THE Problem For Long Term Drifters...

Is often...simply... Seeing.

There's a problem?

Sure... You've heard 'em... "We went from the Maritimes to the Grand Canyon. We saw the Keyes and Glacier National Park. We saw the dead white guys carved into the mountains of South Dakota and the Beaches of Oregon. We've seen what there was to see... so we left the road."

Only... They is WRONG girls an' boys. They burned a lot of fuel and rubbed a lot of rubber off the tires... but they didn't SEE a damn thing! They were so busy rackin' up miles, and puttin' check marks on the "bucket list"... that they passed right on by ten times more than they ever put in front of their eyes... or their minds...

Ever'body knows how much I admire Zion, Glacier and the Washington/Oregon Coast... but... those places are Easy.  They take no conscious effort to see... Hell, they Stun you. The beauty and spirit of that country jumps out at you and hollers; HERE I AM! You can't miss it.

What takes paying deliberate attention are those places in between. The places we Live for the long term. Their treasure is only... in a way... hidden. You have to search for it. The beauty and spirit are still there. It's just as vibrant and soul filling. And like "regular" solid people, it's not the "Flash" that can become; "I've been there, done that." The sort of beauty I'm speakin' of is the sort that endures... somewhere deep inside, in the places you can't put into words... it Lives.

It just doesn't reach out and slap you like in the Tourist Meccas. You just can't be lazy and see it. You have to want it. You have to look for it.

Where ever you are the spirit of Life is all around you... only it's not that noisy sort that almost overpowers and stuns your senses like in the Crown Jewels of Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion, Glacier... It's quiet and it whispers...

and think for a minute... if all the boondockers that are right this minute... drifting around the west, collected up in some great Free Mans Rendezvous in Zion or Yosemite... or any of the handful of Gorgeous spots... those places, and the Joy we get from them, would disappear under the weight of Humanity...

Plus... We'd be right back in that same prison we worked so hard to escape... living many weeks of the year for our too short pilgrimage to our Holy spots... and living the rest of the time in that same grey existence. 

Seems to me... a better way is to realize that there are Living Jewels around us... everywhere... all the time.

Here in this Arizona desert, that to so many seems stark and bleak, some folks never leave their rigs. Or when they do, all they do is drive into Q to have a dollar Taco at the local greasy spoon and then drive back home after dark. They MISS most of the beauty of this place... and likely most of the places they wander through. The  folks that never even leave town miss it All.

Every where, in every direction, if you just open your eyes to it... here or in Nevada, Montana, Idaho, Oregon... everywhere... from the high mountain peaks to the lowest of desert basins... to the waves crashing against some lonely beach... the spirit speaks to a man, free on the earth... IF ... He'll open his ears... and his eyes... and listen.

We were walking last evening... and I mentioned that it's kinda hard to find "New" photographs... after having pictured this place for a few winters now... and I had to give myself a mental SLAP! I was falling into the same trap I warn others about... That's why it takes deliberate effort...

I need to step out at different times of the day, in different moods, heading off toward new points of the compass... to see my surroundings from different angles in different weather... to learn all the personalities of this living land I am blessed to live on...

Just a Man ~ Free on the Earth.

All around me are always more mysteries to keep my old brain cogitatin' and wonderin'... and if I should run out of those... all I have to do is look Up...

Hunting the Hidden Jewels Others Pass By
Brian

Thanksgiving with New Friends and a Return to Normal Scheming

Had a pretty quiet Thanksgiving yesterday. Lazed 'round all morning... thinking we should get up and do something... but it didn't happen.

Finally did have to get moving though as Judy, a neighbor from across the desert a lil' ways, was scheduled to arrive about 1 in the afternoon with Cisco to share our Thanksgiving turkey... that tasted a lot like Chicken! ;)

If you look under the table you'll find...

Nigh on to two hundred pounds of dogs layin' about... waiting on somebody to get sloppy and drop 'em a tid bit! ;)

BBQ Chicken, stove top stuffing, veggies mashed potatoes and Punkin' Pie... washed down by Jack Daniels Down home punch, Raspberry Lemondade and/or Fosters Beer... depending on your taste.

Not so much the traditional meal... but Kickin' back on the desert, it works! :) Was a pretty fine, lazy, relaxing day...

... which always gives my schemin' parts the opening to take off a runnin'! ;)

Spent the evening of a lazy holiday penciling out a fresh set of To Do lists for the coming winter and year.

Uh Oh... What did I say just recently 'bout planning too much? :)

Today I'm workin' one part of part of one of those Lists... which is stringin' more words together on the manuscript for the working title; "Tears of the Hunter". That'll be book #2 in the Ben Jensen series after the Opening story; A Pair of Second Chances. (which I happen to think is my Best Story so far) I done fell behind on that project for sure! ;)

Other 'projects in the works' that might come of interest to RV Wanderers is designing and building a Camp Desk, (all by hand tool in camp) and for those into doing the craft of Leather work in camp, a modification of the Camp Desk design that shapes it into what I believe will be a very handy and portable Camp Leather Working Bench!

I've been wanting a convenient and workable lil' desk to set under the awning for some time. I just haven't liked what I'd seen or thought up... until this morning! I stumbled on the core of the idea that just clicked! Suh-wheet!

In fact, if the design I've found and am tinkering with works out the way I think it will, a clever and handy person should be able to take the design and modify it to fit just about any small activity they might want. From simple writing and journaling to Jewelry Craft? Whittling/Carving? Fly Tying?  Scrapbooking? even as a compact workspace for creating one-off journals from scratch ~ In camp! The list seems pretty endless to me... so check back to see how it turns out... eventually!

Those two I want to build, writing desk and leather desk, are modifications of a camp desk I found doing a lil' bit of surfing on the net. I was scouting about for some creative inspiration for just those two needs. Of course, since I can't leave anything just the way it is... I've got a couple lil' tweaks of my own I'm drawing up... now all I got to do is find a source of materials layin' out here in the middle-of-nowhere desert... and start hand cutting wood! :) ... uh ... don't hold your breath... it could be a few weeks! :)

Kinda nice, to be honest, to get back to my usual scheming about "other" things, now that the decision to just squeeze all the life there is, out of This Old Rig.

'course... that leaves one thing wide open; Where in tarnashun am I gonna pack these two "Portable" desks I wanna build... in this Crowded Old Rig? ;) ... Guess I could tie 'em to the roof! ... hmmmm...

What's life without challenges, right?

Well... Ben has got hisself into a mite of difficulty... so I'd better go see if I can bail him out, one more time! ;)

Tap Tap Tappin' as Always
Brian

When the Wind Blows... The Awning Goes

Made you look huh?! ;)

Naw, our awning didn't go away... but a time or three I've had to scramble to roll it up quick... which is a lil' tricky when the breeze is up under it and it's lifting your caboose off the ground... and ... it's 3 a.m. in the foggy brained, crosseyed morning and you're running around in a bathrobe hoping it don't blow open and give your neighbors a show!

A while back my brother-in-law ran across a guy that had built himself some criss crossed straps to tie his RV Awning down. Bud liked the design so he built one for himself...

... now me being who I are... I used what I had, picked up a couple more bits at one of the flea market shops over in Quartzsite and zipped my own version together this afternoon.

The usual design you see is a stake in the ground with a strap that runs up over an outboard corner, across to the other side and back down to another stake off the other corner.

As far as that goes it works pretty good.

Buuuut... This guy Bud run across had made what I believe is a really good variation. Rather than only a single strap he used two; and rather than just running across the RV Awning out by the roller, they run diagonally from the wall of the rig near where the awning is mounted, up and over the top arm/bar to the opposite, diagonal corner and down to the ground stake.

The result being that not only the roller is supported/tied down but the top brace bar as well... and then the crossed straps keep the RV Awning fabric itself from ballooning up and really lifting things in a breeze (spell that WIND!)

Combined with a few good "De-flapper" straps ~ I use the factory de-flapper bar plus four more after market straps...

The design Bud built uses a thumb snap he hooks into a hole in the ground base of each awning leg. The strap is laced through that snap and is sewn back on itself. The other end (at the ground stake) uses a pair of rings for a locking adjustment buckle on the 1 1/2" strap. Then, he connects the strap to the ground stake through a couple of trampoline springs to give it a lil' "give".

Well... I have a bag of tie-down winch straps from tying down the bike. On some of those, the nylon strap had got cut or rotten over time and all I've got left is mostly the winch and the hooks. Looks like an RV Awning tie down to me! ;)

Also, I had a few straps that were the friction buckle kind of tie down. You just pull on the strap to tighten it...

I'd decided I didn't like the way they worked tying down my motorcycles... so they haven't seen much service lately...

So... I used the buckle and hook ends off a pair of those...

There are a few of the Quartzsite flea market shops operating. One, is a place that sells all sorts and varieties of tools, gadgets, miscellaneous bits and pieces and gee gaws I've seen no other place.

Rolled down there this afternoon to see if anyone in the Q had what I needed... THOSE folks had Just the ticket...

 Now, the straps Bud used are 1 1/2" I believe... but... the strap winches I already posses only fit 1".

I figure... if the wind can bust a 1" nylon strap... anything it's tied to is gonna already be shredded... so it'll be plenty strong.

Also...there's enough springy stretch in those straps... I don't believe I need the trampoline springs.

I picked up two 50' rolls of 1" nylon webbing.

also... I spotted a variety of pegs for my ground stakes.

For $2 each I selected two fine looking 18" chunks of rebar with rings welded in place to secure the straps to.

Now, Bud had to wait for my sister to go shopping... so he could sneak out and run his straps through her sewing machine...

... to secure those 1 1/2"  buckles and snaps in place...

... me... being lazy and cheap...

... and using what I had... only had to lace that nice new long nylon webbing into the friction buckle of the old tie downs at one end...

... and the strap winch at the other end...

No sewing, no riveting... just lace it and go! Suh-Wheet!

I hooked the strap where I could near the base mount of the awning leg and threw the balance of the strap up over the awning...

My mounting points here are improvised/temporary. I need to afix some sort of permanent hooking point. The strap hooks are just too large to run through the holes in the leg bases.

With the strap up over the awning I laced it into the winch...

Probably gonna just pull it up and over next time. ;) I'm guessing tossin' that winch very often is juuuuust bound to end up whackin' some poor innocent passerby!

But now... with ever'thing in place and assembled... I just hooked 'er in and started crankin'!

Wa La... one cowboy modified, motorcycle tie down winch RV awning Tie Down!

Using the old winch and tie down strap hardware I already had and $12 in new strap and rebar stakes...

I'm hoping I can leave the awning down now short of a hurricane...

...and not have to go to scramblin' ever' time the wind blows...

*Criss Cross RV Awning Tie Downs*

Geeze... when I think about all the times I jumped up in the middle of the night when the wind came up... and how easy this setup was...

Makes me want to go pop another Landshark and ponder somethin'.!

Weighing the the life of a Gypsy Boondocker...

...Under my Tied down Awning.
Brian