The Trip That Lasted a Year - May Days

At this point, I had travelled to California with my Dad to pick up the RV he had stored at my brother's place. It had been pretty abused, was overgrown with weeds and spiders and had accumulated the muck of a few years' random uses. But it ran! and it was to be mine! That's all that mattered. Swept out, wiped down, and taken for a test drive, it was road-ready (amazingly the lights worked and EVERTYHING). My bro warned me that the tub had given way once but he had used bondo and fixed it... and oh yeah, the covers for the crank-vents on the roof were gone, the propane tanks, the water tank... and for some reason the toilet bowl doesn't hold water...

Well, for better or worse, it was comin' with me to the Land of Az. Az is much the same as Oz, in that it has the same other-landish qualities. Reality is too dull, so it makes things up that scare the shit outta you, baffle you, amaze you, and in the end you go utterly insane. It's true. Hoses burst at the drop of a hat, eggs fry on sidewalks, red-winged wasps capture big ol' tarantulas and drag them, comatose, back down their lair to feed wasp babies, dragonflies hunt bees, whole thundershowers come and go the ten minutes you were in the store, flowers bloom before your eyes, swarms of bees attack people and animals, clothes on the line dry practically before you are done pinning them up...

So back to the Land of Az we went! And although there were many things broken about that poor vehicle, the engine was not one of them. A solid 454 that charged up the Tehachapi Mountains and still got about 13 mpg along the way. I parked it in my nowhere spot, the 12-footer was taken away, and I continued living there, with the horses and the cats... Oh. The cats. Well, they couldn't go outside much cuzza those mongrel beasts that kill everything on their property, tho I did tempt fate a couple of times, and big boy Runt actually fended off an attack (understand he weighed in at about 16 pounds, big Maine Coon beefcake, with long, sharp claws, and lots of muscle to wield them with). I was careful, and we usually went out at night since the dogs were at the house then. That is, the nights when the Javelina weren't migrating through. Which were always on the nights of the New Moon.

I realized they were there already, when I was coming out of the outhouse one night, after a shower, with the towel around my head (that's a big DUH!) and couldn't hear anything, but I could feel eyes on me. As I approached my front door, and up the extended iron steps, I saw shadows moving about two feet away, under and around the RV. No bumps, the RV was much taller than the trailer, I'm sure to their liking! Soon I walked among them, then they enjoyed dried cat food scattered from my living-area window, that slid all the way open to allow me to hang out and get to know them better. They have these kind of barks, not so much grunting, and they can raise the LONG-ass hair (more hair than fur) on their backs at will, making them look four inches taller. They like to freeze mid-stride, and pose for pictures, and have their little pecking order too. They are like hairy chickens. In so many ways.

J was living in Tucson now, and missed his cat, and wanted to come get him. It was nicer for him to be indoors, in Air Conditioning (mine worked a small portion of time) with his long, tabby fur... where there was carpet inside, grass outside, and luvin from his college-student caretaker. He'd been there before, but we were afraid he was lonely, so had brought him out with Cat and me. But, a tradeoff once in a while is ok, isn't it? I remember the night before J was to leave, we were out walking the cats in the moonlight again, everything on the ranch was visible, almost like daylight. We communed with the horses, sat around listening to crickets, and Runt ambled by, letting us twittle our fingers above him so that he would launch up on his hind legs and roll his forehead into our hands, as he always did. A couple times of that, and his 3-ft long outstretched body would be begging like a child, arms outstretched, "up! up!" and we lift him up so that his oh-so-strong arms could hug our necks. We wandered around a bit more, before going to bed, leaving the screen door closed with it's kitty door so they would come in when they wanted, usually about midnight, and I close the door after them and go to bed.

Except we fell asleep, and didn't close the door. Cat was in and sleeping like always in the First Mate's chair (opposite the Captain's Chair, the driver's seat) but we couldn't find the boy. And in fact, never saw him again. Yes, we scoured almost 20 acres looking, literally, for hide or hair of this large lovey boy, and even think (to this day) one of the neighbors across the nearby fence may have discovered him and kept him for their own. Despite the LOST signs we put up with his pictures. But sometimes he comes back, in dreams.

So, here it is, almost July, the heat is getting pretty unbearable, I'm pardner-less, job-less, one cat down, and so miserable! The worst kind, the silent kind. Where one no longer talks of the misery, or hopes, or... life. But there were stirrings. Go West, something was calling. My mom was getting worse now, not making sense of her sentences, not thinking of the word she wants to use... repeating her stories and always talking about the weather... my brother said he thought I should move to Sacramento to be with her, but I HATE Sacramento. I told him I had spent much time with her while she was healthy, while he was running around getting high with his friends - so I got some good times, before her husband banned family from coming over, before she got herself into this weird relationship and let this man take over her life, then her mind... No, I want to live my life, and visit her now and again as I have been doing, she would want that. No sense in the affliction claiming all our lives. She still knew me, and I still visited.

So I made the decision to go. Where? out of this god-forsaken land and back to greenery, rivers, and rain... Portland! Yes, I'll be Portland-bound. No, I didn't know anyone there, but J's mom who lives an hour north of there said there was an empty space in the 5-space mobile-home park where she lives. Great! I called the landlord, we worked out a deal, and a date, so by the end of July I'd be livin' it up with Cat in the RV, under the tall, tall, pines. Found a place for the boys, and figured I'd look for work in PDX while drawing AZ unemployment. I could be outside for hours, in the mild weather, or floating down the Toutle River a couple miles away... it was too perfect.

Yes... tooooo perfect to be true.

Stay tuned.
There's the last picture ever taken of him, hangin' out of the RV door, one of his favorite things... and a couple more here.