Geocaching and other moving-around in Catron County -- (Datil, New Mexico)

I remembered an old hobby and got excited! GPS! Outdoors! Finding stuff! First stop: Datil Well campground, where I found a new friend (Kathryn) and nothing else. We chatted for about three hours while we stood around, so when it was time to get in my car, I forgot how to bend my knees.

This is the Baldwin Cabin Public Library. I've seen many a cute library, but it would be a challenge to find one cuter. [Oh Mom, I'm NOT CUTE.] In addition to being cute, it stocks an impressive collection of books and DVDs. 

You can even blow the stink off outside.

After a brisk morning and afternoon of moving around, Betty frog-marched me on a hike to see some stupid awesome thing. You need to click on the picture. Click it. Do I ask so much? 

CLICK IT

Finally, Betty sat down to let me rest.

Today I accomplished a long-standing goal of curtains. A flicker pecked on every window to protest impeded views.

I also hung up some little solar/USB LED lights around the inside of the cabin. It's a little early for Christmas, but it's never too early for pretty.

Illegal activity on the border - Tucson, Arizona boondocking

I was in the mood for geocaching, and the directions made the road sound ... meh... so I took the Tracker out.

THIS is how you spend your lawless card?

You know that sometimes, finding the actual geocache site is the least exciting part of the trip.

Forward? That's a negative. Reverse? Still no. 

 Later, Annie said "one wheel what?" I was going to call  her for a refresher on putting it into 4WD, but I had no signal. That made figuring it out myself the very best of one option.

All the rest of the challenges kept things four-down, but I did need to get out to assess my strategies a few times.

Palo verde trees are full of bees lately.

Jake is full of wags lately. This is him obeying a JAKECOME!

He seems to have no separation anxiety at all, despite the shelter's records. YAY! He just doesn't want to be left alone outside. So, today we could enjoy one of our favorite dog-unfriendly restaurants (Govinda's) for our anniversary.

Sonoran Squash? Palo gourd-o?

This is on a dirty road we walk. Some sort of a benchmark? The concrete seems too stable, round, and regular to be fill. Ideas?

We met Dixie and Will (who don't blog yet), an energetic newly-retired couple who grabbed their RV in March and high-tailed it to Tucson. Dixie has a keen interest in boondocking, and is interested in solutions for impassable roads. Dixie, this is what one landowner here does.

If you're going to park here for long, you need to pre-think your response to requests for help. A traveler may need water, food, money, and/or transportation. It will also help to know more Spanish than no hablo Español and lo siento, even though those phrases will get a "no" across, if that's what you want. So will "no."

It's important to be able to say THAT'S NOT PHOENIX, because no one wants that kind of mislead on their conscience.

Inform yourself on the legalities of aiding a person who may be in the US without documentation. Friends in the know tell me that giving water is always legal. If you choose to give food, you're on shakier ground. Some people put it on the ground and walk away from it; if someone takes your food while you're not looking, well, there's not much you can do about that. Items that you might have stolen are things like Vienna sausages, soft granola bars, fruit cups, soft fruit, or things that can be eaten by a partially-dehydrated person.

[NOTE: Tucson Samaritans' website says "It is NEVER ILLEGAL to provide water, food, or medical assistance to another human being in distress."]

Transportation to anywhere (including a hospital) may land you in jail. If you encounter someone who is in medical distress, you can call 911. If you choose to drive them to help, understand the possible consequences.

Maybe you'll be asked if you are la migra. Or, you may be asked to call migras, if the person wants to go home.  

Please read this excerpt from The Devil's Highway: a true story.

Some of our friends are fearful for us, knowing that we are parked where there is foot traffic. All I can say is that "illegal activities" are not all created equal. Having met a traveler hasn't changed my mind about this.

I dig that not everyone feels the same about this stuff. You dig that I won't argue with you about it.

Things to do while boondocking in a National Forest. And RSS feeds. And our cameras.

 You've been very gracious and flattering about my photos. My camera is an unassuming Pentax Optio RX18. I have no knowledge about real photography, and so I'm glad to have a camera that knows stuff for me.

Reading Cherry's tutorial on template tweaking, I realized that my feed settings need to be on "full" to enable threaded replies. We'll see how that worked.

Which raised another question: how do you like to get your feeds?

I switched my setting to "short" a while back, for a couple of reasons. But, Camille makes a great point about full feeds. Reading blogs at work! How could I have become so quickly out-of-touch with work life?!? Not everyone has the luxury of filling their computer histories with RV travel blogs. Although, it looks better than ShirkingForDummies.biz. And other possibilities, not that I've ever been to those sites.

If you get this blog by feed (email or reader), please come over and state your preference. Do you just like to be reminded by email or reader, or do you read the whole thing there? Or, do you read the whole thing? [eyebrow raised] Bloggers, how do you feed, and why?


When we go to a new place, I like to explore by volunteering for Find-a-Grave. I just change the zip code in my settings. The Pioneer Cemetery inside the Park reminded me.

We geocache. It's fun to see what might be hidden within walking distance of our campsite. Often, lately, I don't use a GPS; I study the landscape by Google Maps and then use my geosense.

I'm especially fond of benchmarks, of which the South Rim has several.

Several days ago I messed up my jaw in a situation involving an avocado pit (don't ask - I'd tell you, and then we'd both be embarrassed). Can you suggest some self-help?

At the top of that mesa lies a big, big man.

I set out to find the Bouse fisherman, and, by golly I succeeded.

snagged from forum.treasurenet.com.  This is how he looks from the air.

For Bob. It's not dramatic like the ones in Blythe.

He looks like this from my camera.  He's really more of an aerial guy.

I was plenty wowwed, though, him being anywhere from a few hundred years old to a few thousand.  Kamastamo is his name, creation is his game.  He is an intaglio (in TAL yo), or a geoglyph if you prefer.  Don't take my word for stuff, here's a sign:

While I was in the middle of I Don't Know Where I Am,  I looked for a geocache.  Do you do this?  It's good, clean fun that I recommend.  I'm "chillyrodent" in those parts.  Don't ask for a Duck;  you won't find me.  And, I didn't find the cache here.

I saw and heard this bird:

Cactus wren?

It's a gate

So I can find The World's Tiniest Cactus again.

"The teddy bear cholla is extremely flammable." ~ Wikipedia

  

I found two of the four geocaches I tried today.  That's 100%!

If you're on the road, what are your hobbies?  If you're beside the road, what do you do?

Sightseeing, if you happen to like that sort of thing.

“Don’t write because you want to say something, write because you have something to say.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Mr. Fitzgerald -- I believe that is how he spells his name -- seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home." - Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald





I went out alone to see some sights, and some sites. Here's some stuff:

Falling Creek Church, Lake City, Florida

Originally, separate doors for men and women

Words and facts

In the pulpit - how cheeky!

"Studies" have shown that criminal mischief declines when a cardboard cut-out of a policeman is visible.  This church is open to visitors without a guide, and the urge to be naughty must arise from time to time.    The eyes on this thing follow you around the room, whispering Thou Shalt Not ... carve your initials into the wall ... throw your beer bottle through a window ... drop a poop on the pew ... Another historic building just a few yards down the road was arsonized, and I don't blame this congregation for being nervous when they have to leave their doors unlocked.

Test, but you can read it if you want to. There is actual content, and a picture.

Benchmarking is a natural companion to geocaching. Benchmarks thrill me a little more than geocaches, because these markers were never intended for a general audience, and so are not always in perfect hiding places. This one is an exception; it's located in Jacksonville Beach, ON Jacksonville Beach. The point is that the markers weren't put there for anyone's amusement, so they feel like a discovery for real. They're sometimes on people's lawns, for example. I followed the clues for a rural benchmark in New York and ended up peering through someone's mown grass to get a better look. I knocked on the door and asked permission to get closer, and the elderly man said 'yes,' but warned me that the government wouldn't like me taking a picture of it, since it was part of a covert operation. It sounds funny, but that benchmark was mounted in a raised concrete monument about five inches high in the middle of his yard, and that man had been trimming around it for 60 years. I'd start to invent reasons why I had had to do that 720 times, wouldn't you?

I'm trying a new way of emailing pictures to Blogger. We'll eventually be back in conservation mode.

ETA: This time I could send a picture, but no words. Words, no pictures. Pictures, no words. When will there ever be a tasty casserole of both?

Moochdocking™

I feel more comfortable now that I know what this is called.  First vocabulary, then understanding.

Do you geocache?  I'm "chillyrodent" and Annie is "toxicpickle."  It's a great hobby for sit-stillians and move-aroundites;  you can do it wherever you are in the world or in life.  We both have GPSs, but Annie also has an app that we use on her phone, so buying extra equipment isn't necessary.

Overheard At Our House:
It's in the low 90's ...  I know, but you get used to it.  And, it's true.  Annie is so sensitive to temperature extremes but she is adjusting fast.  [You guys are jerks - you have a pool.]  I don't think the pool is relevant.

We're hoping (hope!hope!) to get an appointment to visit Caboodle Ranch soon.  We have loved this place, and Craig, from afar, and now we want to love them up close.  We're not going to give him any cats (don't think we never considered it).  He could use small (and large) donations more than he could use more cats, but he never turns any of either away.  Consider a $$ donation of any size to this endeavor.

Civilized company.

We forsook forestianity to bring our laptops into town.  We're sitting in the roundabout in Old Ellijay, Georgia, traffic zipping all around us and shop owners wondering just when loitering begins.  We're within sniffing distance of a geocache, but our sniffers are broken and we may leave town defeated.  Again.  I'm going to go check out a utility box and a lamp post, but then I'm stumped.

Annie is not sleeping well because the forest is dark at night.  Except when it's lit up by truck headlights and men with flashlights.  It was just some guy stopping by to sign up for the varsity hunt team at 5 a.m., and he seemed annoyed to be challenged in the performance of such an American activity.  I guess it's still turkey season; we watched a tom wearing safety orange and signaling his intent to go that way that way that way that way, and I was already on his side.  Go in peace, big, tasty bird.  Watch out for the cranky man who has to get up early to catch his own sandwich.

I waited three days and three nights to go to Jumping Mouse Beads.  Our marriage got rocky.  Harsh words were spoken, aspersions were cast, intentions were impugned.  But, what matters is that I got there.

ETA:  Annie just yelled at me really loud because it sounded like I said we were fighting.  We weren't fighting, okay?

Do you guys wonder how nomads get rid of garbage?  Here's a clue:  it looks sneaky.

Our refrigerator stopped working on propane.  Annie read the manual (?) and decided the burner was probably dirty.  We went looking for a shop vac and pipe cleaners. [If you find them in the craft section, they are "fuzzy sticks."]  Within 15 minutes she had that puppy chilling.  Plus, we enjoyed a Quorn cutlets/salmon/edamame/turk'y/corn casserole.

I haven't been visiting your blog, but I still love you.  There's no one else.  It's not you, it's me.  I've been tired lately.