Simply, Lesa

  A level of defeat It's 2 AM in New Mexico. The night is calm and clear. At least it is now. The stars are bright and the area around me is quiet.  A week ago, I was robbed. It was a quiet robbery. I wasn't there. My things were stolen while I was away shopping for my weekly groceries. My friend's were robbed as well. They feel violated and unsafe. It has taken me some time to process my own feelings because, as I and likely others who have experienced other traumas in their lifetimes, I became busy creatively problem solving anything I could have control over. I gave hugs, I listened to others processing, I prepared healthy foods. I made lots of hot drinks for all of us. I deep cleaned cupboards. And rifled through my rig looking for extranious items to possibly get rid of -- yeah, not much more to let go of.  I thought. and thought about my summer travels. I thought about my teaching classes. I thought about being alone. I thought about getting even older. I thought ab...

A few days ago I decided to drive to New Mexico to visit friends. I stopped in St Johns Arizona to see my mechanic Stan. I have him check out the tracker and had the oil changed. It was an odd day for me emotionally, I just was off, I knew it was time to go but my processes were slow and for some reason I felt a little clumsy minded. I took my time getting to Springerville Arizona and decided to eat in the car and then take a nap before driving a longer stretch. That did turn out to be a good idea. When I woke later in the evening I drove a number of miles and crossed the New Mexico state line.  In the dark cool night there were many herds of deer and elk along the road and it took a lot more energy to watch for them while driving in the dark. After I saw an owl swoop down and take some small animal from the side of the road for it s evening meal, I decided to find another place to rest. I pulled into a small gas station parking lot beside a a trucker with his engine ru...

 Hey y'all! It's been a busy day and week.  I am back at the Shop and Wash laundromat in Loveland, Colorado. What a lovely location. We have had quite a bit of rain this week. I've been urban camping because I made a couple decisions earlier this month that didn't pan out as far as finding free campsites within a reasonable distance to this area. I have to remember everything is relative.   The Tracker is doing great. I need to check the fluids again, it's been hot and I have been doing in town driving on a daily basis - that's different from most of my life. In all this rain, I discovered that I have a little (ya right, in a tiny space like this it doesn't seem tiny) leak. The water is coming in from the top of the rear window trim, I expect the weather stripping all needs to be replaced - and I am not ready or prepared to do that job yet... and being very careful with the money I have in my credit union, I'm not buying silicone right now either. I expe...

What an incredibly beautiful area! Check out the pictures Yesterday, after retrieving my Amazon package of new awning poles for my tarp set up, I decided to change my location and get back to dispersed camping (boondocking, primitive camping, wild camping insert whatever term you need to). I had finished my in town errands and had done some research and even some online - cloud storage clean up. I carefully checked weather conditions and my apps for campsites a little distance from Loveland CO, where I will be teaching Nomadic Travels+ Overlanding on a fixed income or budget as well as other sessions relating to being disabled, planning your travel lifestyle, creative use of budget gear and in Micro rigs at the next Overland Expo. I chose, after careful research to check campsites in the Estes Park area of Colorado. The drive was fun and lovely - following a curvey rolling river up mountain roads. My Tracker doing great - although I wish my speedometer was corre...

This morning I'm hugging the shade in a very sunny campsite. You see I've been on a long road trip with my Chevy Tracker. I'm enjoying watching the butterflies dance around the almost at the end of their life thistle in the field beside me. I can see mountain tops in the distance with their little evergreen trees poking up from the top. Those evergreen trees sort of remind me of five day stubble of a man's beard. I learned this morning of a close friend's wife passing. Travel is a wonderful perspective changer. I believe it takes us outside of ourselves. It allows us to interact with total strangers and with totally different environments. Travel allows us to experience the noise in our head, our thoughts and beliefs as well as our daily routines completely different. We have the opportunity to rethink reprocess our beliefs as we travel. I know I do. I often travel without a radio or a podcast I often drive with the silent meditative prayerful space that...

 A Big thank you to Paul and his wife of www.InstaPrivy.com . I met Paul a few years ago at an Overland Expo in Flagstaff AZ, when I first saw his InstaPrivy invention. I was very impressed and thought this was a great idea for SUV-RVers like I have been, Car and Vehicle dwellers, Camping families, "Different Abilities" (ADA people), Road trippers and Nomads. A very practical, logical solution that is budget friendly, easy to pack. When Paul added the backpack for storage, portability and extra supplies I was even more impressed.  At the 2021 Overland Expo West, I filmed Paul and his helpers working their booth and giving great information about how to use this unique product. We discussed the possibility of sponsorship at that time. Unfortunately the phone I filmed with had cut off the camera at sometime during the filming and my footage was useless as it was.   At this spring's May 2022 Overland Expo West in Flagstaff. I reconnected with Paul and his wife, who gra...

Hey Blog Readers! Wow, it's been awhile hasn't it. Lots of stuff has happened and changed in my life and at my micro homestead - home base - property. i finally have a laptop, a working cell phone and a weBoost cell phone signal booster! Life is becoming a little easier - one tiny turtle step at a time. I feel kind of tired of being alone all the time - it's nearly time for the NE AZ Spring GTG! and I certainly need some social interaction! I hope you will contact me and join me where ever I am around April 14 through the 23. I hope to be camping in the general White Mountains of Arizona area - I am keeping a close watch on the weather to decide what location will be best - especially to have the NTBMO - Lamb Dinner (yes other choices available - people don't generally go hungry unless they want to) which will be at Sunset (hopefully not windy or cold) on the 15th this year.  I am leaning towards cutting this event back to a 4 day event in the future because it's ch...

 Thank you so very much everyone who continues to follow me here on SimplyLesa.blogspot.com as well as over on my YouTube channel SimplyLesa! I have received so many gracious and wonderful gifts! It has been a challenge to carefully manuever my low income life with the goal to live debt free - which is often a goal and and has been a reality a couple of times. I appreciate you all. PayPal, years ago, offered me a PayPal.me account and I used it for quite sometime. We NEED to stop using it.  I had a follower ask me if received some gift and I needed to call Pay Pal for support to find out what happened. I learned that someone else is also using Simply Lesa as an account name on Pay Pal. SOOOO, IF you are wanting to give me a gift on Pay Pal --- ONLY login to your account and use my email address! because email addresses on PayPal are our account numbers. Also, in our post Covid 2022 world, the IRS is taking note of business transactions and requiring a tax payment. At this curr...