Day 53 | A Glimmer of Hope

Last night we slept by the side of the road in Jemez Springs. The air felt really good but it was very cold again. The temperature dropped all the way down to 34 degrees Fahrenheit! I barely slept!

This morning, we spent some time exploring the area and looking for campsites. We found a lot of options on the US Forest Service land north of Jemez Springs. We’ve never had so many primitive camping spots to choose from! We had a hard time deciding! In the end we picked the most private one that was still close to the main road so that we wouldn’t have to drive as far to get cell reception.

It’s really beautiful here and the air feels really good. The only concern we have is that it might end up being too cold. We’re pretty high up in the mountains. I can handle being too cold every once in a while but I really need to be able to sleep reliably. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. I think the weather is supposed to warm up.

It was cold even during the afternoon. My hands hurt when I was trying to do the laundry! The water was freezing! Brett saw how much I was suffering and kindly offered to do it for me. It was really sweet of him since he has a lot of work he needs to catch up on. We just did the bare minimum so that I would have clean clothes to sleep in.

Then at 5pm we headed over to the Giggling Hot Springs! The girl who works there knows our story and has been really sweet to us. She offered to let us stay two hours for the price of one and let us take showers for free. It’s been way too cold to take showers outdoors and we both really needed to get clean. I wasn’t sure if it would work for me to go into the shower building but I thought it would be worth a try.

Thankfully, I did not react and was able to take a real shower! Sadly, the hot water had run out so we both had to shower with cold water. It was pretty ironic since we were both really looking forward to the warm water! At least it wasn’t windy! That’s the worst.

Getting into the hot spring after a cold shower was so wonderful! We were so happy! My symptoms improved greatly while I was soaking in the pool and we got to spend some time chatting with the girl who works there. It was really nice. I felt great when I got out!

Unfortunately, I got really itchy as soon as I put my clothes back on. And when I got in the car other symptoms began to return as well. It was unpleasant and frustrating but at least it confirmed that our stuff really is contaminated and that it’s possible for me to feel much better when I am away from it.

We still haven’t figured out what to do about the contamination except try to mitigate it by spending as much time away from the car as I can. We’ve thrown out the items that I was reacting most strongly to but it feels like almost everything we have is at least mildly contaminated. I wish we could just ditch everything and start over. That is our plan for when we get the van so I guess I’ll just have to hang on for a couple more weeks. We’ve been through worse on this journey. Things will be already be much better if we can just stay in one place!

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