Santa Fe Forest Day 2

Today was a whirlwind day. We got up earlier today and got right to moving bc it was cold! The Weather app said 45° at the nearest town 2000 feet lower in elevation so it was probably closer to 38°. Wesley started on breakfast and I started searching for firewood. I found a bunch down the hill, which means I got to carry them all back up the hill. I accomplished my mentor’s suggestion of hard exercise even if it’s only a few minutes/day bc it helps with detox.

Once we’d eaten breakfast, I started laundry soaking for the day. Miraculously, I managed to get two queen flat sheets and 2 cheap Walmart bath towels submerged in a 5 gallon bucket. In my other 5 gallon bucket, I had two hoodies, 2 long sleeved T-shirts, 3 washcloths, 2 pairs of pajama pants, and a pair of sweats. We loaded all the food in the vehicle to avoid attracting bears and the water jugs to refill so I could finish laundry when we got home. We drove down to Albuquerque to get the last two amazon packages that didn’t arrive before we left Tuesday. Our first stop was at our old hotel to get the Amazon package that didn’t make its delivery date. Amazingly it didn’t make its second delivery date either because it had just arrived today. It was fun to see the staff we built a bit of a relationship with while we were there.

Next we went to Chello’s Grill for lunch. We got a huge salads, which were awesome. After that we went to Harbor Freight to look at generators to see if we wanted to get a generator so I can get a spin dryer and not have to hand wring all the clothing when I do laundry. The bigger generator was $150 less so we decided that we would wait for right now until we get a more permanent place to land and a truck. We also looked at axes to cut firewood with something bigger than a hatchet, but we didn’t find something we wanted more than what we had already had so we decided to wait on everything at Harbor Freight.

The next stop was at the good ole Walmart. Wesley and I are beginning to embrace Walmart because we can do less stops and more quickly get out of town, which is important for us because we don’t feel great in Albuquerque anymore. Wesley struggled with that more than me today. I felt like my body was more tolerant (in the past Walmart bothered me), whereas Wesley’s body felt less tolerant. We now have a table for camp site, bear spray, pepper spray, a couple more water jugs so that we can haul 26 gallons at a time instead of 14, and the best thing, two 35° sleeping bags. We also stocked up on more groceries while we were there, and then headed over to my cousin‘s to pick up the last Amazon package.

On the way home we stopped and got ice for the cooler from this really cool ice and water dispenser stand in Rio Rancho, and then we stopped in the town near we were camping to fill up the water jugs on the way out to the campsite. There are more people camping out here tonight. I don’t think I’m a huge fan of that, but nobody asked me. We don’t have any really close neighbors so that’s OK. I guess the challenging road to get in and out of this campsite but has deterred some other people who’ve gone for the easier to access spots by the entrance.

We got home about an hour and a half after we had wanted to for the day. I finished the laundry, and I am hoping that it will dry enough for the things that we need for tonight to be usable. I just think of how there’s no chance that that would’ve dried out in Iowa. I’m really thankful for the dry weather out here. My hands and lips are cracking and bleeding but I still prefer the dry weather. Wesley cleaned up the garbage bag that got disrupted while we were gone and then chopped up the firewood and built a fire while I was finishing up laundry. Now we’re enjoying a hot fire. It was a busy day, but we got everything done that we wanted to do. It is kind of nice that even if you don’t get all the things done that you wanted to do, that it doesn’t seem to matter so much anymore. The priority is healing not performing and we’re doing a pretty good job of keeping that straight.