The truck...

It seems that the history of my cars has been a progression from small to huge.
My fist car was a Renault 5. I think that here in the USA it was referred to as the Renault Le Car. Later, I shared with my brothers and sister a Renault Routier. After that one, at some point, I was able to buy a junked Mustang 67 and restored it. The next one was one of my favorites, a Mazda RX7. After this one I got my worst car ever...a Chevy Cavalier. What a piece of crap. After this, a short stint with a WV Golf, and then a VW Jetta. Then a Mitsubishi Montero. After this, came the beloved Toyota 4Runnrer, what a great car. We had lots of fun with it.

But with the 4Runner we could not tow anything close to what we needed. So it came time to let go and..."Say hello to my little friend", the GMC 2500HD Duramax/Allison. This truck feels huge in comparison to anything that I have owned before. It is looooong and tall.
I remember driving around in my small cars and every time I came near one of these huge trucks they annoyed me and I tried to get away from them...slow, clumsy and out of place in the city. Well, now I am one of them big rig diesel types. From the high cabin I can see the compact cars like ants swarming and getting into my blind spots. I have learned to "lean" on them to scare them away from the blind spots...it is for their own good :)



Going around town, I have realized that this truck does not fit in any parking spot. The end of the bed always sticks out about 3 ft. For crying out loud, not even in the contractor section of Home Depot. Which by they way, I have noticed that in hardware stores, auto parts stores, you get these approval nods when you pull in the 2500. You can feel the testosterone levels going up, I have noticed that now I have to shave twice a day.

While doing all the research for the truck, I stumbled across the subculture of "diesel people"and the apparent pecking order of trucks. Anything gasoline and 1500 not really, really a truck. With 2500 you get your lil'training wheels until you graduate to the real stuff, a dually 3500.
Another funny thing is these diesel street competitions...no, they do not drag race, they see who can tow who, like a tow-hoe-down, take a look here, or here. The online forms get into passionate discussions of Cummings vs. Duramax, just like the photo people get into arguments of Canon vs. Nikon or PC vs. Mac.

A couple of days ago, I pulled into Cabelas, and to my surprise I discovered that all the parking spots were big enough for the truck. I teardrop rolled down my cheek. I looked left and right, and sure enough, I was amongst fellow 2500's and above (3500's), grills and gun racks galore. I felt welcomed and I found in Cabelas what I could not found in regular auto stores, a set of anchors for the pickup bed, appropriately branded: "Bully". By the way, every thing truck related is marketed with names like "exterminator", "crusher", "stumper", "dominator", "decider" ;)
I told Vicky that at this rate, if I keep driving this truck, Sara Pallin may start making sense. Alarmed, she told me to go around the block a couple of times in the Prius to clear the diesel fumes and get my head straight.



Cabelas...where every long bed fits with space to spare...Truck heaven.

The scape plan...

Vicky and I love to travel, and we have always tried to do it as lightly as possible. Backpacking in France, Italy, Spain, China, Peru. Or tent camping through the western states of USA.
But when we started contemplating the prospect of an extended road trip through the USA, the tent camping option changed categories, from "adventurous" to "ridiculous".
So, we took that bold mental step and started dipping out toes into the RV pond.

After some Google'ing, a RV trade show and a couple of visits to our local RV dealers, we found ourselves into an arithmetic puzzle of vehicle towing capacities, dry weights, tongue weights, axles, lengths and heights. After dusting the highschool diploma and a basic calculator we realized that with our Toyota 4Runner we could tow a 17' trailer at the most. We went back to the dealer showrooms and place ourselves inside such trailers. Claustrophobia does not quite describe the feeling of such small cluttered enclosures.

With this realization, we started the long painful decision process of weighting the commitment of trading our 4Runner for a bigger truck against just how much we wanted to travel around in a RV. Two months later, after many hours of internet research, books, advise from friends who RV, spreadsheets, and the always welcomed serendipity, we end up with what feels like a gargantuan combo: A GMC 2500 diesel truck & a 30' Airstream Safari.

The path that lead to this combo can be seen in a spreadsheet that list weights in one column, capacities on another one and % of difference. For every truck and trailer combo opportunity that came about, we used this spreadsheet to track compatibility and cost. I am a big Toyota fan, great dependable, long lasting cars and trucks. But for continuous dedicated towing and max load capacity, their biggest Tundra truck came pretty close to the spec limit. The next step in the spec ladder was a 2500 series type diesel truck.

Before boring you with more spreadsheet talk, truck specs and the fascinating subcultures of diesel people and Airstream fans (more on these two later), let me pause and juxtapose all these nonsense with the initial intent of seeking levity. I do not know about you, but driving a 3/4 ton diesel truck while hauling a 7000 lbs trailer hardly evokes a sense of lightness, nimbleness or weightlessness, and with all the safety precautions involved in hauling an Aluminum 30' behemoth, notions of carelessness, flippancy or jocoseness are almost slapping antonyms.

This seemingly contradiction weighted heavenly in our decision, and at times be backed away from it, but once we mentally place ourselves back in "square one" with uncumbered mobility but no sane shelter or plan to travel around, we realized that our resistance to "go bigger" had more to do with avoiding the un-familiar and new. This made me realize that even the fun sounding endeavor of seeking levity, seeking something new, involves gut wrenching process of rationalizing our actions and decisions. If we want to avoid this...we are better off not doing anything. Plenty of levity there. Ah! what is life without its crushing contradictions?

Seeking levity...

So, "Levity Ahead." What is this about?
The idea for this blog came from the need to have a separate place to write about all other interests not related to photography. I started to do a bit of this on my Facebook page, but it became obvious that Facebook does not lend itself to long postings or anything that requires upping the Ritalin dose. It is more of a place to share things like "I just ate a bagel" or "It's raining."

Then, just like in any other writing endeavor, the question came: What is the title?
Well, lets see, I am going to write about observations, ideas, opinions...maybe as a conduit to sneak in my pent-up notions that society is going to hell. And maybe add some humor, so readers do not feel too insulted if they find themselves alluded to. You know like putting a smiley emoticon after posting "I think you are full of it :)"
With this in mind, I brewed the title: "Zero Social Gravity."
Tragical wit is a phase that I am trying to overcome.
Well, when the time came to register the URL, the name was already taken. Not sure what was more depressing, the fact that it was already taken, the fact that I my title was not original enough, or the fact that such an enticing title does not seem to be currently used to its full potential.

Back at the proverbial drawing board, I re-examined the leitmotiv of this new blog. Lets see, opinions, check, world going to hell, check. Lighten up, check...
This last part, lighten up, lately has been striking a deep chord. One of the first drafts that I have for this blog is sketchily titled "Ideological attachments, chicken soup for existential anxiety ," which is an attempt to create a convincing metaphor on how all attachments, ideological, emotional, political, and physical weight us down, keeps us from being nimble and adapting to an ever changing context.

So "lightness," where is that thesaurus?...flip, flip. Did you buy that? The "flipping" the pages of a thesaurus? How misleadingly romantic. It was more like "click, click" on my AED iPod dictionary (the very first thing that I bought when I came to live in the USA was a Webster Vest Pocket Dictionary...how the time passes by...)
So according to AED, lightness: Agility, legerity, nimbleness.
According to Webster (always cross reference this stuff): Slightness, weightlessness...
None of these sounded like a good title choice. AED even suggested: Giddiness and silliness. Although tempting, not quite right.

How is it that the our brains can connect and contextualize so much better than computers?
Like a background process, the answer came in the from of "Levity" - A manner of lacking seriousness. Etymology: Latin levitat-, levitas, from levis light in weight - lack of steadiness: changeableness. But also: Flippancy, jocoseness, jocosity. Opposites: Gravity, solemnity.
And it passed the URL/originality check. Purrrrrfect!

So there you have it, Levity Ahead...
Also, you may wonder, what's up with that map on the right. We have some upcoming travel plans, related to seeking levity, and for all non-photo related content, this will be the place where we will be sharing our experiences on the road. We will be mapping the places we visit on that map.