The next day we loaded up on supplies to head out to Joshua Tree National Park. We made reservations with our Verizon Internet connection which works excellent, by the way. High speed internet wherever we drive, plus hotspot connections all over place at Starbucks and the like, in the smallest of towns, or completely out in the boonies or up high into the mountains, we are completely covered. Absolutely amazing, the virtual office!
We arrived around noonish at Black Rock campground, and setup camp. It was forecast for windy conditions as we were up some 4000 feet. We went for a hike up through the surrounding canyons in the park, and the wind was blowing cold, though tolerable. We passed expansive forests of Joshua Trees, went through dry wash flows with intense rock formations and climbed a summit with breath-taking views, all in one hike; we were home!
The awe, the splendor!
Later that afternoon, I setup the tent as Shira made dinner. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped fast from the icy winds. We ate a great meal then settled in for some sleep. Later that night the winds picked up shaking us awake in the van. I got up to check the tent. The poles were whipping around as one side came out of the ground. I took out the opposite side opposite the wind, so the tent could lay down flat as the wind was pushing it over.
We tried to sleep, but the storm was intense, as we heard the sound of rain. I thought the desert was warm all year long! We watched a movie around 1:00a.m., on my laptop in the “bedroom” laptop stand off the inverter, since we couldn’t sleep anyways. That helped calm us down, and pass some time, then we went back to sleep till morning.
The next day we woke up to snow on the ground and icy temperature’s. It was beautiful here regardless of the weather. The snow soon melted from the intense sun, though the wind continued to blow. We went and climbed a mountain in our “backyard”, that offered us expansive views in all directions. Mind-blowing and inspiring! This is how we were meant to pass our precious days.
The next day after that, we are beginning to settle into our van-gabonding routine, this boat is sailing! I ran up my backyard peak today, then went and hiked up another for good measure. The views were dazzling, I feel so grateful to have made it out here.
So that about summarizes, and catches you all up to this point in the story. From now on we will transmit regularly on the daily adventures, insights and challenges we find ourselves experiencing. Future plans are to change over towards video for this section of the site, but one thing at a time. Being tru;y A/Live is a fulltime job…t.m. Things are semi-rocky, but operational, and magnitudes better than living the “routine”, only to get better and better.
The hard part, taking the leap, is over. Now, if only I can get myself one of these…
Peace…
