10/20/2023 Entry

Couldn't sleep after waking up around 3:30, so I got up and went for a long walk, starting a little before 4:00. Then I had breakfast and finished up getting my gear together for the trip. Ann drove me down to Charlie's and Leslie's place, and we were on the road a little after 8:00. The drive out to Kingman went by pretty quickly, lots of conversation and storytelling. We had lunch there, then drove the rest of the way, first to a small motel where the check-in the the hike in to Supai Village was, then back to Peach Springs. This town doesn't really have much, just a motel/restaurant and a small market. We hung out at the motel in the late afternoon, and I did a little check-up of my gear. Think I need to pare down what I'm bringing, to lighten the load. I did some of that in the evening after dinner at the restaurant in the motel. I had a veggie burger and fries, and it was decent. This motel was right next to the train tracks, and there was a crossing nearby, so all through the day and night we could hear trains coming through, a least one every half hour. I also finished the second book in The Expanse series, Caliban's War. This one has the crew of the Rocinante connecting with a biologist from Ganymede station, whose child is abducted to be turned into a warrior infected with the protomolecule. It was another good read, introducing some political maneuvering at the UN, which is Earth's ruling government. Decent science is followed, but the storyline is a little predictable for the main characters. I started The Lathe of Heaven, a novella by Ursula K. LeGuin. It's about a man whose most vivid dreams end up altering reality to make them come true, and a psychologist who uses the man's abilities to effect change in the world, with some pretty drastic changes and consequences.