I don’t remember when we woke up but it wasn’t in any hurry. The sun was out after yesterday’s rain and it was warming up. We had absolutely nowhere to be (funny that) so we woke up slow. I opened the door of the van and we lay there, looking out at the glossy surface of the lake which formed a reflection of the mountains since it was so still.
We had some leftover rice from dinner last night which we contemplated using for breakfast and so we did, but not before our ritual round of hot chocolate. What a perfect way to wake up. We walked around wearing not many clothes, soaking up the early morning sun, happy that we had such a secluded camp.
Dan ogled at breakfast as it was cooking and when the breakfast burritos came together with rice, eggs and cheese, after a toast on the grill we dug in, sitting by the still slightly smouldering fire. Pretty sure we found heaven. We didn’t have any need to leave our chairs so we stayed in them, chatting. I took my top off to take advantage of the sun and eventually took everything off and lay down on the ground, my white back and arse to the sky. I stayed like this for a good while, feeling completely relaxed. Still not in any rush, we got the cards out and played a game of Queen’s Chair. It is easily our favourite game and although the competition is typically pretty even, I always end up winning.
A knee-deep dip the lake later with some soap and we were finally ready to leave camp. We didn’t have any service at camp so we didn’t quite know where we were heading, but that didn’t matter, we knew we were going south. Dan remembered halfway through the morning that the finals of the Supercross season had been on last night and he’d missed his opportunity to watch it live. That meant we were in search of a big enough town where I would get phone reception.
As we drove south, I listened to the Shit Town podcast, nearing the end of it. When I ran out of episodes, I started on Elon Musk’s biography, which Dan had given to me through Audible. I wasn’t sure how I’d react to listening about my previous boss’ life, but I had to give it a go. Turns out it sent me to sleep. As we drove through Monument Valley, shrouded in cloud but ever impressive, I was starting to nod off. When I hit my third audible line, I decided to pack it in. I pulled over, Dan stopped behind me and we drove a short way off the highway where we could nap. Dan climbed in with me and Cleo had herself a good nap in the Presidential Lounge. It was a perfect set up in which Dan could hear my sleepy breathing and Cleo’s snoring from where he lay.
We had ourselves a sweet twenty minute nap, during which I drooled all over my pillow and had a couple of snapshot dreams. Waking up to Monument Valley wasn’t too shabby. Feeling refreshed, I was ready to carry on. Just after we got going again, we saw two horses, one on either side of a fence. Lovers obviously, separated by barbed wire but connected at their heads. We stopped at the Kayenta Maccas for a much needed bathroom break and a snack before finding out we were still an hour and a half away from Page, the next major town, so got going again. We were still chasing storms as we got into Page and I was surprised to find that I didn’t have reception here. Cricket really does have bad phone service. I found the Walmart from memory, haven driven through this way with Jon and we made a plan after I made a desperate dash inside for another bathroom break (it was the coke I’d had at Maccas). We tagged out and Dan went in, coming out with beer and a surprise bottle of rum for me.
In an attempt to get some Supercross in, we drove over to the nearby Maccas to see if we could nab Wifi by parking close to the building. We had some success, but the internet was too slow to stream video consistently. After watching one heat, we thought we’d try back over at Walmart since Dan was confident he’d had success doing so before. He parked up beside Walmart and sure enough, it looked like the Wifi signal was stronger. We bunkered down in my van and I got to streaming. The first video worked, but when we got on to watching the heats for the main event, we lost our patience, having to load and reload multiple times to get anywhere. The excitement Dan had initially felt at the prospect of being able to watch the Supercross quickly died away.
Cleo had snuggled into the van with us and when Dan went back across the road to get our second round of Maccas for the day to fill our bellies, Cleo and I bonded (that sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it?). Cleo hadn’t been sleeping well the past few nights due to rain and being on her own in the Presidential Lounge, so she was catching up on some much needed shut-eye and seemed grateful to me for providing the bed. When Dan returned, we had every intention of watching a movie, but instead, we enjoyed a few beers and talked away as the rain came down. When it came time to sleep, we managed to make Cleo comfortable in a corner, she remained dead to the world all night and kept our feet warm.
