Category: Places I’ve been

Packing the camper seemed to take all week, at least a few hours a day, before I could finally leave for the desert where I love to spend the winter.  First stop a familiar sight.

Part of packing is first organizing what’s already in the camper.  I went through the canned food stash, which I consider mostly emergency food, and threw over half of it away being out of date anywhere from five to fifteen years.  I took the limited number of cans out of the 5th-wheel and put them in the stash.  Can’t be leaving liquid items behind that could freeze and burst.  Back and forth, with reusable grocery bags full of stuff to move.

Goodbye November, hello December.  How does a year filled with slow days go by so fast?

Look closely for a busy tail disappearing behind bush, close to center

Coyote went past too fast for my camera.

Bradshaw Mts north to Prescott

Sunset in Skull Valley

Morning temperatures in the low 40s slow me down.  It’s not easy to heat the 36 foot 5th-wheel using only two small heaters on 30amp service.  But I get it together for a shopping day in Prescott, stocking-up in a big town like I might not see for a few weeks at least.  Still, I have to shop with discretion because my camper is a tiny house.  And yet, it takes all day to complete the chores.  And then I have more packing the camper.  Biggest score was 600 count, 100% Egyptian cotton, queen-size sheet-set for $25.  I bought two sets, for each RV.

I like to take a day off after a full day in town, but there was a little more packing.  And the next day I had a few more chores in Skull Valley.

The dump is only open three days a week and I had a bunch of garbage to get rid of before hitting the road.  Also needed to mail the last of the calendars.  (Hope they all arrived.)  Plus I wanted to check out a marvelous local driveway lined with huge ancient Cottonwood trees in hopes of fall color.  Got lucky with that.

Don’t forget me

Still packing on Saturday.  A different kind of packing because the big house doesn’t have to be packed away, just no liquids left behind.  Yet the back and forth moving of the almost last minute stuff took all afternoon and I thought about putting off leaving one more day.

Time to slaughter (according to my landlord), yet I’d say looking a little lean

Naw, Sunday was good with only a little packing.  I fed the pigs my food garbage and had to winterize the 5th-wheel after a shower.  Joann was ready and hitting the road Sunday also.  We planned to meet and camp in Congress off Ghost Town Road, where I’ve been many times.

Blackie sniffing the metate

Yet I kept dragging my feet, wanting to both stay and go.  I finally convinced myself if I forgot something, I’m less than an hour away. It will be alright.

Over my driveway wash

 Down Yarnell Hill

Pulled into camp Congress by 3pm where Joann had parked by the huge familiar Saguaro bird condo.  She made us salad, spaghetti and bread for dinner.

Ahhhh……  a sigh of relief.  No more packing.  I am embraced by the desert apricity.  It even smells different here.  We spent a good part of the day chatting, sitting outside in the sun and shade, sitting inside one camper or the other.  We took walks, separately and together.

I walked to the stock tank and a bit beyond under clear skies and 70°.  Perfect, except for all the military flyover.  Their noise disturbs my harmonics.

Joann likes campfires and gathered enough wood for about an hour pre-sunset burn.

Then time for the moon in alignment with Venus.

Sunrise blazed and a soft orange glow hung over the horizon all day under chilly gray skies.  Amazingly the solar panels kept charging enough for my minimal usage and even charged Joann’s phone a couple times.

She has portable solar panels and a solar charged battery plus a 12volt cooler/freezer combination.  It held its own that day but never got to 100% charge.

I stayed inside most of the day doing my usual labeling photos and occasionally jumped outside for a photo.

The next morning’s heavy cloud cover limited color then danced all day like stormy seas.  Another good day to mostly stay inside.

Later the sun came out and tried to break up the clouds so I went for a very quick walk as it’s cool at 63° with a breeze.  Even the Gila Woodpeckers were sticking close to home.

Sunset again spectacular as our evening campfire burned to a bed of coals.

Because Thursday was predicted to rain we had decided to make it our town day.  Morning was gray but opened up briefly giving Joann’s solar panels a little burst.  Then the sky turned gray and we went to Wickenburg about thirty minutes away.  That Goodwill hasn’t raised prices so we shopped and I got a few books.  While we did laundry Joann’s battery was plugged in and charged.  What a pit place with 90% of dryers out of order.  Picked up a few groceries and it rained a bit on the way home.  Unpacked just before it started to rain with meaning which kept up most of the night.  There were puddles.  A special gift in the desert.  So glad it wasn’t the snow falling in northern Arizona.

Puddles were gone shortly after sunrise on another chilly gray day.  The stay home after a town day became craft day in my camper.  Joann already had a flat tree made from garland and a string of tiny battery operated lights.  She’d bought a bag of miscellaneous small wooden ornaments at the thrift store.  Plugged her glue gun in and decorated the 18 inch tree.

It’s decorating my window for a few days and her camper next.  I haven’t decorated any kind of Christmas tree in many years.  Lots of laughs and fun.

Moist dry-wash

Mornings are a little chilly in the low 40s but once the sun gets high enough to charge my solar, if there’s no wind, the afternoon is nice to be outside in high 50s/low 60s.

Joann took a walk at least half a mile to the foot of the Date Creek Mountains to our east.  Not quite a quarter way up a humongous granite boulder stripped with thick veins of white quartz was calling her name.  When she texted me “I touched it.”  I zoomed in for a photo.

My walk was closer to camp looking for down and dead branches for our evening campfire.  We even tried burning flat dried cow pies that worked quit well with no smell.  It’s actually just as available as wood in this rather picked over camping area.

Joann left her trailer and returned to Prescott to take care of some business so I’ll be on my own for a few days.  I can handle that.  The sun is shinning with only a few wispy clouds.  I’m done packing and in the desert.  Sure feels good.