theboondork's RV blog

Next time you hear from me I will appear, as if by magic, in a completely different place

1/12/2021

Click the pics before I leave, they might not follow me, and be gone forever.

Sunset over one of the event centers Picture

Sunset over an event center

I decided this morning to make a run to Walmart to buy a few things, not because I needed those things all that bad, but I always like to fill up the truck with fuel before I leave, and since I have to drive by Walmart to get to the gas station I figured. Why not? Also, with the Bat flu running amok, and never knowing for sure what will happen, I always feel better with a pantry full of food and a tank full of diesel.

I've dumped my tanks, filled up with water, and hooked up the Arctic Fox to the truck. I pulled in my bedroom slide lowered my Wi-Fi antenna; now, all I need to do is bring in my living room slide, and I'll be ready to ease on down the road. I probably won't leave till late morning to make sure I don't hit any rush-hour traffic driving through Tucson. Although with many places not opening due to the Kung- flu restrictions, rush-hour traffic is not what it used to be.

With the Big Show in Quartzsite starting this weekend, it will be interesting to see what the situation on the road will look like. In the past, I would see a lot of RVs on I -10 and I- 8 heading West. And regular RV parks and boondocking areas would be emptying out.

But this year is like no other, so it's hard to know what's going to happen. Maybe there will be more people than usual on the road escaping the misery of their big cities, or possibly there will be hardly anyone on the road because they're afraid to travel, or more than likely something in between.

But for me, most of that doesn't make any difference; being able to comfortably boondock for extended periods gives me lots of options, so I know I'll be happy no matter what else is going on around me.

Sooo, I'll be heading towards the Wickenburg, Arizona area tomorrow morning, not knowing exactly where I'll end up, but wherever it is, there's two things for sure... It will be where I want to be, and I'll be happy to be there.

theboondork

MH-53 Pave Low helicopter. These are retired now but their history goes all the way back to Vietnam when a variant of this helicopter was used for search and rescue and earned the name, The "Jolly Green Giant."

The "Pave Low" designation refers to the night and bad weather sensors it was equipped with so it could be used day and night in any type of weather. After being updated they became known as the "Super Jolly Green Giant" and became the favorite way for special ops guys to travel.

A few days ago the mountains around Tucson got a light sprinkling of snow. Not something I like to see, but it didn't make it down to the lower levels where I'm at.

This has always been my least favorite event building at the Fairgrounds. The lighting is terrible for taking pictures. The horses are down low and come out too dark, and the Cowboys on the horses are up high and come out to bright. And sometimes this outdoor arena is used for the barrel racing which makes it even worse when I see what my pictures look like.

Everything is empty that's supposed to be empty, everything is full that's supposed to be full, nothing left to do but head West on I -10 until I see something that makes me want to stop......That's the reason my home has wheels.

4 Comments

Judith

1/12/2021 09:17:35 pm

Happy travels. I will be interested in your report on Quartzite, not because it's a place I ever wanted to go, but it's interesting in and of itself.
Judging from your photo of that young barrel racing girl, I wouldn't have guessed photo conditions were so bad in the arena, but sure sounds like it,. So, well done!!

Tom

1/12/2021 10:07:40 pm

To me Quartzsite to RVers is like Disney World to families, it's someplace you're supposed to go. And to me its the best place to go to learn how to be a boondocker. There are of course RV parks in town for folks that have to have hookups, but that's missing the whole point of being in Quartzsite.

There's a lot of places in town that specialize in things that boondocker's need, such as solar panels, and chances are most anybody you talk to is going to be an experienced boondocker that is more than happy to share information with you.

And even though there's plenty of room to be off in the desert by yourself, you can stay around as many people as you want that will help you learn the ins and outs of comfortably living without hookups for long periods of time.

When your picture snapping skills are as limited as mine you have to get reasonably proficient at repairing them in a photo editing software. And that's how I manage to get a few decent pictures out of that particular arena. Serious photographers have always been able to "fix" their marginal pictures but it had to be done in the dark room which required a fair amount of skill and knowledge of the chemicals they used.

Now anyone can learn how to use photo editing software on a computer and make marginal pictures look okay, but its just extra work trying to get them properly exposed when half the picture is too dark, and the other half is too bright.

Tom

TX Sasquatch

1/13/2021 04:21:46 am

I see nice older, top quality, SLR cameras with extra lenses on FB Marketplace for cheap. No one wants an old film camera. No wants old, working sewing machines. Folks try to sell a piano, and end up giving it away.
Many years ago I used to tinker with b&w photo finishing. Could probably find nice equipment cheap if I looked. Too lazy nowadays.
Enjoy your travels-!!

1/13/2021 09:26:27 am

Thank you TX, I always enjoy my travels, and nothing makes traveling easier than living in an RV. And it's good to hear someone else admit that their lazy, I thought it was just me.

Your definitely right about all that. Camera bodies prices drop like a rock when new models come out. And even worse when the technology changes like going from film to digital. And now there's another major change in the camera market with the manufacturer's going to mirrorless cameras instead of the old DSLR's that had a mirror that had to flip up and get out of the way of the shutter. Nowadays a teeny tiny video camera inside the camera body that shows you what the lens is seeing, no need for a mirror and all the noise, vibrations, and complications that brought.

And without that mirror in the way the manufacturers are now designing new lenses that are closer to the sensor which makes for a smaller camera and better pictures. So even though the manufacturers have made adapters to adapt the old lenses to the new mirrorless cameras, the prices of old lenses has fallen dramatically.

And you're right about sewing machines. professional machines are still pretty expensive but homestyle machines are so cheap their pretty much disposable, and it's hard to find anyone that can repair them or keep them timed up properly.

And as for pianos, especially old ones, when I sold my house so I could move into the Arctic Fox, a piano came with the house because I couldn't find anybody that would come take it for free.

I also tinkered with developing black-and-white photographs. When I was in the service almost every base had an MWR [Morale Welfare and Recreation] building where you could do things like develop your own black and white pictures real cheap. I gave it a try but never ended up with a picture I wanted to show anybody, so I just kept shooting color slides because they were cheap to have processed at the BX, [Base Exchange.] I imagine the processing equipment would be very cheap, and if it wasn't for the Internet, almost impossible to find.

Tom

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Next time you hear from me I will appear, as if by magic, in a completely different place

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