Thursday, May 30, 2013

Loading Up the Vault in the Fort

The next morning I went back to Fort Collins and hung out at my folks' place for a few days. It is always good to see family. Got to see my nieces in their talent show as well. They all came up to Fort Collins while I was there, and we played in the park near my folks' house. It was one of the beautiful perfect sweet May afternoons. My nieces drew algae out of one pound with sticks, climbing over the rocks in the creek between the ponds and transferring it to the other pond, "farming spinach," as they called it.

For much of the last few days I was in the Fort, I was absorbed with organizing my new storage unit, which with the additional of several metal shelving units from Home Depot, turned out to be a great staging area with all my gear at my ready. The couple that runs the storage facility---the same ones from two years ago, giving me the same deal on Rockies tickets when I signed up---got used to seeing me pull up to the sign-in sheet in my car each afternoon.

REI in the Fort was having their anniversary sale, so my gear collection got a little bigger, with most of the new stuff going right into the trunk, including a new BV500 bear vault stuffed full of as much Backpacker's Pantry meals of various kinds as it would hold. The clerk at REI had asked me about the meals, "Are they all the same kind?"in a tone as if he expected the answer to be yes, to which I'd replied with a quizzical look before saying no.

My new guiding philosophy for the next phase on the road---extreme minimalist gear.


No comments: