Day 214: The Views

I got my solar power to last until 2am, and come back with the morning sun. When I couldn’t get a response from two other metaphysical shops in the area, I went to a state park for a couple of hours. In front of my feet at the random spot I picked away from the few other visitors was a stone in the shape of a heart – always a good omen for me. It was so refreshing to get in the not-too-cold and do some reading and meditating. In my travels I have seen hundreds of brooks, rivers, lakes and ponds but never a way to access them. The two parks I went to earlier, like this one, have no views of the water from the parking areas. I’m planning another trip to try to go lake hopping in the southern part of the state and hope to find some spots. I never would have guessed that the days I parked by the Connecticut River in Cromwell CT would be so rare.

Oh, but the mountains! (More pictures here.) The natural beauty was breathtaking, sometimes almost overwhelming. Every turn, every crest had a view better than the last. Driving in and around them made me glad I had the larger, more powerful transmission. With more than three thousand miles of experience driving Karma, little frightens me. But some things I just don’t like. The seven-mile packed dirt road to the park, for instance, that had long stretches of potholes that, even at five miles per hour, had possessions rearranging themselves. I was also forever pulling over as far to the right as possible and waving the big four-wheel-drive pick-up trucks to pass me. By the time I’d closed my window, all I could see was the dust they’d kicked up. One stopped to be sure I was okay, a kindness I appreciated. He commented that he’d never seen a bus going into the park and added, “Good for you!” before continuing on his way. I still had four miles to go and wasn’t sure if this adventure made me a badass or a stupid ass.

Driving back to my boondocking spot I was hungry, but talked myself into driving an extra seven miles to get ice. I had to go back over that barrel-defined road and cross the bridge I didn’t want to coming in. I stopped at the first gas station on my side of the road.

The price of diesel was thirty cents more per gallon than back home, so I only got ice. The man behind the counter noticed me getting off the bus and as he rang up my purchase, he got a look at my jewelry and asked it I was a witch. When I said yes, he began telling me his incredible story about what he was finding out about his ancestors. It was bringing him to a more inquisitive and spiritual place where he was beginning to experience things he’d only heard about.

Per the laws of Universal Humor and Any Control I Think I Have Is an Illusion, as the conversation was getting intense, a seemingly never-ending stream of customers began arriving. I hung around long enough to learn one of the women in his family could read cards well, so I told him I wasn’t so bad at them myself. He said he’d never had a reading and asked to pay me for one.

Back on the bus, I was looking for the deck I had in mind when a different deck ended up in my hand. When the customers cleared, the two of us socially distanced at a table while wearing masks. He picked the cards for a Celtic Cross. Seems I didn’t do too badly. I was moved to pull three oracle cards for more clarity on part of the reading and their combination was the four-leaf clover card. It reminded me of the charm with a four-leaf clover Josh had gifted me yesterday. It seems he got the nickname Leprechaun by finding more than a thousand four-leaf clovers a year.

I also brought from the bus the book I was reading, "Honoring your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration." It was the one Josh, who works with his ancestors, had recommended. So many things have been pointing me in that direction, including this “stranger I accidentally met.” (Wink! Wink!)

I explained I don’t charge for readings, but rather they are my crone service to the Goddess, and I would like to make it a day-after-your-birthday gift, but he turned his money into a donation. The relief I could feel as he got information and the feedback he gave me were the two things most special to me.

P.S. The ice I got, double bagged and put in the chest fridge, allowed me to turn it off and have cPap and one fan all night. Those who know me from before I even bought this 1989 bus without seats, sight unseen, can tell you I am long past ever wanting to rough it. Yet there I was for three nights, roughing it with mostly joy.