I feel good right now. Not mobile, yet bedded down for the night. Dinner is done and the dishes have been put away. (Well, to be technical, I cleaned the dinner ware after breakfast, skipped lunch and had Burger King for dinner.) Either way the dinnerware is away in its bucket with everything I need to eat, minus food and a heat source if needed.
I have a very small electric skillet I can easily use on the road; though I have not yet tested it, I curious how fast two hundred and sixty watts can cook an egg. I may even get a full size electric skillet and see how well it fares versus propane in terms of cost to cook a steak. Boiling a liter an half of water with electricity cost about ten amp hours (about thirty five cents if generated by the gasoline engine, free if by sun.)
I took my time the last two days, not packing. In fact at times, I have questioned my motivation. Which lead to questioning the goal even at some points- even thoughts of Michigan as the next destination- and thought of the beach too! Each time I would just sit and stop and think about what I was doing and why. Somehow the slow down in my pace was what I needed. I did not pack the car.
I merely put stuff away. Sitting in the car right now, I can easily reach everything I need. And I have space for groceries or a guest in the rear seat behind the driver. The fridge now turned ninety degrees pushes the passenger seat up quite a bit, yet adds a lot of space to the backseat.
The front passenger seat is now home to my milk crate (of all the odd things that just had to come with me.) Which actually give the perfect about amount of structure/organization to that area. The crate nicely holds my laptop, iPad, and a collection of “favorite things” to be nearby. I even keep a liter sized crown royal bag in there, to hold my favoritest of my favorite things. The foot area has my fun tool box (sewing/soldering,) briefcase, jacket, medicine bag, bathroom bag, library bag, and camera bag.
And the trunk, well, it is packed. Packed well. The lithium batteries and inverter are all wired and ready to go of course. (If my battery dies again, I’m ready to flip the switch on the inverter and pull a fifteen amp charger out of the truck to lite it back up.) (Sidenote: I’m thinking about getting a new battery just for good measure, at least get this one tested again.) Most importantly, everything fit in the trunk, nicely.
[Edited in, just a little later] By everything, I mean everything thing I usually have to unpack; this time perfectly packed slowly over two days. Meaning, the natural things I used last, the Coleman grill, the pot and pan set, tea kettle, etc, on top and easily to get to. I’d have to dig a bit to pull out anything else, yet there is nothing else I would need in a rush. The camp bag (you’ll see in a bit) has everything to sleep, and I can keep everything else with me all the time. [End edit]
I just got back from Alice and this time we didn’t play pool. Last time to see Makayla, she thought I was going to stay. Maybe that’s why I wanted to go spend a few days on the beach before I left Texas, almost a pretext for stopping back here in Mathis again on my way out (again.) Yet something is really telling me it is time to get out of Texas. Get out before I get stuck.
I wondered why I brought my frisbee. When I was packing in Michigan, in December. Planning a winter camping trip. Yet some things just kept moving to my pile of things to bring. That frisbee is the perfect tool to dig oneself from stuck sand. I didn’t know that until Juan told me, I remember telling him, almost shocked, yes, I do have a frisbee with me. It’s still in the truck, yet there is a lot of stuff not in there. There is a lot of stuff not stuffed in the backseat.
At the beach I through away five yellow garbage bags full of stuff (the big yellow ones the faternal order of police fundraiser sells) that I thought I needed. Sorted. Some things kept moving back into the car and I had to keep moving the back out and into the garbage bags. Yet, I can’t even remember what I threw away, well, one thing- one of my favoritest things, my binary blanket. Didn’t need it, and in had one really bad memory attached to it.
I remember I thought I’d throw away the memory with the blanket, yet here it is still in my mind. Yet, this is the first time I’ve thought about that in a month since I threw it away.. I don’t see it daily anymore to remind me. It seems like it was silly stuff I threw away, things I couldn’t believe I packed. Yet when I packed and left, space was in short order, and many things did get left that couldn’t fit it. Some things I still carry, I worried would get sorted at one of the stops til now.
I was worried about my rig, yet it keeps fitting. In fact the way the car backseat, passenger seat, and trunk is organized now, I think the sorting is done. So what is not in the car right now? Well, the camp bag is currently deployed.
The camp bag? Well, it’s a camp that fits in a duffel bag, a big duffel bag. This is that came in the last day, the last time I left this campground in a rush (and the rain!) This time, I’ve spend the last two days (while dawdling from ‘packing’) just kind of moving things around from here to there, organizing.
If I’ve done this right (if, yes, if) tomorrow I’ll wake, then pack my tent, sleeping bag, mattress, blanket, pillow, and tarps in the duffel. Maybe even the chair and the tripod too, else they’ll be fine strapped on top as before. Tarps in the bottom of the bag with tent/blankets on top. Also in the big duffel goes my small (well, I used to call it a large) duffel bag with clothes.
[ha, forgot to watch the clock on this one, just clicked twelve, yet imma gonna let me finish]
If I was staying here tomorrow (which I’m not) I could wake up and get in the car to go do something (other than sleep) and I have everything with me. Everything. I don’t ever need to pack anything. I can just wake and go. Or put the whole camp into its duffel bag, strap it on the truck and move the camp. Tomorrow (God willing) I’m going to wake, eat breakfast, tear down camp, load the duffel, take a shower and leave as fast as I can.
Five hundred and two miles to Jal, New Mexico. And there is a pot shop that closes at six pm.
No rush, a two day trip would be fine.. yet, if I roll over and blink the wrong way at four am, I just might start driving.
Haha, oh New Mexico, I have never been to this state, not even a little (I parked in Arizona once, then walked back to Nevada; and I had a layover in Colorado once.) Yet New Mexico and Utah, these two states alway seemed kinda cool. Looking forward to exploring them both before Alaska.
Tomorrow, I am excited for tomorrow [said as if the clock hadn’t already struck twelve- twelve eleven now..]
Time to rest.