My friend Sue is moving to Elephant Butte, New Mexico. She recently sent me photos of her new place. Upon seeing them a considerably painful case of wanderlust came over me. The condition worsened a day later when I found out my sister and her husband were traveling to North Carolina to have a look around. It’s their plan to build an empty nest down there. My friend Karin took her camper and spent the winter in Craig, Colorado and the spring somewhere in Pennsylvania and yet another friend, Kim, is preparing to move to the shores of Connecticut.
I went to all those places this morning, not by road, but by my Microsoft Streets and Trips software. My tour of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, the south and the Wild West put a wild idea in my head: I’m going to sell this big old house and buy a little camper. My better half has no interest in going with me, but my young grandson Aiden will, which lines right up with my plan to take a little camper. I’ll have wireless Internet; you will never even know I’m gone. If I should happen to mention the silencing majesty of the Rocky Mountains, the Berry Blue Jell-O color of the waters of the Caribbean, the multicolored dresses of the Mexican women who sell their wares beneath the southwest striped awnings along the sidewalks of Santa Fe, or the large-breasted black woman that stroll down River Street, as slow and sultry as the Savannah sunrise, I’ll just say, "I was using that map software today and imagining."
I think perhaps my military upbringing, moving every couple of years, has played a large part in my desire to get up and go. I'm used to running the bases after a short stop. Our average length of stay in a home was two years, which nicely coincided with house cleaning time. We never spring cleaned; we simply packed up and moved away. Thank goodness the folks that vacated the house prior to our arrival didn’t have the same modus operandi.
I think buying a camper and traveling across the country is a wonderful idea. I’m getting pretty good about backing up the garden cart without jackknifing my four-wheeler, so I was thinking I can probably maneuver a recreational vehicle. How hard can it be? It has to be easier; after all, there aren’t as many stumps in the middle of the road as there are in the back yard!
If I do decide to go, don’t worry- I’ll write.
L.E. Hughes is a columnist, writer and owner of Diamond Corner B&B in Stratton, Maine. She welcomes your thoughts and comments: diamondcorner@adelphia.net. © June 2006, Lew-Ellyn Hughes. All Rights Reserved and Retained by the Author.
