Well… It’s pretty obvious by now that life with severe mold reactivity hasn’t been any more sustainable outside of Death Valley than it was inside of Death Valley. We’ve been driving around just as much, only now we’re living out of our car instead of staying in one place. Brett’s not getting any more work done and I’m not getting to spend any more time in pristine air.
Elko would have worked beautifully if it hadn’t been so cold and rainy, or if we had a camper of some sort that I could tolerate. The town felt fine to me and the camping areas near the Ruby Mountains felt amazing. I’m guessing we’ll end up going back there once the weather warms up a bit.
We couldn’t stay in the St. George area either because it was going to rain today and we really needed to do laundry. I’ve been decontaminating so frequently that I’m already out of clean shirts. So, this afternoon we ended up back in the Las Vegas area.
We were hoping to find a place to primitive camp on the public lands outside the city. Tragically, the place we were looking at ended up being awful. I got a bad headache, joint pain, back pain, heavy eyelids, throat tightness and malaise. We tried to get out quickly but that whole area turned out to be just as terrible. I felt so sick! It took us almost two hours of driving just to get out of that dreadful place to somewhere I could decontaminate safely and change into one of Brett’s t-shirts.
There have been times in the last two weeks where we could almost imagine our daily challenges were just a fun adventure. Not today. Today we just felt frustrated, overwhelmed, and exhausted. Why does this have to be so hard?
Next we tried another area outside of Vegas but my throat started closing off again and this time it was more severe. I was so afraid that it would continue swelling until it cut off my breathing! I took a Benadryl and we got out of there as fast as we could. Thankfully, once the Benadryl kicked in the swelling subsided.
Discouraged and out of options, we decided to head back towards Death Valley. At least we knew of a safe place there even if it didn’t solve our problems of needing better access to food, water and internet.
I sent out an update asking for prayer for God to intervene in our situation. To be completely honest, though, I didn’t have much faith that He actually would. But on the long road to Death Valley, God surprised me!
Almost miraculously, we happened upon a dirt road that led to a perfect spot for us to primitive camp on public land. I feel really good here, almost as good as I felt in the Ruby Mountains. The spot is only 13 minutes away from a water source and 23 minutes away from a town where we can buy food! We even have cell reception here so Brett can send out work emails!
We could not believe it. We were so relieved that we couldn’t help smiling. I’ve never been so thankful to be sleeping in a tent! 😊
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