Kitty and I continued to stay at our perfect little spot near Williams, AZ. It is BLM land, and it’s HUGE. We had parked in one of the closest spots from the entrance, but we went to the right and most people entered to the road on the left. We could see other campers “across the way” from us, without feeling like they were too close to us. Our space could easily hold 4 or 5 vans, and it was nice to spread out with trees between us; we were close to each other and still had plenty of privacy. We chose a stand of trees with some shade to set up a table and our chairs.
We spent the next week mostly doing nothing. We seemed to have figured out, without saying a word, plenty of time together, the right amount of alone time, meal coordination, etc. It was just easy. Sometimes we sat and talked; sometimes we just sat. Cosmo always found a shady spot between us and just hung out waiting for lizards to come out of the rocks or climb a tree. The weather was nearly perfect. It was sunny and warm during the day, with a nice breeze blowing through as we sat in the shade. At night it went down to about 50, which is ideal sleeping weather for me. We always walked in the morning and at night and we met a couple people on “the other side.” Nice. Easy.
The full moon and total eclipse were a highlight this week, even though we had mostly cloud cover. I had my camera and tripod out and the moon came up behind clouds, showing only a hazy patch of light. We still turned our chairs facing it and watched until it was completely eclipsed. We got brief glimpses of it as clouds moved past, and then covered it again. But by the time I went to bed, I looked out the van window and saw it clear as day, bright red in the eastern sky. It looked like a scene out of a sci-fi movie; a foreign planet, glowing red and lit from the bottom. When Cosmo and I went out for our good-night pee, we lingered a few minutes to take in its beauty. It felt to me like one more connection to this amazing universe I inhabit. My friend Richard shared a few photos of his view from Signal Hill, CA.
Kitty saw a raven one day and threw her apple core out in the field to see if he would take it. Minutes later he swooped down and flew off with it in his mouth. We spent much of the following days tossing him pieces of fruit and a some almonds. Kitty named him Edgar, and we kept moving the food scraps closer to us to see how close he would come to get fed. I think we would have had better luck had Cosmo not tried to eat him every time he swooped down close to us.
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I woke up this morning at 5:00. I had that vague anxiety I often get on “moving day.” I’d so enjoyed our spot on BLM land near Williams, AZ and my time with Kitty and the laid-back feeling of having absolutely nothing to do for a week. The near-full moon had not yet set, but the sun was just about to peek over the mountains in the east. I got up and made coffee and realized that I was not really anxious, but rather sad. Kitty was going back to Yucaipa, and I had told Marcos I’d meet him in Flagstaff today. I didn’t feel like driving; didn’t feel like moving at all. I got oatmeal and fruit and sat outside with Kitty as she sipped coffee. Neither of us had much to say. I had turned the water heater on in my van, and she offered to let me borrow her portable shower tent. We moved it over next to my van and I got an outside shower before we finished packing and left.
The ride to Flagstaff was (fortunately) uneventful. I stopped for groceries, and then contacted Marcos and let him know I was in town. He is a therapist and works via zoom and phone. He was at a dog park in Flagstaff, and I met him there. Our dogs played and he had to take a phone call. When he was finished, we went a few blocks into the heart of Flagstaff and ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant. He headed back to the Dog Park for a full day of appointments (the cell reception was better there, and his dog could play as he worked) and I went to the BLM land at Lake Mary, just outside of Flagstaff. I found a spot easily and am surrounded by tall pines. I can see neighbors off in the distance, but we are very spread out.
Marcos is just about a half mile down the road. After he got finished work, he and his dog walked down through the woods, and we had a drink together.
At lunch Marcos and I briefly discussed where we’ve been and where we were headed. We were both pretty vague about where we are going because neither of us really knew, but almost at the same time, we mentioned needing to go to South Dakota this summer. We laughed, knowing the only reason for that must be to register our RV’s. My Delaware tags expire in September and my Delaware driver’s license expires next January. South Dakota is the cheapest, easiest place to register an RV and has extremely simple ways to get and renew driver’s licenses. You can register for a mailbox through various companies, and they will send you the forms for vehicle registration and driver’s license transfer. You have to stay in South Dakota one night to be eligible, and once you do it, you can renew driver’s license and tags remotely, or have the company who provides your mailbox (and thus your new address) do it all for you. So, I’m probably re-routing once again. It makes no sense to drive north to Idaho and then head west to Oregon and down the CA coast when I will need to be in South Dakota at some point before September. I’ll be relatively close in June or July, so may as well bite the bullet and drive a bit further northeast and get it over with.
I’ve spent some time plotting routes and looking at extended weather forecasts. The good news is that if I drive through New Mexico and up through Colorado, it should be relatively cool (mid 70’s to mid-80’s) during the day for the next month, and in the 50’s at night. Of course, weather.com can’t seem to guess the weather this evening with any accuracy, so I’m not certain they can predict the weather in Idaho in mid-June. I’ll keep monitoring as I go.
I had intended to stay only a night or two here in the National Forest, but it is so beautiful, and I’m so secluded, and I really don’t have any place I need to be (Other than getting to South Dakota before the end of September), so I decided to settle in for a few more days.
Cosmo gets to be off-leash more often since no one is around. We get to practice his recall skills and he’s learning to enjoy the game of “touch my hand.” I allow him to wander a bit, call his name and hold my hand out. He comes running, touches my hand with his nose, and is always rewarded with a treat. I sure would like to be able to trust him off-leash always, but his strong prey drive prevents that. He is good 99% of the time; the other 1% is always life threatening as he chases a bull, or anything with wheels and tires (He once tried to eat the tire of a motorized wheelchair, with its occupant rolling quickly past us.)
Lessons from the Road: I realized this week, after being in one spot for 5 days, that I hadn’t thought at all about where I’d be heading next. I knew when I arrived in Williams, AZ that I’d be “heading north” before I cut across to Oregon and northern CA for the summer, but I hadn’t done much planning as to which route I might take. Normally, when I camp alone for more than a couple days, much of my time is spent plotting not only where I am going next, but also where I am headed generally for the next few weeks. I’m pretty certain I’m heading to Oregon, but I’ve not really given much thought this week, either to timeframe or routes. I think that’s a good thing. I need to learn to be more spontaneous.
I think I’m gradually learning to slow down. I’ve vowed from the time I bought my van that I wouldn’t set any deadlines, and I really haven’t set any hard deadlines. But I have always known where I’m heading next, and always have a rough idea of when I’d like to get there. Often it is narrowed down to a specific weekend, or maybe a bit more vague like “by next week.” I’ve had a bit of a shift this week. I know I want to go to Oregon and down the California coast by way of South Dakota (that is an extremely round-about way to get there). But I really don’t have any time frame at all. If I plug in the route that I intend to take, the Weather Channel’s extended forecast shows mid-70’s to mid-80’s for most of the summer. Barring any extreme weather conditions, or forest fires, I can mosey along at a snail’s pace and when I find a spot I like, I can stay up to 14 days (Most BLM land has a 14-day limit, I suppose to prevent people from living there permanently. I’ve never seen this enforced.) I usually get antsy to leave after about a week, even in gorgeous spots. I guess I know there are other gorgeous spots calling my name.