Oregon welcomed me home on April 3^rd. There was a bit of chaos when I first arrived. For my entire trip west and north, I was relying on myself, booking the places I was going to stay before I left. My cousin told me that she knew the town of Ashland and that she was going to look into it for me. I had already scouted out the RV parks and hotel in town, but the one she suggested to me was about 10 minutes outside of town and looked woodsier than the other. As I drove past the one I had found, and saw that it was just a parking lot with no trees or shade at all, I was glad to have a spot booked where I did.

When I had booked the night before, they informed me that there would be an envelope in the kiosk with my name on it. I pulled in and found the kiosk, but there were no envelopes at all. I got out of the car and included Rex as he’d been so patient in the car and needed to go out to. I walked up to the office and saw people inside, but they had a big dog in there with them. Rex gets punchy around dogs bigger than him so I just stepped away. I was going to let him pee and bring him to the car, but the manager saw me and stepped outside to greet me. He didn’t close the door right away so the other (friendly) dog came bounding out to greet Rex, but that wasn’t ideal. Nothing but a lot of noise happened but it was stressful.

They apologized and the dog situation was sorted, but when I gave my name the manager couldn’t find my reservation. I headed back to the car to get my phone, which had the confirmation number, but by the time I came back, he had my reservation pulled up and explained that they are switching their system over to something new. I was going to be in ‘site J’. He gave me a cute little cartoon map that showed where my site was and told me that my neighbor was “a bit of a hoarder, but he’s cleaning up” and that he had a dog he was repeatedly told to keep on the leash. Okay…

I pulled up to the site, and see a huge pile of dirt and construction debris in the middle of the site, which itself is all torn up. Uh… okay. My reservation was only until Tuesday, I could handle a few nights and I’ll be out of here. However, I couldn’t find the electric that was a part of the deal and necessary. I had to use the restrooms and set out to do that, and find the manager. I wasn’t going to complain about the site, just ask where I could plug in.

He came to show me and was properly embarrassed about the state of the campsite. I was NOT supposed to be camping among construction debris after all. He was literally pulling at his hair and the look of panic on his face led me to inform him that I am not a “Karen”. He was grateful and I walked around looking at all the campers and RVs while he found me a more suitable spot.

The spot he found me was okay, but also in the direct sunlight without any shade. I was okay for that weekend, but did ask him what his monthly rates were and if he had a more suitable spot for longer term. He did not have a shadier spot, but if I wanted to rent that spot, I could be next in line if someone moved out, which he had a few in the coming months. I agreed and settled into my sunny spot. I found a way to park my car so that the boiling afternoon sun didn’t cook us and began the biding of my time. I’d met a couple of the people living here, was warned by the manager about one of them (they are gone now so all is well), but mostly just kept to myself.

I’d seen an older woman walk past my van on her way to the bathrooms a number of times. One day she approached me and started up a conversation. By the end of it, she informed me that she needed a favor and thought I could help her out. She was having a family emergency and needed to leave the state for a couple of months. Her conundrum was paying for her RV spot AND helping her family wasn’t going to be easy. I assume she approached the manager first. He must have told her that I was looking for a shady spot to park anyway. She asked me if I would sublet her spot, take care of her garden and RV sit for her! For the same price, I would get a shadier spot, a bigger bed and a place I could Stand Up to pull my pants up! Win, Win, Win!! She was extremely grateful and believes that I was sent to Ashland just to help her out. She didn’t know how she was going to do it, and then I showed up.

She has a cute little RV that’s painted Scooby Doo Mystery Van style. The interior is done in a log cabin fashion. She told me that she requested the builder hide the fact that it’s an RV and he did a great job. The picnic table that’s provided has mostly disappeared under her multitude of planters all of which has some kind of flower, fruit or veg growing. That doesn’t include the potted plants all around the area that’s demarcated as hers. I helped her plant sugar snap peas, building a tripod with string tied around it for the vines to grow up, before she left.

She’s gone now, and my mornings are having coffee and breakfast in the garden with Rex, before I start moving through, checking for weeds that need removal, or new buds growing. I help the pea plants find the strings and sweep the fallen leaves and twigs from her outdoor carpets (some of which were clearly intended for indoors, but who cares!). On Mondays I go get her mail from the post office, and take any trips needed into town with Rex as my copilot whenever I want.

I can see why my retired friend is constantly making projects for himself! There are only so many times I can write in my journal how beautiful it is here. One day, as I was walking Rex, I ran into the manager shooting some hoops with one of the tenants here. He started apologizing for not opening the office on May 1^st as the email that went out stated. He was supposed to send a follow up telling everyone that it wasn’t going to open until May 15^th now. He complained about being short staffed and how crazy it always is. I had to ask, where was he short staffed. The magic words came, “The Office.”

“You know that’s what I do?” I told him. I love working in an office. I love the desk, sending out the emails, answering phones. I fell in love with office work when I was 19 and began my bookkeeping career in a camera store. I stayed at a farm in upstate New York and asked them if I could work for them. He handed me a bucket of screws and two different screw guns and told me to fix a fence. I did it! I drilled until I ran out of screws. He needed office work, and I knew that was where I would shine, but I would do anything he threw at me! I even cleaned out a stall, happily. He didn’t have a full-time job to offer me, and was actively hiding me from the other employees so that rang some alarm bells for me. When I asked for his wife’s phone number as well, for open communication purposes and he told me that he was the only one I needed to communicate with, I thanked him for the opportunity and we agreed to “keep in touch”. He’s busy, of course, and well… now I’m out west. Sorry, man!

I’m not afraid of hard physical work, I’ll do it. But if you want my help in the office, you will have an organized and well-run machine within weeks of me getting to know the system. He told me that we could work out something with the Work to Camp program, where I will get a discount on my rent, not an actual paycheck, depending on my hours of course. He knows where to find me, how to get a hold of me. I saw him on a walk with Rex and he called out that he would be getting in touch with me about it. I’m just waiting here for him to give me the word, send me the signal, ask me to fill out the I-9 form for employment, haha!

I’m waiting for my mother’s estate taxes to be filed so I can distribute the funds. Once that happens, I want to look for 5 or more acres to buy so that I can start re-building society. I don’t know if you guys noticed, but the one around us is collapsing. I’m gonna build a new one so we all have something when the old one is gone. See you there!