Why do I call my camper 'Matilda'

People have wondered why I chose to call my little peripatetic home 'Matilda'.  I took the name from that great Aussie song 'Waltzing Matilda', where Matilda was what the swagman called his 'swag' in the song. That famous swag was his bundled-up bedding roll that would swing back and forth as he walked, and since he was alone, he called his swag 'Matilda'.  I grokked the parallel. My camper waltzes along behind my car just like the swagman's bundle, and I have pretty much the same relationship with my waltzing bundle on wheels as that swagman had with his Matilda.  The song also strongly captures that sense of determined individual freedom that we Americans and Australians seek to enjoy and makes a fine anthem for a life on the road.

More of my world

The reigning clan matriarch in her command module at 92.  Name withheld because she gets too many crazy calls already and we need to keep the old men away from her for their own protection.  Her pioneer grandfather was a Civil War veteran who died while fetching water from a well. Her dad 'Bert' was born in the back of a Conestoga wagon in Red Cloud, Nebraska.  It took me thirty years to write the genealogy that lists all the ingredients for making this heroic mammal that tough.

This retired racing nag has won numerous races (stay with me, I'm talking about the horse). But now he lives a golden but gelded life in full retirement.  His big concern is the sanctity of his pasture and food supply.  He does not like me very much, probably because I am neither fenced-in nor gelded.  If my car breaks down, we can go full Amish together and if he bumps me aggressively again to show me that being gelded means nothing after retirement, well, there is the 'Alpo Solution'.