My New Blog...Find It Here!

Hello to my five or six steady readers! I was talking on the phone last night with a friend who knows a LOT about marketing, and she suggested that I start a new blog about my RV adventures, rather than tell the unfolding story here in the blog I started about my artwork.

So here goes. My new blog is called "The eBay/RV Life," and you can find it at http://ebayrv.blogspot.com/

I'll probably keep this current blog going, too, to address art. I'm so excited about how much art I'll see and the artists I'll meet once I hit the road!

I hope you'll follow both blogs, and thanks for reading what I have to say.

Sue Soaring Sun, the soon to be intrepid eBay seller!

YouTube to the Rescue!

Until today, my main use for YouTube was just entertainment...you know, watching fun stuff like Lady Gaga covers sung by a choreographed men's chorus, for example.

But somehow today I ran across a treasure trove of YouTube films on how to do all the stuff I don't know how to do with my RV! How to empty the graywater (dish water, sink and shower water, etc.) and blackwater (the toilet), how to maintain a generator, how to drive safely, etc. It's all there! I never had any idea that there were such educational things on YouTube.

Now when I want to start learning something, I'm not going to just use a search engine. I'll flesh out my search by seeing whether anyone has put a primer type film on YouTube. This is a great way to learn, especially for someone like me who is a visual learner. I have such a hard time reading dense texts about technical stuff, but show me what to do and I've got it!

Here's an entertaining film made by a young man who's very expressive about blackwater:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPTFzyaItoc&feature=related

Fitting the Pieces Into the Puzzle

Wow, I sure have to learn before I become a full-time RVer. I'm grateful I have time to figure stuff out before it's absolutely necessary.

Here are some of the things I'm learning about these days:

...Where to camp for free or at very reasonable prices...campground host jobs, government land, stores that allow you to camp in their parking lots overnight, stealth camping, etc.

...How to handle ordinary business from the road, such as banking, mail, phone, Internet access, etc.

...How to have electricity in my RV when I don't have access to fancy-schmantzy hookups...solar panels, batteries, generators, etc.

...What choices there are for RV bike racks and whether I can put a motor on my current bike or whether I want to buy something else

...How to run the various stuff inside the RV, such as the heat and stove (both on propane) and other appliances (electric...but which source of electricity do I use and when and how?)

I feel like I do when I'm starting a jigsaw puzzle. I try to look for the outside or frame pieces because then I can get an idea of how big the puzzle is and how it's organized, making it easier to eventually fit the inner pieces into place. But, right now, there are so many pieces and it's pretty confusing!

I've decided that my first motorhome field trip is going to be to Camping World in Junction City, a few miles from Eugene. They have lots of stuff that I need, and it's okay to camp in their parking lot overnight! So I'll plan on spending a night or two there, gearing up and trying out my new gear.

P.S. My attempts to avoid multitasking over the past few days have been really helpful in delineating what the questions and answers are in designing my new life as a gallivanting full-time RVer. I recommend doing things one at a time.

Monotasking

I'm usually the kind of person who is juggling two or three balls in the air at once. Cooking while listing auctions on eBay, watching TV while doing artwork, etc.

I've begun to realize, however, that to get ready to become a full-time RVer, sometimes I'm going to need to slow down and just do just one thing at a time. Otherwise I will get overwhelmed by the decisions that need to be made and the number of tasks that need to be accomplished!

What made me realize this today was noticing the photos of family and friends that are sitting on my dresser. That reminded me that I have two largish boxes of photos that I brought with me when I moved here to Eugene, and I haven't done anything with them except continue to store them. That's fine in a small rental house, but it won't work when I'm living in my motorhome. So, one of many decisions that I need to make is what to do with my pics...digitize, scrapbook, or what?

Normally I am somewhat freaked out by the prospect of yet another time-consuming task, such as dealing with these photos. But, when I don't multitask and I just concentrate on what I'm doing, thinking and feeling in this moment, it's all okay. Then I remember that the decision to become a nomad is a conscious one--it's following my heart and my dreams. So everything that needs to be done in order for me to hit the road is good.

In truth, I've always wanted to be the kind of person who lives such a simple life that she'd have time to take lots of photos and make nice scrapbooks. That's the kind of person I want to be when I'm traveling...enjoying and savoring the journey. Dealing with the photos effectively and creatively will be one more step toward becoming the person I really want to be. So will all the other tasks that I encounter and face as I work towards becoming a vagabond.

So today I am practicing monotasking. I did a bunch of clean-up work on my computer and in my kitchen this morning. This afternoon I'm going to make stuff disappear from my home office. Maybe later this afternoon, I'll indulge in a little multitasking while "Oprah" is on, dinner is cooking, and some of my friends are available to play a game online...but until then I'm doing things one task at a time.

Bonding With the Beast

Today I spent several hours in my new (to me) motorhome, cleaning and dreaming and scheming and trying things out.

I figured out a few things today. I'm definitely going to need some strong people to remove the charming but useless (to me) built-in bucket chairs and teeny game table.

Then I'll need someone to help me build more practical seating and a table (booth style, with storage benches and convertible to an extra bed), plus a worktable/storage unit to replace the couch. This arrangement seems (to me) like it would be pretty simple to build--almost all straight lines--and it will give me adequate storage and workspace to continue making my living as a self-employed eBay seller and artist while I travel. That's the theory, anyway! I won't be the first to give this a try, and I'm sure I won't be the last. I just hope I am one of the folks who makes it work.

I also found out today that I'll need big strong people to remove the carpet, if I decide to have that done. It's really glued down. I tried taking a utility knife to it and pulling it away from the plywood with little success. I wanted a blowtorch to loosen up the old glue, but that's probably not the best approach to solving this problem.

I may decide to just use throw rugs, Gypsy style, over the carpet. I'll probably be giving the interior of my rig a pretty eclectic look, anyway. I'll definitely be doing away with the brown plaidness. There will be blues and greens (my favorite colors) and I'm thinking that a Toyota Dolphin oughta have a dolphin/surf/beach type decor. Am I right?

Of course, the most important part of this remodel is to get a good workable space for full-time RVing...but scheming on interior decor in a tiny space is like playing house and I love it!

A New Direction...Life in a Dolphin

I started this blog a couple of years ago when I was just beginning to experience some success as a professional mosaic artist in Edmonds, Washington.

Since then, I've moved to Eugene, Oregon. I've been doing quite a bit of artwork, as well as selling vintage textiles on eBay and antiques at several antique malls. I've gotten separated and my divorce will be final at the end of this year. I'm about to receive a property settlement...not as big as it might have been had the economy not tanked...but enough to make some meaningful decisions about what to do next.

I've considered several possibilities. One that looks particularly good is to buy a manufactured home or mobile home in a local 55+ community here in Eugene where several of my friends live. It would be nice to have an affordable place where I would already know some of the neighbors.

But, upon consideration, I've decided I'm just not ready to settle down in one place yet. I have a wanderlust that I've never been able to satisfy by just taking vacations. I've had a lifetime dream of living on the road. And now I have the time and opportunity to live that dream.

So I've been on the look-out for several months for a good RV that would serve my purposes, and last week I found it, a 1982 Toyota Dolphin Class C (mini) motorhome. It needs some work, and I need to prepare.

I'm going to need to downsize AGAIN! I've already done that twice in the past year, first moving from a 3400 sf suburban home to a 700 sf rental cottage, and then downsizing within the rental house when my kid later moved in with me. But now it's time to become a true minimalist.

I don't know when I'll be hitting the road...probably sometime in the late winter or spring of 2011. My plan is to live very frugally by camping in free or low cost campgrounds and combining camping with housesitting, park host volunteer work, and visiting friends and family. It will be quite an adventure!

Going to M.E.C.C.A.

Since I moved to Eugene, Oregon, several months ago, I've joined an organization called Materials Exchange Center for Community Arts (M.E.C.C.A.). It's a nonprofit that has a great little old historical building next to the train station that is used as a studio, classroom, gallery and store.

M.E.C.C.A.'s mission is to divert usable materials from landfills and get them into the hands of artists, teachers, kids and other people who will use them. They provide low cost art education to adults, kids, and schools.

As a contributing artist (I paid a small membership fee), I get to use the M.E.C.C.A. studio space several times a week when they have open studio time. This is a real boon for me, because the mosaic studio I have in my small rental house is a little mud room off the kitchen, which is nearly impossible to keep warm in the winter. I imagine it will also be difficult to keep cool in the summer! So it's nice to have a place to go, where I can spread out and do my work in the company of other artists.

I also get to make use of the store. Materials are donated from business, industry, and individuals. You just never know what's going to be in the store! It's really fun to watch the volunteers open up boxes of contributed materials while I'm working in the studio. There is almost always something that I can immediately put to use in a mosaic.

That, of course, is one of the fun things about mosaic. I can have a plan of what I'm going to do, but new materials can spark new ideas. The other day I was mosaiking a birdhouse with blue and white Delft pottery, but the coins, buttons, belt buckles and other shiny little things that I found at M.E.C.C.A. gave it a little more interest.

M.E.C.C.A. has a drop-in studio for families with kids each Saturday, with a different simple project taught by one of its members or volunteers. I'm currently figuring out a quick mosaic project that could be done in less than an hour--maybe a coaster for Fathers Day.