Shakedown Cruise (8/1/20)
I took this past week off from work. Everyone is dealing with A Lot right now, and my specific assortment of A Lot (need to move out of the condo, need to get the house-on-wheels in livable condition, need to do more writing, urgently wanting to get out of the city and into the mountains) had me feeling kind of burned out.
So I went for a three-night trip in the van, just to try it out and start getting a sense of how life on wheels might work. The van was a champ! A few things I realized:
* The fold-down rear bench seat isn’t an ideal bed. Part of that has to do with the fact that I am only 62” long but the bed is only 60” long; even though I slept diagonally, I still sometimes ended up bumping my head on or kicking the windows. I’m going to try to build a bed platform that I can store the bench seat under and then dismantle easily when I want to install/use the rear seat.
* I love tent camping. It makes me feel like a little kid in a fort. I love tent smell. I love (except for those middle-of-the-night “what’s that noise?” times) feeling so close to whatever is going on around me: cicadas, chipmunks, rain, wind. And since I’ve done a lot of tent camping, I can set things up and take them down pretty quickly and don’t have to think about it much. But I can see how one can get used to camping in a vehicle. It’s so easy! More than once, as I got ready to leave my overnight spot, I’d find myself standing there and thinking, “is that really it? I just… drive away?”
* Colorado has been breaking my heart for the last decade or so. For most of that time, I was living elsewhere. When I’d come back to visit I would be shocked, even though I heard what was happening: the rising costs of living, the increase in crowds and traffic, the feeling that everyone is being increasingly squeezed. It’s harder to even find a campsite in the mountains close to the front range or in some of the more popular areas. But I was so relieved to find that the mountains are still powerful and magical and compelling to me, and that I can still find ways and places to be alone surrounded by wildness. The first night I was east of Buena Vista, parked off a forest service road. I didn’t see a single person pass. I fell asleep to the sound of rain on the roof. The second night was in an aspen grove that a heavy wind sluiced through. I took an amazing hike on a trail that kept climbing and climbing until I was in a meadow surrounded by mountain peaks, where hummingbirds jousted and dive-bombed over the wildflowers.
* That being said, I was really unsettled by most of the humans I did see. It seems that a lot of people are going to the mountains to pretend the pandemic isn’t happening. I might’ve seen a couple bandanas around people’s necks on hiking trails, but no one had anything actually covering their faces as they passed me or each other, and no one made even a token gesture of stepping off the trail. Crested Butte was downright crowded — tons of people eating at outdoor tables on the Main Street, and those tables definitely weren’t far enough apart. Many license plates were from Texas, which is a virus hotspot, so… that doesn’t feel great. On the trail outside of town, I would’ve had bikers literally breathing down the back of my neck if I hadn’t scrambled into the sagebrush. It made me grumpy and anxious. But that’s also the feeling I’ve had here in central Denver: especially in a neighborhood that skews young and hip, most people don’t seem at all concerned about the health and safety of others. I’ve taken to deliberately farting in stores. But that’s a whole other post.
* When I left for this short trip, I told myself I’d be cautious. I hadn’t gotten a professional mechanic to inspect the van yet, I was still getting a sense of its size and geometry, and I don’t yet have a jack or lug nut wrench that I would need to change a flat tire. And there was no cell phone reception for most of the trip. But a couple of times, I really needed to see what was down a rough, potholed, rocky, narrow forest service road. And the van did really well — I think it can make it down roads that would be tricky in any other car I’ve ever owned.
First night!