogs aren't allowed on the trail.
this is mutt with his new hairdo on the humbolt co. coast. his whole life is about sniffing.
i love this sign. haven't seen any horses anywhere in the city limits. but on my next trip out here i am doing the horseback thing on the beach north of fort bragg. way up on the list!

hobo signs

i have always loved hobos. i aspired to be one from an early age. i was always tying my treasures up in a bandana, tying that to a stick, and heading off into the woods. born with a wanderlust, i was.

i had this incredible mom. she took in stray people like some old women take in stray cats. her door was always open to anyone who needed food, companionship, or a place to live. it wasn't unusual for someone to come for supper, and to stay for a year. one christmas eve, my brother (who worked at a crisis center) came home at midnight with a priest in some sort of spiritual crisis. she fed him, listened to him, and had the couch made up like she had nothing better to do on christmas eve at midnight. in the morning, when everyone gathered for gift opening, there were gifts for him under the tree, as if he had been a long anticipated guest.

i saw the plaque (pictured above) in a catalog one year. the caption said it was the hobo sign for a kind-hearted woman. when hobos traveled around, looking for odd jobs to earn money, they would leave symbols like the one above. drawn on fenceposts, sidewalks, trees, and outbuildings, these symbols would inform other hobos of places to seek food or shelter, places with mean dogs, places to avoid, and, of course, places with kind-hearted women.

i got this plaque for my mom as a tribute to her generosity, and her good heart. it hung over the door to the gathering room, where she fed hundreds of people over the years. when she died, i kept it. being a bit of a hermit, i don't come close to earning it over my door, but i keep it next to it, as a reminder of what i should strive for, every day.

so i got to thinking. tara posted recently somewhere about graffitti on her van, and how she liked to keep it as a reminder of people she's met and places she's been. what if we as vandwellers were able to communicate to others information about good places to stealth park, spots with free wifi, and other useful information? that would be so cool, having our own secret language. of course, graffitti laws being more stringent than they were in the hobo era, it would add an element of risk to a lifestyle already viewed as suspect. well, that's okay.... it appeals to that little bit of outlaw in me :-)

click on the post title above to see some neat hobo signs. and if you run into to any wandering folks, hobos or otherwise, feed us, offer us a hot shower, and maybe get a good story in return....