Yep, drained the water lines, turned off the gas, put the water meter on the kitchen table like Jim told me to, locked the door, and sped over the mountain passes at 10-20 mph…picked up Max and hooked him up to the Roadmaster, and coasted into the Durango Wallyworld parking lot at 3:17pm…ON THE ROAD!!!

Gonna be a grueling 60 miles tomorrow, then about 30 the next day…the stress is…oh, wait, there IS no stress…i got my love ridin’ shotgun, Gracie-the-wonder-poop ridin’ on the doghouse(now, where else should she be…?), and I’m driving my baby south…life has just become better, if that’s possible. Small heater(catalytic) is warming us up, got a cup of tea, and a new(to me) Elmore Leonard book in the reading…I’d be envious of myself, if I wasn’t me, but I am, so I’ll just have to settle for smug…

By the way, it’s a great way for us to celebrate our 30th!!!

WOW!!!…over 3 months without a post…must be gearing up for imminent travel, as here I am…

Rainy and cold, today…weather site tells me we will be getting 6-12 inches of the wet, slushy white stuff tonight and tomorrow, but only above 9,000 ft…oh, wait, we’re at 9,300+ ft…oh, joy…at least I have about 3 pallets to cut up and burn, and I’m sifting the coal shed floor for nuggets…

Packed the flamingos(’cept for Mindy, the 5′ wire planter), and have my Hawaiian shirts hung with care…clothing is DONE, and can easily be supplemented by thrift stores(I Do draw the line at skivvies,  socks, and shoes)…have the basic meal staples, and ventured into the nether regions of the semi trailer to pull out a box of as-yet unread(by me) paperbacks…Is there anything else?…(well, yeah, Tracy, but that’s a given)…Gracie the wonder poop hasn’t yet started her pre-departure manic behavior, but when her bed goes out, she will come around…

Winterized the moho a couple of days ago when the weather was predicting low 30’s for the next week…lucky move, as this morning the same temps dropped to 20…still gives me a tickle to watch the double-takes of passers-by staring at me as I pour large bottles of vodka into the water inlet…big difference this year is I’m not testing the proof personally…still have to pack Max with chairs, tables, sat dish, and lord knows what else, but having a small car means that when it’s full…yer done…no more…

Still have to winterize the home-without-wheels…not my favorite pastime, but the last major chore before locking the door and wondering for the next 750 miles what I FORGOT to do…

This year, we have our trip somewhat dictated by the absence of triple digits at Quartzsite…this will involve 20 mile travel days, and the 120 mile day past New Mexico’s closed rest areas on IH25…yep, demanding schedule, but I’m tough…

Having lost 2 posts in 2 weeks, I’m gonna try, again, but ya may have to go fishing to find it…If I remember correctly, we were leaving our friends in Ajo, and headed to to Tucson. THAT much we accomplished. Enjoyed short days of driving, and late-up/early-stop travels…got the thrift store fix taken care of in ABQ, and a short visit with a quicky-care clinic I wouldn’t take my week-old flowers to…drove…oh…20 miles to Bernalillo to enjoy the hospitality of the casino…security was present, but inoffensive, and regular…polite and conversational in a nice way. Probably drove another 60 miles the next day to a casino parking lot best known as ‘The Tepees’, and except for horizontal sand, was also uneventful. Actually drove all the way to Durango the next day, and opted for 2 days at the KOA while we started to reintegrate into the fixed location home…REALLY like that particular KOA…So, new driver’s license ordered(the usual picture taken that shows me to be a drug-abusing pervert-forgot to put on my contacts, and glasses “must be removed”…if any of you out there haven’t seen me at 10:00 am without my visual aids…don’t try…Charlie Manson…no, but maybe Dahmer after a meal…it scares ME, and I am him…so, stop at wallyworld to leave the car for later retrieval, and home to Silverton early enough to find, repair, and find yet two more water leaks…as has been 3 times, it was first the kitchen faucet…always gets me smack in the face and chest(have I told you that the ambient water temp in the hometown water lines is about 34 degrees…?) washing machine cold water feed, then the washing machine hot water feed…hauling water from the unit in various containers only seemed like an inconvenience till that ran out…hauling water from the river really is an inconvenience…snow melt has the river at…uhm…really high drainage…brace yerself forward, as that seemingly innocent gallon jug will try to pull you in, and they can be quite strong…

One of the problems that arises in reaching altitudes at the foot of God’s throne is that there ain’t a whole lot of oxygen to play with…this affects mentation, and while I may not have a lot of that left anyway, it can delay your recognition that you have no idea what you’re doing, why you are doing it, or if you(in moments of cloudy clarity) will remember that insight that just might avoid something unfortunate…gotten kinda used to it, have the scars to prove it.

Our back porch thermometer told me it was 22 this am around 0630…the frost kinda added validity, and my stocking feet pretty much clinched it…I have often wondered why dogs will hesitate to perform morning ablutions when yer freezing yer butt off, however, in good weather they’re out-n-in before you can shut the door…seems like Gracie develops an interest in the great outdoors directly related to my discomfort…we had snow Sunday night. OK, second cup of coffee…you’ll have to wait…I don’t want to…

Basking in friendship and  enjoying unbelievable moderate climate in Ajo, AZ…64 two nights ago, 62 last night…highs in the mid to lower 70’s…Arrived at Jim&Lou’s last Friday, and have renewed friendship…it’s a comfortable pair of folks, where you don’t feel obligated or inclined to talk…they allowed us to stay in their apartment over the patio…AC, fan, tv, micro, FULL fridge…we’ve been sharing meals, and I’ve never left the table thinking ‘hungry’…more like, ‘oh Lord, the belly exceeds the beltline, and I didn’t(burp) intend to eat this much…’.  We will enjoy this hospitality till the weekend, but must hit Tucson, once more, for  delivery pick-ups. We will see Jim&Lou in Silverton this summer, along with their 16-17(?) birds, BJ and Little Girl(toy terrier and golden lab)…walked out on the downstairs porch the other afternoon…ya know how something registers in your vision, but the head doesn’t really process it…? well, about 2 1/2 feet in front of my sandaled feet was a 6 foot rattlesnake, coiled, and really not wanting to share space…No warning rattle… OK, OK, when I finally cut the poor buggar into mincemeat with a hoe, about 4 feet was missing, and I might have initially mistaken the actual length…Little Girl had been bitten two nights before, and came close to buying the farm, but has since made a full recovery…us two-legged folks are doing the eye sweep whilst walking, now, and, of course, nothing sighted…caution is still a prudent approach.

Talked with Ms Donna at the Silverton post office yesterday…she woke up to 13 degrees…snow the day before, and snow predicted today and tomorrow morning…we’ll make ‘plans’ accordingly, and head home when all that white stuff is run-off…in the meantime, well just kinda plod along, looking as we go, and hope you can do so, also…

So  I backed out of the biopsy, but set the appointment for the 6 mm right kidney stone sound-wave shatter…went in for a pre-procedure xray, and…well…no stone…I GUARANTEE I would have recognized passing the equivalent of a basketball, but…well…$64 K question is WHERE did it go? Nobody knows. S’ok, it ain’t there!!!…so what’s for lunch?

We’ll probably drop back in on Jim&Lou, since we have the time, they’re amiable to the return visit, and there is still snow in Silverton. Besides, I really want to go through that Border Patrol check station a couple more times and see if the German shepherd wants to take on Gracie…  “going to Ajo, which way ya goin’?”… …”Why”…’Just curious, ya’ know, why yer goin’”…”to see Why”…I see a return to fun with plagerized routines…”

Have been caught up in that vortex of other folks determining your future from a phone, putting you on hold for two weeks, then saying “Well, we’d like to try this…”…well, next week or so…in the meantime, I’m in hot tub heaven in the evenings, cool pool in the afternoons, and Tracy is getting her thrift store kicks(ok, ok, so am I). Supposed to be down to 48 tonight…no complaints here.

Feeding the feathered friends here, again, at about 5 lbs a day…if I let the seed run low, I’ve got about pigeons, wrens, finches, and Gambel’s quail flying up to me with an amazing indignance…got an occasional cardinal or road runner, a couple of rabbits after dark, and the coyotes that wander the wash…lord knows what else is out there I don’t see for the sound of IH 10 and train traffic…we sit out in the stern shade in the evenings and watch those characters…better than TV , but I do have a book ready to read(and a beer to hold it down with), my seasonal occasional BLOODY MARY source went north). …m

Currently, we are in Tucson…having spent 4 1/2 months based out of Quartzsite AZ doing as little as possible, as often as I could. We were the last Airstreamers to leave our ‘compound’, and it was a somewhat sad experience until we went to the dump/water station and had the ENDLESS shower at the water station…WONDERFUL!!! Those gallon jug Navy showers work, but… Off to Yuma for a two day stay at the Cocopah Casino boondock lot…turned in to a 5 day stay. Tracy needed a new watch, so while we bought it at wallyworld(leave me alone, I buy my watches there, too), I put my wallet on the counter next to the register while I adjusted the watch to T’s wrist. She toodled off in her electric cart, I ambled off to the grocery section, the clerk took a break, and a “Hispanic woman wearing a pink shirt and bluejeans, driving a Suburban…” swiped my wallet into her purse…all this info came after the fact…luckily, after the debacle last year at Heron Lake, we had cut up all our credit cards…wallyworld’s  “Eye in the sky” is impressive, but activating it takes a tire-iron, and there you are…on immaculate recording…with a tire iron…ah, well, a frozen bag of green beans might have swayed the jury, but I doubt it. So, called the bank to cancel the debit card, and request a new one…she told me I needed a photo ID…I told her it was IN THE WALLET THAT HAD JUST BEEN STOLEN…after 5 calls to the bank’s various branches, I found one that would at least replace the debit card with a temporary debit card…

So, after 5 days in the casino parking lot, we left for Ajo, AZ…landed with our friends Jim&Lou, and enjoyed low-key friendship, excellent meals, and a much-needed decompression. Then, off to Tucson for my MD appointment. The result is I am getting needle biopsies in places that almost disappear at the thought of it, a discussion as to what I want to do about the 6 mm kidney stone attached to my right kidney, and the plaguing possibility of multiple surgeries…HEY!!! I’m supposed to be the healthy(if not clumsy) one here…

So, we await the time-consuming delays of medical treatment, and I’m thinking that I really like Tucson, but T’s family is in Austin, and that’s where she’s gonna get family care…SHEESH!!!the speed bumps just keep coming.

On the other hand, T-town has GREAT thrift stores, antique stores, and other places to spend money in on things you don’t need in an abundance you wish you could ignore…but there IS that space in the trunk not being used…there’s a bookstore called BOOKMAN”S that has an incredible selection…for those of you in Texas, it’s a Half-Priced on steroids with a bit of eclectic non-book stuff inter-spaced amongst the shelves… Ya know, upscale thrift and books, shuffled well…spent 3 !/2 hours there, today, just browsing…

So, we’ll be hanging around T-town for another two weeks, at least…was 92 in the shade today…m

yep, got up late yesterday morning, and the desert is empty…Tony left yesterday, Brian the day before, and Phil the day before that…kinda lonesome out here…but, yep, it’s also hot…only 94 today, but the breeze makes it seem like…well, only 94…I’d be sweating, if it wasn’t so dry…I’m dressed in my finest scrub shorts, and somewhat overdressed, at that…drinking iced tea by the gallon, but the output is measured in pints…ok, ok, TMI…the spritzer bottle is a lifesaver, and I can’t seem to get enough of it…Tracy winces when I aim it at her…something about shooting yerself in the face with water that is imminently pleasurable…may have to do it again…fogs the glasses a bit, but that’s a temporary condition…CHEAP shower!!! We miss the friendships, and look forward to renewing them this winter, not to mention the fine meals…Hope this finds you all healthy and happy, and, as alway,s shiny side up…m

Ya know how yer going down the road and you call out “Airstream!!!”? Well. if you don’t you probably don’t own one…if you do, you know what I’m saying…did that, yesterday in Q, and it turned out to be our new found friends from Ontario, coming back from a Yuma rally…Art&Mary…got to visit last night, and watched Mary tussle and take Lucy(Jim&Min’s dog) for a walk this am…Artstream is still missing in action, but is down Yuma way waiting on vehicle parts…things are sorta winding down, here, as Jim will be leaving next week, Brian is seriously considering Mexico, we have to be in Tucson on the 15th, but will drop in on Jim&Lou in Ajo on the way, and I still have a bit of wood to burn…will sacrifice the cabinet for my final fire…88 yesterday, low 80’s this week with a cold front shoving the temps down to the mid 70’s…it’s open window sleeping and awning shade days…I’m gonna have to relearn how to drive this rig for 3 hours a day…I know, I know…hardship, but I do usually take a lunch break somewhere in the middle of that 3 hours, and have actually had to take a short nap…occasionally, I will stop before the 150 allotted miles(like at about 20), but , then, I’m a sensitive guy…

Just re-read my last post…guess I was speaking from the center of a barbed wire fence…

We said farewell to Howard&Carolyn this past week, and ’so long’ to Art&Mary this late morning…winter has turned into 85 in town, yesterday, and projected 80 today…I have pulled out my shorts bag(be nice, now), and a shirt under the Hawaiian shirt is now ‘dirty clothes’…some who may be close to me might suggest that the category was late in arrival…eating here has become a daily challenge as to what someone will present…last night was Sherri’s home made pasta, an incredible ravioli, well constructed salad, and for the dessert…well, Tony out did himself…strawberries in a sauce with decorative embellishment…GROW my arteries, GROW…cause my diet for the last 2 1/2 months has been SLAM SHUT, YOU CHOLESTEROL CONVEYORS…!!!…yeah, well, SOMEone has to eat this gourmet stuff…

The pace here has been horrendous…town sometimes twice a day(I know, I know…WHY???), and I actually took a desert walk the other day, but stopped when I realized I couldn’t see our compound. Next venture will be golf, if not horseshoes…the social demand is unrelenting, and the decisions to be made are…well, well at least they’re decisions, and that calls for calories…better ingest some for the upcoming challenges. Still involved in the 5 pounds a week club, but my gain is…ok, ok, it’s MY gain…but it’s yer loss not to be here.

Took a couple of Canadian couples out to Erdman’s Cabin yesterday…I think they enjoyed it…I know I did, and I’ve been out there at least 5 times…Erdman was a mining pioneer out here, and his rock walled cabin still exists(roof burned off a few years ago), but someone had a cement slab poured in the wall confines, and on what was a front porch providing an incredible view of the surrounding area. There is a gray granite monument to him, on the east facing border of the porch slab. There is a line of old porcelain commodes filled with plastic flowers on an embankment kust to the east of the cabin…they need replacing, as the colors are fading, but still… A friend of mine, Artstream, has produced a t-shirt with the inscription “Greetings from Quartzsite” the pic, then”POT LUCK”…view his creations at <Postcardsfromearth.com>

Yep, another shameless plug, but I only make them when I find quality.

So, our little Airstream community is now down to 7 AS and one SOB, and two are leaving next week, but I think(hope) that the leavers are returning next year. This is such a great way to meet and make new friends, and new friends are lifeblood…a chance encounter, a short visit, an email, or a forums exchange…and the next thing you know, a friendship…gotta love this life…

Ya know, religion is an individual concept, and, as such should be respected…I often tell folks who question my religious affiliation…
“What church do you belong to…?” with…”I don’t belong to any church, I live in one”…
My thoughts don’t require a church, they don’t even require a vestibule. Wanna have a service with 30,000 of your best friends? GO TO A FOOTBALL GAME…if your idea of a religious experience is a football game, then I think you have that right…I prefer the outstanding expanse of the San Juan Mountains to satisfy me.
I was sitting in the middle of the Arizona desert, watching the ‘shooting  stars’ and wondering how many of you folks have left the confines of the population to truly appreciate what you don’t even know exists…until you appreciate that it’s there; for most of you, it will be gone before you even recognize its existance…I’m not a tree hugger, I’m a basically simple-thought guy who is tired of all the political attacks, the innuendo, the self-proclaimed ‘experts’ fighting the ‘good fight’ in election years…
Belief is an acceptable direction…KILLING OTHER FOLKS BECAUSE THEY ARE  ‘DIFFERENT’ IS NOT…unless they are trying to kill you after their request to save their butts… I WHOLEHEARTEDLY support our troops in their endeavor to protect us and the rest of those pansies that take but won’t give…
This world isn’t making much sense, but balancing the checkbook doesn’t either…often…but it doesn’t get anyone hurt but me. Liberal…Conservative…I don’t see it as anything but attorneys, PACs, and other special interest groups plying their trade in a world gone corrupt to an inevitable conclusion…history does, indeed, repeat itself, and we are apparently too stupid…yep…too stupid to recognize this…

On the other hand, the group at Q-town has swollen to 8 + 1 SOB(he was here first, and so far seems to be tolerating us well)…
we had a bread cook-off a couple or three days ago with Phil’s starter, the presentations were incredible, we ate too much(again), and that’s the yeast of my problems
Potlucks out the wazoo, which followed happy hours to already fill you up…cookin’ fools!!! Howard&Carolyn will be leaving us for NM tomorrow, but we have another compounder with experience arriving on Wednesday…may have to hire a part-time traffic controller. Uhm,…where are you???…ok, ok,…not the new arrival…the traffic cop…? I’m not really good at this waving the flashlight in someone’s eyes…well, m a y b e  I am, but somehow trees, hidden logs, and DEEP depressions in the soil seem to ruin my landing guidance reputation…oh, did I forget to mention the RESTORATION RALLY…?…don’t know where that thought came from…(thanks, ken)…
If you have no excuse. join us down here at the impromptu 4CU 5 lbs a month club…we’re weighting for you…m