Ramblin’ Road: Rainy Days and Mondays in a camper

Rain.

It’s Monday and it’s raining. The Carpenters had a song about that: “Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down.”

Except they don’t.

I like rain. I like the sound of rain on our metal roof. I’m not too keen on the rain seeping in the leak we can’t seem to pinpoint, but I still like the rain. As for Mondays – they don’t really bother me too much any longer. When I worked a regular office job (for that university that must not be named in the middle of the state) Mondays were kind of a downer. But when I worked for newspapers I worked nights, weekends and holidays so Mondays were just another day — kind of like they are now, minus the work part. I guess that actually makes Mondays better any way you look at it.

The rain has chased us inside the trailer. King is watching “Gunsmoke” on satellite TV. Before that he watched “The Big Valley.” He has a penchant for TV westerns. I can take them or leave them. I have an annoying habit of watching the actors and their stunt doubles ride.

I am a snob when it comes to riding ability. Michael Landon was a good rider as were John Wayne, Robert Fuller, John Smith and a few others. The rest? Not so much. I’ve also been known to scream at the TV, “lighten up on that poor horse’s mouth. That hurts!”And don’t get me going about the final scene of Hidalgo where the character Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) returns the horse to the wild – with its (the horse’s) shoes on. I saw the movie in the theater and yelled at the screen, “Are you kidding me?”

John Wayne and Audie Murphy both rode the same horse. It’s a good thing they never did a movie together. Michael Landon’s famous paint horse was actually more than a dozen horses over the course of the TV series – sometimes two different horses were in the same episode (and yes, I can tell the difference). James Arness (Matt Dillon, Gunsmoke) and Lorne Greene (Ben Cartwright, Bonanza) also rode the same buckskin horse – Buck. Stands to reason Ben Cartwright never visited Dodge City.

So, that’s my life on a rainy day — thinking about TV westerns and the horses that made them.

Back in reality, we still don’t have a departure date – although we do have a “must be in California by date.” Our daughter has a work commitment in mid-November. We will be there by then to help with the grandsons. We are also running up against some new COVID-19 regulations that are complicating our stay.

The San Diego County park system has some lovely parks for camping. Each one has a 14-day limit, but we could move from park to park and never really had a problem. This year they have a 60-day total time limit for all the parks combined. Though they say it is because of COVID, I am fairly certain it is because the huge homeless population often travels from park to park.

Those of us here in the Midwest, where winters are not conducive to year-round homeless living, really can’t fathom how prevalent homelessness is. Trust me, it happens right here in South Haven, but one does not often see people living in makeshift shelters under viaducts, or alleyways next to generators.

The challenge for us will be finding an affordable place to stay near our daughter who now lives in Carlsbad, Calif. There is also the problem with the age of our travel trailer. Many private parks and RV Resorts have an age limit for their trailers (anywhere from 10 to 15 years). Our trailer falls into the “older than dirt” category. Having an age limit, and banning school bus conversions is a way to keep pleasing aesthetics in parks – but that’s another story.

In the end we will figure it all out. We fly by the seat of our pants but we always manage. It’s our way.