Chaotic Errand Day

Have you ever had one of those days where everything is five times more complicated than it should be? Yesterday was one of those days for me. I’d been getting a bit bored and lonely in camp. They say you should be careful what you wish for. They were right.

I took the van into Yuma yesterday afternoon to run several errands in civilization before returning to Quartzsite. I want nothing to do with the long lines, empty shelves, and general chaos in town during the busiest part of the season. My first task was to refill my gas and diesel cans. The van still has plenty of gas because I haven’t been driving much, but as is often the case at Imperial Dam, I’ve been riding my motorcycle so much that I had to top off the gas tank for a trip into town for a full refill. This used up what was left in my gas can after filling up the generator several times before I got the auxiliary solar panel hooked up. Plus, I used a lot of diesel in my heater last week when it was particularly cold for this area. It took six pumps at five different gas stations before I could complete this task! Some pumps refused to read my card. Some had gas, but not diesel. What’s become my usual Shell station had the pumps closed off entirely. Eventually, I got it done, but it shouldn’t have been anywhere near so complicated.

This set the trend for the rest of my trip. I welcomed a quick blast down I-8 to the east side of town instead of driving through city traffic. Walmart was there and supplied absolutely everything I needed. But it was an unfamiliar store with a different layout than I’m used to. I found myself crisscrossing the enormous Supercenter several times trying to find everything on my list. I got my walking in for the day, but once again it took longer and was more complicated than it should have been.

My next stop was the laundromat. I’ll be honest — on a previous trip to town on the bike, I bought a few extra things to delay my laundromat run until just before I left town to avoid an extra van trip into town. Prices were less than Quartzsite (though I wouldn’t drive to Yuma just to do laundry), but given my luck for the day, I got stuck with a weak dryer that took extra long to do its job. After an extra 20 minutes, I cut my losses and hung up some things inside the van to finish drying. Despite leaving camp much earlier than I needed to, I was now running half an hour late.

This was exactly what I needed after such a rough afternoon. They were extremely accommodating with my delayed arrival. Being late stresses me out because time is important and I believe wasting other people’s time is rude (wasting your own time is your own concern). It was no problem, though. Good people, good company, and good conversation turned my mood right around. It did mean returning to camp in the dark, but I know my way around well enough by now that this wasn’t a problem. The Transit’s headlights are much better than even the upgraded ones I put on my E250, which helped. I was out much later than I’d planned, but I didn’t care. There’s plenty of time to pack my camp up this morning. I even managed to check into the Desert Ratt Pack net on the radio as I was driving back to camp.

For some reason, I was wide awake before sunrise. Granted, that’s something like 7:30 am here, not too early for most. I’m usually lazy, but I saw some of the colors peeking through the window covers and wanted to check it out. I’m glad I did. It’s a new day, and off to a great start. My Amazon delivery has already arrived in Quartzsite, so I’ll be heading back today to pick it up, and to return to my home base camp for a few days before Adventuring with Amanda’s meetup next week.