The evening before last, I was tucking the kids into their beds at the truck stop in Sioux Falls, when I realized that the scratchiness in my throat was not from my not having hydrated enough, but rather the onset of the head cold Galixy had been complaining about all day.
By the time we awoke yesterday it was clear we were all sneezy, coughy, and lethargic. I made lots of waterbottles with effervescent vitamin C tablets until we were out of those and I purchased some elderberry flavored ones. Galixy really enjoyed that we were drinking purple water.
I definitely wasn’t going to sit in the truck stop while sick especially in the spot where we were. Nothing against Sioux Falls, but that Loves has a distinct feeling of big city slum, no complaints from me as it means people really don’t care what we’re doing, but on that hand, people don’t care. Except this lovely lady that tried to give us a bag of food. I said “thank you, but we get food stamps, please give it to someone that’ll need it. All we need is fuel.” She came back and slipped a $5 bill in our window crack. I was practicing the social distancing all day and actually felt righteous wearing a mask into the store instead of just silly or needing to conform.
I love the signs that fully vaccinated individuals don’t have to wear masks anymore as much as I really don’t like them. I saw a meme of someone saying they’re going to continue wearing their masks because they spent a lot of money on them, they are introverts so it’s easier for them to wear masks in public than being without one, and they don’t trust other humans. All valid arguements. I’m keeping my masks because even though I don’t get sick often, I do like keeping my sickness to myself. The thing I most appreciate about the pandemic regardless of opinion about it is that we’re hopefully all more conscious on how to behave when we’re sick. Like keeping our distance from others, actually calling in sick to work, keeping our germs to ourselves, proper handwashing techniques. I don’t appreciate the over sanitization but I bet it’ll ebb out soon enough too. Oh and humans standing up for their working conditions. I really like that. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
So from Sioux Falls we drove to Mitchell to the Walmart for the effervescent tablets, where we rested for a couple hours. I bemoaned the corn palace being missed and the Jackelope statue infront of a hotel I would’ve gotten the kids to sit on for a picture, but I also didn’t want to play apre-sanitization-station, so I kept the kids and our germs in the bus and drove from there to Chamberlain to the rest area where the Dignity statue stands. She’s so beautiful.
Chamberlain and Oacoma have a soft spot in my heart. The river flowing between the towns, the cool museums we didn’t get to visit this time, the free camping spots right along the river… I’d call this one of my favorite spots, but I don’t want to favoritism until I’ve seen all or at least most. Maybe it’s delirium. This is also the spot where 5 years ago the Ford dealer looked at my bus making weird noises and told me basically to abandon it there because of the torque converter. They”d said it wouldn’t make it all the way back to Montana, but it did and even took enough miles for the flex plate (the thing that was actually broken) to rip through the tranny like 20 yards from the shop that would be replacing the tranny. Just enough to idly roll her into a spot and declare to the shop that I’d now definitely be seeing them again with a new transmission.
So we’re in Oacoma at a free campspot. It says limited to 7 consecutive nights on a sign right by the turn in, but if you’d like to camp here for longer, simply move to the cedar boat ramp a little further from town. This spot though is in walking distance to the city park and I can see Dignity rising off he mountain from here. Also we’re so close to the river looking out from a bug window, all I could see were the waves. A rockwall keeps my mind at ease that we won’t be washed into the body of water
I had the 2nd reminder on my calender today to hit my brother in the forehead with a pickle. He won’t be reading this and I’m trusting y’all to not go contacting him cause by now he’s surely forgotten….
I must stop rambling. Atreyu wants a boiled egg and I’ll be obliging. We’re like 5 hours from the SD border and I’m wondering if we should see the devils tower in Wyoming, if our health allows. As Galixy is now on the mend and I certainly don’t feel as poorly as I did yesterday, we’ll be over this in no time. Rest and vitamins. Just as yesterday. I did drive quite some distance.
I want to thank all y’all who are checking on us and all the kindness we’re receiving. Every like and subscription counts. Every comment takes us a bit further. Every donation gives me hope for our immediate future.
Still battling mentally during the day with going slow and enjoying our journey and during the night freaking out about the crawleys and mentally planning how we’ll attack this problem as soon as we get home. If you have a suggestion, hit me. I’m considering stopping at the laundromat and throwing everything fabric into a dryer for a couple hours until it shrinks and all the bugs are burnt to a crisp. Chuck the mattresses, vaccum, ozonate, tear apart and spray for bugs. My mom will be so pleased.
ok ok ok I hope you’re grateful. I hope you can smile and feel more healthy than we do!!
Blessings all around.
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Matilda the Bugus 