Occupation of Independence

What a relief it was to leave the overcrowded camping in the Southwest, and head through Nevada and Idaho.  For proximity to town I stooped to camp at a place likely to be listed on one of those vile free-campsites apps.  For a couple days, my luck held and my little dog and I had a great time walking single track trails, while some bad weather blew over. Then a 'van nomad' showed up.  I became furious and left a couple hours later.  And yet I was laughing at my own rage.  The other camper wasn't doing anything wrong.  It was what he represented that offended me -- let's just leave it like that, rather than go into my standard stump speech. There was a promising gravel road a couple miles away that I had always meant to check out.  There are patterns that one can "smell" off a good atlas.  There is only Hope -- there are no guarantees.  The geography had not really changed from the last location, but mentally and emotionally it was a who...

Southern Idaho.  Many times I have wished to run into more horses and horsepersons in the so-called Western states.  I suppose there is just so much overhead and inconvenience involved that an ATV makes more sense to most people. But I got lucky yesterday.  Something immediately grabbed me about the guy.  He was retirement age and gnarly, weathered, and laconic.  He had an impressive grey handlebar mustache.  His horse was half-draft horse, with huge hooves.  The ol' cowboy had three dogs along. I liked how home-made or at least home-repaired his horse's tack looked, as did the cowboy's clothing.  I have seen people riding horses in the Colorado mountains, but they looked like McMansioners or trust-funders.  And their clothing looked new, clean, and fake.   This guy seemed authentic.  He was not a tourist or recreationalist.  He had a job to do: he was working for the Stockman's Association, and needed to check on the wate...

A traveler can pass many historical markers along the highway.  How many do they stop in to visit?  Probably not that many. When going through Nevada I crossed the old "Californee"   Trail, Pony Express route, and first transcontinental telegraph route.  I did stop in and read the historical sign.  Did the government hire a new prose stylist?  It was interesting to read about.  What grabbed me was their emphasis on the sheer physicality and athleticism of the Pony Express riders. I thought about a friend who did all 800 miles of the Arizona Trail last year and is doing the Pacific Crest Trail this year.  I then drove into the foothills of the nearest mountain range to look for a place to camp overnight.  A hundred feet off the road was a herd of ten antelopes.  Didn't I once read on Wikipedia that they were the second fastest land mammal? Something about that juxtaposition of images made me smile, and it isn't that often that animals ma...

 I've made quite a bit of progress, moving north between the meridian lines of 110 degrees West and 114.  How does the land change, so that you know you are making progress?   There is more snow on the mountain tops, certainly.  But altitude-changes confuse your latitude-changes.   Despite going northish most of the time, time zone changes confuse the heck out of me and my little dog.  So far we have whiplashed between Arizona Time, to Mountain Daylight time, to Pacific Daylight, and now back to Mountain Daylight.  Finally, northern ID will become Pacific Daylight.  Does she eat dinner at 3:00 local time or Tummy Time?   Last year I made the mistake of going through Nevada on the western (CA) side of the state.  The grocery store and gas station prices were shocking.  This year I used the eastern side of the state.   The north/south ranges, with sagebrush/grass basins in between, are very attractive in sprin...