Walk and Roll with the Wander Women: PUSH PAUSE THEN HIT REFRESH

Shoshone RV Park at sunrise

Home sweet home

We're closing in on the final days of our camp host job at Shoshone RV Park. We've spent two days per week for three months of our lives making reservations, checking people in, cleaning, completing paint projects, maintaining pupfish ponds, and meeting people from all over the world.

Debbie (park manager) with Annette and Shug

While in Shoshone, we've crossed paths with all kinds of people. Interacting with foreigners proudly utilizing their English skills, spouses dealing with grief and loss in search of healing, conservancy groups and college classes conscientiously working to better the world through nature conservation, enriches our traveling life.

Annette and Shug running thangs

The park, buzzing with excitement and lively conversation, creates a space for people to hit the pause button and slip out of their daily groove, taking time to relax by the pool, to gaze up at the night skies, and to slow down enough to soak in the sights and sounds of the desert oasis of Shoshone, CA. Each night croaking frogs, howling coyotes , and hooting long-eared owls deliver a flawless symphony filled with joy and longing and collectively we exhale and think, "Yes, this is where we are supposed to be."

Desert beauty

Annette sawing the mesquite tree

Occasionally, situations challenged our positive outlook on life. Annette named one couple the "Grench Canadians" because their relentless grumpy attitude started up at check-in and stretched well into their second margaritas. They launched complaints about the site not being level so Annette got out our levelers for them and squared up their motorhome. Uh-oh, now a mesquite branch interfered with the trajectory of their awning. Annette, sick with the flu, climbs up on the picnic table and begins sawing off thorny mesquite branches to get clearance. Oh but wait, now the dogs are in danger of stepping on mesquite thorns and incurring a multi-thousand dollar vet visit. As Annette hauls the cut branches away from the area she hears a whiney, woeful voice saying that it's too late now for the awning because the sun has dropped so low in the the sky. Controlling the sun is out of our jurisdiction, he he he. At some point in the grump fest, while washing her hands the woman asks Annette, "Just how hard is the water here?" Annette mumbles some pH mineral water hooey and tries to sneak off. Just as Annette starts dragging her droopy, deflated, flu-ridden body away from the complaint zone, the woman says "Don't leave until you've shared a margarita with us." Amazed, Annette reaches for the green elixir and guzzles it as the woman says, "I think we can make this spot work." And they do and they end up stopping at the office on their way out to say what a sweet little park this is.

He he he

Lynn behind the counter of the Charles Brown General Store

Meanwhile, Lynn is working at the general store in downtown Shoshone. Annette, Shug and I walk up to the General store every night to visit Lynn and she usually entertains us with the story of the day. Nevada residents drive 30 miles over from Pahrump and even 90 miles from Las Vegas to buy California Lottery tickets. Sunday nights regularly draw a group of Thai monks from Las Vegas who spend several hours hanging out and buying lottery and scratch tickets hoping to hit it big and sometimes handing Lynn a few dollars as a good-luck tip. Another customer, a 60-something man, comes to the register ready to pay for his items then says that his money is in his other pair of pants in his car. He wanders out of the store and then back to the counter this time carrying his extra pair of pants and begins digging money out of the pockets which tickles Lynn to no end. Customer service jobs, at times, leave you perplexed and amazed, as with the regular customers, man and wife, who wear long fake-fur leopard print hooded-coats in the heat of the desert. They remind Annette of Siegfried and Roy minus the real tigers. Another time, an angry man approaches the lottery counter and says, "I want my usual." Since Lynn has never seen him before she says, "I don't know your usual," which throws him into a huffing fit and he starts sputtering while jabbing his finger at the glass front of the case.

Shug and Lynn working hard

We loved our time in the little town of Shoshone. Fortunately, nice, kind and fun-loving people outnumber the negative nellies. Our interactions with strangers often cause us to reflect on each person's story as well as our own. These brief connections with those around us offer opportunities to recognize our similarities as we move through life's joys and struggles. Each day reminds us to seek ways to connect with and support our fellow travelers as we journey along life's path. We remind each other to fully notice and participate in each moment, to see the color of the cactus, to smell the creosote after a rain, to hear nature's symphonies in the starlit night and to feel the warm dry desert breeze against our skin, for life is short and our moments are dwindling.....we will continue to create our lives, to be resilient in dealing with life's obstacles and sorrows and to move, with as much grace as possible, forward........ROLL ON!!