I cannot believe that this is my first posting since July 31st, when I was ready to dive into planning for OTRten. Unfortunately, I was forced to take over my condo again (for the 9th time) on May 14th and it has been draining my time, but that’s another story. If there is to be one reason for taking this trip, it is to escape that noise before anything else.
To be sure, this upcoming trip has been on my mind since my last posting. But that’s all I have been able to do, My goal now is to get on the road by September 10th, the day after my satellite phone arrives. Where we will be heading is still very much up in the air (so to speak), and will be until September 10th, 11 a.m., when we expect to pull out of my garage. I will decide then. Of course, there will be options, but whether we head northeast, north, northwest, west, southwest, or south is still very much uncertain. One thought is that we will return to many of the camps and locations that are seared on my mind as my favorites. The problem with that is that they are separated by lines that would stretch about 15,000 miles, so I need to be selective. But also, those camps are favorites not so much because of the spectacular natural vistas they offered, but the dogs who were with me, Donner, Erde, Leben, Sonntag, and in spirit, my beloved Kessie and Montag. What absolute joy those dogs brought me, on those trips and everywhere else.
If I accomplished one important thing since July 31st, it was creating my email auto-response message, which will be, as of Monday:
Auto-response. Effective immediately, my responding to emails and availability will be limited as I prepare for and get on the road, returning at the end of October. Although I will be checking my voice and email messages from time to time when I have cell service, if your matter is urgent, please try to contact me by other means. If your matter concerns condominium business, contact the managing agent or the officer acting on my behalf. If you have not heard from me by, say, November 9th, since I will have no advance itinerary, please contact the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at my last known provincial destination on my blog, the FBI missing persons bureau, or the ФСБ. Thanks.
While it may sound trivial, just publishing that message will go a long way in creating a mindset for me to do what the message says, make myself scare for everything but the road.
Another thing I just started to do was to order my Echo first thing each morning to play Pete Seeger’s “This Land is Your Land.” Even I am amazed at the effect that has on me. It triggers a shot of dopamine rushing through my brain. On the road, each day, after camp is broken, my dogs walked, the Defender packed, and the plans for the day set, I climb into the Defender, fire up the engine, press play on my iPad, and then head off onto new roads, new scenes, new people, to the Seeger’s inspiring words, “As I went walking, that ribbon of highway, I saw above me, that endless skyway. I saw below me, that golden valley, this land was made for you and me…” Wow.
As for preparations, I just got the Defender back from the garage for its pre-trip checkup. $3600 and probably another $1000 to go after I discovered a problem with overheating. Back in 2000, three days before OTR-01 to Alaska with Sonntag, as part of my contingency planning, I parked the Defender in the hot 90-degree sun and turned both the engine and AC on to see what would happen. Sure enough, the temperature went into the red zone. I rushed it to the mechanic and had it back in two days with a new radiator, and the solved the problem. A similar thing happened in 2011 before OTR-04 to Labrador. My math told me that it may be time for another such test, and, sure enough, not only did the red zone show its angry color, but that threatening red check engine light did too. On Wednesday, the Defender goes back in for another new radiator, and a spare viscous clutch to boot.
I am also wrestling with a problem of Donner’s. About three months ago, he started to come down with a gastro-intestinal issue, the manifestation of which I will not detail here. After my otherwise capable regular vet ran out of options, I took Donner to Erde’s former internist, Dr. James McConnell sixty miles away two weeks ago. So far, the diagnosis and prescribed treatments seem to be working, but I need three more weeks to be certain. My best guess is that this is some sort of a residual effect of the severe colitis Donner came down with at the Grand Canyon last year after drinking water at, of all places, Donner Lake.
As for my own fitness, my recovery from the mobility issue that plagued me for three and a half years is going well after four surgeries, hundreds of PT sessions, and who knows what else. Al indications are that my right abductor somehow took a serious hit from the more than 100,000 miles of driving my Defender on my first seven road trips. I have already been through about seven PRP treatments (at $700 a clip), and I was able to abandon my cane at Yellowstone last year because of those treatments.
On one oy my earlier blogs I wrote about the various inspirations for my road trips. I will find that posting and reference it here as I organize this blog. But recently, my sister sent me a journal with some photos my aunt kept during a 1937 road trip she took with her older sister, my mother, from New York to California in what I guess is a two-seater Ford. The thought of those two young women, 24 and 22, traveling alone from coast to coast in a small car, during the middle of he Great Depression, over dirt highways with few convenience stops along the way boggles my mind. My mom only occasionally would talk about that trip, but I have no doubt that those few mentions of it, starting when I was young and impressionable, had a lasting impact on me. Here is the photo of my mom, smiling broadly in what looks like he desert somewhat in the southwest. Since I never know when my last road trip will take place, I think it’s time that I dedicate this road trip to her and my aunt. (If anyone can figure out what kind of vehicle my mom is standing by, please let me know.)
I think that this is all I have time for tonight. My hope is that I post some progress every day, and that that progress gets us on the road by September 10th, wherever that road takes us. The one fascinating thing about these trips at this stage is that they are nothing more than amorphous thoughts floating around in my head, but in a few months time, they will magically become transformed into solid gold memories that will last me for the rest of my life.
Ed and Donner from DC.
