Ninovan (Hypernaturals 10)

Never Pry Me Free

We made our new base of operations Natchitoches, which has a small RV park. Now Vera can see what the RV is along for. There are some good hotels in the town, and we could have gotten another suite, but the RV park we chose is nice, settled in among tall trees.

We picked a spot with no one near, and Morgan and Jessica plumbed and powered the RV into place. Vera watched with interest as she has never RV'ed before and had no idea of the complexities. Vera never much liked to go camping with me, but the idea of being out in the near wilderness, but at the same time having your entire house with you appealed to her.

Our RV is customized. Fifty-one feet long, and its design takes into account that we have a family. At one end is a bedroom with two bunk beds. These are on 'tip-outs' or sliding floor/wall platforms that allow the interior space to get much bigger when we are parked. In the main area, there are three more tip-outs so that couches that make out into beds can roll out of the central space. The entire kitchen moves out to make room to cook. The bathroom is completely customized, with a tub for four. The commode is in a water closet arrangement and the washer and dryer that were in the original floor plan removed to make room for it. On the road, we have to find laundry facilities. The master bedroom has a barely fitting King size bed. The normal bedside tables had been removed to make that work. With just three of us on this trip, that King size is very roomy. We sleep wrapped around each other and take up only half the bed.

The RV has a generator and a huge set of house batteries. The roof is covered with solar cells, and those can flip out for more surface area. The reason we have a big truck is because this thing is a beauty, and also a beast. A very heavy beast.

Unhooked, the truck is how we can day trip throughout the various places in the forest. Once we were set up, we headed to Morgan's chosen place, Goldonna.

Rolling through the little village, we ultimately found the place the picture was taken, at the city limits sign. It is a different sign now, but the road is right, and the trees, while bigger, looked right.

We checked at the one and only convenience store, talked to the clerk, looked at the local bulletin board, bought beer, wine, and a local paper, and ended up with a net sum of beer, wine, and a local paper. The young woman at the cash register has never seen the symbol, and there is nothing posted about any local Indian anything. We were hoping however vainly to see something like an ad for a trading post or a pop-up market or something. Any venue where one might buy something like the neckwear in the picture.

The local post office was also a strikeout. The local postal employees looked at the picture, and the detail of the woman in deerskins with radiant lines, and said they have never seen anything like it anywhere around here.

We have a lot of ground to cover in the forest, but not many localities. Just a few towns. We went farther north, to Readhimer, but there is not a store or a post office there to check at. We cruised slowly along 126 East and West, looking for byways or mailboxes with the symbol, but at the end of the day, we went home frustrated. I made dinner while we drank beer. Morgan, Angel, and Jessica looked at maps. Vera helped by setting the table, keeping everyone's drink fresh, and puttering around the RV looking at all the features.

"This is such a cool RV. I had no idea they made them like this." Vera said as she was pulling out plates.

"Well, to be clear, they don't. Jessica and Morgan took a basic floor plan, and they customized the living hell out of it. It is designed for our family and for long trips. Dad did the solar stuff and the power system. Everything in the power subsystem is bleeding edge. The battery subsystem is from electric cars, not RV's. The lighting is so low power you would not believe it. The genset is diesel so that it can share fuel with the truck. On and on. You saw what Jessica and Morgan did in the bathroom."