“Yeah, no. Once I woke up with a rat on my chest and I was startled. In hindsight, bro, I should’ve maybe just vibed with it, you know?”
~Overheard at the Hot Springs
Another easy week staying at the Hot Springs. Once again, I drove into town on Tuesday morning, got water, propane, a few (too many) food items and of course, a donut at the Mexican donut/breakfast burrito shop. Strange place, but delicious donuts and coffee. I have come to enjoy my adventures into town. It’s close, easy and I have found everything I need.
The weather has been all over the place. It was in the low 90’s at the beginning of the week, then dropped down to highs in the upper 60’s by the end of the week. We had extreme winds a couple of days, rocking my van hard enough at night to wake me up and blowing down my solar panels more than once. Windy days are perfect days at the hot springs. Most people stay locked up in their rigs, so there are few people over in the pools. The pools are very hot (averaging 106⁰) so on hot days, it’s tough to stay in for very long. But on windy days, I soak until I feel light-headed, then scoot up and sit on the side of the pool. The wind on my wet skin cools me down immediately, and in a few minutes I can get back in and start over. I did that several days.
This will most likely be my last full week here at the springs. I want to visit my friends Deb and Barry south of Tucson, so that means doing some planning. Since my goal is always to drive for about an hour or hour and a half at a time, I’ve started looking up places to camp along the way that are fewer than 100 miles apart. I also like to stay at least 2 nights (longer is preferable), so I sort of figure out an approximate date I’d like to be somewhere and start plotting stays along the way. My dilemma for the coming week is do I want an easy drive or nicer places to stay? Can I do both? How far off my direct route shall I go? I hope to see Deb and Barry the end of the first week or beginning of the second week in April. I have to plan beyond that, because from there it could get tricky. I will work my way up to Flagstaff again, stopping to see Barbara and Lark in Prescott Valley. By the beginning of May, it might be unbearably hot in southern AZ, but could also still have frost in Prescott Valley, and will certainly be too cold for Flagstaff until at least early June. I’ve also looked beyond Flagstaff. I want to go back to Two Guns, AZ, halfway between Flag and Winslow. It is one of my favorite places to stay. I also heard about a lake in the Winslow area that is on BLM land. I would love to stay near a lake for a little bit this summer. I’m also considering going into New Mexico or Colorado. Bisti Badlands was one of my favorite stops a couple years ago.
I may venture there again this summer. My recollection is that I loved being in Bisti Badlands, but it was not a pleasant trip to get there. We’ll see.
Now that it’s ending, I am realizing what a luxury it has been to stay in a place for an entire month, and have gas, food, water, propane and DONUTS only 15 minutes away. When I move, not only will I need to plot a course for the next stop but I will have to research places along the way to get potable water and propane and food. The route(s) I am taking will keep me distant from major towns until I leave Deb and Barry. From there, I will be passing through (or trying to go around) too MANY major cities.
Lessons From The Road: My ongoing New Year’s Resolution is “Be Kind.” If I cannot be kind, I’ve promised myself to at least be quiet. I’ve been extremely quiet on many of my visits to the hot springs this week. The young, religious, “woo-woo” men apparently have moved on and in their place are young, loud, screechy women. Like the young men, they have a severe case of Main Character Syndrome. They seem to think that life is one big YouTube channel, and they are the stars. They enter the hot springs area with a flourish, being sure to wave and shout across the pools at someone on the other side, loud enough to disrupt any other conversation going on, making sure everyone in the entire area looks up and notices their entrance. They then find a willing “victim” (usually another needy woman, but often a horny young man, willing to endure their pontifications in exchange for being in the presence of large breasts in tiny bikini tops.) They (the young women) go on loudly, mostly about me, me, ME. The two things that stand out is that they have extremely high-pitched voices. Screechy. I don’t think it’s a natural thing, but a learned habit that pierces the air like an air raid siren. The second thing that is becoming more and more prevalent is a nasal quality. I’ve noticed that on YouTube videos. Most young women I encounter are “up talkers” ending every sentence in a rising tone, as if asking a question. But over and above that is a nasal tonality creeping in. It is clearly a learned or maybe even practiced quality. I’m not sure why that’s become trendy, but it makes the already loud, screechy, uptalking even more annoying. I have changed my times that I go over to the hot springs in hopes of avoiding them, but unfortunately, one (or more) often show up during my visits. The other day one of them, started in doing her “Look at me show” with a middle-aged woman who quickly got out of the pool, put on a robe and left. The screecher decided that I would be a good audience, probably because I was the only other person there, and came over to the pool I was in and said “Do you mind if I join you?” I said nothing, but held out my hand, palm up welcoming her to an empty spot. I laid back and closed my eyes. She started. “I see you here every day. I live in a van. I’m a nomad. I buy jewelry and sell it at swap meets. I guess you could say I’m a nomadic sales woman…” and she laughed a screechy laugh as if she was so entertained by her story (which I’d already heard 3 times on previous performances for other people in the pools on other days.) She’d yammer for 5 minutes, and, annoyed that I wasn’t hanging on to every word, would ask a question like “Are you staying nearby?” I’d respond, “Across the street.” That apparently was enough to use as proof of life and she would once again go right back to her monologue. I just continued to sit back with my eyes closed. It only took her about 15 minutes to realize I was not responding and that I had zero interest in her performance. Having annoyed the few other guests into leaving, she had run out of people to perform for, and she said “Well, I guess I’ll go back and sort my jewelry. I have to go to work this weekend…” and she rambled on for a few more minutes and when I didn’t respond she finally said “OK. Well you have a blessed day.” It was like fingernails on a blackboard to me. I just said “OK. Take care.” She left and my ears stopped bleeding.
Since all my life chores take less than a couple hours on Tuesday mornings, that leaves me with way too much time to think. Being over at the pools much of the time, often with nobody that I particularly connect with, I listen. I’ve always been fascinated with language, and I’ve noticed this week how much English is mutating. Nearly everyone under 30 starts sentences with “Yeah” and very often with “Yeah, no…” It’s also the new replacement for “uh” as a “filler” when you are talking and need to take a pause before continuing. “Yeah” is also used when someone is rambling on and you want to indicate that you are politely listening. You just nod and say “yeah.” I have discovered that it works best if repeated 3 times in rapid succession. It shows that you are not only listening, but really on board with whatever the other person is preaching about. I think that people (young people especially) often don’t really converse, but rather just take turns giving their monologues. They really have no interest in listening to anyone. It’s just something that must be endured until it is their turn to reveal their life history. Sometimes two talkers get together, each waiting for the other to take a breath in their rant so they can jump in and do their monologue. More often it seems that a talker and a “listener” (voluntary or involuntary) pair up. The talker goes on and on and the “listener” just needs to say “yeah, yeah, yeah” every few minutes. The hot springs seems to be a crossroads for those who lack grammatical skills, scientific knowledge, and the ability to use critical thinking. After four weeks of it, it is mostly just background noise to me. I suppose I’ll miss it when I move on and find myself once again far from other humans for weeks at a time.