Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The trouble with rain

When it rains I need to be inside. There are options when I’m near civilization. Cafés, libraries, malls, museums and such. If I’m out in the boonies, there’s only the van. Not needing to spend all day in a van is what makes van living tolerable.

When it rains I don’t get solar energy. That means I can’t use my electronics very long while I’m cooped up in the van. It also means I have to turn the fridge temperature to the upper limits of safe food preservation.

There are three places to be in my van. The driver seat, the toilet and the bed. The driver seat gets old rather quickly when I’m not actually driving. The toilet gets old rather quickly even when being used for its intended purpose. That leaves the bed. No matter how I try to keep busy and engaged while on the bed, sooner or later I end up napping. Then I can’t sleep at night. Sleepless rainy nights get very long. 

I do a lot of thinking when I can’t sleep. Then I start thinking in circles. Then I try to think about other things but end up back in the circle of annoying thoughts, checking the time, seeing it’s only 9:43 PM, taking Benedryl to knock me out, waking up very groggy at 11:03 PM, thinking in circles that now include weird snippets of drug-fogged dreams…

That’s why I drove 204 miles yesterday to get out of the rain. That’s why I’ll be here two more days, until the front leaves western Montana and northern Idaho.


1 comment:

  1. ugh, so rain is no fun while living in a van either. I usually car camp (or occasionally bike or paddle camp) and hate rainy trips. I'm still working on improving that experience, as it's hard to avoid the rain here in the Pacific Northwest.

    My latest attempt involves setting up a big shelter with table, chairs, and somewhere to hang the wet raingear. I pass the time by taking walks in the rain with the dog, then coming in to dry out. A portable wood stove might up the fun factor and help with the drying out process.

    Ming

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