A Couple More Steps Along the Road.

Took advantage of the nice weather today and got the 270 watt Kyocera Solar panel I stripped back off the Lakota mounted on the Drifter's Wagon.

Decided to run the cables right through the roof and seal 'em down tight, along with a big puddle of caulking around each foot of the solar panel.

Even if the mount screws failed__that caulk ain't gonna let the panel go anywhere.

The roof vent is kinda close but no option there to catch the roof bows for mounting. I'll only have to point the nose North when I set a camp so as to eliminate any worries of shadowing the panel... so no worries at all.

Now I'm waiting on the two little windows I ordered to arrive so I can get them cut in.

With the windows in place I'll be able to move on to insulating. 

This "Hardside Tent" will be livable in no time 😉

This next gypsy season is gonna be a sweet one. Minimalist Biker Camp in miles  and miles of far country for my boots...

... and miles and miles of knees in the wind on winding ribbons of Asphalt.

- Brian

All the Work to Get Small...

Progress is coming along real slow. Turned out the liner panels of the drifter wagon I'm building up were put in with some sorry sort of nail!

So rather than screws coming out easily, they had to be removed with a pry bar... which does/did a lot of damage to the plywood... not sure how much will have to be replaced...but...it's out now so__progress.

Finally located the small windows I want to use and getting them ordered. I can't proceed with insulating the rig until those are cut in so been vanishing some cabinets while I wait on window arrival.

Still need a third cabinet. That'll be 1 pantry. 1 kitchen misc. Hardware and 1 linen. (A very few Blankets, towels etc)

The only other thing done is the solar equipment I put on the Lakota has been removed. It now waits installation on the drifter wagon... been too windy and getting worse the past few days...

The credit union that was holding the title on the bike finally got its act together. It should be to me today or tomorrow__finally! Only took a month! Yeah... shiny performance.

One slow step at a time progress... but it's moving.

- Brian

Working at Getting My Head Right... and Making Progress!

Yeah I've been bad. I know. Buuuut I was real superstitious and not wanting to jinx my deal so I been keepin' my mouth shut! I'm hoping, since it's not ALL locked up I'm not doing that now! 😆

Any way... if you go to  my bike blog you can catch up with where I'm at along the trail of my "rebuild" without me having to write it in twice...

I'm still working on just what I'm going to do with blogs and sites going forward... and getting back into some sort of a working routine to do that...

Whatever, here, there or where ever... there should start to be some action 'round here again!

Brian

"Life is what happens" ...

I'm sure you've all seen some version of this meme... yeah well... me too! "Life is what happens while you're busy making plans!"

I believe I've got my brain untangled from the last dizzying gyration... if not my carcass. That chore is going to use up some time.

I'll be hauling out of Missouri for a bit of a circle Starting in the first week of September. I've a few things to take care of in Colorado on a swing that will then take me up to the eastern border of Montana for what's become my annual harvest job.

Then I'll be coming back to Missouri for the early part of the winter at least. There's much planned. Much simplification, much work... and much adventure. I can't say that I think that way... consciously searching out adventure. It's just the reality of how it works out.

Thing is, generally speaking, I've never the dinero pocketed to step off knowing what's gonna happen. So, a lack of cash and an impatient nature usually has me starting a "journey" 'thout knowing for sure and for certain how I'm gonna make it fly... I just always seem to get where I'm going. Even if that's not where I started out to get to!

But... when I look out the window, for sure and for certain, I am where ever it was that I got To!😆

I just work out the "Details" along the way! Since some define adventure as being some sort of a journey where you haven't any real notion of what's going to happen or how it will all shake out... I guess that makes my impatient, asset challenged kiester an Adventurer!

Anyway, at a minimum the late fall, early winter is set to be spent organizing and outfitting for the next chapter of this busted rover's journey. I think you might could find it interesting. Stay tuned!

-Brian

A Few weeks ago I Commented to Another Nomadic Wanderer...

He had written about his choices and options, self doubts and all such things that rattle around in a drifter's mind during the long lonesome times...

My comment to him was;

Some are meant to wander and question. This world demands anchors and so those of us who truly prosper in the wind are made less of.

When we listen to the demands too long we begin to believe them... yet that kernel of Truth within survives.

An Eagle only seeks a roost at night... or a short while to raise the year's brood... and then it soars and revels in its Freedom.

The whale migrates through the year, always moving. Geese follow the seasons.

Yet people, most, dig in and ... well ... that static life fits them, but not All.

Sure, a spot to rest, to repair, to meditate, until the hunger comes on again, is a good thing at times...

But... the hunger, the need for Far Views, the chest swelled big with pure air not yet breathed by a thousand others...

To ponder life... the deepest sorrows, the grandest joys... the frustration of knowing your species is inexplicably un-educable... sipping a fine beer under the stars of a camp deep in Far Country... 

The True and healing Joy of a Wanderer...

Those were my words to him... and to my self.

One of my greatest failings is the old "Do as I say. Not as I do" sort of deal. I need, more often to go back and read the words I myself have written from past lessons pounded through a thick skull.

The other day one of those epiphanies stuck like a clap of thunder... it showed my the way I should go... Just where the trail lay and how to step it out. The trouble is... TIME... the Time when I can strike out along that trail is some 90 days and more into the future.

My second greatest failing is self doubt and second guessing. If I can make a choice and step off right then I'm golden... but ... If a period of time is enforced between when I make a choice and when I can actually act on that decision... Ohhhhh Lordy... why that's way too much time for an over active imagination to conjure up all sorts of goblins and dark conspiracies that blow my grand Idea into dust.

That leaves me working between now and say about the first of November to NOT let that trouble making piece of meat 'tween my ears muck up what is a pretty good fix for the fix I wandered into!

I'm not going to whine and blame my predicament on somebody else... I made the choices I made... and if I made them based on words of others my acceptance of their false word is not their fault. I believed their story... ME. The Con man may be telling a whopper... but it only works because the one that gets conned ignores the warnings... lead on by his wishing.

I've written in the past about following your heart... I believe now that I may have missed that one a little; Don't follow your heart. Your heart lives in a fantasy land... go where your soul leads you, as it whispers to your brain... Your soul knows what you need. Your heart is stupid as shit."

So... My heart paints me a pretty picture... but just now I'm working at achieving what my brain, guided by the whispers of my soul tells me is achievable in the wishing of my heart...

Achievable - If - I am willing to reach out with enough courage and energy. If I have the cajones to make the hard choices.

What's best is not easy... what's easy is not best... and what I want is Prime.

I've got maybe most of six weeks left here before I've got to roll through Colorado for to let the VA poke and prod a bit and make a showing at the wedding of a friend... then I turn north for Montana, FINALLY! Sweet Montana...to work the harvest...

Once that job is done for this year... the fun and New Adventure begins...

Like Mark said... Adventure is when you step off with no idea how it's gonna end up...

Well... just like back in 2010 when we stepped off with three weeks of dinero and something over four weeks till the next expected income... I'm looking at stepping off on the next chapter of this Journey without all the dinero to get it done...

... and most likely... making choices that most people will be saying... "What in THE hell is that brain damaged idjit thinking?!!!"

Yeah... It's gonna be a ride!

- Brian

End of the Trail - Last Post - Moving to a Fresh Blog

I'm making the final move now. I can't seem to get the powers that be to let me hang the new blog on the nav bar of the website like has been done in the past... so the only way to keep up is to bookmark the fresh blog.

This blog will fade into being an "Archve"... all Fresh Posts will be on my New Blog;

A Fine Horse in New Country

If you'd like to keep up with where I'm goin' and what I'm about that'll be the place to do it. 

Hope to see you on down the trail a ways.

- Brian

I'll Soon Be Rolln' My "Bedroll" Out in a Fresh Camp...

I'm working on a "change of venue". That's one of those writes euphemisms for; I'm starting up a fresh blog. I came to thinking I needed something that was more fitting to how I'm going these days and what I'm about...

Onliest trouble is__As seldom as I set such things up, getting it done is a piece of work. There's a fancy bit of elektawnic dancing that has to be done... and nobody, especially the ones who created the system have a real working idea of how to go about it.

When you factor in all the eggheads sitting behind the keyboards for the big outfits running this show__(The internet) it gets danged messy. They repeatedly "Improve" things (That is - mostly fix what ain't broke just so they've something to do). The result is, it takes twice as much work and a week of blue smoke, bad names and dirty words to sort through the "Improvement"... and generally the beer brewers sales improve as a consequence... I needed an excuse... Right?

Been trying - and failing - to get a Fresh Blog linked to my RV Website... they've made it so hair pulling convoluted, and I've no hair left to pull... that I'm questioning the value of goin' through their exercise.

The hoops to jump through are way to disjointedly explained, with far too many "mights" and "sometimes" and "Ifs" used in relation to their directions. That gives them an 'Out' when it doesn't work and nobody knows why... (which is from my perusal of the forums where folks are struggling for help with the "new" and "improved" and "Easy" system...

The likelihood is I'll abandon that lil' enterprise and just go a different way with it.

Not a bad thing... it'd fit into the simplification I'm truly trailing just now. Much of the "Internet" has lost a lot of its shine for this old buster.

That said A Fine Horse in New Country will be taking over as my "Main" blog in the very near future... there's little to read there just now... only a paragraph or so and some page headers for pages I have yet to build... all just to give me something to post as an initial test and to lay the foundations for me to tinker with.

Soooo... I'd appreciate it, if you want to keep on trailing along, if you went there and "Followed" me again. The gadget to do that is right there on the right hand side... 'Course as always, you can just bookmark it too.

I've got all sorts of doodles and ideas I want to work on (and write about) in the future so might could be the 'Semi-sabbatical" I've been on for a while is winding down. We shall see.

This blog will remain... I'll write a "Link" post here when I make the final move (and this blog will remain (along with my very first blog) as an "Archive" and a way for people to find where I went!

Many Thanks
Brian

Sunrise on the Desert

I give her first feed before dawn. It's quiet then and the air is crisp.

Cora whickers softly when she hears me scooping her breakfast. It's a good feeling to be met at the gate.

It's a good time of day. Your lungs fill with a long slow breath of pure desert air... you just stand for a few minutes watching the light change. Listening to your mare feed. Feeling the cool breeze on your face...knowing a pot of fresh coffee is perking on the stove, all those small things...

Life slows down enough so you can see how it should be...how it should have been...

-Brian

Installation of Solar Power on My Lakota LQ!

That installation is making good progress... even if I do sit at the desk working on the book until way late in the morning__to give the sun plenty of time to chase off the cold from the desert night! 😆

Since I've no compartments up front where I could safely mount the Controller and breaker panel I had to track down a usable enclosure - and modify that with ventilation.

Since the enclosure is needed to keep the weather off the electronics, I'm hoping my ventilation fabrication doesn't fail me. ;)

I simply drilled grids of holes and then capped those with electrical boxes drilled in a similar fashion.

That I mounted under the goose...then managed to hoist the 270 watt Kyocera panel up onto the roof and got it secured to the roof bows.

Finished that off with a heavy application of Dicor self leveling sealant over the mounting brackets. That stuff will prohibit any leaks and serve as a secondary mechanical hold as well.

All the pieces are now mounted in place... well all except the remote monitor...

All that's left now is to get it all wired up and my Horse Camp solar power system will be up and running!

Future plans are to double my battery capacity and figure out somewhere to hook in a decent sized inverter.

Would be nice to be able to fire up the coffee maker without having to run the generator...

I figure to need at least a 1500 watt unit to do that chore. 

But it's all good. Steady progress comin' along on all fronts... If I can just get that elusive "Rider" locked down I'll be a happy buster.

-Brian

Let's See... Where Was I?

 Oh yeah... I was preparing to leave Missouri...

It's now been something like two weeks... and I'm 1200 miles or so away from where I was... In fact, I'm back at my winter camp quarters in Cochise county.

I left Missouri bound west for Colorado... stopped in a place called Kiowa for a few minutes along the way to put those side compartments I built up to use...

Yeah... you're right... that's not motorcycle fuel...

Been flip floppin' four times a day for weeks... the last lil' bit in Missouri something clicked and the decision got made.

I took Cora back. CJ had got sold much earlier, and for whatever reason she didn't...

Bottom line... I started back to find that trail again and on that trail I will finish.

So, from Kiowa I kept moving west and started climbing back into my beloved mountains... to bust the truck straight away climbing out of Denver... sort of.

I waxed another fuel filter on the climb... Barely made it over the passes... but still managed to limp into Grand Junction once I got down off the passes. A fresh fuel filter the next morning and I was good again and ready to pick up...

Cora...

*Cora came home with me to Cochise*

 I loaded her in the Lakota just west of Grand Junction on a Tuesday morning and lit out for Flagstaff Arizona... where I had additional plans.

We stopped in Flagstaff for a couple nights on the way down to pick up most of the hardware to do a Solar Power install... I'm weary of the grinding of a generator and the hassles of dealing with the buggers...

Then, Thanksgiving day we rolled the six hours from Flag to my winter camp below Turkey Creek down here in Cochise County.

... and set to work!

I wasn't even sure if the thieving nature of a lot of the human race would have left me anything at all since I pulled out last March... but luck was with me. The round pen I needed was still standing and even its Gate remained hangin' on the posts!

I've been scrambling too many miles just about since we got here. Lined up a good bigger cistern and had to go get it. Was planning on a trailer to haul it with but cogitation set me a different way. Assuming I take off on a summer circle, a water trailer is one more piece of something I've got to deal with to prevent it from growing legs...

The cost of delivery of the lil' bit of water we use actually makes better sense than all the expense and hassle of another trailer... so... that's done and I've water for nearly a month sitting in the tank outside.

Then as I was stumbling around doin' all that... I crossed paths with some furniture... to do a remodel that's been percolating in my head for some little while...

*The Couch - Before*

I decided that "writing shed" in the back is just too much awkward and inconvenience... soooooo... on the weekend after Thanksgiving I did a whiz bang change up of the interior of my Lakota LQ Horse trailer.

*Cowboy Writing Desk and Chair - After*

If thy couch offends thee... Pluck it OUT!

... and replace it with a slick used writing desk and a sweet new chair that is WAY more comfortable than the old hide-a-bed couch!

and when I'm not sitting in the chair reading at night... it spins around to sit at the desk working...

Plus... Arlo's bed swaps with the chair...

*Arlo seems to prefer his bed under the desk*

With this setup, I can get up in the oh damn it's early 3 in the a.m. when sleep refuses to co-operate and sit at the desk with a hot chocolate and work...

... while it was just too cold last winter with the desk out back in the horse compartment...

So with that all done, this week I'm working on the inventing I have to do to wiggle a 270 watt Kyocera solar panel setup into the rig.

I'm having to fabricate a protective box for the controller and small breaker panel up under the gooseneck... since there's no compartments on this rig like a "normal" person's rig.

Cora... well... she was at a trainer in July but she's not been rode since mid September... too long for a green colt and a buster whose confidence s bruised. That busted shoulder of mine still has a ways to go to be 'good'...

So, I'm searching around for a good rider here to put a half dozen maybe ten rides on her to get her warmed up and moving again for me. Then I can swing a leg with much stronger confidence that I won't be a non bouncing projectile.

... soooo... I think that's about all that's been happening... juggling so many irons I'm not truly sure at any partic'lar moment where I'm at or what I'm doin...

Still have to rework that heater duct that ran under the couch... complete the install of the solar... and get that rider locked down ASAP to get Miss Cora under saddle strong. (eating a little pride there will go a long ways these days...)

I'll try to keep things a little more up to date... but between the hustlin' and Microsoft/Verizon stuffing my data plan with never ending HUGE updates every time I turn on the Hotspot... They have me spooked a lil' bit... ate 4 gig in fifteen minutes last week while I was just checking my accounts and email! arrrrrrggggghhhhh!

a 16 gig plan evaporates pretty dang fast at that rate! Crooked as politicians!

*The super moon just before I left Missouri*

Time now for me to move the chair to the sittin' an' thinkn' spot and kick back for a bit before I turn in...

Till next time
Brian

Close To Getting Back On The Road... I'm Going Home.

A fresh set of tires went on before I started the heater core. HanKook at discount tire as always. 60,000 plus on the tires and the best customer service available at discount. And that's proven out all over the country... They've even spread up into Montana and the Northwest the last couple years so I'm covered now Where ever I wander.

I finished replacing the bad heater core the other day... no thanks to Chrysler. That has got to be the poorest design and placement for a heater core I've ever had to deal with. Had to cut it into pieces to get it out... and modify the replacement - to get it in!

Cut off most of the hard tubes and ran longer hoses inside the firewall. After three hours and a bit of pushing, shoving, torquing and cursing I'd decided the B@$&@*D was not gonna go in... so I cowboyed the sucker, triple clamped the hoses and put that job to bed.

So far... no apparent leaks... I was some afeared that We'd torqued on those swivel tubes too much trying to fight it into place... buuuut so far it seems healthy.

The Truck is now at the welder to rebuild the failing "factory" hitch on the bed... gonna take a mite longer than he'd planned (life gets in his way too!) but I should have it back  by Tuesday.

There's a couple of last jobs to do on the truck before I head west... and then I'm bound for what I'm looking at for the next part of this Journey.

Things are happening, choices made__which I will share as they come to pass...

As it stands now I'm looking to maybe hit the road late in the week... all depends on the welder and how the last lil' chores I need to do on the truck shake out.

A few scenes from the past several weeks;

*The last sunset over my Missouri river camp in September*

*The Moon that night over the Missouri River*

*Missouri River Moonrise*

*The view out my door at my Harvest camp in Sidney*

*Harvest Camp*

*Missouri Sunrise*

*Misty Missouri Sunrise from my door*

*The Coop finally got it's Gable siding last week*

I'll be rolling west on the interstate. As much as prefer rolling slow on the two lane, after the ordeal of struggling through the twisting and narrowing two lanes of east Kansas and west Missouri just getting here... I'm gonna take the super slab to get outa here and get where I'm going! ... Home...

Ready to start making another circle...

- Brian

Ongoing Truck and Rig Work...

Finished an upgrade to the side compartment on the Lakota...

The Welder is laid on to repair/rebuild the forward/factory hitch on the truck. His price will save me a bundle over what I had figured I'd have to spend, so that's a good thing. Only issue is he can't do it until next weekend. So...

... Today I start tearing out the dash of the truck to replace the bad heater core. A job I was holding until the welding was scheduled...just in case.

Ugh... I'm- Not - a mechanic. But the $$$ to have a shop do it is HUGE! The core itself is only 60 bucks... I've been quoted $700 - $1000 for the labor to do the job!

Soooo... the truck is backed into the kids shop so at least I'll be warm and dry while I bust knuckles, curse auto engineers and get it done.

...U do have my motorhead son in law for backup in the evening... if I manage to wrench myself into a corner...

A few other upgrades still hoped for... as soon as the heater core and welding are done... if all goes well with that!

- Brian

The Journey Continues

The harvest is finally done. I made a slow, three day run back to Missouri.

Planning on a week and probably a bit to do some needed work on this old truck. Tires, a hitch issue...a few odds and ends...

...then it's back on the road and west__to whatever the future holds

-Brian

Meandering Across Montana... Trailing a Fork in the Road

Left Seeley Lake a while ago. Rolled along for miles pondering the fork in the path that sits looming in front of me. It stayed hidden in the dust - for miles... just vague shapeless forms moving in the haze. Hard to discern. But after a while the road and Montana did its job and they did come clear.  The options and the needs. Which way to go...

I also came to understand that publicly sharing too much with too many is... well it is what it is. Best to not leave too much sign to follow. Too many sick little trolls in the world just waiting for the opportunity to ambush. All they serve to do is divert, obstruct and degrade whatever they can. Worthless bits of anonymous walking talking manure. They know who they are...No use for them. Time to curtail a lot of that...

You have two basic choices for how you behave in this world, really. You can support and nurture and lift up the dreams of others... or you can be a malicious, snapping dog that rips and tears at anything it can reach - and is reviled by all. Beating on someone when they're down... illuminates which you are... But beware... eventually that 'one' will get back up and dust off. Which would you rather be? One of those who stood guard? and earned respect? or the dog they kick... next time it comes a snapping?

Been sitting on the bank of the Missouri river waiting for the time to head over and get to work in Sidney.  That day is today. I'll hitch up shortly and stop by the dump station just down the road before making the 140 mile or so haul.

Just a couple days before we go to work. The next five or six weeks will be a work/sleep situation and little else.

Dug a deep hole. Like I said a good while ago, it'll take a good while to make the repairs... This is the next major task to be done along that road.

*Sunrise over the Missouri*

*Missouri River Sunset*

*... and another*

 It matters not if you get where you're headed. It matters only that you keep reaching...

- Brian

The Waters of Seeley Lake Don't Whisper to You Like Maybe The Blackfoot does...

But, the Clearwater River does feed it and it is still waters! Though... those waters aren't real still when there's speedboats pulling Water Skiers and rafts in amongst the Jet Skis zippin' around!

Ever' night seems like just at sunset it calms pretty good and the cooking fires sift their smokes through the trees...

Up out of the north end of the campground there's a short trail where I can take Arlo and turn him loose for a while so he can get some of the run out of his system.

Up there a ways I found a Beaver Lodge I sure don't remember bein' here before, though I'm sure it was. You always think of Beavers building their outfits on creeks and streams don't you?

These'uns decided they wanted a waterfront property on a nice lake with a view!

They came drifting home from a sunset swim through the Lily pads as Arlo and me wandered by. A lodge that big I'm sure there's more'n just this couple... but they've got a nice place. They turned out of the sea of lily pads across a small bit of open water and disappeared into their underwater front door.

*Seeley Lake on Fire*

About that time I accidentally got kind of a cool shot. Three girls were being whistled around on a raft by a good sized speed boat. The sunset light caught the wake the raft kicked up and made it look like they were rafting through Lava.

Yep... even the water in Montana can catch fire! Ha ha.

*Seeley Lake Sunset*

These pics were taken at the end of a pretty long day. Had to drive three hours to pick up a fresh new lil' generator I stumbled across to replace the Onan that died for certain and sure several days ago. For $150 plus the diesel to go get it I'll take that Lil' champion over the thousand dollar Hondas. It's not as quiet for sure... but it was still "new in the box" and since there's also no thousand bucks for the other I'll be happy to have this'un...

Without it, it would get REAL quiet around here!... and kinda dark! :)

Still have an electrical gremlin of some sort but I've got a fresh lil' Champion 1200 now to keep the batteries as powered as they'll stay...

As long as Montana keeps Charlie Russell's sunsets working... so will I.

-Brian

So Far...Montana Keeps Me Going

I've had weak to no signal and multiple pokes and jabs to deal with so haven't been able to post.

The generator died. Holed something. Getting blowby through the crankcase, so that's kind of a hassle when ever'thing you need to do requires electricity.

Then the phone blew up... or locked up. Changed my password all on its own and ended up wiping out everything on the phone... so that was fun... apparently it's some sort of  "glitch" running through android smart phones__and a few Iphones... nice.

Had moved to a camp on Lost Trail pass in the SW corner of Montana. Beautiful spot. Couldn't get up on top where I wanted to go where there IS some signal... because this too long Lakota can't make one of the turns on the way coming up that logging trail... so I stayed below in the FS camp... and tried to work.

That can be hard to do through all the "things" going on...

There was a fire a few miles north had to keep an eye on... it closed the road up there a time or two. Then__Just to keep things interesting...

*Montana*

*Mountain Jewels*

A second fire blew up just four miles in the opposite direction... threatening the only road out! Started feeling pretty snake bit. But watching the slicks and the fixed wing work that fire was pretty interesting.... and then a fire crew went in... but those pics were on my phone... and lost,

*fire on Lost Trail Pass*

Saw this off a hundred yards or so walking up to the top of the road one morning... kinda glad it was off so far. The camera can zoom to let me see ;) It was 'bout the size of a basketball...

Got a little work done with all the distractions__but not near good enough. Moved up to Seeley lake yesterday. Hope to get some work done here... though I still have to figure out how to get power. Only source I've got right now is the truck.

That's purty obnoxious to have to run a 9000 pound noisy diesel generator for the hours it takes to recharge batteries... sheesh.

I try to balance the irritating, draining and seemingly unending "issues" with plain old Beautiful Montana... so far it keeps me going... but I'll tell you what... one poke and jab after another, coming so quick you ain't got time to overcome the first before the next strikes is getting kinda old...

Did get word that the fools at the bank, after nearly 120 days of askin' for it...FINALLY sent the Title to South Dakota so I can get legal again... Should have a plate on the trailer in a few days... as soon as the mail man delivers the mail... so that's a good thing.

... anyhoo__ it's off to one foot in front of the other I go...

- Brian