Been there, done that

Hallelujah Junction, CA
Thank the Goddess we’re on the road again! We drive north out of Reno on our way to pick up a solar panel in Bend, Oregon. It’s late when we leave, after 4 o’clock, and we spy the remnants of last week’s bucketing snow storms all over the mountains. We buy gas one more time in Nevada and push into California, up highway 395 into hills and sage and misty rain. We camp early, take a dirt road right off the highway and onto BLM land. The road is wet and potentially slippery, so we don’t go far. We huddle in the van against the cold, hoarding our battery power by lighting candles, listening to the radio instead of CD’s, running nothing but our HEATER. We nest and nestle in the van, trying to remember where everything goes, how we fit, lick our wounds from Fallon fights.

We dart outside to watch the stars and walk the dogs. We eat chips and salsa for dinner, play cards, have a quiet drink, and just spend hours in the van smiling at each other.

In the morning Skip harvests sage, asking the plants for permission to take a strand here and there. We start the tradition of a long morning walk for the dogs, something to stretch their legs. Family exercise hour. A new tradition.