For a few days, parked just beside us was a couple of a certain age... likely around my own, that bein' old enough to know better, yet still too young to care!
She spent her days sitting in the sun beside their van reading, while he climbed on his dual sport bike, and wandered around the desert for much of the day.
Their rig was about as minimalist as you could get... a van... at what I'm guessin' the lower end of class B, as far as equipment goes... the only thing ever outside the rig was a pair of folding chairs... and the pretty rickety looking trailer he hauled the motorcycle in.
When they left... twas revealed that she'd been up to a lil' more than reading... while she waited in the sun... at least we figured her to be the sculptor...
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| *Quartzsite Desert Sculpture* |
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| *RV Boondocking Sculpture* |
Across the road for the past week sat two shiny 40' Diesel pushers... electric awnings, full body paint... more slides than a ski slope...and price tags that total more than I've made in my whole life...
Just back to the west a 1/2 mile or so are a couple of banged up old pickups, more raggedy than my own, backed up into the spotty shade of some thirsty looking desert trees. The only shelter accompanying those rigs are a couple of dusty looking nylon canvas tents.
Scattered all across this Arizona Desert are RV's and camps of every variety, from every level of the Human Herd you could imagine...
What am I getting at? Hell... I can't really say!
Those Balanced Rocks left by our recent neighbor just got me to wonderin' is all... about balance... about life... just wondering... We've all come to the same place... gathered here for the "Sturgis" of the RV world...
Why?
When you look at the kaleidoscope of wanderers that collect in this Desert... from every level of this confused world of ours... just what is IT that brought 'em here?... What is that One thing that all the people gathering here have in common? What are they looking for? What is it that pulls them here, to rub elbows with people that they wouldn't or don't... back in the World?
Is it even... just... One... thing? ... is it a wrong assumption to think they are even looking for anything?
a Curiosity... here in the relatively busy camp on Plomosa Road... I've not seen anyone Wave... when we pass... just watch, dead pan, heads swiveling, as we roll by. Yesterday, with the truck idling though the Desert twenty miles NE of here, scouting a new camp... everyone we passed, in the far more dispersed camps... Waved...
There's all sorts of conclusions I could make from the way folks set up their camps here; From whether they Wave or not; from the economic status of their rigs... from the variety of the sorts of rigs that gather together... and outside of coming to the conclusion that I haven't got a clue!... any other sort of judgment based on such limited information... would likely lead a man to create imaginative, but no less Wrong... assumptions...
So I'll just go on wondering without answers, curious about rocks piled in the Desert... and what it is that motivates the sorts of people who collect in camps where worn out old Toyota mini-motorhomes park next to million dollar mansions... with dusty Tenters as neighbors...
Wondering in the Desert Sand
Brian
Return to the main site of goin' RV Boondocking or Visit my Sister website Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
8 comments:
I think this would make a great book. Interview them; get their stories. One chapter for each of them.
The philosopher of the desert. Sounds like there may need to be a therapy session around a campfire to 'wonder'
hmmmm... two really good ideas!
What a wonderful description of the "squaters" at Q. I too would love to know some of their stories. Just glad to see you up and wondering again.
Well, what you doin' there? How'd you get there? Any room left for me? How long you stay'n?
"Well, what you doin' there? How'd you get there? Any room left for me? How long you stay'n?"
1. Warming up on the desert and writing. :o)
2. Drove the truck and fiver! :o)
3. The whole Desert! Lots of room everywhere!
4. Stayin' until mid February... then looks like Phoenix for another week then... who knows!
John Steinbeck wrote a book in 1962.... Ya way back then in the last century.... called "Travels with Charley". I read it when I was a lot younger and the book was pretty new. I've had a dream for many years and something always got in the way. Now we're about 2 weeks from hittin the road with a big red Dodge, a 33ft 5er and a Harly taggin along behind. Can't wait to get goin. To steal a catchy word "Anyhoo" read it if you get a chance, it may answer some of them wonderlust questions.
See Ya on the Road......soon
congrats Boxy! I'll hunt up that Steinbeck book...
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