Omg! Omg! Omg! Packed my Subaru and left my apartment in the icy, snowy, pre-dawn hours. I picked up Alyssa over in Brooklyn, and drove two hours into Connecticut to pick up The Beast. I had to kneel in the snow to put my plates on her, because winter just didn't want to give up this year.

We signed and witnessed the final bill of sale, and Scott handed me the keys. I was so excited, I jumped up and down and did some flappy thing with my hands, that looked suspiciously like “stimming.” Alyssa is a child psychologist, who was quite surprised by my movement, and I was a bit embarrassed, but we laughed like fools over it. I had experienced such a momentary excess of joy, and needed to physically discharge some of it. I wonder if that is what life feels like to our students who are on the spectrum?

Alyssa followed me in Farrie (my Subaru Forester) and even though it had stopped snowing, all the snow on the roof of the rig kept blowing off onto her windshield. We took the scenic route from Branford, meandering across CT towards 84, and then onto the Thruway. We exited at New Paltz, and I found a place to park the rig at The Water Street Market, while Alyssa drove over to Karma Road, a vegetarian place we love, and picked up our to-go lunch. She brought it back to the rig to dine. Our first meal in my new home!

We continued on to Ed & Richard’s home in Wallkill, where they have a large enough driveway to accommodate a 26.6 rig. I had brought along bedding, and a car-load of stuff to load-in. I planned to have my first night sleeping in it, even tho the temps were forecast to drop into the low 20’s overnight. I spent a bunch of time emptying boxes and bags, tossing stuff, willy-nilly into drawers and cupboards. I will need to re-think what-goes-where, to get organized, but that will happen over spring break, when I’m alone in the rig for a few days.

It's starting to look like home. My home.

I opened all the outside compartments on both sides, locating the water, the generator, storage spots, large and small. Found the “shoreline” and read the owner’s manual about hooking up to my brother’s electrical outlet. Sorted that out, and plugged in. Then, hunted around for a while because I couldn’t locate the switches to turn the lights off. I switched the wall thermostat to the setting for electric heat, and warmed the place up. The heat worked just fine on the electric setting all through afternoon.

After dinner, I returned to the motorhome to sleep. I put the wall thermostat to 68, the fan began to blow, and I assumed that the heat would come on. I got into my PJ's and crawled into the bed. I guess I was asleep in minutes. A few hours later though, I was awakened by the extreme cold! I got up, found a light switch, and tinkered with the wall thermostat. Helpfully, it told me the temp inside the rig was down to 44. I will say that the fan blows cold air really well. I turned it off and considered my options. Reluctant to wake my brother or Alyssa who were asleep inside the house, I pulled on all the clothing I had with me, and tied a flannel shirt over my head. This is a great look, the flannel babushka on the head. In my mind, I heard Little Edie laughing. But, thus clothed, I was able to go up front, sit in the driver's seat and start the engine. It warmed up in a while, and the heater thawed me out. Eventually, it warmed the entire rig, Great to have redundancy built in to the systems.

I put all the lights off, and covered the bright blue light from the dashboard Jensen sound system. I sat there in the dark, watching the stars moving overhead, and I was filled with gratitude. I was actually grateful that the cold dragged me out of bed, so I could see this gorgeous sky. Because of the pollution, and light pollution, you rarely see stars in the city sky. I was humbled and grateful that my crazy life had brought me to this moment. I have a home, that I own. One name on the deed/title. Mine.

Photo credits Edward McCann