Vacation from our Vacation

It’s the middle of winter, cold (unusually cold for this time of year), rainy, not much better than where we came from in Colorado – (snow-birding in Arizona this winter). Someone mentions CRUISE and we are all in. Someplace warm, sunny, wet and wild – “yeah, count us in”!

Going on a cruise sounds wonderful, yet when the practical sets in… one realizes – you have to wear clothes; beach wear, vibrant prints, short pants, sandals, hats, sunscreen, to mention a few essential items needed for the Mexican Riviera.  None of which we have, except for the hat – got that covered.  I might add here that we DO have these items in our storage unit, but it would be much cheaper in terms of energy and $ to just buy new than to go through all the boxes in our storage unit, hoping to find what we need.  Not an option.

Now neither one of us were up to spending a lot of $ on new clothes that we probably won’t wear in the next 2 – 3 years, if ever again.  So, and I give total credit to Patti, we went to St. Vincent De Pauls, thrift store here in Safford.  Me, I like my clothes to come out of a pristine store or box, knowing no one has worn it before – possessive huh?  So when I give 100% credit to Patti, I mean it!  I wandered around the claustrophobic thrift store, pretending I’m with a friend, I was her driver…  I didn’t come of my own volition, in essence, I was forced to come in.

I’m really picky about my clothes – work clothes not so much, but ‘going out’ clothes yes, ‘I’m VERY picky’.  Going through racks and racks of shirts/pants on hangers  which neither move to the right or left on the rack to get a look at the clothes – beyond me, why anyone would go to the trouble of a 2nd-hand-store.  By this time I’ve usually given-up and gone outside and waited in the truck.

I venture outside to brave the elements, wind and cold, even the sun is not that warm today.  Eventually, I head back in to get out of the weather, to mindlessly go through some of the shirts, forcing the hangers to give up an inch or two – to view the clothes.  Amazingly I find a shirt then another two, I make a pile.  Pretty soon I’m saying, “Who would give this away?” “I can’t believe it, I was just saying I needed an oversize bathing suit cover-up, and here it is?”  I have now graduated from a pile… to a large, black plastic bag.  It is, after all, a ‘$5.00/bag’ day.  It is like renting clothes for the cruise!  All for $5.00 for a 7-day cruise!!!

Since we are living in 152 square feet (this square footage includes the beds, kitchen stove, oven and fridge, sink, table, couch and bathroom): you can see how important it is to NOT have TOO much stuff.  Well, another issue was a suitcase.  Neither one of us has such a thing, in the camper.  I have a beautiful suitcase stored in Aguilar – but not here.  Then I was thinking, if I get the suitcase from Aguilar, I will have to live with it in the camper, or truck after the cruise – till we reach Aguilar again (who knows when that will be: when you’re flying by the seat of your pants and the wind stops blowing, that’s when). So I looked in St Vincent’s and found a nice black suitcase, just the right size and the wheels actually still turned.  The outside was a bit battered but nothing torn or broken, zippers intact, missing a screw, (but, hey aren’t we all), nothing functionally wrong. The inside was perfectly clean. Yes, this case would work just fine for a 7-day cruise. The suitcase was $3.00.  So now I’ve rented my wardrobe and suitcase for $8.00 for a  7-day cruise.  Not too shabby.

The beauty of this system, getting what you need from a thrift store, is that when we return from the cruise we can re-donate the items for the next person looking for just the right clothes to wear on their cruise, to the Mexican Riviera. Maybe this will be our new trend for traveling, no extra space needed for seasonal changes: like people switching houses in different countries for vacations.

“Most of us are citizens of the Kingdom of stuff.”  Andrew Costello

So stay tuned, we set sail from Long Beach on March 26th & dock state-side on April 2nd.

Till then… Bon Voyage