This week started out stranger than most. I absolutely loved my spot on the Platte River. There was a big thunderstorm on Saturday night and by Sunday it was cool and overcast. The clouds were thick, and I had no internet or cell service. We went for lots of walks and I read outside (with a SWEATER ON). On one of our walks, Cosmo and I were walking the loop when I spotted a “branch” in the road. I stopped immediately and had a closer look (from about 20 feet away.) Yup. It was a snake. It was in a slight “S curve” stretched out flat on the road and was not moving at all. I got close enough to detect the rattle at the back end and backed up immediately. I picked up a rock about the size of a golf ball, and nearly as round and “bowled it” toward the snake. It hit him on the side and stopped against him, but he never moved. I thought he must be dead, though he didn’t look smashed or run over. We walked behind him, giving him plenty of space and continued around the loop. When we got back to the van, I let Cosmo go inside and I walked back to where the snake had been. He was gone! I’m guessing that because it was so cool, he was sunning himself on the dirt/gravel road to get warm and because he was cold, he couldn’t move very fast (or at all) Anyway, you can bet I was “rattled” for the rest of the day, and was extremely cautious when we went outside after that.
Cosmo had zero reaction to the snake. It looked like a big stick (about 3’ long), and never moved, so that could have been part of it. I would have thought that after his training he might have shown some signs of avoidance. Nothing! Had it moved or been coiled he may have reacted, but for it to be lying, spread out on the ground didn’t register to him at all. Fortunately it registered to ME and I’m glad I didn’t assume it was dead, because even though it was very slow, it was still capable of travel.
By Monday, the weather was back to sunny and fairly hot and I had a little bit of a cell signal/internet connection. We spent much of the day by or in the river cooling off. The evenings there were beautiful, but there were so many mosquitos it was impossible to be outside. I enjoyed some gorgeous sunsets from inside the van
On Tuesday, we left and drove west. I had a place picked out that sounded amazing even though the review said it was a bit close to traffic. I got there and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was just a pull-off on the side of the road. The road itself was a back road, not heavily traveled, but apparently used by truckers. The speed limit was 70 mph. I followed the directions and pulled off after the guard rail. There was a wide dirt offshoot from the road and I took it. It ran parallel to the real road, about 30 feet away. I backed up and got level. Could I stay here? The spot really was quite stunning in its open-ness with arroyo’s surrounding it in all directions. I stood outside the van deciding if I could possibly drive another hour to our back up destination. I didn’t want to. I walked around and went down a “ramp” in the dirt, it seemed equally level, and back farther from the road. But the “ramp” was a bit steeper than I’d have liked and it had ruts and potholes. I decided to stay put. About every 20 minutes, a car or an 18-wheeler would pass by. I could hear them coming from half a mile away. When they passed—especially the big rigs—they literally shook the van. I grew numb to it and enjoyed the breeze, the beautiful arroyos and the clouds. By night, my only worry was that I was totally exposed and if a cop happened by, here I was, very visible. One of the camping websites said it was a “beautiful safe place to stay for a night.”
It’s hard to tell who wrote it and what they consider “safe.” Often they will say “Safe spot” or “No one bothered us.” To me that’s just sort of one notch above saying “Well, we didn’t get murdered.” I really didn’t fear for my safety, but I did worry about getting “the knock” in the middle of the night. After about 10:00 p.m. traffic stopped completely. It was pitch black with no light pollution, so I stopped worrying about someone in authority spotting me and telling me to move. I went to bed, and slept soundly until about 4:00 a.m. when the truck traffic started up again full force. About every 15 minutes a tractor trailer would pass by at 70 mph, so loud and jarring that it would startle me awake. I was allowed just enough time to fall back to sleep before the next one came rumbling along. I got up at the first sign of daylight and made coffee.
I decided to move on to the next spot, which was only a little over an hour away. I stopped at Walmart and picked up a Bluetooth mouse. My “tablet” was giving me fits whenever I tried to touch a link with my finger. The type was too small and my finger too fat and I inevitably hit the wrong link, or couldn’t cut and paste GPS coordinates correctly. I checked my oil before leaving and was a quart low, so I got some at Walmart along with some Beyond Meat, which is very hard to find in Wyoming. Apparently WY is serious BEEF country. I buy those little tubes of hamburger for Cosmo to mix in with his kibble. It’s cheaper (and I assume healthier) than can dog food. In the meat sections in WY, they rarely have the tiny 1 lb. tubes, but this one did. EVERY place had the giant 20 lb. tubes, big as my thigh. I was tempted to pick one up and ask someone to take a photo just to show you how ridiculous the giant tubes of burger looked, but thought I might get kicked out of Wyoming prematurely if I mocked their meat. Anyway, I discovered why most places don’t carry Impossible Burger, or Beyond Burger. There were maybe 8 packs on the shelf, all with “Reduced to Sell” stickers and “sell by dates” of tomorrow. I guess nobody buys this stuff in Wyoming. Anyway, I got a bargain.
With my motor oil topped off, we headed west and got to the next spot. Again, just a pull-off practically under a bridge. Two nights in a row. I was reminded of a meme I saw a while back: The first picture was from the 50’s with a kid in front of a TV console (black and white, of course) and the dad scolding him saying “If you don’t work hard, you’re going to end up in a van down by the river.” The second picture was modern-day with the dad encouraging the kid “If you work hard enough, someday you may be able to afford to live in a van down by the river.” For the past two nights I feel like the first photo. ? Although I am assuming where I was staying was perfectly legal, and although I’ve not seen a single police vehicle since I entered WY, I still had a sense of “stealth camping”, hoping nobody sees the old homeless troll in the old van under the bridge.
After all was said and done, the two “stealth” spots turned out to be very nice. I was totally alone, in beautiful wilderness. No one bothered me and I doubt anyone even saw me from their cars or trucks as they drove by. Both places were scenic in their own way, and both offered me lots of privacy and alone time.
I moved the next day to a paid campsite. I couldn’t find anything free in the area where I was headed except a couple “suggestions” even more sketchy than the ones that I’d chosen the past two nights. So I picked a spot on Bear Lake in Idaho. The lake itself was beautiful, though I suspect it is at an all time low judging by the width of the beaches leading to the lake itself. But the campsites were very close together, not that well kept, and no park rangers or staff anywhere to be found. I couldn’t wait to get into the lake with Cosmo, but we parked as close as possible to the water and after a hundred yards or so on the beach, Cosmo started hopping and I realized his feet couldn’t take the hot sand. We turned around and hurried back to grass. We didn’t even make it a quarter of the way to the water. I thought the only hope was to go first thing in the morning before the sand gets too hot to walk on. That sort of defeats the purpose of getting in to cool off because I suspect we’ll already be cooled off in the morning when the sands are passable. It was, as my Nana used to say “Hotter than Hades” by the lake. No shade and blazing sun made it fairly unbearable. I searched the weather map. The closest relief appeared to be Anchorage. I’m just not up for that drive. Besides at the pace I drive, I wouldn’t be there until February anyway.
The night was relatively uneventful, except for more problems with my fridge. I had a very tough time getting level so I couldn’t run the fridge on propane. I was plugged in to electricity, but the fridge, when set to “Elec” just kept getting hotter and hotter. I feared losing all the food I’d just bought, so I got out and moved the van, wiggled and jiggled and got every block I had and finally got it level enough to run the fridge off propane. It took a LONG time to get back to being as cold as it should be.
By morning, it was fine, but we were moving. I always set the fridge to DC when we travel and the coach battery keeps it going. I did that as we moved west through Utah and headed toward Logan. We stopped at a couple spots, but they were all totally full. I pulled into a rest stop and tried to find reservations at another campground. No luck. I pulled off onto a Forest Road in a National Forest. My apps said it was a bit rough, but worth it once you got in. As soon as I pulled off, I knew I couldn’t make it and I had trouble even turning around to get back out. I stopped at one more campground that didn’t take reservations. I figured my chances were slim to none, but when we got there, we found two open spots. We took the one along the creek.
I don’t know what river/creek/stream it was because we had no internet or cell service for me to look it up on a map. The altitude gave us a bit of a break from near hundred degree weather, and the river/stream adjacent to our site was cold. We both got in anyway, and I washed up as best I could. With no cell service or internet, I took the opportunity to sit outside by the water and read. It felt good to be unplugged, although it was Friday, and my friend Richard ALWAYS calls me Friday afternoon to check on me. I tried to squeeze out a text to him letting him know I was OK, but there wasn’t even a trace of a signal.
Saturday we headed west again toward Logan, UT. I had 3 or 4 spots on my calendar as possible options, but when I started driving, I still had no cell signal and no GPS. I drove in what I hoped was the right direction, stopping every few miles seeing if I could pull my Google Maps up. No luck. By the time I got a signal, there was one place left and we pulled in. It was along a lovely stream. There were parking lots for day use only, and people were coming in droves to fish and kayak and jog on nearby paths. I drove up the hill following the coordinates I got from my camping app. The spot it had me go to was a residential neighborhood. A very upscale, residential neighborhood. I would never have gotten away with parking there overnight. We parked in one of the day use lots, had breakfast and made some phone calls and answered e-mails. There was only one “back up spot” on my list—Walmart. It was supposed to be in the mid to upper 90’s and parking on black asphalt was not my idea of a good time, but I drove to see how it was, and if I could find any better option nearby. As it turned out, the lot was huge and way over to one side was a wooded area along the parking lot. I backed in and I was totally level without needing any blocks. The back end (where we sit and hang out) was in the shade, and the front was in the blazing sun. We had enough to keep the solar batteries charged without the sun frying us in the back. There was a Taco Bell next door, and I went and got a bean and cheese burrito, added some veggies of my own, and had lunch in the van. Not much air moving and certainly not the view we had yesterday by the creek, but it was workable for one night.
Lessons From The Road: Pick your poison. Someone once told me “You can have anything you want; you just can’t have everything you want. I’ve learned to make choices. Do I want sun for my solar panels, or shade so Cosmo and I don’t fry? Do I want a free spot that may or may not be a totally legal place to spend the night or do I want to pay for a place that I know is legal, but crowded with summertime tourists who have very little camping etiquette? Sometimes I manage to get the best of all worlds, but not always. The place I stayed along the river/stream was absolutely gorgeous, very cheap (National Forest) but zero cell service and no internet. I can easily do a day without e-mail or YouTube, but it is rough when I can’t even send a text to let people know I’m safe. Through much of Wyoming, Utah and Idaho, there are vast stretches of land with nobody around. Most of that land has no cell service. And I’ve been on that land quite often recently.
My “to do list” on the road is quite different than when I lived in a building, and it is growing longer quite rapidly. Van repairs/upgrades are at the top of the list. I need to get my fridge replaced. It is still acting up and I never know when it might work or not work. I believe it is the original fridge installed when they built the van in 1998. It’s time to bite the bullet and get a new one. My back-up camera bit the dust and I want to replace it. I’ve had a couple close calls when backing into spots, nearly missing (and a couple times actually bumping) large rocks, fire pits, stumps…anything on the ground that is too low to be seen through my rear window or side mirrors. Without it I’m likely to damage the van, the tanks underneath, or someone else’s property.
I need to have bloodwork done. I have a virtual appointment with my doctor in Delaware in two weeks. It’s a routine check-up, but it’s a year overdue. I have the script for bloodwork, and now I need to find a LabCorp, and make an appointment. I also need my eyes checked. It’s been several years and since my mother has macular degeneration, I think it wise to keep up to date with my eye health. I used to get a robo-call from my eye doctor telling me it was time to come in for a check-up. I’d call and make an appointment. He was withing walking distance from my building and I could easily go between massage clients. Now I have to FIND an eye doctor who will take me and I’m guessing the appointment won’t be tomorrow, so I have to find an eye doctor in a city or town I plan to be in on a certain date (and I NEVER seem to know where I’m going to be from day to day).
I have a new laptop that my friend Richard procured for me. He will mail it to me as soon as I figure out a place to send it. I’m stopping next week at the place that built my solar system. They are going to open it up and vacuum a year’s worth of dust out of it (when it gets warm, fans kick on and pull air through the solar controller to cool the inverter. I’m sure it has pulled enormous amounts of dust through as well and much of it, I suspect, has settled on bottom of the unit and on the components inside). I asked them if I could have my laptop sent to them and I’d pick it up when I see them this coming week. They declined, coldly. Needless to say, I’m not too pleased with them. They are a very small company, working out of a garage at someone’s house. I’ve talked to them numerous times since I got the system, and I stopped last summer to have a solar input replaced. They know me. It would take no effort, and cost nothing for them to receive a package from FedEx. I know it’s not their job, but I’ve spent over $7,000 with them. I think the correct response would be “Of course you can ship it here. We’d be happy to hold it until your visit.”
Those are the big items on my list. I also need to do laundry, get propane, drain my grey water, and rearrange things in the front of my van (I’ve started leaving things “within reach” thinking “I’m going to use that again later today, so just leave it there.” The van is too tiny to leave anything out that can be put away in its proper place. Laundry is a chore. I used to throw in a load before a massage client came in, and between clients, move it to the dryer. At the end of the day, I’d throw the clothes on the huge folding table in the laundry room, usually never to be folded but rather to function as a remote closet where I could go and pull out whatever I needed from the pile of clean items. Laundry was done unconsciously in the empty spaces of my day. Now it is an inconvenience that needs to be planned for. If I can do it at a place with showers adjacent, (many truck stops offer this convenience) I can do laundry and take a full-blown shower (meaning wash and condition my hair and beard, and scrub my feet without putting them right back down on the dirt outside) and, if I’m lucky, go next door and grab a bite to eat while I wait for the laundry to dry. It’s not unconscious or spontaneous anymore, but a planned event. The same applies to propane. I had a gas stove and fireplace at home in Delaware. The tank had some sort of meter on it, and they knew when it got below 1/3 of a tank and delivered more. I never thought about it. Now I have to ask the Great Google Machine to find propane near me. Then I have to call and make sure they can actually fill propane tanks and that they are not just swapping out those small tanks used for backyard barbeques. Grey water is a new thing for me as well. In a sticks and bricks building, I pulled the drain plug on my sink and the dishwater magically disappeared. I took a shower and didn’t have to do anything but towel off when I was done. Now I have to find a place—either a dump station or if I’m far out on BLM land, I can just pull my plug and let it out. It’s harmless. Just dishwater and shower water and biodegradable soap. But food particles are in the dishwater, and as it sits and stews in the holding tank, it can start to smell quite funky, so it would be pretty rude to dump it where people are nearby or in a climate where it won’t dry up immediately in the sun.