“There’s a crow flying
Black and ragged
Tree to tree
He’s black as the highway that’s leading me
I’ve been traveling so long
How’m I ever going to know my home
When I see it again
I’m like a black crow flying
In a blue, blue sky.”
~ Joni Mitchell
The news this week is mostly about weather. The heat in Two Guns was unpleasant and about to become unsafe. We’d gotten a reprise most afternoons when thunderstorms came through, but some afternoons they were brief and torrential, leaving the ground steamy when the sun returned before sunset. In my past stays in Two Guns, it used to cool down once the sun set. This week the lows overnight were often in the mid-70’s making sleeping uncomfortable at best.
I was thinking of returning to the forest in Flagstaff where the temperatures are 10 degrees cooler, but upon checking in with nomadic groups, the consensus is that if you are in Flagstaff, you are stuck—either because the roads are so flooded/muddy that you can’t get out OR you tried to get out and are now literally stuck in the middle of a muddy forest road. I thought of retreating to Winslow. Unfortunately, it is much hotter there than in Two Guns. I decided it was best to stay put for a bit and keep an eye on the rain situation in Flagstaff in case I need to move due to extreme heat in Two Guns.
The storms did provide some great photo opportunities this week:
We also had several visitors:
On Tuesday, I was getting antsy for a change of scenery. I had to go into Winslow for water so when I returned to Two Guns, I decided to drive up on the ridge above and across the canyon from the tower. I’d stayed there before and it was a great spot.
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By Friday the heat was becoming unbearable. I knew it was inevitable, but I stayed in Two Guns as long as I could. I packed up early Friday morning and headed to Flagstaff, north of The Snow Bowl (Skiing Resort). I decided to be brave and take a Forest Road I’d not been on before. Apparently, the rains had been light this week. The main forest roads were dry and the “two tracks” off into the forest were mostly dry as well. I went pretty deep in. Being Friday, many of the weekenders had already set up camp. I drove past most of them and took a side road/trail and found a good spot. It was closer to the forest road than I like to be, but I didn’t want to get too deep in on a dirt road as the rains this time of year are so unpredictable. I don’t want to get trapped in mud. And although I see some off-roaders passing by, I cannot see any other campers from my spot. I’m in a clearing in the middle of trees, so I get the tall pines to keep me hidden, but plenty of sun during the day for my solar batteries. I’ll stay until Two Guns cools off enough for me to return.
Lessons From The Road: Now that I (mostly) have come to terms, psychologically and emotionally, with what “home” means to me, there comes a new wrinkle: Apparently, I need a legal definition as well. I’d not dealt with this in some time. Five years ago, I drove to South Dakota, stayed in a motel for a night and took that motel receipt to the SD DMV. That receipt gave me the right to “domicile” in the state, and thus I could get a SD driver’s license and SD tags for my van. BUT…I still had to declare a South Dakota address to put on my license and registration. I found a company that would give me such an address and forward my mail. It cost a couple hundred dollars a year, but I didn’t see a better option. The company not only made things quite complicated, but they also did a terrible job of forwarding the only mail I’d ever get through them, which would be from the SD DMV. It was like pulling teeth to get them to send my new plates to a friend in California so she could bring them to me when we next camped together. My second year on the road, I bypassed that mail forwarding company completely by renewing my SD tags online and having them mail my sticker to a PO Box in Ehrenberg, AZ. It went without a hitch, and I did it again the following years. Realizing that I was paying a mail forwarding service hundreds of dollars to forward nothing, I cancelled that service a couple years ago. All was well until, for whatever reason, my van insurance decided they should mail me a copy of my new policy even though we have done everything online for 5 years. The letter was sent to my non-existent mail forwarding address and of course was “returned to sender.” My insurance company e-mailed me and wanted to know where I’d moved. (I thought of sending them a map of my travels for the past 5 years but figured they wouldn’t appreciate my attempt at humor.) Turns out you must have an address to have a driver’s license in this country, and in some states, even a bogus address (mail forwarding service) will work, but you cannot use “Forest” or “Desert” as your home address.
I got things straightened out temporarily by using my friends’ address in Prescott Valley, AZ for my mailing address, but my South Dakota driver’s license expires in January. I can only renew it by driving to SD to have a new photo taken for my new license and I’d once again have to show proof that I have a South Dakota address. Not willing to drive up to SD and stay in a motel, and buy another bogus address, I’ll use my friends’ address in AZ to get my new license and AZ plates, but there are hoops that must be jumped through to prove that I have a permanent address in Arizona. Since I don’t, this will be a challenge, but will be doable.
I follow several nomadic groups online. One in particular has railed against homelessness being illegal. One of his arguments is that the government requires you to have a permanent address, thus forcing you to either rent or own property. He also argues that the government wants to be able to find you at all times, and to lock you up if you don’t comply by having a permanent address. It is, to me at least, a fairly valid argument and a very strange concept.
And finally…My happy song of the week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbJcQYVtZMo