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Finding Our Tiny Home on Wheels

5/26/2020

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Juan had been researching camping rigs all year, and we decided the rig that would offer us the most mobility and storage space was a truck camper on a flatbed truck. So, after our house closed on December 31st, we had to hustle to get packed and moved, and we also had to find and purchase our new “home on the road.” 
 
The first week of January, we drove five hours to Billings, Montana, and bought a 2010 Dodge Ram 3500 flatbed truck with an Allison transmission and Cummins engine. Juan had spoken with the owner at great lengths before we drove out to buy it. Even though we had not yet seen the Dodge, we felt good about it because the Allison/Cummins combo is touted as being the best for hauling a load, and the previous owner was a heavy-hauling helicopter mechanic and seemed to have been conscientious about caring for the truck.
​Next we drove down to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to purchase a 2012 Hallmark popup truck camper. We had originally intended to buy either a Northern Lite or Bigfoot truck camper - both hard-shell, four-season rigs - but at the last minute, Juan discovered Hallmark popups. They are high quality, durable four-season truck campers that offer a lower profile than a hard-shell truck camper. Our flatbed stood 18” higher than a normal truck bed, so having a lower profile would make driving easier.
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​Right off the bat, we had difficulties. The very first day the steering gear box went out on the Dodge – luckily, it went out when we were in a parking lot and not passing a semi-truck at 75 mph. We had to wait two days for our truck to be repaired and then another two days for the 65mph Cheyenne winds to die down so we could safely load the camper. 

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  • ​Darcy and Roger, the folks we purchased the Hallmark from, were most gracious. They drove us to see their camper while we were without wheels, and then on the day we decided to defy the winds and load the camper anyway, they offered us shelter. When the winds died down to 35 mph, they ran out between gusts and helped us crank up the camper until we were able to back the Dodge underneath it and load it on. 

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Juan and I drove back to Seeley Lake through Wyoming highway wind closures and Montana snowstorms and began the exciting and challenging process of squeezing ourselves into our tiny home. 
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Hanging Onto Home

5/15/2020

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As Juan and I began to eliminate stuff and prepare our house for the market, our dear friends Lynne and Michael lost their home and everything in it to the Camp Fire that ravaged the town of Paradise, California, on November 8, 2018.
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Lynne and Michael's home
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They have green thumbs, for sure!
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Happy fern in Lynne's garden
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Fern ghosts
Lynne and I communicate regularly on the phone, so as the shock of the fire grew a little less intense, we talked at great length about the vastly different, yet parallel, experiences we were sharing regarding our belongings and our homes. Lynne’s chosen way of referring to their loss, “All our stuff went to heaven!” was contrasted by my “We have way too much friggin’ stuff!” Lynne’s “We don’t have a home anymore” countered my “I can’t wait to get out from under our mortgage!” In the face of their loss, Lynne could have felt my whining insensitive, but she is always gracious and, in truth, was more intrigued by our different realities than inclined to begrudge me. 
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Our lilacs in spring
PictureJuan's and my home
While Lynne struggled to function in the face of her loss, I found, despite my excitement for our upcoming adventure, that I, too, was flooded with feelings of loss as I anticipated leaving the home and land and friends I loved.

​Lynne and I talked about such shearing sorrow, and contemplated the essence of home, trying to discover a passageway through the cave of grief that might lead to a shaft of light and a release from our yearnings. How do you let go? 

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​Practicing Buddhists consider this a very juicy place to be, one in which a person is given the opportunity to shuck off life’s complexities and attachments and embrace the freedom that comes with doing so.

​It doesn’t come easily, let me tell you, and my journey has been a cakewalk compared to all that Lynne and Michael have had to surmount.

Lynne and I have worked hard to understand each other's experience and to offer empathy and support, all the while laughing together at the convoluted ways in which we are adapting. I think we both agree with the Buddhist perspective. This is indeed a juicy place to be. As we cultivate our ability to live with less, Lynne and I both feel lighter on fundamental levels we could never have imagined.  

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The burned trees had to come down
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    Author


    I have been a dirt monkey for as long as I can recall - hiding in the rabbit runs woven throughout dogwood thickets near my childhood home in Western New York, winter camping in a tipi in New Hampshire, living 3/4 of a mile up a trail next to a Northern California wilderness, and now living in Western Montana where my husband, Juan, and I create our art and enjoy the many wild places.   

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