Desert. Again. and Again.

THE WEATHER IS HERE, WISH YOU WERE BEAUTIFUL.

A variation of the popular post cards that are sold in Palm Springs gift shops; which proclaim, “The weather is beautiful, wish you were here.”

Many people I know who are campers and/or backpackers are winding down their camping and hiking activities as we head towards winter.

So this past week I headed out to camp with my beautiful wife in the high desert area of Joshua Tree National Park. Unfortunately, it didn’t dawn on me that Monday the 11th was Veterans Day and all the camp grounds were full.

So we headed to the lower Colorado Desert to a place I knew would not be crowded, where we enjoyed our fourth consecutive week of desert camping.

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Lighting Solutions for Your Camper

If you don’t camp in full service campgrounds (I hope you don’t) then you are forced to power your camper with a 12 volt battery bank. You may have charging solutions such as solar (preferred) or maybe a generator (I hope not — too noisy).

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Camping off the electrical grid requires monitoring your power consumption and in most cases conserving energy to some degree. Most campers come with automotive-type incandescent bulbs, which aren’t very efficient and are power hogs.

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REI and the Demise of Western Civilization

What’s Up With That?

REI-logoRecreational Equipment, Inc., one of the country’s largest outdoor gear retailers (nearly $2 billion in annual sales) has been around since 1938. Actually it is a co-op and members receive approximately 10% of their purchases in a yearly dividend.

REI has been well known for its no-questions asked return policy. And the strategy worked – at least until recently. It appears that those who put the long running 100% satisfaction guarantee policy in place, failed to anticipate the decay of the public’s integrity and morals.

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I Need My Space

Over the past few months I have hiked in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and of course California among other places.

Other than California I found most trails to be in dense forests and most travel confined to trails, as cross country travel is difficult at best. These places are often confining, the sky is often hidden by a canopy of trees, and views are only possible by climbing up to a peak. Instead of forest duff, one deals with rocks and roots.

In spite of these obstacles, those places I traveled are beautiful in their own right and highly recommended.

But I prefer open spaces. Spaces where I can at almost any time position myself to see for miles and miles. The open spaces I am referring to are deserts.

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‘We’ need a new TV

A few days ago I posted an article titled, You need a new TV. I shared the conversation Joyce and I had about a possible new camper, and her perception that we need a new TV, or Tow Vehicle.

As it turned out, she was correct. We ended up getting a new camper and the new tow vehicle (TV), does an excellent job towing it.

After we took delivery of our new camper, Joyce declared, “We need a new TV!”

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