Last post,
6_bleen_7 pointed out the cactus baby on Estée Fodder's nose. This morning I woke up thinking
She was eating poke salad. The same line twenty hours earlier would have been HI-larious.
Our neighbor was out as we walked by with our two dogs.* He has been doing a lot of work during the day and leaving at night. He explained tonight that he plans to move in here, so he's been constructing a living area attached to his storage building.
Fernand is a refugee from Congo. His wife died in the war, and his children are in Gabon. We asked if they will come here -
maybe someday.
His English is halting, but my French throws itself onto the ground and must be dragged. He tells us that someone (People for Action?) helped him set up his landscaping business here. He likes having us here; until we came along he felt alone out here.
You are two - you talk. I am just one.† He shrugs.
What bothers him most is having no lights. He doesn't yet have a solar set-up. We're thinking some solar lights might be a useful housewarming gift. Do you have other ideas?
*Whitey held onto his Will Woof For Food gig here, and brought his brown friend with him today.
†We think Fernand should keep feeding them after we leave so he has doggie company and night-woofers.
It was fun meeting
Sue and Steve for brunch! For the past year I've had to settle for laughing at Sue's puns via Facebook. It's said that puns are the lowest form of humor...unless they're
your puns. Between her and
Nina, we're pretty psyched about New Mexico.
When Nina was here, she brought her
Arizona Benchmark Atlas along to show us. We were impressed enough to buy it and the
New Mexico version, too. These are great for finding public and other lands open for camping. For example, they show that Tucson has very little BLM land, but huge stretches of
State Trust land that can be accessed for a $15/year permit.
Check out
all the states available.
Don't expect these to replace
Marianne's Frugal Shunpiker's Guides - there's nothing like a firsthand report - but these will tell you at a glance where to be looking for what kind of camping. And, since they're actual atlases, you won't be flipping back and forth between maps.
For more boondocking ideas, check out our
Boondocking Resources page.
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