I don’t want to be writing this journal entry, as I’ve been writing all day, and it’s been super slow going in those writing efforts, which has been a little disappointing.
And I just finished an entry that’s taken me probably hours, and it’s about to hit 11:30 p.m., and my van is dead on the side of the road, and I’m tired.
But I also don’t want to put this off until tomorrow and risk continuing my bad habit of not getting my journal entries written day of.
😅
I’m making progress in actually writing each night, and I want to build momentum!
And I don’t at the same time! 😆
[sigh]
I was grateful that it was a cloudy day this morning, so I was able to sleep a little bit later without the van cooking. I had slept with the windows rolled up, just in case sand flies managed to find the gaps between my screen and my door frame. There’s a little gap on each of the two screens. I think sand flies have found a way in maybe here and there, but only last night.
I don’t think I’ve had any find their way in any other night. I think it’s just the sheer number of sand flies that were out in force as little death squads last night that managed to have some find their way under the little gap and into my van.
Oh! Speaking of my little van, she finally has a name (after four months 🙃)!
After getting up, I spent the first part of the morning working on my journal catch-up efforts, for whatever reason, my drive to get caught up has still been present, and as long as it’s present, I’m going to keep at it!
So what if it’s February 16th, and I’ve only posted up to January 9th. 😅
🙃
I’m making meaningful and measurable progress. I am catching up.
After a while, I needed to break out good ol’ Micro John, and I figured that maybe I’d do a little bit of laundry, take a little bath, and rinse out a couple of empty ice cream tubs.
…but the sand flies had other ideas.
Good crap they’re out in force! 😶
After giving up on the bath and the laundry and the container rinsing, but still needing to give a donation to Micro John, I brought everything back inside the van, cleared off my jump seat, and converted it, as I have several times in the past, into my Micro John throne.
A little less desirable in location, but significantly preferable to my nether regions becoming a feast for those little black devils. 😆
Thinking that maybe I could reduce the sand fly onslaught by driving away from the edge of the forest where I was toward the open (and most importantly, windy) field, I fired up the Golden Kiwi, and moved her.
And it worked!
Yes, there were still sand flies, but there were significantly fewer of them in the open field than there were by the trees.
🎉
I continued working on my journal catch-up efforts, one of my goals today being getting every entry for February completed (I had three left to finish, plus one for today, of course).
I’m hoping to get to the point that I’m caught up on everything recent and am only trying to catch up on the rest of January. 🤞
That’s the goal anyway, and I’m quite close to getting to that point, provided I continue to complete a daily journal entry, day of, instead of lapsing yet again.
Hence my writing this again tonight out of fear of having a single lapse turn into weeks or months, as has happened in the past.
I veged out a little bit while eating breakfast (pickles and then muesli 🙃) and then dove right back into my journal catch-up efforts.
It started sprinkling just a little bit, and I brought the two dirty ice cream containers over to the river and rinsed them out a bit, planning on having both of them ready for use as backup Micro Johns–one to take up permanent residence in my day pack, and one simply as a backup for a longer periods of time out in the middle of nowhere away from a long drop or other available toilet.
Snapped some pictures. 😊
The sprinkles of rain got me a little concerned. As you well know, I drove through some pretty crazy off-road obstacles to get to where I was, and having forgotten to check the weather report before I went into the bush, I had no idea if I was looking at just little sprinkles here and there, or if a real storm was coming in.
And I didn’t think it prudent to hang around an area where the already challenging off-road obstacles could shift if a lot of rain fell and create even more challenging obstacles if the water washed away portions of the “road.”
I also recognized that the rain would soften ground, increasing the risk of tires digging in to softened road base.
With those concerns in mind (and yes, as well as a desire to have internet connection 🙃), I began the drive back.
I planned to go at least as far as getting past all of the major obstacles. I didn’t really want to go all the way back to civilization, just past any obstacles that could become more difficult to handle with the rain.
I also felt like going back was going to be a fair bit more challenging than coming out had been, especially going up a crazy rough hill that I had come down.
My expectations turned out to be incorrect, however, pleasantly so, I might add, as I was able to easily cross the first wide wash and then, amazingly, was able to go up the super-sketchy, steep section on the very first try.
I somehow got my speed and tire placement just about perfect with every single challenge on the uphill obstacle course, such that I needed only one run.
One wrong move on that hill, and you’re basically having to blindly back down nasty obstacles to be able to get back to a flat spot where you can get a rolling start to have the momentum to make a run back up.
The hill was steep enough that if you go too slowly, the tires will begin spinning, and you’ll start sliding backward; and if you go too quickly, you’ll slam hard into the ground, larger rocks, etc., risking additional damage to the bumpers, undercarriage, exhaust, and possibly oil pans. 😅
But somehow, to my surprise and delight, I managed to make it through that most-concerning-of-all obstacles quickly and easily. 🥳
I continued along, the trail going seemingly so much quicker than it did on the way out, and when I came to the last super sketchy portion, the place where I had previously partially torn off my rear bumper and scraped and smashed up my front bumper, I made it through once again without a hitch–and quickly to boot!
🤯
🙏
After making it past that second wash, the rest of the drive out, although littered with obstacles, was nothing compared to what had already been completed.
I was basically home free from that point. ☺️
I don’t remember where these pictures were taken, other than sometime along the drive back. 🙃
And after making it through the last of all the obstacles, incredibly, even remembering every alternate path that I had taken last night to avoid mud bogs and impassable obstacles, I parked the Golden Kiwi on the side of the dirt road after going over wood-decked bridge just after the turn off to that goes to the canyon to Temple Campsite.
I had reception there, and I had lots of messages from people, so I spent a bunch of time replying to messages, chatting with my buddy John about his New Zealand experiences so far (he’s up in Auckland right now until tomorrow), chatting with my sister Heather (who’s on her way back from Arkansas to South Dakota) and my brother Richard (sending him boatloads of pictures from my trips and chatting about traveling and life), and chatting with my new friend Nick (the Viking 🙃), who recently got back to Denmark and sent me a video of him descending a ladder down into freezing cold water through a hole in the ice.
I remember doing that (breaking through the ice to do a polar plunge) back in 2009 at the Payson Lakes in Utah with a couple of my Spanish students and a couple of friends.
I veged out for a little bit and then decided to drive back over the bridge and up the canyon toward Temple Campsite but only went up a couple of hundred meters before I lost signal and realized there was no sense in driving up to Temple campsite yet, especially since I was going to be without reception again, so I came back down, and perched my van on a little grassy knoll next to the river but before going back over the bridge.
And there I stayed, alternating between watching YouTube videos and working on my journal catch-up efforts.
I set a timer, so as to not let my battery drain down too far, but apparently, the sheer number of times that I’ve accidentally let my battery drain down has damaged my battery to the point that, whereas I used to be able to get almost four hours of internet time without having to restart my van to recharge my battery, when I went to start my van after only an hour and… 38 minutes? it was dead.
😶
😅
So here I sit next to the dirt road (after rolling my van down from the knoll to the road, so that I could be immediately next to the dirt road to make it easier for passers-by to give me a jump start), 12:20 a.m., having been here in this spot waiting for someone to come by since maybe 9?
Clearly I’ll be staying right here for the night. 🙃
Oh well. I’m set up for it, and I’ll almost certainly have multiple passers by tomorrow who can give me a jump, so I should be good to go.
And with that, it’s just about 12:30 in the morning, so I’m going to eat a little bit and drink a little bit (I can feel myself pre-migraining right now), vege out for maybe 20 minutes, and call it a night.
G’night, y’all! (though you probably won’t see this post until several days from now. 🙃).
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 