A "RANT" about "facilities"

Bathrooms are a necessity room! A "needs to be" clean bathroom/restroom has become a pet peeve of mine. Until recently I would take note and move on before actually using a facility that was in need of cleaning in a major way. When traveling and no "rest area" is available when nature calls, the next town with a Mickey D's gets my business. I loathe those portable "potty" barns, however in desperation I will use one AND make darn sure I don't touch ANYTHING inside other than the door lock - and then I sanitized like crazy! I have highly developed thigh muscles...

Recently, during the last week, I have had the misfortune and the pleasure of being confronted with the worst and the best of public restroom facilities.  We recently stopped at a restaurant in Benson AZ. I am one of those people who needs to wash their hands after eating - am freakish about this. But I digress...once done with my meal I went to wash my hands. The room was a mess and I was instantly wishing I'd visited it prior to my meal. The good news was the manager appeared and in front of us informed her wait staff that they hadn't been checking and would need to do so in the future. Then she went to clean the room. If I want Mexican food in the future, I'll go back knowing that the bathroom isn't a hazard area to be avoided.

Earlier this week we visited the Chiricahua National Monument http://www.nps.gov/chir/index.htm - kudos to the National Park Service!!! Both parks we visited had restrooms that were almost pristine! One was located at the visitor center, so that should be a given...however, the other was 8 miles off the beaten path! Not only was it spotless they had a waste basket AND hand sanitizer! A full container in both locations! I was stunned and thrilled.

US National Park Svc - AZ - KUDOS!

We visited a historic hotel in Douglas, AZ - so much effort to maintain the elegance of the past was evident throughout the lobby. Then why was their lobby women's room disappointing? Walking in was fun, looked quaint and clean, deco tiles around the waiting area - trim and grooming mirror.

Lovely.. right?

Only to find this >>>> around the corner. Come on people...paint the area that now reveals that you removed a MUCH larger mirror. Tacky, really tacky!


But after this frustrating visit and we return to our RV my guy decides to cure our own bathroom window leak! We can now say that we temporarily rolled over to 'trailer trash' - if only for the night-for the temps dropped into the teens.

And yes, it is what you might imagine it is!

Our trailer trash moment - eh, night

Cheers...

Blowing in the wind-while trying to stay put.

San Pedro River....


Not far from our site

Here I sit, inside our RV near Tombstone, AZ - the sun is shining. It all looks good, that is until the whole RV vigorously shifts from side to side. The wind is blowing 30-40 miles per hour! I'm waiting for Mike to complete his search of our next great RV spot - nearer to Tucson and one that does not cost a freaking fortune.  We are mostly prepared to go on a hike at the Chicicahua National Monument park today, just need to get him re-focused.

Being on the road since the first of November has been fun, adventurous and, at times, amayzing! However, I miss my women friends, yoga classes, the accessibility of Trader Joe's AND my hairdresser.
So there are days that I struggle to remain centered and present in the day. Prayer and meditation helps, so do frequent calls, Facebook and email also helps with adjustmenting my attitude. I perserve!

The fun part is learning about the history of a specific area - I have learned factos that my grade school history teacher never ever mentioned. Example would be that Wyatt Earp - that bastion of justice and law enforcement married Sadie Jo, a prostitute working at the Bird Cage Theatre/Bordello.  Now that wasn't part of any history lesson I had as a child. The photo above shows a picture of Sadie Jo, Wyatt (lower right) her "ill fame" license which Earp had signed and Sadie's nude photo for her former 'live-in lover' Sheriff Behan. 

I have no judgement on her morals - prostitution was legal in those days. While I personally wouldn't work in the business, I feel that making it legal today would insure the health of the women, possibly insure legal age requirements to work, leave the justice system open to more violent crimes to prosecute and states where it was legal, such as Nevada, would have the ability to tax it, thus creating more revenue for their currently strapped budgets. And it just might help with the illegal sex trafficking issue that is so  rampant today. And it would stop law enforcement from focusing just on the women they arrest, which could be called harassment or profiling.

Just some thoughts. The wind continues to blow and we are getting ourselves ready to blow out with it.
Cheers!

mixed bag

it's a mixed bag of nuts and flakes today...too hot to be outside and yet i feel pulled to be out in my garden digging up weeds. and i have oh, so much to do inside too, none of which i find at all interesting or compelling...i'm basically very lazy - in spurts that is. there are all those books to sort through, pack up and determine when to visit powell's again, stitching to do, rearrange the office to accommodate all of the storage boxes i have for needlepoint threads and fibers, laundry (ugh) and lastly, i guess i could "clean" something - eek~! - no mystery there as there is always something in need of a sponge, dust rag or mop.

there's also the writing i want to capture...books to read, internet to explore, and just basic daydreaming....boy i can get distracted by shining objects pretty quickly.

my oldest niece is on her way to Alaska on a cruise ship out of Seattle...her husband took her as a 40th birthday (btw, Kev - her birthday is in September) gift...wish i had the self confidence to celebrate mine early(...I stopped last year with 60! ) i'm thinking she is going to see some pretty amazing landscapes over the next week. cruises to specific locales - Caribbean, Greek Isles and Alaska are on my list...however, i have no desire to go down along Mexico from either coast.

have this new acquaintance - Stephanie - amazingly beautiful, quirky and funny in a way that i have longed yearned to be and have yet to pull off. she is living her life 'large' for sure. new friendships are similar to having a new beau...road testing takes a few outings to assimilate - but she inferred that i had nice 'energy'...which i do, so this is just the beginning of a new and fun friendship. i love that she has a sense of humor about herself, we both share dysfunctional childhoods and crazy-as-bed-bugs parents...and siblings that we can't seem to disown quietly (for their i.q.s haven't acknowledged the overt signs.). surf's up girlfriend!

until we can coffee clutch again have a great week.