Creating Home During A Pandemic
March 2020: Friday the 13th, Full Moon. Asa’s preparing to host his first midnight dinner. Earlier in the day, he found out his school cancelled in person classes for two weeks due to increasing concerns about the coronavirus. I was in Moab, planning to head to the nearest city to gather supplies to start working on Ostara costumes for my next trip to visit Asa in New Orleans. Little did we realize this would be the last weekend of “normalcy.”
On Monday, I found out my work was closing all offices for two weeks. Tension was rising fast, and there was talk of the national guard starting to close down cities and air travel being grounded. Asa and I talked for hours and ultimately decided no matter what happened we knew we would be better facing it together. He found a $30 plane ticket to Denver and less than 24 hours later I picked up a crystal laden, “Oh the Places You’ll Go” carrying, pencil mustache wearing, love filled Asa.
We drove for hours, through fog, talking and searching for clarity. The plan was to make it to New Orleans, pick up Asa’s truck, dogs, and necessary books and art supplies and get back on the road to Moab as quickly as possible. Everything was moving so fast, but once we made it to New Orleans our pace slowed. What was intended to be a few hour stop stretched on for a few days as the reality (and uncertainty) of the situation sunk in. While it still seemed best to get out of the city and back to the rural desert during the start of the apocalypse, Asa was leaving behind his home and community for who knew how long.
After a few days of goodbyes and one last trip to the heart chakra of New Orleans—Hanks, we rented a trailer for my car and loaded Asa’s truck with supplies and dogs and set off for the desert. Along the way we collected a lot of dashboard mojo, created a how to survive the apocalypse board game, and learned Asa's newest rescue, Paloma, loves road trips.
Prior to coronavirus, Asa had plans to build out his truck to travel between summer festivals selling art. I had also always dreamed of having a mobile home, so as soon as we made it to Moab, we started planning the castle we were going to build. Right as we were about to buy wood though, I saw a post for a camper that seemed promising. After a lot of coordinating, hoop jumping and even more cleaning, we had our blank canvas.
We named her Lizzo. She was previously the home to a sweet woman who, due to a medical condition, could no longer live in her. She needed help to get her off her truck, get all of her belongings out, and attach her new home. It was far more work than we anticipated, but then again, this is the life we were looking to build. On the second day of meeting, Asa and I sat high above the Miami beach, talking about how we both had been dreaming of living a life connected more to nature and disconnected more from the grid. It is going to take a lot of work, but it will give us the freedom to really live. Sometimes helping others along the way and building a community with creativity and love.
