A Night to Forget

Tired from my meeting with the dakini, I took a room at the Silver Saddle motel in Santa Fe. For dinner I gorged on a delicious meal of fajitas from one of the many family-owned restaurants;  it included more grease and fat than I've eaten in years. 

Tuesday I drove to Jemez Springs and spent the day resting and late in the afternoon went to the Ojito Wilderness to camp.

As evening came on the wind came up and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees; by dark it was cold. Without signal I had no way to know what the weather might be but April in these parts can often include snow.

Around 10 p.m. I was forced to get out....and the "looseness" was disconcerting. Two more trips over the next hour had me hoping I might make it through the night, but it was not to be.

Around 1 a.m. I was awakened with a "full load" in my underpants. By the time I managed to exit into the night the bag was soiled beyond use. 

I estimated the breeze at around 25 - 30 knots and could only guess at the wind chill... "bracing" to say the least. (post event research suggested the temp was in the low 30s.)

After swabbing the lower half of my body as best I could, I rolled the bag and tossed it onto the roof rack.

Cosmically, or so it now seemed, I'd found a sleeping bag behind a gas station the day b4. It was neatly rolled and bound with twine...nothing and no one else around. I debated taking it, but after some thought went ahead. I planned to launder it b4 use, but I had no hesitation as I cut the twine. It was a pleasant surprise to find it was clean with no smell at all though the pilled flannel lining indicated it was far from new.

It's incidences like this that incline me to believe in a "higher power" though even that phrase smacks a bit too much, for me, of dogma. Still, after standing in a  "breeze" at near-freezing temp to swab shit off most of my lower body, I couldn't help but marvel at the "coincidence."

It sure was good going down, though.