Friday, January 6, 2012

Rambling Thoughts Watching the Sun Rise With My Morning Coffee...

Well... posting at night started off well... sat here last night looking at a blank screen with a blank mind :)

That's actually one of the shining benefits I get from this life... Somehow, all the Din a fella has to put up with in town stirs up the same sort of commotion 'tween my ears... kind of an echo I suppose. Considering the Space 'twixt those ears of mine, it makes sense I guess! :)

Out here, where life gets quiet and slow, that internal pandemonium settles down to a low murmur. Kinda nice. You start to notice that breathing comes more natural and somehow tastes different. Those "Things" that seemed so important... back where the TV screen was constantly Telling you they are is gone... the Radio isn't droning on making you feel impotent about all the things you're NOT doing... not any more...

... 'cause the only sounds in this camp are the tunes from my Ipod... the occasional distant soft rumble of a big wheeler on the highway a few miles away and the breeze rustling through the creosote brush...

We get up and head out in the crisp of the morning... the sun just coming over the horizon behind us... We can walk the trails the desert rats have carved out of this rocky ground... or climb up into those mountains that shelter the Desert Bighorns... which eluded us yesterday morning.

*along our morning 5 miler*

There's no hurry. There's no pressure to perform, no deadline... there's only the next step, the next breath...


*Desert Sentinels*

How many miners, hikers, atv'ers and 4 by 4ers have those Saguaros seen come by in their couple of hundred years?


*The Narrow, Rocky, Way*

Sometimes the path gets narrow and rocky. You look at the mountain in front of you and it intimidates you. Your only thought is; "It's too high, there's no way. I can't get through there". But, if you stop looking too far ahead and look Closer, only looking for the next foothold, the next handhold, you Can find that next step, and then the next, and the next...

Eventually, when you look up again, that tough section is behind you.

*Arizona Desert Serenity*

... and all the meaningless little "Things" fall away. You start to develop a Teflon coating... the droning of the manipulating machine you escaped just runs off like the rain off a Duck. It's power fades away into a hazy past... and you Wake up knowing...

... THIS... is where I Belong.

*RV Boondocking Neighbors soaking up the sun in the Arizona Desert*

I wonder... Do any of those Neighbors of mine... think Like a goofy old Cowboy Biker Philosophizin' Story Teller? ;)

Maybe tonight I can succeed at getting my evening posting routine goin' ;)

Hunting Desert Bighorns in Arizona... (For PortraitsOnly!!!)
Brian

3 comments:

Don M said...

Brian,
How do you manage to not have the fiver hit the bike when turning?

Brian said...

I use a gooseneck adapter hitch. The ball on the truck was moved from "Factory" 6" in front of the axle to "12" behind the axle to give turn clearance.

I keep a careful eye but have never got to the "warning" stripes I put on my mirrors. (I put tape strips on my mirrors to mark where I'm getting close to the bike in a turn)When a certain line of the trailer gets to that tape I know I'm close) It's worked out real well... though I've never "Gotten to the tape" :)

In a tight turn the closest I seem to get is maybe six inches from the bike... but like I said, that's in a tight "parking lot" turn... and I'm watching in the mirrors pretty close.

I haven't seen any of the Light front end/porposing some might think I'd get. I expect that the bike being up in front of the hitch balances things out as well, though the times I've hauled without the bike on it's hauled the same. This arrangement has worked out well.

The truck needs to me heavy enough and the hitch weight not TOO heavy for it to work. I doubt that a 38 foot fiver with maybe 2400 lbs of pin weight would work. As my rig is all put together it handles without any problem. I really haven't seen a difference, in the way this handles, with the hitch moved back.

Don M said...

Thanks! I'll give you credit, you are willing to go against the accepted wisdom and see how it works. And you have enough smarts to know if it does or doesn't.