Thank you for the questions, KennyD; if I hadn't written my blog post for yesterday already, I would've used your questions as a blog post for the day, but I'm using your comments for today's blog post so I can give it all the time that it deserves.

My son was ready to buy the Arctic Fox, but when I started getting all the legal stuff done, I found that I had never received the title for the Fox. And since I bought it in Arizona, even though I lived in Colorado, I had to get a title from Arizona. I have the original paperwork from the bank showing that I paid it off a year after I bought it, and the state of Arizona wanted me to mail them the original documents. But not trusting the post office, I decided to handle everything once I got to a DMV in Arizona. And when I get back to Colorado in the Spring, my son still wants to buy it.

I only have three pieces of property left, having sold everything else.

 I have a one-acre vacant lot bordering the Pike National Forest in arguably the nicest neighborhood in the town I used to live in when I lived in the Colorado Mountains.

 I have a 16-acre patented mining claim on an old 1800's silver mine named the Sidewheel Mine, with an adjacent 4-acre storage area for the mine called the Huguenot patented claim. This was originally all a 20-acre patented claim, but it was bifurcated, so it's now two separate patented claims Located just outside Tombstone, Arizona.

 I have 40 acres near the 11-mile reservoir in Colorado, bordering the Pike National Forest on two sides, which I used mostly as a shooting range since I could set up thousand-yard targets on my property... Not that I could hit them, but I could set them up.

I'm considering what to do with some or all of this property and, so far, haven't made up my mind. I've owned this property for 20 or 30 years, but the 40 acres is the only property I have a personal attachment to; the rest were just investments.

Property always increases in value if you can hold it through the hard times. Even Florida swamp-land that people used to make fun of if somebody was foolish enough to buy it is now so expensive that you've got to be wealthy to afford it. So even though more money would be nice, I am considering leaving some of it to my family as I would probably waste the cash anyway.

But before I think of selling anything like property, I need to get my storage room emptied by selling everything in it. That will not only make me some extra money but also relieve me of the stress of having all that stuff I no longer need or want just lying there.

And your right; these young folks couldn't care less about many of the things we geezers were interested in about 100 years ago. We found this out when we were selling our home. I did okay selling my guy stuff on eBay, but nobody wanted my wife's female stuff, like China cabinets full of dishes and glasses and dust collecting what-nots. But my tools, hobby stuff, reloading equipment, handmade knives, ammunition, all sold quickly for top dollar.

So I spend some time thinking about what to do, but I'm lazy and don't want to do anything requiring too much effort on my part. And I procrastinate, so whatever I decide to do will be put off for a while. So I figure one day I'll open my wallet to pay for some groceries, and a moth will fly out of it, signifying it's time for me to do something before I starve.

Tom

I think I just found my perfect boondocking spot...unfortunately there's a class A motorhome in the way.

I walked around the campground yesterday afternoon which is easy because it's fairly small. There are only about 30-something campsites here. But the campground does have a lot of elevation change, meaning there's a lot of up-and-down walking, similar to my daughter's neighborhood in Denver. But that should be expected since the campground is built on the side of a hill.

The sunrises here aren't very interesting since there's a mountain between me and the sun, so I was hoping I could sleep later while I'm here, but I got in the habit of waking up early, usually around 6 o'clock, and I can't seem to break that habit.

The only important reason is the sun can warm up the camper a little bit before I crawl out of my warm bed. Remember, I don't sleep with any heat on, so I use less propane to heat the camper by sleeping later in the morning because the sun is doing some of the heating. But so far, that isn't happening. I woke up early every morning when I got to the Bosque Del Apache, and now I can't break the habit.

I used to have more control over things like that when I was younger, years of working and changing shifts every month got me used to constant change and learning to deal with it. And now, not so much.

I have yet to consider how long I will be at Rockhound or where I will go when I leave. I can stay here for two weeks if I want to, and because of my annual Parks pass, it doesn't cost me anything. And because of that two-week stay limit and then having to move on, some full-timers here at Rockhound bounce back and forth between here and the City of Rocks State Park every two weeks. The Parks are only about 40 miles apart, which satisfies the law that requires you to change Parks every two weeks.

But I will have to do something fairly soon because the Christmas holidays are fast approaching, and I need to find a place to hunker down till the Christmas and New Year's holidays are over... But where, and when, that will be, I haven't a clue.

The main office, Ranger station, and visitor center at Rockhound State Park.

This is a picture of the entire Rockhound State Park campground.... Can you spot my Lance camper?

It got into the 60s today, so I walked up in the hills for a bit since it was comfortably warm. It was fairly tiring because I don't think I've walked up a hill since I left Denver, and the way I was huffing and puffing, maybe I've become a flatlander. It's been mostly chilly and windy, which doesn't put me in the mood to do much of anything, especially with the wind.

I don't mind sitting in the camper relaxing, but when it's in the 50s outside, I have to run the heater every once in a while, which I would rather not do because it uses up propane, and propane is something else that's been costing me more than it used to. And those little increases in everything I use or buy add up at the end of the month to a significant cost over what I used to spend.

But of course, that's always been the old folk's complaint that their income stays the same, but everything costs more. But nowadays, with inflation the way it is, it's even worse.

I haven't added up my figures yet, but in general, I was spending about $300 a month on groceries, and now it's closer to $400 a month, and I've cut out buying a lot of things that got too expensive. I was going to start eating cat food, but have you seen the price of a can of "Tender Vittles" lately? I think steak is cheaper.

So food is higher, diesel fuels way more, propanes higher, and those things are what I spend the most money on. It appears the only thing that hasn't gone up is boondocking. I think it's the only bargain left in camping. Some places I boondock cost money, such as the Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson. But the free events they hold all the time at the Fairgrounds make it worth me being able to boondock at the Fairgrounds right next to the events.

So, no matter how I look at it, inflation is outrunning my money supply, so I think what I need to do next summer is sell the Arctic Fox and start selling stuff out of my storage room. I'll be happy to sell the Arctic Fox; everything in the storage room will be a problem, but if I could get everything out of the storage room, that would save me $75 a month just in the storage room rent. I'm not looking forward to doing the eBay thing again, but I don't know how else to do it. The stuff in the storage room is too valuable to throw away, and it's a lot of trouble to sell. But it looks like that's my future.

Theboondork

Some trails up in the hills are kind of steep. Some not so bad. the worst thing is coming down a steep hill covered in loose rocks  like this one... I don't bounce when I fall anymore, I go splat!

It was kind of chilly walking around early this morning, but the lighting was good.