“Some nights it’s hard to miss that it’s just us, being alive together right now, under endlessly beautiful skies.”
~ The Story People
By Sunday afternoon, all the weekend warriors were packed up and gone. EJ was having a problem with the cooling fan on his truck and made an appointment with a mechanic to drop it off in town first thing Monday morning, so he too, left Sunday afternoon. There was a brief thunderstorm in the late afternoon and after that there was just silence in the forest. Penetrating, all-encompassing, silence. I sat outside and took it in feeling the forest was a safe place once again.
Monday was quiet. There were some campers up closer to the main road, but there was no one in sight way back off the beaten path were I was. The spot where I was located took on a whole other-worldliness. The forest is a totally staggering place when you can not see another human being or anything manmade. Cosmo lay next to me hoping for a chipmunk to come out of the fire ring; I sat in my chair and just let that feeling of solitude and beauty sink in.
Monday night, there was a rip-roaring thunderstorm. At first I heard rumbling off in the distance but by the time it was directly over me, each flash was accompanied by a loud BANG, like a bomb going off. Then the heavy rain started, and it soon changed to a hailstorm. Before long, the ground outside my van was just a carpet of mothball-sized hail.
Being deep in the forest, I worried a bit that I could get stuck in mud. The rain and hail ceased after about 15 minutes and within the hour, all the deep chocolate dust had been compacted into solid ground. The air was cool and clean and smelled of pine needles. I slept well.
Tuesday, expecting more rain, I took down my tent which was a bit wet on the bottom. I set it in the sun to dry before I packed it up. I brought in all my plants and got packed up to move Wednesday morning. The forecast was for rain all week and I didn’t think my luck would hold out. I knew that with several days of rain, the ground would become a mess and driving could become difficult if not dangerous.
It rained all night Tuesday night, and the ground couldn’t absorb it all.
At the crack of dawn, I was a bit worried, but by the time I got caffeinated and caught up on e-mails, the ground had dried out some. I pulled in my solar panels and chair and headed down the rugged forest road. The van fishtailed all the way to the main road which is gravel. I encountered some puddles that were bigger than my van. The forest road had some very deep pits, so I avoided all puddles because I wasn’t able to tell if they were just an inch of water or a foot of water. Getting stuck in the mud would be awful; getting stuck in a POND would have been unbearable. I made it to the main road and drove across Lake Mary Road to a campground where they have paid showers ($7 for 9 minutes. I discovered 9 minutes is enough time to wash and condition my hair and beard, scrub my feet and thoroughly clean everything in between and still have a minute left to just stand and enjoy the feel of hot water pouring over my dried out body. I drove down the road to a camping store and topped off propane and water. I wanted to go to Two Guns where the rain would be lighter and the sandy ground much less of a problem, but Thursday morning I had an appointment to have bloodwork done, followed by a follow-up eye doctor appointment. I thought I’d check out Marshall Lake to see if the roads were less slippery. E.J. texted that he was on his way there, so I agreed to meet him. We found a pull-off close to the main road and settled in. It was hot and muggy, and we sat outside and caught up. He’d been in a motel in Flag for two days to get his truck worked on and although it had only been three days since I’d seen him, we compared notes on what had transpired with each of us during that time. He really is a good neighbor. We can sit and stare at the forest in silence and not feel a need to say a word.
E.J. had stopped at the dispensary during his Flagstaff adventures and offered me a hit from his “Northern Lights” vape pen. I will sometimes do a small piece of a gummy, but I rarely smoke for fear of doing even more damage to lungs that had smoked tobacco for years. But it was a beautiful day in the forest, and I had just made some coffee, so I took a very tiny hit from the pen. I coughed like I was going to cough up a lung, and we both laughed and within minutes I was stupidly high. It was a “college dorm room” kind of high. We giggled half the afternoon, taking turns standing up to go get something and forgetting why we got up. We mocked each other over being so stoned and just laughed and laughed. I haven’t been that silly in a long time. We sat outside as the storm rolled in and then each retired to our own spot. I sat in my van and watched Cheech and Chong clips on YouTube and E.J. went to his truck and sat in the driver’s seat. He didn’t set up his tent as we are both only staying one night.
I got up early on Thursday morning so as not to be rushed to get to my two medical appointments. The first one was LabCorp for a blood draw. I was fasting and although I was hungry, had only black coffee. I got out of the van to bring in my solar panels and the ground looked a little damp but not bad…until I stepped on it. There was that dark, black clay-like mud I had encountered before. It literally sucked the flip-flops off my feet.
I clenched my toes and did my best not to get stuck in the muck. I pulled in my solar panels and drove slowly in first gear until I hit the main road. I got to my two doctor appointments without incident. I got a few snacks at the dollar store and then went to Walmart. I texted E.J. to let him know I was at Walmart and going to head to Two Guns when I was done. When I exited the van, there was E.J. grinning at me from the sidewalk. He had just finished up at Walmart and was heading to Two Guns as well. I told him to text me which spot he had settled into when he got there, and I’d be right behind. He chose the spot by the turret, and I joined him about an hour later.
We hung out in the afternoon and in the early evening, E.J. decided to meet up with some friends at a nearby casino. Cosmo and I hung out in the van, enjoying the beauty around us. Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE Two Guns?
E.J. returned just as I was getting ready for bed. I went outside and we hung out in the dark talking for a long time. I looked up and pointed skyward. E.J. just responded with “Wow.” I ran inside and got my camera and showed E.J. how to do some long exposures to capture what we were seeing.
I slept all night without waking, enjoying technicolor dreams.
Friday, I woke up and made my new favorite—Mexican coffee. A rich expresso with frothed non-fat milk and dashes of cinnamon, chocolate and cayenne. I sat and watched the sun rise behind huge cumulus clouds. EJ and I took the dogs for a long walk to the abandoned gas station where we found these words of wisdom graffittied on the wall:.
Seemed like good advice to me.
On the way back, Shelagh cut her leg on an old, barbed-wire fence. It wasn’t bad, but there was a flap of skin hanging and E.J. decided to take her to a vet in Flagstaff. They cleaned the wound and gave her a couple of stitches. Since they sedated her for the stitches, they held her for a couple hours and she and E.J. returned that night. All of us sat outside until way after dark. The night was beautiful and the weather cool.
Saturday was hot and muggy. We sat outside but couldn’t get comfortable.
We could see rain clouds in the distance, but they seemed to be heading toward Flag and not us. EJ said, “I want sushi.” I said “OK…” He said we should drive to Winslow and get some. Sushi sounded amazing and I have been wanting to go back to Winslow, but the heat had been prohibitive. We made a plan to drive to Winslow, have sushi and camp on the BLM land I’d found last visit. But the best laid plans often don’t come to fruition. We arrived in Winslow about 2:30. We parked and walked across the street to the sushi restaurant. The sign on the door indicated that they closed between 2:30 and 5:00. So we went across the street to La Posada Hotel—a landmark in Winslow—and had a late lunch in the Turquoise Room. It was pretty extravagant and quite delicious. Afterwards, I had E.J. follow me to the BLM land and we hung out until the mosquitos got too bad and then we both headed to bed.
Lessons from the Road: Be flexible. Drive a half hour to have a wonderful dinner with a friend. Life is short. Don’t get stuck someplace when you can be someplace better.