A Successful Experiment

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Where, you might be asking, have I been? It's mainly due to my phone going belly up, but it has been quite the adventure. First of all, an allergic reaction landed my girlfriend in the hospital. With the hospital at max capacity, parking was impossible, so I spent some time scouting locations at which I could park the van without being towed (I found three.) So we decided to test out a few things. Colorado Springs has an anti-homeless law that forbids camping within city limits, which includes sleeping in your vehicle at night. We spent a few nights "camping" in my spots. I can definitely pick em: we weren't hassled once. Conversely, to further our experiment, we headed to one of the few Downtown Colorado Springs areas that has free parking, and where homeless tend to hang out. Within 45 minutes, we were approached by a police officer investigating "a suspicious vehicle," which is code for "potential homeless camping." (As we were only sitting there talking, nothing happened.) In the meantime, we learned that we can survive a few cold days/nights, although we do need to upgrade a couple of our cold weather items. We've also learned to bring along less food, and that we actually brought too much stuff in general. As for now, we are back in Manitou. We've checked into a marijuana-friendly motel. They have a "Canna Cabana" on the property, an indoor patio in which you can smoke pot. We hit that before we hit the showers. Next up: we'll be purchasing a few pieces of camping equipment, which we'll be testing during a week of camping beginning the day after the Super Bowl.