The Final week of March was a story of trial & error, decisions, waiting for things to play out, some surprises and a futile attempt to paint incomplete pictures.
Chris had begun to wrap things up in Denver. His last day at the coffee shop was on the 27th, and he had slowly begun the process of becoming homeless. As his last day approached, the trip began to move from something abstract to reality, much more so for him obviously, since he was due to leave on the 31st. There has been so much speculation over the months, now it is becoming real. This put our minds into high gear of course, and with the expected flooding of the Red River in North Dakota, we tinkered with the idea of scrapping the “east coast first” notion, heading toward Fargo and helping with sandbagging and cleanup efforts. Time would be of the essence however, and after a night of contemplation, we both came to the same conclusion: we would be rushing. North Dakota will wait its turn.
Somewhere around the 20th, I surprisingly got a call from Jack, who I had helped move shortly after returning last year. His lease was up with the end of March, and wanted me to help him again. He pays well, and has a lot of stuff, and again, came along at the right time! He needed to be out of his house by the 31st, so we penciled in Saturday- Tuesday to get him moved. Before we started, he asked me to stop by to “discuss some things”. There was a possibility of a business trip to California immediately after the move, in the first week of April. Jack is sort of an antiques dealer, and there were people in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento that he wanted to connect with, and needed someone simply to ride along and “help out”. Paid, of course. The thought of making money to take a road trip sounded good! At that point, he had yet to locate a place in Santa Fe, and was even contemplating returning to New Hampshire, and in that case, we talked about Chris and I riding all the way with him… again dramatically altering the plans we had (sort of) made.
This was a flashback to Fort Morgan ‘08. All these plans are ultimately useless. My initial idea last summer was to aim toward Nebraska, get adjusted, then head north and west toward Portland from there. I never got out of Colorado of course, as though my path was blocked by tornadoes. That led to no small amount of frustration as I tried and tried to “make it happen”. In the end, I wound up on the other side of the mountains and state, in Glenwood Springs, with a nice lesson that has managed to hold on in varying degrees: Plans are nice things to occupy your mind, but the reality will never look like I pictured!
After many trials, I finally answered the backpack question: It’s Elmo: flexibility over minimalization. It seems unlikely, at least for the first few weeks, that I will be able to have a load of less than 50 pounds with a full supply of water. I believe Booger would have been great over the warmer months, when I can get away with fewer clothes, but with the likelihood of repeating this cool- weather scenario in the fall, I decided on the higher volume pack with the better suspension system. I may be complaining in July about how EMPTY the pack is, but for now, it’s smart. I had grown rather attached to Booger, making the decision a bit harder than it should have been! That’s a funny thing about things like packs, shoes, tents etc., they become like family after awhile.
With the money from Jack coming, I also decided to get a higher end bivy, posting my military surplus on Craigslist. (Still available if you want it!) I could make it work, but the fact that it has no mosquito netting “bugs” me (ha!), especially going east. There are next to NO insects out here, at least of that variety, so last summer I was happy sleeping outside in just my sleeping bag. I only recall TWO mosquitoes the entire time I was gone. It is a different story out east, and there is a lot more rain to deal with. Plus… I can always return it!
As the last full week of March closed, things were continuing to shape up quite nicely in just about every way. Chris was closing his apartment out on Tuesday 4/1, and I was going to spend the last days of March padding my wallet. Nice!
No comments:
Post a Comment