Just Movin' On...

Pulling for Tucson we decided to take a road I don't believe Heidi has ever been on... and I can't remember being on it in the last 35 years... so... it's not real familiar.

Rather than haul across I-10 through Phoenix or even drop down and run across I-8, we chose to drop on down hwy 85 and make the run across the desert through Ajo, Why, Sells and other assorted nooks and crannies of the Sonoran desert.

Figured to save a bit of fuel too... running even slower than I do when forced to execute my rolling road block on the super slab! ... buuuuuuut... at $4.12 for diesel... my cipherin' can't work out any savings no matter how slow I go! I tried backin' up... but that just left me with farther to go! :-/

We got across the Barry Goldwater gunnery range below Gila Bend with no major difficulties... I got a bit nervous when that A-10 dropped in behind us and I started hearin' a beepin' noise... but when I locked up the brakes, piled out of the cab and started kickin' rocks and stuffin' sponges in my nerf gun... that pilot knew he'd poked the wrong badger and flew off quick before somebody got any bruises! ;)

Now... Ajo is not the... uh... cultural center of the world... but I hadn't realized it was quite so far off the beaten track...

*Ajo Arizona Mural*

Apparently, according to local muralists... the town is three miles past the edge of the world!

So... not sure which direction that was... We found a good enough widespot a mile or two up the Darby Wells road just a short way east of Ajo, without falling off... though I did rattle a couple of teeth loose on the washboard.

Pulled in early enough, even after a late start out of the Bouse area to take a short walk up the hill behind camp... and found about a dozen rigs scattered across the desert on the other side of the hill.

*The Eagle is just down there on the left*

This area seems a lot fuller with flyin' critters too... and not just the tin can sort...

There was this guy that kinda looks like a Cardinal without the red ;) and I sure question the comfort of this zoomies perch...

They were both sorta shy so the pics had to be grabbed zoomin' out purty far and hand held... things get a mite fuzzy.

The dogs jumped a couple bunches of quail that beat off a ways... and we could hear a pair of Doves callin' from the palo verdes... Lots of feathers to find for the birder sort I guess.

It is a pretty area... even with the remnants of "locals", which I don't get... is it a cultural ceremony or something? or just a character flaw that requires mental midgets to shoot up cactus and leave shards of broken glass littering as much of the desert as possible?

Can I say I just gotta question the value of havin' such dirt bags using air in a crowded world?

I mean... I found a Saguaro on our walk... that had a freakin' ROCK pounded into it... A ROCK!

All the other lil' scars I took to be either .22 shots or shotgun pellets... takes a lot of skill... and considerable IQ... to shoot a cactus or a tree... We don't need gun control... we need pest control... and parents that actually inculcate a tiny lil' bit of respect in the replacements they're inflicting on the rest of us...

I can't but agree with the folks that say; "We have to pass a test to drive a car but any damn fool can wiggle their bean, reproduce and call themselves Dad... it just makes no sense." ;)

Maybe what we need is a new regulation that allows the common citizen to tally up three "events" a month of applying educational cellulose to random miscreants they stumble across in every 30 day piece of time.

"Applying Educational Cellulose"; that's when you take a decent length of 2X4 and lay it firmly along the side of the useless eaters head in an attempt to knock some sense into the mouth breathin' beer sucker.

Yeah I know... breathe in breathe out... It's their RIGHT to be stupid... right? So, look out across the glorious wide space I call home... and if some poor misguided loser finds that all the air leaked out of his truck tires while he was out busting beer bottles and vandalizing five hundred year old cactus just shake my head and say; "Damn... it must have been his Karma!" :)

We'll be in Tucson tomorrow. She'll get to scopin' beads and I'll get to splittin' the wind and stringing words... and maybe somebody will invent a way that we actually CAN fix stupid! :)

Not Where I Was and Headin' Toward Where I'm Not
Brian

Fine Rigs, Good Friends and Shining Times

This area may become known to us as Rendezvous park. ;)

It's had Judy and Cisco, my sister and brother-in-law, a couple of Jerry's and a Dan ;) There's been a cavalcade of folks visiting us here.

Yesterday afternoon my good friends Kerry from British Columbia with his Lady Terry and Darryl along with Lady Marion rolled into camp for an afternoon and evening of Shining Times.

They brought with 'em steaks, stuffed potatoes, corn on the cob, salad and a bottle of wine... All we had to provide was the desert!  Awesome! ;)

Kerry and Darryl and I have put our scooters in the wind together for a couple of thousand miles... and somewhere in the future, at least Darryl and I maintain the fuzzy ambition of another ride through the Yukon. ;) Kerry wants to be the housing operator on that long ride, hauling his RV for us to put up in at night! ;)

We had several hours of a great visit. Heidi's favorite part of the conversation was Marion mentioning that; "I don't get you guys... You guys DROP it, You FALL DOWN, You LOWSIDE... What's that about? Say what it is; YOU CRASH!" :) She's still giggling 'bout that one.

Well after dark we reluctantly bid them all good bye as they left our fire; Kerry and Terry to roll their truck back to Yuma, and Darryl and Marion on his wing riding to the Casino in Parker.

A fine end to a good day. We'd started out with a quick run into Quartzsite for what was supposed to be a hobby/craft fair/show... uh... that was nowhere to be found. Plenty of folks in the big tent selling knife sets, steam cleaners and assorted candy... No hobbies or crafts to be seen... There were how-some-ever, quite a few fine hot rods and juuuust a few lil' custom RV's.

How'd you like to pull into camp with one of these as your RV Toad or even your Tow vehicle? How fun would that be?

Then there was this lil' outfit. A "Tracker T"... a suzuki sidekick/chevy tracker is a rig I'd really like to find a way to add to our camp. A high MPG runabout would be a fine improvement for backroading and foul weather. The Raider is pretty iffy on gravel roads! ;)

Yup, that's a Tracker! ;) the guy took a Suzuki Tracker/Sidekick and remodeled it as a Model T.  Kinda fun don't you think?

Outside the Big Tent was the collection that grabbed our attention... a collection of customized Vintage Ford and Chevrolet trucks...

... all pulling equally Vintage and Custom Tear Drop Campers...

There were some sweet lil' rigs there and Oh Lordy... talk about stirring up an old scheming busters imagination! haha... That's a surprise ain't it?

This morning as I struggle to maintain enough patience to get posted in spite of the intermittent and weak signal Mark wrote about the other day an unexpected drizzle is falling on the roof. I'm hopeful it will move off so I can stay dry as I load up camp.

We'll likely be moving tomorrow or the next day to get on down to Tucson and prepare for the Gem and Mineral show.

Yeah, I stew on occasion over things that need stewin' over... Freedom ain't free... You have to WORK to protect it...

But still... the greatest majority of the time... Life is Good. Life is Damn Good.

We Rattle On
Brian

It's In The Wind...

Funny how the "answers" seem to come as if someone had 'em scheduled somehow. This mornings tunes were from the Forest Gump Soundtrack... one stuck out... "The answer my friends is blowin' in the wind... the answer is blowing in the wind..."

I wish today's music said a lil' more... and raged a lil' less... maybe me too! ;)

A friend wrote me yesterday. He's kind of a contrast to this lil' rooster both Physical and personality wise. While I'm this runty, bowlegged, loud, Biker Cowboy... he's a tall and wide "mountain" of a fella of Viking heritage, who is mostly a lot quieter. One of the "Gentle Ben" sorts you know?

He's the sort that LIVES life for all it holds, laughin' and grinnin' in the wind. He don't sweat the small stuff... Yeah, he's grinnin' in the wind while I'm workin' up a lather tormenting over every lil' syllable I hear some Napoleon wannabe spout and echo. 

Yesterday he said;

"I'll continue to move forward with my head in the sand and only worry about those things I can control. (He's a lot more pragmatic than me!) While my civil liberties continue to erode I choose to ignore those written words and maintain my civil rights as I see fit. I'll let them Think they've taken them away."

Get it? He'll ride Free. He'll breathe Free... He'll Live Free... and he'll BE FREE...and he'll let the damned Tyrant piss in the wind.

What he said to me, what he reminded me of is; The power that lives in Freedom. If you THINK Free... You Live Free.

Only if you obey the tyrant does the bugger win. Ignore the foul smellin' thief and he is often largely impotent. He's too fat and lazy to chase you far... so all you really need do is kinda stay out of sight and hang it in the Wind! HooYa!

We'll be breaking our boondocking camp here early this coming week. The gem and mineral show is in Tucson shortly, and we've got to meet some people there to do some business for Heidi's lil' store... or she does.

Me? I'm planning on rubbin' off some Yamaha tire rubber on some Southern Arizona asphalt.

Tentatively we're looking at utilizing the Pima Country Fairgrounds while we're doing the Gem and Mineral show... It's convenient and relatively cheap, if awful crowded for my likes. But, I can deal for a week of "working".

Anyhoo... I'm gonna follow a little of the advice of my Viking Gentle Ben buddy and Maintain my Freedom as I see fit!

Our spring NASCAR job comes up shortly after Tucson... and then... sometime we'll start off on this years circle.

I'm leaning toward a bit of a variation this year. Last season we tried to save some cash by mostly hanging in colorado through the summer... being that close to her grandkids... Heidi probably burnt more diesel running to Denver than if we'd driven to Whitehorse! ;) So screw conservation... We'll put it in the wind.

We'll return to making a wide circle and damn the fuel... but also... I'm leaning toward making a clockwise circle this year... cutting west or a bit north west before turning full north, rather than our usual run up through Utah/Colorado/Wyoming and Montana...

We've not rattled through Nevada in a long time... and Heidi still wants to go through that Sonoma country a bit... I want to roll the Raider along the PCH some more...

RV Boondocking and RV camp costs are more difficult along the coast... difficult but not impossible. I do know of at least one casino parking lot that works for an overnight ;) I'll just have to sharpen up my skills at finding a few more of those.

Then we'd come across Oregon? Washington? Idaho? to make our fall swing through the Rockies arriving back in the Valley of the sun... 5,000 miles or so later... just in time for NASCAR to inject a few dollars into our fuel tank.

Who knows... I was supposed to ride to Alaska again in June... That seems a stretch just now. It could happen if there was a sudden unexected restoration of gold flowing into our coffers... but... when it's all said and done...

... no matter what happens... You'll find us putting our Noses in the Wind, living life and soakin' up the Freedom that is ours. The Freedom that Nobody will Ever take from us. HooYa!

The answer my friends is blowing in the wind...

With My Nose to The Wind
Brian