Strolling Amok

Pops goes on tour.

Archive for the category “Daily Life”

25 Apr 2016
8 Comments

Camp Hunting in Chino Valley

A quick stop at an "antique dealer" in Yarnell netted a closed display building and a lot of sectioned automobiles outside.

A quick stop at an “antique dealer” in Yarnell netted a closed display building and a lot of sectioned automobiles outside.

Travel is never totally predictable – which can be good or bad – but at least when the best laid plans go awry, it’s now a lot easier to deal with. A pickup truck with a box in the bed is much more adaptable to improvisation than towing a big TT with a turning circle measured in fractions of a city block.

Wickenburg was heading into the 90s for daytime temps, which meant it was past time to hunt for altitude. I’d been waiting for a shipment to arrive in town, and planned my departure on its day of arrival. Thankfully, it came in on schedule. After a cheap overnight in the North Ranch campground run by the Escapees RV Club in Congress AZ (to take advantage of every amenity they had), I headed for Chino Valley.

I left before having breakfast. Heading north by way of Kirkland and a series of small towns and almost-towns, I’d had my eye on a small home-cookin’ breakfast place in Yarnell that previously had many vehicles it its parking lot. Mid-morning on a Tuesday, I pulled in Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life, Travelin' Man and tagged
06 Apr 2016
6 Comments

Live And Learn

Not much to see here: the side-gap between the camper and the truck bed wall.

Not much to see here: the side-gap between the camper and the truck bed wall.

The prior (and first) “adventure trip” up to a remote campsite involving a difficult climb and descent from my dream campsite on BLM land near Wickenburg, Arizona prompted a routine check of the camper mounts, which hold the camper to the truck bed floor. It’s routine because after the camper is installed, you’re supposed to check the mounts for tension a few times over the next several hundred miles.

And the gap on the passenger side, which no longer matches.

And the gap on the passenger side, which no longer matches.

While fumbling around to access a wrench and screwdriver, I noticed that the rear of the camper was no longer centered in the bed – but the front of the camper was. Hmm. Not good. What was the situation with the mounts? A tension check of the rear mounts showed that the driver’s side mount was a little loose, which was odd because that’s the side with the extra gap. The passenger-side mount was Read more…

Posted in Daily Life, The Intrepid and tagged ,
31 Jan 2016
6 Comments

Pleasant Distractions

Ooo! Birdie! Out of little birds, piercing chirps come. I assume that this is a hummingbird, only because of its tiny size and the local encouragement to put up some hummingbird nests.

Ooo! Birdie! Out of little birds, piercing chirps come. I assume that this is a hummingbird, only because of its tiny size and the local encouragement to put up some hummingbird nests. That branch is actually more like a twig.

Unfortunately, the nature of the mods being made to the Four Wheel Grandby are such that something is always holding up appropriate photos on one detail or another, preventing a blow-by-blow account of any one part of a system. Just as well, since time is short and I write slowly. That, and I frequently find that additional parts must be ordered, slowing completion. Just as the solar panel setup has been redone from scratch, so has the battery and wiring setup, for the better, I think. Their time will come. A couple of people have stopped to ask about the Four Wheel. One other passerby volunteered that I was considered to be the busiest guy in the park. Comparatively speaking (and only so), that may be true. So these are a few miscellaneous things that won’t earn their own posts.

Across the drive from my site, this little grapefruit tree is typical of all in the park. They will be stripped by the park February 1 and the fruit discarded. It's now or never, so I helped my neighbor pull all the fruit off and leave it in a pile for anyone to take. I grabbed eight or nine. They're huge!

Across the drive from my site, this little grapefruit tree is typical of all in the park. They will be stripped by the park February 1 and the fruit discarded. It’s now or never, so I helped my neighbor pull all the fruit off and leave it in a pile for anyone to take. I grabbed eight or nine. They’re huge!

 

No glamour for the Mighty Aurora here. It draws a lot of questions, but is relegated to short runs for food, mail, laundry, propane, and trash hauling. With my departure deadline looming, there remains much to do and there's no time to explore.

No glamour for the Mighty Aurora here. It draws a lot of questions – especially the trailer – but is relegated to short, drab runs for food, mail, laundry, propane, and trash hauling. They gawk at the trailer first, then notice the motor. With my departure deadline looming, there remains much to do, and there’s no time to explore.

 

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life
05 Dec 2015
7 Comments

Going to Bed

Everything must go! ...Somewhere.

Everything must go! …Somewhere.

This week was largely comprised of dealing with the Ford’s 8-foot bed. It had to be cleared, including the 140 gallons-worth of Tankmin water/waste system. The one guy who had expressed an interest in the Tankmin, on impulse, regained his senses the next day and thought better of it. No takers. Well, there were three scam artists from Craigslist, but those don’t count. So, having previously checked out whether the local landfill would take it, I cleared all the stuff out of the truck bed and got to work unbolting the Tankmin’s floor mounts. The potential problem is not the tank – it’s that I’m not a resident and therefore do not pay taxes, but that’s another debate. Part of my annual fee is for garbage removal, which winds up at the very same place.

Lessee, gotta keep this, not gonna need that...

Lessee, gotta keep this, not gonna need that…

I had envisioned a heap of frustration for this, since each bolt perforating the truck bed must be held at both top and bottom, and perhaps you may have some experience with what time and moisture do to tight fasteners. The upper freshwater section is bolted to the lower, and the lower to a couple of fabricated frames bolted to the bed. It was required to start at the top and work downward, the only significance of this being that Read more…

Posted in Daily Life, The Intrepid and tagged ,
04 Oct 2015
8 Comments

Staying “Home”

Front yard o' the day.

Front yard o’ the day.

This post is simply about going no further than a quarter mile from camp, and taking a zillion snaps of my campsite. Ugh, sounds horribly boring, doesn’t it? See, I intended to go out for a walk day before yesterday, got out there a ways, and then noticed some rain heading my way. Couldn’t be sure of the timing though, because here above Green River, Wyoming, you can clearly see stuff that might be twenty or more miles away. So, I walked this way and that about the camp in order to Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life, The Defiant and tagged , , , ,
02 Oct 2015
6 Comments

Revenge of Evelo Exploration

Sunset, and the full moon is riz.

Sunset, and the full moon is riz.

This is just a post about a 24-hour period, a nice sunset and view into the valley, followed by rampaging vermin at 2 in the morning. Ahhh, nature! A hastily-deployed trap got him sometime later, since the worst thing that can happen is for the critter to return home and tell his buddies about the bonanza. If that happens, it’s party time.

I reviewed the Defiant’s Vermin Defense System after breakfast, and determined that since the high frequency repellers were Read more…

Posted in Daily Life, E-Bike Pack Mule, The Defiant and tagged , , ,
14 Sep 2015
11 Comments

Scouting Campsites

Care to camp here? It's a camping circle, not a trail.

Care to camp here? It’s a camping circle, not a trail. (These are all cellphone pics.)

Yesterday, I decided to hop onto the Aurora e-bike and see what other campsites existed, and how they may relate to the Defiant’s peculiarities. The first time I came here, it was immediately before sunset and the pickin’s looked pretty limited. I had driven about a mile further than where I ultimately settled – where I am now – and almost had some excitement as darkness settled in. A trail branch I could use to back into and turn around with was slightly downhill and surprised me with deep sand and pea gravel. It took 4WD and considerable wheelspin to ease the 7,000-pound tub forward again. I considered myself fortunate to find a workable space at all.

This is just one direction in a rather large campsite that is not quite accessible to the Defiant, but would be to anything else.

This is just one direction in a rather large campsite that is not quite accessible to the Defiant, but would be to anything else.

Now, wandering the same trail in broad daylight, it didn’t seem like the same place at all, apart from the cozy familiarity of its brutal washboard surface. There are actually many, many campsites, several of which are fully adaptable to the Defiant’s needs. Accessibility or slope carve off Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life, E-Bike Pack Mule and tagged ,
12 Sep 2015
7 Comments

Veedauwoo Walkabout

There comes a time when the view of your new front yard is not enough. Time to get out for a stretch of the legs.

There comes a time when the view of your new front yard is not enough. Time to get out for a stretch of the legs.

When not working on or through necessary tasks, I took the opportunity to explore my immediate area one evening before sunset, and then take a real walk the next afternoon. Medicine Bow National Forest varies from rolling, grassy plain to impenetrable forest on both “normal” mountains and mountains made of massive boulders. I have not tried to make majestic keepsakes here. These are simply snaps that show some of what presents itself before you at every turn, at any time of day.

Stumbling around just before sunset can produce some visual memories that become like icons of a place.

Stumbling around just before sunset can produce some visual memories that become like icons of a place.

Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life and tagged ,
27 Aug 2015
12 Comments

Itch de la Hitch

Low sun look toward the Kishwaukee River.

A low sun look toward the Kishwaukee River.

With my scheduled departure approaching late next week, I find myself with a natural mix of dread and anticipation. Dread of the necessity of shoveling out the Defiant’s interior to make it ready for travel, swapping wheels to get the new tire mounted in place and to put the spare back on its perch, and hefting those big panels. What can I say? I’m lazy, and all that’s too close to being actual work.

Yet, there’s the anticipation of getting out to the big sky and solitude. A lifetime of points East and their own wonders makes me pine for less familiar terrain. True, the West is technically a place of relative desolation, but the connotation of a bleak and barren wasteland doesn’t cut it for me. It has its own rewards which cannot be matched here. Each area has its appeal, and the West’s is Spectacle.

Here's something you don't see every day - except here.

Here’s something you don’t see every day – except here.

Mind you, the trip out there won’t have much entertainment value. I’ll be leaving at the start of the Labor Day weekend, a Duly Authorized Holiday Camper taking my allotted space just hours after I yank the Defiant out. All campgrounds from here to Seattle will be packed with them. So, it will be Interstate rest stops for me, all the way out to Wyoming. Rest stops are, on average, quieter and less closely packed than truck stops.

With a full two months before I will roll into Yuma, Arizona, four two-week stops are planned. That’s how the Defiant is oriented. Find access to a perfectly level or at least correctable spot, unhitch, break out and hang the solar panels, and put interior accouterments into a living arrangement. From there, it’s a matter of Read more…

Posted in Daily Life, Navel Gazing, The Defiant
18 Aug 2015
8 Comments

Did I Miss a Meeting?

Imagine waking up and looking out your window to find this...

Imagine waking up and looking out your window to find this…

Since I’ve been on a confusion trip of late, recent events have not helped much. The Christmas in July phenomenon has also been a mind bender. I’ve never heard of it, myself. I stared at the view presented above for awhile, dumbfounded, then got out of the trailer to see if this was a solo mental blowout. It wasn’t.

Just your standard Christmas fare, a nativity scene and a blow-up alligator wearing a Santa Clause hat.

Just your standard Christmas fare, a nativity scene and a blow-up alligator wearing a Santa Clause hat.

Okayyyy! I cautiously backed inside the Defiant again, reflected a moment, and locked the door as a precaution. Then I got online and looked up this camp’s Activities Page. It was there, right alongside Read more…

Posted in Daily Life, Navel Gazing and tagged

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