Skin Surgery

On Tuesday, December 4^th, I went under the knife. On the last couple of annual visits to my physician, he has taken measurements of a reddish hued spot on my back shoulder. The spot hadn’t changed significantly between visits. My doctor also didn’t know what the spot was. That would require a biopsy of the tissue.

Some time ago my brother, Bill, suggested I call his dermatologist to appoint having her take a look at some of the spots on my arm. An appointment was made and the date came around. The dermatologist took scrapings of the red spot on my shoulder for a classification by the pathology lab. She also took a sample of a mole on my lower back, as well as a scraping from a spot on my scalp.

The doctor’s lab report came back. The spot on my head was no worry. The red shoulder spot was a form of cancer, as was the mole. None of the spots on my arm were a problem and the doctor had used nitrogen to burn the few blemishes into disappearing. A new appointment was made for me to return to have the two bad places surgically removed.

 So, here I am in one of the many patient visiting rooms in the doctor’s office wing. The nurse

had already asked me to sign a release form for the work to be done. The form’s wordage was very canned and it left no door open for patient comeback.

   It is 3:15pm and the doctor came into the room at the appointed time.  She began by sketching football shaped drawings around each of the two spots on my back. She explained that the shapes would guide her with the cutting, and that the shapes would also show her were to retrieve skin to stretch over the wound when she was stitching over the gap.

The doctor explained to her nurse where and how she wanted the skin numbing agent, Lidocaine, to be administered. Lidocaine is a nasty chemical. I could not feel the prick of the needle with each insertion, but the small amounts of injected Lidocaine created a sharp sting. This sting reoccurred with each of the couple of dozen pokes I received to cover the affected areas of the two surgery spots.

I was arranged face down on an adjustable chair/bed. The nurse gave me a couple of pillows to lay my head on. It was just a few short minutes between the Lidocaine injections and the large area numbness result.

The doctor returned and the surgery began. There was continuous conversation between the doctor, her nurse, and me. During the surgery all I felt was occasional firm pressure on my back. I was asked if I was comfortable on the bed. That led to a discussion of the cost to replace the chair/bed

with a more modern unit for the cost of $16,000. It was at this time that I shared with the good doctor that one could construct a more comfortable bed using a padded solid core door and adjust its height with a couple of attached floor jacks.

She agreed with the functional simplicity of the reality of the adjustable surgery bed. However, she also wanted to do some redecorating of the room and the surgery bed would become a center feature. Looks were everything.

A bit of time was spent discussing the relative lack of attractions on the room’s walls. There was a typical framed print of what the cross section of the skin looks like. Certain features were blown up in scale to highlight a visual point. One section of the print displayed color depictions of different skin anomalies. These ranged from acne to cancer. The room had one other print which hung on the rear wall. This was a watercolor of a picket fenced driveway, through a grove of trees, which led to a farm house. It was momentarily interesting to study the artist’s use of perspective in the painting of the fence as it approached the house at the far end.

Two padded chairs were in one corner of the room. None of us liked the pattern or the colors of the fabric used for the back of the chairs. We also mused about the benefit of having a few magazines to help pass time for the waiting patient.

During the nearly one and half hours I was in the room, there was regular questioning regarding my level of comfort. We had already discussed most of my discomforts about being there, so I responded that I was “happy as Larry”. Neither one asked me who he was.

After the cutting was all done then came the cauterizing. This prompted a short discussion

about whether the bottom opening section of the garden window had ever been used. I learned that its summer use was quite regular. This window looks out onto a six foot wide space between sections of the building. The strip is about 30 feet long, it is open to the sky and it is floored at the parking garage below. Planted in this narrow space is a variety of bamboo. We talked a bit about how marijuana may grow in this publicly hidden recess. The window didn’t open today, and there was no exhaust fan in the room.

For several minutes the surgeon created loose flaps of skin which extended to the perimeter of her pre-drawn football. We had earlier discussed whether to use dissolving suture, or to use thread that needed to be removed. I was given the choice, but the doctor told me it would be sewn up with non-dissolving thread. Shucks. That means another visit. I guess that is ok, though, because it requires an examination of the result.

The stitching took some time. There was some dissolving suture used after all. The crater created with the removal of the mole required a bit of intermediate level sewing. I could feel the skin being tugged as the darning was completed. As the doctor stitched, the nurse occasionally patted the wound with gauze.

When the job was pronounce done, I asked the doctor to take a couple of photos of the damage done.  This she did. As I sat in the readjusted chair/bed the doctor began to worry about my post-surgery state. I noticed that I was quivering a bit. I put that to myself as being caused by a stress

relief. The doctor insisted that she fetch me a glass of water and a granola bar. I was asked what flavor of bar I would prefer. I chose the chocolate variety.

The nurse constructed patches for the two wounded areas. She then put together a bag which had materials and instructions regarding when and how to replace the patches. While the nurse was bandaging me, the doctor was preparing a prescription for antibiotics and for pain pills, should I feel I need them.

I was scheduled to return in two weeks to have the stitches removed. A second appointment was made for six months out for follow-up on my skin condition. It has been two days now and the only discomfort has been from a feeling of tightness when I flex my shoulder. I have taken a couple of doses of Tylenol in anticipation of pain, but it hasn’t happened. I had been cautioned to avoid upper body exercising for at least two weeks. Well, I am not going to the gym just to ride the bike – so, not at all.

My skin condition, although not too bad, is the result of not wearing protective clothing when I was younger. I remember bailing hay on the farm while wearing neither a shirt nor a hat. I rarely apply sunscreen, but I also avoid over exposure to the sun’s rays today. The sunburns of the past happened. Which one may have caused the skin mutation which led decades later to the two growths on my back, I will never know. I suspect, however, that they could have been prevented.

Pipe Buddy

Farmers need to keep their fields green, whether for grazing a herd or for growing the grasses for harvesting. During summer months, the easiest way to get this done is by laying a sprinkler line. The most common irrigation system uses 40’ lengths of 3” diameter, aluminum pipe.

Each length of pipe has a Rain Bird type sprinkler on one end and an interconnecting latch on the other end. Each piece of pipe slips in the open end of the last piece of pipe and latches with a rubber gasket seal. A pasture uses enough lengths of pipe to ensure sprinkler coverage from fence to fence. Beginning at one side of a field, the pipe is laid out and watering is done, typically, for at least an 8 – 12 hour period. At the end of that sprinkling time, the pipe needs to be moved to the next riser, or pipe line feed point. Each length of the 3” pipe is carried a fixed distance away from, and parallel to, the last position. The line is reassembled piece by piece and the sprinklers are activated with a valve at the riser.

It is common that each length of pipe will still be filled with water when it is unlatched from the next piece of pipe in the line being moved. When this occurs, the pipe is raised from the sprinkler end and the water is drained. The pipe changer then walks to the center of gravity point on the empty piece of pipe. This point is always closer to the sprinkler end of the pipe. Lifting the pipe at the balance point makes it easy to carry, and easier to insert and latch into the last piece.

A common malady with the onset of older age with the farmer is his/her ability to stoop down to grasp a length of pipe. Normally, the next piece of pipe is approached at its balance point. The pipe is then lifted. If it still has water inside, then the pipe is lay back down and the changer walks to the sprinkler end where the pipe is disconnected and raised to drain. When drained, the pipe is laid back down and re-lifted at the balance point.

 

This process can mean up to three times a single length of pipe needs to be lifted from the grasses. Being difficult or even painful to stoop to grab the pipe can make changing the pipe an arduous twice daily chore. Pipe Buddy to the rescue.

Pipe Buddy is a foot and half long and it allows one to grasp a piece of pipe and lift it to within reach of the other hand. Once the pipe is secure in hand, Pipe Buddy is then hung onto a belt attached Paint Buddy which frees both hands to work with the pipe.

 

Pipe Buddy has a finger grip beneath the handle. The grip, when pulled, wraps the two fingers around the piece of pipe. Tension is maintained on the grip until the pipe is raised and grabbed by the free hand. When the grip is released the latex tube spring reopens the fingers for their next lifting. A wire spring of the correct weight could be used in lieu of the latex tube.

If the pipe is full of water, it will be difficult to raise using Pipe Buddy. The pipe changer just releases the grip and lifts from the sprinkler end of the length of pipe. All of the normal stoop and grab steps have been eliminated with Pipe Buddy.

Pipe Buddy was created to assist a specific farmer’s need. The same technique can be used to lift things other than 3” irrigation pipe. The two fingers would need to be changed to suit the object being lifted.

Frame Maker

              One of the handiest tools in the wood shop is the table saw. When working with replicating multiple, small pieces of stock, a sled makes the job easier. Stock can be placed against the sled’s rear wall and then the whole sled is pushed into the blade. Clamp a stop piece of wood on the back wall of the sled and you are guaranteed consistent cut lengths.

            I made this sled from scrap 3/4 “ pressboard. The front and rear walls are 3/4 “ hickory. I had a stick of wood that was just about the perfect size to use as slide runners on the bottom of the sled. After passing the stick through the planer, its dimensions were perfect. To attach the runners to the bottom of the sled I sprayed the contacting side of each runner with 3M contact glue. I then put the runners in the table saw’s slots and aligned the sled on top. When I lifted the sled from the saw top the runners were in place and aligned. I clamped each runner while I secured it with a couple of recessed screws.

            When the sled had its runners I tested it on the table saw. It slid without any binding and it didn’t wiggle from left to right as it slid. A critical step in building the sled is to attach the rear wall so that it is at right angles with the saw blade. To do this, I placed the blank pressboard, with attached

runners onto the saw with its blade lowered. I then powered up the saw and slowly raised the blade through the pressboard. This action produced a blade reference line which I could then use a carpenter’s square to line up the rear wall. The two walls need to be attached on each side of the blade’s cut line in order to keep the sled from falling apart the first time the walls are run through  during a low profile cut.           

            A popular décor need is to be able to build frames. With a wood shop equipped with necessary tools, why would you need to purchase a frame? The frames can also come out of your shop having any odd dimension that is required. Now, to come up with a way to use the table saw sled to produce accurate 45 degree cuts.            

            I put together a templet that looks like half of a picture frame. This 90 degree piece was cut with equal leg lengths and the end of each leg was cut with a 45 degree angle. The templet can now be placed on the sled and it will form a back stop for cutting frame wood. I drilled a 1/4 “ hole in the middle of the templet’s reinforcing center piece. I then aligned the templet to the left and right edges of the sled’s rear wall. I drilled two 1/4 “ holes into the sled, using the templet hole as a drill guide. I then glued a peg into the templet which extended from the bottom by 1/4 “. The frame templet can now be pegged to the sled for either a right hand, or a left hand 45 degree angle cut. The mark on the wood to be cut is simply aligned with either the right or left edge of the sled’s blade slot. With the templet pegged to the far edge of the sled, the frame wood gets cut without any need for the blade to contact the templet.        

Making Music

            Everyone had a difficult time during the American depression years.  The 1930s saw a resurgence of homemade musical instruments. Times were hard in the American South, and sitting on the front porch singing away the blues was a popular pastime. Musical instruments were beyond the means of most people, but with an old cigar box, a piece of broom handle and a couple of wires from the screen door, a guitar was born. 

I have made a couple of guitars out of cigar boxes. My favorite one is a single stringer. I am a former band student and I learned music on the coronet. The coronet, of course, only plays one note at a time. Playing chords is not an instinctive thing for me

Until a grandson took up band, and needed a coronet, I used to keep the horn in the man-cave.  There I would occasionally relax in my old office chair and pick up the horn and blow some familiar old tunes. Having given up the instrument to a greater need, I was without a tune maker. This wasn’t good.

A Trip one day through central Oregon, on our way to Ontario, found us stopping at a tree shaded one-business village. The café/curio shop had a collection of nice sized cigar boxes. I bought a couple of the boxes with the intention of making a guitar. As I drove on the design began to form in my head.

The first cigar box guitar hangs in the man-cave and I often lift it down to see if it still plays a good tune. It is ugly, but it is happy with the notes that I strum. I wanted to build a three-string guitar so that I could teach myself some simple chords.

Recently I found myself without a woodworking project. I had some nice scraps so I decided this would be a good time to build my own home designed cigar box guitar. This instrument would be a three-stringer with a round, two inch thick body or sound box.

I began with 2 inch wide strips of 1/16 “ hickory to form the round walls of the body. After soaking the strips in the bathtub for a couple of hours they easily formed a circle when placed inside a 10” embroidery hoop. I let two of the loops dry overnight. When the hoop was removed, the hickory had taken on the circular shape I had wanted.

After laminating two of the loops I had a 1/8“ thick, by two inch wide wall. To the wall I glued a thin laminated piece to the bottom and a 1/8 “ thick surface to the top. Add the neck piece to make a 27” instrument, fashion a bridge and a nut, add three old tuners and I had fashioned my own cigar box guitar.  Now, I need to pay attention to the chord charts.

Weed Buddy

I had just fixed a lawn sprinkler. I used a pair of pump pliers to turn the sprinkler head. Heading back to the garden shed to put tools away, I noticed a bit of weed grass in the lawn. This is the type of weed that stays low and doesn't present a stalk which one can grip. I had just mowed the lawn and there was no grabbing this weed with my fingers.

I had the pump pliers in my hand so I knelled down and shuffled in the grass to find the center stalk of the weed. I jabbed the pliers to the dirt and closed around the weed. To my surprise, the weed grass pulled out easily and it came with roots.

I tried a couple more weeds and I found that sometimes the pliers didn't grab low enough and I just ended up breaking the stem. I needed something similar to the pliers, but with a broader grip surface and the ability to jab into the dirt to guarantee getting roots and all.

I had a spare pump pliers, and I had some thin flat-stock steel. I fashioned two spearhead shaped pieces of steel. These I welded to the jaws of the pump pliers. I added some gripping friction by gouging a few lines onto each head with a Dremel bit. A quality welder I am not, but the pliers left the bench vise with enough weld on each grip to meet the task. 

I took my new Weed Buddy to the back lawn where I put it to a thorough test. The pointed heads stuck easily into the dirt. The gouged surfaces let nothing slip away. The added width made jabbing at the precise center of the plant less important. The pliers are built to be easy to grip and the handle length means little gripping pressure is required. I didn't experiment with the pliers' ability to adjust in width, but that may not be an important feature. 

Building a Peterborough Canoe

ETCHEMIN – Algonquin word meaning: Canoe Man

Chris has always been attracted to watercraft. For several years he enjoyed a sailboat. His backyard hosts a composite kayak. He has collected several books which outline the construction of wood strip canoes. It may have happened when he moved into his Medford home. His canoe books resurfaced.

            One day Chris brought four canoe books to the house and asked me to look through them. His idea was that we should select a particular canoe model and then build it. I did read each of the books and I found a strip canoe model which I thought would be an easily handled two man lake canoe. He agreed with the selection. The situation was this: Chris has a full time job, his garage has limited space, and he doesn’t have some of the tools to do the build. However, I am retired, I have adequate garage space, and I have all the tools necessary to complete a build.

            So, it was decided. I would build a strip canoe, with Chris’ assistance. The model I chose is the Peterborough. The construction parameters of the Peterborough are presented in the book Canoecraft, by Moores and Mohr. Virtually all canoe

designs have evolved from Canadian styles. The Peterborough is a direct descendant of the first “white man’s canoe” crated by John Stephenson 125 years ago, it is one of the main models built in the original cedarstrip technique. Its narrow beam and shallow arch hull make it ideal for general-purpose paddling and light tripping.

            The first thing which had to be done was to build the mould. The mould consists of 14 stations, plus stems at each end, which are fastened to what is called a “strong back”. The stations are made by mapping their hull shape dimension onto large graph paper and then transferring the pattern to plywood, or particle board. The strong back is constructed from two 2”x10” boards, each 16’ long. The strong back needs to present a very flat surface onto to which the stations are mounted. Construction of the mould was completed by mid-January, 2018.

            Typically, a strip canoe is assembled with 1/4”x3/4” clear strips of Western Red Cedar, or

Redwood. The Peterborough is 15’9” long. Strips which are laid near the shear line will measure a little more than 16’ in length. This is because of the arched shape of the hull. I chose Western Red Cedar. The picking was slim at this time of the year, but I found a lumber yard which had a selection of 18’ long timbers to choose from. The board foot calculations of the amount of timber needed meant that I had to buy four 2”x6” lengths. In order to carry these pieces of lumber home, I had to create a way to safely secure them to the pickup. I came up with what I have called the “Lumber Buddy”. When the lumber yardman saw how I secured the lengths with the Lumber Buddy he was impressed, and he said that I ought to patent the design. Inquiring minds can find Lumber Buddy on my blog site: rfdblog.blogspot.com.

           Once home, the cedar boards needed to be ripped into 5/16”x2” strips. These strips then needed to be planned to a finished thickness of 1/4”. After sizing, the 2” strips needed to be ripped once again into 3/4” wide strips. The finished 1/4”x3/4” strips now had flat edges. When building with 90 degree edges, you are left with large angle gaps between each strip. This is because the hull shape is curved. The gaps would need to be filled and sanded. A preferable edge shape is to use strips with a bead on one edge, and a cove on the other.. This allows you to form a wood-to-wood ball joint. The initial strip has a cove presented to the second piece. The second piece has a curved, ball, edge which fits snugly into the lower cove. The bead and cove approach permits contouring without creating gaps between any two strips.

            The bead and cove modifications to each strip meant I needed to do some creating. I didn’t have a router table. So, I built one which was tailor-made to create the precision bead on each strip, and then to change bits and re-router each strip to cut the cove. The 1/4” bead and cove bits were a special order made through a local machine shop.    

            The weather in January is predictable. It will rain. Because of the length of the strips, all of the ripping, planning, and routering had to be done outside of the garage. And, the machine work had to be done while weather permitted. Most of the prep work I was able to do by myself. Chris helped as often as he could. The strips were prepared and they were stored safely in the garage. Whew! That was a lot of hurry-up work.

            Anne and I were getting ready to leave on our “2018 Winter Get-Away” in the RV. I had

enough time available to put the first two strips on each side near the shear line. The mould is constructed on the strong back such that one is building the canoe upside down. I demonstrated to Chris the technique to use when adding strips to each side. I suggested to him that if he budgeted time each day to add but one strip, then the canoe would be formed by the time Anne and I returned.

            The two and half month get-away was a fantastic adventure. We returned on April 1^st. Due to other factors, the return to canoe building was put off for a few weeks. Resuming where I had left off the hull got finished within a couple of weeks.

            The convex outer hull needed to be dressed until it was baby bottom smooth. There were inevitable spots which required a dab of wood filler. The entire hull needed to be sanded with 80 grip paper. That was then followed up with120 grit, and finished with 220 grit paper. I have never sand so much in my life; and I was just beginning.

            When smoothness was achieved, the outer hull would receive a layer of 6# fiberglass. The glass would be applied using epoxy resin. I had earlier ordered a shipment of the necessary length of

fiberglass. It had arrived. Chris used copious amounts of epoxy when he was building Alpaca guitars. Not knowing how he may be involved with his Alpaca company in Medford, Chris shipped his stock of resins and hardeners when the family moved west. We were gifted with adequate epoxy stock.

            Epoxy resin has no affinity to vertical surfaces. Applying the resin to the fiberglass was straight forward; dribble some on, let it soak through the glass, roller it out, and then squeegee off any excesses. The pot life, or the time the resin can be worked is about half an hour. The resin becomes tack free in about 4 hours. After that time, and for about 4 more hours, additional resin can be applied with assurance that it will bond molecularly with the previous application. Beyond about 8 hours, the layer of resin needs to be sanded to ensure a mechanical bond with the next layer.

            The first application of resin is sufficient to bond the fiberglass to the wood hull. There isn’t

sufficient resin in the first coating to cover all of the glass weaving so a second, and often a third coating of resin must be applied. This will achieve a clear, fabric invisible finish. That is the goal.

            Until the resin becomes tack free it will seek lowest potential energy; said another way, the stuff runs. Squeegee all you want to remove any excess resin, there is still a way for it to form a dribble. At tack free the runs have firmed sufficient to make them un-squeegee able. This means that the next coating will have to wait until the last coat has been sanded to remove the lumps.

            Sanding is the primary avocation when building a strip canoe. I burned up one orbital sander and needed to visit Lowes to select a replacement. The process is accepted and the results are truly a reward. With the outside of the hull finished, it was time to remove the hull from its mould. I first built a couple of sling stands to hold the canoe. I unscrewed the stations from the strong back and two of us then flipped the canoe right side up and placed it on the slings. Then I began removing the mould stations.

            Looking at the completed shape for the first time made me realize how amazing it was to have

gone from the crude, shapeless stations on the mould to what had become a wonderfully styled canoe. There was to be much more sanding to come. The outer hull is a convex surface. As such, it had no places where the orbital sander could get jammed. Hello, concave. Sanding the inside of the hull is a much more difficult task.

            I carefully worked through 80 grit sanding paper to 220 grit papers. The inside of the hull was smooth enough to fiberglass. Draping the long fiberglass cloth onto the outer hull had been easy. You carefully rolled it out and then you draped it to contour with the hull. That cannot be done with the convex inner hull. The glass fabric snagged at every opportunity. The fiberglass had to be carefully lifted and dropped to achieve the best fit. A few darts needed to be

snipped into the fabric as it was fitted into the tight space of the stems at the bow and stern. I used a soft rag to smooth the fabric to the hull’s surface. Clothes hanger clips were used to secure the positioned fiberglass to the shear line.

            Appling the initial wetting coat of epoxy to the inner hull was a nightmare come true. As with the outer hull, I dribbled resin on, spread it out, let it soak in, and then I squeegeed and rolled the glass. Unlike when glassing the outer hull, air had no place to escape. The squeegee and roller process aided in bringing captured air to the surface. I did the process as best as I could. I then cleaned the tools and removed my gloves and apron. Now, I waited.

            I was shocked when I returned to the garage a few hours later. I had left the fiberglass in a bubble free state. However, I had glassed the canoe early in the morning. As the hours past, the ambient temperature rose. This created expansion of un-noticed air pockets and of the natural out-gassing of the wood as it warmed. The result: lots of bubbles, tiny bubbles; and no wine.

The surfaces of the bubbles were firm enough so they could not be coaxed into sticking back

to the wood. I got up the next morning, loaded 80 grit paper onto my new orbital sander, and I began removing bubbles. Along with bubble removal, I was tasked with dribble removal duty.

Thank goodness the inner hull does not need to be brought to the shiny smooth, low resistant glossiness of that of the water contacting outer hull. It did, however, need to have at least a second coating of resin. This coating would fill in some of the fabric weave exposure, and it would fill in the spots where I had removed the bubble caps. Oops, I forgot to mention that the second coat of resin would also leave a ton of dribbles on the inner side walls.

The shear line was trimmed at the bow and stern to give the canoe a pleasant raised stem look. Once that was done, it was time to begin attaching the inner and outer gunnels. I had chosen mahogany to make the gunnels from. Because of the significant curving required to follow the new shear line, I had to prepare the mahogany in strips. I would then glue and laminate the strips to form the compound curves at each stem.

I chose mahogany to also use for the seat frames. I had made the frames during down times in the glassing process. There are many different ways a seat can be built as far as covering. Besides epoxy resin, Chris brought with him from Vermont a large amount of paracord. This cord had been used to craft straps for the Alpaca guitars. So, supply met demand. I patiently wove paracord to make a very firm, but comfortable seat. A seat was made for bow and stern positions.

Also, during epoxy curing times, I made two paddles. I made the blades of each paddle out of leftover cedar strips. I then made the handles from hickory. The blades were given a layer of fiberglass on each surface and sanded smooth. I fashioned handle grips from scraps of Western Australian Eucalyptus. The paddles would be strong and comfortable to use.

I used every C-clamp I could find to attach the outer gunnel to 1/4” below the shear line. With the shape clamped on, I then drilled pilot holes and drove screws through the mahogany and into the glassed hull. One side of the hull at a time, the outer gunnel was laminated and in place. With the screws holding the outer gunnels to the hull I could now reuse the C-clamps to fasten and laminate the inner gunnel.

The inner and outer gunnels were in place. I replaced each screw holding the outer gunnel with an oak dowel plug. I carefully drilled the dowel size hole half way through the inner gunnel at

each screw position. Tightbond Ultimate wood glue was used to secure the inner and outer gunnels through the canoe’s hull. After 24 hours of cure time for the glue, I removed the C-clamps.

When the gunnel laminate was clamped 1/4” below the shear line it created a very smooth curve. That curve’s fineness could not be created by trying to saw the shear line beforehand. Now that the gunnels were in place, it was an easy process to use the orbital sander to bring the shear line down to the surface of the gunnel. A couple of coats of epoxy sealed the wood of the gunnels and produced a smooth gripping surface.

At least one thwart is used in the strip canoe. The thwart is positioned at the center of the hull. It is mounted to the underside of the inner gunnel. The thwart ties the hull at its middle. This piece of wood also is used as a handhold and as a means of hoisting the canoe overhead for short overland passages. The thwart is made of hickory. I fashioned it so it could fit behind the neck when carried.

All of the while I stewed about how to suspend the two seats. For the sternman’s paddling reach and efficiency, the stern seat is placed as far back as 36” from the stem. This distance still provided enough hull width for the seat. When the seat is hung at least 8” high it will permit the paddler to put his feet under the seat. This seated position allows greater power to be put into each paddle stroke. Also, the lower the seat is will provide a lower center of gravity for the canoe, and thus greater stability.

Most strip canoe builders seem to use something like a long carriage bolt to hang the seats from the inner gunnel. The inner gunnel of this canoe is only 1/2” thick. I didn’t feel a carriage bolt would work well. I decided on a method which hadn’t been written about. I used some of the same paracord I had used to weave the seat to suspend the seats by their four corner stubs. This meant drilling 1/8^th inch holes in the inner gunnel mahogany. I also drilled holes in the seat corner stubs. The seats were tied at the stubs and they hung at the desired 8” height. Hopefully, the seat problem is solved. As a serendipitous plus, the seats can be quickly removed or their heights altered. Why? I don’t know.

The last thing I needed to do was fashion a hook on one end, call it the bow, so the canoe can be tied when at shore. I wanted to avoid using non-brass or non-copper fixtures on the canoe. I experimented with a few designs before I settled on a hammered copper plate with a flat brass strip, curved at the stem and bolted through the small end deck wood. I used a weak acid solution to clean the two pieces and then I sprayed each with clear enamel. This, I hope, will maintain the bright copper shine.

The cedar wood strip canoe is finished. The last thing to do is to prepare a vehicle to roof-top carry the work. The Vanaroo already had a large roof rack. I bought several lengths of pipe, anti-freeze foam to cut and tie wrap to the rack. For good padding, I used double layers of the foam. 

Loading the canoe is a two person task. The canoe is hoisted to height, its gunnel pushed against the roof rack, and then it is rolled to an upside down position on the rack. The only part of the canoe which contacts the rack is the gunnel at the 36” seat position near each end. Two lengths of soft rope snug the bow and stern into their foam pads. Now, I need to gas up the van and decide which nearby lake will host the canoe’s maiden voyage.

 A Hopi Indian work might describe the bowman and sternman in the canoe: Chowilawu – joined together by water.

             

2018 Diamond Lake

Friday, July 20, 2018

We have had the RV in for service twice since our return from the 2018 Winter Get-Away trip. The first stop was to replace the damaged driver’s side slide-out cover and to repair the jack leveling system.

The slide-out cover problem was apparently due to a hit on the roller assembly. This may have happened when we tried to find a spot to park at one of the more remote RV parks. I remember trying to avoid some very low over-hanging tree limbs.

The jack leveling system had a burned circuit board. Its replacement cured the problem.

The second service stop was for a more serious problem. Every once in a while we would begin to drive away from a camping site and find ourselves being bounced high in our seats. The front airbags had not held their pressure and we were riding on their interior coil springs. It wasn’t both front airbags, but just the passenger side bag.

The technician at Freightliner Truck Repair likened the bad airbag to a tubeless tire. If the tire’s pressure got too low, the bead’s seal with the rim could come apart. Adding air may not recapture the seal. When this happened with the airbag stopping to recharge the system sometimes immediately resealed the bag. Sometimes, however, it didn’t. More than one recharge attempt needed to be made. When stuck on a busy highway this created a problem.

Freightliner replaced the one airbag. The thought was that this would also help level the front end of the coach with the road. The passenger side has always had a bit of sag. When addressing the secondary level problem, the technician discovered that two of the coach level adjusters were also bad. When it was all repaired the front still sagged about ¾ of an inch. The chassis was perfectly square with the ground, but the body sat low on the front right. Apparently this was an assembly flaw when Winnebago put the coach on the Freightliner chassis.

The reason for the service diatribe was that we had an appointment to meet with Judy and Bill Eller on Friday, July 20^th, at Diamond Lake RV Park. Anne had booked reservations for a site many weeks earlier. We would spend a long weekend with the Eller’s.

Judy and Bill were married a couple of years ago. Judy, formerly Judy Mooster, has been a longtime friend and a once favorite tennis partner for Anne. Judy converted from tennis to pickleball when she moved to St George, Utah. Anne has also made a conversion to pickleball.

Judy and Bill have done extensive travel since their marriage. They are using their 5^th wheel camper to visit spots in the NW. On their way back to St George, they planned a stay at Diamond Lake. While there, they will make the short drive to tour Crater Lake National Monument. There is a lot to see in this once active volcanic stretch of the Cascade Range.

The July morning was warm with a sky filled with smoke. As the sun rose in the east it shone through the overcast with a bright orange glow. The valley temperatures have been over 100 degrees for the past week. Recent evening lightning strikes have set fires in the forests of the Siskiyou Mountains, to the south of Medford. When the valley winds are favorable, you can see the columns of gray smoke rising several miles into the sky. Rarely have we gone through a summer without sharing some of it with a nearby forest fire.

As we drove past Shady Cove and higher into the mountains, we wondered if, and when, we would break clear of the smoke. We had driven past Union Creek, and past the turnoff to Crater Lake. The highway was beginning its windy up and down course alongside the originating waters of the Rogue River. At a few places, the water would disappear. It found a path through a bed of lava left behind from the eruption of Mt Mazama, 10,000 years ago.  That eruption left behind the enormous caldron which formed Crater Lake. The young ripples of the river looked crisp and bright. Without realizing it, we had driven past the smoke of the lower valley.

   We checked in at the Diamond Lake RV Park office at around 1:30pm. The Eller’s had recently checked in, too. We were assigned site A2, Judy and Bill were in site G2. I was setting up the satellite TV antenna when I noticed a couple walking past. They were taking interest in our coach. It was Judy and Bill. They knew it was our bus as Judy had recognized the Oregon and the Oregon State stickers I had placed above the tail lights.

We visited for a while and we made plans to reconnect at our site after dinner. The evening was busy with conversation and with the playing of Dominoes. At the end of the evening we made plans to meet them at their site at 10am. We would use their Chevy pickup to drive to some of the nearby waterfalls.

Diamond Lake is at the base of rounded Mt Baily to the west and of the spikey volcanic remains of Mt Thielsen to the east. The lake’s edge created a highway junction between Hwy 230, coming from the western junction to the Crater Lake Rim drive, and between Hwy 138 coming from Roseburg to Crater Lake. Highway 138 travels through the Umpqua National Forest, alongside Clearwater Creek which feeds into the Umpqua River; collectively on their way to the Pacific Ocean.

As Clearwater Creek finds its way down the mountain sides to the Umpqua, it has created several majestic photo and picnic opportunities at nearby waterfalls. The first falls along the highway is Clearwater falls. We found two trails which led to the waterfall. One crossed the creek and led up and into the forest. Its path followed the crystal clear waters as they filtered over stones and under and over long ago fallen trees. This is the trail Anne and I took. The other path was via a well maintained trail which led directly to a timber overlook of the falls. This is the trail Judy and Bill took.

When Anne and I reached the falls we were at its base, by the creek’s side. Across the creek and above us Judy and Bill waved. There were a couple of logs spanning the creek and one had been used to cross over to the overlook. The options were between a nasty uphill climb back the way we had come, or that of a Robin Hood adventure across the log to rejoin with the Merry Men.

Anne went first. As she crossed, I first noticed that she was basically just shuffling her feet along each side of the arch of the log. I don’t recall seeing her reach the other side. My thoughts were consumed with how I was going to mount the 3 foot high log, and how was I going to shuffle past that long stretch of rotted wood on the right hand side.

People were watching. When you are conscious of being off balance, you will be. I worked very hard to present an impression of stability as I hoisted my right foot up to pair with the left. I was on the log. Now I just needed to stand erect without falling off. Slow wasn’t getting it. I just stood up. “Don’t look down.” My eyes were focused on each foot as I began the shuffle across the log. The worse part was indeed the rotten 4 foot stretch on the right hand side. The bark was loose and I didn’t want my foot to slide off the edge. I was wearing my Aussie boots. They are very comfortable on the solid trail, but I had no experience with them on the smooth bare edges of logs. I didn’t know how much I could trust their grip. So I shuffled. What a relief. I made it without confronting Friar Tuck.

The view of Clearwater Falls was excellent from the vantage of the railed wooden overlook. The trail back to our pickup was simple, but the memory of the log crossing will outlive the view.

Our second stop was a Watson Falls, followed by a visit to Whitehorse Falls. The trek at Whitehorse was via a trail which climbed up to, and across the highway. It then was a mile long round trip climb. I begged off the hike and spent waiting time on the benches in the large parking/picnic area.

This was a very relaxing afternoon. The Douglas fir trees speared their way into the blue sky near the crystal clear waters from the falls. Ferns and mosses dominated when near the creek. The undergrowth was very dense. It was peaceful to see nature so pure and natural.

We were dropped off at our coach with plans to meet at Judy and Bill’s at 5:30pm for dinner. Anne worked on a stitching piece and I did some Sudoku puzzles. Later I went outside and retrieved my tray of obsidian and my knapping tools from their storage bin. I began forming the outline of a spearhead. Within a few minutes the noise from the knapping had attracted a chipmunk. The fuzzy little animal didn’t seem to mind me being there and it came up to my feet when I would chip on the obsidian flake. It must have been hearing a high frequency “chirp” which it related to.

Judy had prepared a salad and spaghetti dinner. I brought along a bottle of red. Following the meal Anne and I were introduced to the card game called Eucher (sp?). Eucher is Bill’s favorite card game. The play was unlike any we had experienced. The rules and scoring were confusing, but the actual 5-card hand was easy and trump based. Games went fast and it was an interesting experience. I will have to look it up on the net when we get home. The evening ended shortly after darkness came. We made plans for dinner at our RV tomorrow night. With torch in hand, we found our way back to site A2.

We had left smoky conditions home in Medford. So we had thought. Sunday morning we awoke to the familiar smell of nearby forest fires. We couldn’t see the source from the campground. We were told than the fire was on the eastern side of Mt Thielsen. Our hope is that the conditions won’t become as bad at Diamond Lake as they were in Medford.

After breakfast we walked to the edge of the lake. There is a large dock facility at the nearby pizza restaurant. We were told by a bike rider near the shore that there had been good fishing on the lake. Apparently Rainbow trout has once again become the lake’s dominant specie. We walked the dock and we rocked the dock as we went to its outer limb. There were a lot of boats on the algae clouded waters.

From the dock we followed a trail which led us to a lake side RV park. The views would have been much better when staying at this park. We walked away from the lake and back towards our own camp site. We discovered that the Diamond Lake RV Park is very extensive. It was nice to get back and sit down.

Chris has told us he may drive to the lake this weekend. When we left for our morning walk I had left the door unlocked. Chris had come and he had found the note I had left on the table. He left us a note in turn. Chris, Michelle, Elliot, and Tucker had come to the lake with a couple of large blow-up floating craft. Chris’ note told us they were on the lake fishing for shrimp. They would return soon. This was exciting news.

Judy and Bill had arrived to join us for cards and dinner. Anne wasn’t sure when she should begin cooking our meal. She didn’t know what Chris, etal, may want for dinner, and when they would arrive. We decided it would be good to put the meal off for a while and fill the time in with some pinochle. It was to be a killer match with Bill and Rob against Judy and Anne. We all played well, but the ladies won when Anne came up with a Shoot-the-Moon hand. If this declared hand took all of the cards, then the match was won. However, if a single trick was lost, then the guys would win. Shucks! Anne had the cards, and she played them faultlessly.  

A knock at the door said they had arrived. They were all a bit exhausted but eager to share their adventure on the lake. Two watercraft had been stuffed into Chris’ small Nova trunk. One was a large blowup swan and the other was a blowup unicorn. Using a car powered air compressor, they had inflated their floaties at the main docks by the Diamond Lake Lodge. Movement across the water was accomplished by hand paddling. We couldn’t see the lodge docks from the pizza docks. The sight of the two craft and their riders must have been a special treat for lake side visitors.

Anne crafted dinner while the rest of us visited. The menu presented hamburgers, beans, asparagus, and basil buttered salmon filet. The table was set for five and space on the floor was used by the rest. The meal was very nice. I surprised everyone when I asked for a toast to Anne; wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, on our 51^st anniversary. The fact that I had remembered the date was applauded.

Chris, Michelle, and the boys headed for Medford as the sun was beginning to slide behind the tree tops to the west. It was fun that they had spent part of their weekend with us. Now, it was back to some serious card playing. Bill and I were not going to let the ladies get away with another win. A dozen more hands and the guys had indeed kicked some hinny. That was it for the night. Judy and Bill had reservations for a Crater Lake boat ride tomorrow and Anne and I would spend the afternoon at the lodge. They will pick us up at 1pm.

The morning sky was slightly overcast with smoke from the nearby fire. Anne and I kept ourselves busy for the best part of the morning. Around 11am we walked to the Eller’s site to visit. This led to a challenge for a few hands of pinochle. At lunchtime, we walked back to our RV.

As we drove out on the park road we noticed that the fire camp had grown much larger. Dozens of small tents had been put up and there were sleeping bags out in the open. Without a local news source, we didn’t know the scope of the fire problem. When we drove onto the cutoff to Crater Lake we soon began to drive past the miles of forest destruction which was caused by the fire of a year ago. Thousands of trees stood naked, exposing the timber cluttered forest floor to the day’s full sunlight. There was no evidence of any attempt to begin removing the standing dead.

There was no Ranger at the park’s entrance kiosk. Today was a freebie. At each crater rim overlook space for more visitors was limited. Upon driving into the rim village we needed to circle the parking lot to find a place to stop to let Judy out. She wanted to make final inquiry about where to be, and when for their afternoon ride around the lake. Bill then drove Anne and me to the lodge entrance. They would meet us at the lodge when they returned.

There is an open patio at the rear of the lodge. Tall back, wicker rocking chairs line the low railed wall which overlooks the crater rim. We found two chairs and settled in for stories and Sudoku puzzles.

I had brought my field glasses and with them I could get close up to the boat that occasionally passed below. The long and narrow tour boats are the only craft on the lake. They carry over twenty passengers. As large as these craft are, they still looked very small from the height of the rim. The rim tour boats go around the perimeter of the lake. A Ranger provides narrative of rim features and of the nature of the lake itself. The perimeter of the rim is about 33 miles.

The lake was discovered by settlers in the late nineteen hundreds. Its formation followed the volcanic explosion of Mt Mazama some 10,000 years ago. Around 1880 scientists lowered a boat to the water and used it to investigate the lake’s depth. They used metal fishing line with a weight attached to sound the bottom. They recorded the depth to be around 1,990 feet. This made Crater Lake the deepest lake in North America. In the early 20^th century, Crater Lake was turned into a national park.

Every lake is put on earth for one reason; for fishing. There were no fish in Crater Lake and the Park Service was concerned that visitors wouldn’t receive sufficient entertainment by just admiring the lake’s beauty. So, the service stocked the lake with salmon and trout. Crater Lake has the most chemically pure water of any American lake. What are the fish going to eat? The presumed problem was solved by stocking the lake with crayfish, which apparently some fish species find delicious. It wasn’t too many years later that scientists for the government discovered that the crayfish were consuming other natural habitants of the lake’s shallow edges.

The fish survive and fishing can be successful. There is no license required to fish the shore of Crater Lake and the limit to one’s catch is set by how much can be packed back up the steep trail to the top of the rim. The only caveat is that fishing must be done with non-organic lures. We were told that a recent catch netted a 12 lb trout.

Judy and Bill found us at the lodge around 5:30pm. Our dinner reservations were for 7 o’clock so; we had some time to kill. The crowds had begun to thin out and the smoke density had increased to the point that the lake was no longer visible.  The time went by quickly and we were called to be seated.

The restaurant had water/menu girls and it had a wait staff. There was a pretense that this was a high brow place. It could have been, in another setting, however, the guests were 100% tourist and they were tennis shoes and shorts casual. I mention this because the menu selection and pricing was perhaps more suited to a Manhattan evening club. This menu was definitely not designed for the clientele it served.  We found the soup and salad quite good, and filling. What we saved on the meal, we spent on the dessert.

The sun was on its last legs as we drove toward the rim’s exit. The sun was an easy to look at, perfectly round orange disk. The visit to Crater Lake had been pleasant. Since our last trip to the lake, the lodge has been remodeled and the nearby store has been removed and replaced. Perhaps the smoke was the reason there was a scarcity of chipmunks on the rim overlook ledges.  The visit didn’t seem the same without the chipmunks.

When Bill dropped us at our RV, we prepared dinner and began to stow things in preparation for tomorrow’s return to Medford. After dinner we met for a last round of Pinochle and a game of Phase 10; a pleasant way to end a wonderful day.

Tuesday morning we were ready to leave a little past 9 am. Judy and Bill stopped to say goodbye. They are going to visit Bandon on their way back to St George. The have had a wonderful and full several weeks of travel. It will be nice when we get to link up with them again.  Happy trails.

We reached Medford by 11am. After parking the RV we brought the Honda CRV to the coach and loaded it up with food and clothing. It was hot, smoky and muggy this morning. Not having to walk the returns was a good idea. It didn’t take either of us long to get back into familiar routines.

Solly, Gabe, and Anne’ are visiting us for a week, beginning this weekend. We have many things to do to get ready for their stay. We are both excited to see them.

Cob Buddy

Spring is strong, and summer is close by. Weekend barbecues and family around the dinner table. A small steak, medium rare, pan fried potatoes, salad, and corn on the cob. Yes. That's a perfect summer meal.

I still frequent the wood lathe in the shop. I dream of creating something with the machine that is not round. I give up. It is going to be round. The thought of fresh corn on the cob got me thinking about handling the hot ear. We have all used the plastic stab in the ends devices. I wondered if I could come up with something on the lathe that would really put the screws to the cobs.

Cob Buddy functions similar to the plastic spear devices, but without the occasional need for a band-aid. We tied Cob Buddy on our first of the season ears and they worked very well. Naturally, I made a few extras.

2018 Winter Get-Away

The RV had been readied and stocked. We had our clothes all hung in the closet. There were two ways planned to leave the Rogue Valley: one was to go I-5 south, over the Siskiyou summit, and the other way was to go west, through Grants Pass, to the coast highway, and then south. When the sun rose over Mt. McLaughlin we had our answer. The low hills around Medford were all dusted with snow. The Siskiyou summit route would require chains. We were going to begin our three day trip to Quartzsite, AZ, with a visit to the coast.

Dave and Joy have found a home in Emmett, ID. This may mean that their year-round RVing is over. The Emmett property has a home, with out-buildings, on several acres. Skye, Victoria, and the girls are on the short road to retirement from the Army. They have purchased half of the Emmett property and they will build a home on their piece.

Quartzsite is a small town on I-10. It is located on the Arizona side of the Arizona/California border. The town has a population of ~1700 people, year round. However, during the months of January and February the population of Quartzsite can swell to some tens of thousands. There is a reason for this increase.

Surrounding Quartzsite is BLM land. No one has sorted out just why the BLM wanted to own these vast, arid and dusty desert lands. But, in one of the few rare occasions when the U.S. Government has contributed to the recreational enjoyment of its citizens, it happened in Quartzsite.

The BLM has set aside hundreds of acres of roughly plated desert for the free use of RV’ers. The RV sites have zero facilities; like water, electricity, and waste disposal, but they have sunshine and lots of neighbors.

RV enthusiasts from all over the chillier climes of America can be found during these two months in Quartzsite. Today is the 19^th of January.  The big tents have been opened for the coming week’s RV extravaganza sale. If you need it, you will find it for your RV under the Big Tops; the largest one-stop retail opportunity for RV owners in America.

Dave and Joy wanted to be in Quartzsite during this period for the chance to sell their Monaco motorhome. With their purchase of the Emmett home, they can off load their RV and down size a bit. They have purchase a trailer they can pull behind their big Dodge pickup.

As we start our trip, they have reported a couple of lookers have taken some interest. In the hopeful event of a sale, they brought both RVs to the desert. They want to drive away in just the tow behind.

The drive to our first night’s park was through the rain, some snow, and over nothing but windy roads. There is no pleasant way to get from the Rogue Valley, on the I-5 corridor, to the coast highway, US101. Every path travels through the coast range of mountains, and none of those roads is straight. Out destination this afternoon is Fortuna, CA. Fortuna’s offering for us is Riverwalk RV Park & Campground. We pulled into site #27 around 3 o’clock.

We were back in the RV track and it took us just a few minutes to fully set up for our one night stay. Fortuna is located on the Eel River, seven miles in from the coast. Founded in 1874, the town was originally called Slide. The name of Slide came from a prominent feature on a nearby mountain side. The town’s name was soon to be changed to Springville. This was in honor of the Springville mill which was constructed in 1875 to harvest local redwood trees. In 1876 the town had a post office. The postal authorities called their office Slide. There was already a Springville, CA on the map. In 1884 the residents petitioned the state legislature to rename the town, Fortuna. Fortuna is Spanish for fortune and Latin for chance. In 1888 the state of California had a town called Fortuna. Today Fortuna is host to 11,000 residents.

We woke up Saturday to fog. After a lazy beginning we were on the road by 9am. The roads were wet and the sun occasionally broke through the low fog layer. When it did, the reflection off of the highway was blinding. We were driving south, into the morning sun. I pretty much missed all there was to see off to the sides for 100 miles of northern California.

A few miles north of Ukiah we turned east on Hwy 20. By now the sun was high enough that it was no longer a driving distraction. Hwy 20 took us past three mountain lakes. We stopped alongside one of them for lunch. This path took us again across the coastal mountain range. Uphill and then down. Slow to 35mph for the curve. Then climb slowly to 55mph before the next sharp curve. This was the day’s trip.

We had mapped out Colusa Casino Resort as our camp for the second night. Colusa sits 8 miles to the east of I-5, on Hwy 20. Here the land is flat and we are driving through almond orchards. The casino is 3 miles north of the city on Hwy 45. Welcoming signs directed us to the RV parking area. We found a slot available among the six other RVs.

This was great. The sky was blue in all directions. There was crispness to the slight breeze when I walked outside to give two thumbs up for our positioning. We were set up by 2:30pm. Anne was working on a piece of needle work, and I was working on an Apocalypse, 10 Barrel IPA. We made plans for a buffet dinner this evening at the casino.

The buffet menu looked good. The hostess told us we could each receive a $10 discount on our meal if we got a Player’s Card. This is a card one puts in the machines and it keeps track of your winnings and gives you points for free, or discounted services. The player’s cards came with $10 free slots and $10 towards any table games. Wow. We were in the money. Plus, I got a lanyard with my card.

We ate, and then we played. Anne used my slot credits and then hers. I watched and then looked for a craps table. Shucks. The casino doesn’t do craps. However, being a guy lacking no ideas for excitement – I watched the play at a couple of the blackjack tables. I was exhausted by the time Anne came to find me. A shuttle cart drove us back to our RV, where we did some quiet reading and watched an hour of TV.

The casino’s RV parking sites have no facilities. This meant that we needed to run the generator to watch our TV. We also used the generator time to run the electric heater. When we went to bed, I turned the thermostat down to 66F and switched to gas heat.

I arose around 7 o’clock. The thermometer read 66F, but I wanted it a bit warmer. When I turned the gauge up the fan came on. In a few moments the fan shut off. I looked at the thermostat; it said 66F. Nothing had changed. I glanced at the refrigerator and I notice that the “on” led was not on. This meant that the RV’s house battery had gone into a shutdown mode. It had run out of juice. I checked the power panel and the voltage level read 8.8v. I started the generator and got things charging.

We were on the road, a little past 8am. This was going to be a long day of driving. The destination was Castaic Lake RV Park, in Castaic, CA. From where we were north of Sacramento, this would mean over 400 miles. All of the driving would be on the interstate. This meant we would have ample rest stop options. At the first rest stop, Anne fixed us each a bowl of yogurt and granola for our desert. We listened to our Harry Bosch story and the miles melted away.

The RV Park in Castaic was an easy find. The park had a lot of long term stays and the sites were full. We were assigned to an overflow, back-in site near the entrance. I walked the site and found that it was plenty large enough for our rig. The only scary part of it was that there is a large oak limb hanging over the side of the entrance.

The sky had darkened and I couldn’t be certain I was able to see all of Anne’s arm gestures in the side mirror. After several minutes, frustrating to both of us, I had it positioned as good as it was going to get. We had arrived.

Modern Castaic began in 1887 when Southern Pacific set up a railroad siding on their line, naming it "Castaic Junction".  Between 1890 and 1916, the Castaic Range War was fought in Castaic country over ranch boundaries and grazing rights. It was the biggest range war in U.S. history. Also, Castaic has the last traditional cattle roundup—with horses, lariats, and branding irons—in Los Angeles County. It has been held since 1834.

It is going to be about a 4-½ hour drive from Castaic to Quartzsite. The path takes us through the northern fringe of Los Angeles. I didn’t want to pass through there during a rush hour period. We left our Castaic RV site by 7am.

As the traffic grew on I-5, so did the number of lanes on the freeway. By the time we reached the interchange to move onto I-210 we were competing for position on six lanes. Construction is continuous on the freeway systems. Traffic slowed to a crawl and backed up. Then, for no visible reason, the log jam was gone and the speed picked up again. The construction zones left partially erased lane paint on the road surface. New lines had been lightly drawn. At times it was unclear whether we were actually in a lane.

Traffic merging onto the freeway made traveling in the far right lane very inconvenient. To avoid the speed up and slow down I drove in the second or third lane. This meant, however, that I needed to plan a couple of miles ahead for exits. Cars continually jockeyed for a micro advantaged between lanes. When there was a glimmer of an opening in the lane to the right, a move needed to be made. Sixty feet of total vehicle needs some room.

We linked up with Dave at the downtown Quartzsite RV consignment lot where they had their coach displayed. He guided us into the large lot. It appears they may have a buyer for the motorhome. Dave was showing the home to the wife of the interested party. Shortly, we left the lot and we followed Dave to their boondock site.

I couldn’t believe how many RVs there were on this desert flatland. Joy was anxious for us to arrive. She had been warding off folks who wanted to park where we were going to be.  Dave guided me and I maneuvered the RV into its final position.

Anne was heartbroken when she got her first glimpse of her CRV. The nice clean car was now lightly coated with a shade of boondock gray. I will try to gently dust some off in the morning.  

Dave had a box of firewood in the back of his pickup. He stripped the plastic bag out of a 5L Franzia Merlot box and laid it in the center of his stone fire pit. We tee-peed four sticks of firewood above the box and applied a small measure of lighter fluid. In no time we had a fine meal preparing fire. Tonight it is going to be turkey burgers. Turkey is a lean meat and the patties tend to fall apart. We lay tinfoil on the grill to keep from losing meat to the coals. It turns out that turkey burgers come with some form of glue. When heated to a browned state, they affix firmly to things like tinfoil. Between the coordinated efforts of the two of us, we managed to coerce the six patties to leave the foil. Baked potatoes, burgers and salad; this was a fine first night in Quartzsite.

Put it on the “to do” list. The house batteries didn’t hold a service charge over the night. I had set the furnace temperature to 66F to minimize how often it would come on. When I arose at 6:30am, all 12v functions had shut down. The batteries read below 10v.

The desert this time of the year will turn to the mid-seventies during the day. The sky will be a cloudless blue. At night, however, the temps drop into the thirties. Mankind has made it to now without the necessity of a nighttime furnace to sleep with. However, I know for a fact that some of that history was married. There is no way nighttime accommodations hadn’t been arranged to ensure spousal comfort. So, let’s have a look at those batteries.

Dave and Joy left mid-morning to go to the consignment lot to attend to their motorhome. They then went to the big tent to walk the aisles in search of RV gotta-haves. We stayed back.

Anne did some needlework and some cooking. I sat outside with my knapping gear and fashioned an arrowhead. A neighbor stopped by to inquire what I was doing. He was quite interested in the bows I had brought along, as he too shot arrows. He shot a compound bow and his wife was learning with a longbow. He hollered across the dry wash that separated our units for his wife to join us. She did wood carving reliefs, using primarily power chisels. She also does wood burning art. The man had thought that I had been carving when he first stopped by. We spoke a few minutes about our motorhomes, and then they left.

This afternoon we drove the five miles into town to go to the RV expo at the big tent. What a crowd. We found a parking space close to a mid-tent entrance. Within a half hour we had linked up with Dave and Joy. The tent is huge. It has to be longer than a football field, and it is about 30 yards wide.

Inside the tent it was elbow to elbow in each of the three aisles. Venders were selling everything conceivable that had to do with RVing. Next to those booths were booths selling jewelry, handbags, and shoes. Well, I guess campers may need some of those things, too. Outside the big tent there were smaller tents. There were food venders sweating over hot grills. There were acres of new motorhomes. I have never seen a greater focus of business being conducted.

The sky was turning evening around 5:30pm. Very small wisps of clouds were all that was needed to create a brilliantly colored sunset. We stood around the fire pit encouraging the coals to build up so we could put on the grill and begin cooking dinner. At a camp site to the north east we saw the orange glow of a drone slowly rise above the tops of the intervening shrub. The controller carefully maintained the drone’s altitude.

The sky quickly darkened enough to begin birthing a few stars. A neighbor camper saw us looking skyward and hollered to us to keep an eye out for the space station’s passing. It was going to come from the southwest at 6:42pm. We all noticed the solid light at the same time. The white light moved slowly and it did not flicker. That’s not an airplane, and it’s not a star. The light was much larger than that of a star. This made the passing space craft seem fairly low in the night sky. It passed slowly towards the northeast and it diminished in intensity and size until it was too far away to see. It disappeared. We all applauded the achievement and the special opportunity we had shared.

“Siri. Set the chicken alarm for six minutes.” Four large chicken breasts were on the grill. In six minutes they would be turned over. The bat phone makes setting timers very convenient. Dave and I sipped our merlot and visited while the shirt pocket clock silently counted down the minutes. Tongs eventually drug the breasts from their glued on positions on the grill. They were all turned and Siri was commanded to set the timer for another six minutes.

Chicken, rice and salads made a wonderful dinner. The cooking fire and the shards of breast stuck to the grill were abandoned. We each attacked the meal with appreciation for how well everything had turned out. Yes. There had been something in the heavens which had suggested this would be a special dinner.

Dave and Joy left early in the morning to do some last minute tidying on their motorhome. Anne and I got to relax and spend the morning with no achievement goals in mind.

This week is Hamfest in Quartzsite. ARRL, the ham’s primary lobbying organization, has sponsored this Hamfest for nearly 30 years. Amateur radio operators, hams, come from across America to attend a week’s worth of craft oriented lectures, socializing, and sightseeing. Amateur radio enthusiasts arrive in their motorhomes. The BLM boondocking sites are a mix of RV Show attendees, Hamfest goers, and tourists just passing through.

Motorhomes on the La Paz sites have spectacular arrays of antennas rising above their rooflines on extended fiberglass poles. I drove to the greeting tent around 9 o’clock. I wanted to register at Hamfest and look at today’s schedule of events. There were lectures on batteries and solar systems for ham operated motorhomes. A two part lecture was going to discuss dipole antenna construction.

I have built many dipole antennas and I was very familiar with the calculations and procedures involved. I have a 12v battery inside the RV which I use to power my radio equipment. Today’s lectures didn’t ring any bells for me. I returned to our site.

Anne had found a copy of the weekly Quartzsite newspaper. She read that the city library was having a book sale today. I Googled the library’s address and we drove into town.

A few blocks north of Main Street the city of Quartzsite becomes something more than a RV oriented shopping strip. As we drove out Plymouth Street towards the library, we found the police station and city hall. The library was set away from the street. There was a large parking lot in front of the building. The library is also used for town hall business. Chairs were being set up in the entry lobby area.

A room in the library was dedicated to the book sale. Prices ranged from 10 cents per magazine to $1 for hardbacks in excellent condition. Books on the shelfs were five for a dollar. Anne and I had a good look over the selection and we came away with two Walmart bags full. Our cost for this literary splurge was $8.

We drove from the library to Main Street, and out to the freeway entrance, where there is a McDonald café. Anne got an ice cream cone, and I got a hazelnut latte. On Main Street there is a block’s length of open stall flea market. We found a place to park and began a stroll through the maze of open to the weather tables. Many of the vendors were elderly, craggy, and had filthy feet; kept off the dust and stones by worn flip-flops.

Bins of rusty tools, containers overflowing with tangled strings of cosmetic jewelry, and tables covered with dusty pottery and glassware defined the sun beaten open tables. A few of the vendors had tent-like shade covers outlining their realms. I found a vendor who had several well used trumpets for sale. Tucker plays the horn, but he does not have his own instrument. There were no instruments with presentations a youth would be proud of, and the asking prices would have fetched a new piece at some music stores.

The vendors had a few things in common at the flea market. They enjoyed a lot of foot traffic, and they all had goods priced to ensure most visitors kept on walking. They had tons of stuff, but it was truly all just junk. Merchandise would have moved, if the vendors had shifted the decimal place one position to the left on the string tags. Instead of $2.50 for one of those rusty #2 screw drivers, they may have sold for $0.25. There may have been a psychology of hoarding involved with how things were being marketed. Each vendor had amassed vast quantities of stuff and each piece was something they personally wanted to hold on to. The visit had been entertaining.

Across the street from the flea market was a lot which sold bundles of firewood. Anne darted through a gap in the traffic on the four lane road while I kept my eyes closed. We headed towards Yuma, and our campsite at La Paz, with four bundles of split pine firewood. We had had a fun shopping afternoon.  

 I called the Walmart store in Parker, AZ yesterday to find out if they had any of the deep cycle batteries which the RV used. They didn’t, but supplies were coming in by the weekend. Parker is 40 miles north of Quartzsite. Friday morning I recalled the Parker store. This time they said they weren’t expecting any this week.

Yuma is 75 miles to the south, on US 95. There are three Walmart Super Stores in the city. The first one I called had two of the batteries in stock. The store would not reserve or hold the batteries for us. Anne and I decided we would make the trip. If they were sold before we arrive we needed to shop anyway.

The store still had the batteries when we arrived. I asked the clerk if she could find out if either of the other two stores had any of the deep cycle in stock. She came back with a report that one store had none, and that the other store wasn’t answering the phone. I got the store phone number from her before we left.

There were a couple of non-Walmart things we needed to do before we committed to the grocery shopping. One thing was to get the car fueled and washed. The local Chevron station took care of both for us. I was able to get through to the rogue Walmart while we waited for the car wash. They reported that they had five batteries in stock.

With the gas tank full and the car shiny new looking, we drove the 8 miles to the next Walmart store. With all three batteries in the boot, we commenced our grocery shopping. We stopped at the in-store McDonald’s for a lunch on the way out of the store. Anne asked how long it has been since I had a Big Mac. It had been 10 years or more. It sure tasted good.

By the time I had repaired the small bit of damage I had done when re-connecting the parallel wiring harnesses on the batteries, I was working with a small flashlight gripped in my mouth. It was past 7 pm and the stars were out. What a wrestling match this day has been. It’s time for a tinny.

Saturday was the final day for the Hamfest. I rode with Dave in his motorhome to Pete’s Tires. The new owner of the coach agreed to put new tires on the tag axle wheels. Pete’s is a mobile tire service company. They have a work space at the front of a fenced RV storage lot. The service at Pete’s was quick and efficient. We had a small wait when we arrived, but we were on their service pad for less than an hour.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon achieving odds and ends at RV and hardware stores. Dave and I headed to the camp site when we had all of our duties done. This has been a slow, but continuously active day. I was happy the ladies decided to use the microwave to reheat leftovers for dinner tonight. Joy had lit a fire, however, and with the arrival of darkness we found ourselves chasing the chill away in front of the fast burning pine fire.

We began to see a significant exodus of campers from the La Paz camp grounds. We also saw several RVs entering the camp sites. The RV Expo ends today, Sunday. Even without the two special attraction events, Quartzsite’s BLM boondocking sites see a continuous near capacity load of RV’ers, arriving to avoid the colder climes.

Dave and Joy left early to their RV. They were going to remove the last few items from the coach’s bays. Taking showers was also on their agenda. Anne and I drove to the RV Expo to have a final casual walk up and down the three long aisles. All was not wasted. Anne found a stall which had very lovely, silk-like shoulder over-covers. (I’m sure the special garment has an actual name.) I came away with an extendable window scrubber with squeegee.  The big tent visit was comfortable without the shoulder smashing mobs.

We drove up Plymouth Street to the post office. A birthday card needed to get into Monday’s saddle bags. We then drove to the lot where the RV was parked. Dave and Joy were finishing up their work, but they were going to stay in town for their dinner. Anne and I drove to the camp grounds. Anne hurried inside the RV to turn on the Australian Open Tennis. Today is the men’s final. She became lost of the sofa.

This morning I rode with Dave to the motorhome where we were meeting the new owners to turn over the keys. Upon arriving we found the Ryan’s, the new owners, in the RV waiting for us. Dave spent about an hour briefing the Ryan’s on a few of the special procedures this RV had for normal operation. Moneys had moved between banks. The deal was done.

We returned to our campsite. We have all been anxious about the sale of the RV. I realized upon arriving to the campsite that I had by now completely rid myself of any worrying burden about the sale. I believe it will take Dave, however, several days before he is able to brush from his

shoulders small concerns about the transaction.

 Wednesday morning at 8:30 we pulled away from our boondock campsite at Quartzsite. A few blocks north of Main Street, on Hwy 95 is the RV Pit Stop. At this service yard you can dump your waste tanks, fill you fresh water tank, fill containers with filtered spring water, and top off you propane tanks. For departing RV’ers this is the town’s most popular place to shop. The BLM sites have no services and everything needs to be renewed.

Dumping our waste tanks and refilling the fresh water tank set us back $25. The propane tank required another $29. Aside from the cost of food, this was our expense for a comfortable ten days on the desert.

We topped our fuel tanks at the ARCO station near the I-10 entrance. Our drive today is going to take us to Ajo, AZ (pronounced AH-hoh).  Ajo is Spanish for garlic. We will reach Ajo by lunch time.

Native Americans, Spaniards and Americans have all extracted mineral wealth from Ajo's abundant ore deposits. High-grade native copper made Ajo the first copper mine in Arizona. The Arizona Mining & Trading company worked the rich surface ores. It shipped loads around Cape Horn for smelting in Swansea, Wales , in the mid-1880s. The mine closed when a ship sank off the coast of Patagonia. Long supply lines and the lack of water discouraged large mining companies until the early 20^th century. Ajo has a hot desert climate. Rain fall averages less than 8 inches per year.

Approaching Ajo, we pulled to a road side business to ask directions to the Country Club. Ajo has a population of around 3,000. A great many of the citizens are retired. The Country Club is run by volunteers. They have recognized that the club needs recurring revenue to be able to keep its doors open. They offer an 8am to 10pm club house to serve refreshments and simple meals. For $5 per day you can boondock on a graveled piece of their extensive desert landscape. The facility is being upgraded to provide RV hookup services.

We are camping at the Country Club because this week is the start of the Fiddler’s Contest. This is an annual affair which provides awards for the players and entertainment for us. The volunteer club workers are trying to develop the club into a destination RV spot. Ajo is just 43 miles north of the Mexican border. This would make the improved club facilities a great place to stay while day tripping to Mexico.

We parked our rigs side-by-side. With the carpet laid out this created a comfortably shaded outdoor setting. We rested while waiting for the dinner hour. Several RVs arrived during the afternoon. Soon, we began to hear music from nearby campsites. The fiddlers were warming up.

A few miles south of Ajo is Why. Why is a junction in the road where Hwy 86 meets Hwy 85. We are driving on Hwy 85 this morning to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. In 1937 Franklin Roosevelt designated this unique cactus region as a national monument.

The monument is a UNESCO biosphere reserve located in extreme southern Arizona that shares a border with the Mexican state of Sonora. The park is the only place in the United States where the organ pipe cactus grows wild.  Along with organ pipe, many other types of cacti and other desert flora native to the Yuma Desert section of the Sonoran Desert  region grow in the park.

We stopped at the Monument’s visitor center. Arrival was just in time to listen to a Park Ranger speak of the mission the service had in looking after the very large reserve. We then watched a 15 minute film which presented the prominent features of the region and of its flora, fauna and human interactions.

A main recommendation made to us was to drive the Ajo Mountain loop. On this loop we would be able to follow along with a booklet which features prominent sites at several posted stops along the way. The gravel road made the drive slow, but this permited us to be more observant of what was passing by.

Anne had prepared a lunch for us and we found a shaded picnic table half way around the loop. The lunch break gave us an opportunity to get up close to some of the cacti. We were also entertained by an Antelope Ground Squirrel. The squirrel had the size, movements and looks of a chipmunk. Lunch was a fun break. Thank you, Anne.

On the drive from Quartzsite the air brake connecting cable came disconnected. The CRV has hardware installed that reacts to the air brake pressure being applied on the coach. Brakes on the CRV are proportionally applied. The end of the cable got bounced around on the highway. This ruined the air fitting. On our return through Ajo from the organ pipe cactus morning, we stopped at Olson’s Ace Hardware store to buy a new fitting. A small benefit of small towns is that businesses can consolodate functions. Olson’s had it all. While Dave and I walked the hardware aisles, Anne and Joy did some grocery shopping.

Today the blue skies brought us temperatures in the low 80s. It was nice to get back to our country club site and relax with a tinny in the shade between our two rigs.

When we arrived at the Aho Country Club RV Park, we had been one of five rigs. This weekend is the 40^th Annual Ajo Old Time Fiddlers Contest. The 300 yard long by 100 yard wide flat gravel parking pad filled up overnight. Friday and Saturday evenings the fiddlers played for dance entertainment in the large hall. This Sunday afternoon brings us the actual fiddler contest.

The fiddlers are grouped by age, ranging from 1-12 years up to 80 and over. Each age group has five prize places. All fiddlers will play 3 tunes – a hoedown, a waltz, and a tune of choice, other than a hoedown or waltz. One can play with, or without an accompanist. Guitars and bass players are favorite accompanists.

While we waited for the one o’clock contest time to come around, we shared slides of our 50^th Anniversary Trip. Anne and Joy had visited a quilting event in town yesterday. Each came back with fabric and new pattern packs. They drove back today to retrieve some forgotten opportunities. We’ll see later.

The Club’s meeting hall was packed. Dave and Joy arrived early and saved seats. The contest started out with the Senior group. Ten fiddlers performed. As I listened to the variety of bow squaking tunes, I was taken years back to the Saturday night Okie stomps.

There was a vacant building across from Brinkman’s Garage in Lowell. I don’t recall what went on there during the days, but on Saturday night there was music and dancing and hooting. A greater Saturday night attraction took place across the lake. A road which led away from Dexter into the back country held a Grange Hall. Bands would perform, and artists would sing tear dropping tunes about their broken fences, unfaithful lovers, and lonesome dogs. All of these cries for social help were accompanied by bands featuring fiddles.

Anne and I left at the intermission following the Senior moments. We would miss some of the more magical musical movements brought on by more junior, and mobile musicians. Fiddle music, for me, as it is with a rich dark ale, is not  meant to be for all day consumption. We moved on to a lighter fare and opened pages where we had left off in our books.

We did miss some excitement. When Dave and Joy returned, they told us of the tremendous talent of some of the children who played later. They were especially taken back by the artistry of the judges for the contest. They performed at the closing. Well, shucks, partner.

Sunday morning we attended a Gospel Hour at the clubhouse meeting hall. A guitar picking, cowboy hatted preacher lead us in prayer. He then introduced musicians to come forward and share their song with the gathering. The stage was set with mics and several backup fiddlers and guitarists. Some of the invited musicians were soloists. Many were couples. The musicians sang to the song their were playing. For a couple of cases, that was unfortunate.

The pastor had distrubuted Old Time Fiddler’s Song Books amung the seats. He asked for hands to request the next group song from the book. The pastor would then lead with his guitar. He did not have a bad voice, but he seemed to be able to read from his open song book incorrect lyrics. The seated congregation was trying to syncronize their singing pace and inflections with that of the pastor. When he read in his own lyrics it brought quietness to the chairs.

A pickup pulled to the front of our RV. The driver had noticed my antenna and wanted to ask how I was using it. He was also a ham radio operator. We visited about hobbies we worked on while camping. He is a beginning knapper. This was exciting. I told him that when he returned, I would stop over to visit.

Later, Dave and I visited our knapping neighbor. He and I kicked around different techniques. We had a fun visit. On Sunday, after the Gospel Hour, I picked up on some music coming from his outside chairs. I strolled over and listened to two musicians jamming; one with a fiddle, and the other with a guitar. They played beautiful music. The fiddler was bowing his instrument as he would a violin. The sound was brilliant.

After lunch, we drove into Ajo. The first visit was to the Plaza. The Plaza is two stips of shops; one on the north, and the other on the south side of a grassed square. We went to the coffee shop for a snack. With drinks and munchies we enjoyed a visit at a table under the veranda surrounding the plaza shops.

Joy and Dave are interested in inquiring about fixer-up housing for sale in Ajo. We crossed the grass square to a realtor shop. The realtor’s window had some postings of homes for sale. Prices began at $24k. The rare one was as expensive as $135k. The higher priced units were not fixer-up’ers. Ajo is definitly a town with snowbird appeal. With 3,500 residents, the city is large enough to provide all the essential services. There seems to be a large number of craft oriented oportunities in Ajo. The historic former school building has been converted to apartments for artisans. Painters and potters are some of the craftsmen who rent space and market their products. The schoolhouse also features a woodworking shop that is open for public use.

Anne and I visited about the thought of buying a home in Ajo. To our interests it would be as much fun, without the ownership responsibities, to commit a month or more to a winter RV trip to Ajo. At many RV lots, one can rent a space for a couple hundred dollars per month. With services included, that can be a comfortable way to get away from the north’s winter cold. Then too, there is a family fixer-up’er one can help restore.

When the mining town of Ajo began in the later 1800’s, it was founded at the site of the existing copper mining operations. Within a few years the ground under the new village was desired

for excavation. The town was moved from atop the hill to the slopes below. The former city’s location is today an enormous open pit mine.

Copper mining in Ajo has come to a halt. Competition from South American imported copper has supplied America’s needs at much lower costs. The owning company of the Ajo mine still maintains corporate presence in Ajo. A single citizen lives here to represent the company. Hence, with mine employment present, there is a loophole around the obligation to fill in the massive pit. We stopped at a rim level mine lookout to take a photo of the pit mine. A pond of green-blue water sits at the bottom of the pit.

On a slope which overlooks the mine at a distance is the Ajo museum. The wide open

museum begins with displays of Ajo’s early history. Prominent citizens of long ago are featured with exhibits. Stalls and rooms filled with an oddball collection of long forgotten things were displayed with accompanying written descriptions. Each item once held an important role in the daily lives of Ajoians.

A room was dedicated to displays of early schooling in Ajo. Framed on the wall was a set of rules for teachers. Next to the rules was a framed set of punishments for misbehavior. Each misdeed was accompanied with how many lashes it brought. It would seem that in the classroom the teacher was clearly the only individual deciding how the day was spent. The modern norms of social correctness have made a huge change in the classroom decorum.

The last room in the museum presented a history of the Ajo mining operation. Photographs, written displays, and rock and ore samples were consuming wall and floor space. However, no

museum is complete with out its gift shop. A desk in the last room was surrounded with displays of purchase opportunities. As we were leaving the museum, a pair of ladies asked if they could purchase souvenirs at the museum. I suggested they enter through the exit and go into the neighboring room. There they would find a couple of museum volunteers who would sell them things.

Outside the museum were a few displays too large to fit in the building. The largest object was a rusted ore car once used to carry by rail copper ore away from the pit. Water was scarce in early Ajo. A large wagon once carried water to the thirsty occupants of the early mining homes.

When we left the museum, we drove along several outlying side streets of Ajo. If one were to buy a home in Ajo, where would it be. We passed many homes with realtor signs attached to the front chain link fences. Many homes had fenced, graveled lots. Some had detached out buildings. Most of the homes we passed had large displays of material which could have been rejected offerings made when the museum was stocked. All of the homes would be called cottages. None was large. Each house had two or three window mounted air conditioners. Most of the conditioners were silently asking to be proped up from the outside.

Once again at the country club, Dave showed me the best way to apply the RV joint crack

sealant I had purchased yesterday at Olsen’s Ace Hardware Store & Market. Outside joints between the walls and joining trim pieces are sources of moisture wicking into the flooring substrate. Some of the seams had been covered with silicone, which did not consistently adhere. This silicone was to be removed. The seam was cleaned, and the new clear sealant beaded over the junction. The new seal would firm up within 24 hours. Having completing part of this new RV service task, it became time to put away the tools and open a tinny.

Dave and Joy borrowed the CRV Monday morning. They left early to catch the Post Office as it opened. With that accomplished, they then spent the day with realtors. They were able to see many available homes. Both reported that the fixer-upers at the low end of the price range would be too demanding in resource needs. The homes priced around $70k seemed to be ones which could be moved into. We visited over dinner what they had seen and how they envisioned they might use such a home.

Joy sees Ajo as a town which will develop high snowbird appeal. Clubs such as Rotary, Lions, and the Elks are established. The city seems to have a great amount of pride in its heritage. Joy feels that a small purchase amount today will see a large return opportunity in a few years. She is probably correct.

We ate dinner at the “Greatest Hamburger & Craft Beer” café. It probably had a proper name, but the sign on the side of the building said it all. The owners were a married couple. They have owned the business for ten years. The husband spent several minutes at our table telling us of how they had come to Ajo, and of how the business has treated them. They originally kept the restraurant open year-round. However, they saw a drastic drop in business during the hot summer months. For the last several years, they have closed their doors during the summer.

A couple of million travelers pass through Ajo each year. The highway 85/86 route through southeastern Arizona is well traveled. The population of Ajo raises significantly during the non-summer months. Late autumn through early spring the RV Parks are filled. The RV’ers bring with them community service needs, such as for restraurants.

Around 2:30 in the afternoon, we got a knock at our door. A man had arrived in a golf cart. He told us that at 7am tomorrow, the parking pad we were on would be turned back into the golf course’s driving range. The range had been taken out of service during the overflow RV parking needs of the Old Time Fiddler’s Contest. That had concluded. We could relocate to the front RV parking area.

This morning, there had been twenty or more RVs on the 300 yard long dusty driving range. This afternoon there were three. We spoke over the phone with Dave and Joy and told them of our need to move. We had pulled to the front of the club by the time they returned.

To our surprise, we were not going to stay any longer at the Ajo Country Club. Dave and Joy had paid for the use of the only two spots available at the Belly Acres RV Park. The thought of a couple of days of full hook-ups was tantalizing. I helped Dave pack the chairs and sundrys at the outside of their camper. I then drove the CRV to where we had parked, and we waited a few minutes for them to come to the front.

Belly Acres RV Park is just past the NAPA Auto Parts store, on the left. I followed Dave’s lead into, and through the park to our two sites. The park was packed. And it was tight maneuvering. The park manager used hand signals to assist us in avoiding obsticals as I carefully got situated. Attention was then turned to guiding Dave into his slot. After we had parked, the manager came back with limb trimmers. He pruned the trees near the front of the RV. We would not be able to exit without first removing branches. This RV park was designed for use by much smaller rigs than we had.

Anne and I wanted to have a look at the other RV Parks in Ajo. There were two other parks. The one we liked the best is Shadow Ridge RV Resort. We visited with the manager about securing a site for a couple month’s period next winter. Of the over 100 sites in the park, there were only a couple which had not already been reserved. She asked us to drive in to look at site #94. This site would hold the RV, but there were others which would be a little bit longer. We paid to reserve site #94. If one of the larger sites opened, the manager would call us to give us a first option to switch sites. The deposit is fully refundable if we are unable to attend the reserved January and Febuary months. We were told of many activities we could take part in during our visit. The winter visit will be a fun experiment. We both feel that the city of Ajo has ample recreation and craft opportunities to make the stay pass quickly.

Dave and Joy were in a bit of stress. They wanted to be in Texas, at Falcon Lake, by February 14, Valentine’s Day. Each year there is a special party at the main hall. Dave wanted to go through Tucson to see the aircraft boneyard at Davis Monthom AFB. It turns out that all routes to Texas from here go through Tucson. It was decided that a night at the Desert Diamond Casino wouldn’t delay the Texas ride that much.

We had wheels up at the Belly Acres RV Park by 9:10 am, Wednesday. It turned out that the

tree trimming that was done when we arrived made it easy to pull out of he sites. The drive to the Desert Diamond Casino was about 130 miles. We were trying to be parked there shortly after noon.

There was only one incident on our drive to Tucson. At the outskirts of the city there was some road work being done at the edge of the street. We saw traffic backed up a bit as we approached. All of a sudden we saw a large amount of blue smoke come from the coned off work site. Police cars were near the work area. They had their strobe lights flashing. Passing slowly by, we saw that a car had totaled its front end when it slammed into a front loader working at the site. The car had caught fire. There were medics doing chest pumps on someone laying near the front loader. We will hear about the accident on the evening news.

The casino had a rear lot with a few RV’s on it. We found a comfortable spot and set up camp. It was a few minutes past noon. Anne treated us to tuna fish sandwiches. We Googled how to visit the aircraft boneyard. Security has tightened up. One needs to make application on-line at least 10 days prior to the visit. A security background check needs to be made, and approval gained. This meant we were not going to visit the old planes.

Dave recommended we spend a couple of hours walking through the Pima Air & Space Museum. The museum was a convenient distance from the casino. The afternoon was spent looking at, and reading about engines, and airplanes which had made major contributions to the 20^th century aircraft industry. There was a primary focus on aircraft which had been developed for, and used in military conflicts. There were many very interesting examples of non-military aircraft; Lear Jet, Bonanza, Piper, and one Guiness Record setter. The Bumble Bee is the World’s smallest airplane.

When the Bumble Bee was built, it was the smallest plane. However, a partner who helped design the Bumble Bee went off on his own and built a smaller aircraft. The new aircraft was a single wing plane. It was smaller than the Bumble Bee. However, the Guiness people rewrote the record to show two smallest airplanes: one was a biplane, and the other was a single wing. The Bumble Bee has an 85 hp motor and was able to fly at over 100 mph.

The SR-71 spy plane still has top speeds that are classified. The F4 Fantom is a very large fighter, when compared to others in the museum. The F4 remains one of the most successful war planes produced.

After the museum we sat in the shade between our RV’s and read. Anne left around 4pm to check out the casino. An hour or so later Anne returned. She had spent $20 on the visit. She had some

good pulls, and some bad ones. We visited for a while and then took the CRV to the casino’s front parking lot. Wow. This was a very busy casino.

Anne had signed up for a Player’s Card. With the card, one received a $10 food discount at the buffet. She asked me to also get a Player’s Card. This way we could get our dinner meals at a very nice price. The $65 dinner for four ended up costing a little over $15. We ate well

We came in the casino at the KENO booth door. Dave and I would meet the ladies at the KENO sign in an hour. We discovered the casino didn’t have any Craps tables. We watched Blackjack tables for a while. There was only one $5 limit table. After a few minutes, a chair opened at the table. I sat and bought $40 of chips. After 30 minutes of play, I left the table with $40 of chips. Anne and Joy had done a bit better. Anne had cascaded another $20 into $113.

We got back to our rigs a little before 9 o’clock. Boy. Were we blessed. While we had been gone, an empty cattle truck had parked a few spaces away from us. Well, it was empty as far as

animals. However, the trailer wasn’t completely empty. It hit us when we folded out of the car. Whoa. Some RV’s should be banned from the parks.

Early this morning I helped Dave connect his pickup to the camper trailer. The four of us visited for a while and then we hugged our goodbyes. Next stop for them is Las Cruces, New Mexico. Today’s drive will be on I-10, all the way. It was great to share some of our winter get-away with them, although it seemed too short a time. There’ll be next year.

The next stop for us was back into the RV for some breakfast with crossword puzzle. Today we are going to drive down I-19 to find the local silo.

The Atlas, the Titan I and the Titan II were the ICBM missiles used by the United States during the Cold War Era. The Titan II rocket lasted the longest in the ICBM inventory. There were 58 Titan II’s deployed in attack hardened silo settings. There were 18 each in Little Rock, Wichita, and Tucson. As a result of the SALT Treaties, all of the silos have been decommisioned. The single Tucson site was preserved as a museum to the history of the times.

The early Atlas and Titan I missiles used liquid oxygen as part of their fuel. The oxygen could not be stored on the rocket, because it quickly boiled away. The rockets had to be fueled above ground prior to launch. This was very time consuming, when time was your enemy. The Titan II

rocked used two chemicals, which when kept separate could be stored indefinitly in the fuel cells of the Titan. The only criteria was that the reactant component had to be kept at a temperature below 60F. This pre-fueling capability meant that the Titan II was the first rocket which could be launched directly from its storage silo. That made the ICBM even less vulnerable to surface attack.

The Distant Early Warning System (DEW) was set up by the American and Canadian military to use over-the-horizon radar to detect early launch of Soviet missiles. Combine the DEW system with the pre-fueled Titan II and it meant that within 58 seconds of receiving an encrypted launch message, the missile could be past the hatch.

The Missile’s huge 9-megaton warhead could be delivered to tarets more than 6,000 miles away in about 35 minutes. The warhead was capable of devastation an area of about 900 square miles. If one converted the 9-megaton nuclear capability into its TNT equivalent, it would fill freight cars totaling more than 1,900 miles. The power of the bomb was greater than 3 times all of the explosives used by all armies during WWII.

When the Titan II silos were decomissioned, the rockets were used by NASA. The Gemini missions were all orbited with the Titan II missiles. Niel Armstrong’s first step on the moon was made possible by employing an unused Cold War ICBM rocket.

We were given a video preview of the history of the ICBM’s, and then we were led on a guided tour of the silo’s below ground facility. At 35 feet below ground we were covered overhead by 8 feet of steel reinforced concrete. The critical components, including the entire control room, were all suspended on enourmous springs. Designed to be able to survive a top-side nuclear attact, the launch necessary components of the bunker were protected from shock. The bunker contained 9 levels. Excluding only a couple of areas in the bunker, wherever a team member went, he/she had to be accompanied. The team consisted of two officers and two NCO’s. The officers were responsible for the communications and launch procedures. The NCO’s were technicans who were dispatched into the bunker for service needs.

The guide selected a woman from our tour to act as the launch control officer. She was seated in the #1 chair behind a board of status lights. A simulated order for launch came over the speakers. The guide walked through the steps which would have been taken by the two officers under a real situation. After just a few seconds, the launch process had become irreversible. Once the two launch keys are simultaneously turned to the 3 o’clock position – it is 58 seconds, and counting.

There are several above ground antennae within the fenced, and code secured site. These HF antennae were used to bring in launch orders. The above ground antennae were considered soft. This meant they could be put out of commission if the site were attacked. The Assistant Launch Control Officer was in control of communications. He/she could raise buried, or hardened antennae, should they be needed.

We had time to kill before the on-the-hour tour. We spent this time reading all of the museum’s displayed information involving the ICBM missile histories. As a result, we both came away from our visit with more knowledge than either of us had expected to acquire. Each side of the Cold War was operating under the policy of MAD, or mutually assured destruction. Human kind, and the Earth would not have come away from a launch by either side without suffering an unbelievable degree of devastation. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the World came to a “Good Night All.”

Friday morning we drove to the Arizona – Sonora Desert Museum. The museum is a 98-acre zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum, publisher, and art gallery. Located just west of Tuscun, it features two miles of walking paths traversing 21 acres of desert landscape. Due to its bi-seasonal rainfall, the Sonoran Desert region is known as the “lushest desert on earth” and it is home to over 2,000 species of plants.

We found that the museum’s map presented a labyrinth of paved and graveled trails. There were many special stops along each pathway. Plants beside the paths had identification plates and the different species of cactus was numerous. Pollination of the plants is a major theme of the museum. One stop featured bees that lived in dead cactus stalks. Hummingbirds are plentiful in the desert. The museum has a hummingbird aviary.

The aviary is a large netted area of the flora. Inside the aviary visitors walk on paths among the plants and they can watch hummingbirds feeding on the many flowers. We found one bird that

was sitting on a nest. It took some amount of observation to zoom in on the tiny nest. There are several different types of hummingbirds at different times of the year. Some were larger, some were very small. We watched them feed, and then they darted past our heads to another plant.

A stop had a large open rock enclosure which held bighorn sheep. The two females were resting and sunning themselves on the upper ledge. At the bottom of the enclosure a large male sheep was busy nibbling on something in the shade. Male and female bighorn have horns. The male’s set of horns are enormous when compared to his mate’s.

Near the bighorn enclosure is an underground display which let you watch an otter swim. This display was a through the glass aquarium. At the side of the aquarium was a beaver’s nest. From behind a window, you could turn a light on in the nest and see the sleeping beaver.

The most interesting outdoor display was a 2 pm flying of the raptors. The birds are all wild, but they know where to find food. Two bird handlers walked in the near bush where they placed small pieces of meat on limbs. The handlers would then make noises to get the bird’s attention and they would tap fingers on the branch near the food.

The first raptor we watched was a paragon falcon. The falcon holds the World’s animal speed record. Able to steep dive at over 200mph, the bird quickly swooped from cactus to cactus. It spotted the handler’s signals and flew to the branch with the meat.

The next raptor to buzz the crowd was a white barn owl. The bird is large, but weighs in at only a pound. The owl can spot mice and lizards at night from very far away. Its eyesight is unmatched in the animal kingdom. Like the falcon, the barn owl flew from plant to plant. It would sit for a few moments, and then it would quietly lift away and swoop over the crown at head height.

The most fascinating bird to watch was the osprey. The museum had four birds to release at feeding time. Like the owl, the osprey would sit for a moment, and then it would fly low overhead to the food on the limb. The handlers spoke of the pecking order of the osprey. The birds all looked the same to me, but apparently there was a female alpha osprey. She magically dictated the feeding activities of the other three birds.

The day was once again sunny and blue. By the time the birds had all eaten, it was time for us to begin to head for the car. It never seems to fail. Visiting all of the outdoor museum sites is a downhill affair. By 3 pm the temperature was 80F. We had been walking in the sun all afternoon. Short breaks were welcomed at benches along the way.

We were exhausted but satisfied of the visit to the desert museum. The coach presented a temperature of 85F. I set up chairs in the shade. Anne and I both relaxed with IPad puzzles. I enjoyed a cold tinny.

We are going to leave Tucson in the morning. Our destination is Albuquerque. The trip is over seven hours. I mapped a route that took us to Las Cruces for Saturday night. We would then have a

four hour drive on Sunday to Sandia Resort & Casino, in Albuquerque.

The Desert Diamond Casino & Hotel had been a convenient spot to spend our three nights in Tucson. A couple of drawbacks for the casino’s lot created temporary irritation. The perimeter of the Tucson International Airport was across the street. Airlines came and went on a runway that did not make them noticeable. The airport shares the field with the military. The fighter jets seemed to always use a runway system that led the planes over our heads. They were entertaining to watch during the day. Early morning flights brought early wake-up calls.

The railroad tracks run parallel to the road past the casino. Over the years, on our many trips to the SW, we have been impressed by the huge amount of freight traffic. The trains came past several times a day. One train’s schedule had it coming past at an early morning hour. The train’s movement noise was not a problem. It had to blow a long whistle as it approached the main intersection of roads which lead to the casino.

I refueled the RV, hooked up the CRV, and we were on our way to Las Cruces by 9am. The trip was 245 miles and it would take us about 5 hours. The I-10E freeway trip across SE Arizona was not highlighted with lots of special scenery. I was thankful there were lots of rest stops.

Last night I had called the Sunny Acres RV Park to make a reservation. The answering machine said someone would call back. We received a call just before noon from the park’s manager. She was anxious that we arrive soon. The winds were predicted to be 45mph later today. We were checked into the park by 3:30pm. We were put in site #80, a wide, back-in site.

While Anne was preparing today’s dinner, I claimed first dibs on the parks shower. Preservation of water is very important when dry camping. That means showers are rare. The stop at a full service RV Park affords the opportunity to recycle everything that needs changed. Besides showering, the waste tanks get emptied and the fresh water and propane tanks get topped up. We will be completely renewed, and ready to go in the morning.

Sunny Acres woke us early. There were no sunny delights. As soon as the sky was bright enough to work outside, I began empting waste tanks. As many times as I’ve done this chore, I am always so worried that the large waste hose is not connected tight enough. The water from the tanks immediately fills the hose and makes it jerk away from the edge of the coach compartment. Whew! That seemed to go ok. I re-topped the fresh water tank and stored all of the hoses.

The weather this morning was cold and cloudy. A breeze ensured the chill would be felt as deeply as possible. Las Cruces is at 3,950 feet. One would expect winter mornings to feel a lot like this one had. We hitched the CRV and left the Park by 8 am. Breakfast was going to wait until we came to a rest stop on the I-25N freeway.

Truth or Consequences is a city in New Mexico. In Oregon there are no longer billboard signs aside the freeway. They are common in New Mexico. One sign advertised a service station in Truth or Consequences which provided diesel fuel. To boldly advertise what most stations provide anyway suggested that in and out access to the fuel pump may be made for larger vehicles.

The diesel pump was at the approach to a driveway loop around the back of the service station. Perfect. Drive in, fill up, and drive out. While I did the service, Anne found some breakfast pastries in the station’s store.

It is 220 miles between Las Cruces and Albuquerque. At my cruise speed this would take about 4-1/2 hours. We hit every rest stop, where I would stretch and have a walk outside. The freeway changed from two lanes to three, and then it grew to four lanes. From out of nowhere there was an increase in Sunday traffic as we neared the southern outskirts of Albuquerque.

Exit 234 is north of the city. This exit puts us on Tramway Road. The Sandia Resort & Casino is at this end of Tramway Road. We maneuvered the RV through the parking lot intersection until we were stopped near where we had parked during our last visit. A casino security pickup drove up and told us RV’s now parked in the lots below the casino’s garage. The guard led us to where we could park.

This casino has recently caught on and others will follow. When we were here a couple of years ago, RV parking was encouraged for travelers, and it was free. The guard told us that our visit was free through day three. From then on, we would need to pay a small fee. We will get the full details when we check in at the front desk.

Patti and John Stanalonis are the good friends we come to Albuquerque to visit. After setting up in the casino’s RV lot, we drove the 8 miles to their home. Reunions are fun, and this was a fun evening. We visited until we had worked up a dinner hunger. Stan drove us to a sports bar he favored. We have eaten there before. They have a long tap line of ales. I chose a glass of stout.

The Olympic Games are being televised on all of the major channels. Canada and Norway were competing at the mixed double curling match. Studying what the objective of the game was kept us occupied while we waited for our meals. The wait was worth it.

We returned to their home and we visited for a while longer. The weather was windy and chilly. We found the RV to be fairly cool when we arrived. I ran the heater for a few minutes to take the bedtime chill off the inside.

I got up at 6 am. The cabin temperature was in the low 40’s. I started the generator and fired up the heater, and the teapot. We drove to Patti and Stan’s around 10 o’clock. Today’s adventure is going to be to go to the new Mexico Museum of History and Science. The museum is hosting a special showing of Da Vinci: The Genius.

The Da Vinci exhibits present two major sides of Da Vinci: His work as an artist, and his work as an inventor. The majority of the art exhibit focused on the age old debate as to whether the Mona Lisa ever had eyebrows and eye lashes. A scientist has recently put the painting under infrared and other spectral analyses. Earlier draft paintings were uncovered. No hair around, or above the eyes was discovered. Several spins as to why that may be have been proposed. However, there appears to be no way to prove any one correct, or wrong. The Last Supper was also thoroughly analyzed.  Boy. give a guy spectroscopy hardware then stand back.

I found the inventor side of Da Vinci’s life more fascinating. Da Vinci was very much into mechanics and gears. He invented a myriad of machines which operated by turning a handle, or wheel. Spoke gears met spoke gears and levers moved or payloads were lifted. Some organization has used the many drawings Da Vinci had done in is notebooks to build working models of those sketches.

It has been said that Da Vinci was a pacifist. However, he saw the need to improve the armament being used by his Monarch’s military. Many of his inventions of war used his well-established gear devices. He designed a crossbow that measured some 24’ long. The strings were drawn back by cranking a gear. The attitude of the bow could be adjusted up or down with another crank. He invented a couple variations of multi-barrel, rapid fire cannons. Yes. They were operated by a crank, too. He sketched a pyramid shaped mobile assault vehicle. The wood skin would deflect arrows and at the bottom of each side were mounted two cannons. The tank moved across a battle field on wheels which were rolled by peddle-driven gears.

From the Da Vinci exhibits we ambled through other displays of the museum. Albuquerque has done a wonderful job in putting together the museum’s displays. We found ourselves starting to look at our watches after spending nearly 4 hours in the museum. We hadn’t seen all of the collections, but that’s ok. We had come with the purpose of seeing the Da Vinci works.

On the way home, I drove, and I was guided past the city to the intersection of Old Route 66. A short section of the east bound highway has been developed into a musical road. Route 66 is one of six highways in the World which will play a song as you drive over it. America the Beautiful is the tune this road played.

Slits are cut in the pavement to create very narrow strips. The width of the pavement strips are calculated to produce a given note when driven over at 45mph. Different notes have different gap dimensions; wider for lower notes, and narrower for higher notes. Now, the road itself doesn’t play a tune. The pavement strips between the slits bumps the car’s suspension, thus setting up a vibration. The frequency of the vibration is dictated by the strip widths of the note being driven over.

The note strip is only about two tire widths wide. The cuts on the pavement were difficult to see. I found that I wandered a couple of notes, a couple of times as I tried to keep my right side tires on the cuts. The effect was terrific. The car clearly hummed America the Beautiful over a couple hundred yards.

We found ourselves at the house and in the refrigerator by 5 o’clock. It was definitely time for a tinny. We caught the final ends of the Canada/Norway Curl match. On the 8^th end, the Canadian team placed 4 of the 40 pound pucks on the red scoring circle. Norway conceded. The end of a very busy and fun day, Anne and I waved off a dinner invitation and we headed to the casino grounds.

Happy Valentine’s Day. Anne and Stan have developed a routine over the years, when we come to Albuquerque. It’s called a Casino Crawl. In the beginning, Stan was a religious Craps player. Anne showed him how easy it is to make money pushing buttons. Stan has become a mild believer in the slot machines. Stan drove to our casino parking pad at noon. We visited while we waited for Anne to return from the car wash.

While they were out there crawling, I did some mundane things. There is an excavated pond beside us on the parking pad. There hasn’t been any measurable rain in this part of New Mexico for over 100 days. The pond has a cracked dirt floor with 30 – 40 yards of unimpeded open range. I dug out my archery target butt and climbed to the pond’s floor for some shooting.

In the afternoon I re-erected my ham radio antenna. When we first arrived, the winds were too strong to properly set up the antenna. With chores completed, I relaxed in the lounge and read, and dozed.

Stan dropped Anne off at about 4:30pm. She came bouncing into the rig with a phrase like, “We’re in the money”. They had visited the Black Mesa Casino, just south of Santa Fe, as well as the Rio Rancho Casino. Anne had won jackpots on the penny slots at both casinos. Stan reported that he was down a little bit. He had left a machine he had been losing on. When he returned he watched a player sit down, put money in, and win a jackpot on the first pull. Perhaps that is the attraction. “If I pull just a couple more times, I will hit the bonus round.”

We have a dinner reservation at the Elephant Bar & Grill. Anne and I are treating Patti and Stan to a Valentine dinner. We left the rig in time to meet them at their home by 6 o’clock. During the drive, we got a bit of mist on the windshield. The forecast is calling for rain over the night. This would be much welcomed.

It was a bit before 9pm when we dropped Patti and Stan at their home. While we had been eating, the rain started to fall. It rained for most of the night. In the morning when I lifted the side curtains I noticed that the bottom of the pond had been covered with water. While I observed, I saw two pair of ducks moving across the surface. They paddled as pairs and they were continuously

ducking their heads under water to capture food that had come to the surface of the floor. Yesterday there was parching. Today there is plenty.  

It rained off and on for a couple of days. The winds blew hard day and night for three days. The duck crowd grew to 14 on the pond. Within a couple of days, however, virtually all of the water had been sucked into the soil. The ducks were gone.

I have my ham radio set up. I erected a 30’ mast and attached a 40m band dipole antenna to it. With the radio I am able to monitor conversations between hams located west of the Mississippi. Following the short bit of rain there came a cold front. Albuquerque received a dusting of snow on a couple of mornings. The temperatures dropped below freezing. Monitoring morning conversations on the radio, I heard that all of the SW was experiencing cold, and snow.

On this Wednesday morning, February 21^st, I woke up to 29F. We are planning to leave New Mexico by this weekend. We are going to seek some warmer weather. The predictions, however, are that the cold spell will extend into next week. The cold weather is not a severe problem, except that when the temperatures drop this much, the RV’s heat pump will not switch on. This means that we need to use the propane furnace.

When dry camping, I try to begin the campout with a full tank of diesel. The bus’s generator will run everything we need, including the heat pump. Water supply and propane are the consumables that limit our stays. With the cold temps we are using a lot more propane than normal. When we get low on propane we need to get topped up to ensure the refrigerator keeps working. This typically means a move to an RV Park where we can refresh everything. 

Chili Rellenos were prepared by Patti for yesterday’s dinner. We have visited with Patti and Stan on the afternoons and early evenings. Patti and Anne have shared duties in the kitchen for our meals. Patti has taught Anne and me how to play Canasta. Patti plays regularly in double’s games with a partner. We played solo games before and after dinner. I have learned already that Canasta is a very cut-throat game. Each of us has won games, but Anne and Patti seem to be the champs of the table.

This morning is Friday, February 23^rd. I had an appointment at Costco’s Hearing Aid Center late yesterday afternoon. I needed hearing aids and after a one and half hour session with the audiologist, I had a nice pair. I have a normal aging decrease in overall sensitivity and I also have what has been termed, “Spousal frequency deficiency”. That means that it is sometimes difficult to sort out what women are saying.

After the Costco session, we joined Patti and Stan at their home for dinner. This will be our last dinner together. Patti fixed boneless pork ribs, scallop potatoes with rice, and stir fried veggies. After this wonderful meal we set the table up for some dominoes. We all had some ideas regarding the rules for dominoes. We played a couple of games. We learned that dominoes’ is a challenging arithmetic game. Individual scores were gained only when one places a domino that leads to a multiple of 5 score.

This morning, we are going to be picked up at the RV at 9 am by Patti and Stan. We are going to share a breakfast at one of the Sandia Casino’s restaurants. We had the coach closed up and ready to roll by the time they arrived. The meals were too large for each of us, but they were very good. After breakfast we joined Stan for a $5 session at the pokies. He picked the right machine at first sitting. His first roll brought a 5-roll bonus round. During the bonus rolls, Stan gained $25. He was satisfied so he pulled his ticket and cashed it in.

We said our goodbyes back at the RV. Anne and I were treated wonderfully during our visit to Albuquerque. Patti and Stan are magnificent hosts, and they are very dear friends. We will miss them.

The Sandia Pueblo has a gas station across the road from the casino. I filled the rig with diesel. Anne waited for me in the CRV. We didn’t hook the car up yet. We drove across town on the Tramway Loop Bypass to the Albuquerque KOA RV Park. We needed to top up our propane. We have stayed at this KOA on past visits, so we both knew where we were going. With the tank filled, we hooked up the CRV.

Our trip today is going to take us south on I-25 to Hatch. At Hatch we take a shortcut to Deming. Hatch is home of Hatch Chili. We stopped while passing through Hatch and bought a Resita, a string of peppers. The peppers have been dried and the Resita is meant to be hung as a display. It was a few miles further from Hatch to Deming.

Our goal is Rock Hound State Park, south of Deming. We arrived at the park a little past 5 o’clock. There was a “Park Full” sign hanging on the self-check instruction board. We pulled to the visitor’s center parking lot to turn around and head to one of the RV Parks near town. We were greeted by the park host while we were making calls. The host had us park on the over-flow parking along side of the inner-park road. This will be a fine spot for at least one night.

The wind was constant with gusts at 25mph. The slide-out rain covers flapped all night. When morning came it was clear and bright blue. I lifted the shades and noticed we had some company. The outback here is all open grazing. I don’t see too much for the animals to eat on and they seemed at bit underfed.

We arranged a site at A Deming Roadrunner RV Park for a couple of nights. We ended up in site #72. The full hookup will allow us to empty waste tanks and to refill our water tank. Anne will be able to devote some time on her new quilt project, too. Later this afternoon we will be checking out the Walmart grocery department. I also want to see if they have a Dominoes game.

Dave and Joy have contacted us. They will be leaving Falcon Lake, in Texas, this Friday. They would like to re-link with us and travel into Arizona. We have added a few more days to our stay at the Roadrunner RV Park.

About 30 miles north of Deming, on US180, is City of Rocks State Park. The park has >50 RV sites. Of those, there are 10 sites which have electrical hookups. A call to the park revealed that we would not be getting one of those 10 sites. City of Rocks is where we will reconnect with Dave and Joy. That will probably be on the coming Monday, March 5^th.

Deming is located 60 miles west of Las Cruses and thirty-three miles north of the Mexican border. The population is ~ 15,000. Deming is the county seat and principal community of Luna County. The city, founded in 1881 and incorporated in 1902, was an important port of entry on the US-Mexican border until the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. A nickname was given to the city at the time of its founding, "New Chicago." It was expected that with the surge of railroad usage, that the city would grow drastically and resemble Chicago, Illinois

Deming is named after Mary Ann Deming Crocker, wife of Charles Crocker, one of The Big Four of the railroad industry. The Silver Spike was driven here in 1881 to commemorate the meeting of the Southern Pacific with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads. This was the second transcontinental railroad to be completed in the United States. There are numerous ancient Native American sites around Deming. The Mimbres and Casas Grandes cultures made pottery of remarkable quality, and the Deming area is rich in native pottery artifacts, as well as beads, stone implements, stone carvings, graves, etc. The artifacts are now on display at multiple museums.

It turns out that luck is with us. As Oregon Duck alumni, Deming, New Mexico, is the place to be in late summer. The Great American Duck Race is held every year on the third weekend of August. It features wet and dry duck race tracks, a hot air balloon show, a Tournament of Ducks Parade, a carnival, and a variety of vendors setting up their wares in the Courthouse Square and surrounding property. Hmm. I wonder if these ducks are the quacking type.

The Deming Walmart is a Super Store. We completed our grocery shopping and I located the game shelves. They had the classical 28 piece Dominoes. They also had several sets which had different numbers of tiles. The tiles were plastic and they had different colored pips. We put a set into the cart.

It seems to be a truism that when checkout lines are crowded, there is always someone just in front of you who has a problem. I don’t think it would matter which line you had started in. That slowed us down. Walmart’s have Subways. After checking out, that is where we went for lunch. There were no long lines at this shop.

After dinner, Anne challenged me to a game of Dominoes. Each player draws 7 chips. The player with the highest double chip lays it down and that chip becomes a 4-sided spoke, onto which you can attach like numbered dominoes. The object of the game is to score points with your chips. When the spoke has been laid, the next player must place a matching number. The outer half of the second chip won’t have the same number as the matching half did. Then each end of the spoke chip is added to the outer end of the second chip. If that total is a multiple of 5, then the second player has scored that total. The next play can be made on any of the remaining 3 edges of the spoke chip, or it can be made by matching the outer end of the last chip laid. The outer total of the 1 to 4 spokes, which are eventually formed, is what is added to determine a scoring play. If one cannot play, then a chip must be drawn from the excess pile. Drawing continues until a match can be made to one of the spoke ends. After each game, scores are added. The first to place all of his chips wins. The loser’s chips are added and that total is given to the winner’s score. First to 100 wins the match.

We played 4 matches this evening. For some reason I seemed to be the one with just the right chip to play next. I discovered early that if I had chips which matched the spoke number, I would save them to play later. Usually no more than two spokes were ever formed. That meant I would have a place to play those saved chips. I tried to always play such that I left an opening on either spoke end. Anne could only play on one of them. Using that as a base strategy I then looked at how I could play to score points. One doesn’t know what the opponent’s next chip will be. That means you can’t line up your chips in a planned order of play. The game of Dominoes adds a fun dimension to the kind of thinking one need do. It is a great couple’s game.

Thursday morning Anne and I drove to City of Rocks State Park. Formed of volcanic ash 30 million years ago and sculpted by wind and water into rows of monolithic blocks, City of Rocks State Park takes its name from these incredible rock formations. The large sculptured rocks, in the shape of pinnacles or boulders, rise as high as 40 feet. Cactus gardens and hiking trails add to this unique destination. The Mimbreno Indians settled in the area about 750 - 1250 AD. Pottery, arrowheads, and other artifacts show evidence of prehistoric Indians in the region. Indian wells, or conical holes, are found in the rocks where water would be allowed to collect.

We stopped at the Park’s visitor center and met with the attending Ranger. He gave us a map and asked us to call the state park’s reservation number for site information. Over the weekends there are a lot of visitors who come to camp and climb the stones. Monday would be a good time to find empty sites. We drove the park and identified a few sites which would accommodate both of the Duncan rigs. We had no cell service, so calling about preferred spots would wait until we returned to Deming.

The State Park is half way between Deming and Silver City. We needed to do some grocery shopping so we opted to find a Walmart in Silver City. The valley that is now the site of Silver City once served as an Apache campsite. With the arrival of the Spaniards, the area became known for its copper mining. With a wave of American prospectors, Silver City was founded in the summer of 1870. The founding of the town occurred shortly after the discovery of silver ore deposits at Chloride Flat. The town is home to ~11,000 residents. Silver City has a violent early history. With the presence of folks like Billy the Kid, and raids by displaced and angry Apache, early peace officers were kept busy.

We had driven a little over 60 miles to reach Silver City. Almost all of that travel was done across a wide, flat expanse. Silver City was founded in the middle of the first set of rolling hills we came to. The city’s streets are a roller coaster ride, complete with twists and turns between traffic lights. Captain John M. Bullard and his brother James founded the town shortly after silver was discovered at Chloride Flat. It seems too bad the boys didn’t notice how much easier it would have been to build the town had they looked just a mile south of where they stood.

Anne observed that this Walmart used paper bags at the checkout counters. She commented to the clerk about the bags and she was told that this is one of two stores that have switched back from plastic. We have collected a bag full of plastic Walmart bags in the RV. They make perfect liners for the two waste bins we use. Lift them out when full, tie a knot and march them to the rubbish bin. We had forgotten to bring our re-usable bags today.

When we got back to the Roadrunner RV Park, I made a call to the State Park reservation desk. City of Rocks has several reserved sites among the many first come spots. Site # 16 is a very large spot and it is open for Monday. That is the day Dave and Joy are planning to join us. We will try to pay an extra site fee of $10 and share the spot. On Tuesday, we will drive the park’s 51 camping sites and locate two which will be suitable for a longer stay.

Dave and Joy had a short final trip Sunday from El Paso to Deming. I had asked Jim, the Park Manager, to reserve site # 73 for Dave and Joy’s rig. They pulled up around 10 am. We got them all set up and then it was tinny time.

Anne and Joy prepared spaghetti and meat for Sunday’s dinner. After a short battle with the gluten free spaghetti, some of it did not want to separate in the water, we sat for a very nice dinner. After dinner, Anne and I showed Dave and Joy how to play Dominoes. We had a few games to 100. We parted about 8 o’clock. Tomorrow we are going to drive to City of Rocks State Park.

The day broke with a bright red sunrise at 6:30 am. The sky was mostly cloudy and the wind was picking up. It didn’t look like it was going to be a very pleasant day. We had both rigs ready to pull out by 10 am. The sky had completely cleared and it now looked like it would become a mid-70s kind of day.

The drive to the park was casual. I led and I drove us to the visitor’s center parking area. There, I disconnected the CRV. Some of the Park’s gravel road corners were crisp enough that I didn’t want the extra length causing problems. I slowly drove us around the park perimeter until I came to site #16. The site is large enough that having pulled in head first I had enough room to turn around and back into a comfortable position. Dave pulled in and backed the Arctic Fox beside the coach. Some leveling was done, and then we were all set.

Site #16 has several large stones clustered together. They create a natural, sheltered picnic spot in the center. The Park has installed a picnic table and a fire pit centered in the rock cluster. There is a graveled path leading from the rocks out into the brown grassed desert space. We will investigate what may be found in the dried expanses when we go for a walk after breakfast tomorrow. 

I got up at 6 am on Tuesday and noticed the sun was starting to rise. I fixed a cup of tea, put on my jacket and then I went to the rocks to watch the sunrise. This was a very quiet and colorful event. I caught several photos as the wispy cloudy sky filled with brilliant shades of red. The massive stones defined the view I was able to see.

At 9 am Dave and I drove the CRV around the park. We looked for single or double sites that would accommodate our two rigs. We settled on sites # 1 & 2. These two sites are nested at the eastern rim of the rocks. They sit overlooking the visitor’s center. I set out orange traffic cones at the entrance to each site. I asked Dave to drive the CRV back and bring his Arctic Fox back for site # 1. I stayed at the sites to make sure no one snuck in and took one of the spaces.

Dave arrived quickly with the trailer. I helped him navigate a back-in onto the site. While we were getting him setup, a woman in a small SUV pulled up and wanted to take the #2 site. I told her it was ours. She looked confused until I explained that we had another RV coming for the spot. Anne and Joy arrived in the CRV. I needed to return to site #16 to bring the RV back.

We had used Dave’s 6 foot ladder to do some work on the slide-out awning cover yesterday. The ladder would not fit in the CRV so Dave used his pickup to drive me back for the rig. Within a half hour the second RV was positioned. We were ready to start an extended camping visit in City of Rocks State Park.

We will be here until the weekend. Joy was quick to get out her field glasses and to begin scouting for birds. Anne sat in the shade of the RV’s awning and continued work on a small embroidery piece. I dug out the bag holding the 4 foot fiberglass pole sections and assembled them into a 30’ mast for my ham radio antenna. Dave and Anne helped me hoist the mast and strap it securely to the ladder on the rear of the RV. Within a few minutes I had the 40m inverted vee antenna tuned and picking up stations across western America.

Dave had bought a Tady Brothers backup camera system for his pickup. The camera mounts

at the top of the license plate and presents a view of the trailer hitch. The backup view is seen on a small monitor within the cab. With the camera’s assistance it is possible to back the hitch ball directly beneath the receptacle on the trailer.

The monitor is capable of viewing two cameras. The second camera is going to be placed at the rear of the trailer. This way, Dave can see what is following him on the road. The rear mounted camera will also assist when backing the trailer into a camping site. He and I mused over the most cosmetic way to mount the monitor, with its several wires, to the truck’s dash. This will be a project for the next day.

Wednesday morning we donned our hiking boots and readied for a walk through the stones. Joy had paper which described the locations of some nearby petroglyphs. We wound our way around

the many statuesque stones that have weathered smooth over many millions of years. The City of Stones is clustered on a low profile hill, standing alone in the vast flat expanse of the high desert plateau. The hill’s surface has weathered away around the ancient lava protrusions which are the stones. The stone surfaces are flaking and they have many holes which may have been formed by bubbles in the original flow.

The New Mexico Park Service has created paths into the stone clusters. Where there are larger separations between stone structures, the Park Service has leveled a patch of ground to be used for a camping site. While walking through the stones, we came upon several small openings which had become home to a single native oak tree. The shaded hide-away would have been a wonderful hot summer day’s respite for the early Native American traveler.

Scattered between the stone pillars were many large boulders. With many of the boulders, it was not obvious where it had come from. Many had tumbled from the tops of nearby pillars. We found one large boulder, which, from a distance appeared to have only two small points of contact with the ground. One could see the distant background from underneath the rock. I reached the rock and lay on the ground to look under the stone. It had settled on a small edge of the stone and on top of a 4” diameter stone. The rock was several inches above the ground, except for those two spots.

An hour later we emerged from the forest of stones. Once again back on the gravel road which circumscribed the stone hill, we found our way back to the camp sites. The spirit for the rest of the

day was to have a light lunch and to join up at site #1 around 4 pm for a picnic table dinner. It will be nice to be able to loaf for most of the day.

Friday, March 9^th, we loaded into the CRV and were out of the park by 9 am. The drive today is taking us north on Hwy 180, past Silver City to the town of Glenwood, NM. In the spring of 2012, Dave and Joy were caravanning with Chris, Jennifer, and the boys. Glenwood was having its annual Dutch Oven Cook-off. This affair was held at the Glenwood Community Center park land. Using a campfire and a Dutch oven pot, the object was to come up with a prize winning meal. There were different categories for the judging and the families took a third place in their category.

Waiting for the day of the cook-off, the two families camped on Gila National Forest land, located ~5 miles south of Glenwood. Their boondocking site was found near the trail head which led to the San Francisco Hot Springs. I had joined the clan in the Vanaroo. At this time, Anne was in Palm Springs with her group of lady friends for their annual get-away.

Camping with family always seems to center on activities around the fire pit. The hot springs site was no exception. It began by collecting stones to build the fire pit wall a little higher so it was not affected by the constant breeze. From Dave’s 5^th wheel he brought some gray water. Local dirt was mixed

with the water and we began filling in the gaps between stones. We were all impressed with the resulting effect. The adobe project somehow morphed into a, “How can we make this bigger and better?” Everyone was involved.

The round fire pit soon became a pit with an attached oven. The boys collected all forms of riff raff to embed in the walls of the oven extension. A discarded grill was built into the oven, and a thick door was constructed to seal the oven for baking. The pit/oven adobe project resulted in a proud family leave-behind at the camp site. The oven was tested for a couple of meals and it produced well prepared scones.

I have dwelt on the adobe project because Dave and I were curious if the oven has lasted the 6 years since we were at the Gila forest site. We no longer had the mile post reference for the un-marked turn off to the hot springs trail, but we knew it was about 5 miles south of Glenwood. We found the turn off between MP 57 & MP 58, on Hwy 180. As soon as we drove across the cattle guard at the graded road’s entrance, we all recognized that this was the place.

We slowly drove to the old camp site at the bottom of the road. There was a camper using the site. The CRV was instantly attacked by a gray Pit Bull dog. Its master spent a few moments trying to get a grip on the dog’s neck scruff. The camper remembered the adobe pit and oven and he pointed to its location. We had parked right next to where our oven had been. The weather over the last few years had taken its toll. There was nothing remaining but a large pile of stones.

The journey to the San Francisco Hot Springs camp site had been worth the time, however. Dave and Joy and I relived the memories of the time we had camped there. I made note of the coordinates at the highway turn off, for future reference use. It was now lunch time so we drove into Glenwood to find a place to eat. Many of the businesses were closed, either permanently or until later

spring traffic arrives. We asked a woman who was outside working on the wall of her business where we could fine a lunch spot. She told us to drive 5 miles north to the Alma Grill and Store.

We found the grill exactly where she said it would be. We were received at the grill by a waitress and we were seated at a clean table. While we waited for our order to be prepared, the grill’s many tables became fully occupied. The Alma Grill is the only eatery within a many miles north and south on the highway. The motif presented in the grill’s décor was that of the history of the early New Mexican branding iron. Four inch tiles, each holding the image of a given brand were hung on the walls above our heads.

The Alma Grill prepared a very nice lunch. We were pleased we had gone out of our way to stop there. Dave drove for us on the return to Silver City. On the way he had noticed there was a mining ghost town, called Mogollon, located some 8 miles off of Hwy 180. The afternoon was very young so we opted for the site seeing drive to the old town. The first 5 miles of the road to Mogollon was a well maintained two lane highway; many residences were served by access from the road. At that distance, however, things changed. The road began to climb into the hills and it turned into a one-lane, ill maintained track.

We S-turned higher and higher and soon came upon roadside snow. The road had no guard rails and it had no shoulders. Anne was sitting behind Dave and she was not appreciative of the breathtaking views of the canyons which dropped away immediately at the edge of the road.

What goes up must come down. We reached an apex on the road at a little over 7,000 feet. As we wound our way down, we began to see abandoned entrances into the stone walls beside the roadway. We were driving near the bottom of the canyons, now, and the ditches on either side of the road were lined with turkey wire covered stones. This had been done to minimize erosion by the torrents of gully water which ran from the canyons above.

Mogollon is a one road town. The ghost town had a couple of historic business buildings and a museum. We visited with a man who was renovating the old Mogollon Theater. We saw lights on at one business spot so we found a place to park on the side of the road. Dave and I walked back to the business and found it to be Mogollon Woodworks. We entered the shop and announced our presence.

There was a glass fronted stove with a room warming fire burning, but there was no one attending the shop. Dave and I took a few minutes and had a look around at the wood working being done. The shop was outfitted with modern equipment spaced around the wooden floor area. Scraps of lumber lay here and there and sawdust was found in piles near each machine. This would be a fun shop to spend time in during cold winter days.

The climb out of the deep ravine which housed the Mogollon Ghost Town was not as scary for Anne. She was now seated on the sheltered side of the car. I, however, was now on the cliff’s edge. Dave did a fine and slow drive back to the two lane highway point. From there, back to Silver City, it was smooth driving.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent exploring the side streets of Silver City. Off the main road through the city, the streets were filled with many art’s and craft’s shops. We visited several. One shop was a coffee retreat. We stopped for iced lattes and loved the visit with the owner, with long and gray hair. Perhaps once a hippie, the owner had covered every bare wall space in the shop with memorabilia. Guitars seemed to be his primary display theme. He told us of some of the artisan history of Silver City. We also received his accolades of some of the nicer dinner spots for this evening.

A block away from the coffee shop is a second-hand store mall. Three steps up from the street is the only entrance to the mall. It had no inner walls and the mall was partitioned by display counters into separate areas. The inside of the mall building covered the best part of a half block. This “junk” store was quite the find. We spent the best part of an hour wandering through it. Naturally, we came away with a couple of packages.

Dave and Joy spend a half hour visiting a shop run by a craftsman who made cigar box guitars. Those were of no interest to Dave and Joy, however. What caught their eyes was what the owner had in the shop’s display cases. Joy found a Native American carved stone piece which she adored. The owner was several generations away from immigrants from Germany. He had relics which had come across America on a wagon train. They came away from the store with gifts, and with more than they ever wanted to know about the owner’s family history.

While she had been waiting, Anne had walked the main street and had discovered the town’s home brewery and distillery. It had turned 5 o’clock by the time we all gathered at the brewery for a late afternoon pint. We had gotten to the pub just in time. Friday night was a popular time for an overflow, and thirsty crowd. We each had a drink and Anne called to make dinner reservations at the Buckhorn Saloon and Opera House.

Today is Dave and Joy’s 50^th wedding anniversary. As a gift, Anne and I are treating them to a meal at the region’s most acclaimed steak dinner spot. The Buckhorn was located on an off-street in the hillside town of Pinos Altos. Anne’s reservations had saved the day. The restaurant was full. The hostess showed us directly to our table at the rear of the building. While we awaited our meals, Anne prompted Joy to tell us some of their years as a couple. Joy was full of memories of the different places they had lived while Dave was employed as a service technician for Mohawk Data. We enjoyed Merlot while Joy and Dave reminisced many years of their life together.

The steak dinners were generally well received. I had a 16oz sirloin, with garlic mashed potatoes and a house salad. I don’t think I have ever eaten such a large piece of meat, but I got it all down. We had eaten well. Anne was the designated driver to find our way out of Pinos Altos and back to the City of Rocks.

The City of Rocks State Park is open for day use between 7 am and 9 pm. It is posted that the gates to the park close at 9 o’clock. We approached the Park’s entrance at 9:05 pm and we were all dreading the need to park the car and walk to our camp sites. Ta Da. The gates were open. Anne dropped Dave and Joy at their site and then drove to ours. What was in the boot of the CRV would wait to be removed in the morning. This had been a 12 hour day of site seeing and memory sharing. All of us were ready for an early bed.   

Sunday, March 11^th, was a day of desert rain. A little moisture sat atop the exposed ground

rock, but the surrounding dirt seemed to remain dry. The rain was a bit of a blessing. Naturally, this region of the earth needed it, but it also brought a cessation in the constant winds. Somewhere, not too far from here, there is a place which must exist in a near vacuum. This was a day for needle work and for reading. Joy brought over 2# of lean hamburger meat and Anne put together a meatloaf with it. This would be cooked later for our dinner.

I had the cabin temperature set at 71F. That has been plenty warm enough. With the rain today, the moisture in the air has created a chill. Anne and I both found ourselves adding another layer of clothing. Of course just sitting with a book is not a good way to keep the blood flowing.

Joy and Dave invited us to go with them to locate the petroglyphs which had been mapped on the Park’s handouts. Dave showed up with a heavy coat on. I took one look at his dress and I decided I would rather sit in the warm comfort of our cabin. When they returned, they reported that they had located all of the Park’s art work. We had found one petroglyph on our walk the other day. It was a black depiction of Kokopelli. The art was placed high on a boulder found in a sheltered area, behind a tree. This was not on an open surface, as other petroglyphs we have seen had been. Although it was a nice depiction, its location brought us suspicion as to its native authenticity.

The slides were in and we were all ready to go by 10 o’clock the next morning. We are heading to a small mountain town in S.E. Arizona called Portal. On the way, we will stop in Deming for some shopping and for some critical RV services.

Anne and Joy drove on ahead in the CRV. They are going to go to the Deming Walmart for groceries. Dave and I drove in tandem the 25 miles to the northern edge of Deming. A Valero Station was our target. The Valero has truck pull-through diesel pumps and they offer no charge RV dump facilities. We needed both. Just across the street from the Valero is Griffin’s Fuel Center. Griffin’s is the place to stop in Deming for propane fill-ups.

I was the first to finish at the Valero station. I crossed the street and filled up with propane. The Griffin lot was large enough for me to park to the side and wait for Dave to fill his tanks. While I waited, Anne and Joy arrived. They transferred their groceries, and then I connected the CRV and readied for the tow to Portal.

A few blocks south of the fueling stops is the on ramp for I-10E. It would be a 75 mile drive on the freeway before we reach exit 5. At this exit we drive south on Hwy 80 and cross the NM/AZ border at a platted development spot on the road, called Rodeo. Rodeo is an open desert residential development community “wantabe”. There is a very showy Community Center building near the highway, and there are a dozen scattered home sites between Hwy 80 and the S.E. mountain range. Rodeo would be a town where one could retire on a 5 -10 acre plot and pretend to be a farmer. For no other reason would one want to live there.

Shortly after passing Rodeo, we turned onto AZ Hwy 533. This highway is a narrow, two lane road which slowly climbs into the hills. On the way to a place called Sunny Flat Campground, we pass a store. We are soon driving down the center of the road to avoid over-hanging limbs. Dave is in the lead. He lets me know, via the walkie-talkie, when limbs are near, or when we have an oncoming car.

We crossed a one-way bridge, which spanned a small brook, and we had arrived at Sunny Flats. The drive through the campground showed us no suitable sites for either of us. It was, however, a wonderful campground to test your ability to navigate nearly impossible bends and curves, while trying to avoid serious brush scratches down your 40 foot length.

On our retreat from Sunny Flats Campground, we stopped at the grocery store for an ice cream break. During this respite, we read the fine print in the camping book and discovered that

Sunny Flats was limited to RVs of 22 feet, and smaller. We also found out during this stop that the grocery store was, essentially, Portal. I have seen enough of this part of southeastern Arizona.

Calls were made, and we secured two dry camping sites at Rusty’s RV Ranch. Rusty’s is just a few miles drive back towards the freeway from Portal. We drove back into New Mexico for the night.

After getting ourselves set up for the evening, we hunkered down in the motorhome to sort out where we were going to be for the next several days. Bisbee, AZ, is a town of interest, and there are a couple of RV Park options available. From Bisbee, Joy’s desire was to go to Patagonia, AZ. Patagonia is a town known for its population of migrating birds.

We had WiFi reception at Rusty’s, as well as good telephone links. Our research told us there would be no available RV parking sites which we could count on near Patagonia. We would give that berg a miss. The next city with available parking spots is Tucson. Tucson has two RV accommodating casinos, as well as a BLM boondocking area a few miles to the south of the city. Joy made the phone calls and she got us both booked at Desert Oasis RV Park, in Bisbee. We would spend four nights at the Oasis.

A couple of miles from Rusty’s is the Indian museum at Rodeo. The museum has two sections; one is the Apache Museum, and the other is the Chiricahua Desert Museum. The Apache Museum is contained in one hallway and it has several glass case displays with pottery shards, arrowheads, arrows, and bows. On the walls were many framed photographs depicting events critical to the settling of the Apache Nation in the late 1900’s. The central figure in many of the photographs was Geronimo. There was no story telling printed dialogue to present a history of the Apache people and of the Whiteman’s interactions with them.

I was particularly interested in the archery tools used by the Apache. I do not know what the wood was, but the bows were made from 1 inch diameter limbs. The limb was tapered to ¾ inch at each end. The bows were short, approximately 4 feet long, and they were made for shooting from horseback. Because the bows were short, this meant that the arrows did not need to be very long. There would probably only be of the order of 15 inches draw on the bow string, compared to 28 inches on modern longbows. The arrows were made from straight twigs. Many of them had short lengths of rush grass spliced onto the business end. The arrowheads were all quite small, maybe 1 inch long and ½ inch wide at the base. Some arrowheads were even smaller. It is expected that arrows with heads that small would be primarily used for small game, or birds.

The Chiricahua Desert Museum’s main theme is rattlesnakes. The museum had many glass cases which displayed long past snake bite venom kits, used by the military and by civilian medics. There were large displays of many types of tortoise shells. The most significant displays, however, were terraria which served as home to a dozen or more different kinds of rattlesnakes. Each terrarium had a snake, coiled and comfortable with eyes peering at the movement on the other side of it’s glassed in residence. There were species of rattlesnake which were native to regions of Mexico up through the western US. These snakes were of differing adult size, our familiar Diamond Back Rattler is perhaps the king of the species. Colors varied from the dark, patchy diamond back to white and yellow. I think I was most pleased by the displays I saw in the Apache Museum.

One does not visit a museum that does not have an attached gift shop. Anne bought herself a tee shirt. Dave and Joy emerged many minutes later with a bag containing a snake picture, a special map of Arizona, two tee shirts, and a pair of sun glasses. Anne and I enjoyed ham sandwiches while we waited their return to the parking lot.

Our GPS’s guided us faithfully to the Desert Oasis Campground. The Oasis is addressed in McNeal, AZ. We turned off Hwy 191 onto W. Double Adobe Road. Adobe road dropped us down into a wide basin region between two mountain ranges. We could see many buildings, forming a larger community, as we turned into the Oasis campground.

Lynn is the proprietor of the Desert Oasis Campground. We all got to know a little of Lynn’s personality last night as he and Joy set up our reservations for the next four nights. Lynn addressed Dave and me by name as we drove up to the registration office. He had all of the paperwork ready for us to sign. We were given sites 23 & 24. Both of these sites are extra-long, and they are quite wide. Anne and I were enjoying air conditioned comfort in our coach by 2:30pm.

Tombstone is a few miles north of Bisbee. Tombstone was a booming city in the late 19^th century, created by the rich silver mining in the area. The town is in the history books on the early American West primarily because of Wyatt Earp and his participation in the gunfight at the OK Corral. In the early 1880’s Tombstone’s most noted piece of property, the Boothill Cemetery contains the remains of many of Wyatt Earp’s victories.

Wyatt Earp died at his home in Los Angeles on January 13, 1929, at age 80. Earp was restless in his early years. Earp frequented the saloons, gambling houses and brothels that proliferated on the frontier, and he had several run-ins with law enforcement. He went on to spend time as a buffalo hunter before moving to Wichita, Kansas, in 1874. Wichita was a cattle-shipping center and in 1875 Earp got hired as a policeman there. He left the following year, after seriously beating another man during a fistfight.  Earp then became an assistant marshal in Dodge City, Kansas, a booming center of the cattle trade; it was dubbed the “Wickedest Little City in the West.” It was in Dodge City that Earp would make the acquaintance of Doc Holliday, a well-known gunman and gambler. For the next several years, Earp worked as a lawman in Dodge during cattle-trading season, spending the rest of the year as a professional gambler in Texas and New Mexico.

In 1879, Earp and his longtime companion, the former prostitute Mattie Blaylock, left Dodge City for Tombstone. The town was booming after a silver rush, and most of the Earp family, brothers Virgil, James and Morgan, had gathered there. Virgil was working as the town marshal, and Wyatt began working alongside him. While pursuing a group of cowboys who had robbed a stagecoach, Wyatt struck a deal with local rancher Ike Clanton, who had ties to the cowboys. Clanton soon turned against him, however, and began threatening the Earp brothers. The feud escalated, and finally exploded into violence on October 26, 1881 at the O.K. Corral. In the gunfight, Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday faced off against the Clanton gang (Ike, his brother Billy, and Tom and Frank McLaury). Morgan, Virgil and Holliday were all wounded, but survived; Billy and the McLaurys were killed; and Wyatt Earp escaped without injury.

The Boothill Cemetery was used from 1878 to 1884, after then a permanent cemetery was established at another site. Boothill holds the remains of early Tombstone’s most important figures, its villains, its citizens and its children. Many of the graves had markers which stated “Unknown”. Over the years there has been much research done to identify the remains in most of the grave sites. The walk past the many markers brought realism to the lawlessness and hardship endured by citizens of our frontier west.

Tombstone has its parking problems. Several streets have been preserved and are on the National Historical Register. Old Tombstone is a must see and you can walk it once you find a spot to park. The streets were wide and they met boardwalks on both sides. The timber built businesses adjoin neighbors and the building strip fills the block. The exterior facade of each business presents its original authenticity.

Stagecoaches carry visitors on rides with the driver describing the city’s history. Several times a day there was a gunfight in the street outside the OK Corral. Dave and I strolled into the Crystal Palace Saloon and found stools at the old West’s longest bar. It was a warm and dusty day outside, and we enjoyed a glass of refreshment; he a merlot, and I a stout. Anne and Joy would meet us later at an old time photo shop, where we were scheduled to have a group picture taken.

The ladies running the photo shop were orderly and on time with their setup of our photo op. They dressed us in outfits of our choosing and they choreographed our posing. We were happy with the results and we found our way to Puny John’s Barbeque for lunch.

We had planned the day so that on the return to the campground we would be passing through the city of Bisbee. Bisbee was founded as a copper, gold and and silver mining town in 1880. In 1929, the county seat was moved from Tombstone to Bisbee, where it remains. To enter Bisbee you drive down into a canyon. The city was built on the sides of the hills which were being tunnel-mined for their ores. We had already put in a busy day while at Tombstone and we settled on making our one stop at the city’s museum.

We were met inside the museum’s doors by a woman dressed in old west garb. She spent a few minutes regaling us with some of the history of early Bisbee and what we would see in the many sections of the museum. We enjoyed very well presented displays of the early mining operations. A highlight of the museum visit was the displays of the stones and crystals found in the tunnels. Copper

was the primary ore being dug. Beautiful bright blue and green stones showed off the richness of the deposits. As we walked back to our car, we realized that Bisbee would definitely deserve many more hours, on another day.

This Thursday had been forecast to be extremely windy in southern Arizona. We hadn’t felt the winds while we had been sightseeing. However, when we returned to the Desert Oasis Campground we were hit with the gusts. I had erected a fiberglass pole at the rear of the RV to hoist a wire antenna for my ham radio. As we approached the bus I saw that the post had broken in half. I removed the damaged 4 foot section, and with Dave’s help I re-hoisted the antenna. Everything worked out well.

It was an early start Saturday morning. We had to be near the front of the line at the Saturday Market in Warren. Warren is a few miles beyond Bisbee. The market was being held in the town’s grassed park square. Tables were still being set up, and the wind was blowing. Anne and I made a quick circuit of the booths; ended up with a couple of red ripe tomatoes. I made my way back to the car to sit in some warmth. Anne joined me shortly. On the way to Warren I stopped at a vista pull-over which overlooked Bisbee. Access to some of the hillside homes must have created a significant engineering challenge.

The Squirrels Nest Quilt Shop is located a few miles past Sierra Vista. This is the only quilt store in the region. Anne and Joy needed to have a fabric fix. Dave and I visited in the store with the man who serviced the quilt machines. He happened to own a beautiful red Porsche 911, parked outside. We visited with him about his cars and about his driving experiences.

The man had been on a few tracks and he had spent some time in Europe, where regions have no speed limits on their freeways. It was interesting to find he had a lot of visit time spent in Australia. His favorite spot was the hillside park behind Perth. Anne and I remember that park and looking out over the Indian Ocean’s rich, clear blue/green shades; speckled with fully masted yachts displaying an unrepeatable Kodak moment.

On the way to the Squirrel’s Nest, we had spotted a “Gun Show” sign. There may be no signs with those words which Dave happily drives past. We located the gun show at the Windermere Hotel. We all went in as far as the lobby. A desk with attendant blocked access to the show in the hall beyond. The admission price was $7. Anne and I didn’t feel we would get that much entertainment value from the displays. We found a couple of chairs in the sun and wind on the patio. Dave found a couple of items to support one of his rifles.          

On our way back to our campsite we stopped at a vista point which overlooked the last open pit mine operation at Bisbee. This mine is huge. The primary pit is over 5,000 feet across, and it is 850 feet deep. Display boards explained the mining process, how the extracted ore was treated, and refined.  Trucks hauling over 230 tons of ore carried the digs from the pit to concentrating areas. The dig was ground and dripped with a mild sulfuric acid solution to leach the copper from the rough. The copper solutions were further refined to result in 99.999% pure copper. Copper is very much a supply and demand based metal. Virtually everything we enjoy or use today contains copper. The mines will be left open awaiting a day when more efficient processes will make digging for the remaining lean ore content profitable. Then too, as with the mines near Ajo, it would cost millions to back fill the pits to be able to walk away from them.

                     The drive to Tucson was only going to take us a couple of hours. Anne and I had gotten up at our early time and we had the RV pretty much ready to roll. The campsite’s clubhouse is very well laid out with relaxing features. It has a full service counter bar, a library nook, book and DVD shelves, and a pool table. Dave and I have played several times at pool. This morning I knocked on their door and challenged Dave to a departing day game. Dave is left handed, and I am right handed. We each played with the offhand. This morning’s game lasted a lot longer than earlier ones. However, I don’t see why one couldn’t become comfortable shooting with either hand.

                     The layer of clouds was just right to create a perfect sunset over Desert Oasis Campground, on our last night. Tomorrow morning we will drive, via Hwy 80, towards Tucson.

                     There are a handful of free RV parking spots in and around Tucson. East of the city is the Vail Steakhouse & Diner near Benson. The steakhouse is at I-10 exit 279 on the highway which parallels the freeway. This is a popular trucker’s stop and the steakhouse has an enormous graveled side parking area. The business offers free year round RV parking on their lot.

                     We pulled onto the steakhouse lot a little past noon. The lot was thickly graveled and it seemed dust free. We parked and went into the diner for lunch. Lucky us, the diner served breakfast all day. I couldn’t pass up eggs, hash browns, and whole wheat toast.

                     During lunch we decided to drive on the additional half hour to one of the Tucson casinos. Earlier, we had stayed at the Double Diamond Casino on Nogales Road. This time we would try Casino Del Sol. This casino is on Valencia Road, the primary artery highway on the south of the city. This is the St. Patrick’s Day weekend and we were anxious that the casino lot may be full. When we arrived at the Del Sol, we were blown away. Their very large parking lot was loaded with RVs. Dave led the way and we pulled head-to-tail across a vacant strip of parking spots. The side by side parking of the RVs wasn’t as close as it would be in an RV park, but we were near enough to be able to watch the neighbors eat their early dinners.

                     All set up and with time to kill; I assisted Dave in the trouble shooting of the power window problem in his Dodge pickup. The doors will automatically power-lock when the truck is moving 15 mph. However, when pushed neither door switch will lock or unlock the doors. The locks are receiving power, but there is some point which is common to both doors that is failing on the

button part of the circuit. This afternoon, Dave wanted to check the fuse which guards the door lock circuit. This meant disconnecting a wire harness at the fuse box under the hood. We had the fuse box open, and we identified the correct 10A fuse. The fuse is good. Dave wanted to remove and re-insert the fuse to eliminate any contact problem. There was no change with the door locks. Well, we eliminated at least one common point which could have been the problem.

                     We are near a city where we can receive air wave TV broadcasts with the roof antenna. At Tucson, we are able to pick up 30 digital stations. The great thing about the air reception is we will be able to watch one of the three nightly national news programs. Anne’s favorite news channel is ABC. As I was setting up the TV and scanning the channels, I hit on a PBS program which was dedicated to Steven Hawking’s life. The program was being shown to memorialize Professor Hawking’s life as a Cosmologist. He suffered a life-long illness and had recently passed away. I called Joy and invited them to join us in the program. 

                     Following the nightly news we drove through the coach maze and found our way to the casino’s main entrance. To receive the perks they offered, we all signed up and received Casino Membership Cards. When you log in with your card upon activation, you are offered a random pick of an icon. Anne and I received $10 free plays on the slot machines. Dave, however, hit a small jackpot. His icon pick left him with $50 of free slots. Drats the luck.

                     The ladies took off to find winning machines. We planned to meet them in an hour. Dave and I wandered through the machines looking for penny machines we could learn on. We worked several slots and received nothing special. My $10 free slot card was quickly whittled away. When we met Anne and Joy, Dave was ahead a bit, I was behind, and Anne was up about $40. We checked out the buffet restaurant and it were just shutting down. Dinner was found at the Casino’s Mexican Café.

                     After dinner we split up again and sought big profits. An hour later we met at the main entrance lobby. I was down, Anne was down, and Dave was up a few dollars. Anne found her way back to our spaces and we called it a day.

                     Dave and Joy were up early on St Patrick’s Day. I received a phone call from Dave. He asked me if either of us wanted a cup of Starbucks. He was walking to the casino food court. No takers in our tank.

                     They knocked on our door at 8:30 am. Joy carried their atlas. They were going to drive to Why, a small town 10 miles to the SE of Ajo. We are due to meet Chris and the boys at Joshua Tree Park at the end of the week. Anne and I would like to spend some time before then at RV parks which have hookups. Anne would like to use her sewing machine. We decided to get on I-10W and head toward the California border. Approximately 70 miles from Tucson is the city of Casa Grande. Anne made reservations for three nights at Casa Grande RV Resort & Cottages. We were checked in and at site #275 by noon.

            Casa Grande was founded in 1879 during the Arizona mining boom, specifically due to the presence of the Southern Pacific Railroad. In January 1880, the community of Terminus, meaning "end-of-the-line," was established despite consisting of just five residents and three buildings. In September 1880, railroad executives renamed the settlement Casa Grande, after the Hohokam ruins at the nearby Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. Casa Grande grew slowly, and the town remained alive and well, and was eventually incorporated in 1915. 

During World War II, from 1942 to 1945, a Japanese-American relocation camp was set up outside of Casa Grande, known as the Gila River War Relocation Center. Two notable people that were interned there were future actor Pat Morita and baseball player Kenichi Zenimura, who constructed a baseball field and set up a league in the relocation camp.

During the Cold War, Casa Grande was the location of the Corona Satellite Calibration Targets. These targets consisted of concrete arrows located in and to the south of the city, which calibrated satellites of the Corona spy program.

                     The Casa Grande RV Resort is very well done. There are over 300 sites, ours is #325. The sites are thickly graveled and each has a cement pad for outdoor use. There are pickleball courts, a card room, a craft room, a swimming pool, a library, and a game room. There is even a diner. Each facility is well maintained and stocked. The game room, for example, has two sections. One part of the building holds a shuffle board and a Ping-Pong table. The other section has eight full-size pool tables. Each table has a vinyl cover. The pool hall has suspended lights over each table and racks on the wall to hold cues. We learned there is a very active inter-resort billiards competition between area RV parks. This resort village is very proud of its facilities.

                     We are at Casa Grande for three nights. Tuesday evening we drove from the Resort in search of the city center. We programed Google Map for directions to the nearest Walmart. We drove several miles before finally reaching the shopping center. On the way we discovered that Casa Grande contains hundreds of acres of cultivated farm land within its boundaries. This explains why it is so spread out.

                     While at the Walmart center, we decided to grab dinner at the Panda Express. Following dinner we got back on our quest to find the city center.           We asked Google to guide us to the Historic Center of the city. It came back with the History Center. We drove a couple more miles and came to an historic church building which had been converted to a museum. The next instruction we gave Google was to direct us to the Casa Grande RV Resort. This it did and it was only another three miles from the museum.

                    

The Casa Grande Ruins Monument is in the desert about 25 miles from the campground. It seemed, as we were driving to the ruins that we were coming around in a circle. At the monument, we watched a movie about the Ancient People and then we gathered outside for a guided tour.

                     After a long battle with the desert, this ancient building still commands respect. Four stories high and 60 feet long, with a platform mound filling the first floor; it is the largest known structure of the Ancestral People of the Sonoran Desert. The early Spanish explorers named it Casa Grande (Great House), and to them it was a mystery. Its walls face the four cardinal points of the compass, accurate to within a couple of degrees, today. A circular hole in the upper west wall aligns with the setting sun at the summer solstice – as did the structure at Stonehenge, in England. Other openings align with the sun and moon at specific times.

                     These Ancestral People were known by the early Spanish missionaries as Hohokam (ho ho KAHM). The ruins have been dated to have been completed about 1350 CE. The building material, caliche, was carried to the site from nearby sources. It took 3,000 tons to build the Great House. Caliche mud was layered to form walls four feet thick at the base, tapering toward the top. Hundreds of juniper, pine and fir trees were carried 60 miles down the Gila River to the village. Anchored in the walls, the timbers formed ceiling or floor supports.

                     Prior to the Great House construction, the village of the Ancient People was estimated to be 2,000 strong. They had learned to build canals from the Gila and the Salt Rivers to use to flood irrigate their crops. Scientific dating has occupants of this desert region as far back as 7,500 years. It is believed that periods of severe flooding, followed by extreme droughts caused the Hohokam culture to disperse into smaller, maintainable tribal units some 100 years after the Great House was built.

                     Friday morning we checked out of the Casa Grande Resort. Our drive this day was to travel as far as Joshua Tree National Park. We had already researched the availability of RV parking within the Park’s boundaries. All spots were full, and booked. Some years ago we had met up with Chris and his family at a BLM site near the southern entrance to the Park. This BLM spot was our destination.

                     Prior to crossing into California, I wanted to top up the RV fuel tank. We had used a freeway convenient Arco station at Quartzsite. This station had a truck fuel isle and a very large parking area. I have learned that it is much more convenient to get fuel where it is easy access rather than wait until it becomes desperate. We only needed 35 gallons, but we left for the over-taxed state of California filled up.

                     We were waved through the agricultural check station upon crossing into California. This was thankful, because I didn’t want to fib about the oranges and bananas we had just purchased at the last Walmart. From the border we were 76 miles to I-10 Exit 168, Cottonwood Springs Road. One and a half miles north of I-10 on Cottonwood Springs is the entrance into Joshua Tree National Park. A few hundred yards south of the entrance is the BLM diverse camping spot.

                    

         As we approached the BLM site we could see a dozen or more RV rigs already sprawled over the grounds. We pulled onto the dirt access road, stopped and un-hooked the CRV. We both climbed into the car to have a drive through the grounds to locate a parking spot large enough to fit our behemoth. We spotted the perfect place right away. By early this Friday afternoon we were setup, and resting.

                     As the afternoon grew late, there were several RVs which found spots deeper into the BLM site. Across the dirt road from us two couples set up tents for the night. From our side window we watched from 2 miles away the endless parade of east and west bound freight trucks gently merge into the darkness. Looking down over a gentle slope to the freeway, the trucks appeared as toys one could reach out and pickup; smaller than an HO gauge train set.

                      Saturday morning we decided we would drive into Indio to watch a movie. We had settled on the Black Panther. Indio is at the eastern end of the Hwy 111 Palm Desert strip of cities. Beginning at the western end of Hwy 111 is Palm Springs. There is nothing but decadence and hoity-toity between Palm Springs and Indio. Google Maps took us right to the theater parking lot. We had arrived early for the 1:15 pm showing so we stopped next door for lunch.

                     The matinee showing of the Black Panther wasn’t well received. There were six other viewers when we found our seats. After a little more than two hours, and small bit of dozing, we re-emerged into the bright afternoon sun.

                     I had been surprised at how much we had driven downhill for the 20 odd miles to reach Indio. The Cottonwood Springs BLM camp area is just under 1,800 feet elevation. The city hall in Indio is measured at 14 feet below sea level. We had measured some terrific gas mileage on the way into Indio. I filled the CRV before leaving town. I knew going to be into some consumption on the drive back to camp.

                     It is Spring Break for the school kids. Chris is bringing Liam and Tucker to Joshua Tree to do some boulder climbing in the Park. Elliot had chosen to remain in Medford for the school break. The guys got off to a late start from Medford on Saturday morning. They had joined Bill and Ian for a breakfast. Liam and Chris traded driving the freeways, and Tucker called “shotgun” no matter who was at the wheel. They had put in a grueling day and they pulled into our camp site 14 hours later, at 12:30 am Sunday morning.

                     Sleeping bags were dug from the car and brought into the RV. The couch folds out and

forms a Queen Size bed. Chris took one side of the couch and Tucker called “shotgun”. Liam had spent last summer hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Corvallis, where he was beginning his freshman year at OSU. I offered to help him set up his tent, but he just spread out a tarp and lay his sleeping bag on top of it. He had recently spent a couple of thousand miles sleeping under the stars.

                     Anne had gone to bed a few hours before, but the cabin commotion was too much to resist. She got up and greeted Chris and Tucker with joy that only a mom, and grandmother could have. Liam was already fast asleep outside. His hugs would have to wait until later in the morning.

                     Pancakes and scrambled eggs for Sunday breakfast; water jugs were filled and plans

for the day’s climbing had been made. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were packed, broad rimed hats were collected, and sunscreen was put into pockets. The climbing forecast for the day was: clear sky, in the high 60’s, with afternoon gusts. Chris and I set up our radios on a VHF frequency for checking in during the day. It wasn’t but a few miles into the Park’s hills that we lost communications.   

                     The hikers returned around 7 pm. They had spent the day discovering where the better places to climb may be. There are lots of options within the Park’s boundaries. They had a go at a couple of boulder sites. The main complaint was that the surface of the stone they tried was too smooth to capture safe footing. The day wasn’t a waste, however. There were found some locations which they would come back to.

                     At the end of their day, the guys drove to the town of Joshua Tree to do some shopping.

We thought that at our last Walmart stop, Anne had stocked up on everything she might need to feed our new crowd. Nope, she and Chris came up with a new list.

                     For tonight’s dinner the choice was: chicken breasts, hamburgers, or hot dogs. During the day I had driven to the Cottonwood Springs Park Service Visitors Center. The BLM camping sites had, over the years, all been left with piled stone fire pits of varying workmanship. We had a very nice pit outside the RV’s front door. Visitors of past had left several cardboard boxes in the pit, to be disposed of by future campers. I had driven to the Visitors Center to ask about camp fire restrictions. The Ranger I spoke to said the campground was not in the Park Services boundary, but she had a hunch the BLM would not permit open campfires.

                     With that information I drove the 7 miles back to our campsite and advised Anne. This news meant that I would get to dig out the barbeque to cook tonight’s dinner on. This I did at 6 o’clock. Besides being out of radio range, the inner park had no cell service. We were unable to find out when the guys would be back. My mission: light the barbeque and keep it supplied with briquettes so we would be ready to cook when they drove up. The wind had begun to blow and the only sheltered cooking spot was in front of the coach. I leaned against the bumper and occasionally checked the coals. The sky darkened and it became a guess with each approaching pair of headlights whether it would be them. When they finally bounced in on the dirt road, I had a set of coals which could have cooked and elephant’s leg. The entrée for this evening would be hotdogs.

                     Following dinner I challenged the boys to a game of dominoes. Liam and Tucker caught on quick. We played a couple of games, to one hundred. Anne and I quickly realized that our older

age, and greater wisdom were not significant factors to secure victory.

                     Steady winds with high gusts were in tonight’s forecast. The wind had blown steady since before dinner time. I was awakened at 2 am with relentless pounding on the outside of the coach. The gusts were to last well into the light of Monday morning. Side gusts of between 30 and 40 mph rocked the RV. An early morning visit to the bathroom was done while grasping wall anchor points along the way.

                     Liam had begun the night again choosing to sleep outside. Tonight, however, he had put up his tent to gain shelter from the wind. Sometime during the night he had brought his sleeping bag into the coach and found space on the floor, at the foot of the extended couch. A steady breeze while in a tent would be one thing, but the sensation of having the fabric pounded continuously by the gusts was sufficiently bad for Liam to finally choose Option B.

                     The boys had no doubt that the weather was too bad to trying to climb today. Chris secured a link with Google and discovered several sites which we could drive to. One local attraction is the International Banana Museum. The museum is located a few miles from Indio, on Hwy 111. I knew this would be a memorable visit as I drove into the parking lot. We were one of several cars parked at the buildings curb. Families were standing outside the locked front door. The museum is one half of a building which was once a gas station. The other half of the building is a liquor store. A fabric marquee was hung over the face of the former gas station sign. The fabric proudly proclaimed that the Banana Museum was entered in the Guinness Record Book.

                     We discussed whether we should stop back later. An overly cosmetically presented older woman overheard our talk and told us that her son would be here any minute to open both front doors.  A bright yellow Camaro convertible eventually drove onto the lot. This indeed was the Banana Mobile. Eventually, the moment arrived. We could now go inside. The entry fee was $1 per person, refunded if you purchased anything during your tour. Taking photos while inside was ok, excluding panoramic shots. We wondered about the photo exclusion until Anne noted that it would be bad for business if it were to get out how small the museum actually is.

                     Everything one can imagine about banana trinkets was either on top of, or under the

locked glass of display cases. Now that you’ve imagined those trinkets, expand the number by a factor of 10, or maybe even by 100. As you walk past the few feet of cases, duck your head because some of the museum’s display is hanging down.

                     For me, this museum was worth the time to visit. It left me with a metric of just how tacky a building of displays can be. That wasn’t the only positive to be gained from our stop. I had put a few days’ worth of rubbish in a couple of large plastic bags and stored them in the boot of the CRV. My hope was that we would come across some public bins we would unload them on. Luck was with us. Off to the end of the liquor store was a dumpster. While we awaited the museum’s opening, Liam and I emptied the bags in the dumpster.

                     Next on Chris’ list was a spot on the map called East Jesus. This is a few miles past

Mecca. Further good fortune was with us today. While on our path to Mecca we came to a Date Shake store. Everyone was in for a stop here. We got our shakes and we enjoyed them at a picnic table placed among date trees scattered across a lush green patch of roadside lawn. I challenged Liam to show me if he could climb one of the trees. He easily demonstrated his prowess and scurried half way up one of the palms.

                     Between the Date Shake store and Mecca we drove alongside the Salton Sea. We found a state park and pulled in to get a closer look. The Salton Sea is the last liquid remnants of the inland sea which covered a great part of the more central west of the United States. The salinity of the sea is reported to be sufficient to keep one afloat, should they fall in. The beach at the water’s edge is very thickly layered barnacle shells. The shells are well defined at the water’s edge, but they become more broken up as you walk from the water. There was a light chop on the surface, but it was enough to be able to see how unclear the water was.

                     The city of Mecca is a mobile home haven, which is easily able to put to shame

Medford’s suburban showplace of depressed living, White City, Oregon. But we have yet to see the area’s true squalor. Just beyond Mecca is a stretch of highway called Slab City. The reason for that handle escapes me, but Slab City is an area, covering both sides of the road, littered with beat up travel trailers. The trailers are the homes of squatters. Many had surrounding yards which had been defined by partially burying, and standing upright, old tires. If a trailer owner or tent dweller did not have ample tires, then his yard was defined by outlining it with scrapyard junk. Slab City was not just a side-of-the-road happening. This village had named dirt roads which led a visiting vehicle, off either side of the highway, into a domestic wonderland which could only have happened in California. Each home owner was clearly living within his means and his choice.

                     But wait. There is more wonderment to be seen while on the journey between Mecca and East Jesus. Just ahead is a hill which appears to be brightly colored. Driving closer, we discovered that the hill had indeed been painted. We had arrived at Salvation Mountain. Salvation Mountain is a museum of one man’s later life.

                     In 1931 Leonard Knight began life in Burlington, Vermont. In 1967 Leonard accepted

Jesus. He was then 36. In 1980 Knight traveled to Nebraska where he created a giant hot air balloon that read “God is Love.” By 1984, Leonard’s balloon had rotted out and he again moved. He began creating Salvation Mountain near Slab City, in Niland, California. All did not go well for Knight. In 1989 the first Mountain collapsed. As he began rebuilding, he proclaimed, “Now God, You build it.” In 1994 Imperial County attempted to have the Mountain torn down. In 2000 Salvation Mountain was deemed a National Folk Art Site. By 2002 Salvation Mountain was named a National Treasure in the Congressional Record of the United States. It was in 2011 when Leonard Knight

began living at the wonderful El Dorado Care Facility near San Diego, CA.

                     As we approach the Mountain, we notice the waterfalls, rivers, and the Sea of Galilee with a boat in the middle. As we continue alongside the Mountain we come to the “Hogan.” Leonard originally intended to live in this igloo-like structure, which is built from 80 bales of straw, broken glass, and window putty. Next, we entered the large enclosed area which Leonard called the “Museum”, and he built it as a replica of his hot air balloon project. There is plenty of evidence of Knight’s building materials, including adobe clay; straw tree limbs tires, windows, and lots of colorful paint. All of the items were found lying in the desert or at the local dump.

                     Leonard had truly led a life devoted to worship. The Mountain he left behind is

genuinely worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood. Seeing it on a beautiful sunny day is a plus. Another plus is the fact that Leonard’s museum charges no entrance fee and it has nothing to sell, except spiritual awakening. 

                     East Jesus is an experimental, sustainable and habitable art installation located in the Slab City area. There is no religious connotation in the name East Jesus. It is a colloquialism for a place in the middle of nowhere beyond the edge of service availability. In early 2007, Charlie Russell packed all his belongings into a shipping container and sent it to a trash-strewn field where he began to surround his two art cars with sculptures.

                     Made from discarded material that has been reused, East Jesus makes sculptures and

assemblages to encourage visitors to imagine a world without waste. Everything built in the village is made from materials found in a dump site. The sculpture garden is very large. The tour is self-guided and you are brought to, and from exhibits while walking on a carpeted path on the dirt. Wood, metal, automobiles, airplanes, glass, egg beaters, and circuit boards; name it and you can find it represented in a piece of the art work.

                     When you look closely at each exhibit you can discern a theme to the work. We tried out the enormous teeter-totter, as well as the carpeted single lane bowling alley. The rusted tin can display was tasteful. I liked the wine bottle and cement wall which cordoned the small residential area from the garden.

                     Besides art ala junk, East Jesus hosts musical events and is open to new art ideas. The gardens could not have been described adequately to allow one to envision just how magical the work

has been done. Between Slab City and East Jesus one would be hard put to find an item of rubbish being unused. The entire region is spotless. Well, except for all of the junk being used to define the village’s existences.

                     By Tuesday morning the violent winds had stopped. Today would be a day for rock climbing. Chris and the boys had mapped the park’s features and they had decided on which granite monolith they would take on. Joshua Tree National Park is located at the confluence of the Colorado Desert and the Mojave Desert. To the southeast, where we are camped, is in the Colorado Desert. This is the eastern half of the park.

                     The habitat of the lower Colorado River valley is part of the much larger Sonoran

Desert, which spans southern Arizona and northwestern Mexico. Creosote dominates this sunbaked bowl, punctuated here and there by spidery ocotillo, green-barked pal overdo, and patches of jumping cholla cactus.

                     The western half of the park, at elevations above 3,000 feet, is Mojave Desert habitat. Amid the boulder stacks are pinyon pines, junipers, scrub oaks, Mojave yuccas, and Mojave prickly pear cacti. What tells you that you are truly in the Mojave Desert is a species of yucca – the Joshua tree. The Joshua tree can grow over 40 feet tall.

                     At the top of the mountains which link the two deserts are roads and trails which lead you through a jumble of stacked boulders. The rock piles began underground eons ago as a result of volcanic activity. Magma, in this case a molten form of the rock called monzogranite, rose from deep within the Earth. As it rose, it intruded the overlying rock, the Pinto gneiss formation. As the granite cooled and crystallized underground, cracks formed horizontally and vertically. The granite continued to uplift, where it came in contact with groundwater. Chemical weathering caused by the groundwater worked on the angular granite blocks widening cracks and rounding edges. Eventually the surface soil eroded, leaving heaps of granite

boulders scattered across the land like piles of toy blocks.

                     Each boulder climbing stop along the highway had a pullover for parking. We followed Chris and the boys to the Oyster Bay rock cluster. I guess that in someone’s eye the formation may have given the impression of oysters. We found parking directly in front of the huge monolith. Chris first retrieved the bag with the long climbing rope. The three of them then disappeared behind the rock. They were gone for the best part of an hour. When they finally reappeared, we were told that they had difficulty finding at least two places to tie off the rope.

                     The rope was tied and Chris donned his waist belt and hardhat. He then said he would be right back. In a couple of minutes the blue rope was dropped over the edge of the tall rock. A few minutes later, Chris appeared backing out over the edge. He deftly repelled himself to the ground. The first task was accomplished - Lunch break.

                     A steady wind had begun to blow. For a non-active watcher it was chilly. I was asked by Chris to take photographs of each of them as they used the rope to climb the steep rock face. I got to sit in the breeze. The guys worked together as they experimented with the best way to begin

their ascent. The rough granite surface provided good grip for their soft rubber soled climbing shoes, but they still needed to work out a sequence of foot and hand movements. They had chosen a vertical crack line to follow up. The crack would provide a grip edge for their hands. Problem being, the crack didn’t begin until about 10 feet up the rock’s face. They each tried their ideas out on that first 10 feet.

                     All three were in agreement as to the sequence of hand and foot movements to win over that initial hurdle. Liam was the first climber to gear up for an ascent. Chris would be the man at the bottom, watching and continually taking slack out of the line. Three or four unsuccessful starts were made by Liam to get past that initial 10 feet. Once done, he was in crackville.

                     Climbing the crack was easy to understand, in theory. Liam went slow as he experimented with different places to get a foot purchase. He would yell out “rest” occasionally. At those times Chris would wrap the rope around his waist and lean back. Liam was able to lean away from the rock wall. This left his hands free and his feet pushing at near right angles against the rough granite. At the small of his back there was a pouch connected to his waist belt. The pouch held talc powder. The talc conditioned his finger tips to better grasp the granite. White clouds flew from his back as he reached into the pouch and retrieved a load of the powder. After a few moments of

dusting and of scanning the crack above him, Liam hollered out “climb”. After about 20 minutes, Liam had reached the top. He sat back on a ledge, waved and smiled big. Within a few minutes he had repelled back to the ground.

                     Tucker was the next one to take on the rock at Oyster Bay. Like Liam and his dad, Tucker had spent several tries at getting past the first 10 feet. He was sure he had it made. As it had been with his brother, it took Tucker several tries before he finally made it to crackville. The hand movements had been talked over earlier, but it wasn’t working for Tucker, as it had for Liam. Tucker became very exhausted and repelled from crackville. In retrospect, the sequence of best assumed hand movements were considered by a majority of right handed climbers. Tucker is left handed. What may have been an easy grab for Liam might prove too challenging for Tucker. He will rest and try again later.

                     Chris has loved rock climbing for many years. He is also a very positive and inspirational father. The boys are early and eager into the sport. Liam climbs regularly at the OSU’s climbing wall. He showed us his much callused palms. He considered the calluses trophies from the

wall climbing he has done.

                     Liam rigged himself to rope anchor for Chris’ climb. Chris repeated the initial failures of his son’s. However, once he reached crackville, Chris was out of there. He had watched Liam closely and he avoided many of the miss-grabs Liam had made. When Chris quickly reached the top we could hear his “Wahoo!” He waved, grinned large and rested. He then backed out of his sitting spot and he repelled to the bottom. I believe it has been a long time since Chris has pushed his arms and legs to the extent he had called on them today. For a 47 year old man, Chris demonstrated today just young that age is. Kudos, Chris. If I didn’t have to take pictures, I would have climbed up there with you. (In my dreams.)

                     The guys were going to continue climbing. Anne and I had experienced some of their excitement. We transferred some snacks and drinks to their car and then we drove back to our BLM boondocking site. Again, tonight, they arrived at the cabin around 7 pm. They brought good news. Tucker had made the ascent on his next try. They also brought with them great hunger.

                     With their arrival, I lit a pile of briquettes in the Barbie. In 10 minutes the coals were ready. Anne had been marinating chicken breasts and I carried them into the dark to the grill. With

my flashlight between my teeth, I loaded five breasts onto the grill. Several minutes later they were cooked and I brought them to our table of eager climbers. All of the plates were scraped clean.

                     All were tired, but when you get to sleep on the fold out sofa, retiring early isn’t an option. Anne read, Chris worked on some night photography of the sky, and Liam, Tucker and I talked about the personal and cultural benefits of youth spending a thousand or more hours each year playing games on IPhones and IPads. Nothing concrete was resolved during our back and forth banter, but we had a good time contemplating possible future problems.

                     Wednesday is going to be another full day of climbing. A different rock cluster will be chosen. We had come to our campsite with a full tank of fresh water. However, the gauge on the wall

said we were almost out. This meant we would need to move to get more water. Well, it was decided. If we have to move, why don’t we just relocate on the other side of the park mountain at Twenty Nine Palms? That is what we would do.

                     Chris helped me take down the ham antenna system, and together we stowed chairs, rugs, etc. back into the RV’s bay compartments. When we were ready to drive away, Chris and the boys took off for their day of adventure. We would meet them later at the Twenty Nine Palms RV Park.

                     To get to Twenty Nine Palms we had to climb out of the Colorado Desert, into the higher eastern edge of the Mojave Desert, and over the mountain range to the northern valley. This windy drive would take us more than an hour. We had just started a new Harry Bosch audio book so we decided we would hook up the CRV and make the drive together. This way we could both listen to the story.

                     We checked into the RV park a few minutes past noon. The park gave us a 10% discount for being a Good Sam member. They quickly took away from that savings by adding back an $8 fee for each of our three guests. If we would like to put up a tent as well, they would rent us a second site. We took the “no” option. The pull through at site #93 was ours.

                     Wednesday and Thursday were full days of climbing. For Thursday’s climbs, the guys parked and then hiked 2 miles to the boulder site.  The rock had several different challenges for climbs. The difficulty rating of a particular climb is first scaled by whether one needs a rope. If so, then it would be a 5. This number is followed by a number which ranks whether pins need to be used to connect carabiners to as one ascends. If so, then the number may be a 10. Chris had brought along a climber’s guide to Joshua Tree National Park. This book permitted them to choose climbs which were within their experience capabilities, and ones which were also going to be entertaining. The team was only looking at climbs which were ranked as 5.8 to 5.10.

                     Thursday’s climbs were both 5.8 and 5.10. The rock they hiked to had been pinned by

previous climbers. It was an initial climb of 5.10. This meant that the first one to the top had to climb from pin to pin, connecting his belted rope to each higher pin as he progressed. Should a grip or foot hold fail, then the climber would fall. He would be stopped when he fell past the last carabiner he had connected. Once a carabiner had been attached to the highest pin, at the top of the rock, then the climber could come back down. On the way down all but the highest carabiner would be removed. The team would now have a rope running through the highest pin. For the rest of the day, climbs would be done by having one person pulling slack from the rope at the bottom while the belted climber made his ascent. After the initial 5.10 climb, the rest of the climbs would become 5.8 climbs. As Chris and Tucker watched and filmed, Liam made the successful initial 5.10 climb up the face of the rock. They returned after sunset, exhausted and ready for showers and a hot meal.

                     Liam needs to be back at OSU by Sunday evening. The drive back to Medford for the guys will be another grueling 12 hour trip. They want to leave early Friday morning from Twenty Nine Palms. They are going to reconnect to the I-10 freeway and drive through the northern Los Angeles area to link up with I-5 for their drive home. Anne and I drove through that same spider web of 6-lane intersecting freeways on our way to Quartzsite. I wasn’t willing to retrace that path with the RV. We would leave the campground at the same time, but we would be driving US 395N up through Reno. We were planning on two overnight stops along the way.

                     We made it by 4 pm. The drive to Olancha RV Park took us from 9:30 this morning. The Google map directions were simple to follow. We were to get onto Hwy 58 and follow it until it intersected with US 395N. Things started to look bleak when I saw a bold yellow sign that said “ROAD ENDS”. And then it did. There was enough width to the road at the barricade to permit us to make a U-turn. We retraced our route until we found a sign which pointed us in a new direction to get onto Hwy 58. Whoa, this is a brand new freeway. It was bound to happen. I have never updated the data in the GPS and it did not know that a new road had been built.

                     Today the temperatures rose to the mid-eighties. The sun burned bright on the endless miles of the US 395 highway. My eyes burned, too. I made three pull-overs to walk outside and get

myself more focused. On the last stop, I lay on the bed and took a short nap. That’s the goods.

                     The GPS was still showing 3 miles to go when I spotted an RV park, ahead on the left. I pulled into the yard, parked and got out to ask at the office if this was the park we were looking for. I saw a note on the door which gave a phone number to call should the office be closed. The number was the same as for the Olancha RV Park.

                     This was our park. The receptionist was very polite and she told me how to find the pull-through sites. I had noticed the Olancha Café was next door. I asked if it was open and I was told it would be at around 6 pm. The sites were all full-service hookups, but the grounds were depressing. The 100% dirt surface was dressed by a tractor with a drag blade. Our spot came with a slight dip at the right front. I got us hooked up and then I opened a tinny. This spot had only a small amount of class above dirt road boondocking.

                      Our target destination for Saturday, March 31^st, is Carson City, Nevada. We continue our drive on US 395N. The first town we come to is Lone Pine. We visited Lone Pine a couple of years ago while we were staying in Death Valley. Lone Pine was the setting for many of the early western movies and TV series. The snowcapped Sierra Nevada Mountains as background for action packed chases on horseback couldn’t be topped. We had visited the western movie history museum when we were there.

                     Diesel fuel prices in California were hovering around $4 per gallon. I wanted to wait until we reached Nevada to top up the tank. However, in desperation I stopped and bought 10 gallons to ensure we would make it over the mountains. We discovered that this route was becoming one of our favorite trips. We had risen above the hum-drum desert bush scenery and we had arrived back into mountain passes and high altitude open mesas. We met up with roadside snow at around 7,000 feet. Our highest pass was over 8,000 feet. We had done a lot of climbing and it hit us in the fuel tank.

                     We found a station at the Wa She Shu Travel Plaza, in Gardnerville, NV. Besides the straight-in convenience of truck fueling lanes, the plaza featured the first casino inside Nevada on US 395. This appeared to be a popular stop. While I fueled the bus, Anne found lunch time fuel for us in the plaza’s mini-mart. This stop was a few miles away from Carson City. It was just coming up noon. We decided that we could go a hundred more miles and make our overnight at Susanville, CA.

                     We linked up with I-350, which took us around the greater Reno area and dumped us off again on US 395N. We pulled into the Susanville RV Park at 3:30 pm. Check in was quick; as the office computer had all of our data from the last time we passed through. We were assigned site #29. This is the same pull through site we had been on last time, too. The Susanville RV Park is perhaps the best lay out, and the nicest maintained RV Park we have stayed at.