Ah, the beauty o’ Nature.
I went out for a walk a couple of days ago. (Yes, I do walk occasionally.) I went by a campsite that had until recently been occupied by a tenter for at least as long as I’ve been here. I’d seen his newish silver Dodge pickup depart and arrive a few times.
The tent.
Clip-clop, horse-flop… Suddenly the joint is full of horse trailers!
Today is Sunday. Thursday, a couple of horse trailers rumbled into the State Land Trust parcel I’m on. Friday, many more came. The three campers here were soon surrounded by maybe a dozen horse trailers, and I’m not talking about one-horse or three-horse. We’re talking the bigger ones that range from a two-horse with bunk ahead, to huge travel trailers with slides, and horse stalls in the rear. They’re no doubt here for the Desert Caballeros ride, an annual invitation-only men’s ride out in the boonies that lasts for five days. The departure day is Monday. These people tend to come from all over the West.
Yep, I was impressed. I assume that fencing tape is electrified.
I did a walk-through on the way to a short trail hike as Read more…
Surprise! I’ve noticed rabbits and birds using the Defiant as cool shelter from the hot sun. This was a wake-up reminder to “stay in the now, man!”
I tend to always be preoccupied with something or other when I’m outside, which is not the best possible mindset when camping in the Great Southwest. I had just returned from a hub test on the Aurora, followed by an impromptu exploratory ride further south along Vulture Mine Road to check out some recently closed campsites. I parked the bike and stowed my sun gear, then shuffled toward the trailer door, key in hand. No, I did not scream like a little girl. Not loudly, anyway. I was still about 5 feet away, and was surprised at the effectiveness of its camo. Once I moved further right, toward its rear, it Read more…
Rain or shine, it hardly matters. It’s a pretty area.
The trip up from broiling Quartzsite was uneventful and beautiful along Route 60, one of many decent rural two-lanes that criss-cross Arizona. The state has what is called State Trust land, which comprises a large percentage of Arizona’s total acreage. State Trust land is distinct from federal BLM land in that it is land leased to various businesses and industries in order to raise money for the state’s schools and other programs. Rather than being public land, it is essentially private. 14-day, $15 passes are available to camp and use very limited, specific areas.
I’m encamped on one of those areas now, just south of Wickenburg itself. Wickenburg has strong historical roots in cattle raising, and as you may know from my posts a year ago, the equestrian arts in regard to
These look like a party is going on in my battery tray. Notice the old black rechargeable looking up anxiously, and for good reason.
“Well, I’m disappointed in your performance, frankly. I have to say it. We’ve been together almost two and a half years now, and that isn’t a very long time for a deep-cycle battery. You attracted me with your flashy 210 amp-hours of capacity, and the price was right at about $75 for each of you. Things went well for awhile, but I noticed that your output was fine for a year and then slowly started dropping off. Now, it’s gotten so that your voltage drops from 12.8 to 12.7 right away after charging, and then with very little load, drops to 12.6. Then when I wake up in the morning, often as not you’re at 12.4, and that just shouldn’t be! How is it that I’m going to be able to stay for more than one or two nights on the road, without you needing a recharge? Does that sound like 210 amp-hours to you?”
“And now these two little AGM deep-cycles, just 55 amp-hours apiece, come along and show just how much you’ve been slacking off. They’re half your rated capacity, and they’re outdoing you! And that’s not the worst of it! They’re older than you, and never had the Read more…
The Mighty Furd is the cleanest it’s been in years, and it’s staying clean! There’s a reason for that…
Well, the touring entertainment value of Strolling Amok has not been too good lately, unless of course you find entertainment value in mishaps. I did recently interview a camper with a surprisingly unique converted van setup, and I’ll post that soon. But on the whole, much of my time and attention has been absorbed by an assortment of mechanical conundrums, of which the Mighty Furd has played a significant part. Its role is not central, but is the most notable because of the spectacular expenses involved in servicing a modern vehicle. Modern cars need very little in the way of service when compared to earlier ones, but when they do, the costs of all that complexity frequently cause owner trauma when the invoice comes due.
Manufactured and purchased in the first half of 2007, the 2008 model year F-250 has begun showing its age, (unlike myself). This year’s saga began with a regular servicing last summer in Illinois, which included a coolant change. I had read that the scheduled coolant duration may be too optimistic in practice, which could lead to a kind of ripple effect in related (and expensive) components. It has to do with the effects of
Actually, no text is needed for this post. The photo says it all, don’t you think?
My oh my, I’m a grandpa again! I don’t run the Strolling Amok blog as a “personal” website along Facebook “what I ate today” lines, but this seems to me to be a worthy exception. My son sired a boy, Bronson, just a few years ago, and now my daughter has produced little Greta Celeste just a few days ago! This kid has been stomping bladders and sciatic nerves for awhile, but never have I seen a woman so enjoy the whole process of pregnancy and birth, the joy of the good far overriding the challenges of the bad. The sense of elation has been palpable.
It was especially notable that she opted for a 100% natural birthing (no pain killers), but little Greta had her own agenda going. Some 6 days late, she had to be Read more…
This caught my eye while I was lounging in the Defiant’s Holodeck.
There are many military aircraft buzzing around here, since there are a couple of airbases some miles away. I saw (and heard) a dark blue Navy fighter streak right overhead, perhaps 2,000 feet up, just a few days ago, throttles up. But yesterday, a hot air balloon took advantage of the no-wind rarity here and appeared to launch somewhere within camp. I thought it odd that it kept going up and then down, and did so more deliberately than I imagined such things doing. Well, I’ll let the pictures and captions tell Read more…
Toss a hundred nickels under the hood and, at best, maybe three will make it to the pavement.
The contemplative life offered by solitary travel into unfamiliar places is quite a treat, but it does have its greasy underbelly. Free of rent, mortgages, property taxes and the like, one is free to wander and perhaps gain a new perspective. But some issues aren’t left behind, because you take them with you in order to get to the next place.
Once your mode of travel begins to age, it’s invariably gonna start eating parts and fluids. You have a free and open choice of whether to try to stay ahead of the curve with scheduled maintenance, or wait for the crisis or crises resulting from neglect. But some parts are best left alone until they have expended themselves. Vehicles made within the last twenty years are so much better at delaying the inevitable that even age and wear-related parts can have commendable lifespans. When a component lasts two or three times longer than it once did, that’s money left in the bank. Your bank. Kind of. Okay, sometimes, not so much.
Ever had a radiator hose start leaking because heat, pressure and time got to it? Sure you have. Perhaps you took it in, or perhaps you Read more…
It was great.
Wall decor in the I-70 Cafe.
I was going through photos that nicely depict interesting points about each of the places I’ve been in last year, spent half a day gathering 30, and figured out I still had a long way to go. Too many photos already. So, I’m taking the lazy way out so I can make a bare start at rebuilding the campsites/facilities database I lost to New Google Maps. If you want to see interesting stuff here and there and haven’t been reading the blog for long, simply go into the archives. This isn’t Facebook, where everything that wasn’t posted today is assumed to be stale and irrelevant. My insights and accounts are stale and irrelevant before they were even published, and I’m proud of that.
2015 may not be as interesting for roadie topics, simply because of that database loss and the likelihood of staying in pretty much the same places, when I had originally planned to start doing the backroads routing thing. We’ll see what we see!
Strolling Amok 