Desert Still Life

There is a lot of rubbish left behind from long ago by prospectors in their mining camps.

Someone picked the most interesting pieces and posed them for others to enjoy,

although I can't imagine all that many people being way out where I was.

The bluish green rock is copper ore pretty much the main mineral to be had here.

Ajo, Arizona

It was good to be moving again after a few months of being in the same area.

A rest stop along the way to our destination to let Beans out for a walk.

Be careful out there Beans.

We went to the same area just outside of Ajo to camp. 

 I was here last year but it is all new to Beans.

Ajo is about 100 miles southwest from Phoenix, Arizona.

The view out the door.

This is the area where there is a lot of illegal immigrant activity from Mexico 78 miles to the south.

I went out for a hike where last year I found a lot of cast off items from the Mexicans passing through but this year there was hardly anything to be found.  Where I knew stuff to be it was all cleaned up.

Organ Pipe National Monument is 15 miles to the south and is filled with this cactus unique to the area.  I was surprised to discover this one lone plant here.  How did it get here?  

I think a bird pooped a seed a long time ago.

We were in the Mojave Desert but are now in the Sonoran Desert which in my opinion is much nicer and has a larger variety of plant life that the Mojave just does not have.

These little guys are one of them.

They belong to a family of cacti known as fishhook.  Notice the little curl to the tip of the spine.

There are much larger varieties that have big thick curved spines just like a fishhook.

For reference these are the size of a golf ball.

Angela and Dresy

Reader Polly commented that it would be nice to have a picture of Angela and Dresy on the previous post Fly Away.  Yes it would.  I wasn't thinking.  It's nice to have you readers helping me out.

This was taken in Dallas, Texas while they were there taking care of business 

before hitting the road again.  Dresy is old but he tolerates Beans quite well.

 She's eventually figured it out that Dresy has no interest in playing and leaves him alone.

Fly Away

These photos were taken by my traveling friend Angela.

We traveled together some last year.  

You may remember the post about the mouse extermination from her van

while in Idaho.  She's had no more mice since then.  Well, maybe one.

We met up again here at Quartzite, camped together for two weeks,

and now our 14-day time limit is up and we must move on.

Angela and her cat Dresy are going north while Beans and I head east.

That is just one of many enjoyments about traveling the roads.  

You meet like-minded people, make new friends and eventually your trails cross again.

Tiny House For Sale

No one was around so that I could ask about their tiny house they built.  Perhaps it turned out too tiny.  That is a propane hot water heater to the left of the door and probably an air conditioner above it.  They have it blocked off for the winter.

On the other side is the inlet to fill a water tank and under the house I see an outlet for dumping black and grey water so it must have a toilet and sink.  The green tent is your shower.  On the roof I can just make out at least one solar panel for electricity.

Compass Creation

If I thought I had a bunch of spare time to sit around and make hiking sticks, 

imagine the time involved to create this.  

Well I suppose I have the time, just not the initiative.

I think some pre-planning was involved here

as they brought some sea shells to the desert.

Hiking Sticks

I have lots of free time while waiting for the rest of the country to warm up so I made some hiking sticks.  For something different this time I used the ribs of a dead Saguaro cactus.  They are always very straight which would be ideal for a hiking or walking stick or so I thought.  In the process of making them I discovered that they are not that dense of a wood and I was unable to get all of the stick smooth.  Lesson learned and I'll probably not try Saguaro again.  The stick on the right is of the Palo Verde tree which you can see has hardly no straight parts to it at all.

Bird Nest

High up in a mesquite tree was this clump of twigs.

A peek inside confirmed it was an abandoned bird nest.

Other parts of the country continue to be too cold to consider moving on so here we sit and wait...

all the while cooking and eating more cornbread.

Zeekie - Good Boy

A couple of days later Beans and I found another grave. 

This time there was no doubt, it was someone's beloved pet laid to rest at camp in the desert.

I believe I had said this in the past about your pet dying while away from home during the winter months;  that day when it is time to return home, you get in your vehicle, start the engine and drive away leaving your pet behind, alone, buried in the desert.  It has to be terrible thinking you have done your grieving only to have it resurface all over again.  

I suspect Zeekie died in these past few months because the green candle sitting at an angle in the back would have had the wax melted over to one side due to the high summer heat here.

Another Desert Grave

Beans and I found another one of those graves.  It is either the final resting place of someone's beloved pet who died while out here on vacation, or it is a fake grave.  I'm calling fake on this one as there was no marker with a name or date.  After all, wouldn't you leave some identifying piece of information?  I think someone with a lot of time to kill (and there is a lot of that out here in the desert) just made a project of creating a grave near camp only this person got carried away with it.

Beans thinks otherwise and is connecting with the spirit of the deceased cat or dog. 

Two More

A couple more RV decorating photos were found on my camera card 

and overlooked for the previous "Decorations"posting.

Not that I would want this on my RV but if a choice had to be made between this and what the RV manufacturing companies put out on their products, all those gaudy swirls and curls,  I'd take this paint scheme without a second thought.

It must have been enjoyable drinking all those beverages in order to create this.

It was on the side of a VW bus, naturally.

Beans and the Flute

I have Beans trained.  Or Beans has me trained.  Its all about how you look at it.  When I am sitting at the table she will stand on her hind legs and gently tap my arm with her paw.  That is her way of telling me she wants some food.  Early on she did this once so I reinforced it by waiting until she gave me the tap before immediately stopping whatever I was doing to feed her.  It is a system that has worked out very well and there is no meowing.

Now I have this Native American flute that was gifted to me.  I've done the finish to it and am learning how to play it.  When I start playing Beans will come over and give me the tap.  Either the flute music is making her hungry or she's telling me please don't do that Dad.  I'm thinking it is the latter because when I stop playing she goes back to whatever she was doing - sleeping, looking out the window, playing with a toy, but not going to her food dish.  So I have to play the flute outside.

I guess this settles the initial question.  Beans has me trained.

How I Enjoyed Superbowl Sunday

The Phoenix

One day returning to home after a walk around the RTR camp I came across this big RV just parked in the middle of the road, engine running and no one around.  What little traffic there was had to drive around over the rough terrain.  What the heck?  

I walked over to ask the folks sitting outside their trailer watching the show in their front yard.

They said the people just left it there while walking ahead on foot to see if there was a camp site to their liking. They thought it was hilarious so I stayed too to see how this was going to turn out, plus I wanted to see what these inconsiderate people looked like.  During the time I got to know the couple (he in the white t-shirt and she sitting) who were from Florida.  They were a crack-up.  So fun.

The trailer is a 1970 Holiday Rambler.  They paid $400 for it and almost ended up dragging it the 35 miles to their home as rubber was flying off the tires.  It made it.  They completely tore out the insides to bare sticks and through it all away.

                     The outside was completely redone to look as it did when new 48 years ago.

She being an interior design person guided the build inside like a tiny house rather than a trailer.

They did all the work themselves.

He told me they've been offered $100,000 for the trailer. "No thanks!"

I think if the RV industry would build their products 

along this line of thinking they would be great sellers.

The people came back to their big $250,000 plus Class A coach and drove off like it was no big deal leaving it parked in the middle of the road.  If you can afford to own and drive a vehicle that gets 6 miles to the gallon then I guess you can feel entitled to park it anywhere you please.

A side note:  I've just discovered why sometimes the photos on these posts are blurry.  If I upload more than one photo at a time to the blog over weak cell connections they are blurry.  I am sorry for some of the past post's blurry photos.  It won't happen anymore.  From now on you will be able to enjoy my fabulous photographic images as they were originally captured.