Lisa

I'm a Full-Time RVer. That's official as of Sept 15, 2006, when I stopped renting an apartment.

I'm currently a Camp Host at Bastendorff Beach Park in Coos Bay, Oregon. I spent June as a Host at Jasper Point, Prineville Resevoir State Park. I'll be hosting at Loeb State Park in December.

Maybe my main duty as a host is to chat with the vistors. I used to think I was supposed to be answering their questions, but they seem more interested in chatting, so I oblige. Many of them tell me how they want to do what I'm doing, and maybe they will Someday.

I think the fantasy of being a modern-day gypsy is one that grips a lot of people, and I was one of them, although I never seriously thought about doing it until a few years ago.

It started as a joke. I didn't like where I was living and wanted to move, but didn't have any place in particular I wanted to go. So I told friends, jokingly, that maybe I'd move into an RV and just keep driving until I found someplace I wanted to stay.

Instead, I rented a rather run-down house in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. It was for sale, but it was such a dump and the asking price so high, I didn't think there was a chance it would sell. (You see it coming, don't you?) It sold after I'd been there about a month.

At about the same time, my M-F friend, Lyla, bought a house to fix up and keep as a rental. She was agreeable about my renting it, and said the remodling would be done by the time I had to move. (You see this coming, too?)

Let me say this up front: I'm sure glad there's no one posting pictures of all the projects I didn't finish as soon as I said I would. I'm not picking on Lyla and her husband, honestly. And now that I've got some perspective, I can see the humor in this. And a lesson to be learned here: Never leave Murphy's Law out of your plans.


January 12, 2005. Yes, that's Lyla. This is when I looked at the house, and decided to rent it. It was already in better shape than the place I was leaving, and I knew Lyla would do a good job fixing it up.	February 11. Oh, my. I didn't realize they were going to do quite so much work. This, and the pics following, are of the kitchen, from the same viewpoint, as you can sort of see if you orient yourself by the window.

February 22. My move in day was scheduled for March 1. I think Lyla was still telling me the house would be ready, but I didn't believe it. I was able to change it to April 1. The new owner of the house I was leaving was having problems. The house was in such bad shape, she couldn't get a mortgage until some work was done first. The landlady promised me the contractors, coming in March, would only be in the basement and wouldn't bother me. In fact, the contractors started removing the floor and throwing my stuff out. I needed to move out even before April.	Ever since I'd made that joke about moving into an RV, it had been in my mind "Why not?" I read some library books about RVs, and visited the local RV salesman. When it looked like I was going to be homeless, it just so happened the RV dealer had a used 5th wheel that seemed perfect to me, a 29 foot, 2001 Arctic Fox. Also an appropriate 2004 Ford V-10 250 to pull it. I got it in March and started moving into it.

April 12. I couldn't move in to Lyla's house. No kitchen, no bathroom. The bathroom is what you see through start of a wall to the left. So I lived in the RV in the driveway, and moved all my stuff into the front rooms of Lyla's house, which weren't being remodeled.	June 2. The new kitchen was mostly in! I do have to admit, it was quite a thrill. I mean, never before had been the very first person to use a new sink or toilet.

Lisa's Thoughts