Out Amongst the Burros on the Arizona Desert.

With two wheels down... due to lack of rubber on one of 'em, we fired up the four wheeled rig that's been sittin' idle for a while, and took a run through the Desert out to the Swansea Townsite... Up around 30 miles out into the hunting grounds of the great grey Burro! :) Which... we didn't see any of.

Did get lucky enough to spot some Burro poop though. How exciting is that huh? Especially if you're from New York City?!!! or maybe New Jersey!

"We spent a whole month driving out to and around the wild West of Arizona and even got to see some genuine, antique, sun dried wild burro poop! HooYa!" ;)

The road going out runs along where the Parker off road races run for a bit. The track runs right along the road for several miles before it cuts back west to Parker.

The Parker 250 that ran a couple weeks ago, and the one coming up in a couple of weeks... Parker 400 I think it is... though it may be longer... Now THOSE are dusty suckers... looks like a dust storm coming, only the dust just hangs over the desert like a brown cloud... as long as there's no wind.  ;)

*The Road to Swansea, Arizona*

It's probably one of the youngest Ghost towns in Arizona. Built the first thing there in 1909 and folded up their tents in 1937. Rather than it being just a town that grew out of a collection of folks coming there... Swansea was built owned and run by a series of Mining operators...

... and from what I could see from the signs and literature, in all that time only one of the buggers ever turned a profit for the "Investors"... Judging by the holes in the ground and the waste piles of slag and such quite a few people tried real hard... but producing 15 cent copper that you can only sell for 12 cents... don't work out too well...

... Hmmm... That's how Heidi and I run our real estate deals! :)

*Rock Arch at Swansea*

There's an interesting arch near the bottom of the hill after you come over the mountain... almost looks like a man made theing... except there's no road to it... or after...

*Through the door of one of the Workers adobes*

*From the ruins of the mine office at Swansea*

They built quite a bit up there, though about all that's left is the foundations. They even had a hospital and dairy... but, sadly... not a single, solitary sign of a Motorcycle... No wonder the place failed! :)

*Mess hall and office ruins*

How'd you like to work in a hot, dusty, roaring, smelter... in the Arizona Desert... in the summer... at 120 degrees and the coolest thing around is the 110 degree shade? just to make copper you can only sell at a loss? Whooooowhee! Fun Baby!

Now that's something I never quite have understood. Having worked an open pit mine for a few years... how come Oil always sells at a profit... but copper most always sells at a loss? Seems like the guy producing it should set a price that pays his expenses... I mean... that's how we run our lil' store... and the oil barons run their show... What's the deal with copper? Maybe I'll just stick to horses and motorcycles... Those, I understand! ;)

The BLM has been trying I guess to do some conservation of the place, they rebuilt the roofs over the workers housing... but from what I can see from the graffiti broken fences, and bullet holes... the two legged vermin that frequent the place are winning that battle... and folks wonder why they get locked out of places and things get closed up...

Wish they'd just make an open season on the parasites... useless eaters as far as I'm concerned.

Well... we'd planned on sitting right here on through the Quartzsite RV show, and use the Raider to roll back and forth. But, now that it's laid up for a bit (till I can raid a bank and get the scooter to a tire shop) we're gonna move on back over to Plomosa Road today... so that the thirsty nature of the truck drains our fuel account a mite less...

That means... I better go get things ready to haul...

Ah... from the serenity of this spot... with maybe a half dozen rigs scattered around a section of ground... to the boom town personality of Q during the winter show...

On The Arizona Desert
Brian