08 September 2006, Friday
Well, this is fun. I’m on my way to the Front Range - Denver and Colorado Springs. I packed up the RV and moved it over to the Redstone campground. Leaving from there noonish, I passed through P'Ville to take care of a few things then headed out. I spent Wednesday night in Collegiate Campground. The forest there looks wonderfully healthy. I didn’t do any hiking though as I froze my buns off all night in my new sleeping bag. I went to the 2nd hand store in Buena Vista and bought a couple of extra blankets so last night was better. It was also warmer outside last night.

Life is swell. Jupiter is perched on his pillow on top of his carrier, looking out at the world. It’s raining right now - just lightly, misting. I love this tent! I must write REI and tell them how much I like it. When I unzip the door and window and the two little windows on the side and the rainfly, it feels like a gazebo. I really wanted a gazebo type structure as well as a tent large enough to walk around it. This one is just perfect and meets both my needs. Most of the larger tents I considered were either too expensive and/or to large and heavy for me to handle by myself. This one cost $278 and weighs 18 lbs. Besides, I like the name: Hobitat. It seems like a bunch of these would be wonderful in a disaster for people to use.

Speaking of disasters...... the world could be ending right now and I wouldn’t know it. It seems rather rickety at the moment. The continual power struggles that go on. And rats. They just discovered a bunch of oil in the Texas bay. It is said to increase our stock by 50%. I don’t know. I wonder. It seems such an opportune time to announce something like this. I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t trust anything that I hear from the mainstream media. But I don’t want to go down that alley.

One problem I’ve discovered in this tent living with a cat is that kitty litter gets everywhere. We don’t normally see it in the house with all its carpets and rugs but here on this black plastic floor it stands out like crazy. Other than that everything’s wonderful. I rigged up a private bath for him in one corner: a towel on the floor, a sheet hanging from the ceiling, then off to the side on a corner of the towel I put his food and water. The one thing I really need is a little folding chair to support my back while sitting on the ground. I have a folding chair but actually I’d prefer to just stay on the ground.

Sound of rain falling lightly on the tent. The stream is burbling - big bubbles - sounds very different from Avalanche Creek. Here there are big, rounded boulders in the stream, nothing that really makes any white water. But the rocks do slow and build up the water’s movement, dropping it over rounded waterfalls and wrapping up in the slight curves then dropping it in plops to the pools below. Willows surround the stream though there are obvious openings in them where fishermen come and go. Then, directly across from this campsite a healthy forest climbs up a rocky steep hillside.

I must seem so odd to some people. Here I am, going camping, after having lived as a campground host all summer. But this is different, so different. And ya, here I am with my cat and my bowl and my laptop, sitting in my little nylon hacienda, just enjoying the heck out of life.

Seek God first; all else will be given.