Tuesday 10th January – Back Where I Belong

I slept solid for ten hours and would have kept on, but I was woken up by Marianna’s garage door opening, the sun rising in the distance. I savoured the last normal shower I would have for the foreseeable future and over a breakfast of some cooked eggs, looked at my atlas to decide the best route down and over to Florida. Originally I thought I’d take the most direct route, but soon went off that idea not wanting to drive on boring highways through Kansas. Instead, I decided to head directly south first, then east, through Oklahoma along the great Route 66. I’d driven a short section of it before further out west and had been disappointed, but my Lonely Planet guide assured me the section that travels through Oklahoma is dotted with the typical Route 66 character.

With that plan made, I repacked the van. Only a few mishaps while I was gone:

  1. I forgot to put my rain-catching bags up. Something I only figured out because my bin happened to be directly under a water-intrusion point and had quite a bit of water in it!
  2. The van smelled a bit like onions, because I accidentally left two onions in the kitchen and they’d decomposed themselves. Ewwww.
  3. My right rear tyre was very low. This I expected because the rim has a slow leak (something I will be getting fixed soon).
  4. The two beers I had in my fridge exploded which caused a big mess and now the fridge smells like a brewery

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All in all, not too bad! Definitely some lessons learnt there.

Just before 10am, I sat behind the wheel and started the Astro up. She needed a bit of love to light the fire, but once she got going, she was going. I just sat for a few minutes, relishing the feeling of being “home” again. I drove away. It was a sunny 10*C day, making me slightly wonder if I needed to go all the way to Florida. I quickly dismissed that thought because I’m sure this “warmth” would not last.

I stopped at Fort Morgan to do a shop at Walmart. When I walked through the doors, I knew I was back in America. I made a list in the car park and stocked up on the normal essentials for $60. That should last me about a week. It was back in the car park that I found out about the beer mishap so cleaned it up there before putting my goods in the fridge. I was hungry but didn’t fancy lunch in the Walmart car park so had a snack and carried on south. I was driving through farmland, passing through towns with names like “Last Chance” and “Wild Horse”, giving me that country feeling. At Lamar, I stopped for petrol and I experienced the slowest fuel pump ever. By the time I’d washed my windscreen and returned to the pump, only two gallons had gone in! Making use of my time, I went to the bathroom. When I returned, there was still five gallons left to go! Since I still had more time, I made some lunch. By the time I’d done that, the pump finally went “click”.

I drove on through the rest of the afternoon, thinking I might make it into Oklahoma by camp time, but not quite, I’m camped about 50 miles outside of it. The last hour of my drive through a wind farm at sunset really made my heart soar. I am so happy to be back in the Astro driving across beautiful countryside.

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My camp at Two Buttes Reservoir is stunning. There is absolutely no one here and I was ecstatic to discover mounds of firewood. What better way to celebrate my first camp back than with a fire? I made dinner shortly after I pulled up and had the fire going just before dinner was ready. When I found that some of my pork was still pink in the middle, I cooked some pieces over the fire to finish them off and with a bit of fiery charcoal, they were delicious. It’s a windy night so the van is rocking a bit but I don’t think I’ll have any trouble sleeping. It’s nearly 8pm now and I’m only getting the first feelings of jet lag now. It probably has something to do with me being tucked up in bed. I will hold out for another two hours.

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