Coddiwomple (v.) to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination. I typically live like this during winter while making a plan for where to next.
I paid too much rent to stay for another week in Cedar City for three more PT appointments on my slowly improving wrists. Very nice that daytime highs in the 60s makes a pleasant two block walk to PT. The time here has been well spent. Although honestly it doesn’t feel like I’ve done much else besides waste a lot of time online.
I have another doctor visit and PT assessment on my last day in town, the 15th. Then I’ll coddiwomple southward probably just out of Utah to Black Rock Road on free BLM for the night. Will be my first stay in this location. That’s only a little over an hour driving. Long enough for my first major drive in 2 1/2 months.
Even the clouds at sunset were windblown
Then the next day, two hours to Snowbird Mesa, aka Poverty Flats, Nevada. Last I stayed there in March 2017 the wind almost blew me away.
From November 2017
And another hour to Boulder City and free camping by the casino.
Also November 2017
Followed by a two hour drive to Burro Creek campground with a stop along the way in Wikeup for Chicago style Italian Beef sandwiches, to eat and to go.
And a final hour to Wickenburg. About 450 miles total. I used to drive that in a day instead of five.
I have PT set up in Wickenburg starting November 25th, the soonest I could get in. And that means a week with only at home PT, something I’m not really good at.
There is some desert boondocking not far out of Wickenburg.
Congress at base of far mountains, Yarnell on top
Another option is a RV Park with the most affordable in Congress, North Ranch, about 10 miles to PT. Guess I won’t be walking that.
Other than that I don’t have a plan except changing my mailing address as I no longer live in Yarnell. For now I’m going to pay for a mail service in Wickenburg, Arizona that will give me a physical address and make the few government offices that still use snail-mail happy. Plus I love receiving postcards from people/travelers. Yes that’s still a thing.
I am desperately hoping after more PT I’ll be closer to normal mobility. Then I can properly go coddiwomple in the desert for the rest of the winter.
Badlands was bitter cold wind. Mount Rushmore was fogged in. Then it snowed overnight and I woke up afraid to crawl out of my gifted Alaskan issue down mummy bag. Time to turn south. Yet the under-powered 6 cylinder Chevy could barely climb the Rocky Mountains. A mechanic in Durango adjusted the carburetor to get more air than was needed in the low lands of Illinois. Still, there were times I could have walked faster.
I vaguely remember turning west at Albuquerque and I think I drove through Petrified Forest and maybe even Joshua Tree. I was very sick with bronchitis on the verge of pneumonia by the time I arrived at relatives’ home in La Canada just east of Los Angeles.
After visiting a free clinic for meds and convalescing for several weeks I started to look for a job. Figuring I had experience as an office clerk at a seed company that’s the direction I took. I was familiar with several seed companies in western California so I started applying and headed north along the coast. Sure would have been nice to have a cell phone instead of saving coin and calling from payphones along the way.
I finally took a temporary job south of San Francisco in Mountain View at 
That took me through Texas, which is huge to cross, and no Shell Oil fuel stations. I did finally make it to southern Illinois where I lived with an old beau in Carbondale for about a year. Then finally back north to the Chicago suburbs, took a job as a waitress, hostess, and eventually night manager and met my future husband of 15 years. And although we raised a family we also moved across country and traveled to Mexico. The gypsy life is in my blood.