What was reentering modern civilization like?
It was so profound when we came back from the ranch into the real world. First thing that struck us was the speed at which the van was traveling on the highway, which was only about 50 miles an hour. It seemed really fast because we were used to horse pace. Getting back into town, it was really very obvious how much light and sound pollution there was. Lights hurt our eyes. Every sound that wasn’t a natural sound seemed to be overly magnified. Coming into this little bitty cowboy town we were coming back into — Alpine — felt like being dropped in the middle of New York City in, in a traffic jam. Q: What was the hardest adjustment returning to the 21st century? A: I didn’t realize we would be as much affected by things as we were in terms of climate and sleeping conditions. I had gotten very used to sleeping on a terrible bed. Rock hard, sleeping on boards. First night back, I couldn’t sleep in our bed. I ended up sleeping on the floor because the bed was too soft and it hurt my back.
