Occupation of Independence

 When it actually rains in a western state, you'd think the locals would declare a holiday and close schools for a day.  I usually rhapsodize over the rain.  But a long day of rain is quite different than a brief shower or rain at night.  I got two days in a row of all-day rain.  It has been about 3 years since that happened. There are ways to deal with this situation.  First, don't spend too many hours in bed or sitting in a chair.  The chair should have lumbar support .  Stand up and walk around in your RV every time you can think of an excuse. Adjust and adapt your clothing.  I have really benefited from the rubber " mud boots " I bought a couple years ago.  Dry feet can really encourage you. Last year I bought the first " rain suit " ( = jacket + pants) in years.  What really makes it work is its ability to slide over shoes.  Taking shoes off is too inconvenient.  It is surprising how small details help in the design ...

Compared to the amateurish impulsiveness of the Trumpanyahu regime, countries such as Russia or China have strategic patience that seems almost superhuman.  But what if Israeli-American helicopters lower special troops down on ropes onto the deck of a petroleum tanker bound for China, and commandeer the tanker?  Will Chinese patience finally fray? If I were China, I would use that opportunity to blockade Taiwan.  You'd think the Chinese government would have become so frustrated so long ago with the ambiguity in Taiwan's status that it would be a relief to end it.   What could the Israeli-US Navy do about it?  It has its hands full in the vicinity of the Hormuz Strait .  At the same time, it is time for Russia's spring offensive to get serious and finish off Zelensky's government in Ukraine.  Ansar Allah in Yemen could block the Red Sea .  Unity of action -- if the countries in question had any backbone -- could finish off the Trumpanyah...

 Considering how long I've been at this RV traveler gig , if I still flutter my eyelashes and rhapsodize over certain things, I must be doing something right.  It is hard to resist becoming almost euphoric to escape the barrenness and brownness of the American Southwest , and come to the greenness and moisture-paradise of the inland Northwest .  But later in summer, it will be as dry here as the Southwest in spring.  That's why you must do what seems almost unnatural and force yourself out of the Southwest by, say, 15 March. So here I am, in green grass and pretty clouds, along the Oregon Trail . I don't know why the hills look greyish rather than lovely green in the video.  Depending on where you live, you might not think of pretty clouds as miracles of nature.  But I do. I ran into something that was quite rare: a low-budget and sensible visitor area run by a government agency.  It had just the sort of improvements that added to the visitor's enjoyme...

 Leaving the Southwest makes you first think of being cold, but that really isn't true along the Snake or Columbia rivers .  I've even managed to enter Oregon without suffering the indignity of being in the Pacific Time Zone .  Perhaps this results from southeastern Oregon having a mindset that got established back in the Oregon Trail days. It has been warm enough to get my first insect bite and to see the first snake of summer: Photo doesn't show him sticking out his forked tongue at me.  He was one little pissed-off snake. The Oregon Trail passed along these sandstone bluffs .  My little girl has played here a couple years ago.  She likes sand. Ahh, what a smooth road went along the foot of those bluffs!  A cross-country-style mountain biker like me can really love smooth, flat, and fast, as the pioneers no doubt did. A couple geese were pocketed in those bluffs.  They were easy to hear, but hard to see.  They got a rhythm going that remi...

 'How to' camp is not something I write about much in this blog.  It is an over-rated and unnecessary topic that You Tube channels discuss incessantly to make a buck.  But this blog is not monetized. There is an occasional exception to every rule.  I was surprised when my 2-month-old van battery would not start the engine in 34 F weather.  And it was nearing the Easter weekend in Nevada , with few car parts stores. I have always had jumper cables, but in my camping location only one pickup truck went by per day!  How would I wave him down?  And would he even want to help me?  That would mean a long wait for a tow truck.  But what if I had had no cellphone signal? Fortunately last year I bought one of those " portable jump starters ," that is, a battery powered jump starter.  There are a zillion models to choose from.  I was surprised how easily it started my engine.  What a relief! Because I could safely travel, I kept going n...

 Most commentators think that a ground invasion of Iran by the Netanyahu-Trump regime won't happen because it is unlikely to succeed, and that it is just a bluff or bargaining chip. Tactically, this makes sense. But Trump has a larger overall problem: it is an election year and his war is unpopular in the USA.  He must make it more popular.  Ironically, a serious 'blooding' of American soldiers could help the voters to rally 'round the Flag and the president, regardless of how reckless the president was with soldiers' lives. Imagine the programing on television: every few minutes there could be a movie clip or old World War II newsreel showing the Marines "taking that beach."  Remember that famous photo of General MacArthur wading ashore, a year after his famous "I shall return?"  Then the politician can say, "You want to pull out of this war?  Then all our heroic Marines who died on that Iranian beach/island will have  died in vain. " ...

 Isn't it terrible how the world cannot act in concert to oppose the Trumpanyahu-Epstein-Adelson regime?!  Why doesn't the United Nations simply shut down -- it is a giant waste of money. Canada and Europe are pushing back some, so there is reason for hope.  I hope the recent experience with Trumpanyahu's war against Iran has taught Japan, Taiwan, South Korea , and the Philippines a good lesson.  They could do a lot if they would oppose the Regime. I hope the Republicans are beaten so bad this November that they learn a lesson and seriously reform themselves.  Sometimes countries and institutions have to get their back against the wall before they come back strong and save themselves. In the mean time we must resist the propaganda machine and NOT rally 'round the flag , nor support "our" troops and president.  Our loyalty must be to constitutional principles , not to the military-industrial-complex , nor the CIA , nor the Israel lobby.

 This certainly was the week to swing from one extreme to the other, in the dog world.  After the rez dog experience, I was surprised to encounter a young black-and-tan coonhound on a bike ride in the ponderosa forest .  He was not completely trained yet, despite his radio collar and antenna.  He came over to the bike to make friends with my dog. My, what big feet he had!  Soon I saw his trainer working three adult hounds.  They and their trainer were 95% business, with no time to socialize.  The trainer said that he had just found a deer that had been killed by a mountain lion , perhaps the previous night. It is easy to admire dogs who are amazingly trained, no matter what their specialty.  But I have never been tempted to own a 'specialist.'  I prefer a well-rounded, companion dog.  My little girl was confused by the size of the ponderosa log that was blocking our road: And she was delighted with the deer antler found near camp: Po...

 An English-speaking North American doesn't get too much of a chance to experience drastically different cultures while traveling in North America.  So when that traveler goes through an Indian Rez , it can be seen as a long-overdue chance to experience a different culture.  New Mexico has quite a few Native American reservations . There are people -- usually from blue counties on the coast or Europe -- who think there is something chic about the Rez, with all the art and handicrafts.  That was particularly true in the tourist town I was in.  I am not so taken in by all that.  I expect theft, homelessness, and pitiful dogs hanging out at gas stations. So there are at least two ways to see Reservations.  My purpose here is not to decide which viewpoint is the correct one, but rather, to use the tension between these two viewpoints to have a more interesting travel experience. An uncollared dog was walking around the parking lot.  The nearby high...

I will spare the long-suffering reader my stump speech, and write only about fresh manifestations or embodiments of it.  A great example of that happened lately in a small mountain range in southeastern Arizona . There was a secondary tourist attraction nearby.  The rocks were fun to look at.  And there was a little bit of history, too. I avoided most of the visitors, and chose a nearby area that featured a different kind of scenery.  The grass had big seedheads on it -- it looked like a kitchen scrub brush.  This grass was tawny and was left over from the last monsoon season .  Just imagine how lush it seemed at the end of last year's monsoon season -- it is no exaggeration to call it a miracle. And there were water resources in my hills, as well.  That is no small thing in Arizona.  The hills were soft, feminine, and useful: I sighed with relief when thinking about these things.  And so I want to know: do other long-term travelers out-grow...

What luck!  I like the 1964 movie, "Becket", and while searching for it on You Tube they suggested a new digital restoration of the movie on the Shakespeare Network.  The movie had twice the effect on me because of Khamenei's murder in his home, just a couple weeks ago. During the movie, analogies came to mind between the victims of King Henry II (of Normandized England) and Iranians' attitude towards martyrdom.  The analogies fizzled out quickly and then reappeared.  It was all quite tantalizing. The characters in "Becket" were always talking about honor.  King Henry II claimed an aristocratic woman (who was in love with Becket) just as a test of how loyal Becket would be when the chips were down.  Would Becket live up to a previous promise to Henry II by turning the woman over to Henry? When the woman learned that Becket was relinquishing her to King Henry II she said to Becket, "You've not found anything in the world to care for, have you?...

Somewhere in Arizona I saw this protest message.  It is probably caused by requirements for expensive, replacement, gasoline, storage tanks at gasoline stations, such as in California?  Well, I have long ago confessed to being a geo-bigot and love to make fun of California politics and culture. Be that as it may, shouldn't the protest message really say something like: "Keep Trumpanyahu's war policies out of Arizona tanks."  My goodness, this could turn into an expensive travel season.

 Ahh dear, the premature heat wave!  But there was some good news on this morning's ride.  For one thing, the discomfort made the experience less touristy and more authentic.  Also I actually encountered a well-designed gate on some BLM land .  Yes, I know that it sounds silly for a grown man to get excited about such things -- but I do! This isn't so silly when you consider how I struggle with these gates from time to time.  And how you go away with torn clothes.   And can you believe I was admiring something as simple as a lone, yellow flower that was different than the yellow/orange poppies you expect at this time of year: My goodness, I am becoming too easy to please!  But, back to the gate issue.  I rode down a small hill, and not too fast, because I was feeling hot and thirsty and a little punch-drunk.  It was only the last few feet that I realized that this gate was semi-invisible: I managed to get stopped, but just barely. T...

 There is a way to find an 'off-ramp' to the geopolitical crisis brought on by Trumpanyahu's attack on Iran and their murder of Iran's leader. 1. Eliminate all American sanctions against the nation of Iran. 2. Remove American military bases from Iraq and the Persian Gulf. 3. Make Israel submit to international inspection for nuclear weapons. These three things are all feasible.  And they are no threat to the American economy or military security.  So what's the problem?  We would simply need an American president who was loyal to America.  Is that asking too much?

I felt it welling up inside me: disgust and anger.  And yet it was glorious! Arizona is having a February heat wave , as if being ungawdly hot for 9 months a year isn't good enough.  And I was working outdoors, during the heat of the day, on rebuilding my wooden leveling ramps.  I tried to work in the shadow of my van, but the verticality of the sun in late February was making that difficult. "Glorious" in the first paragraph was not meant to be theatrical or facetious.  This is ranch country in southeastern Arizona, and it has become quite the little tourist trap, commemorating its glorious cowboy past.  But how do you experience the reality of ranching in 1890?  By looking at pretty sunsets?  By researching the area on the internet?  By going on a ranger-led hike?   Hell no, it ain't about prettiness, although there is quite a bit of beauty here: It is about soil and grass and grazing cattle or horses.  I still don't understand h...

 Before I left the desert-wasteland for this winter, I did a double-take at a certain saguaro cactus : You might think, What's the Big Deal.  It's just a classic saguaro postcard.  But that's the thing: I spend most of the winter in deserts that are marginal for saguaros.  You might be surprised how sickly most of them look.  The specimen above is thriving! Did it just get lucky genes?  Or are saguaros so picky about conditions, that perfect soil and weather only occur occasionally?  I wish I knew more biology .  Sometimes I start doing homework and become instantly bored with all the jargon and memorization needed. How could plants so picky about conditions even come into being, in the first place?  And then you have plants and critters on the other side of the spectrum: they are so adaptable or so tolerant that they can live just about anywhere.  Consider the coyote as the perfect example of that. At any rate, we have fled the desert ...

 Do you remember how people watched, time after time, the 9/11 videos of the Twin Towers coming down?  People couldn't believe what they were seeing.  There was some cheering in various parts of the world.  The gist of it only took a couple spectacular seconds. What would happen if Iran sends some missiles into the big, beautiful armada of the Trumpanyahu regime?  Imagine a burning, smoking aircraft carrier.  It could make for an hour of spectacular video footage.  Imagine the mighty symbol of American strength listing at an extreme angle, support ships hovering nearby trying to rescue lifeboats, sailors jumping off the sloped deck into the water, and flames and fuel explosions! It might provoke a world record of  schadenfreude.   That wouldn't be surprising, considering that Washington DC and Israel might be the two most hated nations in the world. In the future, history books would always show this image when writing about the end of the A...

 Whether it is good or bad, I seldom try to watch new movies.  But I made an exception on Tubitv.com with " The Music of Silence ", a semi-biographical story of the blind singer , Andrea Bocelli .  It deserves praise for a good story and the lack of the usual components of modern movies, such as insane violence, bedroom scenes, rainbow flag worship, etc. It is enjoyable for most viewers to stick for an underdog, and that is especially so for a blind person.  But it is almost too easy.  Most people remember the " Miracle Worker ", with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke , in the Helen Keller story.  So the path has already been well explored.  Halfway through the movie, I started to think that the viewer needed more of a challenge, in the same way that an outdoorsman needs to get off of heavily-used trails that have a brown, carsonite sign every 100 steps. Much to the movie's credit, it showed a scene when a heavy female singer spontaneously joined Bocel...

 The ATV'er slowed down and then stopped to talk.  Was he a javelina hunter ?  It turned out that he was a ranch hand at a nearby ranch.  He was taking out big brown blocks of food for the cattle.  I love asking questions about How Things Work and how people make a living.  And how animals make a living. He was quite scientific about the nutrition of these big blocks, but struggled a bit with the verbiage.  Finally I helped by saying, "So you mean that even the ranchers near [redacted] are hippie-dippies ?"  He nodded yes and laughed. Our talk helped me slip into my annual infatuation phase with grasslands and trees in southeastern Arizona .  That might sound strange to some people, but spend a couple months in mid-winter along the lower Colorado River and you will feel a lust for anything that isn't rubble or cholla . Arizona Sycamore Tawny grass and live oaks Planet Earth certainly has some goodies, but the desert isn't one of them. T...

 Do you ever think you are too easily and eternally pleased with something, and that you should try harder to be dissatisfied?  Maybe you just aren't raising the high jump bar high enough? Ahh, but what a fine thing it is to be completely satisfied, time after time, year after year!  When I find a spot in Arizona that isn't choked with chollas, like some places: ... I am satisfied with it -- with no questions asked.  We can put up with cactus spines and goathead thorns with no problem.  But damn those chollas! And here we were, finding another interesting arroyo within walking distance of my camper.  We had never walked this one before.  It was pleasantly cool and was totally unused by the motor-crazed morons.  What a nice surface it was for doggie paws. I unsnapped her because she usually stays confined to the arroyo proper.  And running free is so much fun for her.  Then the coyotes started yipping, close.  She is only 21 pounds, ...