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Ten Degrees and Getting Colder

  Cold Sunrise   That's just the name of the song written by Gordon Lightfoot.  It was actually -13 F when I got up this morning (wind chill -24).  Tucson may have pulled back into the lead!  There's a lot of weighing pros and cons of Colorado vs Arizona by the wood stove.  Not much else to report. I did enjoy a few games of pool and a beer with my brother this week.  We don't get together very often, so it's good to try to keep the lines of communication open, especially with my mother celebrating her 86th birthday next month.  He lives in Milwaukee and just started semi-retirement.  Our opposing politics and lifestyles keep things very casual and surface-level.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.   It's important to find common ground.  He and his wife have started going to concerts and recently saw the Steve Miller Band.  Music is one of our common interests.      

Gone and Back Again


 

I stayed two days at a nondescript rv park in Henderson Nevada, which is just south of Las Vegas on the Boulder Highway. My site was supposed to be empty and ready for me, but it wasn’t. It was noon when I arrived, and I’m pretty sure the occupants weren’t awake yet. By 1 pm, water and electric was unhooked, and they were rolling away without apology.

I used this time to do laundry, shower several times,, resupply, and, of course, roast coffee. There was nothing very remarkable about the rv park, so I won’t name it. Most of the residents were year round and long-term. Lots of the Rv’s were older and in need of repair, even though the park supposedly had a ten-year rule in order to stay there. By that, if your rv was older than ten years from the date of manufacturer, keep looking. I fibbed about the date on my rv (since Scamp hasn’t changed it’s design since about 1978, mine looks as new as the ones coming from the factory now), but I didn’t feel too bad after seeing the motley assortment of ancient trailers that somehow found their way into their spots. Maybe they were grandfathered?

Anyway, I am back to Valley of Fire. I arrived late morning, which seems like a good time because there were only a few rigs present when I arrived. By evening it was nearly full.  The Brew Hut didn’t move far—merely across the gravel road where solar is more ample, and the views more generous behind the campsite.

The days are getting shorter. I’m sleeping in until nearly 7 a.m., and it’s pretty much dark by 7 p.m. Since Julia arrives on Sunday, I’ve been brushing up on my pancake operations in the morning. It makes for a nice sweet treat to start the day with my fresh roasted Papua New Guinea coffee.

T-mobile doesn’t live here in the campground, but I’ve found a few places where one or two bars of signal can be had, so I’ve been able to pick up my daily local newspaper to read with breakfast. Elvis and I usually have our 12k-15k steps by noon. During the afternoon, I’ve been reading John Muir’s “My First Summer in the Sierra.” I was worried it might not be accessible, but he’s an excellent writer and communicator, probably due to his Wisconsin roots.

I’ve been scavenging firewood from campsites that people have departed from—with some success. I hope to have a few fires this week to lengthen the short days. I also found the Overton library (Moappa Valley Public Library), and it’s free wifi connection, so I downloaded some more Netflix to watch during the evenings. I’m pretty settled into my routine, but I’m sure that Julia will shake me out of that shortly.



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