January 25, 2022

We are learning all the time in this new lifestyle and I think we’ve now figured out how to best deal with our trash while boon docking.  Many people say to put it in grocery bags so you can throw them out at gas stations.  Since boon docking is not something we do every now and again, but seems to be an all the time thing for us for now, that won’t really work for us.  We just accumulate too much trash I guess with cooking in the rig almost every day.  We try to minimize it as best we can, but usually have a full kitchen trash within a few days.  We have figured out that it’s no problem to throw out a full trash bag at truck stops.  We haven’t been going to these as frequently as we’ve also figured out we can take showers in the RV sparingly without running out of water, but we keep full trash bags covered in the bed of the truck and can fit 4 or 5 back there for now.  

We went to a Mexican restaurant recommended by the hairdresser I saw called Taco Giro and it was excellent.  We ordered a fajita platter for two and ended up with sore bellies and no appetites for the next 12 hours. Luke’s birthday was January 20th…the big 3-9.  He’s not big on celebrations usually.  I went to town to do our laundry as he was out of socks and I wanted to investigate our local facilities.  I had been told by another camper that there were a couple of washing machines in Patagonia and lo and behold…she was right.  Only 1 dryer though which I only really after putting two full loads in the two washers.  I resigned to hanging out for the day to get it all dried and grabbed a salad in a local cafe and sat in the sun to eat it.  It was beautiful out and I was happy to just be outside on a nice day.  I put MacNeils on Wheels stickers up on the bulletin boards around town and picked up a birthday cake for Luke at the Ovens of Patagonia which turned out to be very good.  I also decided to kill some time at the biker bar there, The Patagonia Lumber Co.  The laundry was right behind the bar so this was a very convenient home base while I kept an eye on my drying.  This was no ordinary biker bar.  The owner also owns a local bicycle outfitting and tour planning company and organizes regular gravel rides on the trails and dirt roads all around here.  He was kind and friendly and told me about his various businesses in town and how he and his wife started out living in their converted van camper when they first arrived in town.  I was working on a cross stitch of Monument valley while we chatted and he asked if he could purchase it when it was finished.  Of course, I was thrilled at this offer and agreed.  The bar had really yummy coffee, local beers and wines, and seems to be a fun hang out place for locals with biking events, food trucks, and live music at times.  I talked with a bunch of people while there and they were all great and interesting to talk to.  I had to turn down an offer to check out a hallucinogenic vision quest.  Some adventures are a bit too daring for me.  

         

We moved back to the BLM land around the town of Sonoita this week as our time was up at this spot and I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers with the rancher who had given us a stern talking to about our dogs by overstaying.  The spot we were in before was full so we found another camping area just down the road right near the prairie dog preserve we had visited a couple of weeks ago.  It’s coyote mating season and we hear them yapping a lot at all hours so I hope those cute little prairie dogs are quick to scurry back in their holes when they are hunting.  New campsites are good though.  It gives us a chance to see new scenery and have some new experiences right at home…that’s why we have a home on wheels after all.  I have developed a tradition of picking up trash at our campsites when we are staying on public lands.  There really isn’t much here for trash which is good.  The weather over the next week will be colder and windy so we are settling into winter mode for a bit and picked up a new video game to play.  We gave away our Playstation when we left, but Luke had read great reviews about a game called Divinity 2 for the iPad.  We picked up a game controller and plugged the iPad into the TV so it’s just like playing a game on a normal game console.  It’s a very fun game and sure to suck up a lot of hours from us.  

We did have a bit of good weather and took advantage of it to visit the Sonoran Desert Museum.  I had read that they have different areas which exhibit the animals of the region in natural enclosures and it had many great reviews.  They also had a cave, aviary, gem exhibit, and trails with different types of cactus and other desert plants.  I was lucky enough to capture a picture of a hummingbird just as it settled down for a moment.  We also saw coyotes, wolves, mountain lion, javelinas, bobcat, snakes and fish, and bighorn sheep.

   

At the end of this week I was able to officially start my new job.  I have a little bit to learn about advertising on social media and hashtags, but it’s not that difficult and actually pretty interesting.  There’s an application I use to schedule out posts to multiple sites at once and then collect and send me any responses or messages that come through for me to monitor and respond to.  For the most part, these comments and messages are easy enough for me to handle and if not, I send them onto the business owner to deal with.  I met a man near my campsite from a local organization called Hawk Watch that monitors the activity of a certain type of hawk in this area.  He said that they could use help if I was interested and I’m thinking about it as I would like to do more to be of service and connect with this community that we are bumming around in for a little while now.  I’m not sure if driving around and peering into bird boxes is my thing, but I think I’m ready to start looking for something.  Even if I’m only here for another month, I think that’s enough time to do more than just picking up trash on these BLM campsites.