Last night I set my alarm for 7am and went to bed just after 10. This morning I was lying there, looked out the ceiling fan, saw the light. Figured it must be close to 7. Rummaged around for my phone. The moment I looked at it the alarm went off. I hadn't checked the time once since I'd gone to bed.
Things like that tend to happen more when you're in the zone. I felt deep in it yesterday. The music is flowing right now. I can't get the video faucet to turn on, but the music is flowing. So I go with that.
I keep wanting to create new YouTube channels for different buckets of music. Channel creep. I'm on the fence about how well this serves me. What I do know is that I need to press on. Everything is and will always be a work in progress. I've labored to build a container that will flex and mutate and adapt along with me. I'm trying to be a good shepherd to this good mind I have. Give it outlets, tend to it, water it, let its sails fill with wind and see where it goes.
I've learned not to stress too much about the outer appearance of how things are going. Inside they're going quite well. The outside will catch up. There's always a lag time. That's just how it works.
Today is the day. We drive into the North Rim. We've done planning but don't have much of a plan. We've settled on one campsite to target, but once we're in the vicinity it's still about an hour down a dirt road to get there. No other campsites along the way, and if ours is occupied we turn back. No way of knowing without driving all the way in. About three hours of driving total today. We're thinking one spot for the first week, a different spot for the second. But we'll see how it plays out. Adventure time.
Shannon brought back some items from Kanab: baking soda, chicken seasoning, three boxes of Crystal Light packets, three cloves of garlic to experiment with roasting in the coals overnight, and more heavy cream for my coffee. She also filled up my 5 gallon and 3 gallon water jugs. Very helpful favors.
I feel well supplied for this two week stretch. The one thing I'm low on is electricity. Seven percent on the whole system, which I've rarely seen. Everything is off now except the fridge, freezer, and overhead lights. Driving will help, the van charges off the motor, but the real catch-up will have to come from solar. This spot has been surrounded by tall pines, great for shade but not for panels. I've had a very brief solar window each day when the sun comes through overhead. I just need an exposed spot and the system will recover. Bike battery is drained too.
Time to pack. This adventure is exactly the kind of thing this van was designed for, and exactly what I was dreaming about when I imagined this life and set about bringing it to life.