Today I started off at the base of Mt. Antero between Buena Vista and Salida. I had a vague idea of where I wanted to go. This lifestyle is a very different way of living than I am used to when I travel normally. Usually I pick a place, or something I want to see or buy, and I head in that general direction.
Today marked the last of these plot crumbs. I had an empty growler to refill at Moonlight Pizza in Salida. I got that filled up and hit the road after getting some supplies at Walmart. The next destination was a plot of land that has been in my family for decades. My great grandfather won a piece of property in the San Luis Valley as a doorprize. My folks have been paying like $20 in property tax every year for it. I thought it would be funny to park on that land for a few days. The last time I was out there, there was nothing around for miles.
San Luis Valley, CO
I set the navigation to take me to Mineral Hot Springs and went over the pass in search of the Promised Land. The leaves were just beginning to change on Marshall Pass as I went from Salida towards Saguache, CO. The mountain pass topped out and the San Luis Valley opened up before me along HWY 285. The wind was blowing hard most of the drive, causing something to thump and rattle in my bus. I stopped a couple times to inspect, but found nothing out of place or broken.
The mountains along this corridor are familiar, reminiscent of the mountains where I grew up. A solid wall of tall mountains, 12k to 14ners on either side with a high desert plain of sage and scrub brush. The forests on the mountainsides blushed with the reds and golds of changing aspens. The treeline stops cold, leaving the peaks a solid line of greyish green straight across all the way south to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Spoiler alert. I skipped Great Sand Dunes today. I’ve visited the dunes a few times, but mostly I didn’t want to pay $24 to walk around in sand. The entry fee six years ago was $5. I’m not going to encourage those kinds of shenanigans.
Lazy KV Estates, Mineral Hot Springs, CO
I followed my navigation to a place I suspect was the platted subdivision formerly known as Mineral Hot Springs Village. At least it was in the 1960s when they surveyed it. Today it is a place known as the Lazy KV Estates. They have an HOA and everything. Granted these houses all look like something out of Fallout or Mad Max. Derelict skoolies laid to their final rest as tiny homes. Trailer houses parked in unnatural angles like a box of matches thrown onto the ground. Houses with walls of tires built up as fences. Wrecked vehicles and sketchy characters walking around in the autumnal desert sunshine, scrutinizing my rig as I rattled past on the washboarded road.
A Joyful Journey in the Desert
I drove the four miles north again to a place called Joyful Journey. I had heard about it before when I worked at the University. Lithium springs just off the highway that have been turned into a small resort. I stopped by to check out the springs and discovered it was $12 Tuesdays. I could soak as long as I wanted for $12.
I showered quickly before getting in, avoiding the inevitable creepy naked guys who seem to be at every hot springs, just standing around chatting with their junk hanging out. The first spring was deep, about 5ft. A few steps down and it was up to my neck, right around 105 degrees F. I tried out one of the hot tubs and was soon joined by the next fixture at any hot springs. The random guy who just starts talking about random shit and doesn’t catch social cues. For instance you don’t want to hear about his brother’s hot tub. But he’s going to tell you all about it.
Beetles from Air, Land, and Water
I moved to another pool. It was here that I became aware of these large black water beetles that would swim up on anyone in the water. They cling to your skin, looking like big black moles. That wouldn’t be so bad. The longer I was in the pool, I began to become educated by their life cycle. The beetles would fly over the pools and drop into the water where they would start swimming towards any living body. Adept swimmers. Once they climbed onto your skin, they clung on tight. You didn’t even notice them until they started biting you. Gnawing off bits of dried skin. Swarms of these multi-phibian arthropods would cling to you. Moving to a hotter pool helped, because they would just hit the water and cook before they could attach to you.
In the hot pool, located in the Quiet Area, I was dragged into many conversations about healing energy, vaccination conspiracy, mindfulness, and why cell phones are evil. At one point, a woman asked me what the most obscure book I’ve ever read was. I told her it was the one I wrote because hardly anyone has read it.
Back on the Road to Saguache, Monte Vista, and Beyond
After some more soaking, I decided to keep moving down the road. This time, I had no itinerary. No plot point on a map to guide me forward. I decided to head towards a BLM camping spot near the town of Del Norte. The lonely highway cut long and straight across the plains. The sun began to fall low in the sky and I realized I hadn’t eaten since my morning oatmeal and coffee. I pulled off in the town of Saguache to take some photographs and then headed towards Monte Vista. I stopped at a Mexican restaurant called Nino’s and had a beef chimichanga smothered in green chile. I was fighting a headache from dehydration at the hot springs and drank my body weight in iced tea.
The sun was getting dangerously low in the horizon, and if it’s one thing I’ve learned, you never pick your camp site in the dark. Just as the sun was setting, I followed the navigation to County Road 44, and came upon a dead end. IOverlander had taken me to the road for the county dump. It was getting late and like every other BLM road I have encountered I was anticipating seismic level washboards that would throw all the shit around inside my bus.
I found another road to the BLM access and the obligatory washboards. I crept across them in first gear and for the first time, my cups stayed on their pegs and my plants didn’t wind up on the floor. We got to our campsite along the Spanish Trail just as the last light of day was fading over the mountains. I went further today than I expected, but tonight the bus isn’t cold. The solar has been working (knock on wood) and right now I’m writing this with the interior lights on and a strong charge of 13.2v holding steady. The charge controller was just what I needed.
Mindfulness on the Road
I’ll park here for a few days to do some work before I push onward, racing against the first snows of winter. September is quickly coming to a close. I don’t even know where the weeks went. Right now I’m in full chaos mode. My plans quickly change. If I tell someone I’m heading in a direction, I usually change my plans. South. That’s all I’ve got right now. Making plans any further than the next day or the next moment stress me out right now. I’m creeping across the countryside with winter breathing down my neck.
Ironically enough I’m working on being more mindful. Present in the moment. I’m getting a lot of work done on my site and even editing my YouTube videos. Soon I’ll be ready to post what I’ve got going on there. Living from moment to moment must be something I’ve needed to do, because that is where my life is finding me right now. It’s scary and thrilling at the same time. At the very least it’s different than always chasing the next whatever it is.
Life on the Fringe
Something else I’ve learned today about life in the desert. So many people I have encountered, from the Lazy KV Estates to the hot springs and even these little desert towns…so many people live on the fringes of society. I’m not the only one living on the road, but compared to these people, I feel like an outsider. An outsider of outsiders. A tourist perhaps.
A young man towing a 70 year old camper trailer with a 1992 diesel Mercedes sedan sat outside the hot springs in the sun with his Australian shepherd mix, sitting in the shade at the end of the day. His skin was the color of boot leather. His hair bleached by the sun to a grassy blonde. The trailer was held together with a mixture of lead paint and rust, with a pale blue peeking through the red like a ghost of its former self bleeding through the walls. I went away for just a few moments, and when I returned, he and his whole rig had vanished just as mysteriously as it had appeared.
Witches, Pilgrims, and Vagabonds
The hodgepodge of houses and shacks at KV Estates, the little farm towns on a flat desert plain, and even the land itself which hums with a beautiful desolation and isolation even I am not familiar with. This is the land of UFO sightings, mysterious disappearances, cults, and drug cartels. Tonight I’ll look at the stars and hopefully feel small enough to be missed by all of that. Here there be dragons.
The old lady in the hot springs who kept talking in the quiet place called out, “Do you exist?!” as a blanket question for everyone. I didn’t answer. I’m on the fringe. Right now, I’d rather not draw attention from the universe that has been trying to kill me since I was born. I’m following another path.
These are the fringes and I’m at the threshold of something I’ve never known. No plan other than to keep moving, keep working, keep my eyes open and listen before I speak. Observe. Tell the stories that come to me. And keep following the setting sun.
Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of God
Wandering, wandering in hopeless nightOut here in the perimeter there are no starsOut here we IS stonedImmaculate
–Jim Morrison
Other Resources for Digital Nomads
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Check out the link for Origin, which made a damn fine pair of boots for my travels and living on the road. Use the code HARRIS10 for 10% off your total purchase. I’ve been wearing mine for nearly 4 years and they are still taking me where I need to go. Fight some burnout by taking a hike, or walking through a new city you want to explore. In the nomad lifestyle, your boots can make all the difference in how far you can go.
Want to have an adventure all your own? It all starts with Booking.com. Book flights, trips, and lodging accommodations with this link to Booking.com. Living on the road requires a lot of self-care, and sometimes it’s nice to check into a hotel for the night instead of living in your bus. Get your life balance back!
For my van life adventures, you’ll want to check out my storefront on Wayward. From cookstoves to solar systems, these are items you won’t want to tackle living on the road without them. Another way you can Support the show is to BuyMeACoffee. Donations are a great way to show your appreciation for the site. Though I’m sure instead of a coffee it will probably get me a gallon of gas.