A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS in Earp, CA.

UPDATE:  We have a new A/C on the rig....Waiting for Walmart to stand good on their promise of reimbursement.

A man of all seasons or a man that makes his own.  "I’m anti social!  The government wanted me to die for their beliefs."

Spike, a man for all seasons, an avid reader of philosophy with the mental agility of a bounding Gazelle and a horticulturist that grows his own.   “My pick-up is my home and tent my castle.  At 71 years I'm proud to be a minimalist and anti social.    He brings to mind a line from the song, "Me and Bobby McGee" by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster , “Freedom’s just another word for nothin left to lose.”

He quotes Bertrand Russell, “I would not die for my beliefs, I might be wrong.”  I agree with Lord Russell *and* I would not die for your beliefs because I know you are dysfunctional, in denial, and wrong………"

                                                 Writing a Haiku for the occasion.  
           
                                                                    Cultural Heritage
                                                                    Primal metaphors
                                                                 Dysfunction wed with denial
                                                                   Fearsome fantasies
                                                                             "Spike"

Two new outfits on the Earp Flats equipped to communicate with the rest of the world via ham radio.
When the lights go out from grid failure we'll be asking these fellows for help.

                                                   HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE.

CHRISTMAS PRESENT FROM THE PHOENIX WALMART ~ caveat emptor

An oil change, repair spare tire and check air pressure in the outer right rear dully was what we asked for.  What we got was our Christmas present from Walmart.

My internet buddy Andy  http://www.myoldrv.com/?p=1679  refers to what I call "half assed" as 80% ers.  An Andy'ism, "One of the problems with this country is lowered expectations. I deal with it everyday with employees and vendors. 80% effort seems to be enough to get by — and they always have a most excellent excuse."  I totally agree.

The bright bulb that drove the rig out of the bay "just assumed" the door was all the way up.  Let me tell you an exploding air conditioner shroud makes a BIG noise.  Of course he was sorry, after-all he'll no doubt be in an unemployment line next week. 

Co-manager arrives, fills out half of an accident form, leaves and returns with Big Cheese manager to sooth the customers feathers.  Quote manager, "We give the claim to our insurance company and it's out of our hands."  WHAT?  The manager doesn't know her employer  Walmart doesn't have an insurance company, they are self insured.  I stayed gentle, almost calm, keeping Big Cheese on track for reimbursement of a new unit and making sure they knew these old folks would hang to this like a dog does a meaty bone. She ceased her gooey cooing after my first bark and settled down to brass tacks..

Tire pressures on checkout bill read 35 PSI.  I found the guy that entered the bogus readings (should have read 80 PSI.) and requested he bring his hose back out and *do it again.*  Not even close to 80% on this one, Andy. Get this, the same guy that clipped the AC told me, "Just because the tire manufacture says 80 PSI doesn't mean you should fill it full"  After I almost yelled, "WHAT," he backed down and continued up another alley, "Must be this damn air pressure gauge is reading wrong, I'll tell the guys so no one else has a problem."  I suggested he use that little thing in his shirt pocket called a tire pressure gauge. "Oh no, 80 pounds would blow it right up, it only goes to 75."   I give, shake my head and walk around the rig "sounding" the tires with a rubber mallet.

Icing on the cake:  The crew fixed the spare but forgot to put it back in the bay.  Darn good thing Jackie asked if they fixed it when we were no more than a block from the shop.

Store manager, co-manager and automotive bay workers.

Adios and Caveat Emptor

We found a mobile repair guy Parker, AZ that will replace the AC but WOULD NOT agree to have anything to do with Walmart. He said, "It took me 7 months and $175 worth of attorney's fees to get   paid on my last go-round with Walmart.  So, it's cash on the barrel-head at completion (This Tuesday, with luck.) and we'll be the ones duking it out with Wallyworld.

$1,060.00

BOUDIN KING CAJUN WAY in CROWLEY, LA

I very much doubt the restaurant's cuisine had anything to do with Santa's zonked condition across the street from the restaurant.  We ate there, fried okra, gumbo with a side of battered catfish and lived to give it GREAT reviews.  I think it was the heat that done-in the old guy.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN IN VICKSBURG, MS ~ 2013

When we leave Northern Michigan each year our direction is determined by weather.  Too much snow or ice in one part of the country, we go the other way.  This year, the year of "Dion the Storm" we had little choice but to just roll south and duke it out with one of the worst, back to back, weather fronts in many years.

Finally, after four days we've left the storms behind and somehow landed in Vicksburg, MS again this year. It's still cold here by southern standards but a far cry from the northern norm.

One hundred and fifty years have passed  since May 1863. Motels and fast food joints abound, or litter, depending on your perspective, the area of encampment and battle that so profoundly change the course of the War Between the States.

                                    MEMORIALS FROM THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG.

Canon keeping the riff-raff at bay.

ON THE ROAD TO HOME

Dawn arrives on time here in Stevens Point, Wisconsin...no sun, just damp gray clouds.  I ask the same question every year, "Why do we come home before the snow has melted?"  One more day of driving the blue-roads and home is where we'll be. Yes, things could be worse, a lot worse, just take a look around the world, there is a lot of crazy crap happening out there.

I won't post all the pictures of my latest lifer birds since last update....about 25 new...so here's just a few pics of life on the road to home.

Homeless Danny in his tent, waiting-out a 48 hour cold rain.  I took him a bowl of hot black beans. 

What a crock of crap, we all know there ain't nothing free, especially 72 oz of beef steak....Hmm, unless maybe they are collecting roadkill.  To me it takes a dumb-ass to put up a sign like that and a dumb-ass to believe it.

Another roadside attraction makes me smile.

With 5 mules and Jesus as your friend, life on the road is probably better than living in the suburbs.

These are things that scare the crap out of me.  Someone better start paying attention or we'll be owned, lock, stock and barrel by self-serving corporations. 

As long as the government can keep the working stiff's belly full of some kind of crap-food, and the TV blaring for distraction, they (the masses) will not complain.  Wake up America, wake up!  No, make that "Wake up world."  Monsanto is about to take over.

Silos full of Monsanto, genetically modified corn soon to appear on a plate at your table.

That's it folks, see ya next winter, if someone doesn't turn out the lights in the meantime.

"STUPID IS WHAT STUPID DOES"

Spring often brings the unexpected weather pattern and this year was no exception.  In Springerville, NM we awoke to find a lovely blanket of snow spread across the 7,000 Ft. elevation.

Oh the incongruity of it all. No bike riding today.

Snow, seeing the bright side, can be beautiful in the mountains.

This Ferruginous Hawk (a new lifer for me) didn't seem to mind the snow.  Might have even made finding his breakfast a little easier.

Whoever the revved-up cowboys or cowgirls were that shot up this sign need to have their guns taken away.  "STUPID IS WHAT STUPID DOES."  

Salt deposits of Laguna Del Perro along Hwy 60 New Mexico.

A little south of Magdalina, NM, out by the fairgrounds, sitting in the sun for the past 20 years, we found this amazing 90' installation of recycled mixed media by Holly Hughes. The town touts not the forgotten art. Holly has moved on to greener pastures.  Where?  Maybe she'll see this and give me a shout.

The endless barren stretches of Highway 60, once a major east-west corridor connects a few hardscrabble towns lain near ruin by dust, time, railroad consolidation and Interstate 40.

SHOW LOW, ARIZONA

A nice couple of days in Show Low, AZ at the Fool Hollow Recreation Area.

Arizona Gray Squirrels were everywhere and much tamer than wildlife should be.

Western Blue Bird another lifer for me.

Gray-headed Dark-eyed Junco a little further south than is normal.

One of the abundant Acorn Woodpeckers.  A lifer for my list.

Western Banded Gecko.  Notice the little legs...Look close.

Enjoying the sun, a lizard eyes me suspiciously.

An old conifer still beautiful many years after it quit producing needles.

An old Blue-shirted Duck enjoying activities with his device, camera and afternoon cocktail. 

COOLING DOWN

Leaving 90 degree days and sweaty sleeping nights we head east and north to higher elevations with home our direction.

We find a nice BLM spot on Vulture Mine road about a dozen miles south of Wickenburg, AZ.

We're alone in a meadow of Teddy Bear Cholla, Saguaro and Creosote Bush.

Jackie builds an obelisk of white quartz saying, "I've been here

and I create a feeding station to attract the birds~~~No takers.

Leaving the dirt trail and back on the paved road we see a driveway entrance with a couple of large metal Vultures.  Well it is, after-all, Vulture Mine Road.

We move on and skirt Phoenix to the north and east and spend a night at Superstition Mountain, Lost Duchman Mine State Park. Beautiful!

Rugged and huge, a great place to lose a mine.

 Strawberry Hedgehog cactus with a startling display of flowers.

With the wet spring even the Pancake Prickly Pear is blooming.

Lifer bird, "Bullock's Oriole.

Another lifer, "Western Scrub Jay.  *Photo by Jackie*

Headed further NE into yet higher elevations.  The sun is more intense but the furnace-like heat has past and the nighttime temps are in the mid 40's, good sleeping.

Arkansas oil spill~~You know this can happen to any one of us.