The Revenant....

Wednesday morning the ladies went about making a laundry run, plus doing some additional shopping.  I spent time completing our Amazon employment applications for this fall....yup, we're going back to Amazon, but this time in Haslet, TX......this will be the launching pad for our nomadic adventures over the succeeding 12 months.  Generally here is the overview of our travel plans for the next 18 months......we are heading back to Tahoe Valley Campground for summer, then sometime in September we'll begin a multi week trek south to Haslet, TX and our Peak Season Amazon job, then head east to Cedar Key, FL for a couple of months, then north along the Atlantic coast.......current plans have us traveling in a small caravan with friends....ultimately we will end up in the Maritime Provinces making our way westward, then drop into the 'U.P.' (Michigan's Upper Peninsula)......there is room for a lot of jiggling Jello in our plans, and the specifics will come more into focus as we get further into 2016.

Then I spent a few hours doing the 'high cleaning' on the coach......polishing up the aluminum awning covers, and cleaning the roofline.......all just in time to head back out to the dusty Quartzite desert.....:-)

I first saw the previews for "The Revenant" a few months ago and was kind of intrigued, and kind of repelled.....all at the same time.  The movie trailer I watched more than once made me extremely uncomfortable.....normally when movie trailers make me feel that uncomfortable I don't go to see them.  Nevertheless, Steven had suggested during our last sunset fire at the Borrego Springs Desert that the guys (since none of the ladies had any apparent interest) go to see the movie on Wednesday whilst we were sojourning at the Indio Elks Lodge.  Before I could process the idea I heard myself saying "yeah, great idea".......that surprised me....I mean REALLY surprised me.  

I don't usually devote such a large part of a daily blog entry to talk about movie, but it had such an emotional, visual impact upon me I felt compelled to devote more time than I normally would.  The movie is set in Montana and South Dakota in the winter of 1823, and is based loosely on experiences by Hugh Glass, a frontiersman, who was horribly mauled by a grizzly bear on the expedition, then left for dead, and abandoned by the members of his trapping party.  Most of the movie is devoted to his struggle to survive, and then reach civilization, such as it was back in the 1820's. This movie is not for the faint of heart......it is essentially 2.5 hours of suffering and misery......snow, sleet, ice storms, torrential rains.....if you go be sure to wear warmish clothing as you will feel cold the entire time.  The bear mauling scenes probably last close to 8 minutes......it seems much longer than that.  The cinematography was visually stunning and captivating.  The acting was superb.

In closing, this is the first time in a long time I have had to actually look up the meaning of a word....I had never heard the word 'revenant' before......it means, essentially, "return from the dead", which pretty much describes Hugh Glass' survival against all odds.  What did I take away from the movie?  That's easy.....we spend a lot of time in somewhat remote areas, but while we talk about 'roughing it' as we work to conserve fresh water, reduce the accumulation of gray and black water, harvest our daily electrical supply from the sun what we do is on no level 'roughing it'....compared to life in 1823 we live a life of unparalleled luxury.  We don't have to kindle a fire in 40 mph winds, ice storms, or rain.  We spend no time wondering where our next meal will come from.....we only discuss of what that meal will consist.  We have an indoor toilet, HOT and cold running water, heat on demand, and a roof over our heads.......we don't spend days and weeks at a time soaked to the bone, and battling hypothermia.  If we get injured/sick we go to a doctor, or the hospital, both of which are never that far from where we are at any given time.  We have the illusion of remoteness with none of the inherent risks.  We don't have to hike for weeks to return to civilization over multiple snow covered mountain ranges.....we drive our luxury coaches on paved roads which have been carved through these same mountains.....it takes us hours, not weeks to cover hundreds of miles.  We do not live 24/7 guarding against and/or fearing an attack by native Americans who resent our intrusion into their hunting lands, and only live to separate us from our hair, and our life.  In short I have a new appreciation for the life we live, for the remote areas we are able to visit and spend a brief amount of time in before we return to civilization......the quote, unquote risks we take are nothing compared to the privation these hearty frontiersmen endured for months and years at a time.  If something broke they could not go online and order a replacement from Amazon Prime expecting it to be delivered in two days, or less.

As I sit here composing today's entry I can hear the electric heater humming in the background, I am listening to 'Mike and Mike' on our satellite TV, using a broadband hotspot on my Verizon Samsung phone to publish my blog while listening to TLE in the background preparing today's breakfast offering....scrambled eggs and raisin bread toast....and thankful it is not 1823.

We'll be rolling our wheels in a few hours for Quartzite......thanks for stopping by!