Disconnected In Lassen

We're still in Lassen National Park and will probably be here until Sunday. We're at Manzanita Lake Campground, about the only one open this time of year, just down the road from the northwest entrance to the Park. We have no cell phone and thus no internet connectivity at all at our campsite. We're drycamping (no hookups). With temps sinking to the low 30's by morning, we've been using the propane furnace and running the generator to make coffee and charge the house batteries. And we're surviving just fine. We really enjoy camping like this... even if it is a bit cold and challenging in the mornings.

I was hoping I could drive over to a visitor center and hook onto the internet. But the National Park Service hasn't quite found the motivation or the money to create a wifi hotspot at their visitor centers yet. And maybe their right. Maybe it's good to be disconnected once in a while... to concentrate on what the Park has to offer... to get out and move and soak in the sights, smells, vistas, chills, the history, the geology, and the texture of this unique landscape. I keep repeating this to myself... I keep trying to convince myself. Maybe it's good, but it's hard.

I'm still writing daily journal entries off line and will upload them when I'm able.

(sent from a library hotspot in the little town of Shingletown, CA where we picked up supplies today.)