Road Trip! 2/24/2023

So, enough of the white stuff. We’ve decided to head out, a few days early, to seek spring adventures. We’re trying to sneak away between storms, which have been coming one on top of the other for several weeks. Since the above picture, there’s been another foot. Tomorrow’s supposed to be nice, so we’ll leave in the morning, pick up the camper at the storage place in Chama, and head south. The weather app has more snow on Sunday, Tuesday, Thurs-Sat of next week, so we’ll hope to be out of it before then. I hate pulling a camper in bad weather.

Planning 6-8 weeks of camping and backpacking with 2 dogs takes some work. We’re also trying to do it in a way that will keep it better organized between trips. The process is complicated by the fact that the camper is not here. And that we have been unable to drive up the driveway all winter until just now. And that the truck was in the shop for over a month. Alan’s been doing more minor repairs, and we’ll stop in Santa Fe to pick up some last truck parts before visiting S & V for a couple days.

The plan is loose, but we hope to go south all the way to the border, then back up to Tonto National Forest, where, I’ve mentioned earlier, a backpack trip is planned on the Arizona Trail. Then, in early April, we’ll travel over to Texas for a week of fun with friends. Then, who knows? I don’t think we want to come back until we hear that the mud is dry! I hope to hit Organ Pipe Nat’l Monument, the Petrified Forest, and some other parks down that way. On the other hand, by the time we head home, I’ll be itching to start a garden, and Alan will be contemplating his next project(s).

What might those be? Well, this summer, we need to finish the water system and plumbing. That’s a big job, and we’ll likely hire a crew to do a lot of it, as it will include installing underground cisterns and laying pipe 5′ underground. Other projects will be building the workshop and remodeling the kitchen. We’re considering attempting to become more fossil-fuel free by putting in a wood cook stove. Not sure yet, as we’d still need to figure out a hot water system. Our solar is big, but not quite big enough to manage a hot water heater in the winter.

I cooked on a woodstove for many years and still think it’s the best way to go, no joke! Of course, we’d have to design a summer kitchen, but that’s pretty simple: electric stove top indoors and a brick oven outside covers it!

Enough on next summer…have to focus on the next 2 months!

We have some new gear for the trip: replacing our old down puffies for new alpaca-filled ones. (Believe it or not, lighter and warmer, although slightly more bulky). We also have an Enlightened Equipment Accomplice Sleeping Quilt for 2. (Replacing our 24-year old bags). Goose down, good to -10.) I’ve waterproofed raingear and collected a selection of dehydrated meals, all for the Arizona Trail.

On another note, we had to give up on our free, come-with-the-house Envirolet composting toilet. Not to go into detail, it just didn’t work like it should. We’ve replaced it with a Nature’s Head composting toilet which not only works perfectly, but is small and easy to use. Here it is getting installed. The next picture is of Alan emptying it into the humanure composting bin before our trip. (https://modernfarmer.com/2017/03/humanure-next-frontier-composting/

Alan has put in some new outlets and lights upstairs: we look like a supernova out here at night. It’s awesome. And the solar’s been wonderful even with all the cloudy days. We generally hit 100% charge by 10am.

I have been busy with classes: teaching 4 and taking 1. One class is through the Department of Corrections, and it has been a struggle to satisfy all their requirements: they wanted me to get fingerprinted by driving all the way up to Colorado Springs (6 hours from here) at 8am. I declined that and instead got fingerprinted at a photography store in Pagosa Springs! (Whodda thunk?) I told them my prints are already on file in D.C. but they didn’t believe me…those old anti-war protest arrests should count for something! Anyway, they are still insisting I come up to Co. Spgs., so maybe I won’t be teaching that course after all!

Alan and I wish you a happy end to winter and a welcome start to spring. We’ll keep you updated from the road!