While boondocking in Congress Arizona a few days ago, I visited the old 1800's Pioneer Cemetery and took a few pictures as you might remember and put them on my blog. Then, late that same afternoon, I walked up to the old Pioneer Cemetery with my infrared camera, to see if there was anything I could take a picture of along the way. It wasn't very far, and I got there just as the sun was going down. I was wearing my headlamp because I knew I would be walking back in the dark, and even though I got there when the sun was setting, I could still see okay.

As I ambled up to the parking lot where I had parked my truck just a few hours ago, I walked up to the gate and snapped a few pictures of the inside of the cemetery.

I didn't want to walk inside the cemetery because there's a lot of cactus and other pokey things  growing there, and I didn't want to take a chance of tripping and falling into some of it in the dark. When you're in a cemetery at night you never know what you might trip and fall into.

As I turned and walked back into the parking lot, I thought I heard a faint sound of someone speaking; it was a deep male voice that sounded like it said, "we're ready now" I turned around and looked back at the cemetery and didn't see anyone, and even though what sounded like a voice gave me the creeps, the wind was blowing a bit and that can make strange sounds, so I didn't pay any attention to it, snapped a picture of the cemetery parking lot and gate, turned on my headlamp, and walked back to where the bronco was boondocked.

Putting the pictures into my photo editing software, the first five pictures looked normal, but the last one made my heart race and gave me an overwhelming desire to get in my truck and leave as quickly as possible.

Staring back at me was the expressionless faces of those long dead but unable to find a final resting place. A family that had suffered a great tragedy losing a loved one in this godforsaken desert wilderness. Unable to come to terms with their loss, they're forced to relive this burial over and over again, possibly until the end of time.

Maybe not everyone gets to witness this tragic apparition; it appears this family was waiting at the cemetery for their picture to be taken in remembrance of their deceased family member, but something happened, and the picture was never recorded, which added to the tragedy of their loss, and meant that the family will now have to wait forever at the gate of this lonely burial ground.

So now possibly anyone that shows up with a camera at this forlorn, all but forgotten cemetery will hear that deep voice repeating, "we're ready now," hoping to get that one picture of the entire family together for the last time before committing the loved ones body to lay forever in this desolate, abandoned, desert cemetery.

                                                 Theboondork

My view of part of the Laughlin casinos strip from my boondocking site behind the Tropicana. The Hot Rod show is in the parking lot on the right side of this picture closest to me. There's not many folks still there when I took this picture.

Boondocking at the Pioneer casino was a really noisy location on a Friday night. The boondocking area in the parking lot is right next to the main street that runs right through the middle of the "Strip," and since I was only about 50 feet from the main road, all the traffic going by and the people walking by became something I didn't want to deal with for the remainder of the weekend.

 So I drove across the street to the Tropicana and boondocked in their back parking lot, far from the main road with two 20 story buildings between me and the street to block the noise. And as luck would have it, that put me only about 100 yards from the Hot Rod show so I could walk around the show whenever I felt like it, and back to the bronco and relax whenever it got too hot.

I walked over to the show just about dark and took a few pictures of the cars and the Halloween costume contest at the end of the car show. And it looked like everyone had a great time.

I think I'll hang around here until the weekends over and leave on Monday. I don't know where I'll go, and I haven't given it much thought, but I'll figure it out before leaving. I want to go someplace where it's peaceful and quiet, and I can unwind from the crowds and noise of a casino town for a week or so.

By the time I was in junior high school, the Ford Edsel had become a joke. And the word Edsel was applied to anything and everything that didn't work right. But now among vintage car aficionados there both collectible and loved.

This guy loved his old Chevy cars so much that he made an operating miniature. I don't know why, because these old nineteen fifties Chevys are ugly to almost anyone else.

This is the classic 1932 hot Rod. All the fenders have been removed, the hood is gone, and there are just two seats. Put in a flathead  V-8 and you had a hot rod teenagers of the nineteen fifties would love to get their hands on.

Customized interior of an absolutely beautiful 57 Chevy.

If you've ever wondered how the trunk of a car got its name, well this is it. In this A model Ford the trunk really was a trunk, and where the trunk normally is on a modern car, on the A model Ford it was a two-person seat called a rumble seat.

A special surprise tonight...... at 9 o'clock tonight my time, or 2100 hrs. military time, but better known as Pacific time, I'm going to publish a special bonus blog post. Two blog posts in one day? I am if nothing else, prolific. I actually wrote this bonus blog post about a week ago but I didn't know when, or even if, I should publish it. But today seemed like, the day.

This is a snapshot from yesterday, the Hot Rod guys are still arriving at the Tropicana.

These are a few things I've put together about what I do and don't like about the bronco. I'm sure there's other things I haven't thought of yet, so I'll keep adding to my list as time goes on.


1--- No more stress pulling a trailer through heavy traffic. And that makes my travels better right off the bat. Less stress in any part of life makes life better.

2--- No more choosing an RV Park based on having pull-throughs available.... During my life, I've had motorcycle trailers, boat trailers,  three 5th wheels, and I'm still terrible at backing up. And it looks like I'm not going to get any better at my age.

3--- No more worries about finding a tire store I can fit into.

4--- No more concerns about low-hanging branches, and as a boondocker, that's more of a problem for me than for most RVers.

5--- I'm not bothered by those low train underpasses; if I have 8 feet of clearance, I'm good to go.

6--- I can park downtown if I need to and take pictures of old buildings while traveling without blocking everybody up with a trailer.

7--- I don't have to leave the fifth wheel somewhere to go scouting for a boondocking spot; I can take my home with me and stay when I find a place I like.

8--- I can park in a regular parking spot at stores that are open  24 hours a day and not look like I'm camping.

9--- Less stress in my life because there are fewer mechanical things that can go wrong. The running gear on a trailer is a never-ending source of concern, weird magnetic brakes, antique ball bearing wheel bearings, that cars haven't used as wheel bearings since I was a kid. And tires that can wear out quickly and explode at the worst possible times.

10--- I can go places I wouldn't dream of going pulling a trailer. There again, if you're not a boondocker, that's no big deal, but for me, it's kind of important.

11--- My fuel mileage is 60% better than towing the Arctic Fox. And with rising fuel prices into the foreseeable future, that means more to me today than it did last year; for instance, I passed a truck stop on I-40 the other day, where diesel fuel was $4.09 a gallon. Those are fuel prices that used to be strictly for the unfortunate folks living in California, but it looks like due to our current administration, California is coming to the rest of the country.

12--- I can drive the speed limit, which means I can get there sooner, so I'm less tired when I arrive. A good example is attending this Hot Rod show. If I had to drive 200 miles, at a maximum speed of 60 miles an hour, which is what I do in the Arctic Fox. With fuel costing me about $3.75 a gallon now, I probably wouldn't have attended the car show here in Laughlin. But being able to drive the speed limit, and getting better fuel mileage totin the bronco, made it worth going, and that makes me happy.

13--- Without a trailer, I only have one tag number to remember. Small thing but with my memory, every little bit helps.

14--- No more concerns about backing into a tight campsite, or not being able to turn around on a dead end road. You don't know how bad my stomach does flip-flops when I discover me and the Arctic Fox are not on the road we should be on, and I don't know where this two lane Farm Road ends up.

15--- The Arctic Fox has so much room in it that I've been filling it up, unintentionally of course. Mostly because it's big and has an almost 4000 pound carrying capacity. The bronco has forced me to live with less and at this point in my life I feel that's a good thing. There is simply no space available in the bronco to have more than I absolutely need.

16--- No more worries about when I'll be able to leave. I can leave if it's windy, I can leave if there's traffic, I can even leave if it's snowing if I feel like it.... I can leave whenever I want to, and that's called freedom.



For the average RVer who stays in RV parks and only moves a few times a year, trading living space for higher mobility is probably not worth it. But as a boondocker that enjoys changing locations, I feel in my particular situation, it is. So are their downsides?.... absolutely, everything has a downside.


1--- The most obvious downside is space; I don't have much of it...    Rebuttal,    I've had lots of space, and right now, I don't feel that I need all that much anymore.

2--- In an RV Park, the broncos social status is one step above a tent. Not big nice tents, but some tents like two man Walmart tents...  Rebuttal,   I DON'T CARE. And I don't spend much time in RV parks anyway. They laugh at me because my RV is so small, I laugh at them because their RV is so big.... I guess it all evens out.

3-- If I got stuck away from my family during another pandemic, with my severe lack of storage space, it would be harder to stock up on food supplies as I did for the Bat flu when I was traveling last winter.... Rebuttal,    maybe that will never happen again.

4--- Putting the top on the bronco up and down gets old real fast...   Rebuttal,   maybe one day, a hard-sided truck camper will solve that problem.

5--- One thing that annoys the heck out of me is having to move or rearrange something, so I can get to what I need. For example, if I want to get my coffee cup, I don't want to have to move three things before being able to get it. And unfortunately, the Bronco's lack of storage space causes things like that to happen all too often.


So how do I feel about living in the bronco? I would say so far; it's just like you would expect. Living in it is somewhat cramped, but traveling in it is great. It looks like it comes down to that old RV saying that.... You can have an RV that's safe and easy to travel in, or you can have an RV that's comfortable to live in, but you can't have both. So far to me, I'm still thinking a slide-in truck camper or a class B+ van or a super B van comes the closest to having the best of both worlds.

                                                                            Theboondork

For those of you less than 60 years old you may not recognize this is a "Continental Kit", back in the day people would actually pay big bucks to hang this monstrosity on the back of their brand-new car, it was considered the epitome of luxury driving.

This is kind of what's called a Rat Rod. And I'm surprised I haven't seen a lot more of them at this car show. The show is close to California, and California I believe started the Rat Rod concept, so I expected there to be far more than I've seen so far.

There were new modern customized cars represented at the show, but they hardly look like Hot Rods to me. I guess I'm just an old fogey that doesn't want things to change, but change they do, and usually leaves old fogies like me behind.

Look at this modern car with a customized engine. It doesn't even look like an engine to me, maybe it's an electric car, how would I know?

And look at this car! I used to be able to tell what car was coming down the street by the sound it made, now I can't even tell what kind of car this is, and I can see the insignia on its nose.

But why should I care? If it can't tow a fifth wheel, or have a place to slide a camper its useless to me anyway.

And speaking of old fogies.... It became painfully obvious to me yesterday that these cool Hot Rod guys that used to tear up the streets, and outrun the cops are so old I can't believe it's still legal for them to drive.

What happened to those cool kids with their AM radio blasting out a Buddy Holly song, a back seat full of cheerleaders, and $2 in their pocket which was enough to feed all the cheerleaders at the Royal Castle, and enough left over to buy a couple gallons of gas to get home with.... They've all gone, the dreams of their youth has been frittered away on jobs and raising a family..... What a waste, I hope I never grow up.