(written on the 23rd)
Got up and wished Heather well for the day and said goodbye. 🥺
Then I spent the morning going through and making sure I had packed up all my stuff and thrown it in Rover.
Poor Rover is now overloaded and disorganized. 😅
I just have too much stuff that doesn’t need to be in a van, but since the van is my house, there’s not really anywhere else to put it.
Heather actually came home for lunch today, so we chatted for a little bit before saying goodbye again, but we forgot to take pictures, so after doing a final check, and after saying goodbye to Zora, I drove back into town to do a little third goodbye with my sister and take a few quick selfies.
♥️
I had gotten gas yesterday, so from Hot Springs, I just headed west toward Utah, following my normal path towards Casper except for the very beginning, since I was leaving from Hot Springs instead of home.
Though it was starting to get dark, I wanted to stop by the Martin’s Cove historical site, so I pulled over, walked around for a bit, then drove further down to make the walk to Martin’s cove not quite as long, and then started walking around and taking pictures and whatnot.
I decided not to wear any warm clothing beyond what I was already wearing, no coat, gloves, hat or anything. It wasn’t terribly cold, but it was chilly, but just thinking about everything that happened there, I thought it would be fitting for me to be a little cold.
As I was walking, I saw a very very large and rather dark-colored raccoon.
For whatever reason, I got it in my little brain to chase after it, and amazingly, I caught up to it… it in the weeds, but toward me, so I gave it a little tush push. 🙃
Could have scratched its little rear end, but I didn’t want to get bitten. 😅
Probably wasn’t the nicest thing to do. Probably scared the poor thing pretty good. 😕
Didn’t mean any harm.
Have some videos of the encounter. It also took a bunch of pictures of the landscape and the Sweetwater River at dusk and even mostly dark.
Last time I was there was during a little impromptu road trip that I took back in 2010. I had walked all around the Martin’s cove area and walked barefoot across the river, and I wanted to do the same thing, but being as dark and as late as it was, I didn’t end up walking all the way to Martin’s cove itself, but I did do the barefoot walk through the river.
Headed back out on the road, getting gas and food at one of my stops, and then crashing for the night somewhere in Southwest Wyoming about 2 or 3 hours from my doctor’s appointment with the dermatologist for my skin cancer screening.
Gratefully, there was one of those truck parking areas like the one I stay at when I’m going to the temple in Casper.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 