After attending to medical issues in the Bay Area, it was time for me to set out in the van on my own with my loyal companion, Riley. Our daughter, AT, had graduated from high school a year prior and thanks to Covid, could attend college classes online. Half Moon Bay was never her jam, and she was itching to see what living in a “big city” was like, so she rented a studio apartment in Philadelphia and moved there, fitting as many of her belongings into her van as she could. My mission was to transport what she left behind and deliver it to her.
I was eager to get out in the van by myself, listen to loud angry empowering female musical artists on the stereo (while singing at the top of my lungs, of course) and forgetting about unpleasant things. After getting a taste of free camping on BLM land on our maiden voyage, I set a goal of finding places to stop on water and on public lands as much as possible.
I think the app I was using at the time was FreeRoam (no longer available 🙁 ) and I chose a destination in Lovelock, NV. I noticed there were signs for a state park after taking the exit. As I passed the park, I also noticed it had camping. However, our (mine and the dog’s) destination took us off the main road onto a washboard dirt road. Everything rattled! And with everything rattling, the dog was rattled! I slowed down to about 5 mph to try to keep the van from vibrating and making so much noise, but with 10 miles to go and darkness falling, realized it would take us two hours to get to our site.
Another mile of rattling down the road and I gave up and turned around, figuring I’d find a place at the state park we passed. Wildfires were raging seemingly everywhere in CA/NV/OR that summer and the air was thick with smoke. I was rather surprised to find no one else in the campground.
