Canada – Part 3
Sunday September 7: Today we go to New Denver, the small town about six miles south of Rosebery. We want to see if we can get cell phone service or internet while we are camped at Rosebery. New Denver is a cool little town right on the shore of Slocan Lake – very pretty and well-kept with lots of shops to cater to tourists, as well as a couple of gas stations and a decent grocery store. 
We walk through a park along the lake shore and then find a sandwich shop with free Wifi. Clifford takes care of CI business while we eat our excellent Rueben sandwiches as we sit out on the deck.
We decide to explore a bit, driving a few miles on down the lake to Silverton. This town was also important in the history of the valley, but does not, at this point, have as much to offer as New Denver. We take a look at the municipal park. It seems that all the small towns we have come across have a municipal park, handy camping for travelers on their way through the area.
Back at camp, I continue editing the blogs and photos of our outing to Trout Creek in August until the battery on my laptop goes dead. We have a solar panel, but it can’t keep up with the demands of our laptops and all the gear that Clifford has plugged in – ham radio, and other stuff.
Comments on health and self-care: My health seems to have deteriorated in the last month. Most disconcerting are the heart palpitations and constriction, and shortness of breath, even without exertion, but there are other things going on also. When we first began these longer outings, contemplating even longer times spent traveling and camping, I had the thought “who will I be taking care of, who will I be nurturing?” The immediate return thought was “yourself.” My whole life has been wrapped up in taking care of family, animals, home, students, gardens, houseplants, and so on. But now I need to take the time to nurture myself. I’m sure there will be many levels as to what that really means. This longer trip to Canada will give me a chance to explore what that experience is, as I did briefly at Trout Creek when I just sat looking down at the river – not reading, not writing, not taking photos – just being there. And what about leaving my campfire last night: I stopped just being to fit a schedule. It will take gentle awareness to move beyond automatic “doing” to mindful “doing” to allowing myself to just be without any doing.
