Perched on the Edge of Wide Open

The empty nest

Tonight will be our last night sleeping on this central coast bluff. The sea is sleepy and calm, the clouds soft grey canopy, and I hear the sea lions bark the song of rocky shore I have heard my whole California life. Harry and I are exhausted. Today was the final day to break down and pack up our life in the TARDIS and funnel what I can of it down into my tiniest space yet. The last week has been filled with visits to mechanics, RV specialists, storage units and hardware stores to ready my new piggy-back vessel for our trip across the nation. We are propped up, shocked up, sealed up, packed up and, loveliest of all, newly painted up with the most perfect name. My good friends and fellow invertebrate nerds Mike and Esther suggested the name Pagurus, which is the latin name for hermit crab--the undisputed inventor of portable housing. I modified it a bit in homage to a favorite childhood book that featured a Paguran hero named Pagoo, and our vessel and home are christened. Thanks to the artistic enthusiasm of the attendees of a farewell gathering this weekend, Pagoo now wears his name proudly, in bright oceanic letters, on the port and starboard sides.

Port side

And starboard

While I was busy with cleaning and packing up the TARDIS, Harry was trying his best to send us off with a bang by relentlessly harassing the local skunk that lives in the woodpile by the trailer. Chemical weaponry was discharged---there were no casualties. All of TARDIS's rusted parts that were supposed to move, were convinced to move by the end of the day. I can take credit for some of that, but had a lot of help from friends who hammered and cranked until everything was moving as it should. She is ready to return to her home in Hollister, far from the corroding effects of the sea. Add to that the felicitous disappearance of my couch from the curbside (where it languished all day with a shocking pink "Free" sign) at the final hour before we were to concede defeat and haul it to the dump, and I'd say we are off to a lucky start!

What I have left is my first pass at "necessities" for 2 1/2 months of travel. As I sit writing at my table in the center of Pagoo, it is all around me. I am impressed and grateful for the fit of it all. The next few weeks will tell how well I have estimated my needs (do I really need 7 pairs of shoes?). I imagine I will have it all rearranged before the first week is done.

Inside Pagoo

Tomorrow when we awaken, there will be time for coffee and breakfast with friends, some last minute packing and stowing, then Harry and I will be driving away from our little perch on the bluff. The whales are breaching as I write just now, and I can hear the tapping of the a sea otter's snail on a rock--this has been a kind home for this beagle and me. But the fledglings have flown and now shall we, and what a powerful foundation from which to launch.