Rolling Steel Tent

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Alynn and Terri

Alynn and Terri were in the park offering tattoo readings. I had to find out what what the deal was with that, of course. They looked at my various tats and gave their impressions of my mental and metaphysical nature. I think they were about 60 percent in the ballpark.

Hmmmmm...

Give me a wider bed then maybe this would work for me.

Mesquite Bay North, Lake Havasu

I'm off exploring this morning, seeing what sort of public access there is to Lake Havasu. This was my first stop. Mesquite Bay North—and South—are small day use areas on the north-ish end of town.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Other ways to do it

Saturday, March 5, 2016

For those who are into planes

$300 would get you a ride in this B-25

No harm

It was extremely busy at the Pemex station I pulled into in San Felipe. The SCORE off-road racers were in town and it seemed like everyone wanted to fill up at the same time. They were short of pump jockeys. The ones they had were running around, getting flustered, going crazy. Before I could say anything, one of them started pumping diesel fuel into the Rolling Steel Tent, which has a gasoline engine.

"Whoa! Alto! Alto! No diesel, gasolina!"

He had pumped a couple of liters before before I could stop him. But I didn't panic, because a few weeks previous I happened to have seen a video demonstrating what happens if you accidentally put diesel fuel in a gas vehicle and gasoline in a diesel vehicle. (I can't find the video now, otherwise I'd link to it.) They run like crap but... once you put the right fuel in, they run like they're supposed to, with no real damage. So I figured two liters of diesel mixed in thirty-three gallons of gasoline wouldn't be anything to worry about. It might be no different than bad gasoline. And I was right. I noticed nothing odd at all. Thank you, Internet, for peace of mind.

At the car show

Just because I'm camped out among the rocks and greasewood, that doesn't mean I must spend all my time siting in the dirt and acting all ascetic and stuff. Lou, the Barshows and I went to a combination car-boat-plane show at the Lake Havasu City airport. Here are some of the automotive highlights, because I'm more into cars.

Friday, March 4, 2016

Hey, this isn't the ocean

I woke up in Huntington Beach and drove the width of California to join the gang at Craggy Wash, north of Lake Havasu City. The guys had found a great spot away from the road and other campers.

Because Mommy wasn't there to clean up

Or maybe Mommy was a slob, too

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Inspiration

Hmmmmm, maybe the Rolling Steel Tent is a little too plain. This gives me some ideas.

Twenty-four

Always

There are a bunch of places in the world where you'd need to pay to park. I try to avoid those places. But sometimes it's worth it, like in a lot on Pacific Coast Highway. A buck and a half an hour? A bargain.

However, if you want to get philosophical about it, we always pay one way or another to park. Maybe not directly with money. Maybe with time or convenience or any number of other less-than-perfect aspects. Camp free on public land? But then I need to drive to town for supplies. Stealth camp in town? But then it's noisy and I become anxious about being rousted by the authorities.

And it's not just parking or camping. Mere existence costs us something. We pay everyday. No free lunch, as they say. Life is compromises. Trade-offs. What are we willing to give up in order to get what we want? What's the best deal? Right now, for me, living and traveling in a converted van is the best deal ever. Let me go load some more quarters in the meter.