I continued my stay in Two Guns, AZ this week. All the camping apps show a photo of the dilapidated gas station as the main picture.
I nearly crossed it off my list of possible sites to stay, but I got there early in the morning on Saturday and decided to pull in to check it out. I was nearly certain I would not stay the night, but beyond the run down, burned out, graffiti-riddled building was an entire Apache village from a century or more ago. I drove down the frontage road and parked next to a skoolie I had seen before this past winter at SkooliePalooza. The owner was parked with two vans, so I knew I’d be safe. I got out and explored and fell in love with this spot.
Sunday morning, I met a man up at one of the falling-down buildings. He was doing Taekwondo. His name is Leo and I liked him immediately. Later in the afternoon, Cosmo and I went exploring with him, and we visited all the falling down buildings, revisited the gas station and then hiked down the road where the old KOA used to be. We swapped stories along the way and got to know each other better. He was originally from Egypt, and he has been traveling the country just as long as I have doing odd jobs along the way to pay for his travels. Monday morning before he left, we went for another hike. He is such a gentle soul and before parting, he told me it was his birthday. I ran into the van and retrieved a quartz stone necklace I’d made to give him as a present. He went into his van and came out with a kyanite crystal. He said it was for relaxing sleep, clearing stress and especially good for promoting clear and concise communication. I immediately took off my necklace and added this gem to it. It was so nice to meet him and we vowed to catch up at SkooliePalooza in January if our paths don’t cross before that.
In the afternoon, James and Chelsea pulled in next to me. I met them last week in the forest and they are on their way to New Mexico. After doing laundry and errands, they pulled in next to me and I took them on the tour of Two Guns. We shared a couple meals together and sat outside one afternoon just taking in the beauty of our surroundings.
I’d only intended to spend an afternoon at Two Guns. The primary picture on all the camping apps is the one of the gutted gas station covered in Graffiti. I thought perhaps I’d stay one night, but the gas station photo made me leery of committing. But once I saw the skoolie and other vans parked in a secluded dirt lot, and after an afternoon of exploring the many deteriorating buildings, I sort of fell in love with the place. I met some very nice people there; some staying overnight, others just pulling off I-40 to check out a tourist hot spot. Hanging out with Leo for a day made exploring even better, and meeting up again with James and Chelsea was a bonus. The weather was warm, with brief afternoon thunderstorms to cool things off and keep the dust down. I ended up staying 5 days.
There is a great YouTube video about this site at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPF33LUH15o
Thursday morning, I decided it was time to move on. I so totally enjoyed my stay at Two Guns, finding something new to explore each day, but I was the only one who actually stayed more than a night or two. Most (and there were many) visitors, pulled off the I-40, got out with their iPhone cameras, snapped a few photos and were on their way. A few (very few) pulled down one of the gravel or dirt roads and found a secluded spot for the night. I stayed in the dirt clearing where I’d found a skoolie and another van camped last Saturday. They were long gone while I was settled in for the long haul. I decided that I would head into Winslow for the weekend, and if lucky (there is a State Park Campground that is free, on a lake, and first come, first served) maybe stay into next week. Eventually I will be heading back to the Coconino Forest, and I plan to follow the same route back, so I will end up in Two Guns again on my return trip.
The first stop in Winslow was the Sunshine Laundromat. It was clean, with many working washing machines in various sizes. One behemoth touted that it held a hundred pounds of laundry. I’ve not done laundry in a while but I was fairly certain that I don’t even own a hundred pounds of clothes. I settled on the medium-sized one, and put all my clothes in. I used to sort lights and darks. I gave up on that after only a couple months on the road. I have zero white articles of clothing. I do have a lot of bright colors, and a lot of black t-shirts and they seem to get along just fine in a washing machine. One hour and $6 later I was back in the van folding clean clothing. We headed down the street to the Winslow Visitor’s Center where we parked in a space toward the back of the lot. We stayed there last year for a night, and it was relatively comfortable and quiet. Cosmo and I took a walk through an adjacent park and then went back to the van for lunch.
When I got back to the van, I noticed a wet spot under the front end. I wondered if I was leaking something, and I got down on my hands and knees and looked. Yup. I saw a yellowish fluid dripping from the underside of my van. I could tell by its fluorescence that it was antifreeze. I opened my hood and saw a reservoir that was labeled “Coolant.” I opened it and it seemed to be low. There was nothing I could do that afternoon, but the next morning I looked, and it was not leaking. I drove to Walmart and got a jug of coolant, and put some in. When I backed out of the parking space, I checked and I had left a small puddle, so I drove straight to a mechanic (two doors down from the visitor center’s parking lot). They said they were working frantically to get out of there early (it was Friday of Memorial Day Weekend). He said they couldn’t even look at it. He took me inside to see if they could take me the following week. Of course, they were closed Monday for the holiday. The woman in the office said they were jam packed all week, but said they’d look at it Wednesday if I brought it in at 8:00 a.m. I had reservations at a State Park Campground for the next two nights. It was about 10 minutes away. I asked the mechanic if he thought it would be OK to drive there and he said in no uncertain terms “NO.” He said with a coolant leak I risk doing serious damage to the engine and I should stay put. The woman in the office said if I couldn’t wait until Wednesday, I could call roadside assistance and get towed somewhere else, but she had no recommendations for who might take me on a holiday weekend. I drove 1000 feet back into the parking lot at the visitor’s center.
The parking lot at the Winslow Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Center is large, and I had been parked in the back corner. All my boondocking apps listed it as a safe and free place to spend a night. Now I was looking at spending 5 nights. Adjacent to the paved lot was a huge gravel lot, where one truck pulling a very large trailer and one tractor trailer were parked. I slipped in between them, hoping to be as invisible as possible until my automotive appointment on Wednesday. I was sort of bummed at first about missing my reservation to stay at a state campground (with real, hot showers). My friends from Flagstaff were already there staying one night, so I called and offered them a free night. They accepted and I called the campground and cancelled the following night and they gave me a refund. Instead of a campground with amenities, I’d be parked in a lot on the industrial side of Winslow, next to railroad tracks. Then I reminded myself that even though I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, I was safe and in my own home. I explored a nearby walking path and found this:
So in spite of basically living in the train yard, there are some sights to be seen nearby.
Lessons From The Road: I mentioned to Leo about the ranger in Coconino National Forest and the vague threat of having to spend a day in court if I overstayed. He said “Oh, Flagstaff is definitely not vanlife friendly.” Sedona even more so. He said he thought it is mostly wealthy people in the area who don’t want “our type” there. (Leo, unlike me, is a young, handsome, well-groomed Egyptian man.) It wasn’t just the National Forest that wasn’t “user friendly,” but even the Walmarts, known for their hospitality for RV’ers, Vanlifers, and other campers to spend a night in their lot had signs on every light post warning of “NO OVERNIGHT PARKING” and to prove they were serious, they had detailed instructions on how to retrieve your vehicle after they towed it. I spoke to a man staying in Two Guns who was a self-appointed trash picker upper. He told me he had permission of the owner of the land (a Lawyer in Flagstaff) to spend the summer here in exchange for picking up trash. I mentioned Flagstaff and he said “I don’t go into Flagstaff; I do my business in Winslow, AZ.” He seemed to have the same opinion of Flagstaff as not very nomad friendly.
I had encountered this same phenomenon in eastern Colorado. Every rest stop, Walmart, Cracker Barrel, and even the truck stops had large signs saying “NO OVERNIGHT PARKING.” In the grocery store (where everything was extremely overpriced) the Stepford Wives gave me the stink-eye as they passed by me. I noticed quite a few cars with bumper stickers that read “Colorado Native.” Somehow, they thought they were special because their mother had dropped them in that section of the country. It also seemed to double as a warning that if you were not a native, then you might not belong here. I was told that the no parking anywhere in eastern Colorado was because the campgrounds (overpriced and under maintained) complained that they weren’t getting enough business because there were too many free places to stay, so they made sure the politicians did their part to shut down any free camping so RV’s and vanlifers would have to stay in the paid campgrounds. Always follow the money if you want to know the reason behind absurd laws and policies, right?
And speaking of following the money, I got an update on the new rules they are trying to put in place about BLM land use. It’s more vague than ever, but they are having public hearings. Apparently, they got a lot of blowback from campers, so they put in a couple of lines about still making room for recreational use, but what they are actually striving for is very unclear. When I read that A conservation land use lease would be placed “on an equal footing with other uses,” according to the BLM in an effort to “help guide responsible development while safeguarding important places for the millions of people who visit public lands every year to hike, hunt, camp, fish and more.” I was reminded of how many destructive laws have friendly, positive names like Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” (which meant “let’s get rid of homosexuals.”) The part about “help guide responsible development” sure sounds like Big Oil, or some logging company is about to “responsibly develop” (destroy) the BLM lands.
{Just before sending this, I got an e-mail update: The state of North Dakota has submitted an official comment raising “serious concerns” about proposed changes to how the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administers public land in North Dakota. They are upset because the proposed rule is limiting mineral rights. Among the chief concerns is that BLM’s two preferred plan alternatives would withdraw large portions of public lands in North Dakota from mineral development. There was a lot of criticism of Biden’s “misguided restrictions” on North Dakota’s “abundant oil, natural gas and coal resources.” Lots of rhetoric in the North Dakota “public comment” about how we should be drilling to supply our country and our friends with oil instead of buying it from our enemies.”
So apparently, I was correct about big oil being involved, but totally wrong that the Bureau of Land Management was siding with them. I guess it will be oil drilling and strip mining against campers. I wonder how that will turn out?