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When we flew back to states we had a rental house booked in Athens. That ended up falling through at the last minute so we headed down to where the bus was stored to see where things stood.
We knew we had to stay in one place for a while and unfortunately we didn't have time to move to somewhere better than Texas. Between the summer heat and the cracked exhaust manifold, there was just no way to go anywhere.
We decided, against our better judgment, to hunker down in Texas and wait out the summer. We'd get our exhaust manifold, knock out a few other bus projects we'd been wanting to do and then, once the weather caught up with us and things cooled off we'd head west and spend the autumn and winter our west in the Arizona desert.
It was a good plan and we actually would have done it, but for one rather large hiccup I'll write about later.
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The worst part of this plan was in the middle though, the wait out summer in Texas part of the plan. As regular readers know, I do not like Texas. I try not to complain too much because we have a pretty great life, but Texas rubs me the wrong way. Still, it was the best plan we could come up with and I thought we could do it.
There were a couple things going for us. The RV Park where we were staying had a nice big oak tree we could park under and a swimming pool to cool off in. Even better, just down the road some extended family have a lake house where the kids could swim, ride jet skis and generally have fun and stay cool in the summer heat.
Those things, the pool and the lake house were the highlights of the summer. The girls learned to swim and got to go inner tubing, ride jet skis, and spend their days in the water. If you're stuck in Texas, this is the way to do it.
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Early on, before the heat became insufferable, we went out and explored the area. There was a big flea market once a month in nearby Canton, Texas that was fun to explore.
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I was struck by the fact that we could stroll around a huge flee market for a couple of hours and the only thing we bought were some small bamboo flutes for the kids and snow cones.
Living in a small space really does curb your consumer tendencies. Everything we even consider buying has justify itself: where would we put it, and is it worth the space it takes up? The answer is almost always no. At this point we don't even really have to think about it. We have what we need, adding more would create clutter.
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What's nice about this way of living is that it eliminates purchasing stuff as a form of entertainment. That leaves us free to be entertained by just wandering, watching the world around us. We've always done this to some degree, but I think our time in Mexico really brought this out. There's so much to see just walking around in Mexico that it became a habit. When there's nothing to do you walk up to the Paroquia, sit in the shade and watch the world around you.
In his book, Written in the West</cite> Wim Wenders talks about improving photography by completely immersing yourself in what you see, "no longer needing to interpret, just looking." I find that it's not just photography that can be enhanced this way, but all of life. All you need to do is let go and look. Let go of any agenda and just walk (or sit) and watch the world around you. The world is endlessly fascinating. Even the parts you don't like, like Texas. Step back from the things you want, the things you think you need, the things you think you should do, and a new range of possibilities opens up.
That was early on though. As the heat increased and the utter lack of anything to do overwhelmed me, I got considerably less zen about being stuck in Texas. Still, I'm old fashioned. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything.
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