We left our apartment last Wednesday to go camping in the Black Hills. The smoke had cleared enough that we decided to stay close to home. We wanted to attend a get-together with people from church the next day and planned to get on the road for our longer trip on Friday.
Once we got settled into our campsite, I started feeling better pretty quickly. I had more energy and my head was clearer. I was even able to climb a steep hill.
Unfortunately, when we returned home on Thursday, I noticed I didn’t feel so well around our apartment complex. I was exhausted and my head felt like it was full of cotton. We decided to go to Panera to see if I felt better there. I was already a bit nausous but I started gagging on the way there. I ended up vomiting into a bag in the car. Then, after we got to Panera, I had to leave to go throw up again.
I decided I wasn’t well enough to go to the church get-together with Brett. So he took me home before getting ready to go. But no one got to go because I had an intense and rather bizarre panic attack as soon as we got home. We both knew we needed to get on the road immediately. We decided to head to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota since it’s much closer to home than our favorite spot in New Mexico.
As we drove across endless empty prairie, the locations effect was just as obvious as ever. I started signing and dancing and laughing. What a relief! We stayed in North Dakota for two nights and I was able to hike and do laundry by hand. It was amazing to see how quickly my health turned around.
Unfortunately, Labor Day weekend isn’t the best time for someone like me to go camping. The campground was really crowded and we kept having to leave when people started up their campfires.
Saturday morning, I noticed I wasn’t feeling as well, so I started looking around to see what might be causing it. I noticed there was a car with a Washington license plate on the other side of the road. It was parked directly upwind from from us. Ugh! That was the last straw! We decided to drive back home to wash our bedding and then head to our campground in the Black Hills.
When we hit that amazing stretch of prairie again, I asked Brett to stop so I could run. I FELT like running. For fun! I raced Brett and Ramona along the road. I lost but I was still grinning from ear to ear. The pristine air’s dramatic effect surprised me once again. It felt like magic.
When we returned home things were not any better. I vomited within the first five minutes of stepping into our apartment. After being in the pristine air the difference was more pronounced. There was no denying it. Something was clearly wrong with our apartment complex and perhaps the whole neighborhood.
After cycling through several potential plans of where to go and what to do next, we ended up in Wyoming. It’s crazy how quickly I can go back to feeling almost 100% normal. We’re planning to camp here at least a few days and then return home to start looking for new places to live.
By the way, Brett and I made a beautiful PDF of my favorite resources for suffering souls. I created the content and he made it look fancy with his superduper graphic design skills. It’s available for free to my email subscribers. Click here to sign up and receive 5 Resources for the Suffering Soul.
