Backcountry Bluff, Utah to Angel Peak, New Mexico. To Truth or Consequences.

 I'm back "home" now, with hot water that comes right out of the wall, and a big, squishy bed. It's the same, but everything is different.

It's a hydrant that's a dog ... the circularity boggles my mind.

I've known for a while that I want to reclaim the considerable parts of overlanding (I warned you earlier) that were full of wonder and magic. 

I was just a little stuck on the notion that that life had been hard and somehow ... traumatic? Fixated is probably the word.

This is the kind of "washing" you don't want to do while camping.

I also wanted some guidance and maybe company, realigning my head. And, by head, I mean my noggin and my toilet.

That's why it was both wonder-full and magical that my friend, Mike (YES DOOD, WE ARE TOO FRIENDS!!), invited me on his trip to Utah. He is one of the overlanding royalty, entering his ninth year of this life.

I had full swaths, not just slivers, of the recognition that I am meant for this. [Mom: I am also meant for a pied-a-terre; no worries.]

I'm also not the person I was three years ago. I've written aloud that I wonder what difference that might make.

Angel Peak Scenic Area. You can scene, but you can also camp.

Mike, my gratitude for your patience and im-. 

Moki Dugway to Blanding, Utah

As sometimes happens with great beauty, it began to annoy me. The updraft from the canyon became relentless, and after I chased the same garbage the third time without using any one expletive twice, I was ready for less grandeur.

Still almost Monument Valley 

Nevertheless, it was a spectacular campsite. In the night, I wondered: if Spud's parking brake were to disengage while I was sleeping, would I simply have a falling dream wherein that old question might be answered once and for all?

I want to revisit female urination devices. I mean, I do revisit one, but I want to know the newest and best. They all look like my Walmart automotive funnel with REI prices. Mike is sure that if something better existed, I would own it. That's exactly the kind of materialistic model I want to live up to while living in my car.

I'm remembering how this all works. There is order, then nanoseconds later, due to an imperceptible gravitational shift, chaos descends. Two areas of Spud are sacrosanct - the driver's seat and my bed. Other essential items orbit around them. 

We spent the most recent two nights on a campsite on BLM land further "inland" on the Mesa. It happened to be made mostly of red sand, and now, so am I.

Utah 95 is called a "scenic byway," but my quotation marks are "unnecessary." It's breathtaking.