I went to Walmart and picked up a few groceries. I've noticed that every time I go to Walmart now, my bills are over $100, which used to be considerably less than that. Maybe I'm buying more stuff? But that doesn't seem right; I don't have much storage space, so I should be buying less stuff. I guess everything has increased in price, and even Walmart has to charge more.

I filled up with diesel today at $5.20 a gallon. That's not as high as it was back in Colorado, so it's tolerable, and I don't see any sign of diesel shortages yet. However, I still don't know what to do if it becomes hard to find.

I'm just guessing that if there's a problem with diesel fuel, maybe it will be like when Jimmy Carter was president, and he gave us the worst gas crisis in my lifetime.  The price will get higher and higher. Then, the gas stations will start rationing the gas and not allowing you to fill up boats and RVs, giving priority to the people trying to get to work. And then when they run completely out of gas they close the gas station. I don't know if that's what they would do this time, but I survived it then; so I guess I can survive anything else they do.

There seems to be a lot of people camping here at Elephant Butte State Park, at least more than I assumed there would be. But I don't recall ever being here this time of year before. Normally I would be in the desert south of here, where warm temperatures during the day and good sleeping temperatures at night would be normal.

It seems to me like it's still too chilly here at the Elephant for people to be hanging around, why aren't they in the desert now? I wonder if folks are here for the Thanksgiving holiday. I know they're not here for the beach; the beach was empty yesterday because the waters were too cold to do anything but fish. Maybe, like me, they are here to hole up for the holiday and avoid the crowds in southern Arizona, where the weather's much warmer.

Theboondork

As I was walking around on the beach as the sun was coming up I could tell from the cloudless sky there wasn't going to be a nice sunrise. But despite the lack of fanfare, the sun still managed to crawl up above the mountains and start warming things up on this 20° morning.

This is the original place I boondocked yesterday but the trees were blocking up some of my sun yesterday so I moved over little bit to get away from the trees.

I'm boondocked near the water, I don't want to get too close to the water because that's where  the normal people boondock.

Having rather suddenly discovered that next Thursday was Thanksgiving set my brain into the emergency mode of DEFCON ONE. And the first thing I do during an emergency of that severity is sit down, relax in my chair with a cup of coffee, and think about what I need to do. And when do I need to do it?

So the first order of business is to clear my mind of all previous plans or what passes for plans in my random life. So I can start with a clean slate and not worry about things I was thinking about before this emergency arose. Only then can I have a serious think about how dire my situation is.

Now here's what I've come up with so far; I want to get back to where I have reliable Internet. Yesterday my Verizon phone service and Internet were only operating sporadically, and I am far too dependent on those services to have them going away for hours at a time.

I want to be in a warmer place where I won't have to run my heater all day like I'm doing now. Shopping and propane should be readily available. And having an inexpensive place to stay that doesn't get me too far from Gallup, New Mexico, would also be a big plus.

And most of all, it needs to be a place where I'm absolutely sure I will have a place to stay, without any reservations, during the Thanksgiving holiday, and that's not easy if you've ever tried to do it. In fact, there are only two places that I can think of in the areas where I go where I know without a shadow of a doubt I can find a place to camp even during the most popular holidays of the year, and those two places are Quartzsite, Arizona, and Elephant Butte State Park in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Fortunately, both of those places are too big to fill up, no matter how many people are camping, I can boondock for free at either place, but Quartzsite is too far away. But, It just so happens that Elephant Butte State Park is an easy drive down the interstate, and it's one of my favorite places to stay in New Mexico, so it looks like I'll be heading there tomorrow morning... I say "looks like" because I'm never quite sure until I drive away.

Theboondork