Walmart parking lot, 111 mile jump
Showers were the first order of business; at 6AM at 54F with wind gusts that rocked the Ship all night, I walked to the shower in minimal dress, flip flops, shorts, sweat shirt, towel, wash cloth, soap and shampoo. AKA, commando! The less clothing to get wet the better; there is often no heat in the shower other than the hot water. That’s why I go early. I want to be sure to get the water that has been percolating all night. The walk to and fro is an exhilarating wake me up! Try it sometime! Penny is a convert; normally, she over dresses for fear of getting cold. But she gets the commando thing for shower houses; it’s the Nordic sauna, then jump in the snowbank kind of experience. Seriously, try it!
Christmas is coming! I need to do something for my Mom. I call her every Sunday to tell her the details of our adventures. She is virtually homebound now. My sister gets her out of the house once in awhile, but she is always apologizing for having nothing new to talk about. I try to help her live vicariously through us with my stories. But, you know a picture is worth a 1,000 words. So, I copied three dozen pictures from my library to a thumb drive; the next time we see a Walgreens, CVS, or Walmart. I’ll be ready.
It was only about 100 miles to the next destination, so we didn’t have to leave too early; we could make use of the park electricity to run the computer. The rain subsided as we left HMB for points unknown, probably Salinas, Ca., a name you’ve probably seen on produce bags. It’s a fertile agricultural area growing grapes, strawberries, Brussel spouts, to name a few.
It rained intermittently on the road, but the headwind was fierce. The truck seemed like we had taken on a load of cement. I would have preferred a tail wind, but feel lucky it wasn’t a cross wind! We arrived there about 2PM and headed straight to the post office to send a few packages off. After which, we pulled into a Walmart parking lot and found a spot along the perimeter right in front of a sign that said, “NO overnight, truck, trailer, or RV parking”. We garnered some courage counting three other RVs out in the open. Twice before, we have done this with no issues, but there were no signs in those instances.
The least we could do was patronize them while we were squatting on their property. Feeling somewhat hypocritical based on my feelings on their business model, I remembered I had no high ground from which to preach. I thought of our expenditures as a quid pro quo, and rationalized my behavior.
Whatever, I hit the picture kiosk with my thumb drive, printed them, and picked out a few Christmas cards. Penny was shopping for foodstuff; we got everything except a photo album. The gal in the photo department said to get one at Ross, in the same cluster of stores on this parking lot.
I was tickled to have a project to take my mind off of my deep guilt for being such a desperado. And, how much cheaper a campsite would seem compared to a parking ticket. After a couple of hours, I had the album filled and annotated, the cards personalized, all addressed and stamped. Then I started to really worry, but all I needed was another rationalization! The sign says “overnight”! Is that dusk to dawn? Or, 9-5? I figured if we left really early, we could argue it wasn’t really overnight. Another camper pulled in right behind me! Ah, strength in numbers!