Coldest morning I think I’ve ever camped with Red. 🥶 At least least it’s no wind. 🌬️ Alternator was running at 15.4 volts this morning, engine at high idle while warming up. 🔥 My toes were cold, next winter got to buy myself a diesel heater to heat my truck cap, lol. 🦶Actually somewhat considering getting a slide in camper for my next truck which will likely be a long bed reg cab SuperDuty, but I think I prefer just the camper shell cap but I’m getting old and sleeping completely unheated in one degree weather is less fun. 🛻But at least no wind this morning. Every time I close a door even more rust falls off Red. Yesterday a 2 feet by 9 inch piece of rusted sheet metal fell off.😔
Last night was so bitterly cold with the roaring wind. 🌬️ 🥶 It was bad. And today is still a bit cold with the breeze. I had set up tarps to block out the breeze but they kept having the ropes and grommets ripping out. Twice the camp stove blew off the table, the second time with a perculator and frying 🍳 pan on the stove. The wind was that strong and cold. It caused both burners to come apart and I thought the stove was wrecked but I put it back together and it’s working fine now. Then the wind broke one of my Christmas lights sets, ripping the wire off and my camp chair blew into the fire and half melted. 🔥 That kind of sucked, it wasn’t a uncomfortable $10 Walmart mini chair that’s mad uncomfortable but more non burn trash. The wind 🍃 ain’t so bad now but it’s still a bit breezy and cool and the sun has disappeared into clouds as snow approaches. 🌥️
One question on my mind ⚖️ is to head home 🏡 today or stay until tomorrow or possibly Sunday. We are getting a foot of snow 🌨️ tonight. I want to do one more or maybe two nights with Red but it’s cold and going to be icy. For once I get home it will be the last camping trip until I get my new truck in the spring. I’m not thrilled about the performance of my truck with the frame so rotted especially on icy roads. And I’m down to the last 1/8th tank on my truck fuel ⛽ so I got to be careful on that and it’s been four cold nights since I last got propane so I’m likely okay for two more but I’ll be pushing empty in the cold and snow. 🏮 But knowing if it go home today, it’s just city 🏙️ life through April. No wilderness, no camping even I do in a few weeks starting climbing in SuperDuty trucks. And a Toyota too not that I’m that inclined to get a Mexican taco 🌮 truck. I like Tacos but I hate crew cabs plus I have so much gear I bring especially for week long wilderness trips.
Long bed, regular cab trucks aren’t super popular anymore but I like them especially those with less technology to break or be fiddlesome.
I am thinking of getting a truck like this in the April F-250 regular cab long bed 4×4 with the 6.8l Mini Godzilla Gasser Engine. I like them as they are really old school, reliable technology. Granted not three on the tree and they have air conditioning but it is 2026.
Old fashioned incandescent $12 headlights and $2 1157 bulb taillights – no LEDs. Simple Group 89 starting battery that Walmart sells for $80 and takes 10 minutes to install yourself. engine no auto stop shutoff and no cylinder deactivation. I avoid driving on roads with stop lights so I don’t need the EPA engine trashing woke technology. Big burly 250 amp alternator. Recommend 5W-30 oil that actually lubricates the engine. Not the horse piss non lubricant endorsed by EPA. Tiny little digital displays, you turn a key in the ignition to start.
While the WOKE might despise such trucks, the EPA designed Wokemobiles that comfort every need including heating your back with their crew cabs are such disposable crap. I’d much rather pay a little more for a basic reliable truck and a bit extra in fuel that I can get inexpensive, reliable parts and repairs compared to the wokemobiles all the advertisers are pushing full of screens and LEDs. When I see a truck advertising all the comforts and technologies, I have to scream! I don’t want a F-150 or a Maverick with every sensor and feature of imaginable.
Hell of it is – to avoid going woke – you got a spend a lot of money. As all the cheap vehicles are Uber Woke full of TV screens. But you do get a lot of capacity in exchange for your money, big powerful engine and alternator, roomy bed. Hell of it is with the sofa on wheels Wokemobiles with their mandatory crew cabs, they’re only 4″ shorter than the long bed regular cab Superduty. Oh, I do like the color red.
I was listening to Joni mitchell this evening as I wandered around Bender Mellon Farm Preserve as the sunset.
But it don’t snow here It stays pretty green I’m going to make a lot of money Then I’m going to quit this crazy scene I wish I had a river I could skate away on I wish I had a river so long I would teach my feet to fly
I was reminded of that Christmas Eve almost a year ago I spent alone at the State Horse Camp. I was on a pre-Christmas at Stoney Pond and then Charles Baker State Forest, riding road and camping, ended up staying through the day after Christmas due to my parents being sick and quarantining. I roasted chestnuts and cranberries on the fire and listened to Joni Mitchell’s River song among other Christmas music.
Spending Christmas alone at a State Horse Camp without presents to open, just cool cloudy and long evenings alone sounds kind of depressing. But I liked the serenity of it all, the time alone spent with nobody but myself as a few snow flurries flittered around, as I enjoyed Greek yogurt with chestnuts and other holiday nuts roasted on the fire along with cranberries. In the cold of the night, the darkest time of the year as we celebrate Christ’s birth.
I am struck by the lyrics, “I’m going to make a lot of money, then I’m going to quit this crazy scene.” I love being out in a place like Madison County, the deep rural yet I am stuck here in Albany except when I can get away on a crazy cold evening like that weekend in the deep rural as I heard the cows moo and the coyotes call out in the distance. I keep almost craving homelessness, the simplicity of being a traveler. At the same time, I think about buying some land and making a tent my permanent home, assuming the government workers in some rural township within commuting distance to Albany would permit such an unconventional way of living. Or maybe just a hammock, traveling from place to place, living on the street. That said, I really want to get away from the city. It’s not the cannabis that has me thinking this way but the podcast I was listening to about preparing for homelessness. It’s a silly way to think when I’m a hard working director.
The vinyl siding, carpeting, drywall and central heating does nothing for me. I crave the mountains and the small towns like I was in as I camped at the State Horse Camp last Christmas. Away from the endless lines of code, data dumps and the garbage dumps and the pollution. Places that tap into my soul and give me a feeling I so lack in Albany while I try to keep my head afloat, survive and make the best of my life in the very problematic world that I currently live in.
