So apparently as I was writing about how crappy my day was yesterday the universe had a little lesson in store for me. It’s going get worse before it gets better.

I woke up this morning to the cloudy wet storm I left at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon yesterday. Then, as I went to start the truck and turn the wipers on I was greeted with a repetitive array of deafening clicks. Yes, my truck was dead. Luckily I had backed into the spot I was occupying in the Walmart parking lot as a gent soon offered a jump start. I had my cheap cables out which I soon found out are not thick enough to actually work. He dug his out of the back of his truck and I was soon running. I blindly went looking for a repair shop to look at the battery issue and repair my tires.

At the Hurst Bridgestone repair shop in Flagstaff I soon had another new (used) tire on my truck to replace the unrepairable flat I got yesterday and another repair done on the slow leaking rear tire. They did a (thankfully free) assessment of the electrical system and determined that my battery had in fact, given up the ghost.

After talking battery prices with them and paying my tire bill I ventured on to find a cheaper alternative for the battery. I stopped at Autozone (leaving a running but locked truck in the parking lot) to look at their prices but soon found myself back at Walmart. My $77 dollar battery after eco fees etc was $99. I did however get $15 back after I swapped the batteries myself in the Walmart parking lot and took the dead one back into customer service, something about a refunded core charge.

So after today’s unforeseen expenses I won’t tell you what I have left. The couple of weeks I thought I had left in my budget has been reduced significantly. Let’s just say that I sent my resume off to a friend who works in the Alberta oil sands about a job as a general laborer. This trip may be taking a detour/hiatus while I go make some honest money and reassess things. I drove and lived out of my truck shooting all last winter, there’s no reason I can’t work in it.

My heart wants to stay out here but my mind is in a different state of reality. The only real challenge so far has been the money and despite my efforts to land some remote web work and sell prints, refueling the bank account has become a priority. Like a friend told me, if the budget was there, days like today would be a non-issue and it’s true. If after a 6-8 contract working in Northern Alberta I still want to continue on this journey I’ll be better prepared financially to do so. I guess I’ll wait to see what the universe thinks, if I don’t get the oil sands job then things will most definitely get interesting.

With that said I’ll be hanging around Flagstaff for the next couple of days as there’s a good library here. Once I hear from the bank in Winslow regarding my bank card I’ll head there to pick it up. After that the future is totally unknown.

I wasn’t naive enough to think that this scenario wasn’t possible. It’s here and I’m dealing with it. Thankful for what I do have and the friends I have that care about me. I’m trying to laugh it all off now just as I imagine I will when looking back on it later. In the big picture, minor inconveniences and a test of my patience sure, but overall I just have to weather the storm and continue on, one way or another.

Thank you all for your comments and support. Every word means a lot to me and helps me keep going.
Your appreciative vagabond,
W