“The rain retreats
Like troops to fall on other fields and streets
No matter what you do
I’m floating back, I’m floating back to you!.”
~ Joni Mitchell
The monsoons arrived in full force on Sunday evening. I was surrounded by black skies, lightning striking on all sides, and then the sky opened up and within minutes I was in the middle of a lake. It wasn’t deep, but it was wide. The temperature dropped by 20 degrees and the air that wafted in through my cracked windows was fresh and clean. I breathed in deeply and let out a sigh.
As I got ready for bed, I noticed the wall was damp. Upon inspection, it was clear I had a leak, somewhere on the back corner of the van. I put a towel over that section of wall and went to bed. I slept soundly until I was awakened by the sound of some sort of frog. I guess the waters brought out some amphibians. I made a mental note to be especially careful when I moved the solar panels in the morning. I was careless a few weeks ago and came face to face with a snake. It seemed not only harmless, but quite sedate. Even so, I was not looking forward to repeating the experience. I fell back asleep until I heard gnawing. Something had come in and was in the cupboard under my sink. I sat on the edge of the bed and stomped, and the gnawing stopped. I waited. Silence. I went back to bed only to be awakened again a few minutes later by renewed gnawing. This time I got up and beat on the cupboard door with one of Cosmo’s rubber toys. I waited and listened. Nothing. I went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until the sun had risen over the nearby tower.
When I got up in the morning to make coffee, I had to open the cupboard where my visitor had been. I got my flashlight out and although I couldn’t see anything that had been chewed, I did see three tiny mouse turds. I would have gladly given a small furry creature refuge from the storm for a night had he not insisted on eating my van’s innards.
The monsoons were a daily event. In the mornings, it was hot and a bit muggy from the previous nights’ rains. By mid-morning, it was hot and dry and then the storm clouds rolled in by late afternoon or early evening. We had torrential rain most nights. Fortunately, I found a bottle of Captain Tolly’s in my tool kit. It is some sort of liquid rubber. It squirts out of the squeeze-bottle like skim milk but quickly turns into rubber. I’ve used it many times to seal a leak. I squeezed a bit into a tiny gap I found on the back outside corner of the van. It runs along the inside and finds any tiny hole and fills it. The van stayed dry the following night during the storm.
Several nights I was awakened by my frog friend. I’ve never seen him in the daylight and I’m not sure exactly what it is. It has a very distinct sound, like a baritone cricket. Besides the mystery frog, I was visited by this fellow several mornings:
Meep meep!
One afternoon, I took Cosmo out to play ball and met a new friend. Robin was exploring Two Guns, and we struck up a conversation. She was heading west to conquer Mt. Humphrey. That’s the mountain I took the gondola up a few weeks back. We had a nice visit, and I asked her to send me a photo when she made it to the top of the mountain. She did!
Lessons From The Road: I know I’ve changed drastically since I started this journey 5 years ago. But since the changes have come incrementally, day by day, I think I often don’t notice them unless I take a step back, or something stands out during the day to remind me how much I’ve changed.
Cosmo and I take walks every morning. I try to get in at least a mile’s worth of steps. One of my favorite walks is down the hill, over the Canyon Diablo Bridge and up to the “Zoo” parking lot.
I leave my back and side doors open when we walk, otherwise when we return the heat built up in the van is oppressive. After our walk one morning, I was making coffee and someone pulled up near the tower to get out and take photos. That happens once or twice a day. But as they exited the car, they hit their “clicker” causing the headlights to flash and the horn to honk. They locked the vehicle before taking several steps to take a photo. I laughed out loud. As you can see from the photo above, I’m in an extremely remote spot. There is one road in and one road out. There is nobody within a mile. I’ve had this van for nearly 6 years. I can count the times on one hand that I’ve used my “clicker” to lock the doors and set the alarm. Out here in the wild, I rarely even bother to close my doors, let alone lock them, so you can see why I’d laugh at someone who felt a need to set a car alarm before walking three steps from it, in a location far, far from car thieves. I sometimes have people ask if I feel safe, living in a forest or desert all by myself. I always assure them that where I live is much safer than where they live. And for that, I’m truly thankful.
And finally…My happy songs of the week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEgBMTMUanU&list=RDKEgBMTMUanU&start_radio=1
See you down the road,