Author: Library User

Postcards from Falmouth: First Congregational Church

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The First Congregational Church of Falmouth may be a downtown icon, but it didn’t start life on the village green. Its first iteration was built at the site of the Old Burying Ground, and it had several different incarnations before it arrived at its current home. In this oral history interview, Reverend Jonathan Drury charts the course it took and highlights the details of the church we know today, from the Falmouth granite in its foundation to the bell in the steeple, cast by none other than Paul Revere.

While the First Congregational Church has deep roots in Falmouth’s past, Reverend Drury also emphasizes the way it looks toward the future. “Our congregation should be open and available,” he says, “as a place where people can feel not the divisiveness but the potential that exists in harmony.”

Visit our First Congregational Church digital exhibit here.

Explore the postcard collection online here.

Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project of Falmouth Public Library, funded by a LSTA grant and administered by the MBLC.

Friday Film Series Begins Feb. 18

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Please join us for a series of films on Friday afternoons! We’ll kick the series off with two films in February for Black History Month, and then show a film every other week.  Screenings will take place in the Hermann Room and attendance will be capped at 35, so please register using the link in our calendar. The films are selected for for adult viewers, and summaries as well as ratings are included. 

Our Schedule:

February 18, 2pm: Harriet. PG-13. Register. 

Based on the thrilling and inspirational life of an iconic American freedom fighter, the movie tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.

 

February 25, 2pm: King Richard. PG-13. Register.

Based on the true story that will inspire the world, follow the journey of Richard Williams, an undeterred father instrumental in raising two of the most extraordinarily gifted athletes of all time, Venus and Serena Williams, who will end up changing the sport of tennis forever.
 
 
 
 
 
March 11th, 2pm: Emma. PG. Register.
 
Handsome, clever, and rich, Emma Woodhouse is a restless queen bee without rivals in her sleepy little town. In this glittering satire of social class and the pain of growing up, Emma must adventure through misguided matches and romantic missteps to find the love that has been there all along.
 
 
 
 
March 25th, 2pm: Belfast. PG-13. Register.
 
“It is 1969 and 9-year-old Buddy finds his peaceful life disturbed as a national conflict is starting to brew in Northern Ireland: unionists and loyalists—mostly Protestants—want the country to remain within the United Kingdom, while nationalists and republicans—mostly Catholics—are campaigning for the country to join a united Ireland. As the tension between these two opposing forces escalates, he and his family must decide whether to stay, or move somewhere safe.”
 
 
 
April 1st, 2pm: Belfast. PG-13. Register.  SECOND VIEWING

 
 
“It is 1969 and 9-year-old Buddy finds his peaceful life disturbed as a national conflict is starting to brew in Northern Ireland: unionists and loyalists—mostly Protestants—want the country to remain within the United Kingdom, while nationalists and republicans—mostly Catholics—are campaigning for the country to join a united Ireland. As the tension between these two opposing forces escalates, he and his family must decide whether to stay, or move somewhere safe.”
 
 
April 8th, 2pm: Dune. PG-13. Register.
 
Paul Atreides, a brilliant, gifted young man born into a destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence, only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
 
 
 
 
April 22nd, 2pm: West Side Story. PG-13. Register.
 
“Directed by Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg, from a screenplay by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Tony Kushner, this adaptation of the 1957 West Side Story musical explores forbidden love and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds in 1957 New York City.”
 
 
 
May 6th, 2pm: Death on the Nile. PG-13. Register.
 
Based on the novel by Agatha Christie, “Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot’s Egyptian vacation aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture-perfect couple’s idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut short.  Set against an epic landscape of sweeping desert vistas and the majestic Giza pyramids, this is a tale of unbridled passion and incapacitating jealousy.”
 
 
May 20th, 2pm: Cyrano. PG-13. Register.
“A man ahead of his time, Cyrano de Bergerac, nobleman, military man and poet, dazzles with ferocious wordplay at a verbal joust or with brilliant swordplay in a duel.  But convinced that his appearance renders him unworthy of the love of a devote friend, the luminous Roxanne, Cyrano has yet to declare his feelings for her, and Roxanne has fallen in love, at first sight, with Christian.”

Meet FPL’s new Youth Services staff!

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Falmouth Public Library welcomes two new staff members to the Children’s Room. Marissa Antosh is our new Children’s Librarian and Department Head and Deirdre Detjens is FPL’s new Children’s Program Assistant. 

Who are Ms. Marissa and Ms. Deirdre?

Ms. Marissa joins the Falmouth Public Library from her most recent position as Children’s Librarian in Duxbury. She has lived in Falmouth for the past 3 years and in Massachusetts since 2013. In Duxbury, her favorite programs were Read-to-a-Dog and anything related to making art. A few years ago, Ms. Marissa dressed up as a dinosaur for a special Dinosaur Tea Party at the Duxbury Senior Center and wrote and performed a rap about being a librarian (but not at the same time)!

Ms. Marissa has worked in libraries since 2008. She grew up in Connecticut and after graduating from college decided to pursue a career as a librarian. After visiting Falmouth for many years, she decided she wanted to live and work here, and now she does!

On her own time, Marissa likes to make all sorts of art. From knitting, spinning, and dyeing fabric with natural materials to bookbinding, sewing, and mending, she likes anything that, as she likes to say, is “tedious and old-fashioned.” Most recently, she entered a box in the Falmouth Art Center’s “Out of the Box” exhibit and sale. She has also submitted art to the Woods Hole Public Library Community Art Project twice. This past summer, her piece “The Roaring 2020s” featured a flapper-style dress embellished with KN95 masks and elastic as fringe to highlight the ways the 2020s are reflecting the 1920s in a variety of ways. 

Ms. Marissa also enjoys reading non-fiction and spending time with her family. She loves dogs and has a Yorkie named Ruby. Her parents have a Labradoodle named Maisie who is a CAP Certified Therapy Dog and she hopes to bring back FPL’s Read-to-a-Dog program and maybe Maisie will get to visit the library in the future! Ms. Marissa’s favorite middle grade book she read this year was Frankie & Bug by Gayle Forman.

—

Ms. Deirdre is very excited to join the Falmouth Public Library’s Youth Services staff and has lived in Massachusetts, Vermont, Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Washington & Alaska. Ms. Deirdre’s last position was in the school library at a very diverse K-3 elementary school in the Mid-Cape area. In her school library, besides having books, bean bag chairs, puzzles, games & Legos, she fostered Diamondback Terrapin turtles. These turtles hatched from eggs laid at Sandy Neck Beach Park, West Barnstable. She fostered up to 3 hatchlings and her 3rd graders participated in a naming contest every year! 

When not at work, Ms. Deirdre likes to garden. She volunteers as a Cape Cod Master Gardener participating with the School Garden Committee, as well as at Hyannis West Elementary’s School Garden by helping to prepare classroom kits, teach classes, and maintain the garden area. 

For the past 7 summers, Ms. Deirdre guided kayak trips for RideAway Adventures and was a member of both MassAudubon’s Long Pasture and Cape Cod Maritime Museum’s Education Department.  Two books that Ms. Deirdre enjoyed this year were The Backyard Parables: Lessons on Gardening, and Life by Margaret Roach (adult nonfiction) and Aaron Slater, Illustrator by Andrea Beaty (children’s picture book).

They are excited to meet you! 

Next time you are downtown, drop by the Children’s Room at the Main Library to say hello to Ms. Marissa and Ms. Deirdre. 

Books About Radio on The Point With Mindy Todd

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(written by Jill Erickson)

This morning was the last regular WCAI radio show that I will be doing-you can listen to it here! As of October 30th I retired from the Falmouth Public Library. You can take a look at two blogs I wrote about this departure. One is about my being a reference librarian and one is about my time on WCAI. It has been an absolute pleasure to spend time every month with Mindy Todd and whichever book talker happens to be there that month. When Mindy asked me last month what book topic I would like to talk about for my last show, I immediately came up with RADIO! How it is possible that we had never done this topic, I’m not quite sure, but it was the perfect topic for the last show. 

Here is the article that includes the Jack Binns Tribute song we mentioned! Scroll to the very bottom to hear it. 
 

Peter’s Picks

Hello, Everybody: the dawn of American radio by Anthony Rudel

On the Air: the encyclopedia of old-time radio by John Dunning

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

Raised on Radio: in quest of the Lone Ranger, Jack Benny….by Gerald Nachman

Howard Stern Comes Again by Howard Stern

Listening In: radio and the American imagination by Susan J. Douglas

Something in the Air: Radio, Rock and the Revolution…by Marc Fisher

Jill’s Picks

Radio On: A Listener’s Diary by Sarah Vowell (available via the Commonwealth Catalog)
Invasion From Mars: a study in the psychology of panic by Hadley Cantril
Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles’s “War of the Worlds” and the art of fake news by A. Brad Schwartz
Marconi: the man who networked the world by Marc Raboy
Out On the Wire: the storytelling secrets of the new masters of radio by Jessica Abel
The Radio Boys Trailing a Voice; Or, Solving a Wireless Mystery by Allen Chapman

Listener Picks

The Great American Broadcast: a celebration of radio’s golden age by Leonard Matlin

 

A Farewell to Falmouth Public Library, Part Two

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          In part one of my farewell to FPL I wrote about the beginning of my career at Falmouth Public Library, but now I’d like to mention a completely unexpected joy that arrived in my library life. That joy began when WCAI called the library one day and wanted to know if Kathy Mortenson, a FPL reference librarian, would like to talk about books for half an hour on The Point with Mindy Todd. As it turned out Kathy did not want to talk on the radio, so she asked me if I would be willing to talk about books on the radio. I said sure.

          And so I went to the WCAI studio in Woods Hole and I met Mindy, and Melanie Lauwers, who was at the time the Book Editor for the Cape Cod Times. Something sparked between us, and before long we became regulars on the show. When Melanie retired to Florida in 2014, I became the regular book talker on what had become an hour long live broadcast. It has been such a treat to have an hour of live radio every month just to talk about books! As far as we can recall, that first show was in February 2005. Also, as far as we can recall, next weeks show on October 27th will be the 166th book show! There were, of course, some shows that were repeated, but let’s just say … I’ve done a surprising number of book shows, considering it was supposed to be a one-time event!

          One of the great joys of the show is, of course, our listeners, who call in or email the station with their picks on whatever book topic we are discussing. There have been many, many topics. Here are a few … books that changed your life, LabLit (novels with scientists as characters), politics, Cape Cod authors, humor, cats & dogs, travel,  movies, April in Paris, baseball, banned books, planes trains & automobiles, fairy tales, survival stories, maps, whales, birds, dreaming, pirates, fish, letters, detectives, insects, romance, sisters, colors, cookbooks, magic, water, and stories of the sea. When the pandemic hit in March of 2020 we began to do the show from our homes. The library was closed to the public at that point, and so author Peter Abrahams and I did two shows on the books from our home bookshelves! Many of these shows you can find archived on the CAI web page.

          It has been such a gift to share books with the CAI audience. After one show on trees where I mentioned how much I loved winter trees, a listener called in and told us about a book they adored which was all about trees in winter, with beautiful illustrations. Next thing I knew, they had sent me a copy of the book! Another time I was talking about how my mother loved Josephine Tey mysteries, but I had never read them. Within a few hours, a listener delivered a bag of paperback Josephine Tey mysteries to me! What a gift our listeners have been!

          The time has come, however, for me to hang up my monthly radio book chats, which is not to say that the book show itself won’t continue. I have no doubt that Mindy and Amy and Dan will soon find someone else who enjoys spending as much time talking about books on CAI as I have. Mindy has made me promise that I will return from time to time as a guest, and I have assured her that I will. In the meantime, there will be one more live show on Wednesday, October 27th at 9:00 AM on CAI where Mindy and I will talk about books featuring radio! Joining us this month will be a brand new booktalker … Jessica Rudden-Dube, Director of the Cotuit Library. I hope you’ll be listening! And as one last little radio treat, here is a link to the many, many photos I have taken for the monthly book show.

A Farewell to Falmouth Public Library

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September 3, 1991. The first words that are written after the date in my National Brand, Narrow Ruled Eye-Ease Paper Single Subject notebook are: “List of Attorney Generals.” This notebook was shared by all the reference librarians at the reference desk so we knew what question had been answered and what question still needed to have some follow-up. Other questions that can be found in that notebook:

“Can WordPerfect be used on an Apple II?”

“Do you have any information on T. Bailey, Cape artist and marine painter?”

“Do you have a 16mm movie projector that the public can use?”

“Do you have the phone number for the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Museum?”

“Why is the blue moon called blue?”

“A child brought in a grenade for show and tell. When did that happen?”

“A patron at Snow Library wants to know U.S. Foreign Aid to Pakistan for fiscal year 1990/1991.”

“When is Anita Hill’s Birthday?”

“What does Italy do to celebrate the New Year?”

And one of my all-time favorite reference questions … “Would you forge my mother’s signature? I got in trouble at school.”

We answered them all. We were a regional reference library, which meant we were funded by the state to answer questions for all the libraries on the Cape and Islands, not just the questions of the citizens of the town of Falmouth.

We answered them all, without the internet, without google, without an online card catalog. When I first arrived we still had a paper card catalog, but on Halloween 1991 the first CLAMS online catalog was launched. In the 1991 town annual report, Ann Haddad, Library Director, wrote: “Library circulation is now on computer linking a 14 member library network. Users have one card and can use the collections of all participating libraries.” In the 1994 town annual report we began “a regular weekly newspaper column” in the Falmouth ENTERPRISE, which is to this day still making a weekly appearance!

And then, in the 1995 town annual report, the world of the reference librarian changed dramatically. Director Nancy Serotkin wrote in her list of highlights for the year: “starting a World Wide Web connection for the public in cooperation with the Woods Hole research community.” The future had arrived!

It has been a great gift to have spent thirty years working for the Falmouth Public Library. I have been fortunate to have so many wonderful colleagues both at the Falmouth Public Library and within the Cape and Island libraries. I thank all of the town of Falmouth for being so supportive of this stunning building and this amazing staff who work in the main library and our East and North branches.

I’ll leave you with the words of my magnificent reference professor at Simmons College, Allen Smith, who said to all of his students: “In order to be really good as a librarian, everything counts towards your work, every play you go see, every concert you hear, every trip you take, everything you read, everything you know. I don’t know of another occupation like that. The more you know, the better you’re going to be.”

Jill Erickson
Head of Reference & Adult Services … my last day will be October 28th, 2021!

We Will Miss You Laura!

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Once upon a time I met a librarian at a workshop I was giving at the Brewster Ladies Library for the Southeastern Massachusetts Library System. Little did I know that the workshop would end up with my being introduced to Laura Ford, who eventually became the Head of the Children’s Department at FPL.  But let me just take a step back, because before she became the Head of the Children’s Department, I hired her as a part-time reference librarian! Thus I had the pleasure of working with her in that capacity for a few years, and one of the things I most loved about working with Laura, was she was the best reader’s advisory librarian I ever had. In fact, she recommended all kinds of books that I added to my staff picks over the years. 

Once Laura made the move to the Children’s Department she created all kinds of enchantment for children, and adults too! I remember one day she showed me how to make a fairy out of a clothespin. When our building was shut down, but we were still working in the building, Laura was a great sport when I asked her to pose with a pink elephant named Elly! As the Head of Adult Services and Reference, I was always delighted to find some fun project going on in the children’s room, and sometimes beyond the children’s room. Here are two turkeys I saw one day hanging around the library.

One of the most spectacular events that Laura and I worked on together was the night we had twelve kids in the library after hours. They had all entered a contest created around the book Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein, and the prize was getting to spend time in the library after it closed. What great fun it was! Here are all the kids with Chris Grabenstein himself! Laura even convinced her own husband to take part in the scavenger hunt festivities! And here is one of my favorite photos of Laura, taken on a very fun day when Mo Willems came to FPL!

This is only a small sampling of the fun I’ve had with Laura, and I know that our loss is a gain for the Plymouth Public Library, but we will miss her so much! I am guessing she will not miss her commute across the bridge every day, but she will miss having all that time to listen to books on CD. Wishing Miss Laura (as she was known in the children’s room) all the best as she begins her new adventure.

A Zoom Talk with Catherine Prendergast, Author of THE GILDED EDGE

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Join us on Tuesday, October 5th, via Zoom, for a talk by Catherine Prendergast, author of The Gilded Edge: two audacious women and the cyanide love triangle that shook America. Kirkus Reviews writes : “The text reads like a dramatic novel fueled by sex, alcohol, and quests for fame and fortune.” Publisher’s Weekly writes: “… this punchy feminist tribute offers a fascinating look at two forgotten women of the Gilded Age.” Booklist writes: “Life in Carmel among its bohemian artists is a captivating subject, but Prendergast deepens it by entering the narrative to relay the difficulties she encountered researching Carrie and Nora, two fascinating women whose lives were largely buried in archives devoted to the men in their circle… Prendergast’s vivid history offers a sobering take on a romanticized time and place in which the men were lauded while the women were nearly erased.”

Cathy Prendergast writes: “Can’t wait to pen my book tour with a talk (virtually) at Falmouth Public Library. My home away from home. Much of this book was written in Falmouth at my uncle’s house (or Coffee Obsession when he was napping.)  

Our favorite bookstore, Eight Cousins, will be taking pre-orders for Cathy’s book, with a limited number of bookplates signed by the author.

We hope you can join us. Just click HERE to register for Cathy’s Zoom talk.

Books About Families on The Point with Mindy Todd

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“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” wrote Leo Tolstoy at the beginning of his novel ANNA KARENINA. On the book show this month Dennis Minsky joined us, as we shared books about both happy and unhappy families. From a classic book of photography created by Edward Steichen to the LETTERS OF SHIRLEY JACKSON to the story behind the classic children’s book ALL-OF-A-KIND FAMILY by Sydney Taylor. Feel free to leave a comment below with your favorite book about fictional or real families! If you missed the show, you’ll be able to listen on CAI’s website. And if you would like to join me for Cathy Prendergast’s talk about her new book The Gilded Edge: two audacious women and the cyanide love triangle that shook America on Tuesday, October 5th, at 7:00 PM, you can sign up for her Zoom talk here.

 

Dennis’s Picks

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
A Death In the Family by James Agee
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Naked by David Sedaris

 

Jill’s Picks

The Family of Man with an introduction by Edward Steichen and a prologue by Carl Sandburg
The Gilded Edge by Catherine Prendergast
The Letters of Shirley Jackson edited by Laurence Jackson Hyman
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
From Sarah to Sydney: the woman behind All-of-a-Kind Family by June Cummins with Alexandra Dunietz

 

Listener Pick

Defending Jacob by William Landay
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa
Wild Swans: three daughters of China by Jung Chang

Practical Travel Advice for Real People

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Every so often, as I’m mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, I come across a staged, romanticized picture of “van life”.  You’ve seen these.  It’s usually a couple sitting outside an $80,000 pristine, luxury vehicle just after dusk.  They seem to be traveling with a 4 foot potted cactus, 16 floors pillows, a projector, screen, and 50 feet of white string lights. There may or may not be a guitar involved.  These photos irritate me.  Like, where did you shower and curl your hair, and is that a charcuterie board you have there? They just aren’t honest reflections of what it’s really like to be on the road – at least, in my experience. 

So, my aim here is to be precisely not that.  I have some utilitarian advice – mostly knowledge gained from messing up.  And, luckily for you, reader, I’ve messed up a lot.  

Everyone has a different rig, budget, route and objectives, so I’ll try to keep this general.

The Basics 

Have a full size spare and jack, and be comfortable changing a tire. It’s easy. If you’ve never done it before, find a youtube video and figure it out in the driveway before you go.  Make sure you have a tire gauge and jumper cables too.   

Pay attention to your fluid levels.  Especially if (like me) you’re driving an older vehicle.  Everyone knows to check oil and coolant, but don’t forget transmission fluid.  This can sometimes be tucked away in the back / a little more difficult to get to, but figure it out, because a transmission fluid leak can be catastrophic.  For example, once upon a time, I had a leak I didn’t know about and ended up blowing the transmission and consequently spent the next 2 weeks living in a mechanic’s parking lot in rural Oklahoma.  Lesson learned. 

On Where to Sleep 


Truck Stops

The truth is not every night will be spent somewhere with a view.  There will be times when you are just trying to cover ground and in those instances, especially if you’re on a major highway, truck stops might be the best option.  Many of them have free WiFi, the others usually have WiFi available for a fee.  What they also have is super nice showers.  Seriously, truck stop showers are fantastic.  They are clean, safe, and absolutely worth the $8-$15 dollars you’ll pay for them.  It isn’t actually just a shower either.  You’re given a large bathroom with a toilet, sink and (generally) a huge shower.  They almost always provide towels as well.  There is no time limit, so you can go in there, take a deep breath, and pretend you’re in a nice hotel.  (Side note: another option around showering is to get a Planet Fitness membership that allows you to visit any branch in the country.  That runs about $20/ month, and if you’ll be spending a lot of time in towns, rather than boondocking, it might be worth it.) 

The parking situation at truck stops varies, but keep this in mind:  If you are parked among 18-wheelers, truckers will be coming and going at all hours.  They are exhausted and when they pull in at 3AM, they are looking to avoid hitting semi-trucks, but when they are reversing, they may not see your little van tucked in there among the giants.  So, park somewhere out of the way, where you are unlikely to be accidentally backed into.   (Yes, this happened to me.)  

 

Not All Walmarts are Created Equal

Not all Walmarts allow you to stay overnight, and they will ask you to move.  Especially on the West coast.  Ask the parking lot attendants, because the official company line and what actually happens may not be in perfect alignment, and these people will know what’s up.  Other large retailers like Lowes, Home Depot, and Costco might also be options – again, ask the parking attendants.  Most Cracker Barrels allow overnight parking and I’ve even stayed in 24 hour McDonalds lots.  (McDonalds has solid free WiFi too).  

 

National & State Parks

National and state parks are wonderful, and they are the highlights of many of our trips.  Here’s my two cents on those.  If you plan to go to more than two national parks over the course of a year, it is worth getting the National Parks Pass, which costs about $100, and lasts 1 year.  The entry fee for National Parks is usually in the $40 range.  State parks are less expensive.  While some may have campgrounds, they are usually pretty pricey (again, state parks less so).  My advice is to go enjoy the parks and see all the sights / use the facilities during the day, and when it’s time to set up camp, drive just outside the bounds of the park.  In many cases, the surrounding area is federal/ public land you’re able to camp on for free.  You can find maps through the Bureau of Land Management website:  www.blm.gov/maps 

 

Resources

Public Libraries: I’m a librarian now, but I wasn’t prior to my last big trip, and at that time I had no idea the extent of services and resources public libraries provide.  If you’re going to be in a town for more than a day, I would look into it.  Many libraries now have what they call a “library of things”, and you can borrow all kinds of stuff.  Every library will be different, but chromebooks, WiFi  hotspots, household tools, sewing machines, lawn games, binoculars, and bike locks are all examples of what you might be able to borrow… also, they often have books.  They’ll have free wifi as well, and if you need information about the town (or anything else), it turns out librarians really are an excellent source.  (You may be thinking, “but I won’t have a library card”.  At my library, we let people get a card even if they will only be in town a day or two, and I know many libraries are like that.  If not, explain your situation, I would bet on them working with you.) 

Ask the locals.  About everything – where to go, what to do, where the best tacos are, etc.  I find this question effective:  “If you had a friend visiting from out of town, who had never been here before, where would you take them?”  This usually helps bypass the typical tourist traps people feel obliged to tell you about.  When I asked people in Sedona, AZ that question, more than one of them said, “actually, I’d go to Jerome”, which is a small town about 40 minutes from Sedona.  So, I went to Jerome.  As expected, it turned out to be one of the coolest towns I’ve ever been to.  It’s an old mining town literally built on a cliff with narrow switchback roads, so that the main street feels like it has levels rather than blocks.  If you’re ever in the area, you should check it out.  

Fill up water jugs every chance you get – especially when traveling with a pet.  Most rest stops have water bottle filling stations.  Where to get free, clean water is another good question for a local.  


Light, Power, Heat 

There are lots of options to get these jobs done, and I would never attempt to cover them all.  I can only speak to what has worked for me.  My priorities have been, primarily, low cost and low profile.  I need it to fit in the budget and in the vehicle.    


Light

I have these small, cylindrical,  inflatable solar lights.  They’re great. They’re waterproof, and take up no space at all when deflated.  During the day I stick them in my window to charge, and they’ll provide light all night.  


Power

I have a portable battery pack – a bit smaller than a classic lunch box.  It can be charged by plugging it into the wall or while you’re driving via the cigarette lighter (or however you charge your phone).  I love it, and it’s really all I need as it has a couple USB ports and a couple regular outlets, so I can charge all of my things at the same time.  

I also have a small solar charging bank with two USB ports.  It’s the size of a couple phones stacked on top of each other, and it folds out to be about 16” X 4”.  Again, I charge it in the window, or lay it out on the hood of my camper when I’m parked.  

If you have the space, and can afford it, those larger portable batteries with jumper cables attached are pretty awesome.  They are about the size of a small, rolling piece of carry-on luggage, and they have the power to not only charge your electronics, but also jump your vehicle, should you find yourself alone with a dead battery.  


Heat

I use a portable indoor/ outdoor propane heater that runs on the little 1 pound camping propane tanks.  The brand I have is “Mr. Heater, Portable Buddy”, and it’s worked well for me.  It’s about the size of a fat briefcase. 

The other thing to remember, if you’re traveling in the winter, is to do your best to insulate and conserve heat.  For me, that meant hanging a blanket to block off the cab area when I was parked in order to keep heat in the living space.  I also used the insulating plastic that covers windows/ skylights to prevent drafts (you use a hair dryer to shrink it / remove wrinkles and it’s barely visible if done correctly) and it was effective. Of course, it can be easily removed at any time.  Lastly, don’t forget the floors – they can be a major heat sink.  A rug (or several) will do wonders to keep your feet and rig warm in even the coldest weather.  


Toilets

(If you’re driving a vehicle without a working toilet / blackwater tank)  

Lots of people travel without a toilet. It’s totally possible (I’ve done it) and the reality of that, if you’re in the middle of the desert, for example, is digging a hole every day after your morning coffee. It’s easier to get used to than you might think. (The book, How to Shit in the Woods by Kathleen Meyer is an excellent resource that covers environmentally responsible, sustainable, shitting practices and procedures. Seriously.) Of course, you can also just make sure you’re never too far from a public bathroom. However, if you both want a toilet and want to be away from civilization for extended periods, there are myriad camping / composting toilets on the market. They are more expensive than you might think, so mentally prepare for that before you go shopping.

Composting toilets are, of course, the most eco-friendly option.  I didn’t go that route because I just didn’t want to have to interact that closely with my own “waste” every day.  (In almost all composting toilets you have to at least dump a container of pee daily.)  I’m not proud of my squeamishness, because I do try to be as kind to the environment as I can, but that’s the truth of the matter.  Instead, I opted for a dry flush toilet.  These things are basically just like a diaper genie, but in toilet form.  I have the Laveo Dry Flush Toilet, which costs about $700 (wild, I know).  Google it if you’re interested, but essentially, it twist-seals every time you use it (so it doesn’t smell), and after about 15 waterless “flushes” (twist seals) you end up with a garbage bag full of individually wrapped poos.  You can then chuck this garbage bag in any dumpster.  I use it sparingly, and it’s worked well for me.  As I said, there are tons of different options around toilets.  I recommend doing the research and putting some thought into this before you make a decision.  I certainly have no interest in telling anyone where to poop.  You do you.  


Some days are like that… 

Finally, you might have bad days.  You’ll almost certainly have difficult moments along your journey.  (If it was easy, everyone would do it, right?)  Of course, all of that is part of the adventure and the tough days teach us the most and make for the best stories (so try to remember that when you’re mid-meltdown).  I tend to, on my worst days, imagine my life as an HBO series.  I find it strangely and wonderfully comforting.  I’m sure there are healthier coping strategies, but I can only speak to what works for me.  And, for me, the protagonist in a smart comedy getting stuck in Oklahoma with a blown transmission is more fun than me being stuck, alone, in Oklahoma with a blown transmission.  So, maybe give it a try on your next bad day.  But also, remember to check the transmission fluid.