Strolling Amok

Pops goes on tour.

Archive for the category “Campsites”

02 Nov 2013

Another View

After sunset.

After sunset.

The photo above is simply one taken after a cloudless sunset. Even with some digital massaging, the many layers of mountains forming the background aren’t really discernible. You gotta be there to see it (or I need to learn how to use that camera better)!

The existential essence of a bike tire. Since this is a British-brand bike, maybe I should say bike tyre.

The existential essence of a bike tire. Since this is a British-brand bike, maybe I should say bike tyre.

The photo above is my bike’s front tire. I figured that it has earned some recognition since the long series of leaking inner tubes is over now, thanks to a pair of super-thick Slime tubes that are working great. They’re heavy, but when all you care about is getting there, they do the job. These are the Raleigh’s original 1993-ish tires, which are showing no signs of disintegrating in the sun. The tread design is superb on both gravel and pavement, since the linked center rib eliminates the unnerving vibration common to many aggressively-lugged bike tires. The bike’s Shimano derailleurs and shifters aren’t too happy with all the grit and dust out here, but are hanging in there when used regularly.

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19 Oct 2013

Open Fo’ Bidness

Sunrise on an F-250

“Super Duty Sunrise”

Well, the campsite host shacks reopened a couple of days ago, so Quartzsite’s LTVAs are back in full operation. The campsite I picked is at GPS coordinates 33.64567, -114.22289, which looks like this:

If you zoom in using the plus sign, you can see the elongated darker island of gravel that the Enterprise is parked on. I find it odd that I keep expecting to actually see my trailer show up in these things, as if I’m creating an overhead shot live. Mental defect, I’m sure.

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12 Oct 2013
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Nope. No Soap.

DSCN0167wtmk

Hanging out on the salt, since there’s nothing better to do.

Well, it went down to the wire. The hope was that today’s spectacular sun and breeze would dry out mile 7, which is about where the two-wheelers would pop their chutes at max speed. It just refused to dry out, though. Mike Cook, the organizer of the event, was forced to cancel it for good for 2013.  If it won’t be safe, it can’t happen. How safe one can be while approaching 400 MPH is debatable, but there’s just no point shoveling in more risk.

So, I wandered around and saw a lowered and huffed (turbocharged) VW New Beetle and wandered over to find its crew in good spirits despite the cancellation. Racers are a tenacious bunch, and seem to roll with the punches more easily than many. As a rule, they’re also welcoming by nature – you can just barge in and join them without the usual “who’s this guy?” looks. There was a bright young lady among them who definitely sounded like Read more…

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18 Sep 2013
2 Comments

Digging Out

The bucket fills in either side of the trench, while thick cables are fastened to the grader's axle.

The bucket fills in either side of the trench, while thick cables are fastened to the grader’s axle.

Wow, what a project to get the grader free! It took over an hour, and the problem was the grader’s weight. They decided to try to pull the grader out from the roadway side, and filled in the trench all ’round so that if it moved, it would go only more level ground. At first they tried to use the crawler’s bucket to pull at the rear end of the grader, but the leverage problems quickly made Read more…

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16 Sep 2013
2 Comments

Cave-In!

Oops!

Oopsie!

Lest you think that nothing goes on when you’re boondocking in the middle of nowhere, apparently nowhere is a happenin’ place! Offered for your consideration is this grader, which was moving dirt from the high ground to slowly fill in the deep void near the roadway when the earth collapsed, tossing the rear end into the ditch. The driver thinks that if it weren’t for the wide blade, it might have gone onto its side. They tried to pull it out forward with another grader that was onsite, but it couldn’t find enough traction on the dirt. So, the driver is now traveling about an hour and a half to get Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life, Tourista! and tagged ,
15 Sep 2013

I Stand Corrected

The road grader returns!

The road grader returns!

Later in the day yesterday, the guy with the road grader came back and reshaped the gullies and berms beside my campsite. Thankfully, he also repaired the entrance to a usable condition. I’m also thankful that the afternoon and overnight thunderstorms that were predicted never did show up, and now we gots a mostly sunny forecast for many days in a row! Does it get Read more…

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14 Sep 2013
2 Comments

Uh-Oh. Adventure!

That's the paved road yesterday evening.

That’s the paved road yesterday evening.

Things were interesting early in the evening yesterday. I’m hoping that they don’t get even more interesting this afternoon. I was cooking pasta for supper yesterday after a heavy, high-wind thunderstorm and heard a faint fan-like hiss. That made me wonder if I’d left some electrical circuit on, and something was running that shouldn’t be. Hmm, nope. After a while of wondering, I looked out through the foggy window and spotted what appeared to be the paved road near the trailer moving downhill. Huh? A couple of wipes to the window showed it to be a cascade of water from the mountain slopes surging along in waves, carrying rocks and debris along with it. It was moving with enough depth and speed that I was concerned that it might breach the deep gullies on each side of the road, or that a separate stream might be forming on the ground approaching the truck and trailer. No, some typical rivulets were forming, but that’s about it. And the berms were holding.

It seems that the two deep gullies were carrying stormwater down from the slopes, and that the road beside the trailer just happened to have a bit less crown than usual, so the two streams temporarily joined there and delivered a goodly mix of gravel and hefty-sized rocks on the pavement. It was over in minutes, but not before reshaping the gullies. Some areas are shallower, and some, like at the entry to my campsite, are deeper. Further down, it’s cavernous. That wouldn’t pose a big problem once the soft dirt dries out. Part of the entry is still negotiable by the trailer, if I’m willing to turn in the wrong direction and go up the long slope to a turnaround area up there.

The issue is that Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life and tagged
13 Sep 2013
2 Comments

A Change of Plan!

Head 'em up, move 'em out! Club organizers give up and break camp...for now.

Head ’em up, move ’em out! Club organizers give up and break camp…for now.

It rained again last night, some 3/4-inches I’m told. The above photo was taken at the Speedway entry point, where club organizers have been camped for longer than I have. The good fortune in this for me was that I arduously biked the sweaty 5-1/2 miles against a headwind to get there just in time. I was out for “a little exercise” and found that the published distance was shorter than reality. Wheeze. If I’d been 2 minutes later, I’d have never been informed by the group that they were giving up for now, but had the flexibility to reschedule again for this coming Thursday Sept 19th. Hey, I can do that! And, I’ll save fuel money by being planted in one spot until the BLM throws me out! From Monday on, it should be nothing but sun, so it has a chance. All this is really funky, because driving past the Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City showed it to be well on its way to drying up.

You may not be able to see it, but dead center in this picture is the tire they'd originally placed on the shoreline. It's now nearly submerged. That's not good.

You may not be able to see it, but dead center in this picture is the tire they’d originally placed on the shoreline. It’s now nearly submerged. That’s not good.

While I was staying in Marengo, some guy in a biplane was practicing aerobatics overhead nearly every afternoon. Here near Wendover, a couple of fighter jets fly around at a very considerable Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Tourista! and tagged
03 Jun 2013
4 Comments

Marengo!

THAT'S what I'm talking 'bout! Lehman’s Lakeside RV Resort in Marengo, Illinois is a passable place for a commercial campsite, if horrendously expensive.

THAT’S what I’m talking ’bout! Lehman’s Lakeside RV Resort in Marengo, Illinois is a passable place for a commercial campsite, if horrendously expensive.

After a week of travel without benefit of the Verizon hotspot for Internet connectivity, I made it to Marengo, Illinois intact. It was a bit of an ordeal, since weather was a significant factor and, without Internet connectivity, I had no decent way to check weather forecasts. Turns out there were storms galore onroute, some notably scary. Folks in Nebraska and Iowa apparently had a ton of rain before I even got there, since flooding was widespread and winds were strong.

Northern New Mexico was gorgeous, and Colorado was equally stunning in a very different way. Once I got to Colorado Springs, I found out how fortunate they were for the mountain vistas. However, Colorado Springs is so highly developed that there’s no rural left there. It’s shopping centers, malls, and heavy traffic all the way to Denver from there. I made a mistake in selecting the overnight location in Commerce City, Colorado since it was nearly 10 miles from I-40 over crowded Denver city streets. Then, when I arrived at the Walmart, security welcomed me and directed me where to park. It was in front of this:

Ouch. This diesel pusher apparently blew over, and absolutely everything above the frame is screwed up.

Ouch. This diesel pusher apparently blew over, and absolutely everything above the frame is screwed up.

Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Travelin' Man and tagged ,
17 May 2013
2 Comments

Cibola National Forest

Highway 547 north of Grants, New Mexico affords many more interesting views than this - but I can't drive and take pics when the road goes all over!

Highway 547 north of Grants, New Mexico affords many more interesting views than this – but I can’t drive and take pics when the road goes all over!

The Mt. Taylor Ranger District of the vast Cibola National Park is less than 40 miles from Bluewater Lake State Park in New Mexico. Highway 547 is torn to shreds in town, but once north of Grants, it winds beautifully through the mountains. Up I went, to my present elevation of 8535 feet, according to my GPS. For the geeky, my coordinates are 35.253806, -107.67122. Put those numbers into Google Maps, and you can see where I am. I’m actually on FR193TV, a short spur off of FR193.

I pulled over to get this one - a small cattle ranch in a valley.

I pulled over to get this one – a small cattle ranch in a valley.

Forest Road 193 was my gamble, and since it is a gravel road, I took a chance and just drove in without unhitching. FR193 is washboard gravel, but as there was no sign of Read more…

Posted in Campsites, The Enterprise, Travelin' Man and tagged ,

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