My Southwest Trip - Leaving Outland

Tuesday, 5/1/2016

Up at 6:30 to finish packing and prepping Windsong for my departure.  Piled stuff in the Chevy, brought community laundry to the laundry room, took Indygo's laundry off the line.  Would have done more things last night but Indygo wasn't available.

I'm happy to leave the laundry room behind.  The first time I tried to wash a pile of community laundry, I didn't know I needed to open the door wide so it would hold.  I also didn't know that it would lock from the outside when it closed with me inside.  Hear resounding thud.  Oh, shit.  No!  But, yeah.  It was locked.  And it was a dark, webby, mousy place to be stuck.  I didn't have my walkie-talkie with me.  Indygo might not come up here for hours, if even today!  Gotta get out of here.  There's a skinny-legged sink and a long, horizontal opening in the wall.  Climb onto the sink, hold the ledge of the opening and see where that goes.  Oh, cool.  A hallway to somewhere.  Okay, pull yourself onto the ledge and jump over the stuff on the floor.  Indygo and Ruby enjoyed that story.

Now, I'm just getting ready to leave Outland.  Bring some things to Ruby including the Suburban in case she has an emergency when she's here by herself.   She says if she has to, she'll pull herself in and drive!  I don't doubt her.  I've not had enough time to empty the poop-pail because I couldn't open the rain barrel to wash it out.   Also didn't fold the futon.  Not the way I want to leave things but there is no more time.  I realize a few days later that I forgot the magnet that Susan gave to me: "To dare is to momentarily lose one's footing.  Not to dare is to lose oneself."  Kierkegaard   I need all the canned encouragement I can get.  Indygo says she'll mail it to me.

The first time I meet the GF Tracy is when we're all piling into her Matrix to head out.  Given my packs, I'm sure we'll bottom out on the rock river bed but she's sure we'll get through.   She's right.  Along the drive, Tracy relates the story of how she and Indygo met at the last MichFest.  A sweet love story.

They drop me at Ruby and Juana's apartment before continuing to Albuquerque.  I make calls about the Blue Bus and decide to bite the bullet and pay $55 for a shuttle to Taos.  Too hard to manage the four packs on a bus.