Down to the wire

So this is it. We leave for Oregon tomorrow, and we still haven't sold the RV. But we do have a buyer... in fact, we have two.

After hearing virtually nothing all week, we had two guys come out to look at the rig yesterday. The firat one I'm not so sure about... it was a little too big for him, and I could almost hear the internal dialog going on. He said he would call us.

But the second guy I have a good feeling about. He seems like a decent guy, and he has a reason he wants the RV that I won't get into because it's his own private thing. So I'll just say that I'd feel really good about carrying an owner contract to help him out. Plus, he gave us a dollar amount he could pay, and said he'd be by this afternoon with cash in hand.

I gotta say that I like the security of having a couple buyers on the hook, but I'd hate to have one jump through a lot of hoops to make arrangements to buy it, only to be told that it's been sold to someone else.

Diane's been running herself ragged getting everything packed up and ready to go. I haven't been able to do much of anything because I've been finishing things up at work. Today is my last day there, and even though I've hated the job with a passion for the last couple of years, I know I'm going to miss the place.

And if all this wasn't enough, I have to make a court appearance Monday. When my wife and I split up, my oldest daughter Brittany stayed with me. Then in October she went to live with her mother, who signed her up for welfare benefits. That triggered a child support issue with the state... but a few months later, Brittany came back to live with me.

So I need to make arrangements to appear by phone and explain the situation to them -- especially the fact that they want to go after me for back child support, most of which includes the time that she was living with me! This is a subject for another post altogether, but all I've seen from these child support officials is lies and incompetence. I love my kids and I'll do whatever it takes to see that they're provided for (without having the government's nose in my business, if I had the choice), but it would be nice if child support would work with people to make it happen instead of just coming up with an arbitrary dollar amount and forcing you to pay... and it would be nice if they did their homework first.

Like I said, that's another post altogether.

Well, crap...

So... yesterday I was jumping through hoops to get this RV sold. A few minutes before I was supposed to leave work, I realized that I didn't have a bill of sale or any other kind of paperwork to sell off the motor home. So I ended up staying in the office an extra twenty minutes while I cruised the internet and found one I liked, and printed off a few copies.

So then I'm off to cash my check and make the last payment on the RV so I can get the title. The guy we're buying it from is hard to get hold of... Diane called his number a few times, but was only able to leave a message letting him know I'd be stopping by. Lucky for me, he was there. But apparently that was the only bit of luck I had yesterday... because he didn't have the title.

So I made the final payment, but have to wait a couple days to get the title from him.

I drove home, wondering what I'm gonna tell the buyer when I see him. Then when I get home, Diane tells me that the guy stopped by, looked at the RV, and she wasn't sure if he's gonna buy. He says he'll call us today. I won't hold my breath.

I dunno what it is with people... my ad was completely honest, and I'm only asking $2000 for the rig (it's worth at least twice that, and triple once it's fixed up). But I guess for $2k they expect it to be made of gold or something.

But I do have a Plan B. I've been talking to a guy who wants it to buy an RV to live in, but he can only afford to make payments. Not the most attractive option, but if it helps us both out...

And it's a hell of a lot better than Plan C -- which is to call a junkyard and get $100 for my $2000 rig.

Good news?

I've been stressing pretty hard about getting our RV sold off, and it looks like that's gonna happen today... hopefully. I've had an ad for our RV and some other stuff on craigslist since last week, and I've had a few people interested, but no takers.

I reposted it yesterday, heard nothing all day long, and finally got a response from a guy who is supposed to be showing up this afternoon with cash in hand.

But here's the deal. We don't own it yet. So after I get paid today, I need to spend virtually every dime I have to make the last payment on the RV and get the title (assuming the owner will be home -- haven't been able to get in touch with him), run home with it, and hope the buyer doesn't flake out on us. Otherwise we're screwed.

If all goes well, then we'll have some money to set aside for a camper van. Originally, we were goint to travel in the RV, but this beast is just too big. Especially with gas prices being what they are. A camper van would be perfect. It would be a bit... uh... cozy... but it can go virtually anywhere, and if we get tired we can park overnight just about anyplace without having to worry about The Man tapping a flashlight on our window.

But keeping our hands off the cash would be a challenge. Diane and I are not known for saving money...

Getting started...

So here it is, the first journal entry. I'm going to try to do this daily, but we'll see how it goes. I don't have too much spare time these days.

Right now we're getting ready to move to Oregon. My fiance Diane is doing most of the packing while I train my replacement at work and finish out the week. Then there's the problem of selling off the RV we've been living in -- I'd love to keep it, but the tires on this thing will never make it to Oregon.

I'm not sure what I'll do once I'm down there. St. Helens, OR is pretty much just a mill town -- a bedroom community of Portland. Not much opportunity there, and for the moment I still need to work for The Man to make ends meet.

And then there's the book. Writing takes time. Traveling takes money. And right now we don't have much of either. But I'm determined to get it done on time. We'll see how it goes, but in the meantime I gotta get ready for work...

THE OFFBEAT PATH: The Govan School House

© 2008 James Hicks

Sometimes things don't work out.

I like to plan out our road trips, but I also like to be spontaneous. And it was a little bit of both that put us at the front door of the dilapidated old Govan schoolhouse. A last-minute change of plans took us off of I-90 for the last leg of our trip to Spokane, and onto a desolate stretch of two-lane blacktop known as U.S. Route 2 (US2). I had barely enough time to check our map for cool places to check into, before we were out the door and on the road.

Once on US2, Diane and I were driving on about an eighth of a tank of Holy Gasoline, praying to roll just a few more miles before we reached Wilbur, the nearest town of any consequence (HOT TIP: On US2, you better fill up when you can, because gas stations are few and far between), when I saw a road sign with a familiar name -- Govan. I checked the notes I'd scribbled before we left home, and found it there in the list. An old ghost town. But the only information I had about the place was a hastily-scrawled "Govan -- ghost town", and I vaguely remembered that I never had much intel on the place to begin with.

We decided to risk the wrath of the Almighty (who had been filling our tank with angel feathers and pixie dust for the last twenty miles or so) by taking a side trip into town, hoping He wouldn't teach Me (uh... me) a lesson in humility by making me walk along the highway with a gas can in my hand.

Govan, WA. Population 4. So they say. The old western Washington ghost town has seen better days. Maybe.

We spotted the schoolhouse right away and made a beeline for it. At one time it must've been one of the most beautiful and impressive buildings for miles around. But today the old school is run down and neglected, with no doors or windows, its red paint peeling away to expose the weathered boards beneath. Still beautiful in its own right, and impressive that it's still standing.

We stopped in front of the old school to take some pictures and get a closer look. Diane wasn't feeling well, so she stayed in the Tracker while I grabbed the camera and headed toward the schoolhouse.

Welcome to "do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do"-land. The area around the schoolhouse looks like it's used as farmland these days, which means it's private property. But I wanted to get a closer look. I took a gander around me and didn't see anyone...

Big No-No Number One: Never enter private property without permission. But I wanted to get a few pictures of the old building, and besides... it's only a few yards off the road. If someone was around to ask permission, I would've asked. But this was just a side-trip, and I didn't have time to track down the owner. And east of the Cascades is a different world anyway... I knew that the owner either wouldn't mind as long as I didn't trash the place, or he'd come hauling balls in a pickup truck and stick a shotgun in my face. So armed with that -- and a thousand other lame excuses -- I crossed the property line.

So I walked around the building a little bit, took my pictures, and took a look inside. The doors and windows are gone, exposing the building's interior to the elements.

Big No-No Number Two: Never enter an area that looks unsafe. The old two-room schoolhouse has been derelict for a long time, and it shows. To be honest, I think the place only has a couple more winters left before it collapses. Looking inside, I could see that the place was basically empty. But I wanted to take a look anyway.

The stairs leading up to the front porch are long-gone, but the building's basalt foundation offered plenty of toeholds, and I don't wear steel-toes for nothing. I didn't trust the front porch's old and weathered floorboards to hold my weight, so I stayed on the beams.

I peered through the front door, almost messed myself when a flock of birds flew out of the windows and the belltower, and took a gander into the two classrooms. I walked about ten feet inside. I wanted to go in deeper, but I was sure that the floorboards were in no better shape than the ones on the front porch. And inside, the floor was covered with the droppings of generations of barn swallows and whatever else decided to take shelter in there over the years. Unable to see where the beams were, I decided to be safe and turn back.

Big No-No Number Three: When investigating a location, enter the area with the audio recorder running, and keep it running until you leave. I thought I'd learned this lesson, but apparently not. As I turned to leave, I heard something in the other room. At first, I thought it was birds, but listening closer I realized I was wrong -- it was children! Was someone else in the building, I wondered? I hadn't seen anyone, but the voices of children laughing and playing in the next room were undeniable.

Moving as quickly and carefully as I could, I made my way out of the room and toward the door to the other classroom. And -- in typical fashion -- the voiced stopped when I looked through the doorway. The room was empty.

After leaving the schoolhouse, we took a quick drive around town. A couple of young kids playing in a front yard waved at us as we passed by. Were these the kids I heard when I was in the old schoolhouse? The voices sounded like they were in the next room, but I know how acoustics can be. But I'll never know for sure, because I'd left my audio recorder in the Tracker. So much for learning my lesson.

I've tried to do some research on the old Govan schoolhouse, and haven't come up with much. I've heard that it was built in 1908 and closed in 1942, that one room was used to teach Kindergarten through fourth grade, and the other room was for grades five through nine. But I haven't been able to confirm any of it.

Just like I haven't been able to confirm whether the voices of the children I heard came from the Great Beyond, or from a hundred yards away, carried on the wind.

ADDRESS: School House Rd N Govan, WA

DIRECTIONS: From US2, head south on Govan Rd N and follow it around the corner. Turn left on School House Rd N and the school will be on your right. ~OR~ From US2, head south on Bodeau Rd N. Turn right on Govan Rd N, left on Bruce Rd E, then left again on School House Rd N. The schoolhouse will be on your left.

GPS: N 47° 44.434' / W -118° 49.133' / Elevation: 2085 ft.

---

James Hicks is the author of the upcoming book, The Offbeat Path: Strange Destinations in Washington State. He and his fiancé Diane travel the United States in search of the strange, the unusual, and the haunted. Permission is granted to repost or publish this article under the following Terms and Conditions.

Republishing Articles: Terms and Conditions

Permission is granted by the author (that's me) to republish any posting in this blog only if ALL of the following is agreed to by the republisher (that's you):

1. The posting contains the statement "Permission is granted to republish this article," ~OR~ permission has been asked for and granted by the author (James Hicks).

2. The article remains the property of the author.

3. Prior to republishing, the republisher must contact the author at jhicks777@hotmail.com and provide the name of the publication, URL of the website, etc. At that time they will be given a basic HTML file of the article, and any associated photos. If requested, any future article releases will be submitted to the republisher automatically.

4. No editing of any kind is allowed. The article must appear in its entirety, exactly as it was written, with no comments appearing within the article (comments may appear before and/or after). The only exception to this rule is that the formatting/page layout may be changed to retain the look and feel of the publication.

5. Likewise, the blurb at the end about me and my book must remain intact (that's the whole reason I'm doing this, people).

6. The title of the article may not be changed.

7. Use of any associated photographs is optional.

8. Photographs included in, and associated with, the article may not be edited in any way, except for resizing. They may appear ONLY with the article they are associated with (not in an image gallery, etc.), and the watermark must remain intact. Again, the only exception to this rule is editing done to retain the look and feel of the publication. Photographs also remain the property of the author.

9. Permission to republish a given article may be revoked at any time and for any reason. If permission is revoked, digital media (websites) must remove the article within 72 hours. Print media (including e-books and e-zines) may not include the article in any future editions, printings, issues, etc.

10. Though articles are available for republishing free of charge, republishing in for-profit publications is allowed (though if you were really nice, you'd send me a copy or two).

11. Obviously, articles are not exclusive to a given republisher.

12. Any deviation from these rules is allowed only with the express consent of the author.

So that's it. In English: Let me know what you're doing and where it's going, and don't change a thing. You can use it, but you don't own it. Free advertising and exposure for me, free content for you, and (hopefully) entertaining and worthwhile reading for the public. Everybody wins.