When we got out of our van Sparty in the parking lot at The Needles – Canyonland National Park we saw this.
A foot stool left all alone in a parking spot. We felt sorry for the footstool and it’s owner. We had done this only last week at Watson Lake in Prescott.
After leaving the Navajo Nation, we stopped at the Ace Hardware in Blanding, UT to pick up a replacement.
Looking back over 1 1/2 years of travel we have lost surprisingly few things.
- Pouch with a few computer cables at the King of Prussia Ram dealer.
- Footstool (the first one in 2017) at a Walmart parking lot in Flagstaff AZ
- Large mat for chairs somewhere in MA (Someone forgot to secure it to the back of the van…)
- Yogurt in a fridge in Sedona (Sorry Leah)
- Footstool (the second one in 2018) Watson Lake in AZ)
- Scarf in Moab (change in the weather, suddenly needed it then warm again)
How do we keep from loosing more things?
- Have a spot for things. Then it’s quickly obvious when something is missing. My phone is always in my bottom left pocket.
- Announce things. “Footstool is out”, “We are plugged in”,etc.
- Visual reminders like the extension cord velcro placed on the steering wheel when the cord is out.
- When we are hiking and take a break, get up, take two steps, turn and look back before continuing.
Will we loose something again? Probably. But we would loose things when we owned a house. Of course whatever we had misplaced there would turn up 2 years later. On the road if it’s misplaced, it’s gone.
And if we want to keep a footstool for more than a year, we may need to bypass Arizona.