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Think Of Us As Gone
As we finished up work on the new camper, the weather finally made a turn toward winter with rain, wind, and cold. At least we had lights and heat and a cozy camper interior to work in. The Lady had contacted Cousin Sherry – an exceptional artesian – for her help in sewing the thermal barrier for inside the pop-up sideliner on the camper. We had a bit of a deadline as we wanted to be at Sherry’s in Arizona before Thanksgiving.
Then came the gut wrenching 2024 presidential election results. Albert Einstein, with his wisdom, gives the clearest insight, “Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear, and greed.”
Trying our damnedest to pull any joy back into our camper project, our completion date coincided with an opening at Benton Hot Springs. A friend calls the Lady, “The Tub Whisperer” with her successes at scoring a tub. The truck and camper were ready. We were out of here with no plans to return. Think of us as gone.
We settled in at our favorite site at Benton, tub 5. The overnight low reached 23°. For some reason, we did not care about the cold temps at all.
Making the first leg of the trip mostly driving, we reached the sanctuary of Thom and Sherry’s in Arizona and immediately went to work.
Thom, an excellent horse trainer and all-around horseman, took advantage of our focus on the camper project and put new shoes on Rose.
After 4 wonderful days in Oracle, it was time to say goodbye. We had an invitation to spend Thanksgiving with cousins Keith and Kathleen at their winter place in Green Valley. This schedule gave us two nights for a first test of the new truck and camper out in the backcountry.
Thank you, Thom and Sherry, for your hospitality, generosity, and refuge in the face of the coming storm!
Where to go? We headed north on backcountry highways. After a stop in Globe for supplies, we consulted our mapping program, the one that holds “the list.” I made a suggestion to the Lady. “Wow,” she said. “Let’s see if we can find it!” After two secondary dirt roads, we turned onto a rough 4x4 road. The four miles on this road took us close to an hour, and gave a great opportunity to test out 4 low and learn how to best pilot the new truck. We found a suitable opening in the mesquite to make camp.
The Lady loves our lifestyle of backcountry camping in our cozy small camper – she prefers it to anything else, as do I. Although very similar to our old camper, there are enough small differences that I backed away and let her get organized and settled. The Lady makes it pretty darn cozy and I’m smart enough to let her. With the short days of the season, nice afternoon light comes early.
With the shadows of late afternoon, we started our search. Our objective was around 2 miles away and cross country. Down in a deep wash we got our first signal of success.
We needed to figure how to get up there. We found traces of an old worn path.
There were also pictographs and colorful rock. This made for an outstanding discovery for us.
After our respectful visit to this site, we climbed out into the last rays of the sun and celebrated with the gift of a stunning sunset.
The overnight quiet of this place, the solitude, was also a gift. The Lady loves, what she calls, “our morning wanders,” with our mugs of Peets coffee. In all these years we have not spilled a drop. These “morning wanders” will be a recurring theme. The Lady’s preferred direction of travel is always up. Up we went to greet the sunrise.
Our truck and camper are visible in the center of the above photo. The ridge top was a massive garden of prickly pear.
An old trace of a road on top took us down the opposite side of the ridge and we made a large circle back to camp.
I was surprised by an unprompted comment the Lady made on our drive out. We were descending a very steep drop into a draw. It was a great test of the first gear crawl ratio with the truck’s 10-speed auto transmission. It was so steep the Lady wanted to put her feet on the dash and the road more resembled a talus slope than a road.
“I’m so glad we spent the money on the complete new suspension for this truck,” she said from her perch in the passenger seat. I was concentrating on driving.
“Yes?” I asked her to go on.
“I’m not getting banged side to side so much and I’m not reaching for the ‘Oh Shit’ handle on the pillar as often. I like this.”
I was also pleased and impressed with the overall feel of the truck with the Dobinsons suspension maneuvering over rough terrain (also, very much, on the highway). I was also very pleased with the electric power assist steering and the ease of making tight turns in 4 low.
Still, the road was so rough we appreciated the opportunity for a break with opening and closing gates.
We made a very enjoyable stop at Tonto National Monument.
Our objective for the day was to drive the Apache Trail east to west to Apache Junction. We did not know it had just reopened after repairing damage from devastating flooding back in 2019. Traffic was almost nonexistent. In fact, we did not encounter any other vehicles until reaching Fish Canyon, where we took a long break from driving.
We hoped to find a nice dispersed camp spot on the trail’s west end. We did not have any luck and, as the afternoon waned, we needed a place to overnight. What would we find?
Our adventure continues. Please click here for Part Two.
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