Salvaging Dreams

 

Last Monday on my way to work I had an "oh shit" moment when my truck died in the rural intersection of my home.  I was able to get a pull back to my driveway, which was only about 2000' away, but all the oil had drained out of my van and the engine had seized up.

It was then that it struck me I'd had my van two entire years, and I'd let circumstance keep me from doing anything with it other than one trip to The Acatemy Conference last year.  I hadn't really camped in it once. Wiki was getting older (he's five!), the 200K van was now at 220K, and all I done was drive back and forth from work, 70 miles a day, as it rattled its life away.

I remembered my little Molly dog, with whom I had planned to have so many adventures (and did have a few) and how the 14 years of her life flew by with her mostly watching the world go by from the porch, sleeping for hours alongside cats in the house instead of sniffing away outside. And here I was with another heart beast, watching the months of his relatively short life tick by, while my dreams stayed in my head.

Luckily only the oil pump was fried (insert grumbling about the big box fix-it company that had probably once again screwed up and not put the oil filter on correctly - and yes, I did go elsewhere this time), but it was three days of work lost, and 8 HOURS waiting on two different tow truck companies. 

This gave me way too much time to wonder what the heck I was doing treading water like this. I would have kicked myself for being stupid (once again) if that van had had to go on the scrap heap on been mothballed long term if the engine had needed to be replaced, without EVER being used for the dream I had purchased it for.

Although it wasn't the "sensible" use of my time or money when I'm so far behind at home and work, I immediately logged onto ReserveAmerica and reserved two days (which is essentially just one full day, with 3PM check in and 11AM checkout) at Newtown Battlefield State Park, a forgotten, bumpy, hilltop park an hour away, with a handful of campsites that the big rigs can't navigate. I need to wrap my head around what I'm going to do these next months.