Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Feb 26, 2008

New Hogan Dam Part 2

Filed in Blog, RVing

In which an old life goes up in flames

04 February 2008

This is the second in a series.
[Part 1.]

In the morning, we realized two things. There were probably at most four RVs in the park, and we’d parked just across from one of them. (There are over 150 spaces in this campground.) And, we’d parked right next to the dumpsters, on top of a hill. A chill wind was blowing off the lake, and since tonight was expected to be cold and clear, we went in search of shelter.

This we found at the opposite side of the campground, in a space that had its own babbling brook and that was level on neither the front-to-back nor the left-to-right plane. We learned that the propane sensor needed to be level to give a proper reading, since it told us it was empty the whole time without ever actually running out.

What did we do with ourselves? With a view of trees and wild birds, I pulled out a bunch of unfiled papers and started separating them into deal-with, trash, or shred piles. I dealt with much that needed to be dealt. I read a number of magazines that I’d forgotten to read. And, while the call of my “business” life was still pretty strong, for once I just ignored my duty to blog and got on with listening to the creatures of the forest: Owls, geese, barking dogs. Bored cats.

Don slept, then fiddled with the computer. We were both in our element. I went for a little hike and took some photographs, realizing after a while that I was walking on what was usually a lake bed, covered in little shells. Razor-sharp rocks jutted up, a landscape of teeth and time. The boat launch was out of commission because the water levels were so low.

Later, we built up a pretty good fire. It took two hours to warm up a single can of soup, but it was worth it.

And then I suddenly remembered that I had a massive bag of shredding to deal with. I don’t any more.

Two things happened on this excursion. Firstly, I realized that I could really get very used to this lifestyle. And secondly, many of the last vestiges of our old life went up in smoke.

These things are not unrelated. Letting go of the past and moving in to the present is the only thing that will free up the future for such things.

Part Three will be posted tomorrow.