20190107 - Algodones & new bridge

     We were up early and in Los Algodones by 0850.  I was excited to get my new bridge.  We do not drive into Mexico.  Besides there would be no place to park in Los Algodones, I've heard too many stories about USBP unloading your car on the road to search it and then leaving you to clean it up. With our truck, that would be an unbelievable nightmare. The Quechan tribe own the land up to the border. They have a parking lot where we can leave the truck for $6/day. We walk across the border. 

     The dentist wasn't satisfied with my new bridge and sent it back to the lab to have it corrected. That only took an hour. By noon I had my new bridge, and it does look good. In the picture the bridge is on my right. (The glint of gold on my left side is from a circa 1980 bridge)  Can't tell which teeth are the bridge, can you? He does outstanding work.

     Pamela had fun negotiating with a local merchant to get me a new pair of boots. Our friends from South Dakota and I stood watching and laughing. I think the two of them were having great fun and he still got a good and fair price for his merchandise. The people here work very hard to make a living.  Our dentist has been in practice for nine years and he is no ways near as affluent as an American dentist with the same experience. Actually, I decided that one of the reasons the dentists here are so good is that from the day they get out of dental school they're doing extractions, crowns, implants, bridges, root canals and all those things which most US dentists would be expected or required (depending upon the State) to send to a specialist. I really wish I could afford to pay our Mexican dentist more but it is the fact that the US healthcare system has left so many of us without the financial wherewithal to pay for US services that he has enough patients to make a good living for Mexico.

     We hear so many people talk as though going into Mexico is so dangerous because it is filled with kidnappers and drug dealers. The people of Los Algodones are very friendly and we feel quite safe among them.  I'm much more nervous in a US mall than in the crowded marketplace of Los Algodones.  I know there are dangerous crossings, but there are a lot more that are quite safe. Yes, it is true that they are one of the few countries who have a higher murder rate than the US but awareness of your surroundings is important anywhere.  I feel very bad that my Spanish isn't even half as good as their English. They are good people and want to be good neighbors. We should be supporting them instead of demeaning and shunning them. 

20190106 - The Dunes

     I thought that the back of the truck was beginning to smell because of our trash bag. Finding a place to dispose of trash is often problematic in the desert. There aren't many trash cans around and there is no way we're going to dump in the desert. One of the biggest social problems here is people trashing the desert. We're members of a group called Boondockers United who work with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other authorities, going out and cleaning up places where people have left trash. 

     As it turned out the smell in the back of the truck was from some fly repellent but we didn't know that until after we went looking for a place to dump our trash.  We found a rest area just down the road near the Buttercup Ranger Station at the Dunes. It had several dumpsters and even free water. Free water in the desert is a treasure. 

     Nitsitapiisinni holds 40 gallons of fresh water. However, no matter how new or good a fresh water tank might be, it will eventually start making the water taste like plastic. We use the freshwater tank for everything except drinking. We keep four two-gallon containers of filtered drinking water. In the desert, they usually cost us twenty-five cents a gallon to fill. 

    We had our newbee friends with us. They have worked so hard their entire lives. We're so happy that they will soon be relatively free and really enjoy watching them experience nomadic life. 

     We stopped at the Imperial Sand Dunes, sometimes called the Algodones Dunes, right by the Buttercup Ranger Station. The    place was filled with big rigs all carrying ATVs to run up and down the dunes. I don't really like this activity, but they weren't doing anything wrong. Even in a sand dune and what may appear as totally bare desert there is life just under the surface. These ATV kill that life. Why must we kill life and exterminate other species for our comfort or pleasure?  Humans definitely have an ego problem. We think we're the most important thing on the globe when we're about the only species that could disappear and not be missed. 

     This evening we had another full house for dinner. We had the five of us who are camping together and a couple of women who are camping nearby. They winter here each year. They were very interesting and shared a lot of information about the area. The commradery and friendliness of the nomad/boondocker community is amazing. 

20190105 - A rainy day

     Today wasn't only cloudy we actually had rain.  We had more rain than I've ever seen in the desert in a single day. NOAH weather reported .15 to .5 inches. That's a lot for the Sonoran Desert when the annual average is three inches. In the years we have been coming to the desert there is no doubt that climate change is impacting the environment. Some of these plants are experiencing two or three springs because spring triggers, that used to happen only later in the year, are now happening multiple times. As we drive through our beloved wilderness human impact is very obvious. Coming across the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts there is clearly a point at which the marvelous desert vegetation diminishes as we get close to so-called civilization. 

     Pamela and our friend who is camping by us went exploring. I worked on proof reading. Only ten typos in 180 pages. Not too bad. 

     More friends arrived today. A couple from South Dakota, whom we first met when we were working at Glacier National Park, are gearing up to go full-time. They don't have a lot of experience boondocking so they're spending some time with us. Boondocking is camping/living in the wilderness (in this case the desert) without any amenities. You must be totally self-contained. We love boondocking and spend about 80% of our time doing it, but there is a steep learning curve.  There are now five of us in three rigs. Hey, we could be a California town. The nearby town of Felicity, CA, which you will find on Google maps, has a population of two!  

20190104 - Facebook friends arrive

     It was a beautiful day in the desert today. Still on the cool side but a lot nicer than last week and so much better than weather up north. Our home town is Columbia Falls, MT and friends are sending us pictures of the snow. It is beautiful. We don't have anything against snow but we don't ski, etc., and Sinni really isn't made for that type of weather. One friend back in Kalispell wouldn't leave during the winter. Whitefish ski resort gives free ski passes to those over 70. LOL  We commiserate with the others who quickly find the snow and short days a bit overwhelming.  We weren't exactly wearing shorts and t-shirts but jeans and a flannel shirt was quite comfortable and, above everything else, it was sunny. 

     Pamela went into Yuma to visit with one of our friends while another arrived with her rig to camp with us. We have a tremendous number of friends that we have made as we travel. When you really click with someone you keep up with each other on Facebook or text and camp together whenever possible. Pamela and I have made more good 'got-your-back' friends since we hit the road than ever in our lives. 

     I spent the day working on finalizing a book of two novella for publication. Pamela has been encouraging me to get everything published before I get too involved in another project.  My books and novella are generally fantasy or scifi and address a social and/or environmental issue. Decision Point is a pungent account of people who have been disenfranchised and are looking to escape because the American society had become intolerable. Readers seem to like my writing but I feel like they get lost on Kindle. I'd give them away but Kindle wants to make some money.  Guess I can't blame them for that. I just love writing and sharing.
     The friend who just arrived is a van dweller. While we share a lot, the fact that she is a single woman living in a van makes a world of difference in many ways. Some of these women are on the road because they've been physically or emotionally hurt by men and the society.  Some hit the road because they are tired of the inequality of our society or just want the freedom. The freedom and the peace empowers them. If you want to meet some strong people, regardless of gender, let us introduce you. Because there still is no equality in our society, they work harder for everything. From those who stealth camp in a city so they can keep full-time employment to those who spend their lives far into the wilderness, I can't tell you how much I admire these women who refuse to be put down.
     Tomorrow more friends will arrive. They are new to the nomadic life and it will be fun to share that with them. 

20190103 - Los Algodones

    We went to Los Algodones for my dentist appointment today.  I must admit that we were a bit apprehensive with all of the wall drama going on.  People crossing the border elsewhere were telling stories of USBP and National Guard troops bullying people. Our sources are good, so I don't doubt them. Thankfully it wasn't that way at Los Algodones. 

     Last year Dr. Guillermo Urias had removed a broken bridge, cut out the roots of the broken tooth, put in bolvine bone to try to get my body to replace lost bone, and made a temporary partial for me. Total cost $300!  He is so very good. I got out of the chair at 1100 and was enjoying lunch an hour later.  I had to give the area at least four months to heal, so I was back today, not quite 12 months later, to have him finish.  

     We had talked about implants. They were going to be $750. That's an excellent price, but they would require another four months to heal before he could put on the crowns. I decided that, at my age, I would be just as happy with a nice bridge. Besides, I was anxious to get it over. $800. He did a lot of work prepping and volunteered to work on Saturday to finish, but I said I could wait until Monday. He made two beautiful temps. If it weren't for the gap I'd just keep the temps.

     Pamela had an eye exam and got new glasses. They are her first. I had an eye exam and got a second pair. Both glasses and both exams - $270. We went off for lunch.
     Let be a bit honest. Capitalism has people convinced that healthcare costs are necessarily high. If you do some research and actually talk to people from other countries, you soon find that that isn't true. We in the US could enjoy good healthcare at a reasonable price like the rest of the world, if we didn't let greedy corporations run our government.  We spent Christmas with a couple from Holland. They've spent a year in the US and can't believe what we tolerate. Yes, they pay more taxes but healthcare is affordable, education is almost free and jobs are plentiful. They have an etremely strong and prosperous middle class. 

     Since these were Pamela's first glasses she decided to go with a whole new look. The owner of the dental clinic suggested a hair dresser. Pamela got a cute haircut for $6 to match the glasses she picked up on our way home. We were a bit annoyed to see an American, claiming to be a hairdresser, trying to get the woman to do a man's haircut for less than $5. Most American barbers and hairdressers in the US expect more than $5 in tip. Sometimes we are confronted by the ugly American. We gave the hairdresser $10. She earned it and Pamela is thrilled with her new doo. 

     Of course we stopped at Phoenix Pharmacy to get our year's supply of medications for far less than we'd pay for a month's worth in the US.  In fact, we paid $135 for medications that would have cost us around $1800 in the US. Like all good visitors to Los Algodones, we stopped at the Purple Store to get our limit of tequila. The line to return to the US was extremely long. It was mostly US seniors with incomes below the poverty level and crappy insurance who had done the same things we did. We always enjoy Los Algodones and the people are really nice but we come here for the same reason as the rest. Even if you can get good medical care in the US, a high percentage of us can't afford it. Insurance is a joke. My high school girlfriend, with whom I am still good friends, said that her dentist wanted $9,600 for the same procedure which was going to cost me $1,100.  I wonder if members of Congress would treat us any differently if they had to go through what they put us through? 

     The Mexican government was being very cooperative with the US at the border. They did a passport scan as we left Mexico. There was no reason for them to do that except to be good neighbors. Sure wish we'd be as good a neighbor to other countries.

20190102 - American Girl Mine Road

     We broke camp at LaPosa south and drove 103 miles to American Girl Mine Rd., in California just west of Winterhaven. There is supposedly a town called Oglesby but we didn't see it. This is actually an easy area to access for any size rig. We were only 7-tenths of a mile from a paved road.

     On the way we stopped at a Walmart in Yuma, AZ.  Wow! $323 for almost the identical basket which use to cost us $200 when we started full-timing.  Capitalism at its . . . .  I figure that things really haven't changed in hundreds of years. Capitalism is just feudalism but those who own everything and are getting richer as the rest of us are getting poorer just don't have royal titles. But they still use national pride and fear to get people to put up with it. To be honest, Pamela and I are so tight we make a penny scream for mercy. If everyone was a frugal as the two of us, capitalism wouldn't stand a chance. It is based on copious consumption.
  A good example is in Quartzsite. The average class-A motorhome appears to run around a quarter of a million dollars. There are hundreds of these motorhomes for sale in Quartzsite during the big tent RV show. How much debt can a people manage? If these are not first time consumers, what is happening to all of the old class-As? It is mind boggling.
      American Girl Mine Rd is very interesting. It isn't a lush desert - yes, there is such a thing - but we have some really beautiful mountains nearby.  This was the first gold mining area in California and it's about 100 miles from where gold was first discovered in Arizona.  There are still active mines just up the road. It is rather isolated. The only places where you can get a loaf of bread and not spend a fortune are at least twenty miles away. But it is beautiful and we are relatively convenient to the Los Algodones border crossing. 

    The thing that bothers us about driving through this part of southern California is all of the irrigation. The once mighty Colorado River trickles into Mexico through a 24 inch culvert. It doesn't even fill the culvert. We have taken so much water from the river for irrigation and replaced it with toxic waste which has totally destroyed a once beautiful lake called the "Salton Sea" just west of us, among other places.
     We had a friend visit the Salton Sea a few years back. She said that walking on the beach they commented on the strange looking sand. But it wasn't sand. It was dried fish bones. The lake is dead and toxic.
     I'm sorry. When I see a farm worker wearing as Hasmat suit, I take a second look at the produce I buy in the store. This is a good argument for buying locally grown produce whenever possible. You have to be careful even then because people will import produce to sell at local farmers' markets. However, even in Columbia Falls, MT., where we have to have one of the shortest growing seasons in the country, there are local farmers who have figured out how to provide their community with good and healthy produce. 
     Water is so precious!  Is it really that hard for people to realize and understand?  Something just isn't right when nature, including people, are in desperate need of water and you drive along a road where they're spraying this precious commodity over thousands of acres of desert to grow a crop for profit. 

     We can hear a lot of rail road traffic at American Girl Mine Road, but it doesn't bother us.  For a short period each morning the big gold mine trucks rumbled by, but, again, they didn't bother us. This is a good place to come if you want to avoid politics and other drama of society. If it weren't for a few neighbors on the other side of the wash, we could pretend we were the only people out here.    

20190101 - Happy New Year

    It is New Years day and I'm contemplating a blog which will just follow our journey. If there are issues to be addressed, so be it. Otherwise, if you elect to follow me, you may be bored with the everyday events of our nomadic life. 

    For example, we are currently at a desert boondocking area south of Quartzsite, AZ called LaPosa South. People pay $165 for a permit to camp here all winter. We're just visiting because our friends are here. Those who purchased permits are rather annoyed because the government shut down has denied them services for which they paid; especially water and dump.  I don't know who's doing the work, but someone is keeping the dumpsters empty, the sewage tanks emptied and I think the water is still running.  Living in our country's wilderness we get an up close and personal look at the damage Trump's shutdown is doing to the land. Being just a few miles from the border and doing business in Los Algodones, Mexico, as well as small US towns, we see the harm to business and tension it has created. Why would any person claiming to be so intelligent continue to hold the country hostage for a project that at least 50% or more of the people in the country strongly oppose? 

     We were going to have a New Year's luncheon al fresco with friends around us but it is really cold here.  It never got up to the expected high of 53. The lunch ended up inside Nitsitapiisinni. (For those of you who do not know, Nitsitapiisinni is our name for our 20 ft trailer home and means 'our way of life' in the Blackfeet language.) We had eight of us around our little table. Sinni is only 160 sq ft. But we had fun and good fellowship. 

     None of us made it to midnight last night. In the desert you tend to go to bed and get up with the sun.  

     Looking at 2019, I must admit that I'm afraid of the future. I cannot ever remember a new year in my life when I was actually afraid of the future. People keep telling me to not give up hope. I honestly have to ask 'why?'  When each day brings new atrocities, vulgarities and attacks on everything I love and no one, with the power, is doing anything to stop it, it is hard to have hope. 

     In my own personal journal I ranted for three pages, but it wasn't anything you haven't heard from me and millions of others time and again.  I really want this blog page to have more positive than negative, so I'll not  say anything more. Perhaps over the coming months I can find things which will give me hope. 

    We are going to move tomorrow so that we will be closer to Los Algodones. I'm looking forward to getting my dental work finished which we started last year. That's sure an upper!

     Happy New Year. Hope you will find my new approach interesting.