The Errant Wanderer

So, last week I was contacted by a company who saw my resume on Indeed.com, and wanted to discuss a position with me running a pipe crew. After I talked to them it seemed they were in a hurry to fill this position, and I figured I had bummed around long enough. After checking the weather, which looked a bit harsh in Colorado on Monday, I decided to head out on Saturday. I really wanted to hang out a bit longer and let it warm up in Colorado. I decided to take the job at JBS Pipeline, despite the first project being 1.5 hours away near Chatfield Reservoir. I’ll go down on Friday to complete paperwork and get up to speed on the project, then head down to the site on Monday morning.

I have an appointment to sign an apartment lease tomorrow morning. I looked around the last few days, and there are plenty of apartments in those massive complexes, but I don’t want to live in one of those. Also some fairly cheap ones, but the neighborhoods looks kinda sketchy. I had my eye on the basement of a house near old town in Longmont, but it had already been rented and they neglected to remove the ad from Zillow. This place has ample parking for my van and the work provided truck, has only four units in the building, is two story so I have nobody living above me, is below the maximum rent threshold I set, and has month to month lease. It’s 2 bedroom and 1.5 bath, definitely more space than I need, but that’s ok. So, hopefully I will be moved in tomorrow and can get set up over the weekend so I don’t have to do anything major next week. Work will keep me away from about 5:00AM until probably 6 or 7:00PM every weekday, so I won’t have a lot of time during the week.

I joined a caravan group on meetup, and they were meeting on some BLM land north of Quartzsite, Arizona. I was hoping to meet some folks who had been living a nomadic life for a while, as I was crawling the walls a bit. When I arrived at the site, there were quite a few rigs scattered around, mostly vans, a few SUVs, and a few pull behind trailers. I think quite a few of the people were off hiking and bicycling. A group of older ladies were seated around a van, and they invited me to sit and talk. As I was listening to them talk about their plans, gossip about other travellers, just their daily banter, I thought no, I cannot do this every day. When I told them I was just hanging out before going to the RTR, they suggested that I stick with them until then. Now, these were nice ladies, but I would classify them as grandmas on the road. At that point, I excused myself and went back to the van.

After a bit of thought, I decided that I don’t want to live in a van. I definitely needed some change in my life, and I made the easy change of locale and lifestyle, but it was not the change I need.

So, living in a van is out. There is nothing wrong with the van, and I met some nice people, but full time van living is not for me.

I don’t regard this as a failure, and I don’t have any regrets, but I have a new plan to work on.

On Thursday the 9th, I took a ride on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. It’s a pretty steep trip up to 8500 feet above sea level in a rotating car. Pretty cold up top with a good amount of snow and ice in the shady areas. They have a few restaurants up top, but I didn’t try any of their offerings.

I was able to pick up an America The Beautiful annual pass at the Joshua Tree welcome center on Monday. I was wanting to reserve a spot for a few nights while at the welcome center, but you can only do that online, and not for the day of the stay. They have some first come, first served campgrounds, so I headed to Hidden Valley campground from the north side of the park. That site was pretty full of rock climbers, so on to Ryan campground a bit further south. I found a nice site and paid $15.00 for the night. My neighbor, David, was a rock climber from Quebec, living out of his car for a month while he travelled around climbing rocks. The area is pretty nice, so I decided to stay another day. I have a new phone coming from Amazon on Wednesday, as my current cheap Motorola is failing. The GPS is extremely flaky, and when I come out of an area with no cellular signal, I have to reboot the phone before it recognizes the signal. There is lots of hiking and I took a nice short walk to a little day picnic spot about a mile away.

When I got to the picnic site, a guy was in the process of climbing a 20 foot tall cube shaped boulder while his girlfriend looked on. After he got to the top and did his best Leonardo Decaprio impression to the adoration of his girlfriend, he realized he was going to have a problem descending the boulder. Oops. I watched for a few minutes, hope he didn’t break a leg jumping down.

I spent a bit of time organizing my drawers and cupboards, looks like I have to slim down my possessions a bit more.

Last night, I had a little problem falling asleep. I tried a few times, walked around the park, but it wasn’t happening. I just needed to go. So about 2:00AM, I packed up and left. I still have to work out some details on how this is going to lifestyle is going to work for me.

Posting this from a Holiday Inn Express in Palm Desert, needed a bit of normalcy for a bit. The cinnamon rolls are not too bad, Chris.

So, this lifestyle I have chosen is a fairly radical departure from my norm. I lived in the same house, by myself, for 27 years. I didn’t like to stray far from home toilet, and showered every night before bed. I like to be clean before retiring for the night. I had lots of stuff in my house. I liked having lots of stuff. If I wanted to work on a project, odds are I already had most of the stuff I needed. And tools. I love tools. Some for their utility, some just for their beauty, and the ingenuity and craftsmanship that went into creating them. I’m also not what you might call a people person. People, in general, vex me. I am a creature of habit and change is bad.

Why would such a person choose to sell 99% of his possessions, including the house that contained his beloved water bed and home toilet, and buy a van to live in? I slept in that water bed for 27 years. That thing was amazing. Slept like a baby in it. Now the bladder is in a landfill, and the frame in a burn pile awaiting its transformation into smoke and ash. Perhaps a fitting send off. For the frame, not the bladder. Bladder, I wish I could have done better by you. Anyway, back to the question at hand. What was I thinking? Am I addled, gone soft in the head? Perhaps I suffered a sharp blow to the head. No, to the last one anyway. I’ve lead a rather pointless life, free from any real responsibilities. The route I’ve taken is not the usual, accepted one. Find a mate, procreate, raise and mold the next generation. For various reasons, I didn’t take that path. But I always had work. Work was my life. I considered myself capable at my chosen profession. I like working with my hands, like seeing things created. The last 10 years or so, I found I had less and less patience for the people I worked with and around. Critical thinking, common sense and perseverance seem to be traits found in less and less people. I could moan ad naseum on the subject, but that’s enough for now. I hadn’t worked for about a year, finding the bureaucracy of my last job, for a local town government, distasteful. I had no desire to lead a construction crew, nor manual labor. Equipment operation is enjoyable for short stints, but I get bored. As I was pondering what to do, I assessed my situation and found the current state unappealing. I had no desire to work a 9 to 5 job in the least. I could continue to sit around the house until my money ran out, but that made little sense. Perhaps some change was in order, as I was quite fed up with the status quo. Maybe a change of scenery would be beneficial, although Colorado is my favorite spot in the world. If I just moved, I had the same issues, but in a different place. Not helpful. I haven’t traveled extensively, I no longer fly, but I enjoyed the road trips I have taken. Maybe it would do me good to literally get out of the house and see what’s going on around me. Take in the sights and people the country has to offer. Maybe pare down my life a bit, get rid of all the superfluous stuff. Nobody is depending on me for anything, so there really are no limits. The desire for change had been present for a while, but the final solution of buying a van and living in it was a bit spur of the moment.

How do I feel about me decision now? It’s only been a few days that I’ve been on the road, and the first night as I was sitting in the van at Ocotillo Wells listening to all the bikes and buggies tear around the landscape, I had a mini panic attack. Was this what I proposed to do with my life, what am I going to do all day, every day? It all sounded good during the planning stage, but I’m going to go insane, if I am not already. What was I thinking? So, I sat down and had a talk with myself. Listen, dumbass, this is the first day. How about we actually slow down, see what we see, and take this day by day? There is a lot to see out here, and a lot of people to meet. So, quit being an unsociable jerk, let’s see some stuff and meet some people. Ok, I can do that.
How long will this lifestyle last? I haven’t the slightest idea. I think I’ll bum around for a while, maybe look for the occasional gig or some way to generate a bit of money along the way.

It’s been 4 days since I’ve showered, and I’m ok with that.

Hung around Palm Desert most of the day picking up a few items and getting my new jetpack account straightened out at the Verizon store. Headed to the east side of the Salton Sea, stopped first at Bombay Beach. Pretty desolate place, lots of trash and abandoned trailers and cars. Went south on Hwy 111 a bit farther and stopped at the Niland Boat Ramp and parked for the night. I thought it would be smelly, as I got a good whiff of something as I passed through Salton City. A bit humid and sticky, but it’s not bad.

Pulled into Pinyon Flats (https://freecampsites.net/#!6023&query=sitedetails) at dusk last night. Decided to travel a bit for a camp spot, looking for some elevation and scenery. I didn’t see anyone else here when I pulled in, but there was a camper a few spots away this morning. Little bit of frost this morning, 27 outside around 6:30, about 47 in the van. Heater had it up above 60 in no time. The fee is $8.00 per day, but it’s a nice, quiet spot. Gonna hang out here a bit this morning and plan my next route. I did pick up a jetpack from the Verizon store in Palm Desert yesterday, using the phone for internet is tedious.

Decided to head about 5 miles west down Hwy 78 to Slot Canyon (https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/the-slot). It’s a pretty nice, leisurely trail. Not really the hiking I am accustomed to, coming from Colorado. I suppose the desert may be an acquired taste. Sitting at the trailhead now, have a good cellular connection. Think I’m going to look into a new gps unit, my trusty Garmin 76CS is just not up to the tasks I want from it, but it is over 10 years old (and I am navigationally challenged).

Stopped at the El Centro BLM office to get a National Parks Pass, but their head office has not sent them the new ones for 2020 yet. I’ll check at Joshua Trees National Park on Monday. Decided to camp at Ocotillo Wells, a California state OHV park. Lots of bikes and off-road vehicles tearing around, but there are lots of places to camp for free. They have restrooms and pay showers, 4 bits for 2 minutes of hot shower. Cellular connection pretty spotty, have to upload photos later.

So it’s the next morning, not a bad place to stay. I thought the buggies and bikes would quit for the day when it got dark, but they just turned on their lights and kept going until about 1:00AM. Some of them must have serious money in their lights. Headlights to rival the sun, multi-colored
LED flag mounts and undercarriage lights, it was pretty interesting. A few could cut their light budget a bit and head down to Midas for a muffler.