Pinto Creek (Click on picture right away to see entire picture)

Many of the faint hearted would never have made it over the road leading to Pinto creek.  In a couple places the gravel road was washed away to the point only the width of the trucks wheels would fit as we crossed a swail on the top of a steep precipice.  After finally reaching the creek, we tried to decipher the instructions to find the box canyon we were looking for.   The directions implied you would go up the creek.  We were "up the creek" as they say, it was the wrong direction.  As we made our way back to the truck we saw another vehicle coming into our parking spot.  With great clamor The Commander got the gentleman to stop so she could ply him for knowledge of the creek.  The young guy had his two sons with him, and he also intended to hike the creek.  Luckily, he brought the computer print out with the hiking instructions.  One key thing in the instructions gave away the direction.  The instructions said the hike had a net loss of 75 feet in elevation.  That meant we had to go down stream.

Pinto Creek was on The Commander's bucket list so off we went down the creek.  Since the instructions said there was no real trail Kadizzle figured the hell with it and just started getting his feet wet walking down the creek.  Later on the way back we found a better trail that would have kept us out of the water half of the way of the down the creek.  It turned out to be a perfect day for the hike.  As we went down stream, the canyon got more narrow and the rocks in the stream kept increasing until they reached the size of small houses.  You could see that as the water sped up during floods nothing but big boulders could remain in place.

When we finally got to the narrowest part of the canyon with steep, high walls, the huge boulders just about made it impossible to go on.  There were many wonderful pools of water that would make great pictures for a great photographer with a great camera. We lacked several of the required elements.

The Commander came across the most elegant pool of water and suggested Kadizzle jump in.  The water indeed did look wonderful, but it was deceptive.  The water in the pool had a chance to settle out the cold molecules and the pool was much colder than the stream had been.  Very shortly Kadizzle realized the family jewels were in peril if he stay in very long.  As Kadizzle jumped in, he realized he could see no way to get out.  The sides were all steep.  Fortunately around the bend where The Commander was waiting to take a picture, there was a natural way out.  Kadizzle was baptized in cold, clear water,

and his sins were washed away with freezing water. 

Prester John and Magellen

Kadizzled rarely has the patience to read an entire book, but he got involved in the history of Magellan's voyage around the globe and read about half the book yesterday.  Like today the people of Magellan's time could be sold just about any bullshit story.  How the world actually worked and was laid out, and how the world was perceived were two entirely different things. 

Until reading about Magellan Kadizzle had never heard of Prester John, but in Magellan's day people believed in Prester John much like people believe in Jesus today.  Apparently embellish lying had a way of becoming truth in the old days even as it does on some news stations today.  Marco Polo claimed to have met Prestor John.   Next is an excerpt from Wikipedia about Prester John in case you want to know more:  You can skip the details if you please and go on.

The legends of Prester John (also Presbyter Johannes) were popular in Europe from the 12th through the 17th centuries, and told of a Christian patriarch and king said to rule over a Christian nation lost amidst the Muslims and pagans in the Orient. Written accounts of this kingdom are variegated collections of medieval popular fantasy. Prester John was reportedly a descendant of one of the Three Magi, said to be a generous ruler and a virtuous man, presiding over a realm full of riches and strange creatures, in which the Patriarch of the Saint Thomas Christians resided. His kingdom contained such marvels as the Gates of Alexander and the Fountain of Youth, and even bordered the Earthly Paradise. Among his treasures was a mirror through which every province could be seen, the fabled original from which the "speculum literature" of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance was derived, in which the prince's realms were surveyed and his duties laid out.^[1]
At first, Prester John was imagined to reside in India; tales of the Nestorian Christians' evangelistic success there and of Thomas the Apostle's subcontinental travels as documented in works like the Acts of Thomas probably provided the first seeds of the legend. After the coming of the Mongols to the Western world, accounts placed the king in Central Asia, and eventually Portuguese explorers convinced themselves that they had found him in Ethiopia, which had been officially Christian since the 4th century. Prester John's kingdom was thus the object of a quest, firing the imaginations of generations of adventurers, but remaining out of reach. He was a symbol to European Christians of the Church's universality, transcending culture and geography to encompass all humanity, in a time when ethnic and inter-religious tension made such a vision seem distant.

The lesson in this whole exercise is how readily people can be mislead.  Magellan's attempt to circle the globe was made infinity more difficult because myth interfered so much with reality in his time.  The amazing thing is how little has changed today.  Progress is stifled by peoples willingness to believe nonsensical lies widely held.

News from our Planet

Finally got some good pictures of Gary Vigneau our local camp scholar.  The worst curse of life in a campground is the wretched generator.  With a long weekend the blue collar crowd with construction generators has showed up.  Honda makes a nice quiet generator, but lured by the cheapness many people buy noisy generators that disturb the entire universe.  Poor Gary got surrounded by the generator gang.  Hard to understand why anyone's idea of camping would be to go to a nice quiet place and listen to a pathetic engine run.  The Kadizzles are not without sin.  This year we have upgraded to solar power, but we need more battery storage.  However, we are working toward the silence of sunshine.

The hike scheduled for yesterday never took place.  Somehow the day dribbled away.  One encounter did pay off.  In order to charge the computer Kadizzle had to read a book by the rest room which had a power outlet.  During the charging session Kadizzle struck up a conversation with a man who had grown up as a rancher in the area.  Naturally these people are a wealth of information about what is where.   The gentleman gave The Commander some great leads on Indian sites later in the day. After some conversation about the various Indian sites in the area it was discovered this man was a cousin of the Ellesons.  The Ellesons Ranch is at the head of Cherry Creek and the Kadizzles had happened on them a year or two ago with Ruth and Rodger.  They were an old couple who each had a six shooter stuffed in their pants.  At that time the Ellesons gave us good instructions to some of the incredible Indian sites in Devil's Chasm.

Today the plan is to make it to Pinto Creek.

Pinto Creek hike? or wading?

A day like this will not happen in North Dakota for at least three months.  The sun is up warm and shinning.  Open the door and walk into what would be a summer morning in North Dakota.  Today The Commander is planning an assault on Pinto Creek.  Yesterday The Commander set out on her own to find an Indian ruin.  Her attempt failed and she blamed Kadizzle when she got cliffed on the way back.  Kadizzle apparently failed to have the proper maps on The Commander's GPS

We took Gary to the big shopping center of Pumpkin Center yesterday.  Gary is temporarily broke so he was going to sit in the truck while the Kadizzles shopped.  After some prodding Kadizzle got Gary to take twenty dollars and shop.  Gary insisted he get our address to send the money back to us.  Gary bought the essentials in life,  a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, some cigarettes, and a couple bags of ice.  With just six teeth Gary is limited in his food choices.

Later in the day when Kadizzle returned on his cycle from hauling The Commander into the mountains he noticed Gary in the front of his truck doing something.  Shortly Gary came over to our site.  Gary said he wanted to give us some of the treasures from his dashboard museum.  Gary said it would give us a start on our own museum.  So now we have a trilobite,  some amber,  magnetite,  a sharks tooth,  several shells,  petrified wood,  and some gem from Australia.  This was Gary's way of thanking us for the grub stake we had provided until the Social Security check gets here.   Our plan is to donate our mini museum to our gran daughter Sylvie who is looking forward to her special birthday present.  She will love the trilobite.

Waiting for The Commander to return from her hike Gary and Kadizzle sat in the shade, drank a beer, and Kadizzle sneaked a Swisher Sweet.   Discussing the universe and philosophy Kadizzle was frightened when he realized how much he and Gary agreed on the state of the universe.

Well The Commander is fueling herself with cereal and studying a map.  This can lead to nothing good.  In few moments The Commander will jump up crack the whip and declare all sorts of things have to be done in preparation for our assault on Pinto Creek.   If Kadizzle's research is correct the hike will involve a lot of wading in the creek.   Hope the creek is warm.   So here we go, light the fuse and the day will start.

Into the wilderness with The Commander

On yesterday's hike we stopped for lunch before starting the walking portion of the trip.   Up over the mountain in the background was our goal.  Once there we could see clear to the fountain at Fountain Hill's. It must have been a distance of at least 20 miles.   Every hour the fountain at Fountain hills shoots a stream of water hundreds of feet in the air.   The fountain provides both a landmark, and a clock.

The scolar in the tent.

Every day we get to know the Gary Kadizzle has been writing about a little better.  Gary is turning out to be a remarkable scholar that never graduated from high school.   Gary has written 11 volumes of information he has garnered from years of reading.  Volume one is on " Thought".  Gary brought it over to show us.  Gary has carefully cataloged the thinking of every major scholar in a very well thought out compendium.  What first blows you out of your chair is when you open the volume and see that it is all hand written.   Gary got a calligraphy set from his brother at age ten.  Gary taught himself wonderful hand writing that is amazing.  His ability to write in such wonderful script is amazing.  He is like an ancient monk.

Gary had a master index of all the books he has read, which includes of every bible of every religion.  The Commander was very impressed.  Kadizzle asked Gary what his politics were and Gary replied " I am a rational anarchist".   This is like my friend Ray who says he is a orthodox atheist.

Gary is living on the edge and enjoying every moment.  From what Kadizzle can garner Gary lives from one social security check to the next.  Living out of a tent his only way to cool food is with ice and coolers.  This is a difficult proposition to accomplish while spending weeks in the desert.  Today Kadizzle offered to take Gary to town.  One minor problem is that Sammy has to go.  Sammy is the loyal dog of Gary.  Sammy and Gary seem to be able to talk to each other.  Like Gary, Sammy gets lonely for dog company.   Another man was walking a couple of dogs and Sammy just had to meet them.  Gary told Sammy no.  After Sammy whined in dog language Gary asked the man if Sammy could visit.  The man agreed and Sammy rushed to meet the other dogs for some butt sniffing and a little game of chase each other.   Sammy has her own bed roll.  Gary said Sammy reads with him and then when he is ready to go to be he tells Sammy to get in her own bed.

So today the Kadizzles, Gary, and Sammy will be heading to the big city of Pumpkin Center.   Yesterday Kadizzle learned Pumpkin Center was once the proposed capital of Arizona. 

Adventure Part II

The Kadizzles had a great hike.  Getting to the trail head meant driving in the truck as far as we could, then making some motorcycle parlays.  After all that there was the hike.  The road was so steep in places The Commander had to dismount the dirt bike and walk.  Finally the road got so bad even one  person could not make it on the cycle. 

Our hike was along part of the Arizona Trail.  At various times we have hiked various segments of the trail around Lake Roosevelt.  The remarkable thing about the trail segment we took was that we went from excellent views overlooking Lake Roosevelt to good views overlooking Apache Lake.  It is hard to believe how you can leave major metropolitan areas in Phoenix and be in such wild isolated country in a very short time.  The Native people had more land than is immediately apparent to work with.  Often you get into an area and wonder how people managed to find enough game.  Once you do more exploring you find there is far more game habitat than is first apparent. 

More than likely we will repeat the procedure later in the week. Kadizzle will scout out an adventure on the motorcycle and then we will do our map research.  The final phase is to actually do the hike.

Things are never what at first they appear to be.

The mind is deceptive and can very quickly lead the wrong direction.  Today as Kadizzle went to the office to fire the cannon Gary's dog started barking.  The dog wanted some attention so Kadizzle stopped to give her some affection.  Gary came out of the tent where he was eating his breakfast out of a frying pan.  Eggs, and a hot dog were the fuel that was going to start Gary's day.  On Gary's table were two books, one fiction, and one history.  The history book was by a woman who had done great interviews with some of the most important people in recent history.  Gary does not give the impression of someone well read, and perhaps very knowledgeable.  Gary is an enigma.  Here is a man that appears destitute, and on the edge, but Gary seems about as content and happy as anyone you might find.  What impressed Kadizzle the most in his conversation with Gary was his statement that he always read two books at once, one book of fiction, and one factual book.  Too many people read nothing but fiction, and have a very limited view of reality. 

Today's Adventur Part I

Yesterday afternoon old Kadizzle took off into the wilderness South of Lake Roosevelt on his nut buster motorcycle.  Kadizzle found a road that lead up into the mountains past the Two Bar ranch.  Obstacles for motorcycles were plentiful.  Soon Kadizzle almost reached the top, but was stopped by ball bearing rocks on a steep grade.  The area did look like it would please The Commander for some remote hiking.  The Arizona trail snakes through the area somewhere. 

So today the goal is to put The Commander on the back of the cycle and see if we can get to the Arizona Trail where is snakes along the ridge up there.  If we succeed we will be deep in unexplored Indian territory.  In order to get up there it will be necessary to choose when to let The Commander ride, and when to have her walk.  Unfortunately the walking will be mostly on the steep parts where the little Yamaha cannot take us both.  Although Kadizzle sympathizes with the Commanders plight he is glad he get to ride the whole distance.  If we make the error of riding two when we should be riding one there may be scratches on people and machinery.  Tune in for the rest of the story today or tomorrow.

Report from Planet Earth on a sunny day

Good news, The Commander loves the camping site Kadizzle picked out.  Can't blame her, we have a nice view of the lake and mountains.   The quite is a big bonus. No one ran a generator last night.  The sun is up, warm and filling the solar panel with free electricity.

At some point The Commander will have to see Gary's traveling museum on the dashboard of his truck. No singing has been emanating from his direction.  Kadizzle woke up in the middle of the night as usual with a round of weird dreams.  The interpretation is Kadizzle should try to be a good boy today.  Being a good boy is already a problem.  Kadizzle would like to go for a motorcycle exploration ride over in Peter Bigfoots mountain sanctuary area.  That would mean The Commander would have to entertain herself.  May not be a good idea.

The next snippet Kadizzle just picked up from Peter Bigfoot's site to give you some info and perhaps get you to visit his site.  Just by happenstance a friend of Kadizzle's daughter Megan was an intern with Bigfoot.  Two years ago the Kadizzle exploration crew inadvertently stumbled across the Bigfoot hideaway deep in the mountains south of Lake Roosevelt.

A recognized authority on Southwest plant life and desert survival, Peter Bigfoot is perhaps best known for his much-publicized July 1976 solo trek across the Sonoran Desert. He walked 85 miles in 15 days, and brought no food or water, relying strictly on what could be foraged along the way. Grueling heat, the constant threat of dehydration, and a bout with hepatitis were true tests of his wilderness survival wisdom.
This transformational experience inspired Bigfoot to found Reevis Mountain School of Self-Reliance, a magical wilderness homestead, farm, and sanctuary in the northeast corner of Arizona’s Superstition Wilderness, far from the distractions and pollution of modern life. Here, since 1980, thousands of students and visitors have experienced Bigfoot’s uniquely loving blend of botanical knowledge, survival skills, natural healing techniques, and spiritual awareness.
Today, Bigfoot spends most of his time working on the farm, teaching, writing, and producing a line of herbal remedies. He has the assistance of his wife, Patricia, and a changing group of interns who come here to experience Reevis and learn from Bigfoot's decades of wisdom.

The Bigfoot compound is like a movie set for life in the sixties.  A bunch of people trying to build their own nirvana unhampered by the world outside. 

The Report from Planet Earh

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If you have been following this blog and you read the last story you will recall Kadizzle was interupted by the sound of someone singing. As promised Kadizzle took off to investigate. This is the report. The voice was coming from the North East. As it turned out about 100 yards to the North East. As Kadizzle approached the old sixties vintage blue Ford and tent what appeared to be a vicious dog ran toward Kadizzle on a rope with what seemed like the intent to have Kadizzle for supper.

Kadizzle shouted out towards the tent and asked if it was safe to approach with the wild dog. Nothing happened, the singing just continued. The whole situation had the feel of mental illness about it. Someone in a tent singing in a very nice voice solo totally oblivious to the world. Judging from the attitude of the dog Kadizzle figured the owner might be just as mean and thought best to move on.

As Kadizzle wandered off Gary came out of the tent and Kadizzle asked if it was safe to approach the dog. Gary said it was the nicest dog in the world. Kadizzle told Gary he would offer the dog on the rope his leg, and if that did not turn out bad he would go from there. Well the dog did not bite the leg so Kadizzle patted the dog on the head. It turned out the dog was very friendly. Like the dog Kadizzle had misjudged Gary. Gary was as he himself said “eccentric”, but he was a nice fellow and certainly not mentally ill. Kadizzle complimented him on what a nice voice he had, and asked if he had done any professional singing. No, Gary said he just liked to sing. Then Gary explained he was in his tent with headphones on singing. That explained why he never answered when Kadizzle first approached.

It turned out Gary had recently retired and was touring the country with his dog. Gary's former profession was as a tent set up person. He worked for a company that had 30,000 chairs, and five thousand tables, plus for sure many tents. The tents were set up for events like races and whatever. Kadizzles first guess was he did it for circusus.

Gary had the appearance of a nice fellow, but a fellow with the teeth of an Eygptian mummy. Gary asked Kadizzle if he wanted to see his photo collection of his travels. Somehow Gary did not seem to be the digital type guy. When Gary went to his truck to get the photos Kadizzle suddenly notice this was no ordinary truck. As Gary explained it was a traveling museum. The dashboard was covered with every type of rock, mineral bird feather, fossil and found item on the planet. The dashboard museum had overflowed and the museum was growing on the floor by the gearshift.

After Kadizzle got some pictures of the truck we went through the photo album. Gary had some nice photos of wildlife, flowers, and barns in a thick three ring binder. Gary has decided to spend the rest of his life traveling in his truck and enjoying the country. As the sun goes down he is still over there filling the air with song.

Good health is so easily attainable, go to the grocery store.

Today the big move from Roper Lake to Roosevelt Lake occurred.  The Commander begged to short circuit the trip by stopping in the Gallurus Mountains.  Not sure how you spell that.  Next we considered staying at an Apache Casino.  The Commander figured we could leave the camper and drive back to check out the mountains.  That idea fizzled and we headed on to Globe to resupply.

Kadizzle has little patience to spend and hour looking at vegetables, no matter how much The Commander insist he stick by her side.  To keep entertained Kadizzle searched for free samples and wanders the isles.  Today's store had a magic computer machine where you could sit in a chair and get your blood pressure and weight.  After great news on the blood pressure Kadizzle decided to try the weight function.  Good news Kadizzle exceeded his goal of losing fifty pounds.   As good as this news was Kadizzle knew it was wrong and decided to go back and have another try.  This time the news was even better the magic machine indicated Kadizzle had lost another five pounds on the short 500ft walk he just took.  To see Kadizzle at 172 lbs you would have to go back to 1972.   Realizing the weight was so far off Kadizzle suspects the blood pressure was functioning in some erroneous way also.

The strange thing about this computerized lying machine was that it was strategically placed for people to use while they waited in line to get their prescription filled.  Imagine a customer waiting to get medicine and finding out that the pharmacy computer said they are in better shape than they have been in 35 years.  

After a long stay at the supermarket we drove on to Lake Roosevelt.  After checking out the Schoolhouse camping area we decided on the Windy Hill site.  The Commander was put off at the School House camping area by reports of stealing.  An unusual couple staying there in a tent since December said there had been some attempts to steal a generator, and thieves had taken one of their knives.  The little blonde disabled lady was friendly and gave us some good tips about getting water. However, she did seem like one half of an odd couple.  She said they were forced from Colorado when it turned out someone was manufacturing crack in their apartment complex.  Her story about thieves stealing her knife seemed strange.  Who would drive for miles to steal a kitchen knife.  The Commander says a thief expects something for their effort.

Now we are settled in with thoughts of robbery floating through The Commanders head.  We have the alarm lock on the solar panel, and another alarm on the generator.   Kadizzle needs to modify his
"mother of all alarm system" to scare the bad guys away.  Kadizzle cannot decide if he should use a fishing line trip wire set up, or a pressure switch.  

As Kadizzle sits here by the lake a singing voice is drifting this way.   The blonde lady said there was a crazy, ornery old camp host here that is 83.  If that is him singing he seems to have a nice voice and sounds like some old preacher.  Kadizzle is going to have to jump on the motorcycle and meet this old codger.  Stay tuned for a report later.

Land of Contentment

What if you did not have to got to work every day?  What if every day when you got up you could do what you want, and go where you want?  That is the plight of the typical person traveling around in an RV.  The net result is you rarely meet anyone but content people when you bed down in some campground in the middle of nowhere.  People are friendly, easy to meet, full of good advice, and willing to share.  Already this year the Kadizzles have made many new friends and hiked with old friends we have met traveling in the past.  Act like you are working on your truck or your camper and ten men will show up to help.  Someone always has the tool you need.

A special sub group of fellow travelers are the bird brains.  Kadizzle just came back from his morning visit to the main office where he fired the cannon.  On the way there he met a bird watcher.   In a bit of a challenge Kadizzle asked if the gentleman had ever seen the Elegant Trogan?   Sure enough he had.  The Elegant Trogan  lives in just one place in the United States, Patagonia State Park.  Purist go there just to see that bird.  The bird is a celebrity.  In the course of conversation the bird brain told me about the Peach Faced love bird.  Although Kadizzle has been in Usery Park many times Kadizzle did not know it was the home of the Peach Faced Love Bird.  Now that Kadizzle rethinks he did see a strange bird there that looked like a Parrot.  Apparently someone let a pair loose of the African Bird and now there are 5,000 of them in that area.

The Earth Module works North

The Kadizzles drove North and East of Safford through some of the rankest desert imaginable to reach the Gila River Riparian area.  In an area where the mountains had puked out their treasure of soil massive amounts of cotton was being grown on irrigated land.

Finally at the Gila things changed.  The deep canyon held more water than the desert let on.  In the canyons the vegetation was lush. As usual we set out to find some Indian ruins.  After poking around we went up Bonito Creek, but had no success.  The area has some wonderful camping spots and it was very tempting to pull the fifth wheel out there.  However, the roads were narrow and had some 19% grades.  You could not go out there unless someone went ahead and made sure no one came the other way.  Someday perhaps we will park as close as we can and take the motorcycle in.

Tomorrow the Earth Module heads out to Lake Roosevelt.  Each year we have explored one of the three major ruins on Cherry Creek near Lake Roosevelt.  This will be the year we do site number three.   Sometime when we can get together with Ruth and Rodger we will make the difficult hike in to the final site.  The motorcycle will ferry us on the first two miles which will be of great help.  So tomorrow we pull up the landing gear, resupply at Globe and head on to Lake Roosevelt.  If any of our fellow travelers want to meet us there and eventually make the great hike let us know.

 

Empty

"Empty" lyrics

RAY LAMONTAGNE LYRICS

Download "Empty" Ringtone to your Mobile

"Empty"

She lifts her skirt up to her knees
Walks through the garden rows with her bare feet, laughing
And I never learned to count my blessings
I choose instead to dwell in my disasters

Walk on down the hill
Through grass grown tall and brown
And still it's hard somehow to let go of my pain
On past the busted back
of that old and rusted Cadillac
That sinks into this field collecting rain

Will I always feel this way ‒
So empty, so estranged?

And of these cut-throat busted sunsets,
these cold and damp white mornings
I have grown weary
If through my cracked and dusted dime-store lips
I spoke these words out loud would no one hear me?
Lay your blouse across the chair,
Let fall the flowers from your hair
And kiss me with that country mouth so plain.
Outside the rain is tapping on the leaves
To me it sounds like they're applauding us,
The quiet love we've made.

Will I always feel this way
So empty, so estranged?

Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said "Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me."
There's a lot of things that can kill a man
There's a lot of ways to die
Yes, and some already dead that walk beside me
There's a lot of things I don't understand
Why so many people lie
Well, it's the hurt I hide that fuels the fires inside me

Will I always feel this way
So empty, so estranged?

Thanks to Brad Hendrickson, carolina for correcting these lyrics.

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Writer(s): Raycharles Jack Lamontagne
Copyright: Chrysalis Music, Sweet Mary Music

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It Seemed LIke A Good Idea at The Time

A little trash in the desert has a big impact.  A fallen down shack with some junk cars and falling down fences has a special ability to ruin a scene in the desert.  Someone once had a brilliant idea to make a homestead in the most hopeless place on Earth.  Almost always these kingdoms have to be surrounded by chain link fence as if there were treasures there someone would actually bother to steal.  You can travel to Alaska, or to the remotest desert in Arizona and always find the leavings of the guy who had a dream.  Living off the land was a phase in the sixties.  Just go in the woods, the desert, or the wilderness plant some seeds and sit back.  Will anyone ever clean up the mess these people made?  Every time Kadizzle goes sees these dilapidated places he wonders " how can you be so damn lazy you cannot even pick up the trash in your yard?".  It's not trash to the man in his kingdom.  The old car is going to be repaired.  The bath tub will be a horse watering trough, and the window frames salvaged from the gas station that burnt down will be used for the new addition.  In the west you can find whole towns of mini slums.  Doesn't anyone every say " lets clean this place up".  No, it is a paradise just waiting to happen.

Indian Bread Rocks.

The Dos Cabezas mountains down in the land of Cochise have many hidden spots of beauty.  At the Indian Bread Rocks campground we landed and started hiking.  Kadizzle always thought the Dragoon Mountains were his favorite, but now he knows there are other good places in this mountain chain.

For two days it we climbed through the huge rocks and discovered the hidden pools of water in the canyon.  When we drove in it looked like we had the spot all to ourselves, but two other campers showed up late in the day after we had drinks with Ruth and Rodger.  One camper had a drone he demoed for us.  The hieght it reached was impressive.   His drone could hover over the campground and record a video.  It would be fun to get some overhead shots of our hikes from a drone.

Rodger and Cissie headed off up a canyon to search for a spring, and Ruth and Kadizzle tried to find an easy way back. We made it back, but it was not the easy way.

Now we are settled in at Roper Lake State park.  We just got back from the hot tub fed by a hot spring.  The water was about 90 and five more degrees would have been nice.  Tomorrow Ruth and Roger head home and the Kadizzles will spend another day here.  Nest we will land back at Lake Roosevelt if all goes well.

Water in the Desert

North of Wilcox Arizona we drove for fifteen miles through desert drier than a popcorn fart.  Here and there it looked like someone had made an attempt to drill for water, move it, store it, or somehow get it.  When we opened the back tailgate of the pickup truck the dust had just poured in the covered bed.

The adventurers were trying to find a hot spring on land owned by the Nature Conservancy.  As luck would have it the Nature Conservancy headwaters were closed.  Our best determination was that the hot springs was right at their headwaters, so we had no access to the spring we wanted badly to roast in.

As that part of the adventure languished we drove on down the road to hell and looked for a place to hike.  First we went up a stream past an old abandoned ranch house of some sort.  Remarkable the stream suddenly had a lot of water in it.  Amazed to find the flowing stream Kadizzled headed back down the stream to the truck.  The water in the stream came to an instant stop.   The stream turned into a bone dry bed of gravel.  The water simply disappeared in an amazing feat right into the ground.

We regrouped at the truck and headed down a trail into a canyon.   The Stream appeared full of water and running briskly.   This was a stream fed from some underground source that never goes dry.  Because there is always water a unique little fish has evolved here in the desert.   Of course the fish is a protected endangered species.   From a desert so dry it was having a hard time growing rocks to a lush valley full of vegetation was a dramatic transition.   This was the kind of area that enabled the ancient people to survive. 

The desert and how it deals with water is always amazing.  The power of water to transform things is never better illustrated than when magical water hits soil that looks as dead as the bones along the dry part of the creek.  After hiking down stream for three miles in search of another hot spring we gave up and returned.  

A good round of Dare to be Stupid

Dare to be Stupid is a great game that can be played on sail boats, motorcycles, on foot, or on any device of your choice.  The object of the game is to do something stupid and not get hurt or break anything.  The other day Kadizzle met Richard.  Richard and Kadizzle decided to take a motorcycle ride up Bull Dog Canyon.  Finally we came to a side road that got worse and worse.  It was time to play Dare to Be Stupid.  Should we go up this too steep incline or not, sure why not.  Should we go over this mini cliff or not?  Sure why not.  At some point Kadizzle's brain kicked in and he decided he did not want to wreck his relatively new motorcycle, so he said to Richard " Maybe we should turn around".   Richard said I will lead and we will try to go a littler further.  This went on and we finally gave up.  Going down is simpler than going up.  On the way back there were two choices to get by one bad spot.  Richard though he could go up the mine cliff pictured.  Kadizzle went up the other difficult choice.  As Kadizzle peered around the rocks he saw Richard briefly fly into the air. Kadizzle could not see the whole crash and was somewhat disappointed to miss the winning play.  Worried, Kadizzle took off on his alternate route to reach Richard in case he was hurt.  Richard was not hurt but did manage to damage his cycle.  Richard won for the day, but Kadizzle is sure he can take the next round of Dare to be Stupid.

It feels like the old days.

Rodger is sitting beside me in the camper helping me con Ford into giving me one of their new aluminum trucks to try out.  Ruth and The Commander are in the other camper putting the day together.  Our old exploration group is holed up at The Triangle T ranch East of Benson, AZ.  We are in the country of Cochise. In the very spot we sit Roy Rodgers, Johnny Cash and John Wayne all stayed. This was a convenient place to make western movies and there is an old movie set here.

At some point we are going to find an old Spanish fort that goes back to the 1500's.  The motorcycle is strapped to the back of the fithwheel if we need it for exploration.  Last night the Kadizzles introduced Ruth and Rodger to the card game The President and The Idiot.  Poor old Kadizzle ended the last game as the idiot.

Modern Cave men found in AZ

A few days back The Commander set off on a hike by herself to explore a new route we have been developing.  The route will ultimately go up a canyon and come down somewhere in Bull Dog Canyon.  Yesterday with our Canadian friends we set off up the canyon to explore the route.  When The Commander came back from her initial conquest she was excited that she had come across a cave deep in the canyon where suspect people were living.  The canyon by local standards is remote and rarely visited.  You cannot get to the canyon unless you wade across the Salt River. Most hikers are unwilling to wade across the river.

After we crossed the river we went up the part of the trail we had used many times.  Strangely someone has been changing the trail signs we use.   After continual bolder hopping for two miles our troop reached the cave.  Remnants of modern humans were strewn about the cave, but the place did not seem to show signs of recent activity.  When The Commander observed the cave on her first jaunt into the canyon she only observed the cave from a distance with binoculars.  Her fear was dastardly people were using the cave for refuge and she dare not encounter them.

The contents of the cave were a bit strange.  For some reason whomever occupied the cave placed various bottles and cans on strings and dangled the cans from sticks that protruded from the cave wall.  The cave had tarps and air mattresses on the floor and a variety of cans strewn about.  Most peculiar of all was a first class letter addressed to Dan Pettris.  The letter contained toothpicks.  Now the question is who is Dan Pettris?  The letter came from Oregon and was delivered via a Pettris in Lakeside AZ.

This was not a cave easy to get to.  There were some little pools of water nearby, but the water was of poor quality and life in the cave would have been difficult.  Carrying supplies to the cave would not be an easy task.  There was absolutely no source of natural food in the area.   Perhaps we will have to search for Dan Pettris and find out why he was living in a cave and people were sending him toothpicks.

The President and the Idiot. Here are the rules to play the game

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Now bear with me, this may take some time to explain. Our Canadian hiking friends insisted that we play a card game with them called “ The president and the idiot”. The Canadians said we were the right kind of people to play the game. This is how you play the game. After the cards are shuffled all the cards are dealt to the four participants. The president, the vice president, the idiot and the vice idiot have already been chosen by a card draw.

The president gives his worst two cards to the idiot. The idiot gives his best two cards to the president. The vice president gives his worst one card to the vice idiot, and the vice idiot gives his best card to the vice idiot.

The president plays the first hand. Two's trump everything. Whomever plays the highest card wins the hand. The round progresses from president to vice president to vice idiot to idiot. The winner of the hand gets to lay down the next leading card. The object is to get rid of your cards. If you cannot play a card you must pass. You can play one card, a pair, three cards of a kind, or four of a kind.

Now to the important part of the game. The game mimics life. The idiot can become the president, but it is very unlikely. The game favors those on top staying on top. However, the game seems to give the false appearance of being fair. Everyone gets dealt the same number of cards. Everyone plays by the same rules, and after all occasionally the idiot does become the president.

This is exactly how our political system works. It appears to be fair, and it appears to give everyone a chance, but in reality the same people generally win. When you closely examine the statistics for our country you see there is very little upward mobility, but everyone believes it is there, because after all it does happen. The inheritance tax is the classic example of the president and the idiot in action. The rich kid that inherits millions certainly has much better odds for a good life than a poor kid in the slum. No rational person would say it is fair, and the answer is obvious. Fairness would be to start both kids out more closely to even. This was done in the past by taxing the estates of the rich. Now we have instituted the president and the idiot system whereby the good cards go to the rich, and the bad cards go to the poor. We argue the system is fair, and the idiots think it is. After all some idiots make it to the top. The whole thing is exactly like gambling. Some people win, but in generate just about everyone else loses. Idiots by lottery tickets and stay broke. The casino operators take advantage of the idiots and pay off the politicians. What else is new?

They drop it, we pick it up.

 

Before sunrise Dave is up painting the long drops. What is a long drop? In South Africa when you go camping the servants dig a hole for the white folks to relieve themselves. That is a long drop. Dave is the mother all volunteers. What other guy over eighty would get up and paint long drops before sun up, and Dave does it right.

Kadizzle made a big mistake. Kadizzle told Dave “ If you need anything done let me know”. Those are the wrong words for Dave. Later Dave showed up with two grabbers, a bucket and some garbage bags. Dave said he had picked up the rodent litter south on the Salt, but someone needed to patrol North. Since Kadizzle needed some exercise he set off along the Salt River in search of garbage prizes. Since Dave had been on steady patrol for over a month there was very little litter near the campground. However the littler does manage to come down the river. Kadizzle first found a football. Everything was looking pretty good until Kadizzle made it farther north. Then the damage done by the industrial rodents began to appear, first a whiskey bottle, several bottles with the water, beer or gatorade still in them and a few other goodies.

As Kadizzle walked along the river bank he thought about how to combat the rodents that litter. Kadizzle decided to start the rumor among the fishermen and others that there were hidden cameras aimed at catching the rats that ruin the landscape.

While Kadizzle rummaged among the bushes looking for the rat droppings of inconsiderate scum he noticed a fisherman. Kadizzle asked the fisherman to report to the camp host anyone littering. Before long Kadizzle realized the fisherman did not speak a word of English. The fisherman had the appearance of an illegal immigrant. When Kadizzle approached him he noticed a bag full of what appeared to be dirt. Beside the fisherman were two usable bed pillows. Perplexed Kadizzle wondered if the man was sleeping on the river bank. If the pillows were not the fisherman's then they were litter and should be removed. By using sign language and what little Spanish Kadizzle could speak Kadizzle managed to determine the pillows were trash. To very they were trash Kadizzle opened the garbage bag an put them in. As Kadizzle left the fisherman came over to him with something out of the dirt bag. It was dried horse manure. In Spanish the fisherman was asking something about the horse manure. Kadizzle thought he wanted to burn it for a fire. That was wrong. The fisherman broke up the manure and sprinkled it at the base of a tree. Kadizzle began to get the idea. The fisherman wanted to know if he could take the horse droppings home and use them in his garden. Kadizzle finally got the message across that it was fine. He could have all the horse shit he wanted. If only Kadizzle could speak Spanish he could have told the fisherman to tune in to Rush Limbaugh for more.

Will the car explode today?

As a young teenager Kadizzled became friends with the son the local owner and operator of the illegal gambling in his home town. Wheeling, West Virginia had a reputation for prostitution, and gambling. This morning Kadizzle was reading about famous people from Wheeling, and ran across the biography of Wheeling's most famous crime figure “Big Bill” Lias. Big Bill was a huge fat man and has a long list of murders and crimes attributed to him. Reading his accomplishments Kadizzle saw that the car bombing of Paul Hankish was attributed to him.

One day Kadizzle was walking across the famous Wheeling Suspension Bridge with his friend Ben the son of the local slot machine king. A car pulled up beside the two and it was Paul Hankish. Hankish according to the book was the leader of another Wheeling gang that apparently was having a feud with Big Bill's gang. Ben apparently knew Hankish through his father, but Kadizzle was clueless about who the man was. Hankish asked Ben if we wanted to go for a boat ride. We accepted and went on to the yacht club on the Ohio River. The boat ride was pleasant and one of the few Kadizzle ever took on the river.

Exactly how long after that the explosion occurred Kadizzle does not recall, but Hankish had his legs blown off several weeks later by dynamite placed under his car seat. The intent was obviously to kill him, but failed. When Hankish came to in the hospital he kept saying the name of Ben's father. The newspaper made it appear that Ben's father had something to do with planting the bomb. As it turned out Ben's father was actually a friend of Hankish and feared he might be next on the list.

Ben attended a military school where all the rich kids had to dress in uniforms and his dad drove him to school every morning in his Cadillac. After the bombing of Hankish Ben told me he was instructed to wait in the house until his father started the car. On hearing this Kadizzled decided life as a crime figure was too stressful and Kadizzle decided to pursue a civilian career. Ben's father obviously had bad nerves from his work.

The criminal enterprise operated under the cover of a jukebox business, and vending machine company. Needless to say the business did very well. The operation was conducted out of an old five story building that used to be a car parking facility in the 1920's. There was a huge elevator that could take cars to every floor. Ben and Kadizzle spent many Friday nights playing the legal pinball machines and having a good time at his fathers business place. His father had an elaborate bar alongside a very nice office. If one could only know what conversations took place in those rooms.

Since they were in the jukebox business there was one room with every 45 rpm record imaginable. One Friday night contrary to orders Ben showed Kadizzle one floor of the building he was not supposed to see. Slot machines were illegal in West Virginia, but this floor was completely covered with slot machines shoulder to shoulder. Ben told Kadizzle to keep quite about what he had seen.

Of course the city fathers were duplicit in the whole operation and the gambling cartel paid an underground tax for their operation. Once elected the local prosecuted met with the local gang leaders and worked out a deal about how much they would pay for every machine. To please the public there were occasional raids on gambling establishments. The owners of the gambling devices would be notified before the crackdown and would go around prior to the raids and pick up all the machines. A few would be captured to show the public how the law was being enforced. To make this scheme work the gambling machine owners had a fleet of moving trucks equipped to quickly pick up the machines.

Every time Kadizzle sees gangsters portrayed he is reminded of his teenage years in Wheeling where so many of these types thrived. So much of the gang culture was true. Ben's dad was a charitable man who helped any of the poor minorities that came in his office. He also happened to own their houses. No doubt he was repaid in some fashion. The whole experience gave Kadizzle a good view of how the wheels of commerce where greased and Kadizzle learned that what appears to be going on is usually not. As Kadizzle has grown older he has realized that all the so called prominent people who had what appeared to be clean hands in public were really the enablers of a whole separate culture. Human nature never changes you see it every day on the news. Corruption thrives on the old idea “Evil prevails when good men fail to act”.

Your body will grow old, but your mind doesn't have to.

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As The Commander and Kadizzle drove into the campground the first thing they noticed was an older gentleman with a straw hat an a rake. Beside him was an old beat up run down camper. The man was a little hunched over and looked like he could be living on the edge of economic survival. He was busy raking and cleaning the area. From past experience both Kadizzle and The Commander assumed he was the camp host. Often the Forest Service let someone like this stay free if they did some minor work. After introducing himself, Dave said he was one of the camp host. The Commander struck up a conversation with Dave and soon, asked him for some information. Dave said “ let me go over to my motor home and see if I can get you an answer”. Expecting to head for the old beat up camper we instead took off in a different direction. Dave led us to a very nice practically new deluxe 28 foot motorhome. Sitting inside with Dave in the lap of luxury both Kadizzle and The Commander both realized they had made a big mistake judging a book by it's cover'

Dave said he graduated from high school in 1950, so that probably means Dave is 81. Dave drove his nice motorhome into the campground on The Salt River one day and decided to camp. The first thing he noticed was the place needed cleaned up, and the shrubbery needed trimmed. When Dave pointed this out to the Forest Service they asked him if he wanted a job doing it. Dave said yes and agreed to do it for free. So with his trusty wheelbarrow he set about the task.

The Commander and Kadizzle told Dave we would help him. After cutting some brush Kadizzled asked Dave where to dump the wheelbarrow. Dave pointed to the spot. When Kadizzle reached the dump there was a huge pile of brush. Did Dave cut and haul all of this? The answer was yes. An 81 year old man outworking most people half his age. Everyday Dave is up early raking, sweeping, and cutting brush. When the volunteers showed up to clean there was nothing to do. For weeks Dave has been waiting for the paint to redo the out houses he already has taped and ready to go.

Most of the time when you talk with an older person you find they are very conservative and set in their ways. Dave has been on the road and exploring North America for 18 years and a conversation with him can go just about anywhere. Visiting with Dave Kadizzle has talked with him on many subjects from education, to flying, to science, to religion, and on it goes. Talking to Dave you realize he has evolved his ideas all his life. Dave was not a man set in his ways. From what Kadizzle can tell he was a very successful businessman, a pilot, and an avid hiker.

Dave has been an observer of a lot of life. Kadizzle is a flaming liberal, and Dave seems to share most of Kadizzles beliefs. Often Kadizzle like most people wonders “ Am I confused or on the right track?”. Conversations with Dave are reassuring. After 81 years Dave is a liberal, a man who believes as Kadizzle does. Many times you hear someone say people are Democrats when they are young and they grow out of it to become conservative Republicans as they age. People also get Alzheimers as they age. Sometimes after you say something to Dave he will say “cool” or some other expression fitting someone a quarter his age. Dave has grown old, but his thinking hasn't. Dave could be sitting still running out of gas like so many, but he is using his gas everyday to push that wheelbarrow and push some minds to a better cleaner world.

Cottonwood

Baby sitting rat dogs is the mission.  Kadizzle has been assigned to watch the three rat dogs of his sister while she attends a wedding in Chicago.  Last night Kadizzle learned on PBS there are 2,000 Coyotes living in Chicago.  Apparently dogs are taking over the world. No doubt there are about as many dogs as people in this country.  Kadizzle likes dogs and hates cats,  rat dogs fall somewhere in between.  The damn things bark and are suitable for hunting nothing by insects.

Yesterday Kadizzle went with brother in law Ned to watch a girls basketball game.  Sister Patty has taken Sidney under her wing to help her through her athletic career and school.  Sidney is the new Arizona State Tia Quon Do champion.  However,  Sidney and her team have a long way to go in basketball.  Until yesterday it never occurred to Kadizzle that he rarely sees young girls of the 7th, and 8th grade age.  One in awhile you might spot some wandering in a mall, but Kadizzle has not been in a junior high basketball court for a thousand years.  On one end of the court were the little cheerleaders jumping around proudly cheering on their team.  In the stands was a mixture of everyone.  The opponent school had a large population of Apache, and some other tribe.

The game itself was like watching atoms move with no apparent organization.  Passes were made to invisible people,  and most of the shooting resembled what you might get using a shot gun.  Two girls on Sidney's team were little super charged bumble bees that were fun to watch, but they were so small they could not make much happen.  All things considered it was fun to watch.  Totally unpredictable and the girls played pretty rough at times.   The most common play seemed to be a mugging.   Someone would catch a pass and stand there clueless.  Meanwhile they would be swarmed by the other team that would try to rip the ball from their hands.  Prior to the game Ned said Sidney would score all the points for her team.  Ned was not far wrong.  Sidney's team lost by a score of 20 to 4 and Sidney scored three of the four points.   Had Sidney's team just continuously shot the ball at random they would have done better.   It seems that basketball at this level is mostly a game of random events and that the more you put the ball in the air the more likely it is to go through that steel hoop.

God called we answered.

Kadizzle does not know how God calls, but when he does often it appears he gets the wrong number. This time he got it right. Last night the Kadizzles were invited to a bar with some Canadian friends. As we went to the bar our friends told us about the bar we were about to patronize. It had a fantastic selection of beer which of course would suit The Commander well. The Commander has become a beer connoisseur.

Now the strange part. The bar was owned by a female Episcopal minister. She said she had a calling from God to open a bar. For once God made a good call. The food was excellent, and tasting all the beers was fun for everyone. God also had good live music. One might wonder what a bar run for God would be like. God has potato salad with blue cheese dressing, which is very good. God's taste in live music was just right, and God kept the place very clean with no smoking. God's waiters were excellent.

At some point the minister who owned the bar came to our table and introduced herself and explained her mission. She explained that if you wanted to get God's word out you had to go to where people were. Not only were there a lot of people there, but it would certainly be a good place to harvest sinners. Kadizzle is not a church goer, but if other ministers would follow this woman's example and offer a good selection of wine, which Jesus would surely approve of, and a good menu no telling what might happen with church attendance. Kadizzle has been in many bars and has often got the spirit there. Now the possibility exist he might get the right one. There is something special about leaving a tip in God's bar.

God's bar goes by the name of The Handlebar Pub and Grill in Apache Junction.   You know the handle that is used to server tap beer?  Apparently God collects those handles, and the ceiling of the bar is covered with them.

Report the Rodents.

As Dave pushes his wheelbarrow and rakes up the litter he picks up every cigarette butt and pop can he finds.  Meanwhile a simple minded motor cycle dinger come into the camp ground pulls out a weed and throws a butt down.  As volunteers scour the edge of the river for junk some industrial rodent drops a freezer full of food at the entrance to the campground and just leaves it.  

The war between the good and the ugly goes on every day.  Good hikers pick up the detritus the sorrowful ones drop.  Dave paints over the graffiti the senseless vandals write in the bathroom.  Volunteers battle to make the country livable, and the simple minded throw old tires in the river.

Kadizzle confronts and reports those out to make a mess, but too many go unchecked.  The bother in law had a good experience.   An industrial rodent set off into the national forest near his house with a truckload of garbage.  The urban rat came back with the truck empty.  Ned lives near the gate and went out to investigate.   Sure enough there was a pickup load of trash.  The unschooled rodent made a critical mistake.  The litter dog lost his phone when he dumped. Ned called him and told him he could have his phone back when he picked up his mess.  After the rat cleaned up his droppings, Ned told him to go to the Forest Service office and get his phone.  The Forest Service returned his phone and gave him a $100 fine for his littering.   Report the rodents.

As life moves along so does the Earth Module

Today the Earth Module temporarily moves to storage. Kadizzled and the revered Commander will head to Cottonwood to babysit three schreeching Chiwawas.  Kadizzled loves dogs, but hates the little rat dogs, which are just barking cats.

The campground has emptied out a bit and the weather has been excellent.  Yesterday Kadizzle had his annual tune up by getting his Korean massage.  While waiting for the truck to be serviced Kadizzled went to the best massage place in the world.  There is very little English spoken there but they dig deep into the sin that accumulates in Kadizzle's back and for awhile Kadizzle is years younger.  Also it resulted in a good nights sleep. 

The solar panel has been working well, but we do not have enough battery power to store all the sunshine. Imagine plenty of money, but no room in you wallet.

Now for a character review.   Who have we met so far in the adventure?  About the first person we met was Bill.  Bill was living in a small pickup truck at the campground near Lake Roosevelt.  Bill sat all day in the front of the truck reading.  Bill told Kadizzle he thought he found some Indian pottery near his truck in the campground. Bill was afraid to reach in the bush and get it because he was sure there might be a rattlesnake in the bush,  so Kadizzle examined the pottery.  It turned out to be a piece of early Coors Beer can.  Kadizzle had to explain to Bill the Indians did not write on pottery.  Another character at Lake Roosevelt was "Generator Willy".  Generator Willy ran his generator all day long and annoyed everyone.  One camper tried to hint to Generator Willy that he was a painful presence, but Willy did not get the message.  Kadizzle wrote Willy an anonymous letter about his lack of generator politeness.  Kadizzle had the camp host deliver the letter.  Next day Willy was gone.

At Usery we met an ex airline pilot, and a bush pilot who went on our exploratory hike in the Goldfield Mountains.  We renewed acquaintances with most of our good Canadian friends who have escaped their proximity to the arctic.  In our current campground we have the ambitious Dave who is in his eighties and outworks people half his age. Dave is up every morning pushing a wheelbarrow around cleaning up.  When the volunteers showed up to clean there was nothing for them to do.   Of course there is a Generator Willy here.   Fortunately he is pretty far away.  The worst think that happens is some simple minded dinger tries to save money and buys a construction generator that makes more noise than a jackhammer.  As usual the real camp host are strange people living on the edge.  Their generator went to hell on them so they are living with the electricity from their pickup truck.  Everyday new people show up and soon everyone knows everyone.

Sneaker attack

In the old days the gate used to be locked every night at our resort. Our resort is actually two very large parking lots. During the summer everyone and their grandmother does raft trips on the Salt River. The parking lots are used for the 40,000 people that use the raft service on some weekends. It is actually tubing not rafting. The masses are hauled up the river by bus and then float by tube back to the huge parking lots. On the way down the river they throw as many beer cans and pop cans in the river as they can. This means thousands have to be spent at the end of the season to clean up the mess, but they actually do. Also it means rings, watches, and other metal things get lost. So the winter is the time the metal detector guys come to find the diamonds and gold.

With dwindling resources and complaining fishermen the gates at our resort are no longer locked at night. The net result is the sneakers can come in at night. The sneakers like to steal Honda generators. Two have been stolen so far. To thwart the sneakers I have put a special alarm on my geneator that squeals if the sneaker moves it. Last hight at two in the morning someone roared out of our camp ground at high speed. It woke Kadizzle up and sounded like it may have been a failed sneaker attack. Since we are in Arizona and anyone can shoot at anyone for any reason it would be fun to shoot at a fleeing sneaker, but the Kadizzles don't have a gun. This morning we await the campground gossip to see if indeed the sneaker was foiled. 

No reports on sneaker problems, but someone did provide the day's entertainment.  A car was parked on the road to our camping area and set on fire.  No one knows why.   More than likely someone stole the car and needed to get rid of it. 

The day begins in the desert.

 

When you hear the first jet leave from Phoenix you know the sun will soon come up. Sleeping in the cool nights is a pleasure, but once out of the blankets it is chilly. That means someone will have to start the generator so the furnace can run. It is shameful to be a generator sinner in a quite campground so hopefully someone else has already sinned before we do. Coffee is the next major job. The Commander has a new hand operated coffee grinder she likes to use, so the The Commander grinds the coffee. With the generator running we can watch TV. The internet connection is terrible, but with patience you can get up to date.

On TV the local news will feature the latest gun insanity. The other day some crazy fat guy was shooting at a man and wife robbery team. The male robber tried to hold up the store using an electric drill for a gun and his wife had a plastic toy gun. The man got scared and left on his motorcycle. His wife tried to catch up and get on. As this all took place the fat guy shot at them claiming his wife was in danger. How she was in danger from people running away is a mystery, but I am sure the guy wanted to try out his gun. The shooter hit several cars in the parking lot, and the electric drill bandit got away. This is how it works when you let every idiot have a gun.

Once the sun is up the solar panel has to be deployed, the eggs cooked, and life begins. The sun quickly warms things up. By now people are wandering around. A would be fisherman just came to us needing a Tonto Pass. We often have to provide them to those without so they can stay her. It cost $3 dollars per day and we usually have extra passes. The fish were just stocked yesterday.

The Commander as usual is brimming over with energy and insist we go on a forced march somewhere today. So it looks like poor old Kadizzle will be run up a nearby mountain. Hopefully there will be tablets on top with instructions from God.

Let me volunteer so you can enjoy your job

For years the Kadizzles have traveled and met many camp host and other volunteers in the  South West.  The government has come to rely on the volunteers just to make the system work.  The way it works is some retired couple wants to live inexpensively so they volunteer to be a campground host. In return the volunteers work about twenty hours a week and get a free place to stay.  Sometimes solar power is provided, and in some cases propane. 

Generally the system works well, but more and more we notice how much work the volunteers do and how little the paid employees do.  Yesterday The Commander and Kadizzle spent about half a day helping Dave the 81 year old volunteer trim trees.   The forest service provided some pathetic tools and encouragement.  Dave is a hard worker and wants to paint the restrooms and keep himself busy.  Dave is always picking up cigarette butts, and keeping the campground spotless.

Dave noticed one of the toilet seats was broken and told the paid service workers he needed a new one to fix it.  The Forest Service employees said they did not have any.  Which is like a store not having any spare light bulbs.  Dave found a new seat in the storage area and they told him it could not be used because there were no bolts for it.  It would not take a rocket scientist to do what Dave did.  Dave took the bolts off the broken one and used them to install the new one.  Of course the government employees could not figure this out.

The main function of government employees seems to be to drive from point to point.   In the ten years we have been using the parks I do not recall ever seeing a paid employee do anything.  Frequently we do see the rangers exercising the horses.  This means they have to saddle the horses and ride some nice trails along the salt river.  Of course you could not get volunteers to exercise horses by riding nice trails.  Now the nastiest job is cleaning the rest rooms.  Even the volunteers don't want to do that.  Simple solution contract it out.  If you want a government job you need experience contracting out nasty work, or getting volunteers to work.  That seems to be the two main requirements.  There are a lot of good government employees, but there is a lot they can do to improve their image.

Junk Yard Update

The Commander was not too happy about spending her birthday in a junkyard, but it was the way it was.  The Commander did get to go out to dinner at our traditional Thai Restaurant.  Back at the Junk yard we got to watch all kinds of strange characters come and go.  The young ones looked like gang members and the old ones were just wobbling around.  The welding job which should have taken about an hour and a half ended up taking all of six hours.  John the welder was a nice guy and competent, but he had colon cancer.  John explained to Kadizzle he was going to treat his colon cancer himself with his special diet.  John's special diet turned out to be ice cream.  Johns condition meant he could work just so long and then had to take a break.  As if John did not have enough problems his wife had cervical cancer and her news was not good.

As the day progressed the strange people came and went.  John's go for man did some of the work.  Mr. go for had emphysema, COP, and a bad back.  The whole process was like having the people in the cancer ward do repair work.   Kadizzle watched the assistant doing some welding on our hitch and thought he was getting it wrong, but under the assumption the assistant knew what he was doing Kadizzle said nothing.  It turned out the job had to be done over and that is where some more of the time went.   At the end of the day the work was well done and Kadizzle was happy with the job.  Asking John what the price was Kadizzle was expecting a bill of $250.    John said it was $100.   Kadizzle gave John $150 and explained to him he could make no money at the rates he was charging.  John was an excellent welder and seemed to be providing more of a charitable service to the community than making a decent living.   We  got there at 9:30 and did not drive away until 3:30 but it was an interesting chapter in how another segment of society live on the edge.

The secret junk yard.

Kadizzle needed a hitch welded on the back of his fifth wheel camper.  A friend recommended a welder and gave the Kadizzles instructions on how to find him.  As this is written we are sitting front of his house waiting for the job to begin.  Apparently this is a clandestine business the second we have encountered in two days.  Behind what looks like two ordinary houses is what appears to be a combination welding shop, auto repair shop, and junkyard.  Stuff is strewn everywhere.  Hopefully they people are competent.

Yesterday The Commander got her birthday present, just what every woman wants, solar panels.  As it turned out the solar panel sales person was operating out of his house without the proper permits.  When we pulled into his driveway, he took us in his house and then to his garage.  He explained his neighbor " Mrs Craveats", named after some old busybody on TV kept a close eye on him and was suspicious. Mrs Craveats was indeed watching us closely when we pulled up.

The scene back here at the suburban junkyard would make a good movie setting.  What appears to be a house on the front is actually a weird conglomeration of crap and passageways full of junk on the inside.  The business advertises it can beat the price of most competitors.  They probably can they don't have any of the expenses a normal business would.

The warm climate of AZ makes it possible for all sorts of people to live on the edge.

Then why did you answer?

Sound asleep and in a most enjoyable state the phone rang last night and disturbed my peaceful nirvana.  Before I could answer the phone the person hung up. The phone showed it was a number from our home town.  Thinking it might be some sort of emergency Lord Kadizzle called the number and got some old German lady in Hazen, our home town.  Kadizzle asked if there was some reason she called.  In a thick German accent the lady explained that she was having trouble with her furnace.  Kadizzle then explained she had the wrong number.  It was sort of like the old gag "Then why did you answer".  Even after telling her she had the wrong number she still proceeded to describe the problem with the furnace.  She said she was actually trying to call Joe Metteler the furnace guy.  Next I asked her what number she called.  She said she called 748-6811.  Our number is 748-6111. It was apparent what had happened.  As the call ended she seemed irritate that I was answering someone else's phone, and was very little help in getting the furnace going.

The Humful migration or What is a heffalump?

 

The Kadizzles have escaped the arctic cold of North Dakota and are back in the land of the old and retired. Where to go with the Earth Module is the question. Do we stay another day in the lap of luxury with a water connection and electricity or do we move down on the Salt River to the land of the frugal and poor? The camp host at Usery Park are saying the plan is to raise the daily rate next year to $35. That will turn Usery Park in to a resort for the rich and drive the plain folk out.

Asked what she wanted for Christmas The Commander said she wanted a solar panel, so soon the Kadizzles will be reaping a crop of electrons directly from the sun. Hopefully that will get us through our new life with thousands of electronic gadgets.

The humful migration took place while we were home for Christmas. What in the hell is a humful? A humful is a breed of large motorhome that is shinny and self propelled, usually by a large diesel. Humful owners usually have the best of everything and stay close to electricity and water. When we left for North Dakota there was scarcely a humful in site, but now the park is full to the brim with the giant shinny bread boxes. Apparently all the humful owners stayed home until Christmas was over. The cold weather may have driven the humfuls south.

Humfuls were given that name because they resembled heffalumps. As near as anyone can tell a heffalump looks something like an elephant and they were first sited in the Winnie-the- Pooh adventures.

In the fifth chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh, Pooh and Piglet attempt bravely to capture a heffalump in a trap. However, no heffalumps are ever caught in their trap, and indeed they never meet a heffalump in the course of the books. The sole actual appearance of heffalumps in the books come as Pooh tries to put himself to sleep: "[H]e tried counting Heffalumps [but] every Heffalump that he counted was making straight for a pot of Pooh's honey ... [and] when the five hundred and eighty-seventh Heffalump was licking its jaws, and saying to itself, 'Very good honey this, I don't know when I've tasted better', Pooh could bear it no longer." We learn nothing more about the nature of the beasts in the writings, unless by "nature" we refer to the "nature" of absences.

The plane trip to Mesa from North Dakota was delayed in part because of a heffalump.   At the gate in Bismarck people were lined up to board the plane, but the line was not moving.  The attendants had gone down the ramp to plane with a wheelchair to get a passenger off the plane.  Soon they came back with an empty wheel chair and declared they needed a bigger wheelchair.  Kadizzle told The Commander " I bet they got a heffalump on there".   After searching the airport for a wider wheel chair they finnally came down the ramp with a hefflalump.  The plane then had a mechanical problem and had to be deiced.