Mammoth Workhorse

Saturday, May 16

At 7:21 in the morning—a record!—Mammoth departed from home.  The planned destination was El Paso, Texas, but the 10-1/2 hour drive was being split out over two days. Even a 5- or 5-1/2 hour drive was pretty serious stuff for a massive motorhome with a Jeep trailing behind.

It carried a bunch of bedding and assorted crap to support the sleeping arrangements for seven human beings. Sort of human—I’m not sure if I should include children in that category.  In any case, four adults and three juveniles and a dog were all going to sleep in Mammoth’s massive belly…which appeared to be shrinking every second as we considered the logistics.

As far as beds go, Mammoth is equipped for the job.  The bedroom has a queen-sized mattress. The dining room table pushes down to make a bed which is a little bit smaller than full sized. And there is an overhead bed in the cab which raises and lowers, stopping just above the driver’s seat and accessed with a little collapsible ladder. Its mattress is a little bit smaller than queen size.  Two smallish people could fit nicely and the extra kid had to climb up in the overhead and squeeze between her parents. The boys slept on the table-bed; Molly got the spot on the floor under the main bedroom’s mattress overhang.

So the space worked for sleeping but it was a daily pain in the kiester to assemble and disassemble the beds and turn the space into a living area. And the television in the master bedroom didn’t support network connectivity or bluetooth headphones, so Ed and I had to go to bed at the same time (more or less) as the kids. Technically we didn’t have to, but when bedtime rolled around each evening, we were so tired that we chose to.

I chose Monahans Sandhills because it was a little past half way and I love the place. But after a long, hard drive, Edward (my son) did not share my feelings. It was very windy and he was tired from driving and the sand was blowing everywhere. Painfully blowing--sand blasting our arms, legs and faces. We set up camp and everyone retreated inside.

 

But after a little while, the wind eased a bit and I got the kids out to climb on the dunes with me and then roll down. (Them, not me). Ed and I fixed poke for the grownups; chicken nuggets and quesadillas for the kids.

Ethan, Elyanna and I had a lovely sunset view from the nearest big dune. And that was all for the day.

The Lincoln Highway

By Amor Towles

I don’t think I would have chosen this book on Goodreads, but I found it in the book exchange at El Paso RV Park. I picked it up and discovered that it seemed to be about travel—two boys set off on a journey to San Francisco along the Lincoln Highway.

 Once I got started, I found it hard to put down. Although it turned out not to be about what I thought, at all. It was four young men, plus a woman and a man and another man, taking a journey. Or rather, a lot of journeys. They don’t exactly travel far in their chosen direction—it’s most definitely not a travel story. It’s more of a “what sort of wild and unusual things can happen to a crew of wild and unusual people?” story.

 I enjoyed it very much, but be aware that nothing that happens is what you expect to happen. Ever. Some things happen for better, some for worse. But never what you expected.

Review: 100 Rules For Living to 100

 100 Rules For Living to 100:

An Optimist’s Guide for a Happy Life

By Dick Van Dyke

I found this remarkably enjoyable! It’s semi-autobiographical but not arranged in any sort of chronological order. It’s just a bunch of random “rules” (or essays, or even episodes from his life) that preach the gospel of humor, persistence and enjoyment of life. I hope I even learned something from it!

 

 

Review: Slow Noodles

 

Slow Noodles

A memoir of life in Cambodia (and Vietnam and Thailand). So much death—so much starving—and even when hope was gone, they managed to survive and, eventually, thrive. Painful to read but not unbearable because of the tiny sliver of hope she sustains through memories of her mother’s recipes.

A lot of the recipes are included in the book (22 or so), but it’s definitely not a recipe book. It’s just a lovely memoir of a woman who survived by helping others.

Gardening in my roots, Mid-June

 The cucumbers, which were struggling to find the trellis to climb on, decided to climb on the Jalapeno Peppers instead. After I extracted the vines from the jalapenos and poked them through holes in the fence wire trellis, I noticed a few tiny inch-long cucumbers in the making. I was pleased--some, in a few days or a week--I'd have cucumbers in my salad!

 Only later did I look down at the bottom on the fence wire and find these monsters.  (The cherry tomato is there to indicate scale.) 

 

They taste okay, but how can one person eat even one of these? Wow.  

I also found my bean crop. Which seemed very large but has since been shelled down to about three pounds of beans, total. It's still worth the trouble -- these "tiger eye" beans are the best dried beans I've ever tasted.

 

Gardening neglected, Early June

 The cucumbers escaped their wire fencing and attacked the jalapenos. But the jalapenos appear to be fighting back!

 

This is just about half of all the peppers I got off only three plants. 

Gardening in my Roots, early May

 My cucumbers have some enormous leaves!  Not started climbing up their fence yet, but it's waiting for them.

This odd pepper plant has the pepper sticking upright. I thought it was just an ordinary chile pepper!

Tomatoes (this is just one) are very leafy...but no fruity.  The roma tomatoes have some green fruit but not a single ripe one yet.

And last, a monarch enjoying the butterfly weed that I planted last year. It reseeded itself (the weed, not the butterfly!) and came back with more than before.  If only I can keep the weeds out of the wildflower bed, it'll be lovely.