Hey, this whole deal is rigged..........

So, here's our rig, our home away from home for the next 11 weeks. Teardrop retro style which seems to draw in for conversation 60-ish fellows with gray ponytails in every campground (who knew?). They all seem to have dogs named Joey......

We became fairly accomplished in rapid hitching and unhitching in our recent brush with a forest fire, so no worries there. It sports a new solar panel and battery, an inverter to charge various and sundry electronics which now we can't seem to do without, and propane for cooking.

We'll follow with full 8x10 glossies of the inside of the trailer. Stay tuned.

Maps

When I was a kid my mom laid out the grey formica table with linen place-mats imprinted with a map of the USA. NYC was marked with the Empire State Building, New Mexico with a sombrero, Wisconsin with a cow. So now when I plan a trip, in my mind's eye the roads stretch out across the linen and through the icons of the 1950's.

When I was 10, my mom drove my sister and me from Buffalo to San Bruno. I was the navigator, searching the maps for the right roads. My mom must have looked the night before and laid it out for me, but I only remember the maps in my lap and saying,  "turn here, look for hwy 89, no not there" as if it was my sole responsibility. The maps would get holes in the folds, or get folded wrong. Both were sources of potential adventures.

Lately, I use electronic maps for planning. I am partial to Google. I use the Get Directions feature to plot my trip. Unlike using a magic marker on paper, the computerized maps let me revise to my heart's content. The red line snakes it's way over the USA, and I am able to see the whole trip in front of me. Just like on the linen place-mat.