Ashland!

I have been in Ashland, Oregon for about a week now. When I got to town, my alternator started going out. Because of this, I have been living at a rest stop for the past week - but a lot of good things came of it. The rest stop I am staying at is actually home to many people who live in Ashland, or are traveling. You can stay at the rest stop as long as you want, as long as you leave during the day. One of the guys that lives there is going to help me replace the alternator for free, and a local agency is helping me with $200 of the $400 alternator..and I am hoping to find some extra help today. Since unemployment cut me back so much money, I just can't afford to pay for it on my own right now (food is costing me a lot since I have no electricity or way to keep produce). Unemployment also ends in a few weeks, so I need to save as much as possible while the vehicles sell. Ashland is definitely a better place to sell my vehicles, for I get a lot of calls about the motorcycle and car. I have a good feeling that they will have new homes in the next 5 weeks, which will make me feel relieved. Hoping for something faster though. The alternator should be in by Friday, then my bus will be in perfect running condition again. :) I feel that it has been going out since I bought it, so I am glad it went out before I sold it to someone. 

The rest stop has been fun because I have met a lot of traveling families with kids, couples, and single people who are just working to live. Finding a place in Ashland is hard because of the profiling that so many companies do, so not many people can find a home (even families with kids, jobs, and money in the bank). Needless to say, this won't be my final destination (expensive). Looking forward to getting into a Toyota Dolphin still, and heading down to see my sister in Davis, CA before I get too far along. I am 31 weeks pregnant today, so my eyes are bugging out because of the vehicle selling. :) I stay in town a lot during the day just to show and let people test drive the vehicles. It definitely makes me wish that I still had a bicycle, because I do an awful lot of walking since I park the bus on the outskirts in the shade (so it doesn't make too much noise or get too hot). 

I have been going to ladies night at Jackson Wellsprings lately, which helps me meet people. It is really relaxing, and very nice to swim in a big pool of fresh spring water under the moonlight. I will definitely be spending every Monday there until I leave, especially since I keep getting pass kick downs and do not have to pay. :) Granted, it isn't a huge fee - it is really reasonable ($8). 

I will update more later. :) 

Long journey!

I just got back to Elkton, Oregon after a 1,700 mile journey over 25 days. 1,700 miles may not seem like a lot, considering I have even driven 8,500 miles over a few weeks before, but it is a lot being pregnant, solo, and driving a school bus! :) I must admit, I want to leave Elkton already. I came back to dead batteries and a fun new sound under the hood of the bus, plus a lot of fleas. The friends I am staying with have a wicked flea infestation - one of those where you walk into the house or yard and your legs are covered. I am really hesitant to let the girls out in the yard, because it took all of those 25 days to get the fleas off of them since the last time we were here, which led to the girls chewing their hair off in many places on their bodies. Poor girls! They have seriously never had fleas until now. :(

I came back to get my motorcycle, car, and pack up everything I am storing in Elkton into the bus. When I went to "take inventory" of everything I need to load up, my heart sunk. I can't believe how much stuff I acquired over the past 10 months - things that I did indeed use very often, like a cage for the geese (to transport them in), and a huge water container for the geese to swim in etc. Looks like I will be having a huge sale soon! I am off to Ashland, Oregon (for real this time) in a few days. I am hoping that will increase my chances of selling the Beetle, Bus, & Motorcycle. I should only be living there for a month, as long as everything sells quick. I went to Bend on my way back to Elkton, and met up with the woman who is selling the Toyota Dolphin (camper) that I want to buy after everything is sold. It is truly a dream. That little truck runs like a champ, and the camper is super spacious and comfortable. The couple that owns it are very, very nice people. They also have a Great Pyr (but a mix), and another huge dog that they traveled around with in the Dolphin. There is definitely plenty of space for the dogs & rat, and after I downsize everything, my belongings. ;) And of course, there is plenty of room for the wee one, and the Dolphin even has seats with seat belts for her carseat. :) I am definitely praying to the Universe to help make this transition happen soon. Especially being a few days away from 30 weeks pregnant.

Portland was pretty uneventful. On day 3, I was told to leave by the cops because an old couple in the neighborhood said my dogs were barking all of the time and keeping them up all night. I think it was other dogs, because I came back to the bus by 8 (when they go to sleep), and the girls never barked. At one point I hung outside in the grass for a couple of hours during the day (just to see for myself), and they still didn't bark - so I think that the couple just didn't like the bus. They also told the cops that I was going to the bathroom (pooping) and sleeping in the grass at night, which wasn't true at all, for I have the bus and that it just not how I am, especially pregnant. They made not-so-nice comments when I visited last October as well, so that is my guess. It was time to leave anyway, and it was kind of funny that the cops came up to the bus when I had just finished getting ready to leave.

The ride down to Bend was pretty awesome. I stopped at a rest stop right outside of Bend, and it was on the edge of a huge gorge..the kind that you don't want to accidentally fall into. It was a pretty "dangerous" gorge - apparently a lot of dogs have accidentally gone over the edge, so they don't allow dogs anywhere near it. I was trying to imagine how that even happened, considering they have 5ft tall walls around the whole area. The rest stop was by far the most quiet of all I have been to, and I have stayed at a lot of them on this journey. Bend was pretty cool too. The neighborhood that the Dolphin was in reminded me of my friend Sal's place in Nederland. All of the residents seemed to have their own gardens filled with food, some converted school buses, and tons of people waived at the bus and smiled (even kids). Definitely completely different from what I have experienced on this journey. I  could even park the bus in their driveway and everyone made really sweet comments about it.

The baby has taken up residence right on top of my bladder. For the past three weeks, I pee my pants at least twice a day/night. Even since I started writing this blog, she has been putting a lot of pressure on my bladder. It doesn't matter if I just peed or not, something always seems to come out. It has made me think about wearing diapers. ;) I already had a pretty weak bladder before (since childhood). I am pretty sure most of the pre-pregnancy issues with urgently needing to pee often were in my head, so this situation is a whole new level of pee issues. ;) The wee one is also getting so big that finding a position to sleep in is becoming interesting. Especially with this coughing thing that is going on, since it starts up when I am laying down. It is definitely one in the same with the pee issue, regarding the way the baby is positioned. At least I got some new underwear out of the pee thing though. I haven't bought underwear in years - I am serious. I was thinking that it has been at least 8 years or so. I have had the same underwear since Layla came into my life. All I can say is that Hanes makes some tough underwear! :) On the peeing note, has anyone else had a consistent cough for a few months leading up to birth? I have been running into more and more people that say they had a cough for 3 months prior to giving birth because of the baby pushing on their diaphragm.

I am going to be reunited with Wolfgang come Tuesday! I am really excited to see him. It has been over 4 months since I was last with him. Such a long time. I hope that he remembers me. :)

Will write more when I am about to head to or arrive in Ashland. Love to everyone. <3

Living on the Columbia River

I have been living in my old childhood stomping grounds near Hood River, Oregon for the past 8 days. It has been very peaceful and nice. A lot of friendly people, a cool setting (temperature wise also), and it is nice to watch people windsurf again. I have been thinking about picking windsurfing back up again after the baby is born, as long as someone is there to help me watch her, of course. :)  I just arrived in Portland an hour ago, so adapting to a very populated area is interesting, once again. I am living on the side of the street again, at the same spot I was living back in October. My hopes for living on the streets of Portland is to promote and sell the bus soon. So far, I have had a lot of people stand me up on buying the car and motorcycle, but at least my Craigslist postings are generating some interest. Still crossing my fingers that everything is sold by the end of August.

I found a super beautiful Toyota Dolphin that I am going to check out in Bend, Oregon after I am done trying to sell the bus in Portland and Eugene. It has a very similar style to the bus with all of the beautiful bright colors inside, but it gets 16-18mpg instead of 8-12mpg. ;) Plus it has a full shower, bathroom, refrigerator, sink, and all wood floors. It would be so much nicer traveling in a lower profile vehicle, though I am getting used to driving the bus again, and it is very accepted in Oregon. I finally met a couple with a converted bus in Hood River, Oregon. They gave me a lot of really good tips on living free with the bus for months at a time. It is nice knowing that I am not the only converted bus in Oregon. :)

I am 29 weeks pregnant today, and still trying to get over this possible respiratory infection. I have been taking really good care of it, but it has finally strained a lot of muscles in my back. It hurts pretty bad, so crossing my fingers that the cough goes away for good soon. I keep wondering if it was the pesticides I inhaled that caused it, or if it is just the baby pushing on the diaphragm. I can go half of the day without coughing, then when I get into certain positions, I start coughing - especially at night when I lay down. I don't feel sick or anything out of the ordinary, and no one is getting sick from me, so I know I don't have a cold. My sister and a friend of mine had something similar the last 3 months of their pregnancies.   I am definitely ready for the baby to drop near the end of pregnancy so I can get some coughing relief. Aside from all of that, the baby is growing more and more every day and everything is going well, but time is flying!

Waunderin' Washington

It has seriously been a crazy 2 weeks. I left Elkton on the 26th of August to head to Washington for 2 nights of Phish. I am definitely not a huge fan of Washington, though it is very beautiful. I have had a lot of ups and downs since I arrived here. I went to see Bernard & Lucy before I left town, and they look great. When I arrived, he immediately ran over to his ducklings and protected them. He really is a father! On the way back from seeing Bernard, something happened to one of the wheels on my Beetle. I am not sure what it is yet (whirring noise), but since I am not allowed to bring my bus back to the property in Elkton, it is hard to take it to a shop to get it looked at, in addition to it being hard to sell my vehicles from afar. Still trying to figure all of that out right now and find a new place to live that isn't permanent, since all three vehicles should be gone soon.

I had to get a hotel room when I got to Washington, since the RV parks didn't like the look of my bus. It was nice being in a hotel room for two days, but I was glad to get out. I am actually glad the RV parks didn't like my bus, because it ended up being in the 100's the whole time I was in Wenatchee for the shows. The A/C was pretty much running on full blast the whole time since there are no trees in that town..or many anyway. The first night I went to the Phish show, I was blasted with a bus full of pesticides from a farmer that was spraying his field. It was windy, so it covered the whole windshield and the inside of my bus, and many of the other cars around. Since then, I have had a very serious respiratory infection that I have been trying to heal. It seems to be calming down, but it is very hard to get to sleep some nights. Spraying fields like that should be illegal on windy days (or in general). I feel really bad for the baby having to endure my coughing fits (and poison). The show was amazing though, and I was successfully able to dance for 4 hours straight.

Kelley, the father of my child, was also able to meet up with me in Wenatchee. He was traveling from Missoula to Seattle at the same time, so it worked out well. It was nice to have him there with the baby. The second night of the Phish show was really rough. On the way to the show, there were two small fires that were being put out. Over the next 4 hours, they spread over many miles of land and were really close to the show - you could see it over the hill. A lot of people were coughing and couldn't dance anymore, and I was having a lot of issues because of the respiratory infection I recently acquired. A huge crowd of people ended up leaving early because of it, and the whole way back to the hotel was pretty rough. When I reached the fire, it looked like a volcano had erupted over multiple mountain hills. It was really sad, and last I heard, they were still trying to contain it over 40 miles of land. It started in a really windy area, so there didn't seem to be much hope for containment right away, especially since Washington hasn't seen much rain lately.

The day after the show, I headed to Seattle. I quickly found that Seattle isn't the town for me. Much like Wenatchee, the whole school bus thing wasn't a very accepted concept, nor was a traveling pregnant hippie. When I got to the next town of Marysville, Washington, a woman actually told me I wasn't welcome in her town, and asked her husband to back me up and tell me I wasn't welcomed there. It really bummed me out, and I don't really understand what the big deal is..it is just a converted school bus after all. Outside of Marysville, I found a huge dog park for Layla and Millie to run around in. They had a lot of fun and met a lot of dogs. We ended up sleeping at a rest stop (they are all pretty beautiful around here), which was nice and cool at night. After Marysville, we made our way out to Anacortes, Washington. Once again, another town I wasn't welcomed in? A lot of people were disgusted with the bus, making loud comments about it. My first encounter there, I parked my bus next to a park. I parked around a tree, and somehow my bus caught a branch that I couldn't see because of the leaves, and pulled it off. The branch wasn't big, maybe a foot long and dead (all of the leaves were dead on it). These parents in the park had their kids come down to the bus door and yell at me for about 30 minutes saying I was a bad, bad, horrible person for hurting a tree. I was pretty astonished, and wouldn't leave the bus because it was really embarrassing, especially for such a tiny thing that broke off. The kids were only about 5-7 years old, and there were about 7 of them outside of the door. I felt like I was in a foreign land, where humans were at their worst. I went to the local natural foods store, and hightailed it out of that area to the state park down the street. I parked my bus in a RV spot with electricity and water, which was such a nice change  of pace for me. It was quiet and peaceful the whole time, and right next to the ocean. I saw many porpoise, sea lions, and I think even a mink whale. I would walk the girls about 5 miles a day, but had to cut it down near the end because the I was getting some small early contractions from it. But it was really nice just being in nature and being able to breathe in some fresh air! :) The girls certainly loved it, and the weather was perfect being 70 degrees during the day, and around 40-50 at night. I even got to take a shower! A hot shower. :)

Leaving was sad, but the camping is too expensive for me at this time. Especially with the high price of gas right now. On the way out of Anacortes, I stopped at the store to pick up some produce. This man stopped me and talked to me about the bus and changing to something smaller for me and the baby. It is so true, I need something smaller and more maneuverable, especially being pregnant. It is hard driving that huge rig by myself, even though I love my home. But he opened my eyes to many different options for mobile homes that are small and fit in a single parking space. It was comforting being around someone who was so accepting, and he gave me a lot of good travel tips for Washington. I am really looking forward to getting rid of all of my vehicles and starting fresh again. Being on the road for two weeks, I have truly realized that the bus life isn't meant for a single person. Sometimes you just need an extra eye to help you make a turn or back up. The gas milage hasn't been too bad lately though. I have been averaging about 10-15mpg! Pretty amazing for a school bus.

Since I left Anacortes, things have been really challenging. I ended up back in Seattle, and Kelley found a place for me to park where they were staying so I could hang out with him and Mira for the night. The people we were staying with became pretty hostile toward me because of the school bus and my dogs, and said that their landlord was yelling at them for me being there, even though they said it was perfectly fine multiple times prior to that. I was thankful to at least spend a night with people I knew, and hope to meet up with Kelly & Mira to camp near Mount Rainier tonight. All in all, I need out of Washington and fast, and I want to place my vehicles in new homes very soon. Looking forward to going down to Portland and Eugene to be around people more on my wavelength. I might have a temporary home with a community near Eugene for a while, which would be super nice. I have also been thinking about moving to Northern California for a while when all of my vehicles are re-homed. We will see. :) A nice change in pace would be wonderful right now. I really want to be around love, hugs, and people I know.

Hoping that things look up very soon. I am putting good vibes toward a quick and happy transition for me and all of the girls. Sending love to everyone. <3