Chutes and Ladders

It’s midnight on a Friday night. Hurricane Sandy is passing offshore and her tentacles are reaching onshore blowing the bus around in gusts of tropical storm force winds. Squalls of rainshowers have been hitting us at all angles for the past 36 hours.

Mostly, it’s been a pleasant and novel departure from borderline too hot and humid weather in central Florida. I’ve ridden out many a tropical storm while living on Florida’s coast for over a decade, but this our first in an RV.

But it should be a walk in the park in comparison to the potential threat faced by our peers up the northeastern seaboard.

We then discovered a pool of water accumulating on the bathroom countertop that is too large to justify as oversplash of vigorous hand washing.

A closer look reveals water slowly and steadily seeping in from the now swollen wood paneled walls.

We have our first substantial roof leak on the bus.

We’re actually quite amused by this and not panicking, remembering many a night during our first months in the Oliver in which we awoke in terror of interior flooding conditions due to bad roof seals and blocked window drains.

We had expected this old bus to have sprung a leak long before now.

But what to do? How do we trace down where the leak is coming from inbetween squalls and perhaps minimize the damage?

We have no way immediately available to get up on the roof and check things out. Which reminds me of a set of frequent questions we’re asked about what to take when you hit the road:

• What’s something you did bring along, but haven’t used nearly enough?
• What’s something you wish you had kept and brought along?

I usually have to think hard to come up with an answer. Because regardless of how well you try to predict the future, you will guess something wrong. You will carry things that you never use. And you’ll encounter situations where you really could have used that gizmo you left behind. But we always adapt.

 

In this particular situation I realize – we do have the perfect answer to this question: Chutes and Ladders.

Chutes

It’s probably now a little know fact that Chris had taken up paramotoring as a hobby just before he hit the road nearly 7 years ago. A long time aviation enthusiast and pilot, paramotoring was the perfect form of flight for a soon-to-be and just laid off nomad. The equipment is rather reasonable to purchase and store – for under $10k you can obtain an aircraft that you strap to your back and can pack up into a Prius.

It’s actually this feature that initially stood out to me in Chris’ farewell forum post to his beloved Prius when he hit the road. His Prius was an aircraft carrier.

I had been fiddling with the notion of chasing my own flying fantasies – perhaps by skydiving or small planes. But I’m always thwarted by  motion sickness and just couldn’t overcome the fear of facing it solo.

So Chris traveling around in a super tiny travel trailer pulled by a Jeep Liberty that was packed to the gills with his airplane – was fascinating. He’s a true adventurer, and could possibly even help break me out of my fear to realize my dreams of free flight.

When he proposed that I join him on the road, it was not just a matter of us figuring out how to squeeze two people into 45 sq. feet of living space. There was literally no room for me to bring along much at all.  I had to compress my life to fit into a drawer and a duffle bag – as the paramotor was an essential part of the journey and opportunities for flying the routing points.

The paramotor took nearly every possible square millimeter of non-passenger seat space inside the Jeep, and more.

But yet, have you noticed how often we post about such flying adventures? Unless you’ve followed along since the very beginning days, would you even know paramotoring played such a pivotal role?

Only three times in the 6 years I’ve now been on the road with Chris have the conditions lined up for him to feel comfortable flying as a novice paramotorist. The longer this went on, the more I resented the trade-offs I’d made in paring down my stuff to move aboard.

Over the years we have managed to increase our storage space, and left pieces of the airplane scattered across the country. His motor now sits in his storage unit in Sacramento. And his landing gear in a friend’s garage.

Yet, we still dedicate a significant portion of a bus bay to carry the bulky yellow wing & harness – which closely resembles a parachute –  just in case we find an ideal paragliding location. Not that we ever have.

And a chute hasn’t come in handy yet on any other occasion. I dunno, maybe we could use it to tarp the roof?

Ladders

Chris also owns a ladder. An amazing ladder. A most epic of telescoping marvels of human height enhancing engineering.

Or at least, so I’ve heard.

When he was preparing to hit the road, it was one of those items that was too valuable to sell and too useful to simply stick in storage. It’d also be something he thought he’d want back should he ever settle down into a house again.

To get rid of such things, he came up with the brilliant idea of a ‘House Cooling Party’ – in which he invited all his friends to come visit with the idea that they had to take something away.

The recipient of the ladder adopted it with the understanding that it was on indefinite loan.  The ladder gets to continue to serve its purpose, and Chris keeps claim to it.

On our previous two trailers, the ladder would not have been of much use. The roofs were not quite so tall and had less stuff that needed accessing.

But that ladder sure would come in handy with this bus, which is 11.5 feet tall with lots of stuff on the roof needing maintenance.  Oh, such as this particular evening? Or fixing that insanity causing noisy air conditioner which made our summer of record breaking heat tolerable? Or a broken vent fan that is currently preventing us from air flow?

Problem is.. this mythical creature is in California. And we are not. And nor will we be in the forseeable future.

But Chris won’t allow himself to buy a new ladder without proper cause. Despite how many times I point out nice compact telescoping ones in the store.

After all, he already owns the most perfect ladder, we just need to retrieve it. Nothing else could ever compare.

And no, we can’t just purchase a second wonder ladder. Why own two of something so seldomn-used?

So thus we remain effectively without a ladder, trusting in serendipity to present picnic tables and borrowed ladders when most needed.

But we have a paraglider wing.  Not that I’m bitter or anything.

 

Oh well, at least I now have my perfect answer when these questions are posed again.  I think all of us who hit the road have chosen incorrectly on at least one or two items.  What have been yours?

Some of your choices will serve to progress you through this nomadic life. And others might hold you back. It’s like a game of Chutes and Ladders. And you will adapt and life will go on.

Ok, who’s up for a game of Parcheesi now?

 

If you’re north of us on the east coast and bracing for Hurricane Sandy – we’re sending our best hopes your way. Please stay safe.