Meet Rita (short for Chaparrita) - 2000 Ford E450 Skoolie

I (Jenn) adopted Rita  from her creator, Craig, in June of 2024, in Sausalito, CA. She's been converted for full time off-grid living.  Craig put a lot of love, thought, effort and countless hours into building her.   She's 22 feet long, so she's considered a shorty - like me (5'1").

This blog will document our time together...for however long it is and wherever we roam.  The good, the awesome, the bad, the ugly and the hysterical.

Rita and I were built for adventures, risk-taking, saying YES to the unknown and spreading smiles wherever we go.

That's just how we roll.

from Urban Dictionary

Chaparrita

Latino slang for short. Used for short females. A pet name for a short woman or short girl, "shorty." Usually used as a pet name within a Mexican family as a sign of affection for a little girl.

Skoolie

A school bus that has been purchased by a private owner and converted for some purpose other than hauling people around, such as RVing. Can be a very economical, cost-efficient means of obtaining an RV.

Latest News

Salt Lake City – Colorado – Nebraska – Illinois

Salt Lake City – Colorado – Nebraska – Illinois

NOTE: SORRY If you got a new post notification and there is not, in fact, a new post after this one yet...working on it!! But now you know the post notifications are working finally 🙂   I got a not-too-early start out of Salt Lake. It was so great to visit with Art and Lisa – I’m already looking forward to visiting them in their AZ home this winter! I was able to fill up one tank with water before rolling on out of there. It was to be a fairly short drive to my overnight at Dinosaur National Monument....
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Santa Cruz to Salt Lake City

Santa Cruz to Salt Lake City

It was quite stressful waiting on Rita for the week. Kind of like having a friend in the hospital (with no insurance), waiting to hear the news of multiple surgeries.  It looked like she was going to be done on Wednesday, but then it turned out to be Thursday night before I could pick her up. I was losing my mind a little with anticipation and anxiety and thinking about all the things I had to do to take off.  The bill made me a little nauseous, but I keep reminding myself what my BFF Jen told me “Stop saying...
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Hangin’ in Santa Cruz

Hangin’ in Santa Cruz

I had to carefully turn into the narrow gates of John and Laura’s long driveway – I managed not to scrape either side.   I love this big old house on Pinto Lake.  I helped them move in back when I was a professional organizer.  That’s how Laura and I met.  I adored her from the start, and eventually we became too good of friends to be working together.  I love that house, filled with fun and interesting and beautiful art and the wooden stair case that make me feel like royalty everytime I walk down it. I left Rita at...
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To Santa Cruz Again

To Santa Cruz Again

It was hard to leave Omega Camp, but I knew it would never be easy, I could've spent weeks there, I think! So I decided to make things easier in general by leaving Saturday instead of Sunday - I knew it would take me almost an hour just to get out the 4 mile dirt road, and with the extreme heat it probably wouldn't be wise to spend an entire day driving in it. I wasn't entirely sure where I would spend the night, but I definitely wanted to stop and see my cousin, Diane, just north of Sacramento. Not...
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