Mary Panttaja

We are preparing to head out traveling again. This time just the two of us and the pop-up tent camper. The entire rig is small but pretty complicated. We carry the following with our car and a 10 foot trailer:

• Our traveling office includes the following:
  • 2 Macs (now running SlingPlayer to our SlingBox at home to help us follow the Tour de France next week)
  • EVDO cellular network
  • Network hub that can work off the car battery (or the camper battery)
  • Cellular camera and a digitial media transfer device
  • Digital voice recorder
  • HP all-in-one (printer, fax, copier; which we have yet to use)
  • Garmin GPS unit
  • Of course, the two IPhones (a different wireless network)
  • We are also currently maintaining a T-Mobile account for really fast wireless where it’s available (Starbucks for example)

• An old Yakima space case (Gorrila tape patches and stickers abound) carrying our folding flat water kayak
• An extra set of old bike racks on the car for when we want to shuttle without the trailer
• Riding on top of the camper: Two Jackson white water kayaks (for only up to class 3; we’re wooses)
• Two Ibis mountain bikes–much more worn this year than ever before. (Ibis Cycles is back in business in Scotts Valley, which is good news.)

The camper itself is minimially outfitted: no air conditioning, no microwave, no shower. The only indulgence is that these little Fleetwood campers are the only RV’s that come with king-size beds—still using sleeping bags—but they are wide and long. When we are on the road, while we like having access to electricity and tables and chairs for our work, we’d rather feel a little more like we are camping and spend a lot of our days out of doors rather than be coddled inside a house-like environment. So the tent-camper is fitting.

As we prepare our for our sojourn, I realize how fickle I am. Sometimes I really want to be just wandering around the world. (Currently reading “Vagabonding” by Rolf Potts.) Live the footloose life, unattached to a place, mirroring an international version of “On the Road”. And other times, I really want to sit and be still and focus. And home is a really productive place to do that. In addition, the two life styles have some difficulty sychronizing. If you want to be engaged in group activities (like play in a band, working in a writing group, or having a personal social life) you need to be around much of the time—making you less free to wander in time and space, even if you can make your work travel with you. So maybe “work” can go where you go, but “community” is a harder thing to take on the road.

Well, if this is the worst problem we have to resolve, then life is good. It does look like we may be settling in for a bit of a work challenge come our return, so this is an important R&R trip. I hope to make significant progress on the the next draft of the novel, and maybe start thinking about finding a professional editor. Fun stuff.