Friday, March 25
We
survived!! My phone tells me that it
reached 27o sometime last night.
No wonder my nose, about the only thing exposed, felt a little cold
during the night. With a sleeping bag
under me and a sleeping bag, blanket and sheet on top plus the extra warm that
Kim kicks out (and also wearing a fleece and socks), I eventually warmed up and
really stayed toasty warm throughout the night.
However, there were other things that interrupted my sleep: *1.
Our mattress was on a very slight incline and when my brain registered that my
feet were at the end of the bed, I woke up thinking something wasn’t quite
right. We had migrated downward…unfortunately
our blankets had migrated with us, so it was a matter of pulling ourselves and
the heavy covers back up to where we belonged.
That happened twice. *2.
There was a truck camper next to us that came in late. When its furnace would cycle on, it sounded
like a really loud blow torch. Heard
that a few times. *3. Birds…not the
pretty songbirds, but crows. There was a
very talkative crow up in a tree in our campsite yesterday when we set up. I
think he may have been up there again early this morning, chattering away. *4. My phone alarm, which I had set for
last Friday, went off again today…earlier than I wanted to get up. And of course, it wasn’t next to me, it was
across the tent…but I managed to get back to sleep after shutting it off. *5. The wind wasn’t constant so the couple of
times it did pick up and blow through the trees overhead, I became aware of it.
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I’m not sure any
of those thing WOKE me up….well, except the alarm. The other things may have just brought me to
the surface of sleep…you know, not really awake, but aware. All I know is that it was an ‘in and out’
kind of sleep experience. Didn’t wake
up for real until 9:15. But the sun was
coming through the trees, hitting the top of the tent…warming things up. It’s a slow start for sure, but it’s okay
because we want to let the day warm a bit before we get on the bikes. There are a lot of things to see within a 90
mile radius, so we have time.
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When we packed
up in Needles, our tent had a lot of dirt in it….and we didn’t have a broom
with us, so the dirt got packed up with the tent. Last night we bought a small Shop-Vac so we
could clean up before we set up our mattress, etc. Great idea, except that it sucked up the tent
floor, which made it difficult to go back and forth. Bakker ingenuity to the rescue! Kim taped a pencil across the mouth of the
vacuum attachment so it would roll over the tent floor easier; then the process
went a lot smoother. Then he bought some
cheap rugs that we put outside the tent, so we shouldn’t have the dirt problem
so much this time around.
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This morning, he
took advantage of last night’s trailer adjustments by cooking breakfast on the
table in the trailer. Outside the air
was warming; there was a slight breeze but it was okay in the sun. The picnic table was still in the shade, so
we decided to set up another chair in the trailer and eat in there, also. Not a typical camping experience but we’re
making it work. It’s all about adapting
to the situation with what you got on hand
.  |
| He was too late for pulp... |
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 |
| He got a peel with pulp... |
This campground
has Abert’s squirrels. It looks like a cross between a rabbit
and a squirrel. Interesting looking
critters. Yesterday, we bought some of
the biggest oranges I’ve ever seen. And
while the fruit inside is still very big, some of their overall size comes from
having a ¼“ thick skin. When Kim eats an
orange, he cuts the peel very neatly in quarters…I just rip it off. He ate one this morning and left his 4
sections of peel on the picnic table while he went to cook breakfast. Came out of the trailer to find that a couple
of squirrels had each made off with a section of peel; one nibbling away at it
on the ground while the other took his up a tree. Found the one peel on the ground, all the
pulp eaten away from the skin…the other peel is laying neatly up in the crook
of a tree branch. I’m assuming it, too,
has been stripped of the pulp. **I put
the stripped peel on the picnic table to take a picture. Left it there. As I’m sitting in the sun typing, a squirrel
comes bounding up to me (that was a bit startling), then heads over to the
table. Grabbed his prize peel and headed
a few feet away. He wasn’t very
interested when he discovered there was no pulp. You snooze, you lose, little one!! ***Ha! Shortly after one squirrel left the
peel, another came sneaking up to grab it.
I’m sure he found it as lacking in pulp as the first did. Somewhere in this campground is a quarter of
a huge orange peel, probably making the rounds with the squirrels.
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Today we rode to
the Meteor Crater, which in layman’s terms is a big hole in the earth made
about 50,000 years ago. The cause of
the hole has been debated through the years, originally it was thought to be
the result of volcanic activity. However,
in 1903, mining engineer Daniel Barringer suggested it had been produced by the
impact of a large meteorite. He then
went through the process of staking a claim to 640 acres of land from the
center of the crater. Years later, a
geologist confirmed his hypothesis that it was caused by a meteorite. The crater is still owned by the Barringer
family through the Barringer Crater Company. There is an entrance fee and a visitor center;
a very knowledgeable and personable man named Eduardo leads tours there. He will also take your picture in front of the
largest discovered fragment of the 150 ton meteorite that created the crater. And in case it ever comes up in Trivial
Pursuit, in the 1960s astronauts trained at the crater to prepare for the
Apollo moon missions. What that training
was about, I don’t know. I mean, it’s
not like the crater is a no gravity zone.
J
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Our ride was
only about 80 miles today, but the sun was shining and the roads were open.
Doesn’t matter how far you go under those conditions. Just enjoying the riding. And because of being out in the fresh air, I expect to sleep good tonight.
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When we got back
to the campsite, Kim continued with his modifications to make the trailer a
cozy little hideout from the weather.
Today, at a local resale shop, he bought an electric heater and then bought
some additional stuff to make his electrical jury rigging from last night a
little more permanent. So that’s where
we are right now…in the trailer with the heater going, Kim cooking supper and
me on the computer. After supper, we’ll
hang out in here, either playing another game or working on pictures on the
computer. Life is good!!
AWESOME !!
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