Living on dreams isn't easy.

After a couple days camped by the American Legion Post 853 in Borrego Springs we returned to the Earth Module after a hike. Parked close to our home was a peculiar green truck. Soon Ray emerged from the ex forest service maintenance truck and explained that he needed to move through where we were just about to park. Ray's plan was to back into the tamarisk trees and set up camp. The sheer volume of stuff in the truck was amazing. The passenger side of the front seat was stacked as high as the window with paraphernalia. Under the drivers seat were two fifteen pound exercise weights. Across the front of the truck was strung a long sack full of water bottles. The truck had a special rack built on top for camping in grizzly bear country. Ray explained how when he slept there the bears head and shoulders were just about the height of his floor. Bear company made him nervous, but the rangers had supplied him with pepper spray that could shoot forty feet.
Ray gave Kadizzle some pointers on dealing with grizzlies. “Don't look them in the eye” Ray warned, “ It makes them think you are aggressive”. Most grizzles would be looking at the other end of Kadizzle as he ran and would only see one cyclops eye where the grizzly had chewed the back out of Kadizzle's trousers.
After getting to know Ray better Kadizzle found out about his bike project he has been working on for thirty years. Ray is developing a bike that is very energy efficient for the rider and has several unique systems to make sure no effort is wasted. From Kadizzles limited engineering knowledge Ray seemed to have some interesting ideas.
Greeting Ray in the morning he appeared to be grinding coffee with a small old fashioned coffee grinder, but it turned out he was grinding wheat to make crackers. Ray said sometimes he goes days without eating.
While we spent a wonderful morning hiking up Alcoholic's Pass Ray was in the back of his truck fighting mold. Ray explained to Kadizzle that he had tried everything to remove the mold. According to Ray brake fluid worked best. He had tried some acetone. A spark at the right time would have destroyed our little camping neighborhood.
Somehow Ray is getting by on $500 a month and still manages to buy old used tents to give to people worse off than himself. Towards the end of a long day of scrubbing the interior of the topper on the back of his truck Ray stopped to chat as he went to wash the paint brush he said he has been using for thirty years.
Kadizzle has been clueless his whole life about the American Legion, but after staying here for a week you kinda get the hang of it. The poor guys who got chewed up by our war machine have somewhere to go and be left alone. The main rule seems to be live and let live. Kadizzle is not a vet and is only staying here by the grace of Roger who served our country in the Air Force. Ray when asked said he was in the Army. Ray asked Kadizzle what service he was in and Kadizzle gave him the answer he had prepared since he figured this might come up. Kadizzle was in the “Secret Service'. In fact it was so secret even Kadizzle is not sure if he was in it. So far Kadizzle has not been thrown out.