Scurvy, premature balding and other 18th-century travel dangers still very much alive today

Staying healthy while living on the road is no joke. Keeping tidy is tough, too, because my hair is everywhere. All. The. Time.

I doubt I’m shedding more now than usual, but living in close quarters brings me face to face with every individual strand of hair that abandons my scalp and the volume is both gross and terrifying. It’s back almost immediately after I sweep and I’m about to just give in and live in a giant hairball on wheels.

Then there’s scurvy, which can be a real danger if we’re not careful.

Because we’re choosing to camp mostly in remote sites in and near national parks, we’re almost never within a reasonable driving distance to grocery stores. There are small shops that stock essentials such as snacks, bread, peanut butter and wine — thank you Jesus — but for fresh produce, you’ve got to hit a real grocery.

Thus far, we’ve handled this by buying a few days’ worth of fresh produce when we stay in big cities and keeping plenty of frozen veggies on hand. I thought that was a reasonable strategy until Sunday when we went skiing — yes SKIING, crazy! — and I obsessed over a woman’s spinach salad, then proceeded to think of nothing else for the next two days.

I suspect her husband noticed my creepy staring but quickly assessed me as a non-threat after a quick glance at my outfit — made up of every piece of water-resistant hiking attire I own and zero ski clothes because we packed not realizing skiing in May was an option. And as if he needed more assurance that they could easily get away from the crazy lady in mismatched beiges, I had already fallen during the first run down the “easy” slope and hurt my knee, so I was extra nonthreatening.

Anyway, I only had eyes for crisp, leafy goodness after that, so we’ve adjusted our shopping plans from now on, and will make a point to stop at a real grocery store twice per week. Hopefully if we park the rig far from the entrance and shop quickly, we can avoid infuriating the locals by only taking up eight parking spaces for a short time.

This experience has made me sympathetic, though, to the struggles of people trying to eat a balanced diet while living in rural areas. That’s no easy task, friends. I thought about this during a recent drive and reasoned that most people who live far from grocery stores probably live on a farm or ranch and therefore can grow produce on their own, but surely land and weather conditions limit what they can grow, right? One can only eat so many carrots before getting real bored, or real orange.

It’s easier for me now to see why we have an obesity problem in America, considering the easy access to junk food and comparatively poor availability of produce. Plus, fruit and veggies at small local grocers is pretty expensive, so that’s the icing on the cake that we should only eat in moderation.

But enough about that, I know why you’re really reading this, mom, you want to know where we’ve been! Over the past week and a half or so, we’ve been to Santa Fe, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Central City, Colorado — which was really just a place to stay that allowed us to visit my friend Beckie, and her husband and daughter, and also ski at Arapahoe Basin — Ouray and Telluride. We’ve posted up in Ouray a little longer than planned so that my bruised knee can finish healing, then we’re on to another national park tomorrow.

Enjoy the pics!

Look at these cuties!

The deer at the park were super friendly, about two dozen walked through our camp the first night.

Sledding down the dunes — so fun!

It’s hard to capture the size of the dunes with a camera, but this maybe comes close. You literally can’t see the huge mountains behind them when you’re in the dunes.

This creek runs in front of the dunes a few months out of the year. Nice and chilly from the snow melt.

Campsite at Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Arapahoe Basin.

Styled by poor packing choices.

Don’t let the confidence fool you, he’s skiing in hiking gear, too. He just doesn’t fall like I do.

I avoided this scene completely by waiting out the snow in the lodge.

Ouray main street.

Campsite in Ouray.

Our campsite in Ouray … still learning about shutter speed but look at that big moon!

River behind our campsite.