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2-10-04

I made it back up to see the guy that knew Terry Hanson. I checked the house but there wasn’t anybody there. There was however a loud little dog that was raising hell that I was there. The neighbor from across the street came over and asked if I was looking for someone. I told him the story and he said that that must be Tom and he had another house just down the street and he walked with me down there to see if he was working on the house down there. The neighbors name is Will and I got to talk with him a little and found out that he was retired and had been there six years or so. He would like to move out and go to Australia, but unfortunately they are not taking any immigrants. He was in radio in his former life and he said that that was not a in demand skill anymore. I suppose since a lot of the radio stations are on computer control, they don’t need people anymore. Most of the places around town are really clean and fixed up but his place was piled high with lots of junk and old cars used for storage.

I walked down the steepest road I have ever been on for sure. It was paved with left over batches of cement and/or small patches of sack crete paving. It must have been close to a 45% angle. Very impressive and evidently it is used to some extent. I met Tom there who was the guy I talked with and his friend Ernie who is from Canada. They were working over a house that had been partly burned down and it needed a lot of work. It was built only six years or so ago but the person who built it did a extremely poor job of it. Evidently there are not any building codes or if there are they are not enforced. It is in a historical district and you have to submit plans as to what you want to build. There is no oversight on how you build it. I like that.

Tom went to school with Terry and they were in one of the fraternities together. Terry was his senior partner and what that meant was that he would buy booze for the young recruit. I guess that they had a lot of fun while there.

We went back to Toms house and they had something to eat and I had a cup of tea with them. Ernie comes down from Canada for a good chunk of the winter and helps Tom with carpentry projects. They have built additions and other stuff around the place. Ernie is an amazing visual subject. He is really tall with long gray hair and unruly mustache. There is a lot of border patrol guys running around and I asked Ernie if he had any trouble with them. He said ‘ no, they are after the Mexicans and don’t even see him. He just takes a long two week vacation in the usa he said. He will go back up home in April.

Tom has a little import business going with a wood carver in Mexico. He has iron woodcarvings made down there and when he gets them up here he finishes them or gives them more detail. We went to his shop and he pawed through some of his stuff to find something for me to take back to Terry, he picked out a cute little frog in ironwood made by the (something_) Indians in Mexico. He also poked around until he found a box of ironwood pieces and went through them to find a nice one for me. He gave it to me to use in making jewelry. I really don’t think I will be making jewelry out of it but that was really nice.

Tom offered me a place to live as long as I want, up and over the top of the hill from town. He has ten acres up there with a friend and said I would be welcome to camp there if I want. He said we would have to go up and take a look to be sure I could get the pod up there and maybe more importantly, back out

I told him that I really needed to get up to Safford to get my mail and that if I found myself back in the area, I might just take him up on it. He thought that the place I was camping was somewhat iffy and was more worried about the border control guys than the wetbacks.

2-11-04

I left town and headed toward Wilcox, but it was getting dark, so I found an open gate and empty desert and pulled out there a couple of hundred yards and let the dog out and put the tea water on. It wasn’t long before there was a border control jeep looking me over. He didn’t think it was a problem evidently because he didn’t come over but just parked looking. I got the bike out of the pod and went for a quick ride in the desert so e dog could get a little exercise. When I got back the tea water was ready and the border control was gone.

I went by hundreds of acres of abandoned fields. I did see a very few fields that have put in pivots and seem to be growing something. Actually I saw cows grazing on most. I could see miles of open concrete ditches and several pump sites that were abandoned. I wonder why all these farms went out of business. The dirt is very red in color and nothing seems to be growing after they quit farming other than a few scattered weeds and bushes. The natural vegetation is extremely sparse consisting of mainly ocotillo and small bushes. This is very bleak looking and not a friendly feeling place. The morning may make things look better. Tom said that they had NPR on cable but they quit it a while back and radio signals don’t make it down into Bisbee. Up on the hill might be better. I am having a hard time getting radio here, other than the LA news station and Denver sports..

I sent a post about Cochise Stronghold from Wilcox library (insert that here) J

2-11-04

i am camped at the cochise stronghold. it is a great place.

the big valley with mountains all around i camped in last night. border patrol checked me out from a distance but considedred harmless i guess. little do they suspect, just shows how wrong the govt can be with things like WMD and me!!! i headed donw the road and saw really nice rough moungtains in distance. the closer i got the better thy looked and i saw a sign for cochise stronghold. i took the road and it is a box canyon of the roughest big boulders with big arizona oaks in the bottom.nice fncy campground is fee area. i talked with host and said i was looking for free camping. down the road is nice free place with a few scattered campers. nearest is big horse trailer with outstanding appolusa trethered. i set up the camp and got out work bench. great spot in the sun. made a couple of clips that came out good. unhoked from pod adn headed to safford to pick up mail. stoppped in Wilcox and found library. cant put disk in their machine, rules. ok. time about up. i will be camped there for a few day i think. till next time.

a few minutes more maybe. this is the place where Loree Lee a friend of ours comes with her husband to howl at the moon and crawl the rocks. cochise is burried here somewhere they say. the camp host says that the apaches come and play their flutes and such. they don't see them but know that they are there. box canyon is perfect place but i guess they caught him here and after built a stone building at one of his camps. kind of like shitting in his living room. it is no wonder they are pissed off. i hope i can get a way to send you photos from last time as well as the stronghold. magic place. starting to be development around here. i see some farming as well. pecan orchards advertise fresh nuts. gotta stop and see/eat. computer on timer. ran out of time and puter goes blank. i have a few more minutes. really gotta go.

cheers, Rx

Dragoon mts with stronghold in the rough rock area

I went to Safford to get my mail, but it hasn’t gotten there yet. I called Miles PO and I got the P master and he said that it was sent out last week. It will probably be in tomorrow. It is a long way to Safford so I may have it forwarded from there to Sunsites, AZ which is just down the road from the stronghold. Safford has really grown from when I was here years ago. Where hasn’t it grown? When I was talking with Tom he said that there were hot springs around that part of the country. If I go back I’ll have to check that out, for sure. There is some farming going on near Safford. Years ago it was a big cotton center and I did see one field along the highway that had cotton stalks in it. There were several signs on farms with pictures of vegetables. One farm was something like ‘Pedro’s Pepper Farm’. It looks like some of the fields are planted now but I didn’t see any irrigation going yet. It could be that they got a little rain from the last storm that went over. The ground here in the canyon is damp under the surface so they may have had enough to start their crops which is always nice.

All alnongthe way from Bisbee to Douglas and north from there, were just hundreds of acres, actually thousands of acres of farm land gone fallow. I will have to ask to see why that is so. I suppose power for pumping water or lack of water to pump, must be the problem. There are a lot of people living out there in the desert and I just can’t imagine how they are making a living. Did I say that Douglas is now almost all Mexicans? There may be some trade over the border but tourist trade is zip. I heard an interesting comment on the radio on the way back to camp. The guy was saying that if the baby boomers want to have someone paying into social security so they can get their benefits after they retire, they better open the borders to let in workers in. that is an interesting way of looking at it.

Anna tells me that I shouldn’t be worried about the Mexicans as they are just looking for work and will leave me alone. That may be, but why are there bars on all the windows and security gates on all the doors? They are there for a reason and it makes me nervous when I am in that kind of an area. I see bars on the windows in Bisbee on some of the houses. It could be that they are on the windows looks. Yah, sure thing. In the Mexican parts of town all buildings are barred. I remember hearing that people burn up when their house catches fire because they can’t get out. This is a quiet war zone down here. I asked Tom how the different races were getting along in Bisbee. He said that the Mexicans live separate from the Gringos. He said that they will not allow Anglo’s into their group. He said that they get along, but they keep to themselves and the family is supreme. He goes down to Mexico all the time and has a trip planned the end of the month sometime. He invited me to go with them if I am around. He said it is really nice down there. I am NOT taking my truck down there for sure. They really like to steal the Cummins trucks and it really wouldn’t be safe in a border town on the US side. They steal them and drive them across the border and there is no way to get them back even if you find it on the other side. The same guy on the radio had a gal call in who worked for some government office where she approved medical expenses for illegal aliens. She was giving out a list of what she had paid out. Over a million for a heart transplant was the biggest one but others were almost as bad. They get all their medical needs taken care of free of charge (even teeth and eyes and all babies are born here free). Some say that they come in to work and they are not a drag on the economy, it could be, but I remember when my neighbor Norm would hire Mexicans to hoe his sugar beets. They would come on the farm, set up their camp and head into town to sign up for food stamps and assistance. That always pissed me off when they were working and getting welfare at the same time. They know all the tricks to get their ‘fair share’. Norm would hire them rather than have his beets sprayed. He said that either way the beets got thinned and he would rather give them a job than pay the big chemical companies the money. They would sure take advantage of Norm. He would let them use his phone and they called long distance and ran a huge phone bill up and ran out on it. It seems like it was over a thousand dollars and he was contesting it, but probably had to end up paying it.

The radio doesn’t come in for doodle here. I get a couple of country and a bible thumper station. I had to quit listing to the preacher. He wasn’t making any headway with me and I really didn’t think I needed to send him an offering. He had some interesting points on history (hearsay) and I am not too sure about his interpretation of his supposed facts. The country guys are still singing about the same stuff, last time I listened for extended time. I would rather listen to npr, some of those stations are really good and have interesting programs on all day and not opera or symphony all day like in Billings. The country singers have a great time drinking, loving, etc. I talked with a trucker at the truck stop where I fueled up. He was right on my bumper on the freeway a few miles back and I got out of his way as quick as I could. I apologized to him for not paying attention. He said it was no problem as he had yet to run over anyone in 37 years of truckin. He was hauling rice from Louisiana to California. They grow a hell of a lot of rice in California, but I guess they may be exporting it from there? Maybe some different type, that the Orientals like that live there? He said he travels at 80 and covers a lot of miles in the day. I asked him how the new driving log book rules were working out for him. he said that the new rules make it much easier to cheat. It was supposed to make it safer by making them get sleep or rest more often. I have listened to them discussing the new rules on the trucking radio stations (the Trucking Bozo ) and they are really confusing. The person who made them up must make tax forms and instructions for the irs. He said that he doesn’t listen to the CB anymore. He has DX(?) radio in his truck. That is satellite and the stations don’t fade out or have advertising. He listens to the talk shows. I asked him if he ever listens to Art Bell. Oh yes, it is his favorite. The talk show are yapping about nipples, the prez going AWOL, illegal aliens, the liberal dirt on Kerry and now some sort of movie coming out about the jews killing the son of God. Gee, what we need is something new to get excited about. I am sure something will come up.

I just stepped outside and the stars are really intense. I have been camping near towns and at night there is a glow all around the horizon from the towns in the distance. Down here in the canyon I cant see any of that and the moon is not up yet, so the sky is dark. I see I somehow got turned around in my directions and have the pod door headed directly east. I usually try to have it pointing south. The pod hitch is pointed directly at the North Star. The Indians always had their door pointed east so maybe I am supposed to have it that way here.

I see that the gold show is this weekend in Tucson and I am really hesitant tu head back to the city. It is just so nice being out away from that. I will probably do it, I just want to complain about it.

2-12-04

the sun doesn’t come into the valley until late. I see the sun on the mountain behind me but it is still in the shade down here in camp. I need to go to the PO and see if my mail came in to Safford. The counter man said to call between 8 and 9. I need to take a little hike with e dog before I go. Oh, when we got back to camp yesterday, Ely had mail! I call it Pee mail. There must have been a dog or two around as she just went zipping around smelling all the places around camp. I’m sure some suitor left valentine notes for her. She is prime now too.

I hooked up the pod and went in to the PO and asked the postmaster if he would call Safford and see if my mail had come in yet. No, it hasn’t. something really strange has happened to it. I really hope it isn’t lost. It should have been in Safford on Monday or Tuseday. I walked out of the PO and there was a guy selling hot house tomatoes from across the valley as well as tangello’s (which I bought and are yummy) navel oranges and avocado’s. The oranges and tangelos were picked off the tree a couple of days ago in Mesa Az and the avocados are from southern calif and he picked them Sunday. I was yakking with him when a guy came up and asked if I was from Montana. Yup, it was Kent Williams (the county agricultural agent) dad from down at Ekalaka, MT. How’s that for timing? This is either the Twilight Zone or the Twit Wit Zone otherwise how can there be so many coincidences???? He has been down here for three winters. Oh, they talked about the snow. It snowed an inch or so last week down here at Sunsites but it was gone by noon.

I asked the postmaster about the farm land that was fallow. He said that back in the 70’s the power went up as well as propane and it made it uneconomical to pump water. I asked how far to water and he said they pump from 600 –1200 ft. He said that his pump just went dry and had to have a new one drilled to over 300 ft. He said that the drought was lowering the water table. Just a few miles down the valley is a huge power plant that has large evaporation stacks and they must be getting their water from somewhere. There are no rivers around so they must be pumping out the aquifer. There is just a light layer of smog from the power plant too. there are a few orchards of pecans and on my way back to Tucson I went by some really strange trees. The sign near by said that they had pistachios for sale. This was on the back road and was near Dragoon. I liked it near there. I took a side road that said something about a museum and desert research station. It turned out to be some sort of religious outfit and they had their hand out for quite a few bbucks for who know what. . I just turned around but I did get a photo of a wooden door that they ripped off from down in mexico. It was carved in 1668 and they must have built the building around them and for them. They are really nice deep wood carvings but I hate to see the places in Mexico ripped off from their antiques. I went into a shop in Bisbee where a woman was selling antiques from China. She had mostly old chests and tables but there were a few buckets and baskets and other miscellaneous stuff. She said that her partner goes to China on other business and brings back what he finds. She said that now that some people in china have money, those people are buying the antiques and it is getting harder to find good stuff. She had a four-wheel cart that she thought was over 400 years old and it was a magnificent. She also had some chests that were supposedly herbal storage, but I took out a drawer and I could tell that it had never been used. The runners on the bottom of the drawer were not even worn other than to be pulled out a very few times. The outside was very old looking, but it had been ‘antiqued’ and was rather crude construction. The real old stuff is not crudely built and shows real time wear. Buyer beware.

they have to be about 12 ft tall.

I’m headed back to see the gold show.

I stopped in at the Pima air and space museum on the outskirts of Tucson next to an airbase of some sort. Lots of jet fighters and big bombers flying around. The museum is rather pricey but I thought it might be worth it. I wish Roger, Ray, Mike Chris and Charlie could have been with me as it is always more interesting when you are with someone who knows about what you are looking at. I took a few photos, the detail on aircraft aluminum is just fantastic. All the older aircraft was all hand made and the metal work is really unbelievable. I decided to hit the air museum and camp for the night so I can have a whole day at the gold show. I hear them advertising it on the radio so there should be a good crowd. I hope they let me take photos. Here at the museum it was encouraged. A guy was telling me that they store planes here because of the dry desert air rather than have them on a ship while the ship is in port for repairs. I want a plane body to make a trailer out of. I remember seeing a guy that took a big plane and made it into a house. Cool idea. Some of these big ones would make an apartment house. There are quite a few old timers walking around looking and I can overhear some talking about how they flew them. Lots of cool stories around here I’ll bet. I should have taken all day to look around because I just had to take a quick walk around and never saw it all in about two and a half hours when they kicked me out. I could look at airplanes all day with no problem. The workmanship is….. I don’t have the words.

I am camped back where I was at the cinema parking lot. I went over to tell the security guard that I was back. he is really a nice guy. Did I tell that he takes the left over pop corn and hot dogs and sets them beside the dumpster for the hobo’s that hang out the other side of the fence next to the train tracks. They have a regular camp set up with pallets and cardboard houses. The movie cost $7.75 and the Jesus movie is coming up the 28^th . he said that the parking lot will be full. One church rented one movie room for 500 and they will be showing it in five at once. There are 16 movie rooms. It sounds like it will be a big money maker.