Just another day in the van

The past 2-3 mornings I have been waking up at the crack of dawn. This morning I decided to get out of bed and let J' sleep in a little bit, usually if he's not awake with me it's because he wasn't sleeping during the night. I bundled my nugget (and myself) up and we went for a little walk. Last night we ended up moving up to this plateau right above where we have been camping so I walked her around where the van used to be. It's nice because there are many more potty places for her there and it's nice and flat...no big rocks to climb up and over!

[caption id="attachment_2531" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Our lil perch[/caption]

She has been wanting to go down the big hill to the main road but I never have the right shoes on and knowing me I will slide down that hill! Today I gave in...a little bit and she was so excited!

[caption id="attachment_2532" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Where does she start?[/caption]

That hill is pretty steep and when I started sliding we went back to the top....we would try again another day. The wind was pretty strong already, whipping me around (not helping with the shoes and rocks down the hill) and I could also see Savannah walking a little sideways when a big gust would come through...she's so little!

[caption id="attachment_2533" align="aligncenter" width="225"] The wind in our hairs[/caption]

We got back in the van and snuggled with daddy for a bit before getting up for the day...it's always so nice to snuggle when it's cold outside (about the only thing good about cold weather!). Since she had already been out, all she wanted to do was window hunt, so we ended up getting up sooner than later.

[caption id="attachment_2534" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Would rather be hunting[/caption]

We got up and walked her again together, just up on the perch. She loves it when daddy is up because she doesn't have to be on a leash...she has selective hearing when she's with momma, yep she's a brat!

[caption id="attachment_2535" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Running like the wind![/caption]

We all got back in the van...we are ready for some coffee!! We were getting everything out and ready to brew and J' said, "Holy cow...look!" I turned where he was pointing and boom...my day was automatically made. A herd of Bighorn Sheep were right there on the other side of the mountain feeding. They feed off of the vegetation and were moving from plant to plant, bush to bush, never staying in one spot for more than a minute or two.

[caption id="attachment_2536" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pretty darn close[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2537" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Biggest Horns[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2538" align="aligncenter" width="300"] J's camera zooms better[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2539" align="aligncenter" width="300"] They are so rad![/caption]

I had to switch cameras about 6 pictures in because J's camera has a lot better zoom than mine...I was just happy to get some really good pics! Aren't they so cool? They stuck around a good part of the day, going up and down the mountain as well as circling it a couple of times. The last time we saw them it was around 3 p.m. or so, they were feeding and nearing the edge closest to town and all of a sudden you see one of them take off running. At first, I thought they were trotting down the hill and gravity was making them run then we realized they probably picked up a scent of one of their predators....they were all booking it and they are fast!! It was amazing to see them run at the speed they were. I told J' I would like to be on the back of one of them...wouldn't that be fun!? I think so...don't know how they would react to it...haha

It was another nice day...windy, cold, in the van with the heater on...but at least we have the van, we have warm clothes and a heater to keep our toes from turning blue (well mine at least, I'm a wimp)! We practiced the guitar a little bit and I hit a new record of staying in my jammies all day long! I don't think much more is going to happen today so I'm writing this post a little early. I think with the sun going down at (what seems like) 3:oo in the afternoon...really like 4:30...I seem to be wrapping my days up a lot earlier than I usually would. I think the rest of the day I might just goof around on Facebook and play some games!

[caption id="attachment_2543" align="aligncenter" width="225"] I obviously thought something was hilarious!![/caption]

I hope you had a great day and get to do a little goofing around yourself!

PEACE

 

...then the phone rang!!

Woke up again this morning before the sun was even up...staring at the phone like, "C'mon...ring." I called and left another message. They have to call me back today, it's Friday and I doubt the phone will be on for more than today so...RING DAMMIT!!! I laid back in bed with the phone for about a half an hour then the most beautiful noise ever was heard...the phone (on full volume) ringing!! The phone call lasted a whole 6 minutes and she could hear the concern in my voice...she told me she was sorry for not getting back to me earlier and that I could stop worrying now! haha Yes, yes I can...thank you lady on the phone!

[caption id="attachment_2427" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sleeping Baby[/caption]

After a big sigh of relief, walking Savannah and 'dressing' Joon Van (making bed and getting everything back in place) we made a decision to go back up to the mountains and call it a day on 'town'. We kind of wanted to stick around for the Veterans Day festivities but it was super cold and windy outside and we both didn't want to stand outside enduring the weather, so we just went back up to where we were before.

It felt good to be back in a place where we can spread out a little. We can put the water jugs outside, along with our bags and anything else that won't blow away or that animals won't get into. It was a beautiful day, even though we are getting some huge gusts of wind up here. I just see it as nature rocking us to sleep!

[caption id="attachment_2428" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sun rays coming out to play[/caption]

You'll have to excuse the shorter posts due to the stress level that I've been experiencing the past couple of days, not only with the phone call but some other matters as well. Even with as stress free as this lifestyle should be, there are always some outside energies that can make your days crappy and make you feel unworthy. Hopefully I can rid my world of these certain energies soon and can get back on track with what is important to me and to be able to stand firm in what I believe in. Until then...please be patient and bear with me...hopefully it won't take too long!

PEACE

 

 

Blowin' in the Wind

Phew, what a past couple of days we have had! So you know I wasn't feeling very well...I don't really know what was going on with me. It kind of felt like I had a stomach bug on-top of  'my lady days' on-top of light food poisoning... to say the least every movement was awful, but after three and a half days of it, it's finally gone! Woo hoo!! We kept the bed down all day Saturday. It was a bit of an interesting day with the bed down since J' still had to work. At least he had the passenger chair to sit in...good thing he put that swivel on it last December.

Sunday I was feeling much better so we rolled the bed up, J' was a happy guy! We watched some football and just hung out. The weather had called for some big winds for the next few days and they sure did come through on that! I took Savannah on about an hour long walk, thinking it would be a nice change for both of us (with my icky feelings). The wind was blowing so hard, even MY hair was blowing all over the place, haha!

[caption id="attachment_1820" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Nature's Blowjob[/caption]

I had brought my ipod with me to jam to on my walk and the wind was blowing so strong it kept whipping them out of my ears...umm, OW! We walked down the main gravel road for a while. When we turned back I moved over to a new road they just put in, I guess they are going to put power lines in here. With my heel still healing it was a much nicer road to take, I didn't have all of these little rocks jabbing me in the heel...awww, relief!

[caption id="attachment_1821" align="aligncenter" width="225"] The Road Less Traveled[/caption]

 Plus, I really think the Bug likes to jump up and down on the dirt they moved over to the side...remember, she's a "Circus dog"...haha!

[caption id="attachment_1822" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My lil jumping bean[/caption]

Monday (yesterday) Wayne came and picked us up at 9:30 a.m. We had made plans with him the day before to go run some errands...he's such a nice guy, checking on us and making sure we're okay. That's one of the great things we've run into on our journey, very loving and nice people. We thank you all for caring for us, even though we start out as strangers we always end up as family...so thank you again! So Wayne came and swooped us up about 9:30a.m...right on time! We rode further down the main gravel road (the opposite direction), I don't think the van would make it down there so it was cool to be able to see what was down there. We went to the dump first...Nana LOVES the dump, it smells soooo delish! haha gross

[caption id="attachment_1823" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Oh, the smells!![/caption]

 We then took all the cool back and side roads over to Smith's Grocery. Wayne doesn't mess around, he knows all the back roads. It was fun to go on a little adventure although we were just going to the grocery store. Smith's is a real nice store, great ambiance! It is super clean, there's really no one in there, the people are nice and the prices really aren't that bad. Oh, Wayne gave us a little shoppers card too, for a discount...that saved us $9.00! Every bit counts!

[caption id="attachment_1824" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Our new store[/caption]

Now that we know about Smith's, we probably won't be doing much grocery shopping at Wal-mart. This Wal-mart is actually not that bad, it reminds us a lot of the one back "home". It's really clean and there's never anyone in it...but it's nice to switch things up.

[caption id="attachment_1825" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Whizzing by Walmart[/caption]

Wayne showed us where the Post Office was and then we headed over to an RV park on the South West side of town and refreshed our water...for FREE!!!!  Don't you love that word? I know we do!

[caption id="attachment_1826" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Wet t-shirt contest![/caption]

The boys got a little wet while filling up some of the milk jugs... I laughed, probably harder then I should have...but it was funny! After all of our silly shenanigans, we ran a couple more errands with Wayne and headed back home. Thanks again Wayne, you are a blessing and such great company!

[caption id="attachment_1832" align="aligncenter" width="300"] That's what we look like[/caption]

After errands we pretty much just got back in the van and did our thang! The wind was really bad, so there's nothing to really do but sit in the van. We can't drive anywhere right now, so we sit. We make up things to do, we talk about a lot of different things, we research lots of different things and then laugh at Savannah...haha. She has found a new spot in the van to lay. J' let her lay next to him the other day so she could see out of the window and "window hunt" and all of that good stuff. Well, now that's just her spot!

[caption id="attachment_1827" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Shh...baby sleeping[/caption]

As long as she's by her daddy she's a happy girl. I swear if everyone in this world loved like Savannah loves J'...this would be such a beautiful, loving world...and a little crazy. She's a little cray cray over her daddy! haha

So today... Tuesday we still sit in the van. It's more windy today than the last two days...hopefully it'll pass by tomorrow. I'm very ready to be able to take my Bug on walks again and just be out of the van without feeling like you're in a tornado. The cold has also come with this wind, which is nice for sleeping and there aren't any flies right now... but c'mon man! So that leaves us only to laugh at Savannah...oh you know she likes it because it usually means food is involved! In this case...Peanut Butter!

PEACE

Scraping up some Cache

With all of this sitting in the van these days; haven't gotten my chair out yet and catching up...yes, still on posts, I decided today would be a great day for a much longer walk then Savannah and I usually take. I also turned very brave and instead of walking on the "main road" I took off into the desert.

Very shortly after, J' decided to stretch his legs too and come with us...so we headed on a walk into the almighty desert! Just a little 411 on this Florida girl, I wear flip-flops about 98.99% of the time. It does not matter if it's snowing outside, raining, sunny, whatever...my flops and I go hand in hand! J' actually gets stern with me sometimes because I always wear the 'wrong shoes' when we go for long walks or adventures, yep, always have my flops on. I have slipped, I have fallen, I have nearly broken my ankles but they are just so airy and free and easy! haha

[caption id="attachment_1340" align="aligncenter" width="300"] It's all good[/caption]

So there we are in the desert barely 50 yards from the van, walking talking and I took a step and felt something hard hit my right heel. I thought I had hit the edge of a really sharp rock so I took a look at the bottom of my foot/shoe and there was a stick stuck in my shoe. Okay, I thought I'll just pull it out and I'll be back on our stroll. As I went to pull it out though, it was not coming out...that's when I realized this little stick had gone through my shoe and into my heel. Yep, I panicked! I started calling out to J' to come help, it's in my foot, oh my gosh...tears and tears. My knight and shining armor came to my rescue and yanked it out of my foot. I thought I could go on but it hurt pretty bad and when I looked down and saw a small pool of blood accumulating on my flop I freaked out... yep, more tears. We walked back to the van and cleaned it, put some iodine in it (I swear J' was going to send Iodine into my brain with how hard he was pushing it into my heel, but by his story he just really wanted it to get in there).

Don't mind my dirty feet!

[caption id="attachment_1341" align="aligncenter" width="300"] So painful[/caption]

The stick was about 1/2 an inch in my foot. Since I've never had anything stuck in my foot before that was certainly long enough! After J' cleaned me up and I cleaned up my tears, we started back on our way. I could handle this! We walked around and looked at all of the cool and different types of Flora out here. There are cactus, Yucca plants, those really hard and painful bushes that went through my foot AND our tire (yep, same one) and some other little white bushes that look like big cotton balls...but beware they are not fluffy!

[caption id="attachment_1344" align="aligncenter" width="225"] The Painful Plant at large[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1345" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Yucca Yucca[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1343" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Cotton Ball Bush[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1346" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pinky Cacti[/caption]

 That's when we stumbled upon something new and fascinating. It wasn't just the object that we stumbled upon, but the idea of why it was there in the first place. Now, I know we're pretty hip and up-to-date people (yes, you can laugh) but I think we are a little late on finding this new trend, er...game. About 12 years late! We have found Geo-caching!! The coolest part about it? It was magical finding this first cache together, it was a surprise just waiting for us in this wide open space. At first, we thought we hit the jackpot...maybe there was money in there!? I knew I took my walk into the desert tonight for a reason!

[caption id="attachment_1347" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Someone left us cookies!![/caption]

 We opened it up and started taking everything out to look at it. We brought it back to the van so we could spread everything out, after all this was the coolest thing we've discovered yet. This particular cache has been here since 2006, there didn't seem to be too much in it but it was fun to look at everything.

[caption id="attachment_1348" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Cache Cards[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1349" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Chillin' in a cookie tin[/caption]

 We sat and went through everything and made sure to log our find in one of the books. We didn't take anything, but started talking about what we could contribute to the caches along the way. And you know we had to sign up and become members on the website! haha There is a huge group of people that play this game all over the world. It's amazing. We started looking to see if there were any other caches in the area and it turns out there are hundreds of them. We put a few into our GPS and thought we would give one more a go before sundown...plus we had to put the other one back.

[caption id="attachment_1350" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Cutest Cacher around![/caption]

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that after we cleaned my boo-boo I broke down and put on my boots....I didn't even have to be scolded into them! haha They are freakin' sweet and are perfect for this area.

[caption id="attachment_1351" align="aligncenter" width="300"] These boots WERE made for walkin'![/caption]

We made the second cache right before the sun fully set. We took the GPS with us this time and it was only .4 miles away but walking through bushes, washes and rocks it seemed a lot farther than that. This one was kind of hidden...like a treasure! Ooooo, I LOVE treasures!!

[caption id="attachment_1352" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Hidden Treasure[/caption]

 I was scared to take the wood off of the tin because I don't know what's been living under that thing, but again I was brave and just whipped those logs off and bam! There she was!

[caption id="attachment_1354" align="aligncenter" width="300"] ta-daa[/caption]

When we opened this cache there were colors jumping out at you everywhere, this one had a lot more in it. We just looked through it at the site due to the sun setting so quickly, signed the log, covered her back up and headed home.

[caption id="attachment_1353" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A 5 year old's dream![/caption]

 We were escorted home by another stunning sunset.

What a cool find, eh!? It just goes to show you never know what's out there for you to find or discover. I'm sure what we found is just the beginning to a new, fun, interesting part of our lives.

When will you pop your Geo-cache cherry?

PEACE