Effervescence

Evelyn and her friend, Everett, facing off with the geese at Prado

When we were staying at Prado, back in California, our second week into being a Fulltime Family, we met the first of many nice people we'd meet in a campground. One of those people, Vivien, said something over wine one evening that stuck with me: People are at their best when they're camping. She's right. People aren't grumpy, aren't bogged down by the daily grind when they're camping. They're happy to be where they are and happy to meet other happy people. I wanted to dedicate an entry to some of the people we've met along the way, so far, many of whom we were fortunate enough to meet thanks to our little social butterfly, Evelyn.

 

That first two week stay at Prado is the first reservation I attribute as our family officially doing this thing. We no longer had a home to return to. I was less than a month away from giving birth to Kailyn, and it was 104 degrees every day. We did our laundry in the two cobweb covered machines in the Prado campground and we were thankful for it.

 

Evelyn with Everett

One day, Evelyn spotted a little boy playing by himself in the open space near his campsite, which neighbored ours. She asked if she could go meet him and ran in his direction with Heidi in tow. She wound up sneaking up on him and inadvertently scaring him, but he thought it was funny. From that point on, they were virtually inseparable. His name was Everett and he was 11, but he treated her, a 4 year old, as his equal and playmate. They rode bikes, played ball, swung from a rope in a tree, and honked at the flock of resident geese together. He gave Evelyn a Pokemon card to remember him by. Over the weekend while we were there, the campground filled with other campers ("Weekenders"). There were lots of kids riding their bikes around those days. One little boy Everett's age asked him if he'd like to ride with him. When Everett replied that he would but wanted Evelyn to come too, the other boy said, "No, we don't want a little kid hanging around!" to which Everett replied, "Well, then I don't want to ride with you." It's enough to bring tears to my eyes just reflecting on now!

 

Because Evelyn had made a friend, that meant we did, too. I approached his campsite as soon as it was evident Evelyn and he were going to be playing together and met his grandparents, Larry and Vivien. Larry was a "retired biker", covered in faded blue tattoos and one newer tattoo of flames in vibrant orange and red on his shoulder. His wife, Vivien, had vivid orange hair and was sweet as a peach. They were both local residents from the Chino area and had raised Everett most of his young life. As a result, he was well-mannered and courteous, just as were they. One morning when I had slept in and not answered the door when Everett came looking for Evelyn, Larry grew worried. He wondered if I needed help and was prepared to help me should I have gone into labor. He was visibly relieved to see me emerge healthy-looking and still very pregnant later that day.

 

We still had Fifi, the cat, with us at this point. We were having a hard time of it and she was escaping a lot-- she had taken to slipping out past our feet no matter how quickly we came or went through the door. One day, we spotted a new motor home had parked across the road from Larry and Vivien. Near their steps was a small black cat. "Fifi!" Our eyes all went wide. Upon closer inspection, we realized this cat was all black and was missing the white patches Fifi sported. This cat belonged to the new motor home. Another camping cat!

 

Brent ventured over to meet the camping cat couple to learn how they made it work. He soon met Rob and Ronnie, an 80-something couple from Prescott, Arizona. This was their third camping cat and though it weighed only about 7 lbs, had stared down bobcats in their back yard and always kept a close proximity to their RV when they were out traveling. As Rob said, cats learn where safety is and they stay close by. Well, that wasn't the case with Fifi, but it worked for them! After chatting with Brent a bit, Brent shared what we had done and were doing-- sold everything and were living in the RV. Rob told him that he just had to meet the woman that went for this crazy idea and invited himself over for a visit, promising to bring a cheap bottle of red wine. So, as night settled in, so did we settle around our picnic table with a $10 bottle of wine and stories to share. We made friends and were given their number and urged to call them if we wound up in Prescott. They welcomed us to stay on their property if we ever did.

 

Since those first days at Prado, Evelyn has made countless friends, both young and old. It is she who usually draws us toward new acquaintances. There is something magical about her. I know I'm her mom and I'm a little too close to be objective (a phrase I love that I'm borrowing from another of Evelyn's friends, the Marshal of Dodge City), but she positively sparkles. Her welcoming personality draws attention and turns heads the second we walk into a room and she has people smiling before she's even met them. I can't write about our experience traveling without singing her praises.

 

Everywhere we stay, Evelyn turns on her sonar for KIDS: "Are there kids here?" "*Gasp*! I hear kids!" "Look Mom, new best friends!" It's like containing the lid on a shaken soda bottle when we pile out of the truck after arriving somewhere she has spotted kids. She positively jumps up and down in place knowing there are kids around and there is no doubt in her mind she'll play with them.

 

Evelyn has spotted kids. This is her waiting patiently
for them to finish breakfast so she can meet them.

When we stayed for the evening at Green River State Park Campground in Green River, Utah, a family arrived late in the evening after we had gone in for bed. Evelyn and I took a walk in the morning and she spotted bicycles and heard little voices. "Mom, KIDS!!!", she exclaimed. I told her we needed to wait until they were done eating breakfast and she proceeded to stare at them as they ate before I'd allow her to go make friends. Finally, they were finished and she started yelling and waving, "Hi-iiii!!" She got one little girl's attention and they were soon riding Evelyn's bike and

Evelyn making friends by offering her bike to ride

scooter and collecting leaves all around the campground.

 

This friend's name was Emma, and she would become Evelyn's pen pal. Evelyn and Emma played the morning away with Emma's older sister, Becca. Their family was friendly and affable. All the kids (two girls and an older brother) all attend home school in Utah. They love to meet new friends. Before we left, Emma gave Evelyn a plastic lunch box toy and Evelyn, in turn, gifted her a little Goofy figurine. It was an emotional farewell; it was as if they'd been friends forever.

 



Evelyn with Miranda in Colorado

Later on down the road at Bear Creek Campground in Colorado, Evelyn made another friend, Miranda. Miranda was 6 and she and Evelyn were practically separated at birth in the way they played together. Miranda's camp was across from us-- about four sites over and across the campground road. Our next door neighbor, a retired man and his wife who lived a few miles away and were taking their trailer out for its virgin run, commented that they were birds of  a feather and it looked like they'd been friends forever. This was a near tearful departure when the time came to say good bye, but Miranda gifted Evelyn a yellow hair bow that she had adorned in rainbow felt marker scribbles and Evelyn gave her several colored Mardi Gras beads from her dress-up chest in return.

 



Playing in a covered wagon with new friends
in Williams, AZ

When we were in Williams, Arizona, Evelyn met another family of home school children from Missouri, who were traveling through to California for work. She played the morning away with them and gave hugs when it was time for them to leave. She was busy at work making friends in Williams, once again, even as we were in the truck about to pull out of our campsite. She waved at a man standing nearby and started talking to him through her window and we wound up climbing back out of the truck so she could run around with his grand-daughters and play Hide and Seek. They were from Florida and were traveling like we were, just to see the country. Before we left, the two girls gave Evelyn a pink My Little Pony and a necklace.

 

Sandie gave Evelyn several unique rocks
to add to her collection

Evelyn's friendships span the generations, as well. In fact, she is best loved by retired couples we have met along the way. When we stayed at Karchner Caverns in Arizona, Evelyn played the evening away with a group of kids camping with their family nearby. In turn, she made the acquaintance of a retired couple from Wisconsin who were traveling with their English Setter, Angel. Gil and Sandie were kind, warm, and welcoming. They loved Evelyn and listened as she cheerfully told them stories about her life and her dog and her travels. It came up that Evelyn collects rocks. Sandie is an avid rock collector, as well. She brought out her collection and told Evelyn about specific rocks-- what they were called and where she had found them. Evelyn listened intently and even ran back to me to tell me all about the Thunder Rock and the geode and pointed out details about them that she had just learned from Sandie. Gil, sitting across from me, looked at me with wide eyes and a smile: "She remembered all of that? From just now? And she got it all right!"

 

Sandie gifted Evelyn that Thunder Rock and geode and on our way out even gave her two more beautiful, smooth, red rocks laced with marble markings. Gil, in chatting with Brent, marveled over Evelyn.  "Has she always been so...." He trailed off looking for the right word, "effervescent?" He smiled and looked over at Evelyn to watch her in action, a warm expression of appreciation on his face.

Shooting the breeze with a clerk from Dodge City

 When we were in Dodge City, we visited the museum there, where visitors can visit a reconstructed Front Street and step back in time. We bellied up to the bar at the Longbranch Saloon, and Evelyn charmed some of the people working there, as well. She talked with one barkeep inside and chatted with another outside for a good half hour (she's just reminded me his name was Chip!). Later that day, we were sitting near the end of Front Street on a bench in front of the Blacksmith shop and a man with a barbell mustache appeared from behind the "Employees Only" gate carrying a hammer. He saw Evelyn and she said, "Hi" and he started up a conversation with her. She charmed him so that he told her special stories of why there

With the Marshal of Dodge City
on his "day off"

are no trees in Kansas. He told her that the bison were like the Indians' Walmart. They needed the bison in order to survive. They knew that the bison would move on from their land if there were no rich pastures, so each winter, the Native Americans would burn their dry pastures to fertilize them for the Spring. The bison always returned to literally greener pastures because of this, but the bison had a habit of knocking down trees while roaming for food. Between the fires burning trees and bison knocking them down, there were hardly any trees to be found in Kansas.

 



He also introduced her to Miss Kitty, the resident cat at the Dodge City museum. She had wandered in all skinny and sickly and staff took care of her. She roams around but was rather shy. Evelyn really wanted to pet her but the cat wouldn't come near, so her new friend positioned himself next to Evelyn and  let the cat come to him so Evelyn could at least get a bit closer. The man introduced himself as the Marshal of Dodge City, though he was "off duty" that day. He handed Evelyn a Dodge City badge to pin on her shirt as a special gift for a special girl.

 

 

Sharing a huge, spontaneous hug with Papa Butch

In Oklahoma, we visited my dad and step mom, Linda. Evelyn had visited with them once before, but she was just shy of two years old and I couldn't be sure how much she would remember them. In typical Evelyn fashion, all family is close to her heart and she didn't hesitate to share huge hugs and to talk with everyone as if she'd known them her whole life. She gave Papa Butch a huge hug and spent some very special time with Grandma Linda. She was excited to spend the night with new cousins she had never met, Madeline and Reese, and one she'd met when she was two, Haley. She practically leapt into the car with Grandma Linda to go to Madeline's basketball game without even so much as waving goodbye to me!  She showed Linda her charm that day as well as to some other parents sitting in the bleachers, chatting it up with her sweet little voice the whole time. 

With Grandma Linda in Oklahoma and
zipping around the property on Thanksgiving with cousins

 We just left Quartzite, Arizona, where we stayed the night in the RV Park where Brent's aunt Bonnie lives. We spent last night learning to pan for gold. She and her husband Bill live there but they own claims an hour or so outside of town, where they spend their time looking for gold and enjoying every second. We got a hands on lesson in prospecting from both Bonnie and Bill. Bonnie taught Evelyn how to scoop the pay dirt (I spent 41 years not thinking about where that term came from!) into the pans and then use the water to swirl and sift for gold. Bill later showed us how to use the dry washer to sort the dirt for gold before panning. It was an amazing experience, but what was most amazing to me was Evelyn's magic at work again.



Sharing a great time with Aunt Bonnie

 

When we pulled up in Quartzite and Aunt Bonnie stepped out of her car in a dirt lot near a gas station where she was meeting us to lead us to her RV park, Evelyn didn't hesitate. Though she has only met Bonnie once before, a good year and several months ago, she ran right up and hugged her and started chattering away. To Evelyn, everyone is a potential friend and if someone is family, there are no bounds for affection. Back at the RV park, Evelyn continued to impress Bonnie and Evelyn hung out and played with Bonnie as if she'd  known her her entire life. She had Bonnie making up and singing songs about the desert sands blowing in the wind at her request and Bonnie even sat in the dirt and played cars with Evelyn. Bonnie was in awe of Evelyn's cordial personality and was just smiling about how Evelyn runs up and gives each new friend a big hug as if they are the most special person in the world.

 

Evelyn showing the blue lace
agate she was given from
Cat and Leo in Quartzite

On cue, some neighbors in the RV park that Evelyn had met the evening before had just stepped out of their camp. Bonnie and I watched as Evelyn spotted them and across the way to give them big hugs just because. Leo, a career Army man and Vietnam veteran and Cat, a retired firefighter whose retinas were damaged through her career, were coming out to say goodbye as we were hitched up and ready to leave for California. Leo, who spends his winter doing leatherwork and cutting rock in the area, had selected a special stone for Evelyn: blue lace agate. He cut her a slab of it the size of her entire hand that looked like the waves crashing into a sandy shore. He presented it to her for her rock collection and Cat thanked her for being such a special little friend. Evelyn handed them a piece of white quartz in return, all on her own. They tried to hand it back while thanking her but said they couldn't take it. She handed it back and closed Cat's hand around it: "No, you take it. I want you to have a pretty rock, too."

 

Cat brought tears to my eyes. She softly voiced her admiration for Evelyn after Evelyn had frolicked away. She said, "She is such a joy. She is such a special little girl."

 

With friends she made at a Christmas tree farm
after meeting Santa and one of his reindeer

We are told quite often how amazing our little girl is. I know it well and I honestly feel she will change the world. She will affect people's lives. She has befriended people and impressed adults for years now. Cat commented today that Evelyn very obviously has a high IQ. She told me how wonderfully I am doing to have raised a person like her; that it is so rare these days to find a child who brings out such good in other people. I've heard from many over the years that she will be a diplomat someday-- that she could be President-- that she will help people and change minds someday. As her mother, it touches me to the core. I know it is all true and it brings tears to my eyes to see her in action. She is kind, she is caring, she is empathetic, she is compassionate. She shares, she welcomes, she smiles. She has been brightening the faces of strangers since she was in her infant carrier and she shines only more brightly as she gets older.

 

Effervescence

Place after place, person after person, she sees the best in people and makes friendships. I worry that this lifestyle isn't good for her. She can't make friends that will remain in her life on a day to day basis. Home is somewhere different each week or even day. She doesn't have routine or consistency. What she does have, though, is a spirit of adventure most children will never have. She possesses the openness for new friendship and seeks out connections with others. She welcomes new experiences and sees neighboring campers as potential new friends. She has touched hearts and made impressions on people from all over our country and that is truly priceless.