Travel tales

Never being sure when I will have Internet access I am posting again. I thought seeing as a large part of my journey is our trek across North America and possibly the South too, I should mention life in a 28ft RV.  I'm not terribly materialistic so selling everything was not so difficulty and so far there is very little I miss. I look at our little space as a small apartment. We have the master suite, queen bed, although shorter, tucked in the curved front of the trailer. Most of my clothes are folded away under the bed but I have a tiny closet which houses my hanging items and a small crate on the floor for everyday foldables, sweaters, t-shirts etc. The master is en suite, as in the sink and shower are at the end of the bed but thank heavens the toilet has a room of it's own. We have decided not to use the shower but instead it acts as a sort of laundry room/linen closet. Facilities at all the sites we have visited so have have been clean and adequate so this works for us. There is a sliding door just past the shower that gives us our privacy although so have we have had no use for it. As you enter our home you are faced with a sofa and dining area which slide out at the push of a button and give us an extra three feet of space. Opposite is the kitchen. One and a half sink, gas three burner cook top and stove, small fridge and freezer with enough cupboard space to house limited pots, pans, dishware and pantry items. We have everything we need. The back end of the trailer is for my boy. A door for privacy, a built in unit for clothes and belongings and a bed. Originally it was a double bunk room but we removed the top bunk to give him more space. He has problem enough with posture  and muscle tone we didn't want him folded up under an unused bunk. He has very few needs, a bed, a place for his laptop and somewhere for his guitar. His room functions well.
So life on the road. Well we eat, we sleep, we live. Morning are slow and lazy, breakfast together overlooking a new environment, discussions arise about where we are, what we can do, the wildlife we may see (still no bears, I'm beginning to think this is a national conspiracy to get foreigners over here!) then usually school work. Home schooling will only work if you have intellectual passion, a self directed drive to learn and succeed, and, lucky for us, my boy is all this. Strange then that he couldn't function at school but let's leave that for another blog post. Afternoons we usually run errands and explore. We have driven our little home from Ontario to New York state and the Finger Lakes. Watkin's Glen State Park and Letchworth State Park are two stunningly beautiful areas in the Finger Lakes region that are well worth a visit. We then headed to Chicago which is the most pristine large metropolis I have ever visited. The people are friendly the architecture overwhelming and the spirit heartwarming. I would recommend Chicago to anyone. For me there was a personal connection as my grandparents emigrated from Germany to Chicago in the 1920's. We were able to visit where they had lived and the places they had been, bringing old black and white photos to life. It may have been the hours of walking in the hot Chicago sun but it was hard to hold back the tears when standing before their old house. All the hopes and dreams they had, only to be faced with the depression of the 30's. They ended up heading back to Germany when the depression became to much, little knowing the terrible events that were about to unfold. I was young when my grandfather died but loved my grandmother very much and think about her often. She taught me a lot and I carry her wisdom with me. We didn't stay in Chicago, but about an hour north at a State Park on Lake Michigan. Wow, a tiny State Park on a forgotten beach until the weekend when a deserted site filled up in an afternoon only to be deserted again by Sunday evening. On our way back to Ontario we stopped near Green Bay, in the Upper Peninsular of Michigan and are now in limbo in Sault Ste Marie. We are awaiting news which will determine if we head west as  planned or  take a detour south to settle our oldest. Either way adventure awaits and our hopes for this trip providing therapy for our son will be tested.
I have had to change the way I live my life, adapting to a slower pace. I said before there is very little I miss, the very little was my small studio. Here I am exposed and although the only onlookers are my partner and son I struggle with having the confidence to show my work unless perfected. A terrible flaw I am working on fixing. It is one thing to have others hold you back but quite another to do it to yourself. This journey is about letting go and flying free in all aspects of my life and difficult as it is I will overcome. There have been two outstanding episodes on this trip so far that have amazed me in their simplicity. The first was an afternoon at the Laundromat in downtown Zion. As I sat waiting for he machines to do their thing I watched in delight the family's around me. The young (very young) couple with their two beautiful children. Everyone had their job, he checked the driers as she sorted the loads to come. Together they folded and organized, sharing a joke or loving looks, answering the children's never ending questions with patience.. Every now and then he would stop folding and head to the small television perched on a shelf in the corner, returning to update her with the latest from Wrigley Field. I'm pretty certain she had little interest in baseball but smiled and delighted in his excitement. When the last load was folded, a large suitcase emerged from under the table with four smaller bags inside. A backpack each for the children which was filled carefully with undergarments and socks. As the little girl wrestled the backpack, which was very nearly as tall as her, onto her back, the mother chewed the corner of her lip and worriedly asked her husband if perhaps it was too heavy. By this time the little thing was already impatiently waiting at the door, quite happy with her load. With every one else loaded up they headed for home on foot. It took every ounce of restraint for me not to jump up and offer them a ride home, abandoning my own laundry, but I recognised that this was a family moment. A ritual performed, a lesson for the children and a moment of unity for them. Who was I to stick my nose in. I sat there and smiled and thought, this is life, these people, these little things. I have had my eyes shut for so long. Just thinking about it now leaves me contented and for that small experience I am thankful.
The other event is one I have already told you about. Our epic trek across Chicago. And epic it truly was as it was long, poetic and as far as I'm concerned is the story of two hero's. We had very little to go on, a rough idea of the area of Chicago and some old black and white photographs. We also thought in a strange moment of insanity that we could probably manage without a map, after all how hard could it be! We walked for hours that day covering about 12 miles in all. We found ourselves at dead ends with hopes dashed as old buildings had been replaced with new. The sun was strong and the windy city decidedly un-windy. We headed east when we should have been heading west and ended up backtracking many a time. Yet despite this, despite my own falling spirits as I knew the ridiculous nature of this blind search, my husband and son kept walking. They walked without complaint. Seeing, I'm sure, my sadness as the chance of finding something seemed more and more remote, they rallied and with words of encouragement kept moving forward. If at any point they had said this is enough, we've done all we can, I would have agreed. But they didn't. I can't tell you how much that meant to me. We didn't end up eating dinner until 11pm that day. My tears in front of my grandparents house that day were for my grandparents, but also for my boy's. They were tears of joy because what they did was beautiful and I knew then how much I am truly loved.