Simple Living and Simple Travel

We are SO ready to head out. Ready to get down to the desert to enjoy sites like this one that we had last spring for a while. I’ve managed to thwart Onyx. Remember how I occasionally grouse about how he opens the screen door and leaves it open? No more. I cut a length of PVC, inserted two #3 rubber corks in the ends, and wedge it into the doorframe. The first time Onyx went to open the door, he actually did a pull-up. He put both paws up on the bar and pulled down on it. He went up. His feet actually left the step and he pulled his chin up to the bar. Tell me that did not have me roaring with laughter. All is not perfect, however. One evening as it was getting dark, I snagged Meadow, put her inside, and went looking for Onyx. I neglected to wedge in the door bar. Onyx must have been under the camper. When I could not find him, I went back to the casita. Yep, the door was open, Meadow had come back out, and they both were off out of sight. Times like this make me glad I do not alw...

Didn’t this happen here last August?! There was a threat of a fire coming over the ridge from Skull Valley to the west and sweeping down the canyon so the forest service evacuated all the campers and myself. It was a much larger fire than the one last summer with 45,000 acres burned. Ordinarily it takes me an hour to break camp when I’m out dry camping. Since I was planning to be here for over 3 months, I had all kinds of things set up and it took me 3 hours to break camp. Granted, people dropped by from time to time asking what’s up—but still. Guano. Shortly after I started out, it got dark. I HATE driving in the dark. Then the highway I had to take over to Salt Lake closed due to another fire. Traffic was creeping along for as far as I could see along the detour so I pulled into an industrial park to try to catch some sleep. How those RVers sleep in parking lots is beyond me. Anyway, it did not work out well. Definitely threw a curve to Meadow and Onyx but they seemed to handle it o...