2-29-08.
I decided that we needed to move camp for a while and I always have liked to spend a while over in the campground outside of the official campground in the Cochise Stronghold. This is a little house that lives in a little town just outside of Safford, AZ. I have always liked this little house with the cool final over the front window and the string of trees along the fence. Usually houses with these steep roofs are built in northern areas where they have a snow load to deal with. No snow here.
Sheila and I went for a ride over the Dragoon Mountains. We had to stop along the way to ‘make water’ and Sheila found a nice bush to pee behind.
It was a wonderful ride over the pass and down the west side. This is the west side where there are lots of nice places to camp. The country is much more open on this side and better hiking I think.
When we made camp over on the west side we took a nice little trail up a ravine and met a couple coming down the trail. They had been rock climbing and it turns out that this is a very popular place for rock climbers to climb. I met several ‘Christian” climbers last time I was here. Sheila had never been in rock country and she had fun on them. Here she saw a small water fall coming down the rock and went up to check it out. These rock are granite and the have a good texture and are easy to climb on. Unfortunately my knee and mussels aren’t what they used to be and I try not to hurt myself like I used to when younger when given rocks like this. I was never a serious rock climber with ropes and gear, but I did like to free style some.
Getting down is harder than going up….
I took Sheila in to Tucson to put her on the plane for the trip back to Michigan where they were having another big storm. It was too bad that she had to go home to nasty weather but that is sort of what happens in the winter up there. Same in Montana, which is why, I am camping down here. I really feel sort of bad for having to dump her out on the curb at the airport and rush off…….. but I had work to do…..
That Bloodhound of mine has a good nose and it is hard to believe, but it picked up the sent of a puppy way over in Texas. It is sort of a long story but through the magic of email communication I located a 1981 R80GS that needed a new home. You might think of it as a Rescue Dog situation. And sort of an emergency as it could escape and be picked up by someone else that didn’t NEED another one like I did. You know I needed another one because I only had six BMW’s and there are seven days in a week. SO, I found a place to park my pod and Bloodhound in the little town of Sunsites and headed off to Texas in the pickup with the bike trailer. I don’t mind crossing New Mexico but El Paso Texas is always a problem. This time I drove through it at night and it wasn’t that bad especially when all I had to do was follow the interstate ten signs. West Texas aint that bad either and I am always amazed at the profile of the ground as I travel through. This is common all across west Texas. I think it is called dolomite and this is where they found the oil under. They have to drill holes and blast out the rock for the highways. You might notice that there is NO soil on top of the rock. Somehow the bushes and little grasses find some dust in the cracks in the rock to grow.
The bike was located near the town of College Station which is next to the George H Bush presidential library I found out when I finally got Tim on the phone. Tim works for a company that makes oil well drilling tools and he was on his way back from Louisiana when I called. I cooled my heels and waited for him to call when he got home. The reason he was selling the R80GS is that he had just bought a Buell dual sport Ulysses. It sure is a nice looking bike IF you go for that sort of bike…. clean, new and not a scratch….. yet……..
This is his son Josh and he is on his Honda. We got suited up and went for a little ride.
Here is the new puppy. I have been calling it the “Texas Blue Tick Hound” but might have to shorten it down some. Tex?
I was really impressed with the bike and I really did enjoy the roads that Tim found for us to ride. For country that is flat the roads are nice and curvy and I really liked riding through farm country. It appears to be cotton and corn farm ground.
Tim and his KLR that he is in the long process of rebuilding.
All along the road I could see these little shacks up on stands out in the country. They are shooting blinds that the deer hunters use. They sit up there with their jug of whisky and rifle and ‘hunt’ deer. What is even more bizarre is that off in the distance of maybe a hundred yards is a hopper that has corn or some other feed in it that squirts out some every now and then. The deer get used to coming and eating the feed and when they do, BANG, they are dead. The brush is very thick in this country and I guess this is the only way that they can get them.
The hunting ranches are all along both sides of the road. You can tell them by the six-foot fences and fancy gates. It must cost a fortune to put these fences in. they are all steel posts drilled into the rock with woven wire stretched tight.
This is the famous Y O ranch. Sign below. The fender of the pickup is a guy that stopped to see if I was having problems as I was stopped taking pictures of the sign. It turns out that he is a horse shoe’r and he was going through this place to shoe some horses on another ranch. I asked if they were cowboy horses and he said no, just riding horses. He said there weren’t many cowboys around here anymore. There are lots of ropers but mostly the game ranches don’t use cowboys and those that do use quads. I saw a lot of fancy boots and hats but you never know, they were probably truck drivers…..
I wont say all but a lot of the ranches have flags by the gate and if they do they almost always have the Texas flag as well as the American flag, and it is always flown equal height. This is TEXAS and it is part of the United States, but just barely.
These boys really get into fancy gates. Almost every gate has an entrance made of rock or ironwork. Even the little poor places have fancy entrance gates.
This is a Texas Swing gate. They are just so cool. When I was down here in 92 I saw quite a few of them but this is the only one I was able to find now. The deal is that you just go up and bump the gate with your bumper and the gate swings open. You have to be careful to bump it hard enough to allow you to get through before it slams into the side of your pickup/car. It is really a simple gate and I don’t see why more guys don’t use it. I suppose after a few too many beers you could dent in the side of your buick or caddy but it couldn’t hurt a pickup that much could it? Maybe bolt a two by six along side the truck box or something.
here I have it swung open a little showing how it rides up on the post as it wraps the cable around the post. A little grease on the post and it swings easy.
My little camera that I took to the end of South America and all over the dusty roads in the west finally shot craps. I doubt if I can revive it but will give it a shot of WD40 or something to see how it reacts. I will probably have to deep six it but feel badly that we will be apart after we have spent so much time together. So, unfortunately you will not be getting photos of the rest of the trip back to the Stronghold.
I left Tim’s place around dark thirty and headed west. I had spent the afternoon getting the oil changed in the truck, taking a nice long nap and filling up on some greasy Mexican food. Yumm, yummm……
Since I was well rested I figured I could make it back through San Antonio in the middle of the night which would be much easier than making it during rush hour which is all the time in a city that huge. I was doing well and happened to notice a big sign proclaiming the “Water Recreation Area” up ahead. Wow, how cool is that? I was thinking of water skiing, fishing, swimming, ogling the babes and you know, thinking that this must be a great place when it is hot summer. Then the next little sign along the highway says ‘Alligator Creek”!!!! HOLY COW…… I hadn’t considered those…….. I always sort of liked when the catfish nibbled at my toes when I was sitting in the Tongue River but the thought of a gator taking a chomp out of my butt changed my view of these Texas folk. I can hardly imagine going for a swim and having to wrestle gators.
I like to listen to the radio while I am traveling along in the truck and that sort of gets me tuned up to what is happening in the area. In west Texas I could get maybe twenty five or thirty stations. All but maybe three or four were Mexican or Spanish speaking stations. I am not sure but that might be consistent to the population of the area. I know when I went into gas stations or restaurants I was about the only one that spoke English. The most waiters could speak English pretty well. In east Texas the stations were more mixed with bible, western, and red neck talk shows as well as a few Mexican.
I heard one interesting observation on the radio about the fence that they are building along the border. This woman was saying that it all depends on how much money or influence you have as to weather you have a fence built on your property or not. She was telling about the fence stopping where it met a golf course and starting again on the other side. She said some big farms owned by big shots didn’t get a fence built but other smaller ranchers had their property confiscated. The interesting thing was that the government wont give out the information on why they build fences in some areas and not in others. It is classified for home land security…….. the fence is a BIG deal down here. Everywhere the highway ran along near the border there is a dirt road that follows along the highway fence. The border patrol uses this little dirt road rather than the paved highway. They must just tear up those pickups with the little cages on the back when they blast down those roads. I went by several of these huge buildings with a couple of acres of trucks parked. These are home land security bases. I wish the camera would have worked when I went by a big blimp that was tethered along near the highway. I guess they let it out on a cable and ‘watch’ from above. I went through several border patrol check points and most were pretty nice and could see that I wasn’t a Mexican trying to slip in. One checkpoint the guy was really a shit and started questioning me. He finally asked me to state my citizenship…. Well I said, “I am a Citizen of the State of Montana”. That sort of rocked him back. Then I asked him if he knew of where I spoke? He finally just motioned me on… I it is a good thing I didn’t get strip searched with the rubber glove treatment.
I had a good trip back across Texas and when I got into west Texas I dropped on down into the Big Bend National Park. It was really late when I finally made it down into the park. About the last mile to the main visitor station I almost hit a deer and then right after that a small herd of pigs, or javalina’s. I pulled into the visitors parking lot and saw the NO overnight sign so I backed out and was going to park along the road when a park ranger came by and said I couldn’t park there. I told him about the damn deer and heard of pigs and that I had been driving since five in the morning and I couldn’t drive another mile. I was just happy to park right there along the road as it wasn’t safe for me to drive anymore. Well, he noticed the Miles City, Montana on the side of the truck and said he knew someone that lives there. I told him I did too… I guess he took pity on me and told me to park in that parking lot that said I couldn’t. Geez, a government guy that let me break the rules…..
In the morning I got lined out with a free pass into the park because I am an old geezer now as well as a five buck permit to park in a remote campground for up to 14 days. This is the same campground I camped in maybe 15 years ago when Susan and I were out on the road looking for a new farm. I was just sleeping in the back of the pickup so setting up camp was easy. I got the Blue Tick off the trailer and packed a set of shorts (I had forgotten to pack a swim suit) and headed off to the hot spring. They had a new road in and trail system to get there but the pool right along side the Rio Grande was still there. There were quite a few people there but only a few that got wet. It is so amazing how those ‘proper’ people would sometimes take off their sneakers and sox and wade into the water but not over the knee, stand around in the water for five minutes and get out. Big deal eh? Some other of us ‘low life’s got in up to our necks and soaked. The river is just right across a little rock wall and I finally just jumped over the wall while hanging on to the wall and soaked for a while in the cool river water. There was a shout of amazement when I did it but they got over it when they could see I wasn’t drowning in the river. I like the shock of the hot water and then cold water even though the river wasn’t that cold.
The next day after closely inspecting the worn out rear tire on the bike, I decided I needed to go ahead and try the ‘river road’ that goes along the perimeter of the south edge of the park along the river. The tire is worn out and no tread but no threads showing so good to go eh? I had never been on the road but I wanted to do it so packed my tire patching gear, water and a little food and headed out. Whoa, what a nice little 4x4 road. In the first few miles the road was wide and not in too bad of shape. Soon I hit the road improvement construction project that the National Guard guys are doing to improve the road so the Border Patrol guys can charge up and down and protect our border. It was a little crazy going through the construction zone. It was nothing but about a foot deep of pea gravel and then an area where they had dug the soil and watered the piss out of it with a big water tuck and then onto a section just made by a little cat that almost got me when he shifted into reverse. I got out of his way to the side and he was surprised to see me when he went by in reverse. From there on it was pretty good most places other than a few blow sand places where I was able to do a couple of slow speed crashes. No blood or broken bones and the bike seems to know how to do those and not get hurt. I left a few snake tracks in the gravel streambed road but made it through in good shape. The next day I just eased around camp and around noon I was going to take a nap but couldn’t as it was 96 degrees and camp was right out in the bright hot sun. To hell with this and I packed up and headed for high country. I ended up in Alpine, Texas and spent the night in a nice spot next to a big motel that had a wonderful strong wifi signal to catch up on email and such.
I made it back to the Stronghold at about dark and parked in a new campsite because the place where I usually camp was filled with horse people and their horse trailers and trucks. I just opened the doors on the back of the truck and had a wonderful view of the stars until I went to sleep. In the middle of the night I woke up to a strange noise and looked up and could see something directly over me….. it was huge and moving……wow………
It turned out to be a horse that had gotten loose and came over to see what I was doing. Yikes, I finally got out of my sleeping bag and got some pants on and shoes and caught the horse and walked it back over to the horse camp. I yelled ‘Hello the camp’ several times and a guy came out and said he was an astronomer and was watching the stars but would help me. He said I must be a cowboy to be able to catch a horse and not be afraid.
He seemed to know someone named Jeff and finally a guy came out of one of the huge gooseneck trailers and we went over to where the horse had been tied but could find no rope. He finally took the horse over to his trailer and tied it up there. In the morning I found the rope wrapped around a tree and around the center stand of the motorcycle…. It is just plain luck that the horse didn’t pull the bike over and drag it all around the desert all night.
The next day I went down to the little garage in Sunsites
and picked up the pod and bloodhound that I had stored there and brought them up
to camp. I moved to a new campsite where I can get good cell phone connection
and I have more shade as it has turned warm again. This is a photo of the other
site and not the shade one. I was repacking after the trip.
I made a run down to town to pick up groceries and happened to see my friend Lonnie down by the Post office. We talked a while and we have a ride planned for Saturday. He has a nice clean Harley Sportster so this will be a pavement ride. Last year I met him on the dirt road over the pass when he was on his little Chinese dirt bike. We will made a little trip around up north and then down to Tombstone and Bisbee and then back home.
I got to visit with the astronomer guy and his name is Bill and he lives over in Tucson and comes out here quite often to get away from the city lights to study star events way far, and I mean WAY far away. Something about distant nebulae being hit with shock waves from exploding stars or something. Very technical stuff and I guess his equipment is top quality and he said something about it being very expensive. We had a couple of nice visits and in a lot of ways we are seeing the economy and society in similar ways. It is nice to meet someone that doesn’t think I am nuts…… Bill has worked in several observatories and has been all over the world. It is nice to meet a world traveler and wish I had more time to visit with him about other places that might be fun to visit on a motorcycle. It turned out that there is forecast that there would be light overcast so he packed up camp and headed out for home and maybe his wife would feed him a nice meal and he would have a bed and shower. He said he might be back next week and if I am still here we will meet again. Oh, it was also nice to meet someone familiar with James Kunstler book the “Long Emergency”. As I said, it was nice to meet someone that ‘thinks’ and has read other stuff than mainstream media crap.
Some details of the Texas Blue Tick Hound
Fork braces
Corbin seat that sucks…..but it came with the stock seat that needs recovering.
Parabellum windshield that is nice but needs to have an extension for me…
Bar backs which are a lot nicer than I thought they would be. I may need more for my other bikes.
The saddle bags are soft plastic and I will throw them in the trash as soon as possible.
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