Everywhere we went, people smiled, took pictures and gave us the peace sign.
Stopping to buy food sometime took hours because people wanted to see the inside or just tell us what a joy it was to see something so beautiful. But, all was not well.
We found that we were stopped often by the Police. We couldn't stop along the roads or beaches at night. Many times I had to drive the whole night and sleep during the day.
Most Parks were closed to us and when I drove up to a Trailer or Motor Home Park the owners would come out and rave about the bus but when we asked to spend the night we were told time and time again that Buses were not allowed 'because of the people that lived in them'.
I felt like a black man in Mississippi.
After a month of this we took the bus to a Car Show and within minutes had a long line of people waiting to see the inside.
The second person to enter the bus that day bought it the next and a week later we were on our way to Belize.
Steve Selby, his wife Ana and their daughter then moved aboard Drumbeat a Bruce Roberts designed Spray yacht that had been sitting in the tropical sun for fifteen years. It took them five years to restore it, eventually sailing around the North West Caribbean for a few years.
The family then moved back to Guatemala where Steve worked on a bamboo construction built on the third storey of a stone temple.
The beautiful structure at San Marcos De La Laguna is used for tai chi and meditation.
It overlooks Lake Atitlán with its numerous volcanos and ever changing cloud formations.
This man of many talents is now doing a lot
of marvelous wood carving.
There's more about him here and here...
I don't believe there should be a restriction on vehicles, unless they are way too long to fit in the park's sites. But, there should be a restriction on some people, especially those who think they are better that the rest of us, including owners of RV parks.
ReplyDeleteParks don't quite know what to do with my ambulance conversion, but they've let me in so far.
ReplyDeleteMore silly rules in the land of the free.
Guy does fantastic work.
Steve Selby is obviously such a superior and head and shoulders above the rank and file of Mobile ome designers plus being a gifted Art carver. He must have intimidated Camp Masters to not be able to park up in many Camps.
ReplyDeleteTall poppy syndrome exists here in NZ as well. You have to be a conformist to be accepted except by intelligent people.
Well, first of all Steve, you should ~never~ expect to get a warm reception in Oregon while driving *any* vehicle bearing California number plates. Fer Christ Sakes, you might be one o' them Californacators we spend so much time defending our fair state against.
ReplyDeleteMostly, you were a victim of the Culture War promulgated by Ronald Reagan and his ilk back in the 1980's. Alternative lifestyles, alternative music, alternative foods, alternative energy, alternative sexuality, alternative dwelling, alternative medicine, alternative anything were demonized as being a threat to American Moral Majority purity. There are still a lot of fucked-up people who subscribe to this drivel, many of them in law enforcement, legislative bodies and corporate boardrooms. They are increasingly make it difficult to be anything other than a round peg in societies field of round holes to be hammered into.
As I've said many times, freedom camping is pretty much dead in America, unless you want to be way-out in the National Forest dry-camping. Even if you are willing to pay for your parking spot, there are still many who will shun you as an underclass unless your rig was rolled off a manufacturer's assembly line within the last few years.
Steve, you're better off where you are, doing what you do best. Don't look back. I wish I had followed you.
Talent has it's own inner rewards....don't let the Buggers drag you down...he's living his own "Good life"
ReplyDeleteA true artist. Those carvings are beautiful. I hope his gifts are appreciated where he lives now.
ReplyDeleteGreat looking stuff.
ReplyDeleteMr. Sharkey's analysis is right on the money. Freedom is a very tiny quantity in the USA these days, and mostly imaginary. It is able to exist only when not noticed, and therefore is not very noticeable.
I want to do something very like what Steve Selby is doing, and I want to do it in the same general part of the world. Costa Rica, Uruguay, Mexico: that's my short list. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them. Like Mr. Selby, I'm an artist. I don't know how to carve wood like he does. Maybe it's one of the things I should learn...?
Val
Beautiful
ReplyDelete