Friday,
April 20, 2007 7:02 AM
What an odd night. No one ever came and stayed in the campground.
291 spaces, just me. There are no pay envelopes in the Pay
Here both, and the camp volunteer's rig is here, but no
volunteer. The campground is stunningly beautiful, in a
large part because of the contrast to the surrounding desert.
Three people drove in, one used the rest room and two drove
through. Maybe it was because I was jumping up and down
going, "hiya,hiya,hiya." Probably spooked them.
Next time I'll use snares.
Here is a link on boondocking in Walmart - overnighting
for free. This has been done to death if you're an RVer,
but this
blog has a sweet and interesting view. He boondocks
with his cot at the end of his Mazda, outside on the tar.
TJ sent an interesting quote from Monsanto that make my
teeth ache. I always enjoy it when Empire is just perfectly
honest. “Monsanto should not
have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food, our interest
is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety
is the FDA’s job.” - Phil Angell, Director
of Corporate communications, Monsanto, New York Times, Oct.
25 ‘98. Empire at it's best!
OK, pictures from yesterday and this campsite at Echo Bay
on the Northwest shore of Lake Mead, Overton Arm.
Big
head big sky and Lake Mead looking north over my shoulder.
It's a hot sun even at 72F.
Right: these flowers bushes are all around me in Upper
Echo Bay Campground. Burros have been eating them but
I thought they might be Oleander. Despite lots of Burro
"sign" (shit). No burros last night. |
 |
My
spot last night and this morning. |
This
beautiful brand new road is the North Shore road through
the Lake Mead Recreation Area. Almost no traffic. Brand
new tar, truck running great, Booker T and the MGs on
disk, diet pepsi in the holder. |
 |
100
yards from my trailer due south, the mesa behind the
Campground collapses very steeply (the picture does
not do it justice) to a wash. Far in the distance is
Lake Mead, the marina, and the same bridge bay houseboat
rentals I used to see on Shasta. Take a look at the
light colored base to the dark mountains across the
wash - this is the normal water mark, about 75 -100'
above the current level. This wash was filled and the
houseboats use to be taken out right at the left middle
of the picture - that is a road. This area is covered
with burro tracks/paths that come straight up the sides
of the wash. They are very good on their feet apparently
as there are no burro bodies at the base of the cliffs. |
 |
I'm
standing right on the edge of the wash trying to give
you a better idea of the beauty of the dry river winding
through. Not Eugene is it? |
 |
Me
enjoying being in the park all by myself, yesterday.
I am right on the edge of the wash, behind me are
cliffs a couple of miles away that form the edge of
the wash.
I
was still happy to be completely alone, but it got
kind of weird, like a Twilight zone episode when no
one else at all showed up.
By 5pm I realized I had the place to myself and took
the motobicycle and set up a race course through the
park. It has a lot of nice tar so I decided to see
how fast I could get through it. After about five
timed courses I gave it up for night. Just a waste
of gas. It was fun though.
I
did go down to the little store by the water. There
was an ambulance hauling someone out, and park rangers
and cops. I realized of course that I'm in Nevada,
and I don't know the rules about my motobike here.
I had no shirt, just sandals, no helmet - and was
flying by. I pretended to pedal, but no one was fooled
- especially on the uphill. They just waved. |
Thursday, April 19, 2007 7:09 PM
Rick sent me a link to remind me that April 22nd is EARTH
DAY! Follow the link, there is good stuff there!
Thursday, April 19, 2007 12:27 PM
Thursday, April 19, 2007 7:11 AM
I working my way today toward the Valley of Fire and the
Lost Cities museum in Overton. It will take me three days
as I want to reach the museum when it is fully staffed for
the weekend. They have recreated many of the pueblo indian
artifacts, homes, tools, weapons, and have gardens planted
with original foodstuffs of the area. I want to see all
of it, especially the diet and the seeds. But I'm just dawdling
along, and will only go about 30 miles today to a campground
($10) to take on fresh water and dump my tanks. After that
I will boondock through the weekend near Overton and then
have one more night at a $10 campground. I've been looking
at weather this morning, and after this cold front moves
off the southwest I'll think about the canyon rim more.
Overton is too far north for a south rim approach without
a great deal of backtracking, so I may let the canyon go
this year and slide southwest, always staying in the sunny
sweet spot of 65 -85 degrees for a high, and NO freezing
allowed.
Yesterday Phil sent me a link for a site that helps you
figure
out your Myers Briggs personality type. I did it, it
is brief and therefore very generalized and I didn't like
the second questions choices - they seemed mixed for me
- but hey, it's free. I come out as INFP which seems to
mean I'm a girl. At least I think it means that.
TJ sent me a link to a book on Amazon that is a guide to
eating up everything and all the resources and crushing
your fellow man in business and life and war. It is a guide
to the fungus amongus who wish to keep eating the world
up until only they are left with a burned out cinder. How
could this book not be an important addition for the
fearful grasping self defended elitist pigs who will never
be rich enough or fat enough until everything is dead, polluted
and neurotic/psychotic. Like them, I give it a thumbs up
for death of the planet. I'm sure it is selling well.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 1:53 PM
Who gives a flying fuck about the Virginia shootings? Sorry,
but if I know you, you don't know them. It already happened
- it is over. What good does it do to tell us more than
once? Why are we interested in knowing so much, so much
detail? Don't give me that. It doesn't prepare you or I
for anything. If it did you would be moving your children
out of public education and teaching them to defend themselves
and think and ACT in a crisis, and insisting that all the
teachers be armed. But we're not doing that. No, we're simply
getting bombarded with every horrible example of what humans
can do to each other. Hey, put too many rats in a cage and
they kill each other too. We are being consistenly programmed
via TV and internet to teach us only one thing. It is the
ONLY think that EMPIRE cares that we learn. Fear.
A fearful population will vote for ever more restrictive
controls on personal freedom. Then YOU will provide more
and more power to an out of control executive branch, and
create an ever more Orwellian society. Fear is the thing
sold by politicians and the media, wrapped as love, concern
and care. The first group needs fear to loosen your purse
strings and cloud your mind, the second because the media
does best with small things made large, cheaper and easier
than large things made sensible - like the wars for resources
in the middle east, or the national debt, the housing bubble,
the absurdly worthless dollar.
As horrible as it might be for the parents and friends of
those kids in Virginia, it is nothing compared to what is
happening all around the world, every day, in the name of
energy. So be afraid, be very afraid, read every word, attend
to CNN and FOX, pass laws that would make the children even
more docile, more shootable. OR don't be suckered. Turn
off the TV, and if you must frighten yourself to feel alive,
search on the very things that will be your own personal
nightmares. Medical insurance collapse, super staff infections,
super antibiotic resistant pnemonia virus. sterile seas
devoid of fish, melting Greenland icecaps and the fact that
your house or houses will be worthless or foreclosed on
in your lifetime. If you want to be frightened choose something
real, not something on the other side of the country that
you can do bumpkas about because it already happened!
But hell, the last fish isn't dead yet, and we haven't pumped
that last cheap gallon of ethanol into your hummer, and
if you stay out of the hospital we probably won't kill you
with staph, so, shit - YOU'RE right, lets read more about
a KOREAN who killed students. Yea, Korean, hmmm. Do they
have some of our oil under their dirt too, the dirty bastards?
You
really don't need to borrow someone else's misery, there
is plenty to go around if you want to look. Kill your TV
because it is certainly killing you.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 12:04 PM
I've begun to actually enjoy having people to talk to. That
has taken 4 and 1/2 months to happen. I actually talk to
them and wait for them to answer and have interest in what
they think. I was so burnt out for so many years that there
was very little joy in the press of people, thoughts and
the conflicts those thoughts brought. Hmmn. That is not
to say that I haven't been verbal, interactive and excited
by so many conversations, its just that I always had to
overcome a small resistance, a mental exhaustion, to participate.
Now that is much less, and quiet people don't make me as
nervous.
A wind storm continues this morning and is due to blow itself
out. I'm still at Government Wash and will be here through
tomorrow as Dave, my nephew, is due to stop by one last
time. Then I will head northwest along lake Mead to boondocking
near Overton. Next Wednesday temperatures will hit 77F for
one day at the south canyon rim and I'm headed that way
for that day! Maybe more than one. The Grand Canyon has
been a mystical place of immense silence for me for years.
This will be my third time to it's edge.
A quote that is apropos this morning.
"Giving others the freedom to be stupid is one of the
most important and hardest steps to take in spiritual progress.
Conveniently the opportunity to take that step is all around
us every day."- Thaddeus Golas
I am often that person around you who needs that freedom,
the freedom to be stupid. I wish you all the idle time you
need for spiritual growth if it means I have the freedom
to be stupid. I look around, and smart ain't getting the
boat down the river.
A quote
from Ran Prieur's website - from Kurt Vonnegut (I miss you
already!)
"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand."
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 6:32 AM
A t Government Wash, north shore of Lake Mead. The camping
is free, inside the park. $5 to get into the park for three
days. It seems that if you don't leave the park you can stay
14 days, because it is only coming in through the park gates
and kiosk that your taped receipt is looked at. Nearest food
is about 12 miles, nearest water (unknown portability) is
about 300 yards. Dumps? Don't know yet. View SPECTACULAR all
around. Neighbors - about 50 RVs are here. Several hundred
to maybe a thousand could fit, some areas are rougher than
others. If you drive slow you can get down to the water. I
like being able to see everything. The lake stretches out
to the southeast, and all around are mountains and bluffs.
Very different than Q, there is crystallized gypsum (selenite?)
all around, and bleached white fresh water clam shells from
when this used to be closer to the water. The boat launch
ends over 1/4 mile from the water. From the end of the boat
launch you would not know that there was a lake, that's how
low the reservoir is, and has been for many years.
Temperature
- no clothes after noon to 8pm (except shorts because I'm
withing seeing distance of other neighbors). Right now it
is a pleasant 60F or so.
 |
Out
of Vegas into heaven. I'm overlooking the lake parked
on a bluff overlooking two arms of Lake Mead. It is
big sky country. Above I was taking a picture of my
feet laying on the bed and got a mountain in the way,
ruining the picture. |
This was my first view of the lake coming into the park.
I'm only about 23 miles from my nephew's house, yet
there is a tremendous change/relief in leaving Las Vegas.
I don't do well there. I'm lost, small, don't fit. Here
I can breathe, hike, bike, and look at geology. I'll
get some pictures of the lake itself today.
|
 |
It
is a beautiful morning, the sun has just come up in a cloudless
sky. Even though I can breathe into this place I still have
to take care of the mundane details of mobile existence.
In order they are - level enough to sleep? Check. Water?
Not yet, I have 3 days more of water on board). Place to
dump grey water? Illegally, legally, always a question so
normally I just dump my daily grey water on a bush at night
and all traces are gone in the morning, however here I'm
on a hill top which makes it more interesting. Finally snacks.
Not check yet. I carry about 3 -6 months of beans and rice,
powdered milk and then several weeks of Mountain House freeze
dried, and various canned foods for a few days. Luxury for
me means RO water (reverse osmosis water for drinking),
diet pepsi (bad dog), and milk. (Ok maybe a bag of chips
or peanuts too!).
So today I will walk around and find a garrulous local,
like myself and extract that information. I could find some
of that on line, but you always get the most current info
from the local fauna.
Party on chicklets!
Sunday, April 15, 2007 6:15 AM
My last full day in Las Vegas! I'll have time to begin Gary's
solar article tomorrow, look for it in the preparation section
under medium solar install (tomorrow!). Rick
sent a link that is fun. Take the test if you dare,
it took me about 15 minutes and I got 70 percent right.
Phil sent a letter regarding the Global Warming Swindle:
I
was unable to watch the video but I was able to read
transcripts of it. It brought up many questions that
I have been puzzling over for several years. One is
the fact that when the Vikings colonized Greenland,
it was covered with lush grass. That was why they called
it Greenland. Also when they discovered the eastern
coast of Canada they called it Vinland because of the
wild grapes they found growing there. Thats over 500
miles north of where they grow today. This tells me
that the climate then was even warmer than today. I've
felt for a long time that the climate change that we
are experiencing is part of a natural cycle, all the
evidence I've seen points to that conclusion. Is man
having an effect? I think that we have accelerated the
natural cycle but we are not the direct cause.
The truth is that it makes no difference who or what
is responsible, its happening regardless and we need
to deal with it. All the finger pointing that has been
going on is meaningless. Each of us will have to deal
with it in our own way. What it boils down to is each
of us accepting responsibility for our own actions and
our own life, we can not accept responsibility for anyone
else. The burden is simply too great for one to accept
responsibility of many. philip |
Friday,
April 13, 2007 7:14 PM
Here is the link to the Great
Global Warming Swindle which Gary sent me, but just
now I could not get the link to work, but it did yesterday.
Perhaps Google Video pulled if off - it was very long 1
hr and 15min. Only attempt it you have high speed internet
access. Gary thinks it makes some good points and that the
truth is somewhere between this and Al Gore's movie. I didn't
get to see all of it so I won't comment.
Wow, I just googled "Great Global Warming Swindle"
and what a tempest. It is a UK film just released that says
CO2 is not the culprit. There is a huge backlash as film
was made for Channel 4 in the UK which takes on polemics.
I think google killed the video I linked above but you can
read the film's positions in the many posts.
I'm in Vegas and and I've been visiting with my brother
and nephew and I'll see Steve, my second nephew and his
family tomorrow. Tonight I went over to the Casino and strolled
around. I might as well be on a different planet. Posting
will remain light until I'm out of Vegas and back in the
bush somewhere. Hard to think here, lots of conflicting
thoughts. The weather is beautiful, despite the mud storm
of yesterday.
Thursday, April 12, 2007 8:32 PM
I'm in Vegas on Boulder Highway at Sam's Towne RV. The ride
up included a mud storm just south of Henderson. A state
cop led us through the dust mixed with rain soup, and side
winds of over 50mph. So much for the nice was job in Parker
yesterday. Mud on everything.
I've been talking with my brother and his wife and one of
his sons until just now. The trailer is not yet hooked into
the dump or electric or water, but really I don't have to
worry much about any of that except once in a while.
It is good to be completely energy independent. I'll dump
the tanks before I leave. I am looking forward to the endless
shows tomorrow morning. The other odd things are that it
is cold - 50 degrees or so, and I have clothes on. I haven't
had Levis on for months, feels odd. It will be different
tonight to sleep under the quilt instead of on top of it.
It was good to see my brother and his wife today. My brother
and I are getting closer as we get older. We spent time
remembering the scenes of our childhood and early job experiences.
I haven't thought about those for a long time. But now that
it is quiet and dark I have that feeling of having left
something important behind, and that in some ways Quartzsite
is more my home than Eugene. I am more a creature of the
warmth than of the cold, though I am looking forward to
getting some work done on the website in the next couple
of days. Gary has sent pictures of his solar installation
which is basically the medium solar installation that I
began on the solar pages so long ago. He has also sent a
link - the push back on Al Gore's "An Inconvenient
Truth" that says global warming is a fraud. I'll put
that link up too.
Empire will not go quietly into the night and the corporate
earth munching machine of capitalism will protect itself
and say it "ain't so Joe" right up to the last.
Disinformation will exponentially increase as the need to
keep you doing what you are doing, consuming, working, paying
debt becomes more critical to corporate america's survival.
We are at the end of an era of man and the death of the
corporation, capitalism and Empire will be retold for thousands
of years by the survivors. How many survivors? Now that's
the question.
Thursday, April 12, 2007 7:29 AM
Where is Alan today? Longitude: 114.3623W Latitude: 34.59318N
Pictures today - I'm a traveling man. Posting will be light
for the next three days.
 |
Dawn
in Craggy Wash. I climbed up to one of the small peaks
and watched the sun begin to light the canyon.
In
the picture below, left you are looking back towards
SR 95 - right hand upper corner is the valley with
the Colorado, and just a mile down to the south is
Lake Havasu, fuel, water, dump, etc. |
 |
This
is Craggy wash, and I am saddened that I have been
traveling by it for three years and didn't know it
was here. It is unmarked until after you are off SR
95. It is just north of the airport on the east side
of the highway. It is a wash that runs up into the
mountains. It is free and you can stay 14 days. It
is pretty empty now and some of the lumpenproletariat,
my people, look like they might have exceeded their
14 days. Normally I have come down from the north
from Barstow in one long step all the way to the casino
in Parker and stayed on their tar, sloped, lot and
then gone down to Q. That makes one long driving day,
and from now on, anytime I'm around here - this is
the spot. |
I
took the motobike up the road about two miles. It
winds up and up and there are natural pull offs constantly
on both sides. A mile further the canyon walls close
back in and it is quite and even more beautiful. There
are tent campers up there.
Since
this is a free area, there is no dumpster, water,
or dump. There are those things about a mile south
in the northern edge of Havasu.
I'm
head off to Vegas, 138 miles from here in about an
hour. It will be a leisurely drive with stops as I
need to reach Sam's Town RV park in Vegas at 1pm for
the check in, and then I'll meet with brother and
the family. |
 |
You might want to note the longitude and latitude. The
entrance just looks like a pull off with no markings.
However you can see a power line with RV's under it -
that is the beginning of it. Once you're off the tar it
is obvious. What is not obvious is that you should not
stop in the first few hundred feet. The road and camp
sites go for at least two miles and it is quiet and very
beautiful up in the wash. Easy driving, not washboarded
slightly uphill. Recommended!
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