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November 03, 2001 12:49 PM
Hi Van: I wish you and Eileen a very happy sojourn into the desert. It will be a challenge and a lot of fun. Actually it seems like the safest place to be in these times doesn't it?
I was just perusing yur Web Page. Eileen is braver than me! You are most fortunate to have someone love you that much! Hmmmmmm! Laguna Hills and Laguna Beach are more my style.
I am a tourist; not a traveler. Good Luck! Bon Voyage! Mary Hines
News From Joshua Tree
I am limited to 20 people I can send this to so if you like receiving this journal, click on your Reply button and let me know, if you have not done so already. Otherwise, you may get replaced.
Apparently, my ISP's computer assumes spam if this list is longer then 20, and refuses to send it.
11/07/01:
Just a quick note to say hello from near-Harrisburg, PA.
We traveled over 400 miles today including a stop to see my sister Hannah, and for breakfast & dinner.
The essence of this message is to share this new expansion of freedom that I am experiencing.
I'm sitting in a bar, 10:17 at night, having a beer. Eileen is back in the motel sleeping, if she has gotten back from her walk. I'm sitting at this bar with my notebook and my cell phone and nothing else - no wires - I love it.
Read all about it on my web site - just click on the link that says “Cell Phone-Notebook Online Connection”.
Check back from time to time, there or the California / Joshua Tree pages, for occasional updates.
11/20/01:
Another quick note:
I don't believe nearly 2 weeks have gone by since the last note.
We are on my land south of Joshua Tree and have been here about 4 or 5 days.
I'm sitting in the van typing this.
Eileen and Mo are out for their evening walk. It's 4:30 now. The sun is behind the clouds which suggests rain but it probably won't.
The day gets too hot for a walk, but early morning and evening are good.
That is my schedule now - up at dawn and down at dusk.
The box trailer lost its axle in Tempe. The body shop we accidentally dropped into did a beautiful job of replacing it.
We were going to stay in the
Joshua Tree Inn for a few weeks while we renovated the house trailer parked on the land but all that changed with the cost of the axle. We stayed there one night. Instead, we purchased a
large green tarp, 2x4s and plywood locally and I set up a tent wrapped around one end
of the box trailer and that is our home, for now. Plenty of propane to supply our heating, cooking and lighting needs. We filled the 40 milk jugs that we had brought with us with water from a tap graciously offered by our neighbor, Tom Atherton, the rock climbing audiologist.
I'm going to take a nap now, before the dinner Eileen has begun to prepare. Then I go to work on the trip's accounting to see what Eileen owes me for her half of the trip.
Will keep you informed as I begin to develop a routine that allows me time on this machine.
November 20, 2001 6:57 PM Glad you checked in. Love Hannah
11/23/01:
Yesterday, for Thanksgiving dinner, we drove down into Palm Springs, ate some large helpings of a delicious pecan pie in a gay coffee shop and drove back up here. The whole scenario was a little strange - it was in the 80s and the stores were playing Christmas music - we couldn't really get into that just yet, but we had fun. We walked the downtown streets of that pulsing and sculptured town of palms and springs - well, we didn't see any springs but there were plenty of fountains. Mo, hot dry and desert dirty just climbed right into one and laid down with a quiet look of total satisfaction. I had him on one of those long retractable leads and I just let it feed out. He drew quite a crowd of smiling onlookers as he wallowed around the rock bottom of the pool. Eventually, he climbed out, shook, and we went on our way.
As we drove through the stark white low desert approaching PS and again as we headed back towards the steep winding Route 62 that climbs about 3000 feet up into Joshua Tree, I noticed that the wind was unusually powerful and commented that I hoped it would not extend up into our mountain. I didn't think it would.
Last night was hell. Eileen didn't seem to mind it - she said it reminded her of times she had spent in a boat during stormy weather (I suspect she had taken one of her tranks prior to bed time). It scared the hell out of me - I laid there all night watching our home whip back and forth over our heads, billowing out like a balloon and then suddenly in like it had sucked on a lemon. The dry fiberglass tarp sounded something like a luffed sail suddenly crashing into a jibe, with a cascade of whips snapping simultaneously and a snare drum with no pauses between the beats. It held to the platform in spite of all this but I was ready for it to rip loose at any moment. At one point, Eileen's stuff on the plastic shelving unit next to our bed crashed to the floor. Eventually I couldn't risk it any longer. Mo and Missy were already in the car by now, Mo having begged for escape earlier on, and Missy lives in the car permanently. I grabbed Eileen and guided her out of the tent and to the car where we all slept the rest of the night. She was just a little perturbed, referring to me as a wimp or something like that.
I had not checked my email yesterday. Today I found this from the Emergency Email Network, sent to me yesterday:
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
RIVERSIDE COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
SAN DIEGO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
...HIGH WIND WATCH IN EFFECT FOR 230 PM SAT AFTERNOON THROUGH 600 AM SUNDAY...
SOUTHWEST TO WEST WINDS 30 TO 40 MPH WITH LOCAL GUSTS TO 60 MPH SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND SAT NIGHT.
This morning I was thoroughly surprised to find that almost everything outside of the tent was still in place. The tarp was in excellent shape - no tears; not stretch marks - I highly recommend buying your tarps at Kmart, of all places - we were referred there by a local carpenter when I was looking some over in Walmart. My framing had tilted a bit, so I bought some more 2x4s at Barr Lumber today to reinforce the structure. Also bought a bunch of Velcro to see if I can tuck the excess tarp into a fold and lock it in place. I'll work on that mañana.
It is cold tonight - 50 degrees, the last I looked, but so very pleasant and still. When the sun went down about an hour ago, it was 60 degrees - magnificent sunset - got some panoramic shots of that and the Joshua Tree valley mountain range as a silhouette. Today it was in the 70s; kind of cool, but bearable. [That's for the benefit of you Easterners :) ]
November 24, 2001 8:34 AM
Hi Van and Eileen, So happy to have this first news of you both....have been thinking of you a lot and wondering how your great adventure is progressing. It sounds great. Last Monday there were pictures in the Cape Cod Times of the meteor showers, as seen from Joshua Tree! I was immediately hopeful that you both laid under the stars and watched. It was pretty spectacular here on our deck in Chatham.
The storm sounds amazing....animals told you what to do, huh? What is the trailer status? Love to you both, Marcia
November 25, 2001 12:16 PM [email from me to Hannah]
I get up at about dusk, have a cup of coffee or three, look around and admire this lovely land, get to work on what I'm working on, and its dark all of a sudden.
Somewhere in that schedule, I need to keep Eileen happy with day trips and shopping and fire up my computer to check in with the world (it's still there) and to say hello to you and the girls. Somehow this can add up to a week or so without my even noticing.
November 25, 2001 7:41 PM
You get up at Dusk????? Dusk is at sundown. Do you sleep all day?
November 26, 2001 12:20 PM
Dawn! Dawn!
November 26, 2001 5:39 AM
Hi All, Sounds like you had a very interesting Holiday! Heat, wind, no dinner but wonderful dessert! Miss you Love, Renie
November 26, 2001 8:25 AM
HI Eileen & Van, Great to hear from you both. Sounds like you're enjoying your trip across the country. Take care, Kathryn
November 27, 2001 6:27 PM
Hi Van and Eileen, Ginny forwarded your message to me so I could read about your very interesting adventure. Sounds like you're having a great time. (except for the very windy night!!!). Enjoy! Take care, Jane
11/27/01:
Thanks to all of you who have been responding to the message. It's nice to hear from the real world out there. If you don't know how, just click on your Reply button. :)
We have quit trying to make the tent sleepable. On 11/23 I referred to the night of hell. Well, I was wrong; that was only a gentle introduction to the real Hell. Though the next night was very calm and pleasant, the one after that (the 24th?) was horrendous. Fortunately, I had reinforced the structure that day. Had I not, the nails probably would have popped and the whole thing collapsed on top of us. Not only did we get a wind and cold that paled the previous (and our faces), but we also got to enjoy the experience of a desert downpour - watching the two halves of the roof bulge pregnant with water, getting ready to hop up and push them over the edge, when a powerful gust of wind with low pressure in its wake would balloon the whole tent in all 5 directions and throw that water back into the sky. The tarp was longer in one direction then the framing allowed for - that's why so much slack. Eileen moved to the van; I remained with the sinking ship - fortunately, it didn't sink.
The next night we moved our permanent sleeping quarters to the van (that is, until the house trailer is ready). It has also become even colder. This morning it was 31 degrees when I ventured forth from the van to make my coffee. That was about an hour after sunup, so it had probably been in the twenties. Apparently we are experiencing record breaking colds and winds at night, though the days may get up into the 50s, perhaps approaching 60 at times. They say it will break and return to desert normal soon. One reason we came to California was to get away from the frigid miserable weather of the east coast, so those of you who have mentioned how nice and almost balmy it is back there are on our black list.
The van stays pretty nice from the day's heat and our 3.1 bodies heating up the place (Missy the cat is the .1). When we are lazy, and it begins to get too cold, we turn on the engine for awhile. Or if I'm up to it, I'll get our Coleman BlackCat heater, light it up outside, bring it in and stuff its tank into the glove box - it fits very nicely and its hot spot is not too close to anything. (It is rated as very safe indoors; you just don't want any material, skin or fur actually touching it.)
(You probably don't want to fall asleep with it on either, just in case.)
Today I took my first shower in about a week. After my siesta at about 3:00, before I could really wake up and think about it, I stripped down and climbed under the solar shower and scrubbed away. It was about 42 degrees out at the time. I guess solar showers don't hold the sun's heat too well when the wind is sucking it away. Also, heat rises and cold falls, so the coldest water comes down the hose at the bottom first; I thought about that later. Eileen was in back of the van reading and I hadn't mentioned what I was about to do, so when she began hearing all this whooping and barking and grunting and hollering, she came running around the corner thinking something horrible was happening. It was horrible, but she just stood there grinning.
She had done it the easy way this morning after the sun came over the hill. She had me boil up three full pots of water on the Coleman stove, mix them into a plastic salad bowl with cold water til just right, then pour them over
her as she scrubbed away.
Our move to the van released me from the need to constantly rework the tent, which had turned out to be a full time activity for something so "temporary". This allowed me to get to work on what I had come here for - the house trailer. If you've seen the pictures from last January on our web site, you know that it was covered with, stuffed with and surrounded by a heck of a lot of trash - mostly its
previous contents, glass from all windows and mirrors, and stuff added by others from nowhere. Most of that is gone now. What could go into boxes has been distributed over the last week or so to various dumpsters around town. The remaining big stuff - sofa, mattress & box, somebody else's van seats, etc. goes on top of the van tomorrow morning and to the dump. Then a good vacuuming powered by my 5000 watt generator, another disinfecting, a thorough scrub down and rinse, and then the reconstruction and painting begins.
November 28, 2001 3:26 PM
Does not sound like my cup of tea at all!
However, you do have excellent writing skills. I felt I was there and as scared as you were sometimes.I enjoy the stories and enjoy even more reading about them as opposed to experiencing it.
My husband and I went to Palm Springs once as a diversion from San Diego. We stayed in a nice hotel, Jacuzzi and the whole nine yards. It was a little cool in the morning as it was March. Looking forward to hearing from you again. Eileen is either a saint, or a glutton for adventure! Mary
November 28, 2001 9:09 PM
Well, I'm pretty sure Eileen is not a saint and she is not really into adventure - she likes her niceties and is very adverse to discomfort, so I don't know what the heck she is doing here.;)
Thank you very much for your compliments - there was a time in my life when I tried to be a writer - about the time I bought this land 30 or so years ago, but I couldn't handle all the rejection and the postage. So I got into computers instead. Van
November 29, 2001 9:52 AM
Try your writing skills again but maybe find another subject. You do have a gift for it. It is a shame not to use it. You have the ability to put someone in a place where they can hear, smell, see, and feel what is happening. Now that you have a computer you can keep these stories (journal style) and it alone would make a good story. This adventure doesn't need to be spiced............it certainly has a flavor all its own. The Inner Child at Play in the Desert! You have a lot of time on your hands to think about it and do it now. It is a real desert adventure. Bye for now and say hi to Eileen. Mary
November 29, 2001 6:45 PM
Thanks. Eileen said she is doing fine with her Janet Ivanovich and Sue Grafton books curled up in her down cocoon sleeping bag in the back seat of the van. Van
You know those National Geographic spreads of native nomads and how they live? We may have been the subject of something like that today, or a minor version of it. It was about 4:30, shortly before dusk. Eileen was in the back of the van reading her new Janet Ivanovich. I had just gotten up from my siesta and was out behind the trailer-tent making a cup of coffee on the Coleman stove. Mo was next to me and suddenly began barking and looking anxiously up into the hill. I looked up and there about 50 feet above us was a small crowd of onlookers. Keep in mind that the only animal forms that I have ever seen in that direction over 30 years are a mountain sheep and a coyote now and then. This appears to have been a class - one teacher and many teens. They bounded on down the road I had pry-barred through the hillside in a previous lifetime, looked us over with curious fascination, waved and helloed tentatively, and went on their way, single file. I have no clue where they came from or how they made it through that challenging landscape without a broken ankle or two.
Yes, we do have civilization out here. A few nights after our arrival, we went to see "Man Of LaMancia" at the High Desert Playhouse in Joshua Tree. It is a musical; you may have occasionally heard "To Dream The Impossible Dream". If you know the story of Don Quixote and have looked over the Joshua Tree area of my web site, then you might be able to imagine how I found myself identifying somewhat with the subject of the story. We hope to return there in about a week to see "Scrooge".
It was a little warmer today - 45 when I awoke this morning. The day was mostly overcast with the occasional sprinkle but it did get up to about 75 mid-afternoon. Now it is 44. (I stuck a temperature gauge in the windshield wiper.)
Yesterday morning, as promised, all the big stuff went on top of the van and to the dump. It was a bit depressing since most of the stuff had once been the proud contents of my house trailer, but now in such bad shape due to vandalism, broken windows and the determination of mother nature to return all man made objects to their basic elements, that I'm surprised the dump attendant let the stuff through.
Due to mix ups that are too complicated to explain we are without cash for a few days. However Eileen has decided that tomorrow is laundry day. But she was 20 cents short. So how did she resolve this? She carried a bag with her during her evening walk and collected cans and bottles along the road side. I am so proud of her - my very own bag lady.
November 29, 2001 5:16 AM
Hi Van, Thanks for the update....I heard about that awful cold weather and wondered of it had gotten to you. My sister in Boulder, CO, was at 3 degrees yesterday morning with very heavy winds. Hopefully, it warms up for you.....persistent cold can be really demoralizing! It is getting cooler here, too, so I can't send along any balmy news! All is well.....we really enjoy your news. Love, Marcia
November 29, 2001 9:20 AM
Hi Van, Thanks for your info. I really enjoyed looking at your travelogue and all your pictures and info. Hannah is doing some neat artwork too. Richie and I go out to San Diego once in a while to visit his sister, and they take us all over to see the sights, Palm Springs, Mt. Palomar and all sorts of neat places. I do think that we have traded our weather from coast to coast however, because its been in the 60s here recently. Thanks again, and have a Merry (and warm) Christmas, Janie and Richie
November 30, 2001 5:33 AM
Hi Van and Eileen, Allen and I are receiving your messages and enjoy keeping track of the two of you. Warm regards, Sue
November 30, 2001 7:14 PM
Van, I love reading about your adventures. I sure hope you plan to write a book about it when you return. Ginny
November 30, 2001 6:23 AM
Hey Dad & Eileen- Sounds like you're mildly enjoying living the rough life! Your journals tell a decent adventure - we'll have to wait and see how it ends! :-) Take care, and please say hello to Mo and Missy (.1? - I don't think Missy would appreciate that:-)!!) ...Bri. P.S. It's Janet Evanovich, Dad- not Ivanovich!!
November 30, 2001 9:48 PM
Hey - glad to hear from you. Regardless, you and Dar would not have been dropped from the list, of course. Yes, I am enjoying it immensely. I love this state and this place - feels like home to me in a way that NJ and the Cape never have. Just need you two out here to complete the circle. Eileen says to tell you she just finished a really good book by Su Grafting - E For Esomething (she's asleep now so I can't ask her). Love, Dad
December 03, 2001 6:31 AM E is for Evidence- good book!! take care... Bri
December 02, 2001 5:45 AM
The weather here is unseasonably warm, 71 degrees yesterday. Allen spent the day in shorts. I was in T-shirt, but I refuse to do shorts this time of year. Take care, Sue
December 03, 2001 5:56 PM
Dear Dad, Sounds like you guys are having an interesting adventure out there in the middle of the desert! I definitely have to give you guys props for having the will and determination to even start the trip, let alone continue on with it after the trying times you've had so far and so early on. Your spirits seem to be up and it sounds like you guys are experiencing life in its purest form.
I also think its pretty awesome that Eileen is still sticking with you through it all, helping out, enjoying herself and life at the same time. Not many women would last that long without their creature comforts after so long of having them (If I had gone with you, I would have already found a place to stay <complete with the comforts I enjoy> by making friends and putting the charm on! But don't worry, I'd still go visit you in your tent on occasion! :-)
So is it going to get much colder out there as the winter goes on? How long until you think you can live in the trailer? How's the cat keeping up? (I wouldn't think you'd need to worry much about Mo.) You guys should go to Vegas the next time you get a bunch of money and see if you can double it or something.
Best wishes, good luck and keep enjoying yourselves, we only live once and you never know when your time to go will be. Sometimes it comes so much sooner than you expect so live it up I say! Give Eileen a big warm hug for me and make sure you take care of her. Love, Darby
December 12, 2001 10:02 PM
Hi Dar, Good email. Answering your questions: It shouldn't get any colder then this, but this is breaking records, I think, so who knows. Missy is fine as long as she can find some heat or a warm body. Though we may take her for a short walk on a leash and halter now and then, she stays in the van - we don't want her to become a coyote meal. Eileen wants the light off so that's it for now. Love, Dad
December 04, 2001 10:53 AM
Have been away for the last ten days. As I read this email I started to wonder where the hell you were. I thought maybe he is on top of a mountain in Afghanistan. Maybe he is one of the Taliban. I don't envy you in any way. That kind of life is not for me. I was an infantryman in World War 2 and I lived in a fox hole for eight months. I always thought that this kind of life was for those that liked it---- as for me I am chicken little. I have 43 more emails to answer so enjoy your trip and thanks for including me in your email list. Jerry
December 04, 2001 6:08 AM
HI dessert People!, Think of you every day trying to survive the elements and carrying on with your daily routines, it sounds like a real challenge! Weather has been wonderful, 60 degrees everyday but very cold at night. Keep having Faith, God will provide. Love you both, Renie
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