R.I.P. Candy

Sorry to report that Candy passed today, after a good 15 year run, the tumor we had been fighting for the last 7 years begin to incapacitate her leg, and another operation was no longer option. Love ya Baby Girl... 

Silver City, and a Parker Lump?

My plans were to spend the day exploring Silver City. After all it is where the legendary Billy the Kid was raised, and the grave site of his mother, along with plenty of other historic facts. Well my day of exploration all came to a sudden halt when I picked up my mail.

Three whole envelopes, a $3 rebate check, a letter from the Apache County Assessors office valuing my acreage at $862 for tax purposes, which is a great deal taxes should be under $10 again, and a envelope called the Parker Lump.

Interesting indeed! A buyout offer from my previous employee I give up my pension, they write me a pretty substantial check, so after a lot of pondering I determined no matter how you look at it, at the end of the day its basically a gamble.

 Who knows what could happen in the next 27 years? It could be gone by then, a days worth of faxing, phone calls, and gathering documents. I decided to roll it over into a IRA to avoid a tax hit, and manage it myself. One big step towards financial freedom. Heres a few pics I did manage to grab.....

Managed to visit a good friend. One of the first people I met on the road.  Thanks for visiting! Good Day!

City of Rocks

 My home for the next two weeks at The City of Rocks

First impressions of the New Mexico state park pass is that this thing a purty darn good deal! Upon arrival I located my site. Notified the Ranger of my two week stay. Filled out the proper paperwork, and couldn't help but smile when I wrote the big $0 in the total amount due. A heckuva good deal considering the rest of American shell out a average of $800 a month on rent.

All campsites are located within walking distance to the vault toilets, and most are a short journey to the hot showers if your willing to wander through the labyrinth of gargantuan rocks. Verizon cell phone is three bars of 4g on the booster, and wanders from 3g to 4g without it. Heres a few more pics...

 Candy showing off her campsite

The City of Rocks was created 34.9 million years ago by a volcanic eruption. Then over millions of years, erosion sculpted the rock formation we see today. The eruption was from the Emory Caldera centered near Hillsboro Peak at the southern end of Black Range. The eruption was estimated to be a VEI 8.5 Eruption. All credit to wikipedia

Conical hole

The Mimbreno Indians settled in the are about 750 to 1250 AD. Pottery, arrowhead, and other artifacts show evidence of prehistoric Indians in the area. Indian well, or conical holes, are found in rocks where water would be allowed to collect. All credit to wikipedia

  Camp

 Full- size pick-up in the distance

 Labyrinth 

Panorama 

To view on mobile or full screen click here

Here's a slideshow with some more pics of the area. Thanks for visiting! Good Day!

New Mexico State Parks Pass

Decided to take a year off from  Arizona, and purchased the New Mexico State Parks Pass.  For a mere $225 a year (non resident) I am allowed to stay at any of there 29 state parks for up to 2 weeks, then you can either leave for a week before returning, or move on to the next one. 

Elevations run from 3000' to 8500' and most the parks are on lakes, or reservoirs, and from what I've been told by the great nomadic masters a majority of the parks have hot showers, and other facilities. Not a bad deal for $0.62 a day 

Not the best pic, but all state parks highlighted in green, and elevation's for each of them written down a good tool to avoid the cold, and beat the heat. Departure should be early next week waiting on one last item in the mail. Then my 9 month adventure begins. If anyone knows of any parks with zero cell service it would be great to know, it is my lively hood. Thanks for visiting! Good Day!

Bog Springs Campground Madera Canyon

Usually don't pay to stay, but still waiting on a few necessary item's in the mail, and the valley below is beginning to heat up. Decided it was time for a short excursion into the hills.

Bog springs campground is located 13 miles southeast of Green Valley,AZ in Madera Canyon. Cost is $10 a night. Each site has garbage, water, bear box, and picnic table. Vehicles over 22' are not recommended, but saw some larger rigs up there. Pets are welcome as long as there leashed, and there is a ton of hiking trails. Verizon switched from 3g to 4g. Sites are limited around 12 I believe, so weekends can fill up quickly. Here's a few more pics...

Paved roads to every site.

My view

Hiking trail

Overall was a good stay. I'll be back on that occasional winter day when temps heat up. Thanks for visiting. Good Day!

Dirty Drawers

4 years 1 month, and 28 days of living in the Arizona dust, and the kitchen/family room/bathroom/bedroom drawers had developed a layer on them that even the toughest arsenal of cleaners could not remove. No need for pictures. Time for a remodel, so after about a 2 second decision of whether to build, or buy new ones I was off to wal-mart 10 minutes, and $11.88 later I had purchased my new cabinets even got black this time. After another 10 arduous  minutes the removal, install, and transfer of previous items was complete. 

New cabinets

Also added 2 more batteries for a total of 4, which should get me thru the cloudiest days of monsoon season.

And to top it off. No pun intended. I installed a flow-rite battery filler, which makes topping off all 4 of the batteries breeze especially in such confined areas.

Hiding out at the folks for the weekend as temps in Tucson are reaching the upper 80's, no complaints as I am well aware what the rest of the country is still experiencing. Waiting on a few more nomadic tools to be delivered before my summer adventure starts. Thanks for visiting. Good Day!

Update: Was just informed of the passing Of Leonard Knight R.I.P. For those who don't know his work he spent a majority life building Salvation Mountain.

Memory foam

Already 3 1/2 a months in Tucson, which as far to long for any nomad to linger in one spot, but the downtime, and living free rent has allowed me to save a few bucks, and let me work on my list of much needed upgrades. Well worth the wait in my opinion. More solar, more batteries, and finally getting rid of all those lil green cylinders.

Solar's been been working great haven't had to use the generator since the install back in November. Until maybe today, when the weather went from sunny, and 80 to cloudy, and 60, but ill take it over the so called polar vortex that looms over the rest of the country.

 After sleeping on a popped air mattress, or basically a piece of plywood  for over a year. Finally decided to pull the trigger, and purchased me a queen size 3 inch memory foam mattress topper. Some may think queen size is a bit overkill, but hey it fits!

Candy concurs memory foam kicks the heck out off a plywood any day of the week. That's it for now. Thanks for visiting! Good Day!