Notes from a parking lot

This is the beginning of Day 3.  I'm in the parking lot at Fire Rock Casino in Gallup, New Mexico.  This is a stopping off point between yesterday at Willow Springs and tonight's destination of House Creek up near Dolores CO. I've been here before; it's a well-lit (!) level lot.  That's the Beast in the foreground.

Quite a change from yesterday morning:

The drive up from Tucson to Willow Springs was uneventful.  Got in mid afternoon, and deployed the solar just to cover any battery usage in the afternoon.

Pleasant open Ponderosa country.  I was really tired … simple supper of soup and salad, then read a while.  Chilly at night, but pleasantly so.

Spent some time in the morning sun thinking about not thinking.  And writing about thinking about not thinking.  Part of what I want to do on this trip is learn to ramp down the Planner in me.  Tai Chi is described as “moving meditation.”  To some extent, I want this trip to be a moving meditation, helping me to get better at living in the moment.  

Yesterday afternoon I drove into Gallup to do a little shopping and fill up the gas tank for the trip to Dolores.  I'm getting between 9 and 10 mpg, which is good (believe it or not!) Yesterday was 9.72. What's less good is that gas prices are going up, moved by whatever inexplicable forces.  I was paying $2.19 at the end if the New Mexico trip last month; yesterday the best I could find here in Gallup was $2.65.  I'm still close enough to the budget parameters of 9 mpg and $2.50.  

Next report: House Creek Campground on McPhee Reservoir.