My Van Life: Day 61
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Williams, AZ – Barstow, CA
I am happy to report there were no wild boar attacks in the middle of the night. At least none on or in this van. Although to be completely fair I’m still not totally certain it was a wild pig. It was what appeared to be an overweight dog, or a really small black bear scurrying in front of the van but Adam said he saw the squished up nose. I guess that’s a tell tale sign of a pig sighting. At any rate, we all lived to tell the tale which is really what’s most important.
What’s equally important is the fact that today was a new day filled with new promise and hope! Although I didn’t feel particularly hopeful toward the fact that we’re now officially back in PST (no more leisurely mornings for me), I woke up feeling more so on the right side of the bed than yesterday. Especially considering the bed was made with freshly washed and wonderful smelling sheets. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back to My Van Life: Day 60 to learn more about why we had to emergency wash the sheets yesterday).
Originally I woke up when Adam’s alarm went off at 6am and was ready to hop out of bed. My bladder was screaming at me as well so I was really ready to hop out of bed but because of the frigid temps outside – yes, FRIGID – I wasn’t quite as excited to emerge from the warmth of the covers I had cocooned myself in with Coco by my side. It dropped to 28 degrees last night and it felt like 28 degrees, if not, colder, in the van. It’s still crazy to think just about a week ago we were in Texas sweating and now we can’t find enough layers in the van to stay warm. We’ve realized that just as the van doesn’t have the best circulation during the hotter months, the same is true for colder months too. Now that we can say we've experienced those as well.
When we opened the doors to take Coco out we realized it was actually somehow warmer outside than in the van. Kind of odd. Nevertheless, the spot where we slept last night just off the freeway in an open field was quite beautiful and surprisingly quiet for being so close to the road. We kept the doors open and suited up for the work day ahead. Because I “slept in” – it’ll likely take some time to adjust back to PST since we haven’t been on the West Coast since July – I didn’t get the chance to complete my traditional morning routine which always leaves me feeling somewhat anxious. At least I felt well rested I guess.
It was a busy and productive work day, no more wild pig sightings, although I will tell you we were on high alert all day long. But no, no more rustling in the brush, just some odd and very loud bugs clicking around outside. Once the work day was complete we decided to start driving. I was ready to say let’s just drive all the way back to Sacramento (about 10 hours from where we were), but my sound judgment got the better of me. It wouldn’t have been the first time we drove through the night and arrived somewhere quite late (or in this case early in the morning), but knowing tomorrow is another busy work day for both of us I wanted to prioritize our rest more than anything. So, we stopped at a Love’s to gas up and eat dinner before heading down the street to a rest stop for the night. I’ve been catching up on writing and what not but now, I’m ready to close my eyes and call it a night. We’re only about 5 hours away from Sacramento and as much as we wanted to power through, I’m grateful to be getting a decent amount of sleep instead and arrive at a reasonable time tomorrow to be able to unpack things from the van as well. I guess this is my last night sleeping in the van then...Does this make it my last night of van life?!