Brannan Island (5)

I work in special education, right? So a huge part of what I teach is around “flexible thinking.” There’s a whole curriculum around this and I am constantly talking about it, dropping little special ed phrases all day long; “Uh oh, is this a Rock Brain moment?” “What’s a good strategy to get our thinking unstuck?” “Is this really a level 5 problem?” stuff like that. So one would expect that, when we pulled up to our reserved site to find people already there and unloading their camping equipment, I would be all super flexible. I would notice there were so many empty sites and recognize this was really not a big problem, right?

“But I reserved site 75,” was what playing on continuous loop in my brain. “I specifically wanted that site.” “Here, look, it’s got an asterisk next to it in my notes and that was why I reserved it.” I said nothing out loud and let Richard talk to the people. And once he had established they were not going to move, I just kept driving down the loop, looking for an acceptable alternative. “It’s not 75 though,” is what I was thinking. “Sure, this one looks fine,” was what I said.

So I pulled in to site 97 under protest, spinning Dory to get a good view. I was inwardly resentful the whole time. Once we set up and got the heater going, I noticed the view was way better than 75. In fact, the entire site is far preferable. 97 is now my favorite.

The rest of the weekend was about Richard getting in a recovery ride following some unpleasant dental work, while I wrote a report and played with the awning. I moved another step forward in my ultimate plan of creating a screen room. That part was sewing a skirt to block the bug entry from under Dory. It’s not finished, but what I did seemed like what I intended. What remains is to add material around the bottom flaps of the awning to create a seal, and move loops around to better attach to my suction cup hooks. I still feel compelled to give this my best shot, mostly since I’ve committed this far to it. I have a feeling that one of two things will eventually happen once it’s totally finished: either I will decide that after all that, it’s too much bother to put up, or I will love it until a gentle breeze comes along and tears the thing to shreds.

I am well aware that Clam shelters are now available in blue. We shall see.

Nothing much else to report except the water at Brannan seems to be less yellow. Still, we bring our own water when we go there. Nice place, as always.

Total miles: 39.8. 16.7 mpg, 1 hour 12 min. Site 97. The best site. LTE for both, good solar, river view, nice bathrooms, good dump. So close to home, always pleasant.