Parking Lot Suite

I had the best campsite this weekend at the Skamania Lodge, WA.  I was attending the Celebrate Your Life retreat.  My campsite was located in the back of the parking lot and cost me zero dollars and a only a little nervousness the first night. I wasn't the only camper in the lot for the weekend.  There were at least four vans that I noticed, as well as a lady and her cat in an SUV.  Most of the parking lot dwellers were at the location for the event I was attending, but I can't speak for every van in the lot.  I arrived on Thursday later than expected due to a late departure and lots of traffic, but I managed to make it to the very tail end of the opening ceremony.  The event was mainly held in the conference center, but there were a lot of extra things that revolved around the beautiful sacred land - including the opening ceremony.  We finished up in the conference area and then we were led by Denise Linn outside to the river view amphitheater for a closing meditation.  Before we headed out to the grass path, we were asked to write down one thing we wanted to release or "let go" of from our life and on another piece of paper, we were asked to write one thing we wanted to "bring in" to our life.  As we walked down the grass path, we were led with drums on both sides of the path and feathers at the end moving around and cleansing our energy field.  When we got to the ladies holding baskets at the end, we place our written intentions of letting go and bringing into our lives into the baskets.  Denise Linn later blessed our wishes  in another specific ceremony at the edge of the Columbia river.  Denise has been a teacher and student of sacred rituals and cultures for fifty years and I look forward to attending more events with her.  I think she may be at the late October event I will be attending in Maui, so that will be great.

The first night (Thursday) was so hot probably in the eighties.  I didn't have my earplugs with me in the camper so every little noise woke me up as well as the moments I was drenched in sweat.  I felt quite hung over from the lack of good sleep the next day.  Good news is the next few nights it got progressively cooler and I slept so much better.   The only big difference from my camper and camper vans is that you can have your own "bathroom" or make shift bathroom in a van (such as a jar, bucket, or compost toilet)  my camper is so tiny, that I prefer to get out of the camper to relieve myself.  If I plan on spending many more nights in parking lots, I will have to ponder my desires for being stealth over making it a little easier to use the bathroom outside of the camper without exposing myself to the world.  I typically need an early morning bathroom break so lucky for me, the woods were nearby and it was an easy thing to do without anyone seeing.  Other than the bathroom situation, which I will expand on in my next blog, I had absolutely no problems or issues with sleeping in the parking lot.  I still felt really connected with nature, I got to hear the bugs singing at night time, see the sunset, the stars, and feel the breeze coming through the windows.  Overall, it was a lovely experience that I would do again in a heartbeat.