From Sunrise to Sunset... Fill the Day

Monte Walsh on the stereo, coffee in the cup... Mr. Heater is warming me...and another flashy sunrise is cracking over the Chiricahuas...

Chiricahua Sunrise

Now that Mr. Heater. Has its pluses and its hassles. The lil thing can be moved to where ever you want heat so that's a plus. The only real hassle is fueling it. Let's face it, $5.67 for a pair of lil' bottles that only last maybe five hours each on low gets pricey quick.

There is a solution for that. You get the lil adapter gizmo to refill the throw-away bottles. That way you're burning the $1.60 propane from the Co-op,

 Only problem there is, and this is the only real hassle...

Refilling actually only partially refills those bottles. They just won't get as much gas as they had when store bought.

So they're only good for maybe two hours. But that's two hours of a lot cheaper gas... I just need to buy some more of the pricey ones, so I have more "refilled".

Two hours in the evening on one bottle and two in the morning on the other just ain't sufficient.


Was walking back to the Lakota after feeding last night. Looked up into the fading pale blue eastern sky... it was just before sunset...There it was hanging over the Chiricahuas.

You know, the camera only wanted to capture a bright white flash... Buuuuut... if you bump those settings to underexpose it a ways... it kills all that glare and you can capture a pretty cool image...  you'd think it was the dark of night with that exposure dropped. Actually the sky was a very soft, almost purple by that time... It lets you catch the detail pretty fine though.

Them ponies are doing me pretty good. Three days now I finally got to work them like I'd planned to be doing back in the early part of November. The tribulations of equipment, horses and finances shot that plan to ribbons. It took till just those few days ago to complete the pen I required to work these horses proper.

Now, with that pen up and the sun mostly smilin' on me... we've had three solid workouts the past three days and three days of solid, seeable gains.

 That feeling, I wish I could shape it into words. When loneliness is weighing heavy on a solo cowboy... and the day seems dark and grey...

It lifts his spirit in ways he can't speak... when his horses come straight to the fence to whicker a hello ever' time he comes around.

They say that Horses don't have, can't have the same emotions as the two legged varmints that plague the earth.

And I hope that's true. This old chunk of rock hasn't benefited that I can see from that infection...

Now, how-some-ever... There is nothing more beautiful and pure... than the spirit of a horse.

Nothing more glorious than a herd of horses racing across the high desert.

Whatever those emotions are that Cora and CJ are giving me, I'll take 'em... and count myself fortunate to have had the lil' bit of wisdom left that it took to bring them back into my world.

I've come close to getting started on some leather books. Working out some "ideas" on things I've never done before. I'm needful of not only bringing the Horses "Home" but... some other things that got left back as well. The horses re-awakened that want too.

It's not about making money... though that is sure needed... It's about... what Gus was talkin' about when he told Call; "You just don't get it! It ain't dyin' I'm talkin' about__It's LIVIN'!"

With whatever time is left... I need to be doing those things that FIRST, grant an inner satisfaction...

Think of the scene in Lonesome Dove where Gus was sitting with a jug, alone on the porch; He looked around and saw Call working with the Hell Bitch. Some of the boys were digging a well... another shoeing a horse. The sun was setting. Gus looked around at it all and with a smile on his face nodded to himself... A bit of that inner satisfaction. He felt like he was where he belonged and it was good.

...and only then, after your soul has been fed, when that inner hunger is satisfied... think about how or if that "thing" you work at can maybe help pay the Mordida that a modern cancerous soh-sigh-uh-tee demands for permission to live.

 ... The changing light of a sunset...

 The sunsets around here... there's a real danger of the repetition of such things becoming "Oh... just another sunset..." I have to deliberately remember Gus's words all the time... "you have to learn to take pleasure in All the little things..."

Like that last one...

Playing with some things... makes it look like a chalk drawing don't it? :)

Find the little things to fill a day with creativity... When you've fed that need...THEN think about making bread...

- Brian

A Late Start for Perambulatin' Across Nebraska... But We Got Gone...

Was nigh on to noon before we got ever'thing locked down and headed out. My saddle is cabled to my scooter in the back of Evin's garage till I roll back through in a bit over a month to pick 'em up...

Made no sense to load the bike up now. All she'd do is sit on truck in the weather... so... she'll be safe there until my return.

Been six months and more since the rig has hit the highway... had planned on just cutting over to 85 down in Colorado... but with the extra late start decided to run the interstate to Cheyenne, make a little bit of time, and then follow along 85 from there.

Only went as far as Scottsbluff  Nebraska so a hard day of maybe a 150 miles ;) That set us up for a hard day of around 200 miles yesterday... yup... two days and 350 miles... I'm pushin' hard.

Up north of town an hour or a bit more... at the rate I travel, is the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.

See the piece of equipment behind the entrance sign? That's over at the improvements of the Agate Ranch that sits beside the monument.

Seems a fella named Cook built that place at the end of the 1800's. He invited Red Cloud to bring his people to raise their Tee Pees in the Cottonwood grove at the ranch each year.

They'd dry beef and such on the land where they used to roam free.

Angus cattle have replaced the longhorns and buffalo of those days... and a 21st century covered wagon is the shelter these days... But... Nebraska still looks pretty fine.

We took a short mile walk up into some of the bluffs where fossilize remains of ancient beaver dens are displayed... they formed kind of a corkscrew appearance that the diggers of those days first thought were some sort of a giant plant... until one of 'em found the fossil of a beaver buried up in one... You'll have to go look for yourself... I couldn't get it to translate into a decent photo!

 I believe I always thought this far west in Nebraska had gone dry enough that it was into the short grass prairie... buuuuut... that's lookin' pretty "long grass" to me... where they mowed a bit alongside the path up into the bluffs.

The Lakota (the true name of what us white fellers always called sioux) and the Cheyenne used to roam this part of the world... Living pretty fine and free... until a horde of illegal aliens invaded their territory an overpowered 'em with sheer numbers... and TOOK their land - something to keep in mind in the 'debate' of the current times when ever'body has their panties in a twist over "illegal aliens".

Inside the visitor center are two displays. One is a collection of the fossils from a bone pit found on the monument. Apparently there was a pond or small lake that was the hunting ground of some sort of humongous Bear Dog... 

Those hunters stacked up quite a collection of bones...

and then, there's a gallery of the gifts Red Cloud's people made and gave to the Cooks in response to their friendship.

There's another "story hide" there as well... one that remembers the Battle of the Greasy Grass... what our culture calls "Custer's Last Stand" or the Battle of the Little Big Horn...

*The Lakota Version of the Battle of the Greasy Grass*

Buuuut... we were dawdlin' a lil' to much and the day was sliding away... so we had to push on...

Up north of Custer in the Paha Sapa... the Black Hills is the privately built, or being carved Crazy Horse Memorial. It's a heroric sized memorial to Chief Crazy Horse; Likely the greatest of the Lakota War Chiefs.

 It's a totally privately funded enterprise... Federal funding has been refused a couple of times. Started in 1948 it still has a ways to go...

 Just north of that site we found a National Forest camp called Orville half way between Custer and Hill City... for five bucks a night for us, it doesn't make hunting up a free camp worth the effort ;)

We pulled in about an hour after I like to clear the road, but being late in the season, there was no shortage of sites.

Having held fairly closely to the rule of two's (go two hundred miles, get off the road by two and lay up two days) we're gonna putter around this area today... and then move on to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park area in North Dakota likely on Thursday or so...

We start working at the harvest on Monday so plan is to pull into the fairgrounds where we'll be based on Saturday afternoon.

Till then it's just goin' slow
Brian

An Unnecessary Education on the Value of Maintenance

Or at least, it SHOULD be unnecessary at this late stage of The Game.

So... when you get poor... and repairs eat up the money you've not yet made faster than you can make it... those things that can be postponed.... Guess What? They get... Post - Poned!

Uh huh. Maintenance falls pretty low on the priority scale.. Now generally... that doesn't really get your shorts in a quiver... unless of course you're sitting on an airplane... owned by a company in financial distress!

So, there you are, rich in visions... but poor in assets. As in... the truck your ass sets in.

Now... you're rolling into a lil' burg... and the truck goes BURP! WHEEZZZZEEEE UPUCKFLURPEEWHUMP! .... all over the space of 'bout 3 seconds...

It stumbles... and then... the CHECK ENGINE light illuminates and you say; awwwww CuuuuuuuRRRAPPPPPP!

Buuuuuuuut there's no place to pull off, so for a mile or three you keep movin, your eyes jumpin' all over the dash, trying to find something wrong...

It rolls on down the road until you can find a spot along the narrow way to pull over and check, all the while your liver is doin' a tap dance on your kidneys...

You look, and hunt and search only to find nothing wrong... or at least, nothing you can find with a look and a wish with the hood up on the side of the road waiting for some yuppie in a duramax to holler; GET A CHEVY!

Soooooo... you can holler back; So I can park the lump of GM fertilizer  LIKE A ROCK? 

Well, frustrated in your recon under the hood...  you roll on the 15 miles to your next camp... with the CHECK ENGINE light! making your shorts a bio waste hazard...

Buuuuuuuuut everything runs just like it should... alternator, fuel pressure, oil pressure, engine temp... outside air temp... the ONLY thing wrong is your pulse, that nasty smell spreading through the cab annnnnnd... the twisting squirming lump in your gut.

... and you park...

... you get camp set up... while thinking all the while about all the myriad of things that could trigger the EVIL CHECK ENGINE light...and how many zero's are gonna follow along behind the part number of that lil' jewel.

sooooo... you sit in your fading but not yet failed folding chair trying to find a shuttle to take herself to the Airport, 80 something miles away tomorrow afternoon so you can spend the next two weeks figuring your way out of the most recent hole that's opened up under your beer bottle...

... and then you think... well... maybe it could have been... The FUEL FILTER! That's overdue!... and you hunt up an Oil Can Henry's just down the road... 'cause changing the oil in camp is a nasty, greasy, menial job best left to those without the masculine beauty and sensual adonis traits of ethiopian bellied, bald headed onetime Cowboy, Bikers.

Now... you rob that poor motherless son Peter to pay Paul... one more time... only this time he had to take out a loan 'cause you already robbed him of the next two years tax returns... 

... and you go on down there to change the oil and the fuel filter... which... due to that pri-ohr-uh-ti-za-shun scandal mentioned above... hasn't been done since... oh well... never mind that...

So... you're sitting there in the cab and you hear this noise. It's the sound a minimum wage Oil Can Henry em-ploy-eeee makes when they find something some uncaring, useless Dodge mutilator has done to a fine machine.

He was uttering one of those Poh-Lit-I-cully impolite uses of a fellas name. Uh HUH... THAT fella. The one that some are terribly fearful of...

uh HUH... He'd found the AIR FILTER!

I didn't know they had a button for such things at just another variety of a lube shop. But they do. The echoes in that lil' building still have my ears ringin' from when he hit the EMERGENCY EVACUATION button...

***AHHHHHOOOOOOOGAAAA !!!

Alert! RED ALERT! 

This machine is about to BLOW!

 Do not walk. Do not hesitate! Run for the exits.  

RUN NOW! 

AHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOGAAAAA !!!

 

RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN!  

RRRRRRRRRRR---- UNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN !!!  NOOOOWWWWWWWWWW !!!! 

AHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOGAAAAA***

I would have taken a picture of  said Air Filter... but it was seized by armed  FEMA agents and passed on to Homeland Security to be investigated as a Home grown weapon of mass destruction.

To give you an idea of it's appearance... think of the sourest prude of a celibate old puckered up, double dipped, triple rectified Victorian 89 year old virginal Librarian you can think of; and take a picture of her the instant she bites into the most bitterest lemon you can find while flashing her a picture of a gangbanger with his jeans hanging half down his butt...

Uh Huh... that air filter was... uh... bad... :'( to put it into one word... Plumb Shameful. Well sue me! You can't PUT it in one word!

Well, now that abused, tortured and maligned GOOD TRUCK from DODGE is sitting out there in this new camp with clean oil, a fresh fuel filter... and no longer crying... aiiiirrrrrrrr.... i neeeeeeed aiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

The moral of this story is... Take care of your machinery, one way or the other... 'cause you just can't count on it having the guts to keep moving you like I wrung out of this'un.

Chastised and Hew-Milly-eighted
Brian

Casino Camping a New Trick for an Old Dog

Casino Camping, the way we're doing this week is a bit of a change for us. While we've used Wally World lots for years; as well as roadside wide spots ~ literally, spots along a two lane just wide enough to get the rig off far enough to not end up with an insurance claim! and quite a few rest areas, for Overnight Parking, we've never set up in one with the intention of laying up there for a week.

This spring is the slowest we've wandered... EVER.

In the past, running from Arizona to Washington by way of California and Oregon... that run has generally been made in two weeks or so... We thought we simply couldn't handle the cost of traveling along the coast...

Boy-O-boy was we wrong!

We left Arizona, diving off into the desert of Death Valley and on up through the Eastern Sierras back on about the 18th of March... and so far, some three and a half months later, we've only made it half way up the coast of Oregon!

And... we did it while digging our way through a major cost failure in Lincoln, California.

Our costs for our nights has been some of the lowest of our whole journey. All the way from $5 bucks down to ZEE-ROH.

Thass right... ZEE-ROH dollars in California! $2.50 in California! and now... here in Florence, Oregon... right on the coast... ZEE-ROH dollars!

Where always before, we'd mostly only managed to see $35 a night dry camping spots, $35 state parks in Cali... yadda yadda yadda... so we "raced" on through...

... we, now that we opened our eyes... or was that my mind??? we've discovered a whole slew of opportunities for the dinero challenged yonderer.

We've done this by stepping out of old habits, listening to small tips from readers and acquaintances along the way... and on many occasions... just wingin' it and letting our freed up instincts lead our noses.

So... here we are set up in the far fringe of the Three Rivers Casino parking lot.

 The parking lot is nothing special...

... but it's spacious and security is strong with patrols, lights and cameras...

This part of the world is not the place to just go rollin' into a campground the week of the 4th of July... thinkin' you'll have no troubles finding a spot...

Now... I'm not gonna blow sunshine up your skirts an' tell you that this is the most plush and luxurious of campsites... you wouldn't believe that anyway...

BUT... I am gonna tell you... that if I ran out there with a tape measure... we've got more room here... it's usually farther from our rig to the next...than it was in that truly beautiful State Park back at Honeyman! ;)

A real nice feature here, that we've done little of in the past, so it's kind of a fun change up... is having the casino up there to walk to.

The first night we signed up our Players Club cards. That gave us $10 bucks each of "Free" money for the slots. Then we strolled over and had an excellent Monday night supper that stretched my belly and cost us all of $16 bucks plus a tip.

The next night we strolled back up... gave 'em our email address... and collected another $10bucks each of "Free" money on the cards. Ok... so you gotta put real cash in to use the "Free" money... but they reimburse you on the card as you play...

SO... big risk takers that we are... we stuck a Buck in... One... single... High Dollar... DOLLAR... each.

Now... shaking like poplar leaves in a typhoon from our desperate high cost gamble... we pushed our slot machine buttons... Heidi walks out with about $8 real money (a few cents less)... me a few cents more... of REAL money... Two REAL dollars invested. Yes sir! Big Time High Rollers! :)

Last night we walked up to the Aces bar in the casino where they were gonna have a couple of comedians perform.

Again, being the hold nuthin' back, wild and wooly, BIG spending High Rollers in the place... I bought a $4.50 beer... and Heidi Selected a glass of soda... that the bartender refused to charge me for...

'course me being the guy I am... and poor at cipherin' anyway... handed him six bucks. A five dollar bill and a single... cuz you know... 4.50 is more than five and he needed another buck for the 50 cents right?... ??? ... yeah I know... it had me cornfuzzled for a bit too! :) so... to cover that up I walked away and let him think I was just makin' a decent tip! :)

Well... bottom line... let's see... supper $16. gambling $2... cashout from gambling $17... cost of parking spot ZEE-ROH... this deal could work out for a grifter like me!

Cost of Three nights of "Casino Camping", eating out and entertainment... uh... carry the one... take away the seven... add up the threes... uhhhhhh.... a buck! ONE Freakin' Dollar! :)

***edit... hmmm. Like I said... my cipherin' seems to be a touch off lately :)... forgot the cost of that beer... sooooo... make that $5.50 for the three days so far ;) ... but you get the idea!

People, ya can't get any better than that! Aw, we'll go up and eat again I'm sure... maybe even twice! and... there's a small concert with an up and coming country singer Friday night, so another Beer is likely... The Three Rivers Casino won't get rich off of us by a long shot... but we'll sure try to respect their generosity a lil' bit. ;)

There's more than one way to get a job done. If your old ways ain't workin' snoop around and take a chance on something new.

Asphalt Camping for the Holiday
Brian

State Parks Can Put a Guy In Danger of Ruination...

I lied... Just north of Coos Bay... turned out to be a ways south of Coos Bay. We worked hard all morning to finish loading up and hit the Sixes River Road just before 11 in the a.m.

Yeah... we really leave early when we're pushin' hard. Especially when we need to make most of forty miles or so! ;)

So... somewhere along in there I realized, it's Friday on the early edge of the heavy season, and we're Moving Camp? Why do things sensible and move mid week? Where's the adventure in that?

So, I'm rollin' down the road draggin' 36 bikes, a furniture truck and 95 cars of various makes behind my rolling road block...

As I'm driving I was cogitatin' that the BLM camp we'd just pulled out of was filling fast... to the point that the people there to 'get away from it all' were already arguin' loudly with the rangers about their loose dogs and double the vehicle/people limit per camp...

hmmmm... maybe we oughta not pass a possible spot early in the day on the lead in to a weekend...

Sooooo... we passed on early lunch burgers at the general store in Langois; which are storied to be worth your first born... and kept moving with the pressure building to find a camp before all the refugees from Salem, Eugene and Portland slide into the last spot and win the RV Musical Camps game.

We rolled past the Farmers Market in Bandon and hung a hard left into Bullards Beach State Park. If we can beat the last spot parkers... we can ride back to the Farmers Market in the morning.

So... that Free Park Pass for (service connected) Disabled Vets only gets you the "spot" right?

The gate keeper gal is going through her list and saying; "These two have full hook ups but this'un here is only water and electric. Go pick one and let me know."

To which the stingy, grump of a biker cowboy busted up Vet asks; "Well, I got the card 'cause it really helps out my pathetic budget. All we need is a dry camp, how much extra do I have to pay for the hookups?"

"Nada! It's all the same price for you guys. FREE!"

Now, how am I supposed to turn down that deal? :) So...we go pick the best looking of the available sites; one that gave us a bit more separation and some high bushes to give my shy self a bit more sense of privacy... and then went back to tell 'em which one...

"You took the one without the sewer hook up? The others didn't work for you?"

Ha! What can I say... I can't even manage to pick the FHU when they're available to me FREE! :) I never even noticed the missing sewer connection.

But, this State Park thing could ruin me! FHU's, Paved roads in and out for the Raider... The town is just 'bout a mile or two up the road to recharge the brew rack... coffee huts with better joe than I make... and beaches to walk on right by the camp...

 A boondocker that goes and gets himself used to this easy livin' could really mess up his ideas on his proper place in the Universe and trigger one of those conflagrations that you see on the covers of the grocery store scandal sheets; When parallel universes collide ! 

The sea gulls were flying an orbit around us... Coasting along into the wind up the dune... then they'd cut back over us and the sea... to circle around to make another pass... Apparently they've got it real tough too.

Looked like feathered wind surfers just playin' in the breeze.

We walked along in the afternoon watchin' the kids sail their kites, the birds sailing, the surf rolling... and all for the price... of simply bein' here.

Once again... folks say they can't live this life... or just about any they might choose, because they're too poor; and I say baloney. We're in the freakin' hole deep after last month's breakdown. The store income is down... book sales are down... website income is down...

So what!  I can be poor back in that other grinding life... or I can be poor here!

I'm as Rich as a Serf Robbin' King!

All ya need is a dream and the guts to have confidence in your own resilience ~ and THAT ~ is a Choice.

Livin' High and Living Free!
Brian

Oregon Tips the Scales in Favor of Disabled Vets

We've been dawdling along in northern California and southern Oregon even slower than what's become usual for us from a shortage of diesel... and... 'cause we were waiting to see if our new Card would show up...

...and it finally got approved and caught up with us.

I know several states have programs to benefit Military Vets in their park systems. But all I've found until now have been strictly for Vets that are residents of that state.

Oregon has done the others one better.

They created a program that gives Disabled Vets ten free days a month in their State Park System. The one better is that this gift is for ALL Disabled Vets, of any state, not just their own residents.

AWESOME Oregon!

The only stipulations are the disability must be service connected and the stays are available a max of 5 days at a time.

You can stay longer than the five days but then you pay full rate. If you move to another park you can take the remainder of the ten days.

I'd heard about it some time ago and just didn't pursue it. Foolish Me! After being reminded recently by a reader, I sent in my paperwork and the Card came today.

Thank You Oregon! Your generosity is sweetly appreciated.

Though our long term preference remains boondocking back in the woods or out in open country... in the thick and steep terrain of the Pacific Coast, those State parks are a gift for us, for sure and for certain.

We love to camp right on the coast, but there's only a couple of National Forest Camps and at $24 bucks a day and more, those other available camps are too pricey for us to allow a leisurely trip down the coast. We've had to move fast to get back to the places our budget would allow.

Ha! We was wrong!

Now that we've found the reasonable priced camps inland in California, a few BLM camps here in Oregon, and Now the gift of Ten Days of State Park use a month, our Coastal trips can slow down, stretch out and get Sweeter!   Utilizing the Oregon State Parks that are now more easily available to us, thanks to the generosity of Oregon, along with the USFS camps we know of... combined with the inland BLM camps we're discovering... The cost of a coastal migration for this wandering biker cowboy is no longer prohibitive. Suh-wheet!

While we were keeping our fingers crossed that the card would be approved and show up we took a lil' stroll up to the top of the hill where they'd built a Coast Guard Lifeboat Station back in 1934. It's just out the north end of Port Orford.

But the directions didn't make sense to me... Seemed to me that a Coast Guard setup is gonna need boats for a life boat station. ;)

Does that make you scratch your head too? A lifeboat station... on TOP of a hill? Sounds like typical bureaucratic thinkin' don't it? Actually it makes sense once you find out the particulars.

This part of the coast had wrecked more than its share of boats I guess.

So, they built a 30 some foot tower on top of that hill and manned it 24/7 to watch for distress flares out at sea ...  :) Their boat house from where they'd mount their rescue operations was in a small cove at the bottom. The boat house burnt down a long time ago, and the tower was taken down when they closed the station in 1970.

The only thing left are the buildings that housed their barracks, which is now a museum for what they did. We got there just as the museum was shutting down for the day... so poor me only got to stroll along the trails through the forest on top of the hill.

*Agate Beach*

The state is trying to change the name of the beach from what its been called... to something the indians named it... but... since I can't spell that :) I'll just call it Agate Beach like ever'body else does.

We've spent several hours there, hunting agates and have captured a nice lil' collection. I say lil' 'cause though plenty of Agates the size of goose eggs have come off that beach... we've only found 'em the size of humming bird eggs... from small humming birds... with calcium deficiencies. ;) 

Pretty nice view from up there. There's a rock off the northern end of the cape where a good bunch of seals were sunning in the... ahem... sun.

I tried to take their portrait... but from my vantage point they just looked like a lot of hairy sausages layin' about in the sun.

We're making another bump north in the morning. Hoping to find use of our new card at one of Oregon's camps just north of Coos Bay. Seeing as our timing for running out of days here in Port Orford is bumping into the weekend and that weekend is in late June... our fingers are tightly crossed that we'll find a nice spot to pull in for another few days without severe difficulty.

The real problem is that we've found long camps are tougher to break than short camps... Gravity has a way of spreading junk out when it has more time to work on it than short or overnight camps. Camp goods flow outward like thick mud.

After 14 days in a camp... it takes twice as long to pack up and go! ;)

Packing and Stuffing
Brian

Into Oregon... and a Glorious Roadside that Riches Would Likely Have Kept Us From Ever Finding.

Running north heading for Oregon the town of Willits hung a sign over the highway claiming it a prominent place in the scheme of things... Especially if the "Things" you're looking for are the tallest trees in the world ;) or... leastways I think they are...

Considering the narrow, twisty two lanes that are your only option to Hwy 101... I can't say that a fella could argue with their boast.

You can get to the same place without running through Willits... but you'll need some considerable bit more time to do it.

We considered stopping in the Redwoods this trip... but after carefully weighing the issue... and having my itch flaring after the slow journey we'd made through California the last many weeks...

... I mostly wanted to keep moving... though mostly to find the spot for another long camp to help heal our wounds from the Lincoln stop.

...and anyway... a single night or two is insufficient for this part of California... just as it would have been back down the way we'd come.

We'll come back here planning a long stay of a few weeks.

It's still difficult to just roll on through... the forests are so ethereal and quiet...  the serenity they give is strong and whispers to a guy... stay with me for a while...

With the rig on it was mostly impossible in the few spots with the truly big trees to pull in to capture any Arboreal Portraits... Those'll have to wait until the next circle too.

Since they've got a parking lot I can drag into without creating an obstacle for folks, and a few pic nic tables out in the sun, we stopped at the "Mystery Trees" Tourist Mecca ;) for lunch.

*Paul and the Blue Ox "Babe"*

There's the standard thirty foot tall concrete Paul Bunyan and his blue ox... and just for a bit of trivia (to correct the fable)... Oxes... are... uhhhh... STEERS... That thar ain't No Ox! That fella is a BULL! :)

Today... we also had, since it IS Californy... a bit of a Vintage Ford Car show...

I sometimes feel a bit guilty... making a night camp in a Casino lot. I don't suppose I should, and that's likely how they make their "Generosity" pay ;) but I do just the same. See... I'm not much of a gambler. Leastways not when it comes to laying money on a table and relying on the flip of a coin. Lady Luck is a gal that's not often smiled on me.

Now... making a bet where I can rely on skill, effort and a mite of ingenuity... something where I can have an effect on the outcome... and I'm all in.

Considering that The Casinos are playin' the odds with letting RVers park in their back lots, I guess I can just consider that with me... I beat the house on occasion. :) One thing I can say in defense of my using their lots to overnight is that we do often take advantage of their restaurants for breakfast. ;)

We overnighted at the new (18 months old) Bear River Casino 'bout 11 miles to the south of Eureka, California.

Since we pulled in fairly early and sunset was some time off, we unhooked and made a lil' sight seeing drive out to the coast from there... without the fiver filling the highway behind us!

Prowling around we found the Samoa Dunes Rec area on the west side of Eureka. A nice place for an evening walk on the beach... or to have your hot girlfriend stand in the wind while you impress her with your Polaris Flying abilities. :)

In the morning our journey north continued... accompanied here and there by a few others... trying to Get away from it all... :)

We'd set our target as a Forest Service camp near Brookings. Heidi even got 'em on the phone to verify that the camp was open... which it wasn't. :(

How-some-ever... they assured us that there were spots to camp "all along both sides of the road" near the closed camp. When asked SPECIFICALLY; "Will a 30' fifth wheel be a problem?" Their answer was. "NO".

Yeahhhhhhh... so much for putting a lot of faith in what a Federal bureaucrat tells you.

We turned up the county road leading to the area they'd pointed us at...

Hmmmm... the slope on my left would have required using both hands and a winch for me to climb... 18" off the right shoulder an equivalent slope fell off into a river a hundred feet below in places...

The farther we went... the thinner things got... hmmmm.

"a fifth wheel shouln't have a problem" ??? Really?

Well... I managed to find a spot 'bout ten miles in... where the twisting lane and a half road widened out enough that I could make 'bout a six point turn... and swapped ends to head back west.

Being as it was late in the day...'bout 3:30 I did a John Wayne... pointed at the ground and said; "Here! ...We'll make camp... Here!" ;)

I set out my triangles... kicked out the slide... walked down to the river with a cool brew... and Kicked Back!

There was a little bird working as we soaked up the serenity along that river... Kinda tickled me when it occurred to me that I identified myself with the lil' guy.

He goes about each day... working for what he needs... THAT... day. My bet is he wastes little time investing in tomorrow or yesterday. He follows that philosophy of live today... LIVE this moment. The next one may Never come...

He walked along the rocks and every lil' bit he'd kerplunk! disappear under the surface for several seconds... and come up with another  worm of some sort.

The trials of the past week or so faded away watching him remind me of our good fortune. I get up in the morning, in this joyous camp and when I open the door I am greeted by the Sea freshened scent of the coastal breeze.

I walk when I want through forests draped in ferns and flowers. The beaches stretch for miles along the surf. My motorcycle carries me down twisting ribbons of asphalt that send my spirit soaring. Fish swim in the river that flows past my camp, whose current fills my ears with its song in the night as the stars sparkle above the trees that shelter us from the wind.

Maybe I am so cash poor I have to eat PBJ and Ramen a lot... miss a meal here and there... slow down my miles from lack of diesel... and stay in out of the way BLM camps and secluded boondocking retreats.

So what? I like PBJ! ;) Fasting is good for you... going slow most of the time fits my internal rhythm... and I'm not about to complain about not being able to afford $50 "RV Resorts" with my neighbors hot water heater roaring under my bedroom window now am I? :)

At least I don't have this guys troubles. I may be poor... but the expense of shoes and socks hasn't yet driven me to running around barefoot in the rocks has it?!

My future stretches out before me. The sun is shining, the grass is growing... and somewhere as yet unknown... "A River Runs Through It."

Now is not the time for much rest...but the work is sweetened with the Joy of Freedom.
Brian