Not-so-still-life in Trailer

by Jen Jackson

Blog Last Updated; 3/18/2010

We just moved from the RV park this week. All of us did. I can't claim to know exactly what is going on there. As we all packed up to leave ? some people with nowhere to go but BLM land where they will have no electricity or water for a month ? the general consensus was that we had to move to make room for the influx of off-road enthusiasts that are part and parcel of Jeep Safari. We also believed that the county was behind some nefarious plot to close the whole damned place down. This was the story told to us. Though our immediate futures seemed uncertain ? where to go, what to do ? the long-term future of Ron's Pack Creek Campground felt especially dire.

So I wrote a letter to the county (posted on this blog last week). Since then, I've received a phone call from the county Planning Department and an email from a member of the County Council. Both people assured me that the campground is in no danger of closing, and they had no idea where such ideas might arise. And I believe them. These are people I know and trust in the community. Meanwhile, I rode my bike past the ol' homestead yesterday and saw one lonely RV occupying the whole park. One. We were all forced out ? including a 76-year-old for whom it was an extreme hardship ? to make room for one lousy trailer?

Like I said, I don't claim to know the real story. Trailer park politics are beyond me. The whole tangled web of affordable housing (or lack thereof) and industrial tourism ? the interplay of high-income visitors and low-income residents ? is a topic for another time...and deserving of a lot more research.

But we're out of the trailer park. And on to better things, as it seems. A dear friend of mine from St. George came through at the eleventh hour and offered us use of his land in Spanish Valley, 10 miles south of Moab. He's been trying to sell it for the past four years, to no avail. We're welcome to occupy it while it's still on the market.

We love it.

Four-and-a-half acres, with a breathtaking view of the La Sals. Our neighbors include horses, chickens, mules and cows. The Pack Creek ditch runs through the property. Ravens and meadowlarks serenade us all day. Hawks and falcons regularly sail by.

Yes, the land needs a lot of clean-up ? it's been neglected for a while now ? but we'll gladly spruce things up while we're here. We've begun collecting and burning the abundance of Russian thistle (nasty stuff), and we're finding use for all the old junk lying around on the property. Tyler built us a lovely shade structure from long wooden poles and twine abandoned here. He made a porch out of a hidden supply of flagstone. We have a small "shrine" next to the front door ? a cactus barely hanging onto life (we found it next to the scattered remains of the pot it was once in), planted in a coffee tin with potting soil we discovered here. It sits next to numerous heart-shaped rocks, an unopened tin of sardines, and a piece of stone that reads "Holyoak" ? the name of the previous owners. Old oil drums and barrels will be used for flowerpots and water collection for the garden. Yes, we get to have a garden!

We've only been here for a few days now, but it already feels like home?though, a temporary home. Such is life in a trailer. I suppose it has wheels for a reason.

Outside yesterday, the spring evening drawing down on the La Sals in hues of spring cherry blossoms, Tyler and I smiled at the good fortune that brought us to this small piece of Spanish Valley paradise.

"I wish we could somehow buy this and make it our own," I lamented.

"I thought about that," mused Tyler. "But it's okay. This gives us some practice for the real thing."

So we're practicing being landowners, people who will one day have the right and reason to stay in one place for a while. And it's a helluva lot of fun.

Thursday, March 18, 2010
at 9:43:21 AM

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Ken says:

The migration of the subsistence dwellers ... the 21st century version of the story of Civilization, eh? So many versions of the same story, even locally -- I think of the "Bus Village" that once etched into the mining road hanging over Telluride. But it's good (for us onlookers, if not you and your neighbors ...) to have your dispatches from the front.

Is there, perhaps, (we hope) an IO story in the offing up the Moab trailer parkers' plight?

And, again, given your new squat-spot, seems you also can't predict the potential rewards of migration. Wonder what "adventures" the other relocated Pack Creek park might end up stumbling by force into ... ?