1/6/18
Happy (belated) New Year all! I’ve had 4 months worth of
adventures since you’ve heard a peep from me on my blog, and that last word was
long-winded, without benefit of pictures. I won’t claim that I’m going to catch
you up on the previous 4 months, with this effort at writing. But I’ll try to
get a short blurb out about what I’m up to now and, in the unlikely event that
time allows, maybe I could try to explain my path of travel during this latest
communication blackout. But no promises. I have a rare opportunity of being
plugged in for 10 days with good internet service. So I thought sure it would
be my chance to catch up on my blog, but the “problem” is, the folks I’m
working with are just way too much fun.
About 6 weeks ago I decided, that after 16 months full-time
on the road, ‘selfishly’ in pursuit of fun, there’d be no better way to start
out the new year than by doing good for others. So, I signed up for a Habitat
For Humanity (HFH) building project. Who knew that by heading to Hobbs, in the
SE corner of New Mexico, I’d be heading for the deep freeze (Hobbs is only at
3,400’)???!!! But more about that later. Getting there meant driving 1,200
miles farther east than I’d envisioned myself traveling, but I was looking
forward to working with HFH.
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A sunrise walk with Jane and Don Streubel, my Tucson (and Driggs, ID) hosts.
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In the weeks before that new experience I started making my way
in that direction. I spent the days leading up to Christmas visiting friends
who winter in Tucson, that I’d first met where they spend the rest of the year,
in Driggs, ID.
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My boondocking site above Tucson for the night between my 2 days of 'big city' chores (Van service, bike repair, Apple store for phone problems).before my social visiting.
Jane and I went riding not far from their home, in Saguaro National Park, West. They, and their horses snowbird to AZ from ID (Tetons) each winter. This ride had much different scenery than the Tetons backdrop during our ID ride. |
I departed their house on Christmas Eve morning (I had many
miles to travel before January 1) and headed south to Madera Canyon; highly
recommended as a good hiking destination.
On Christmas day I hiked to the top
of Mt. Wrightson (a 13.5 mile round trip hike; I took the long way) and enjoyed a
‘forever’ view toward Mexico and back toward Tucson.
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| It's a good thing, when I was figuring out what I might need for full-timing on the road, that I thought to include ice grippers. This section of trail wouldn't have been so bad without them, but there were steep sections of pure ice that would've been treacherous without them. |
The next morning, after another hike, I headed to
Patagonia Lake State Park, AZ; a place
renowned for bird watching.
I would’ve liked to spend more time there, and in
Madera Canyon, but I had a specific timeframe and someplace I needed to be (a
rare occurrence since I took up life on the road). Shortly after I arrived at
Patagonia Lake, a woman I used to work with 35 years ago (OOF! How’d that
happen??!!) called after seeing a Facebook post, to remind me that I was on her
home turf. Or rather I had been.... Alas, I didn’t have time to back track to
the town I’d passed through on my way from Madera Canyon to my lakeside
campsite, and I’d already made plans to meet a man I knew from Fairbanks, AK (who now lives in Tubac in southern AZ) for breakfast the next morning. We were meeting up a bit farther east, in Patagonia, AZ.
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| I squeezed in a sunrise hike in Sonoita Creek State Natural Area on the way to breakfast. |
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| Patagonia, AZ is a tiny town that seems to be filled with interesting characters and a good sense of humor. I met a few characters at the Gathering Grounds, where I had breakfast with my AK friend. Pagtagonia is also on the Arizona trail, so a favorite stop to reprovision for "through hikers", backpacking the entire trail length. |
After breakfast I headed to Chiricahua National Monument in
AZ, via Tombstone, and White Water Draw Wildlife Area,
where oodles and oodles of sandhill cranes winter.
Tombstone is definitely a tourist trap. You can pay to watch a gun fight, get your photo in old western costumes, pay to tour old buildings or take a mining tour.
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| There were lots of different kinds of birds at White Water Draw Wildlife Area. Some of the waterfowl I'd only seen as stuffed specimens when I took an ornithology course a "while" ago. |
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| These photos don't really give a clue to just how MANY sandhill cranes there were! |
An impressive sight to watch
them fly in in such large numbers. I missed being on site as the majority of
the cranes came in for a landing in the fields and shallow water of the area.
Instead, I saw them from a distance as I was driving and they were flying in
from wherever they had been feeding that day. Seeing many hundreds of cranes
flying in v-formation was a good indicator that I was coming up on my turnoff to a dirt road a few miles long.
The cranes were still quite vocal when I got parked and walked closer to where they’d
spend the night, but I imagine the cacophony was far more pronounced as the majority were coming in on final approach and initially getting settled in for the night.
I only had time for one full day of hiking in Chiricahua, but that was enough time to
hike the majority of the trails there. It’s an area with fascinating hoodoo
rock formations.
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| The odd shapes and artful balancing acts are due to different rock types with different erosion patterns. |
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| I hiked the outer loop, into Echo Canyon and Upper Rhyolite Canyon and through the Heart of Rocks Loop. |
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| If I recall correctly, we're looking at "Punch and Judy" rocks. |
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| No surprise, this rock is along the Balanced Rock trail. |
As I continued my eastward journey, I intersected a route I’d
been on 10 months ago and spent 2 nights at Guadalupe Mountains National Park,
TX. I only had time for a short hike on my day of arrival and got to the top of
the highest point in TX (again) – Guadalupe Peak – the following day. The early
part of the hike I was racing the fog up the mountain...
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| Guadalupe Mountains National Park is a great place to hike. When I was here last February, I hiked every trail including some you can see on the mountain across the way in this photo. |
Once the fog filled in the lower valleys on the east side, it’s upward progression stopped, and I had a clear view to the west from the summit and was looking down on a thick blanket of fog to the east, where I was heading next.
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| The edge of the fog, as seen from just below the summit. |
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Looking eastward where the weather will be VERY cold.
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| Guadalupe Peak, high point of Texas. |
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| I couldn't help but think, as I enjoyed the view and pondered the cold I was heading for, that I was overlooking the warm, welcoming west and the evil (cold) east... |
And then it was time to head to the deepfreeze in Hobbs, NM,
where my Habitat For Humanity build would take place. Since my campsite at
Guadalupe was on pavement and I knew I needed to crawl under my van to do part
of the winterization, I started the process there (draining the low points of
my water lines and emptying/bypassing my hot water heater), before I descended into the fog. Since things for Habitat
didn’t officially start until 11:30 a.m. on 1/1/18, I figured I’d stay 1 hour
west of there on New Year’s Eve, since it was going to be warmer. I had illusions
of retaining my running water for one more night, now that I’d safe guarded my
hot water heater by draining all its water. But it was 29 degrees and windy
when I arrived at my campsite at 4pm and the temperatures would only continue
to drop. So I finished my winterizing (flushing antifreeze through all my
plumbing) on New Year’s Eve (reading step-by-step instructions since I've never had to winterize before), and began what will be 2 weeks of no running water
(sigh…).
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m experiencing ‘modern
amenities appreciation training’, just in case I had begun to take the poshest
base camp I’ve ever had (my van) for granted during these last 16 months of
travel. In Nov-Dec, I spent 5 weeks with no refrigerator because the propane
function of my fridge had failed and it was being replaced under warranty. They
had to remove the fridge from my van to diagnose it as irreparable, and it took
‘forever’ for a replacement fridge to be sent to where I needed it. During that time, I coped
with a cooler and melting ice, while remaining somewhat tethered to the Las
Vegas area (where I'd dropped off my van for repairs while I was gone for 2 weeks in October, expecting to return to having a functional fridge and all the annual maintenance done). They didn't diagnose the fridge as dead until the day after I got back. First, a replacement fridge would be there in a week, then 2, then not until January 15 (!!!), which is when Winnebago stepped in and shipped one from their factory, rather than making me wait for the fridge maker (Dometic) to import one from abroad. In the meantime, I couldn't range far from Vegas since I had to return for my new fridge. When I was running out outdoorsy things in the Vegas area, I ranged as far away as Joshua Tree National Park (350
miles from Vegas) for 2 weeks of my 5 refrigeratorless weeks.
After getting my
new fridge and at last being released from my tether to Las Vegas, all systems
were functional again and my posh base camp was back in action. For a while... Round 2 of my
ammenities appreciation training continues in January when, thanks to needing
to winterize for my Habitat duties, my home has no running water for 2 weeks.
My, but I’m rambling here. To summarize, I closed out 2017
by hiking to the top of Texas and learning how to winterize my van. By the time
I got it all winterized and enjoyed a long, hot shower in the campground I was
at, I ate dinner at 10:30 and was still awake reading in bed when 2018 arrived.
I woke up at 3:30 thinking there was one more step I wanted to take for
improved winterizing, so I headed out into the low 20s temperatures in the wee
hours to work on my van briefly. That was enough to wake me up and I wound up
hitting the road for my last bit of travel to Hobbs, NM before the sun came up.
Hobbs is definitely not a place I’d have put on my must-see list. It’s flat,
bleak, oil country; the surrounding area is populated by oil derricks and the occasional gas burn-off
stack. When, at 9:00 a.m., I arrived in Hobbs, at what would be my campsite for the next
2 weeks, it was 9 degrees. Sure glad I winterized!
And that brings me to my Habitat For Humanity (HFH) experience.
I signed up through Care-A-Vanner; no building experience necessary, you just
need an RV of some sort and a willingness to work. A place to plug your RV in
is provided either for free (as in our case now) or at a reduced cost. There
are 6 RV rigs in our group and 9 people. No surprise, I’ve got the smallest RV.
My fellow team members all have trailers of various (mostly large) sizes and
none of them had to winterize (they’ve got insulated holding tanks and water
lines). Only 2 of us are newbies to HFH; the others have been doing builds for
several years and some of them had worked together before. But it was easy to fit
in with our diverse, fun group.
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| The house wasn't enclosed when we started and it was CCCCCOOOOLLLLDDDD! |
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| A kerosene heater helped, and a lot of good humor. |
We’re
all retired. One couple is younger than I am (late 50s I believe, former
teachers). I’m the next youngest, and I’m guessing the oldest might be 70. We
have a jolly, former football coach, a CPA, and various other former
professions (none of which were construction related). There are 2 HFH
construction foremen that oversee what the rest of us are doing, and the Executive Director and
secretary for HFH of Hobbs, that work mostly is in the office.
The foremen have infinite patience in teaching us how to use
the various tools and instructing us on building tasks. My team mates that have
done numerous HFH builds are sufficiently experienced that a subset of us (not me!) can be turned
loose on whatever needs to be done without the need for details. Meanwhile I’ve
been playing with all sorts of new power tool “toys” including air-pressure
nail guns and staple guns, circular saws, jigsaw, palm nailer, and a floor-bolt jackhammer drill. Every day I'm learning something new and it's fascinating to see how a house is built (and all the tricks they've come up with to disguise the work of rookies; like trim boards that span the gaps that may or may not be there when the numerous siding boards are nailed up).
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| It's gotten warmer as the days went on (up to 74) but now the high winds (and dust storms) have come along with a bit of rain, followed shortly by another cold snap. I'll dewinterize my van when I head back to AZ after I've finished this project. |
We’ve been focusing all our efforts on one house, since the other one in the works
is awaiting inspection before we can resume work on it (yay!! inspection finally done during the 2nd week). They managed to
complete 3 houses on 12/21 so that the new owners could move in before
Christmas. What a wonderful Christmas present that had to have been.
Recipients of the houses have to apply and have to be able
to make payments on a 20-year, interest-free mortgage (around $550/month).
According to the Executive Director, the value of the homes we’re building is $130,000 and the
owners get them for $80,000. A fair number of the recipients are single mothers
with 1-4 children. The ‘mantra’ of HFH is “It’s not a hand out, it’s a hand
up”. Recipients must put in 150 hours of “sweat equity” on their homes, or on
some sort of service for HFH either during the build or after they’ve received their
homes. I haven’t met the future owner of the house we’re working on now,
although I think she might be the woman who showed up just as I was leaving
this afternoon. I have met several other owners of already finished houses and
they are VERY happy and keep telling us how thankful they are for the time
we’re donating to help build these houses. One such happy homeowner feeds us dinner each Wednesday, after she's spent the day cooking in her new kitchen, and delivering 120 meals to home-bound older folks.
As I was heading toward Hobbs and realizing that I was going
to need to figure out how to winterize my van, I was a bit dismayed. I’d
expected only ‘warm fuzzies’ associated with my time working with HFH. Just what had I gotten myself in to??? But it’s
really not that big of a deal living in my van without running water for a
while; it’s not like I don’t have experience with that (11 years in dry cabins
in AK and Chile). The
progress we 8 people (& 2 construction foremen) made in our first week is
impressive (1 of our volunteer group of 9 helps out in the office). Not only am
I enjoying seeing how a house goes up and learning to use all sorts of new
tools, I am really enjoying the company of my fellow teammates. There’s a great deal of good-natured teasing and laughter that goes on as we work. And each
evening we gather in the “club house” (HFH office) to play games of some sort
and the fun banter continues.
Because Hobbs is a dismal place and has no satisfying outlet
for me to get much exercise (I’ve been walking 4-8 miles each day after we’re
done work, but it’s boring city walking), after our ½ day of work at the end of our work week (Saturday), I pulled the plug and left my group to play elsewhere for our 2.5 days
off. I headed back in the direction of Carlsbad and will explore Sitting Bull Falls National Recreation Area tomorrow
(boondocked outside the gates tonight) and then probably head to a campground
outside of Carslbad Caverns National Park tomorrow night (for a real long hot
shower). My HFH pals may head to the caverns this weekend and if so I’ll meet
up with them. If not, I’ll be back in time for our Monday 5pm potluck gathering
and another Tues-Sat. work week for the 2
nd half of my HFH
experience. (They wound up going to the caverns on Sunday and I didn’t get
there until Monday.)
I’m told by those with previous HFH experience that I
started my HFH experiences at one of the best places as far as friendly HFH
staff that make you feel like part of the family and provide a comfortable
living environment for we Care-A-Vanners (electric and sewer for our rigs, and
internet and laundry – all free). If my
teammates weren’t such fun and wanting to socialize in the evening, just think
how much I might have been able to catch up on with my blog with easy access to good internet? Oh well… I have no
cell coverage where I’m parked tonight and my van is rocking in the wind, but
I’m sure I’ll sleep just fine and will get to explore a new area tomorrow.
To continue where I left off; I'm now 2 days into week 2 on Habitat. It's too nasty out to go for an after work walk so I'm going to get this finished and posted. AMAZING, huh? Dinner for all and games tonight and tomorrow night, so I don't know whether I'll have time to get another post done, catching up on the 4 month gap after my last post and before this "episode" started.
Life on the road continues to be a great adventure that I'm thoroughly enjoying, despite a few glitches -- the fridge episode, learning to winterize, and my first tiny ding in my van (someone must've really nailed me with a car door to leave a mark like that. It wasn't there when I hand washed my van while in Tucson and now my poor NATWWAL has an owie :0(. But I guess, after 30,700 miles of driving, it was bound to happen.
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL! MAY 2018 BE A FANTASTIC YEAR, at least on the personal front. I find it a bit amusing (and maybe a bit sad [???], but oh-so-necessary!), that we were told we were not allowed to discuss politics during our Habitat For Humanity service. Good idea!!!! We might not all agree on the current state of affairs.
