Wandering With Purpose

Mar 31

Fetch

I didn’t get a chance to take Lilly for a trail run yesterday due to our marathon spring cleaning efforts. The resulting guilt left Kelly and me with a sense of obligation to ensure we took Lilly out for some fun first thing this morning. The sun was shining and the temperatures were balmy so we decided to take her to the beach for a round of fetch.

Off to the races

Returning with her ball

Lilly loves the beach and is instantly excited once she sees the fetch-stick and ball combo and it’s all that we can do to contain her enthusiasm during the quick five-minute walk from our Airstream to the waterfront.

Per usual, Lilly had only one speed today – sprint. Her inability to pace often leaves her huffing-and-puffing something serious. As a result, every so often Lilly likes to stall by playing it coy.

Keeping her ball safe

Full-on stall mode

But inevitably, her desire to chase the ball returns and she’s once again off and running.

A bit of tug before another round of chase

Tired and ready to go home

Lilly had a blast which always places a smile on my face.

Mar 30

1 Comment

Spring Cleaning

Nearly eight months have passed since Kelly and I made our life-altering decision to drastically simplify our lives by way of a major downsizing. It was not all that long ago we were living in a (by our standards) way too big house we didn’t need or effectively utilize. Today our Airstream home is 188 Sq Ft of efficient awesome.

But … just like our former big house, our current tiny home does have one significant downside – dirt.

And so it is that today, while most people around here were outdoors in the warm air under sunny skies, enjoying themselves adorned in shorts and flip-flops, protected with a fresh lathering of sunscreen, Kelly and I spent the day – all day – scrubbing the interior of our home on wheels.

Doing our best to look like trailer trash

Once we had most of our ~~crap~~ possessions outdoors, it was time to get busy cleaning. Today’s activities were not cursory in nature – they were nothing short of thorough and complete. Every surface was scrubbed – walls, floors, and ceilings. All drawers, cabinets, and nooks were emptied and washed. Nothing was excluded from the fun.

Scrubbing the pantry

Kelly even washed the curtains (and initially re-hung them upside down).

Clean curtains hung upside down

Not to be outdone by Kelly’s efforts, I tackled each of the two fantastic fans. We run our fans often and despite my on-going efforts to minimize the accumulation of dust, the amount of crud removed was disgustingly nasty. Each was disassembled and wiped down. Now, I’d have no hesitations eating off either one.

Main fan body assembly

Content with the outcome today, I write this posting fully appreciating our efforts … and the satisfaction that our home is once again crazy-clean.

Mar 13

5 Comments

A Stark Reminder

Remains of a trailer rollover

Living in a mobile dwelling affords Kelly and me a number of advantages. Chiefly, opting to live small allows us to maintain a fairly simple day-to-day lifestyle and at our leisure, hitch-up and hit the road … our address literally anywhere we desire. Never did we feel such freedom when our home was firmly affixed to a proper earthen foundation. Consequently, traveling felt temporary – always knowing that sooner or later we had to return home.

Interestingly, when we are on the road now, things somehow feel different. I think now we enjoy the best of both worlds really … on the one hand, we maintain a comforting familiarity of our ‘stuff’, but with the ability to situate ourselves against the backdrop of a changing landscape.

It really is quite the compromise.

Because we travel with almost everything we own, there is some level of “what if” anxiety when towing. Kelly and I routinely discuss what if something bad should happen en route? Surely we’d be screwed … all of our possessions littered along some roadside ditch is not a situation either of us wish to experience.

And so it was that today I laid witness to a roadside accident on my way home from work – a scene not too dissimilar to that of my worst case what if fears. What I saw was a pair park homes situated on the shoulder of the road – one rolled over to its side and totally destroyed.

toppled on the side of the road

This particular road I was traveling (State Route Hwy 92) is familiar to me. I use twice daily as part of my daily commute and it contains a number of switchbacks as the roads travels up and over the San Francisco bay area peninsula ridge line. Situated between the ocean and the bay, the ridge is often encased in thick fog, severely limiting views for all drivers on the road. I cannot help but wonder what caused this accident — fog, driver complacency, deer scampering across the road – could be anything I suppose.

I doubt I’ll ever know what happened, but looking at someone’s home splattered across the road is a stark reminder that accidents can happen at anytime and I don’t want to see Mabel – my Airstream home on wheels facing a similar fate as this trailer.

That would really suck.

Feb 23

5 Comments

Saturday Farmer’s Market and Alcatraz Island

This morning Kelly and I took my mom and Ed into San Francisco wherein the plan was to visit the Saturday farmer’s market at the iconic Ferry Building which overlooks the bay. As an added bonus, Kelly made arrangements for us to spend part of our time touring the market alongside a private guide through the local non-profit Edible Excursions.

Kelly and I have participated in the tour once before and had a great time. This being the case, we were optimistic the experience would once again be a positive one. We arrived to the market just in time for the 9:30am start and quickly found ourselves sampling all sorts of goodies from various local merchants, most local to the NorCal region.

At each stop, we heard how each of the merchants arrived to their current role as an artisan and details about their preferred methods of cultivating farm-to-table ecosystems.

Farmer Al of Frog Hollow Farms talking about his fruit trees

Some of the cheese goodness at Cowgirl Creamery

Our pickled zucchini and tomato sauce from Happy Girl Kitchen

The private tour lasts about two hours, spread across roughly a dozen stops. Today’s experience with Edible Excursion was another positive one, and I highly recommend the organization.

Mom and Ed at the Ferry Building

Once the tour was complete, Kelly and I bought our weekly stash of fruits and vegetables before a rendezvous with mom and Ed – our next stop being Alcatraz Island.

The obligatory “I was at Alcatraz”picture

The start of the audio tour

Like most people, I’ve heard plenty about the infamous prison many refer to as “the Rock”, but I’d never visited what is today, a National Park operated by the National Park Service. Additionally, I didn’t know much about the history of the island. To that end, the tour was pretty effective at providing visitors – and there were lots of them today paying $28 per ticket – a close-up look at the site of the first lighthouse, West Coast military fort, an infamous federal penitentiary, and details of the 18 month occupation by American Indians.

Grafitti of the 18 month American Indian occupancy (1969-70)

Graffiti remains from the 18 month American Indian occupancy (1969-70)

Given the age of the buildings, most are in poor condition and in need of significant repair. I suppose the NPS must walk a fine line maintaining the mystical look of the island properties, yet ensuring this cash-cow revenue generating park maintains a safe operating state.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised to see a natural side to the island – complete with gardens, tide pools, bird colonies, and of course … bay views beyond compare.

The crumbling exterior wall of the main administration building

The island’s original lighthouse

San Francisco bay

I’ll be honest, I was expecting the tour to be mostly a tourist trap. We’ve all seen Alcatraz movies and other Discovery Channel-like documentaries, but it was nice to see things with my own eyes. Overall, I was quite pleased with everything and would suggest that the tour is worth the money … once.

Wandering With Purpose

Full-timing since April 2015 … Dave, Kelly, and our dog living and traveling full-time in our Airstream trailer.

Fetch

Spring Cleaning

A Stark Reminder

Saturday Farmer’s Market and Alcatraz Island

My Instagram Photos

Archives

Want To Follow Along?