April 20, 2026. It's 4/20 dude. Last night was a drum circle. The instructions were to find a makeshift musical instrument around your rig and bring it to the center campfire. I brought an empty 3-gallon water jug. It worked well, but halfway through I rode back to the van and got the 5-gallon. Deeper sound. I was holding down the bass for the group.
Yesterday I recruited three others to come along while I scouted for my next campsite on bikes. Of all my map apps I've been favoring OnX Offroad, and it was great for this. I studied the map on my laptop beforehand and dropped 8 pins on likely spots: 4 on ledges, 4 more inland. The ledge spots are epic but there's a bike and hiking trail running along them, so less privacy. The inland spots are more protected. OnX navigated us to each pin on the trails the same way Google Maps does on roads. At each spot I added photos and notes directly to the pin. We have a lot of good options.
I brought my little drone clipped to a carabiner on my waist. Got some great footage, some of it genuinely cinematic. I'm still learning the gesture mode. It doesn't always go where I want it to go, but I got good material anyway. Main lesson: bring the remote next time so I have full control and can get the shots farther out. I really love this little drone. It's more useful than my much larger one.
I have a package arriving today at the nearby post office. Five years ago I had an onboard air compressor installed in the van, under the hood, with a small air tank underneath and nozzles at the side door and rear bumper. It's been great but I've never had a good tire inflator attachment, mainly because there's no gauge on it. I found one that's supposedly better than the Dewalt version for my use case, and I spent the money. I've got a serious air compressor on this van. It should have a serious inflator to go with it.
Fun fact: while traveling you can have mail sent to almost any post office by addressing it to your name, General Delivery, and the post office address. They hold it for 30 days. Free service.
I'll ride into town in the next day or two to pick it up and grab coffee and heavy cream while I'm there.
Yesterday I cooked another 2.5 pounds of chicken. Still loving my food. Once I get to a grocery store I want to start incorporating more vegetables into the rotation now that the freezer makes that practical.
I'm almost done editing a 71-minute video, but around the 45-minute mark the audio goes out of phase on a multicam clip. I remember seeing a tutorial about how to fix this. I need to find it.
Something I've been noticing: there are 3 or 4 scheduled activities every day at this camp. No obligation, but I feel a pull to participate. I don't remember feeling that last year. I think last year I was more in my shell, less connected to everybody. This year I know these people. That changes things.
I may also be the only one here with specific projects I'm trying to put time into each day. I don't think anyone else in this group is in their practice right now. I'm getting better at the balance. And I'm being kind to myself, because I'm just coming out the other side of a learning curve that sometimes feels like a lot of energy spent without much to show for it.
As is typical with any new addition to my routine, I find myself occasionally questioning the merits of writing these Roads entries. I've journaled most of my life, so the act has intrinsic value for me regardless. But maybe I post less frequently, or more privately like I used to. I don't have any system for notifying people when there's a new entry. No email list, no algorithm pushing it around. These go nowhere for now. That's fine. It's a practice.
There's a constant evaluation happening between how much time I spend in my practice versus how much I spend just living. I've decided to stop using the word work for what I do. It's not accurate. Work implies obligation, something endured. What I'm doing is video editing, writing, music, building things, organizing my space to free up my attention. These are tasks I've evaluated repeatedly and decided are worth the cost of my time and energy. Everything has a cost. But these are the things I've determined, after all the iteration of my life, to be the most worthwhile uses of what I have. That's not work. That's my practice.