It is nice to wake up inside. Cozy in bed, fuzzy jammies on, I was able to get out of the bag and sit up and stretch (then lay back down and stretch) before having to put on clothes to go out and see how warm the seven am desert would be. Having checked the weather again after posting last night, I made plans to get my work done early this morning: shopping day.
It was a nice trip to Walmart. From my campsite it takes about five minutes to get to the main campground, then another five to get to entrance of the park. From there, just fifteen minutes to Carlsbad, though Walmart is on the far side of it from me. Food stuffs, more one hundred percent whole wheat bread (if it’s good enough for a mouse, it’s good enough for me.) And a few extra heavy duty stakes. I had a feeling the wind would be a battle today, and I wanted a few weapons.
I was right. Sixty five mile per hour winds are treacherous for a tent. The advisory now upgraded to winds up to eighty five over the next three hours. Eighty five miles per hour? That is faster than an F1 tornado, even hiding behind my car to break the wind, I’m not sure if my tent (or its flexi-poles, specifically) will survive the night. I’m at least half certain I’ll wake in a pile of tent and tarp. Oh well, it will be cozy.
Temps will reach a low of thirty two by six am and should be warmed up to forty by eight am when I’ll be stepping out the tent (from whatever shape it’s in. Then? Well, repair camp and prepare for another day. This is only the third night in this spot, eleven more days to go. The winds are here to stay though, thirty to forty miles per hour for a week. Yes, so far it hasn’t knocked me over, yet very close. Walking is very laborious in these winds with the balance and other issues that I have.
Yet laborious walking.. ahh, exercise? Yeah, that it. Each step, balance, position, weight transfer and then trying to figure out which way the wind is trying to push me and compensate for that too. Today after shopping I came back to the site, put everything away and started trying to clean. Dust storm have.. well lots of sand and dirt. All up in the tent. Sweeping was pointless until I redid the tarp outside. I did have a nice awning, yet it could not stand to the wind. I had to pull it down and put the tent into turtle mode. (Pics tomorrow.)
For now, enjoy the video from this afternoon and remember it the next time you think you feel a draft in the house.
Time to rest.