Sorry, despite my valiant efforts to keep up, this blog is a few days behind my actual progress. I arrived in Las Vegas last night and am playing my first WSOP event, the $1500 6-max, today at Noon. Now back to our story…
Lathrop State Park seemed to come out of nowhere, the sudden high desert terrain with attendant stunted tees and scrubbly brush a welcome relief from the tedium of the prairie. We lucked into one of the best sites in the park – presumably someone had reserved it for Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day, and there weren’t many people looking to stay just Friday night the way we were.
A few trees at the back of the campsite formed a little cove for our tent, so that although the campground was full we could pretend we were out alone in the wilderness. We set up camp and got to work on dinner while a pickup hauling perhaps the largest camping trailer I’ve ever seen provided the evening’s entertainment. They spent literally hours trying to maneuver their behemoth into a tent site – the electric sites intended for RVs were all taken.
There’s just something so absurd and presumptuous about expecting to carry an entire house with you on a weekend getaway. Through the windows of the trailer, we could see a sofa and a full kitchen with more cabinets than we’d had in our Boston apartment.
Of course as usual when I find myself judging someone else, I am really judging myself. Isn’t there also something presumptuous about driving a “small” SUV (which adjective is appropriate only in light of the even more absurdly sized vehicles on the market) three thousand miles across the country? We’re all constantly upping the ante on each other, such that what seems ridiculous at first slowly becomes the new normal, and something even bigger and more absurd comes along to push the limits again. If you can afford it, you can buy it, and you can burn all the fuel you want along the way.
Our other diversion was a nearly full moon, which only a somewhat cloudy sky prevented from illuminating the entire campground with, not exactly the light of day, but a sparkling, surreal blue-white glow. It made the mid-night walk to the bathroom, often one of the burdens of camping, into a mystical experience.
There’s nothing better than waking up to clear skies and pleasant temperature; making breakfast is a pleasure and packing is effortless. If you value your time, then camping, like driving, makes sense only if you enjoy the process, which is why we try to avoid camping in bad weather. For me, being outside in a beautiful place on a beautiful day really sucks the tedium out of daily chores.
Good thing we got an early start because Great Sand Dunes National Park was already slammed when we got there before noon. A line of cars twenty-deep waited to get into the park, and once inside, we could see a steady stream of tiny people marching like lemmings from the parking area out to the dunes, then up and back down the main sand dune.
Giving up on picnic areas proper, we found a quieter parking lot and ate there. Then walked down to the little creek running in front of the dunes. We each carried a liter of water and shared self-satisfied smiles as we watched exhausted, probably dehydrated people marching back to the parking lot.
We took our shoes and socks off and walked into the fast-moving but very shallow and broad water. It felt funny feeling the water rush over your feet so forcefully. That was enough for us. We walked a little ways through the water, then turned around, came back, and took our leave of the park.
It was a hot drive to Pagosa Springs, pleasantly interrupted by the San Juan Mountains with their sweeping views and occasional waterfalls.
Emily had worked her magic and, instead of a hotel, secured for us a one-night’s stay in a luxury home for something absurd like $60. Though a bit further out of town than a shitty motel going for $80/night, the place was awesome, with a full kitchen, porch, luxurious shower and tub, big sunny rooms, and a decent view. The most exciting part for me was that the kitchen included a wok, so I was able to make a proper stir fry instead of trying to cook all of the ingredients in multiple rounds in a little frying pan like I’d been doing at our camp sites.
The only thing that could have been cooler might have been camping at the Dunes, but there was no room at the campground there. The moon was full that night, and the dunes surely would have looked really cool. We were still able to sit out on the porch of the house and appreciate the setting sun and later the moonlight.
