And Then It Rained For 2 Days and 2 Nights

And lo...she had to hang the laundry inside.

But thanks to the ability to pile crap up, the fact that most stuff is stuffed into stackable rubber tubs, AND thanks to the amazing find of a Europe style clothes horse which holds a ton of clothes in a small space, she is able to do it.

I TRIED to dry them at the laundromat.  The load was in the dryer for an HOUR and still slightly damp.  I gave up thinking "well at least the dryer I used for the sleeping bag worked."  Uh...then later I unrolled said bag and lo, it too was dampeth.

So, I put on a sweatshirt with my long jammy-pants and slept under the bag rather than in it.  I figured my body heat rising through it would help dry the damp.  The next day I was going to be in Moscow so I took it to a laundromat there and put it in a giant dryer on the "center of the sun" heat setting for 10 minutes.  That bastard was DRY then.

The laundromat in St. Maries (pronounced "Saint Mary's" not "Saint Marie's") was more expensive than those in Moscow, but I was already in St. Maries for something else so I think overall it saved money.  Normally I would not bother with a dryer.  I would hang the stuff from the start.  Since it was raining all weekend, I tried going ahead and using the dryer for most stuff...though not the bras or the spendy wool socks.   I learned about the bra thing from Hedwig starting at 33 seconds:


Also..I totally want that tooth phone...dang. I had a fake tooth put on the implant last week and I didn't get the phone add-on.

Anyway, back to laundry.  It took a good 24 hours to dry the damp jeans waistbands.  The weekend before it was nearly 100 degrees with a stiff wind (want to see the scorch marks on my back from wearing a tank top?  Pretty grim.) and my clothes were hung on the clothes horse outside.  The first items hung up were pretty well dry by the time I hung the last items. 

I spent my rainy time well.  I got called out of town on a job duty on Saturday and Sunday mooched a shower at a friend's house (Thanks Sally!!!) and did the radio show.  We had an ACTUAL astrophysicist on the air!
Sally said "astrophysicist" like 8 times and never once did this happen (53 second mark):



 Anyway, the drying laundry in the camper was a good bit of practice on tiny simple living...it can be done!  I still had the entire dinette-bed area to lounge around in which honestly is plenty of space for reading and whatnot.  I also learned that I STILL have a ton of clothes with me despite downsizing to one rubber tub, 4 cookie tins (no mice in the undies please!) and a 5 inch wide closet for clothes.  There is also a change of clothes in a suit case in the car in case of emergencies  like I spill something, and several pairs of boots/shoes in various places from work to the car to the trailer.  Of course, winter things and some things I hadn't chucked yet are in storage.

More on camper life anon.