OnlyDirtRoads

What??

It's been 6 months since we went on the road.

I'll spare you the details of how many miles we've driven, how many driveways in which we've mooch-docked, and how many tacos we've eaten.

The main thing we've learned is: This life works really well for us.
Despite constant rain for weeks, interruptions for family events and a few business trips (did I mention rain?) we are having a blast.
Our orderly plan for our trip kind of got thrown out the window early on, and we've done quite a few impromptu changes of plan. Once upon a time, that would have put me in a tailspin (Nancy is way more flexible), but if I have learned anything, I've learned that plans change.

6 months ago, we had planned out a big loop for the winter, going from CO to AZ then circling California. Our (failed) attempts to stay dry now results in a map trace that has so many loops it would make one dizzy. We've figured out how to make circumstances work for us. Nancy sometimes has to paint inside the camper (when it rains all week, what choice do you have?).

We've both worked in palapas, laundromats, under awnings and in friend's kitchens.

We've met some very cool people, and have made some new friends.

We haven't really gotten serious about looking for a new home yet. Our "short list" has undergone a few changes, with one or two towns getting added and one or two getting dropped. We are a LONG ways from figuring THAT out. And that's OK.

The constant rain has put a bit of a dent in our fitness. Although we have hiked a good bit in the rain, there are times you just get sick and tired of everything being wet and/or muddy, especially when you live in a very small area. We are looking forward to drier and warmer weather and getting back to regular exercising.

We've seen bobcats and elephant seals, 1,000 year old petroglyphs and the faces of dear friends. We very much miss our friends from home, and are desperate to see what's around the next corner.

Biggest miss so far might be Big Sur...just before we got there, the road was closed by any number of mudslides, and now a bridge has been taken out by a mudslide. Who knows when we can onto Highway 1 again?

The truck has run great, although we had to replace an intercooler in New Mexico. We started getting lousy gas mileage and had no boost (The F500 has two turbos...even is heavy as we are, when you floor it, you can feel it accelerate.) Nancy found a Ford dealer that could see us in Deming, NM. It wasn't the biggest or fanciest dealer we'd been to, but everyone was really nice, and they bent over backwards to find a new intercooler and get it installed. In 24 hours, we were back on the road.

Where will the next 6 months take us? We have a rough plan, but aren't foolish enough to think we'll stick to it. We'll see a lot more of CA and AZ in the next few months and assess from there. I have some great work projects coming up, and Nancy is taking an online art class and is learning some cool new things.

We have stuff to see, places to go, and stuff to explore with new and old friends.

Broken Glass and Expended Brass

We drove over to the Desert Rendezvous on Friday morning, an easy drive from downtown Borrego Springs. 

We drove past more of the big steel sculptures in the southern part of Galetta Meadows. There was an entire herd of horses, made in rusty steel, which spanned both sides of the road. It was pretty cool.

We showed up to the assigned coordinates and found there were a number of people already there. American Adventurist has been putting on these Rendezvous in various locations for several years. A main event is always some sort of community service. There was a limit of 150 vehicles, which filled up very quickly. I signed up shortly after they posted the event, and was WAY down the wait list. We learned only a couple of days before the event that we've gotten off the wait list onto the list of 150.
We only knew one couple who were planning on attending, although it turns out there were a few people that we "knew" from Facebook or IG or various forums.

We were also pleasantly surprised to see Mario, one of the owners of A/T Overland, (makers of the Horizon we used to have). Once people got settled in, we all started mingling, and we met some really nice people.
On Saturday morning, we went out for the community service, which consisted of cleaning up trash from a BLM shooting area. Most shooters will bring out targets, and after shooting, pick up their perforated targets and expended brass. Some, however, will haul out trash..sheets of plywood, old TVs, glass bottles and shoot it all up and drive off leaving their shell casings, broken glass everywhere, and random crap. The broken glass is a problem, especially as the desert tortoise will try to eat green glass shards, because it looks like grass. It is sad that a 100 year old tortoise who has survived blistering summers, predators, and flash floods, will wind up dying after eating part of a Heineken bottle.

We spent a few hours, picking up brass casings, a shot up mannequin, many sheets of plywood, old cabinets, and bags and bags of broken glass. There was a pile large enough to fill a huge dumpster, and we only cleaned up a small area. The exercise also brought everyone together as we hoisted large items onto trailers and shared trash bags.
After the clean up was over, we spent the afternoon visiting with new friends and looking at various rigs. One really cool couple had a Unimog they'd just acquired and is in the process of designing the interior buildout. They have already overlanded around Australia, and have a good idea what they need from their truck.

We also met a great guy who had built out a Sprinter and is living as a digital nomad in Southern California.
We also had a great (but short) visit with Mario.

While we arrived a little apprehensive about knowing almost no one, we found the weekend flew by and we left wishing we had more time to visit with newfound friends. The fun part about events like this is that almost everyone has common interests and easily shares experiences and stories. Hopefully we'll be able to attend the summer Mountain Rendezvous.
We left Anza Borrego and headed east, stopping in Westmoreland for a delicious date shake. We drove past the Imperial Dunes, where part of the first Star Wars movie was shot. We did not visit the dunes, but did stop at the nastiest rest area, ever.

We eventually spent the night at Painted Rocks, which is a BLM campground a bit west of Phoenix. They is an incredible display of petroglyphs on a rock mound next to the campground, estimated to be up to 1,000 years old. Naturally there are a few "postings" from cowboys from the 1800's sprinkled about.

Days are getting longer, but as we head east and gain elevation, nights are getting colder.

The sun!!

It's early February and you can see the days getting longer. Now that we are out of the rain and back in sunshine, this bodes well for producing electricity from the solar panels. This has not been the norm for the last several weeks. Short days, cold weather, and cloudy rainy days are a source of sadness if you are depending on solar panels for power. Our option? The campground.
When one drives a truck like ours, campgrounds feel weird. The entire point of getting this was to avoid campgrounds. However, there are some realities.

The trash doesn't just "go away". We need to get water and dump the cassette (toilet) periodically. And when the weather sucks, after several days, we need to plug the truck in (or go for a very long drive).

So campgrounds serve a purpose. We are also dependent on cell service for work. So sometimes we just have to find someplace that isn't a skanky KOA; and view campgrounds as a logistical break...get rid of trash, empty and/or fill tanks and charge batteries.

With frequency, we'll meet interesting people and sometimes make new friends. Not a bad thing at all.

The last week was punctuated by moochdocking in a friends driveway, while it rained most of the time. We had big plans for the next few weeks, but couldn't deal with day after day of constant rain. Which California desperately needs. So, we decided to make a radical change to our route and detour back into the sun for a while. We'll return to the Bay Area in March and pick up where we left off; hopefully in weather more characteristic of the Golden State.

We cycled back to the desert, and accidentally ran across an email regarding the Desert Rendezvous , a gathering of overlanders in Anza Borrego. I'd signed up many weeks ago and completely forgot about it. Turns out we were wait-listed, and later added to the group (150 vehicles are allowed). It starts tomorrow, and conveniently we are camping 10 miles away!

So we'll attend that, which ought to be fun. Monday, it was 50 something and pouring.
I'm sitting here in my shorts and t-shirt and its 82 degrees, with nothing but blue sky over our heads. THIS is what we were expecting!

Drought busting...California style

I've lost track of how many times we've had to pack up the truck and relocate it far away from trees that might possibly blow onto us. Yes, I can be kind of a worrier about this sort of thing. However, only a couple of weeks ago, I moved the truck in the middle of the night and the next morning a tree crashed onto a neighbor. This reinforced my paranoia. Of course, the tornado warning the next night didn't help.

So when we arrived at bucolic Olema, CA the other day, it was sunny, if not actually warm. We found a great spot near the creek (which, it turns out, flows over the top of the San Andreas fault). We were surrounded by big evergreens. We set up our big standalone awning, to have more living space, and made ourselves at home.
Yesterday, while going for a walk, we came across an art gallery that was in an old carriage house. A tree had blown over, and crashed through the gallery. The building had been there for close to 100 years. It was sad to see.

As we walked back to the truck, the woman running the campground noted that 50mph winds were forecast for the evening. The ground was supersaturated with last weeks heavy rains, and we were surrounded by these tall trees. Time to move the truck. Again. Happily, Nancy is a good sport.

We spent all of last week on the Central Coast, one night at Montana de Oro and several at San Simeon. Montana de Oro is a beautiful setting, and a short walk from the wild coast, with bluffs and tide pools. It had just finished raining there for a week and everything was wet and muddy. The lack of cell service (during a work week) caused us to relocate, or we could have stayed for some time.

We drove through Morro Bay and up the coast to San Simeon. We had great weather, and a view of the ocean. We took the short drive to the elephant seal rookery. Elephant seals are huge and spend 9 months of the year in the ocean. For a few months they come ashore here on the Central Coast, give birth to pups, mate again and head out to sea. The beach is covered with hundreds of these massive animals, with crying baby seals and the loud noises associated with 4,000 pound animals mating or attempting to do so. It's quite a scene.
We discovered a trail that led to the back of a great restaurant with a store, so we could easily drop by for lunch or have a beer while watching the sun go down.

Our site had a clear view of the coast, and every day people drove up to ask when we were leaving. "Hello, to you, too!"
We also were able to park out of the shade, so we could maximize solar gain on our panels. You notice short winter days when you are on 100% solar.

This time of year, we use a bit more electricity than we can make, so in the back of our mind we are working the equation for length of stay, battery state, and how badly we want to microwave something. The EarthRoamer's systems are well thought out. We have three large panels on the roof that feed to a solar controller in the electronics cabinet. This will meter electricity from the panels to the camper batteries, the truck batteries (there are two of each) or both. All of the lights are LED and consume very little power. The refrigerator/freezer is very efficient. But when you combine typical light usage, the water pump, and the air and water heater (when in use); there is a gradual and steady draw from the batteries. Our system dates back to 2008 and the latest generation of solar panels is far more efficient, and a planned upgrade.

We really didn't want to leave San Simeon, as the weather was perfect, and there was a lot to see, but we cut ourselves loose and drive up to Olema and Point Reyes. I've camped here since I was a kid and love it here. We are very close to places in Marin like Mill Valley or Novato yet every night we've heard coyotes and owls. There are easily more raccoons than people, which is one of my highest compliments.
Barring natural disasters, we can get some work done, some hiking, and some great food before we move on.