Fairbank Arizona, Whitewater Draw, and more birds. Always more birds.

On the way to Whitewater Draw, I stopped in Fairbank, AZ. It's a ghost town that has been stabilized and maintained by the BLM. I didn't stay long enough to hike any of the trails, so this is all you get.

Tin roof! RUSTED!

Lavender Pit Mine, closed when lavender mining became unprofitable. 

Road-non-runner. I think his name is Fresno.

Lee Road:

Back to Whitewater Draw.

Nan had a hard time picturing how a campground could be the way I described it yesterday, so here's a real picture instead of the one in your head.

Nobody move - I dropped my contact.

I KNOW what you're thinking, and I did NOT go into the owl roost area. On purpose.

Disapproving Owl

Why I oughta ...

This Great Horned owl was perched under the shelter, and not in the roosting area. He's no rooster.

"Thank you" to the birder with an excellent scope who showed me where to find him.

Not owl tracks

Tonight it's so windy ... [how windy is it?]

• an owl laid the same egg three times
• tumbleweeds are staying indoors for their own safety
• air traffic won't clear any cranes for landing

Monticello, New Mexico

Good evening, and welcome to What Bird Is It Anyway? a game where everything's made up, and the points don't matter. Like an evening gown in Truth or Consequences.

Hi Percy. Thanks for being here tonight.

My pleasure.

So, you're a really big pigeon.

NO! I'm a hawk. Look:

Well, that is rather impressive. But, you don't really have a hawk beak. It's sort of pigeony...

I'm sorry - I was rude. Please don't pout. Tell us more about hawk life!

 Really? Don't patronize me. You think I'm a pigeon. I am ... HEY! MY EYES ARE UP HERE!

I'm sorry! Truly! It's just that ... it's, um ... your feet. They're very fluffy.

STOP THE CAMERAS. Okay, interview over. Out. Out, out, out, out. OUT! 

No, I mean your fierce talons are elegantly adorned!

Get out.

Monticello was calling me, collect, so I thought it would be cheaper to just go there.

I didn't take many shots of the town because it's all private residence. I passed a crop of lavender in bloom, and while my mouth was agape at that, I turned to see bunches of nearly-ripe black wine grapes hanging on the vine.

I was still taking that in when I saw a rose bush full of scarlet blooms, old-fashioned size. I don't mean they were the size of a drink glass. They were small roses.

Loaded fig trees peeked out from over the top of an adobe wall. Not that kind of loaded. 

National Forest Service road

I met a fellow here who told me his great-great-great-great grandfather came here from Monticello, NY. I had to admit I didn't know where that was (I do now). That's how the town got its name. 

 This stopped being a school around 1961, he said, and burned around 1966.

I would love to spend a little time in this town. That would be challenging, though, since there are no businesses and no lodging. 

I saw a sign that pointed to a campground 17 miles away, but then you've still got to drive in to be in town, and then you're back where I was today. The only person driving on the road, sticking out like a hitchhiking thumb. Sticking out like a five-year-old's tongue. Sticking out like a tourist in a Prius with New York State plates.

What I saw was charming, and I think you oughta go stick out there, too.

It was there when I left, I swear it, baby!

Reading this is better than a poke in the eye.

We did flea across Florida as we threatened to do.  Between the three of us, we spent $2.75.  Prices were high, like you expect from a flea market, although some people were also running yard sales.  The ride itself was fun.  Remember how your parents used to say "Let's go for a ride!" and they might as well have been running your bath water?  Now we are them.

The Not-Pretentious Real Estate Professionals of Live Oak.

I needed a BP station.

Annie said "Like Tina Turner in concert!"

~~~~~
Lulu, Florida, some other day -

To the advertisers of "ghost towns":  If you tear down the old buildings, it's now called an empty place.

Okay, better than nothing.

Only two apparent graves, both from the 21st century.  

To blunt the keen edge of my disappointment, Annie suggested a picnic.  Yay!

Something-something-something-don't do it-blahblahblah.  Okay, we're good!

Deer.

Bare.

... and then I said, "I don't have to run faster than the bear ... "

That's what we weren't supposed to do?  More disappointment.