Good evening! My kids are all tucked up in bed. I’m in my bug and ready to force myself to report on this busy day!
We stayed at the Walmart in town which was a pretty shit location. Besides the occasional home bum coming by and talking themselves noisily around my bus, some noisy machine drove around the parking lot at around midnight. And not a penny in the mailbox either.
Galixy woke up a little after 8. Atreyu slept until 9, so our morning started off pretty quiet. I searched for most spectacular thing to do with kids in this city and so we headed for the Botanical Gardens after a Kipferl breakfast.
We paid a total of $15 to go into the actual building. The outdoors is free. Except the $2 an hour parking cost. We really enjoyed all the flowers and leaves. I encouraged the boys to gently touch the leaves and flower petals to learn about different textures and get a closer look at different patterns of veins in them.
The outside property is exciting and with a great layout. The kids garden has some super cool play things. The fish pond has some massive Koi. Walking the path we came across enough diversity to keep the kids moving on in time for our hour and a half parking time to expire timely.
I don’t like driving around cities much and I also don’t feel comfortable leaving Bugus in a public transit parking lot, so we started heading out of town. It was hot day, so when I saw a sign for a reservoir with swimming, I turned off the interstate.
It’s a beautiful spot with $10 a night campsites, so Atreyu and I decided we should camp for a night. Soon after we arrived, a camp neighor named Larry came to hang out. He bought a lighter leash and we talked while he played with Atreyu and Galixy once he awoke from his nap.
Before I could take the boys swimming, a police officer pulled up right behind the bus. He was so blown away by it, he ended up bringing back to other troopers to take a picture in front of it. They had stickers and suckers for the boys and kicked down a little money, too. One of them said he wanted to do what I’m doing. He was the one that realized I run on donations and started the kickdowns. The cop that had originally pulled up said things about loving my mentality and how the other troopers should start thinking more outside of the box like me. I’m super entertained by the conversation I had with them today, though, it honestly gave me a real start when they pulled up three units deep.
I took the boys to the water. Atreyu went right in going as far out as he could without losing touch with the ground. Galixy played in the ankle deep water with mud. We ended up having a mud fight which turned unpleasant for the boys because I insisted on washing them off proper like once Atreyu had had enough. To be fair, my mud ball got him a little in the face so I don’t blame him for having enough. Soon after, the boys wanted to go back to the bus.
I was a little surprised about Larry still hanging out. He had gotten a shock with the cop interaction, but really enjoyed the kids. He said his wife and him have been trying to conceive. She was at work until about 7Pm. Shortly before she got there, a guy named Christopher who seems to be staying at their campsite with them, came back from work and started hanging out as well. He seems very…. taken.. by what I’ve got going on. I don’t rightly know what to think of him…. or what I should do about his interest besides shut it down… Not about to take this rando guy for a ride. He ended up giving me some money to stay another night. I’m thinking about it because the lake is nice, though murky with mud and there are showers I haven’t checked out yet.
Also, another guy named David pulled up with his St. Bernard and his sound system and started talking about hooking up the lights to work on the beetle and that he knows a guy who may give beetle accessories. When I told him about my mini projects, he started talking about his ideas with fixing that up right proper and quick. I mentioned my little possible fuel connection issue and he said he knew a guy about that too, so maybe there’ll be some goodness coming out of this random stop. I feel like at least one extra night has been requested of me in multiple ways. Even the cops told me to stay a little while longer.
I have emails to deal with and it’s late. I’m exhausted, but feel fulfilled.
Atreyu pointed out that I don’t generally have a lot of patience. This statement felt so accurate I had to take a moment. I want to work on that for myself. I want to work on that for my kids and myself.
Loving you!
Matilda the Bugus 