Day 4. Sullivan, MO. Bradley Versus the Heatwave ☀️.

In the morning, we were treated to a gorgeous Pomona sunrise.

While Luke started packing our camp, I set up our Coleman propane stove and brewed some coffee for the first time. I got a Moka pot to make some espresso that we could water down, and we had a relaxed morning rethinking our packing strategy. We’ve realized the Deconstructed Rooms need to be segmented into quick-access areas we could quickly access.

I’m delighted to report that the Coleman covfefe was a success.

The laundry, however …. I’ll get back to you on that one. I think we’re still in too humid of a climate to properly do laundry.

I also spent some time in the morning walking around and taking photos. I was especially proud of this one of a butterfly:

I kept creeping closer and was stunned at how still it stayed for me. I must be getting better at this photography thing, I thought.

I proudly showed Luke my butterfly photos and zoomed in to show the delicate wing coloration. “I think this is my favorite photo so far!” I proudly shared.

Luke cocked his head and looked at the picture. “Yeah…” he said distractedly. “…Is that a poo?”

“What?!” I said, horrified, and grabbed the phone back. “No it’s not!”

I looked closer.

“Oh. Yes… yes it is.” 💩

🚗 🚗 🚗 🚗

From there, we went to camp at a lakeside in Sullivan, MO. At first, we were wondering why it hadn’t looked like the listing, until the host literally bragged that he had chosen a different spot for campers to reserve the original, ideal camping spot for himself. Had we been catfishedcampfished?

While we weren’t as impressed with our surroundings , we had a job to do. Sunday was meal prep day, so after we set up our campsite, we opened up our kitchen and started prep. 

3 hours later, we had 4 days’ worth of egg salad, Impossible taco meat, pre-mixed salad, chili, and those delicious overnight oats with North Carolina peaches. 

After that much effort, we realized that each camping day we really only have enough energy to tackle one big project.

Also, we’re starting to get concerned about the heatwave.. not just for us, but for our furry friend.

So far, we’ve missed the majority of the heat because we’ve spent most of the hottest hours in the car. Since reaching Pomona, we’ve had more hours in the direct heat.. and I can tell it’s affecting Bradley. 

Today, we realized he’s been trying to tell us he’s hot by sitting by the car and looking meaningfully at us. At first I thought he wanted to go home, but then I realized he just wanted the A/C.

Bradley has fallen in love with the backseat A/C coming from the center console. Here he is leaning his entire body into the mesh so that he can absorb the arctic breeze.

I felt bad, but we were also low on gas, so I gave him an ice water sponge bath instead. 

“Um, this isn’t the A/C I ordered.”

That night, we started looking through our upcoming camp sites and cross-referencing with the weather app. 

I randomly clicked the News app on my phone and read the headline with dread.

We’re going to have to figure something out, because this won’t work.