“I met a friend of spirit
A drunk with sage’s eyes
As I sat before his sanity
I was holding back from crying
He saw my complications
And he mirrored me back simplified
And we laughed how our perfection
Would always be denied
“Heart and humor, and humility”
He said, “Will lighten up your heavy load”
And he sent me then to the refuge of the roads.”
~Joni Mitchell ~
Click here for Sunday Morning Soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWgpgjNHnIM
When I left my spot at Wellton Canal, I drove east to Painted Rock Petroglyph Campground. The apps I use said it would cost $8 a night, so I planned to stay for a couple of days. I got there and there was no one to collect a fee, but there was a QR code to scan to pay online. The QR code had been hijacked and led to several “deals” that you could “Easily cancel if you are not satisfied.” Otherwise, it would continue to charge you a monthly fee. I had fallen for this once before so knew better this time. I went to Recreation.gov to try to pay and (as with nearly everything the government is involved in) it was convoluted, vague and in the end not working. As best I could figure out, this was a paid campground only through mid-March. After that I guess they think it is too hot and they don’t bother having a camp host or sending rangers to check. So I found a spot and stayed for free. There were half a dozen other people camping in a campground that had about 50 designated spots. They were mostly spread out so there was plenty of room. On my second day there, I met the man parked closest to me. We sat and talked and shared a joint. He is from Alaska and comes to this spot every year. He is an amateur archeologist/anthropologist, so he offered to take me to the petroglyph site (easily walking distance from our spots). He had a motorcycle, and I got my e-bike and we drove over. He gave me a tour as if he were the docent of the site and gave me lots of insights into who drew what, when they drew it and why. It was fascinating. He also (like a good tour guide) offered to take my photo.
After my geology lesson, Linc asked if I wanted to ride with him. I explained I wasn’t very good on my e-bike yet and told him about my catastrophic fall in Quartzsite. He assured me we’d go slow, and he said it was a safe way to get some practice, as he’d be there in case I encountered any problems. We went out on the asphalt. It is a road that nobody would be on unless they were coming to camp or see the petroglyphs, so in our many rides on the road, we only encountered one other vehicle. Since we were riding side by side, Linc used his rearview mirrors and alerted me to a car coming behind us. We pulled off until they passed. I got to really play with the throttle on my bike. The bike offers three options: I can ride it as just a bike (no assistance, and very hard to pedal) or can use assist while I pedal (still a workout, but makes going up hills doable) or lastly, I can ride it as a motorcycle, using the throttle to propel the bike. On the road, I used it as a motorcycle, and got up to 20 m.p.h. I got a lot more miles under my belt (about as many miles here as I’d ridden it in total before). It was really fun and I now feel so much more comfortable riding it.
Linc was only there three days, but each night we went riding and each night stopped to see the petroglyphs and he’d explain more to me about the people who made them. Some ancient, and some more recent (1800’s). He was a good tour guide.
He pointed out that the ancient ones made a distinction between male and female figures. The males all have three legs. LOL. If you look, you will see them. Not to be outdone, I left my own petroglyph (as I almost always do) at my campsite, but modified my usual drawing slightly to let future campers know that it was not a woman staying here with her dog.
Linc left early Thursday morning. We hadn’t spent very much time together, but I was sorry to see him leave. I’m truly grateful that he encouraged me to push my limits with my bike. It is now much more useful to me.
Lessons From The Road: Last week I talked about how often I meet damaged people on my journey. This week was polar opposite. Linc was my ideal neighbor. We sat and chatted one afternoon. He was polite, kind, offering me beer, water, an occasional toke. He is well traveled and seemed to have lots of knowledge of various topics. He came for breakfast the next day, but didn’t stay very long after eating. We went riding each night. It was the perfect combination of having company, sharing experiences, and giving each other lots of space.
I’ve also been very aware this week just how much I’ve settled into this life. It’s seldom the scary adventure it was my first year or so on the road. I have plans to meet up with friends south of Tucson in early April, and have some tentative camping spots picked out, but am able to be pretty flexible about when I arrive at each stop and can even entertain the thought of skipping some of the stops all together if I want to stay longer at different ones.
Linc and I had several talks about gratitude. I focused on that this week. It made me realize how much I have, what an amazing life I’m living, and how many kind people are out there. I just need to keep my focus on the kind and not the crazy and everything will be perfect.