Strolling Amok

Pops goes on tour.

Archive for the category “Daily Life”

24 Jan 2017
12 Comments

Brilliance Gone Bad

Notice the rust along the dark slats. This was in use for 9 months.

Notice the rust along the dark slats. This was in use for 9 months.

Last March, I departed Wellton, Arizona with what I hoped was a practical way to keep sharp kitchen knives protected, but handy. There are no reasonable (or safe) wall options for magnetic bars in the Four Wheel (unless you consider installation to the inside of a cabinet door safe), and no storage space for massive butcher block sheaths.

I decided to go with individual blade sheaths, partially in order to keep my options open for which knives to bring along on tour, and which to leave behind in the TT. In the hardware store I once worked at, they offered a knife-sharpening service, and card stock sleeves were used to safely store and handle the finished knives. Oh, that I had a half-dozen of those! There are all sorts of DIY sleeves on the Internet of course, based on Read more…

Posted in Daily Life, Miscellania and tagged , , ,
09 Dec 2016
26 Comments

Where the Livin’ is a Little Easier

Garbage! The white bag is a tall kitchen bag full of papers that should have gone away long ago.

Garbage! The white bag is a tall kitchen bag full of papers that should have gone away long ago. “Someday” is today.

This post is just kind of an update to the prior one, just for those having a morbid sense of curiosity. That’s so you aren’t left with the situation appearing to be in limbo. Now that I have broadband DLS Internet and running hot and cold water, life is good.

The new blood pressure-lowering meds are a slight dampener on both energy levels and outlook, which requires more perseverance to bull through each day. As a result, cleanup has about a day more to go before I will be able to touch or lean against everything in the trailer without fear of wearing black or white clothing. It’s been a bit overwhelming, but the naps are good.

As for cleaning, I worked on my old-style IBM “clicky” keyboard, which was long overdue for a good scraping off. I was careful to rub each key with a cotton cloth dampened with Simple Green. The problem apparently came when I Read more…

Posted in Daily Life and tagged
03 Dec 2016
22 Comments

Where the Livin’ is Easy

Sometimes, in this carefree vagabond’s life on the road, circumstances intrude upon the idyllic core which is assumed to be the inherent gift of mobile freedom. These circumstances can range from minor inconveniences to the harbingers of doom. Sometimes, that mobile freedom make those circumstances more difficult to address than they would otherwise be. That isn’t the case here, since the Defiant’s location could be considered as a seasonal residence of sorts. Just sayin’.

As for me, I‘ve discovered an ongoing stack of inconveniences which are frustrating, but looked at in the proper perspective, are also a bit humorous. It’s the combination. My main priority on arriving at my trailer a few days ago was of course to make it livable again after its many lonely months in Yuma’s hot and dusty summer. The time-consuming work of completing modifications to the new Four Wheel Grandby camper last Spring, before Yuma’s heat began to set in by late March, required hasty compromises in cleaning and organizing my trailer before leaving it. In short, I discovered either just how little Read more…

Posted in Daily Life and tagged
02 Oct 2016
32 Comments

Certainly Uncertain

Sample image from Despair.com

Sample image from Despair.com

I’m glad to announce that I’m back, and I’m bad. Okay, I’m not bad. I’m harmless, actually.  Executive Summary: My plans to return to the Yuma, AZ area via Montana and Wyoming this year on a 4-month boondock camping extravaganza ran into a snag when my annual physical checkup threw a flag. A wad of follow-up tests quantified its degree of seriousness, and also spotted something else, the doomsday machine of the cardiac world. This has been mentioned in previous posts.

Though not an experience I’d care to repeat on a dare, the end results have been largely per plan. One oddity remains unresolved. I’m told that surgery screws up the electrical heartbeat signals about a third of the time, disrupting things. This normally recovers in a week or less. Mine became more notable for its day-to-day inconsistency – never having been great coming in through the doors. When the question was “will this system return to normal, or will a pacemaker be needed?” my heart monitor answered “blue rooster”. A crew of electrical Read more…

Posted in Daily Life and tagged
14 Jul 2016
12 Comments

Old Iron

Barn Find!

Barn Find!

Okay, so it’s not a barn find, it’s a garage find. And it’s not virtually undiscovered, it’s part of the large collection of some guy with Old Car Collector’s Syndrome. I’m currently in Indianapolis, and it looks like I’ll be here in limbo for quite some time, so while I have a pleasant if unnerving wait, you’re stuck with posts like this, using iPhone photos. Next week’s post may be on the price of rusty razor blades in Kazakhstan. Anyway, he’s owned this car for 10 years, and it’s been in storage for a total of 15 years. More accurately, it simply hasn’t been run for 10, which is nowhere near as good as having been prepped for long-term storage. Whoever tries to fire up this thing now is probably going to have a bit of work to do.

The twin exhaust pipes are held in approximate place by baling wire.

The twin exhaust pipes are held in approximate place by baling wire.

This car is a 1968 Jaguar E-Type coupe, also called the XKE, retrofitted with Jag’s tri-carb on its 4.2-liter straight-six for power. It was called a 2+2 for it’s expanded seating arrangement, which has a rear seat with way too little legroom. Thus, they did not call them 4-passenger cars, which would have dampened the Read more…

Posted in Daily Life, Uncategorized and tagged
29 May 2016
6 Comments

A Busy Weekend

A tree, just like any other tree, only long-dead.

A tree, just like any other tree, only long-dead.

One thing that had conveniently skipped my mind is that although the Overland Expo is great, the following weekend may have a team roping competition to watch, but it also brings hordes of holiday campers to Mormon Lake.

The area where I was camped had some very, very big pines downed long ago, most falling in the same direction, as if a storm had blown them over long ago.

The area where I was camped had some very, very big pines downed long ago, most falling in the same direction, as if a storm had blown them over long ago.

The lower area where I was pretty much filled up, and a parade of fifth-wheel toyhaulers began making their way up the Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life, E-Bike Pack Mule, The Intrepid, Tourista! and tagged ,
19 May 2016
11 Comments

Propane Run Gone Wild

The Mighty Evelo Aurora, ready for duty.

The Mighty Evelo Aurora, ready for duty.

Thursday morning, one of the Grandby’s two 10-pound propane canisters finally ran out, and I figured that was my excuse to mount up and get it refilled in the little village of Mormon Lake. Occasional sprinkles of rain marred the departure, but it finally departed for good and I took off on the e-bike. That in turn gave me an excuse to tour the parking/camping area set aside for the Overland Expo that starts the next day. The parking this year is more orderly, being set along parallel rows.  However, it also seemed to cut capacity, and by the time I got there about 2 PM, they were already nearly full. Between that and the forest area where I am, I suspect that Read more…

Posted in Daily Life, Tourista! and tagged , , ,
13 May 2016
8 Comments

Dirt Road Adventure!

Just east of Chino Valley apparently is where the antelope play! Not sure about the deer yet.

Just east of Chino Valley apparently is where the antelope play! Not sure about the deer yet.

In leaving the Chino Valley area and heading for the next crank up in altitude near Williams, Arizona, I decided to take a dirt road route via Perkinsville, rather than the convenience of the 65 MPH run up AZ-89 to I-40. Perkinsville is officially a ghost town having no remnants of a town left, save for a railroad station located on what is now private property. My goal is generally more about finding appropriate campsites, and less about blazing new trails to get to them, but I had the time and thought I’d give it a shot. There were alleged to be things worth seeing.

Once you approach some switchbacks, the view gets notable.

Once you approach some switchbacks, the view gets notable.

Perkinsville Road heads east out of Chino Valley and works its way northeast to, well, Perkinsville. It varies between 1.5 and 2 lanes of quite smooth graded road, suitable for any vehicle. It winds around a bit here and there, and presents some nice views. I had initially planned to Read more…

Posted in Daily Life, The Intrepid, Travelin' Man and tagged , , ,
09 May 2016
4 Comments

A Trail

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A trail, just like any other trail, only more so. In the middle of 3 days of overcast and variable rain, the skies opened for close to two hours, and I went for a walk in the direction that I had initially rolled in.

Originally intended merely to show the Intrepid in camp, this photo decided to place its own emphasis on something grander, don't you think?

Originally intended merely to show the Intrepid in camp, this photo decided to place its own emphasis on something grander, don’t you think?

What strikes me about this trail is that it has signs of long but infrequent use. There’s very little slope to this plateau but, as with all such trails, what there is in the direction of travel causes Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life and tagged ,
05 May 2016
10 Comments

Same Situation, New Camp

While I was airing up the tires, I figured this shot might show that this is cattle country. Most stay contained within fences and cattle guards, while a few strays go all over the place.

While I was airing up the tires, I figured this shot might show that this is cattle country. Most stay contained within fences and cattle guards, while a few strays go all over the place.

While heading for town on a supplies/laundry trip, I decided to do two things: try a partially-different trail route back to Perkinsville Road, and scout for a markedly different campsite in Prescott National Forest, north of Paulden, AZ. The return to Perkinsville was via a sort of loop that wandered across State Trust land, and that trail was easier overall than the forest road trail I’d taken in. The drawback was that I’d have to cross the ditch that I’d chickened out and turned back at on FS638, which required putting on my big boy pants and listening for ground contact while crossing it. I had my door open at a couple of points to check how close I was to grounding out the running board on that side. Made it!

I’d left tire pressures down, since although the newish route was less hazardous to tires, it was still rocky enough to need a softened ride. This allowed faster speeds overall, along with less trauma to the camper, but of course the airing up process at the end takes enough time (35 minutes) to cancel out any speed gain. It’s worth it, though, and after my early experiences with Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life, Navel Gazing, The Intrepid and tagged

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