Sunday, February 28, 2016

Stoli and the Sad, Weird, No Good, Not Great Day and Night and Part of Another Day

Ok, I've hit another bout of travel sadness or depression or something. It's been kind of on and off for a week or two now. It's not the worst, but I have to try to convince myself to do things more than usual and I want to deal with other people even less. It's getting better. It may have to do partly with the weather; it's quite rainy here on the west coast. I don't need sympathy or worry or anything. I'm even still having fun and enjoying myself. I wouldn't change anything.

I have a lot of time to think (might be part of the problem). But I reflected back on a particular low spot and, in hindsight, I think it's pretty funny and would like to share. It may end up to be just a log of my day, but I don't care. You can stop reading if it's terrible. I just want to get it out, it's taking up valuable (probably not) brain space and I keep writing it in my head. So here you go:

Stoli and the Sad, Weird, No Good, Not Great Day and Night and Part of Another Day

I woke up and it was almost 10am. I really didn't want to get up. Not at all. Not even a little bit. I had been in my tent and mostly sleeping for almost 12 hours; that's not great. I wanted to just stay in my sleeping bag and tent for at least the rest of the day. I could tell it had rained a little, but had stopped for the moment. That wouldn't make packing up fun, but that wasn't the entire reason. I had just had a really good long happy streak and was hitting a valley I suppose. It was one of those stay in bed, call in sick, days; I've been there. But holing up in my tent isn't really a great option.

Eventually both parts of my brain lost and my bladder won. But once I was out of my tent I manged to convince myself to break camp. I had planned a long hike for the day and then camping at a small town a bit further south. I started walking, still heavily in a funk.

For the first hour it drizzled. Then it rained heavily for about 3 hours. Then it drizzled for my last hour. It was gross. It was what should be a great hike along the coast and partly in the edge of the forest. Every once in a while it jetted out to the coast and the wind was awful. At one of these clearings I saw a penguin on the beach. Just standing there looking like a sad penguin in the wind and rain. And I thought, 'I feel you penguin.' (This is strange. I feel like I saw a meme in the wild, some depressed penguin, and I totally related to it. Also, it's still ridiculous to me that this is possible, yet alone that it happened to me.)

I somehow ended the hike. All of me was soaked. Even my feet nestled in wool socks and hiking boots were just big puddles. Everything in my backpack was wet. I changed into dry clothes and drove to the campground.

It was a space in a small town, next to a rugby pitch. There was a very old building with a lounge area, kitchen, bathrooms, and bunk room. It was super windy and awful when I arrived. I talked to the caretaker, who was kind of bossy and I didn't even feel like dealing with nice people. He said it was supposed to storm. I decided to stay in the bunk room instead of putting up my tent in the awfulness.

The building was strange and little creepy. I went into the bunk room and picked a mattress out of a pile, plunked it on the ground, grabbed a pillow and blanket so I didn't have to deal with it later. There were two french guys that were also staying in the bunk room. They were in the lounge. We didn't really talk; it was kind of weird.

I ate dinner and had tea and read for awhile. But later that night I found myself sitting on a couch in the lounge area watching a home renovation competition show with four or five guys that were staying at the campground. None of us talked, we didn't even discuss if we should continue to watch that or find something better. It was good; I couldn't deal with real, talking, communicative, humans. Also, I could imagine if I were back in Wisconsin I could be at Lisa's watching Fixer Upper. It was soothing.

The expected thunderstorm kicked in. Then the power went out, of course.  It was after 10:00, so I took it as an excuse to go to bed (or foam mattress). I laid there in the dark. I took this creepy picture.


I did fall asleep, but didn't sleep well. Maybe I'm too used to camping. I need to be swaddled in my sleeping bag. At some point the frenchmen came in and went to sleep as well.

Early in the morning I woke up from a strange dream. I was camping with my parents, my sister and her family, and my brother and his girlfriend. We were sitting inside but I was looking across the table and out the window. I saw an extremely unrealistic earthquake coming towards us, I saw the ground rolling. I said 'earthquake' right before it hit us. Right afterwards my uncle Marty complimented me on seeing it before it happened, so I guess he was there too. I was proud.
Then I looked out the window again just in time to see a volcano erupt. It was dramatic. We had to evacuate. Then we came right back for our belongings. Then the volcano erupted again and we were told we had to stay put. My nieces were freaking out. I woke up. Natural Disasters, nice dream subjects.

I eventually gave up on sleep and went for a run. I ran through a deserted, calm, foggy, small town. I did not see a moving vehicle the entire time. It felt like maybe there was a natural disaster and I was forgotten. I ran to an estuary. I ran to a beach. I noticed a bicycle with a towel on it on the path. I walked over the dune. As soon as I got sight of the ocean I also found the owner of the bicycle, a naked man, coming out of the water. Luckily he wasn't looking in my direction and I was able to walk in to the other side and turn my back so we didn't have to make awkward eye contact. He was gone before I walked back.

Back at the campground I showered and then had breakfast in kitchen. That was actually kind of nice. There were people coming in and out and cooking and eating. It was kind of like being in a big family, busy and comforting. And everyone was friendly and kind, but also didn't really talk much. My kind of people.

That night it was kind of rainy again, but not stormy. I really didn't feel like putting up my tent, so I tried sleeping in my car. The back seats fold down and I was able to fully stretch out and it was actually fairly comfortable. I've done it a few times now. I have actually slept in my car down by the river. Living my dreams.

So that's all. A string of kind of mundane events, but interesting in my state of mind.

Other things to note:

  • I keep climbing mountains. It's wonderful.
  • The rain from this morning has ended. That's good.
  • My stand-in for cuddling up inside and watching Netflix is cuddling up in the back of my car and reading Harry Potter. It works pretty well.
  • I still love it here. I have less than three months left, yikes!
  • I overheard two Canadians talking about bears...it checked out. 
  • I wanted to end on a happy note, and this is hilarious to me and making me happy


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