Camping Fo-REST in May

Finally by the end of May, my favorite campsite & campground opened at Douglas Fir, just east of Glacier on the Mount Baker Highway.

5/30 Friday eve
I have walked in silence, sat in reverence all through the afternoon at my favorite campsite on the Nooksack, #12 at Douglas Fir. The regional managers stopped by earlier and gently checked me in, took my license number and wished me well. In my prayers I ask to experience loving kindness, compassion, forgiveness, sympathetic joy, and healing.

Yet, when approached by a boisterous hollering woman, clipboard in hand and alcohol fumes so strong they are nearly visible above her bulging half-bare bosom, I refuse to register a second time, refuse to show picture ID, and tell her to get on her way, she’s all confused. She tells me, well we’re just back after a couple days off, excuuuuuse me, and exits back to their pickup truck where a man is sitting behind the wheel, not really looking, probably embarrassed or paranoid, knowing I’m onto them.

My sense of peace is so easily disrupted, my patience with an alcoholic is shockingly slim, but mostly, my sense of safety, which was so supported last year when Dick and Ona were the hosts, is lost. Perhaps not entirely, as I think this amazing couple is quite temporary. When the regional supervisors checked me in earlier, they indicated that the permanent hosts would be arriving next week. It won’t be Dick and Ona, but methinks it won’t be these yerks, either. I plan to report the alcohol and confusion.

I didn’t go to work at all today, as yesterday was wearing, still have a cough/lung thing hanging on, and even though it’s not at all painful or severe, it drains the energy. Gary and Rob both encouraged me to just take a sick day, so by golly, I did. Took my time organizing for the trip, and left home around 10;45, arriving here after 36 miles in an hour. Lovely, I was the only one here for most of the afternoon. Sat in sunny spots along the river, sorry to have forgotten my chair, and considering again purchasing a solid lounger for the campsite comfort. With picnic table covered, I sat and read from Walden. Walked around, sat on mossy logs, even under adolescent soft-bearded devils club, gazing at mossy limbs, old trees, rushing river, dappling light, fresh new leaves in the breeze. Robin, downy woodpecker.

Thoreau discusses “the news” in ways that strike me as so perceptive, so important to read and re-read that, in order to cope and keep my sanity and center in a conflagrationary world. There is too much news. Heard one, heard ‘em all. Murder. Fire. Flood. Famine. Disease. Politics. Drama drama drama. While right here and now, I can see and listen to the space I’m in and to the space within me.

Thoreau on reading discusses the classics, their universality. Which now that I put this in juxtaposition with “the news,” seems kind of funny …. I thought you already read that one Henry David. But he talks of words bringing worlds to life and to live forever, and that collection of wisdom providing that sense of the universal. Only great poets can truly read great poets, he says. Only the wise can truly read wisdom. We need to seek this, rather than seeking “pap.” Well true, but a good story, in my day and age, Henry David, helps me to lighten up a bit, which you could maybe do too.

Saturday May 31
Spent a delightful mid-day hike with Sally and her two dogs, Ebony and Tugboat Annie "Tuggy," walking along Glacier Creek. The Mountain was "out," and the lupen were beautiful.

Am enjoying reading Dot Robinson’s rendition of Edna Koontz childhood memories. Very well told, well written, enjoyable and enlightening. Bless my brilliant ancestors, they have given me so much.

Later....

The remaining time at Glacier was quiet, restful, but I left fairly early on Sunday, wanting to have time at home.

My friendly RV specialist Jay Shaffer had advised me that the battery problem could probably be resolved by just plugging in the camper a couple days before each trip. I'm not driving far enough to fully charge the house battery thru the alternator. This worked just fine, so I have a lot more confidence for upcoming trips now too. Plenty of light, heat, pump action, without having to run the darn engine and wreak havoc on gas mileage.