The Bee-line to New Castle
Greetings all,
I hope you guys got a kick out of the latest video blogs. Disasters are always funny in hind sight right?
There we were, ready to set out for Roosevelt and Skinwalker Ranch, primed and ready to roll. Looking up, we see a cold front moving in, huge dark cloud edge, the weather is changing fast, but we’d be ahead of it if we left right then.
Well, long story short, my transmission blew. Overdrive and 3rd went bye bye.
I pulled over to gather my thoughts and called Eric who was further ahead of me. He turned around and we used his blessed satellite-internet to get some local folk to toe me back to the mechanics shop. After that we went back to the Village of Tree’s to wait it out, crossing our fingers. Anyway, short story shorter, it was going to take a week to fix it. Although I loved him staying there, and I know he did to suppoprt me, I also wanted him to go to Skinwalkers as planned. I would catch up later. After staying a few days he finally left on Wednesday to Skinwalkers so he could check it out for a night at least.
The day he left I got a message the tranny was going to be late. We had to wait for GM workers to get off strike (can you believe the timing?) in order to ship the transmission. Oh yes, the odds were against me getting to Fort Collins alright.
Thursday night, Eric calls, says he’d made friends with a few of the locals in Roosevelt, and was given the “inside scoop” to get into the Ranch. Score! He and Jamison picked up a night vision scope and we’re setting off to investigate. Turns out my phone didn’t get his call later that night, but he called me Friday morning, wicked early, for a status report, both on the ranch and the truck. (Not going to type all that out, as he spoke about it at the Fort Collin’s event. Which will be posted soon)
Luckily, GM workers came back, my transmission showed up that Friday, and we were able to get back on the road Saturday, and drive straight through to meet up with Eric north of Fort Collins.
That Saturday morning, one of the park’s employees came rolling up on his golf cart and asked, “So you fellas are finally headin out eh? Which way are ya headed?” “Ogden to the 84 I think, then to Cheyenne.” I replied. “Oh really!?” he said (I raised a mental eyebrow at this), “Well, I’d be a bit careful going through those steep passes in Rock Springs. Right about this time of year they freeze up pretty good. I got stuck out there in the freezing cold and had to run my generator all night so I wouldn’t freeze to death.”
Greeeeaat. Disaster check list #1 – “no generator”… Check. (I’m thinking, mmhmm… Eric is way ahead of us this time too)
I thanked him for the advice and looked toward the direction we were heading. Last night (Friday), it had snowed and our route was blanketed in white. Okay, had to snap out of that train of thought. Worrying about this wasn’t going to get me anywhere… fast. I opted for Direct Manifestation, begin broadcasting higher temperatures over yonder, put some ‘Momentary Lapse of Reason’ on, and just played it by ear.
Leaving Rupert, we drove into the snow, heading south east for Ogden Utah. We decided to camp out for the night, and instead of driving the passes and Great Divide at night in the cold, wake up early and make a big the long haul on Sunday. The rumor was; warmer weather and clear skies. Thank God.
Sunday morning, we woke up a bit late but hit the road after picking up additional supplies at… you guessed it, the local Walmart SUPER center. Am I beginning to like Walmart now? Hmm
The trip to Cheyenne was quite beautiful, clear skies, wide views of the land, and aside from driving into a constant headwind, I was pretty much lovin’ it. But that head wind, let me tell you, I’ve never seen a gas gauge go down so fast. But at least the beast is running strong like it should! (except at Laramie Pass. WOW! I had to drop down to 1st gear to climb that peak. Temperature hit the red line. Totally Insane. *grin*)
After 10 hours of driving, we crossed into Nebraska border (furthest east I’ve driven in my life. The only other time I’ve been to the east coast was this last spring at the 1st Rhode Island HBI event) and met up with Eric and Jamison in little Podunk place called North Platte, next to Buffalo Bill’s Trading Post. It was so good to see Eric again. As soon as we set up, he treated us all to late dinner. We came back, slept deep, woke up Monday morning and headed out to Avoca, Iowa.
Avoca (and Iowa in general) had a nice feel to it, very story book farmland, and small community mentality. But, the RV park I found for us was straight out of a horror film for people who don’t like spiders, bugs, flies, and everything else with 6 or more legs. It was classic.
It’s funny too because earlier I told Eric about a dream I had back in Ogden, UT. It’s a once-every-2-years-type reoccurring dream. In different symbolic ways, this dream has some important purpose that requires me to reach arm length, OR walk into a hole or cave usually on the side of a dirt cliff, to do something for the greater good. Okay, sounds fine right? But! The walls of the hole/cave are covered with bugs. Tons of BIG bugs. But I always force myself to do what I have to do, I have to. But it still creeps me out every single time. Cold sweat when I wake up. Oh I know, its VERY Indiana Jones – Temple of Doom’esque. Cmon, you know the scene! *smile*
Well, two days after the this dream, The RV stop in Iowa brings creepy crawlers into my waking world! We’re talkin spiders in the sinks, gnats in the air, bugs on the ground. Every time we would open the door to get out, bugs would get in! Thomas was step in, and there would be ground-crawler bugs on his shirt! I don’t even want to know how they got there! Anyway, there were no other places around, so we hunkered down for the night.
Anyway enough of that; Tuesday morning, before heading out for Illinois, we stopped for the most tasty farm fresh breakfast at a local greasy spoon I’ve had in a LONG time. There’s nothing like Farm Fresh eggs. I never knew the difference until Eric turned me onto it. While we ate, a storm rolled in. Huge lightning bolts, thunder and downpour. Was just awesome looking at Gaia’s sprinkler system. Really intense! We drove under it for a while, but I don’t think we captured any of the “close call” lightning strikes near us on film. It’s too bad too, they were close. But we did manage to outrun the storm, and as we approached the edge, got some fantastic shots of how surreal the clouds looked.
In Illinois we stayed just east of Davenport at a RV park literally nestled square in the middle of ‘big industry’ corn fields. Feed corn for animals. Although it was off the beaten path a bit more than Eric liked, it was really nice staying there for the night. Eric made a cozy candle lit dinner that night; so delicious. It didn’t even feel like we were on the road in the middle of nowhere. Staying there was nice. Beautiful clear night sky and remained that way in the morning. But I had to watch where I walked, tons of frogs on the ground everywhere. The night sky was so clear, you could seriously feel the depth of space so perfectly. The moon, super imposed over the stars behind it, and the trees in my peripheral superimposed over the moon. Very relaxing, and took my mind into reflections of the bigger picture expanding out beyond me.
Haven’y you ever done that. While looking up at the stars, reflect on the fact that you aren’t looking “up” at all. You are looking “out”. When you think about size and space, who says looking up is actually up, what if you are actually on the bottom of the planet? Or the side? See? Next time you lay down and star gaze, consider that you are actually looking “down” into space. With gravity pinning you up down on the ground. It’ll make your head spin. *wink*
Next day - more driving. Bee-line to Pennsylvania. Next stop is a Yogi Bear RV park (with near 1000 sites!) just southeast of Chicago, in Porter. This place was massive, but was the most dysfunctional park we stayed at yet. Massive pot holes in every square foot on their roads. It’s just as well, many of their customers actually lived on-site seasonally. But Eric has a good counter plan, as soon as you set up the rig, open the slide outs, shut the windows and settle in, the outside world completely disappears into your own space and energy. Thank God it’s true, and quite nice. Especially helps having a full surround sound theatre and good spiritual movies to watch.
Next day we set out for Iowa, and stayed in southern Toledo at a KOA site. Nothing really special about that night. Just set up the office, worked, ate, did laundry, etc etc. It was a peaceful night though. Woke up the next day, and set the GPS system for New Castle, PA.
Onward, further and further into the East Coast and en-route to Shelly’s event!
More about that soon,
Matt Struve
Eric Pepin on the Road
Pete said:
Great blog(s) Matt!
I’ve really enjoyed reading about and watching your adventures - thank you so much for taking the time and effort to record the details.
The video blogs with Eric talking about the Skin Walker ranch were especially great! I look forward to hearing what happened.
Pete