There's an intersection with a stoplight where I turned into this boondocking area where I'm at now. This building is built on that intersection with the stoplight and looks to me like an almost finished truck stop. One thing I find confusing is on the left side there's a tin structure that looks like a farmers silo, and even though I've spent a fair amount of time, and nights in truck stops, I can't think of a reason for something that looks like a silo at a truck stop.

If nothing else this should point out how little we full-timers have to worry about in our daily lives.

I walked around the boondocking area where I'm currently staying this morning, and didn't see any signs indicating what this land is. Is it BLM, is it private land, or is it school lands. My best guess is, private land will usually have no trespassing signs, BLM land will have signs at the entrance indicating it as such, and there's often no signs designating school lands. So by the amount of people staying here, on both sides of the road and it being physically a lot of acreage, I would guess that it's Arizona school lands which you are allowed to camp on if you have a $15 a year permit, which I do.

Having determined what this land is, and having spent a peaceful day and a quiet night, I've decided to spend another night here even though the weather is beautiful, and the wind is calm, perfect for driving.  I figured that anything going on in Wickenburg or Congress is not important enough for me to be in a hurry to get there. After all in the full-timers world "the destination is not the reason for going from one place to another, its to see what's in between."

Theboondork

Part of the boondocking area I'm in. It's a big place with plenty of room for everybody.

if you look away in the back of the picture you can see more boondocker's back there.

This contraption is a Turtleback Expedition and its made in Arizona. You can tell it's built for expeditions because it has knobby tires, and military style colors.

I looked it up on the Internet and this thing actually costs about $45,000 depending on how it's equipped, but mostly it's just a pop-up tent camper with an outside kitchen.

It's sitting about 100 feet from me so I'm hoping These folks aren't already on their expedition because I most certainly am not prepared for an expedition, quest, mission, or even a slight adventure, I'm just living my everyday life eight miles from a Walmart.

But if it does turn out I'm on an expedition and don't realize it yet, at least I'll know where I can get a couple of knobby tires.

This SUV with a tent on top kind of looks like one of those new Ford Broncos, but I can't tell for sure, and he left before I could get another picture.

Sunset last night. Not very interesting, but probably the last one I'll see at Ben Avery's for a while.

 A beautiful day today, but it was a little breezy, so it wasn't a perfect day for traveling, but like I've said in the past, the only place I like better than where I'm at is where I'm going.

As I pulled out of Ben Avery gun range onto the main road, I could turn left on the highway that would get me to New Mexico, or I could turn right toward Wickenburg, Arizona, and some excellent boondocking, and even more just down the road from Wickenburg in Congress.

 I chose to stick around Arizona for a little while longer. The weather being just about perfect lately, had a lot to do with my decision, and there might even be some wildflowers blooming down Wickenburg way.

But after leaving the protective hills on two sides of Ben Avery's, I ran into a headwind that was a little strong for my liking. I could've kept going. It wasn't a dangerous wind or anything like that, but it was cutting into my fuel mileage, and with the price of fuel nowadays, I like to avoid that if possible. So about 15 minutes down the road, I spotted scattered RVs parking in the desert on both sides of the highway, which screams BOONDOCKING to me. And since I was in no hurry, with no place I had to be, I pulled in and made myself at home.

I was in Wickenburg earlier this winter and had the oil changed in my truck. So now, once again, I will be in one of my favorite places to boondock. Somewhat less of a favorite than when Box Wash was a place I always stayed, but since that's being turned into a State Park at the moment, I reckon I have to resort to plan "B" and boondock on some of the State School Lands in the area and try to forget about the freedom of boondocking at the legendary Box Wash, which is in the process of becoming a place with fees, rules, regulations, and the deepest cut of all...Freedom killing, spontaneity destroying....Reservations.

But while looking on the Internet about what was going on in Wickenburg, Imagine how thrilled I was discovering a rodeo going on in Wickenburg this weekend; I couldn't believe my luck. Reading about the rodeo on the Internet, it looked great until I got down to the small print, which said this is a PRCA rodeo and no video or professional cameras allowed. Well, that's a bummer, but soon as I saw it was a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeo, I knew my camera wouldn't be allowed. So even though I like to watch a rodeo, taking pictures is part of my enjoyment, and if I can't take my camera, I won't give them my money.

Oh well, I'll probably head to Wickenburg tomorrow morning if I don't decide to spend another night here.

Theboondork

Buffeted by the wind this morning, as I was heading for Wickenburg. I saw these folks boondocking a hundred yards off the road and decided I would get out of the wind and join them. The wind stopped blowing before lunch, but I liked it here and decided to stay for the night.

Sometimes horses get all twitchy when  the gun is fired, and the rider has to hold on for dear life. Notice his rear end is nowhere near the saddle.

Since there's no projectile coming from the gun, only hot gases and burning powder, there's no recoil from the weapon so even small women can shoot without any problems.

My last mounted shooter picture. So now I have nothing else to show and I need to get busy taking some pictures, of what I don't know.

I leave Ben Avery's tomorrow morning and probably won't return here until next Fall. I always miss staying at Ben Avery's because it's one of the few places I live where I feel totally and completely safe, and the fact that the local police, including Federal LEOs, have a training facility a couple of hundred yards from me that is not only shooting in the daytime but also training at night. And the fact that everybody around me is armed has much to do with my warm fuzzy safe feeling.

Since I've been here for about two weeks, it takes a little more time for me to get everything packed up and ready to travel. If I'm going to be someplace for less than a week, I normally stay packed up and can be prepared to leave in less than 10 minutes, and that's because my home goes with me when I go to the grocery store, so I can't let things get too out of place.

I still don't know where I will go, and I haven't even decided whether I want to stay in Arizona for a while longer or head to New Mexico and finish my winter travels there. Either way, I need to find a place to be for the Easter holidays early enough so that I don't run into any crowd problems; all I have to go on is Elephant Butte State Park in New Mexico, is packed with people on  Easter weekend. Is every campground full of people on Easter weekend? I don't know, but I don't want to take any chances.

Theboondork

When a girl sees me pointing a camera in her she will almost always smile. Guys never do.

A lot of the lady shooters tend to be of the older persuasion around grandma age. I get the impression that some of these ladies were barrel racers at one time but maybe decided to do something on a horse a little less competitive than the barrels.

 The mounted shooters carry two guns, which is mandatory because there's always more targets than there are bullets in one gun, which is six, hence the nickname six-shooter. And it takes so long to load a single action revolver that reloading is out of the question, so two guns are needed, as is two easy to access holsters.