Thoughts from the south end of Navajo Lake

Still life with stove

The sun is rising over the lake.  My coffee mug is half-full.  Some not-so-random thoughts:

Boondocking lets me stay places I'd otherwise miss.  It makes possible an overnight stop in a parking lot while I'm on my way from point A to point B.  It brings with it a nice sense of independence, and a little environmental smugness.

But I'm really liking it here at the state park, with electricity and water.  I took a shower in the community shower house.  Not very hot water, but a long soaking shower which got the road grime mostly gone.  I can make it as bright as I want in here at night and not think about battery use.  I can listen to music and NPR as much as I want.  I can use the laptop. And my big revelation from yesterday: I can run the furnace.  The Beast has a pretty efficient little furnace; it runs off a thermostat just like at home.  The fan uses quite a bit of juice of juice (4 amps is a lot in this world) so it's not a good routine option for boondocking.  I've been using the Portable Buddy catalytic heater for chilly mornings.  It works pretty good, but I'm not all that fond of using the disposable fuel containers. I suspect that the furnace is actually an environmentally better way to get warm in the morning.  But maybe that's just rationalization: I certainly like that it's quick and easy. Hey, my carbon footprint for this enterprise is already beyond redemption!

I'm still somewhere between amused and appalled that I let myself get way off route the other day by blindly following the GPS.  Lessons learned, I hope, and pretty small cost.

Some one of you asked what I do all day, if I'm not out hiking around.  It's pretty simple:  I read, I listen to music, I go for short walks, I talk to people walking their dogs (and their dogs!) I watch the sun rise and set.  I watch clouds go by.  I watch birds and squirrels.  I read and send email, and write blog posts. I cook things: I made biscuits from scratch for breakfast this morning.

I stay away from Facebook, mostly.  I continue my at-home habit of a post-prandial nap.  I think about life, the universe, and the phenomenon of Donald Trump.  I spend time in what might be called meditation, although to the outsider it might look a lot like spacing out.

It's not for everyone. I think some people would find it blindly boring. But it suits me, for now.

Monday morning.  I got to Navajo Lake yesterday afternoon, after a complicated day.

The morning was fine. Left Bisti parking lot at about 9, headed north to Farmington. My real destination was the Aztec Ruins, which I wanted to revisit, and then go on to Navajo Lake. On the way into Farmington, one of my directories said there was a free RV dump station at a gas station there. So I planned to go there, fill up at the gas station, and proceed to Aztec.  Waze was happy to give me directions to do that.   As I made my way through Farmington, doing what I was told, I got nervous.  It didn’t seem like I was headed in the right direction, what about that place over there, yadda-yadda-yadda.  Just when I was about to pull over and re-evaluate, Waze exclaimed, “You have arrived at your destination!”   And so I had.  I remembered all the times I’d second-guessed the GPS app and experienced serious lostitude.  I didn’t dwell on the times (very very few, but still …) when the app had done me wrong.

I got to Aztec without problem, spent a happy hour or so wandering around the ruins and admiring the new museum addition to the little visitor center.  

I got back in the Beast, had a leisurely lunch, took a short nap, and told Waze I wanted to go to Navajo Lake State Park.  Off we went in the right general direction, it seemed.   I was a little startled when the signs said “Welcome to Colorado,” but that seemed OK, since I’d started out about as far north in New Mexico as you can get. On we went.  The turns once again began to be counter-intuitive, but I had the morning’s experience fresh in my mind.

On we went.  I began to get seriously concerned when it looked like the road was turning into a dirt road. But on I went.  Until the absurdity of the situation, and the quality of the road, became overwhelming.  I pulled over in some rancher’s drive, and got out the laptop.  Yes, I had Verizon.  Yes, I could pull up Google Maps.  Yes, I was in a wrong place. Quite wrong.  Turns out that Waze was trying to get me to Navajo Lake Park up in Colorado.  And was doing a bad job of it, to boot.

I got out my paper copy of the Rand-McNally USA road atlas.  It didn’t have much detail on the roads I’d gotten onto.  It didn’t show them at all.  But Google Maps and Google Earth got me oriented, I managed to do an impossible dirt-road U-turn,  backtracked 46 miles, and got where I wanted to be:  Navajo Lake State Park in New Mexico. 

After that it was easy.  It’s a pleasant spot, with trees and grass (and solid cell service from ATT and Verizon.)  Just the break I wanted from sand and scrub.  Right now it’s cool and cloudy and spitting rain. Delicious! 

I’ll veg out here for a few days, and then head down to White Rock.  

Lesson:  carry detailed paper maps of the territory you’re in.  Get the GPS app to tell you the details of the itinerary it’s plotted, and check those against the paper map before you launch.  And read “Death by GPS” on Arstechnica

Bisti Wilderness Parking Lot

The trip here from Gallup was smooth.  A few sprinkles as a front passed through.

The area is known for dramatic wind-eroded sandstone formations called "hoodoos:"

source: farmingtonnm.org

source: Wikipedia

Where I am, it looks more like this:

Right off on the horizon, you can see the red rocks which may be where the interesting stuff happens.

But here in the parking lot, not so much.  Getting from here to there involves a fair bit of walking, and some scrambling up and down small washes.  Not easy or fun for this balance-impaired geezer. So: my original idea of spending a day exploring the area needs revision.  Besides, it's gonna rain again today.  

I'm thinking I'll drive up to Farmington and over to Aztec, and re-visit Aztec Ruins National Monument. Unlike most other sites which present the Chacoan culture, this one has a completely restored great kiva. It's a restoration, which means it's an educated guess about what it might have looked and felt like when it was a center for the ceremonial life of these people back in the day.  

I'll arrive at Navajo Lake a day earlier than I'd planned, but there are gazillions of camping sites there, so I shouldn't need a reservation.  The plan is to hunker down there, and then work down to White Rock to see Doug and Dotty and their convalescing dog Shuba.  

The Painted Desert, tough beef, and more ...

I'm in Gallup, NM, parked at the Fire Rock casino.  I’ve stayed here before, and while it’s not scenic, it’s free and convenient and safe.  As a thank-you for the free parking, I always eat at the casino dining room, which has been renovated with a new menu.  Big improvement. The Prime Rib special is NOT improved, though; I fall for it every time.  Just how good could a $9.95 piece of meat be? 

As I hoped, yesterday was easy and relaxed. I filled up the tank even though it was 3/4 full.  I always try to leave “camp” with a full tank.  Gas mileage for the day was 9.65, in spite of the nasty winds for much of the day. Yeah, that’s good mileage. 

I did something I rarely do: I stopped to be a tourist.  I had time, I wanted to stretch my legs, so I pulled off at Petrified Forest National Park to gawk at the painted desert.  Once again I was impressed by what a good job the Park Service does with limited and decreasing resources. 

It looks like this.  I took a lot of pictures, but they all look the same.  So you get the panorama:

Modernity strikes:

Today I head into new territory: the Bisti wilderness area south of Farmington.  It’s dispersed camping on BLM land, with unknown cell service. It’s in the same neck of the woods as the Chaco Culture National Historical park, which I dearly love.  I know the road in to Chaco, though, and I’m pretty sure the Beast would not be happy.  

Up on the rim

The Mogollon Rim, that is.  Pronounced "muggy-awn" if you care. Arizona's Ponderosa pine forest country.

The view from site 21

I'm at Sharp Creek National Forest campground, about 20 miles east of Payson, AZ.  I got in yesterday afternoon, after an enjoyable drive up from Tucson, skirting Roosevelt for much of the way.  I've been in this part of the state several times before, but never taken this route.  Scenic, huh?

Roosevelt Lake

It's gorgeous up here: sunny, breezy, warm days, cool nights.

It's late spring/early summer, and things are neat even on a small scale:

Yesterday was not without its drama.  I pulled in and was getting set up, and I noticed that the outside R rear tire looked soft.  Soft, hell!  It was flat. The other tire only thing keeping the rim  from hitting the ground. You know how when you press on the little pin inside a tire valve it goes “pssst” and lets some air out?  No “psssst.”  No air. 

I said some bad words.  I get out the compressor, start up the generator, and air it up so it goes pssst. OK, I can get air in it.  Then I settle in and in 15 minutes get it up to about 70; half an hour later it was down to 20 and looking very very sad.  So was I.

I got out the jack, chocked the wheels, and took the jack up to the point where it was **just** taking some weight.  If this thing was gonna go flat again, I didn’t want the other tire to get any more stressed.  

I spent some time on the phone this morning, and my new best friend Steve showed up.  Here's what the problem was:

The tube thing is a valve stem extender, part of the setup for the "duallys" on the Beast's rear axle. It had gotten damaged when the new tires were put on the vehicle a couple of weeks ago.  Words will be had with the installer!  

We'll see how much of that my AAA Super Duper RV+ will cover!  I was pretty frazzled last night and this morning, and the rest of the day has been mellow.  On the road tomorrow... headed for Gallup NM. 

Journey Proud!

That was my grandmother's expression when she couldn't sleep the night before she travelled.  This is a new record: wide awake at 0130.  Somewhat confusingly, I can usually get back to sleep for a while if I have a cup of good strong coffee.  I really don't think it makes sense to get on the road just yet!

(Edited later:  I did get a good long "nap" and got up again at something like 0430.  In case you were concerned ...) 

While I'm gone ... 

The roses have begun their yearly journeys. I sure hope the automatic watering system keeps them going when I'm gone!  But, as I'll show you when I get on the road, I'll have a couple of plants with me as I travel.  House plants, and I haven't rigged up watering systems for them.  So the dog stays with a neighbor, and a couple of plants get to go along for the ride. They don't shed, whimper, or tremble, so they're good company. The dog will be happy and pampered with my neighbor across the street, who has become her Other Daddy.

Almost time to get out Willie Nelson ...

On the road Wednesday (May 4)

White Sands National Monument

Things are getting organized and packed up for the next trip: I've pretty much described the route before. Look back to my April 5 post to get the basic outline. First stop is Willow Springs Lake, a pretty NFS campsite, for a couple of days, to decompress and get into Road Rhythm. This route is a combination of places I've been before and new spots.  I'll be doing some tourism later in the trip, visiting Trinity Site and the White Sands missile museum in southern New Mexico.  And a few days with my friends Doug and Dotty in White Rock will be a joy, as always.

I've driven through White Sands before.  It's a little creepy... they still test missiles there.  A few days after I'll be driving through, they'll close the road so they can do things.  You know ... things.  I think the visit to Trinity Site a few days earlier will help me remember what it's all about.

Lots of maintenance work on the Beast the last week or so: when I get back from this trip in late May, the high temps here in Tucson will be getting brutal, so I'd like to get as much regular maintenance done as I can while it's still pleasant hereabouts.

I'll try for regular posts while I'm on the road.