That’s a quote from my favorite poem, “The Walrus and the Carpenter”. Instead of cabbages and kings, I will be talking about canyons and Joshua trees.

We left Skooliepalooza on Jan 31. The wind chased us out. We drove to California and shopped for groceries. I am excited to say that its the 9th today and we haven’t made another grocery stop, except milk and bread. Our supplies seem to carry us for a while.

We arrived at Joshua tree with one of our Dory batteries overcharging. So that was a bit stressful. We made many stops and tried to use the overcharge for cooking, making tea etc. We camped at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) campground just south of Joshua tree national park. We found a delightful spot, a little away from other campers.

The next day we went to the Ladder Canyon in Mecca, CA. My fear for heights reached new heights here! But I am happy to say that I managed to make it up the top with the others. It was a breathtaking scenery. Joshua tree national park has six mountain ranges. There are several rock climbing opportunities in and around the area. You can also see a snow capped mountain peak called San Jacinto from where we were camped.

We went into Joshua tree national park twice. The first day we visited Skull rock and jumped around the various rocks there. This is an easy and fun rock climbing experience. The next day we went to Arch rock. We strayed a bit and ended up in some more serious rock formations there. The kids and I also did the junior ranger program. Other than that we were doing some trash collection and walking around the BLM lands. The kids went on long bike rides with Kylo the dog by their side. We used the ham radio a lot during their bike rides to stay in touch. We were all happy about this.

For the first time since we hit the road, we allowed our chickens to free range at our campsite. They had their harnesses and leashes on so that we could easily catch them in case they tried to run away. But we needn’t have worried. Not only did they stay close, they even tried to enter Elfie, our little school bus camper, on a regular basis. It was quite funny. It got less funny when they tried to eat the hummingbirds that were visiting our hummingbird feeder, but overall it was very fun.

We left Joshua Tree national park today and are parked tonight at the Bombay beach by the Salton sea. Its a strange, artsy ghost town. We enjoyed some bike rides and the sunset by the beach. Oh! The animals are pulling at me to hand over the keyboard so over to them!

Rosie the dog: Kylo Ren wanted to write the blog again but one growl from me had him shrinking to his little corner. This week turned out to be a bit more fun than the previous weeks. I was off leash and got to push around Lazy Laurie, the chicken. To tell you the truth, Lazy Laurie is scary. When she looks at me, I have to avert my eyes. Anyway, my not-so-dear husband Kylo Ren got more outings than me. I am a little annoyed about it, but my beauty sleep has become more and more important to me. So I let him do all the tasks around here and still show him who is the boss by baring my teeth at him. Seems to be working! Uh oh. Lazy Laurie is here. Better let the scary chicken take over.

Lazy Laurie the chicken: Crazy Cookie has been trying too hard. She wrote two blogs and thought she was climbing the pecking order. Truth is, I am on top. I am the fattest. She is the thinnest. In our world fat is beautiful! Fattest are on top. She does lay eggs, gotta give that to her. Crazy Cookie shows promise. But she hasn’t risked her life like I have so often to make chicks. Its called being broody. Let me tell you, its a killer. You don’t get to eat or drink while sitting on an egg and you have to be fearless when the humans arrive by puffing up to scare them.

Now that spring has arrived (a little too early in my opinion), I am trying to nest in the yellow bus. Unfortunately the last time one of the human roosters was there when I hopped in. She caught me and put me on camera! Now I didn’t like being squeezed and had to fluff my feathers for a while afterwards, but hey! I am a celebrity now. So that’s something. Top that, Crazy Cookie. Ok more next week. I gotta go sit on an egg.

We have been in Arizona for a little over a week, and a lot happened! As mentioned in my previous blog, our kids started studying for their ham radio technician license while we were travelling to Arizona. The goal was that they take their ham radio test at the ham fest in Quartzsite AZ. With many grumbles, our 10 year old studied for the test (but mom, I am only 10!! Yeah, yeah whatever!). We reached Quartzsite AZ on the first day of the ham fest. We found the testing site and went to speak with the test coordinator, Steve. He listened wide eyed to our daughters’ plan and was super excited to hear that he would be testing a 10 year old. He told her that if she passed the ham license test, she would get a free ham radio from him!! Now Leena was excited!

The next few days were spent studying and attending various technical talks on ham radio. We also went for a 5 mile dirt road bike ride, as we had done last time. This time we left our older dog, Rosie in the bus with the chickens, and took Kylo along. He did amazingly well and didn’t seem tired despite the long run. We were very pleased with him!

Test day turned out to be a big, exciting day for us. The kids were already famous by then. The ageing ham population is always excited about youngsters taking up this hobby. But they especially loved the idea of a 10 year old girl attempting the test. I am happy to report that they both passed and both got a free baofeng ham radio as a present from Steve! The girls attained a hero status there. That afternoon they were called to stage with other new hams amid cheers. So that was definitely encouraging for them. And of course, a proud moment for Johan and me.

They have also started using their radios and their new call signs today! This is an exciting development since it was quite a barrier for them to cross to confidently use their call signs on the radio for all to hear.

Other news from our parts. Leena turned 11 this week. We had a quiet but fun birthday celebration. She (literally) brought the house down on her birthday. I baked a brownie and that may have resulted in the bus electrical system to go down on her birthday. Uh oh!! We went out for breakfast and later did a little treasure hunt for her to find her presents.

Ham fest was over a couple of days back. Yesterday we left Quartzsite, AZ and moved to Ehrenburg, AZ, where they have a different kind of fest known as Skooliepalooza. This is a place in the middle of the desert with 300 or so school bus campers (school buses that have been converted into campers) parked for a week of hanging out, mingling, selling little trinkets, music and visiting each other’s buses to see their conversions. If you think about it, its mind boggling. None of these buses are factory manufactured campers. Each has been converted by someone to make a living space. Some people live in these buses exclusively. Some, like us, are travelling for a short time. We arrived towards the end of Skooliepalooza but are enjoying the atmosphere.

Lastly, it was my birthday yesterday. We did pretty much the same things as we did for Leena’s birthday (except this time I bought the cake!). It was made exciting by my Smule friends who put up sweet songs to celebrate my birthday. That was very lovely. More next week… oh wait! The animals are tugging at the keyboard! Over to them.

Kylo Ren: First things first, I am very smart (phew, glad I got that out of the way). I can even open the bus door!

So I begged until Rosie let me blog instead of her (psst, I think she just wants to sleep so she didn’t care). So yes, we have been on the road for a few days. That means a lot of work for me. I make sure the family is ok, clean my wife Rosie since she just sleeps all the time, and take care of the chickens (ok, they are just my playthings!). You know, I just wish my humans trusted me more (sigh). Today I escaped and ran to this stray dog who was peeing on every last bush. Hey, I had to set my boundaries too! Stray and me were best buddies until his friend, this tiny yappy dog, came in between and then humans separated us. Oh well, tomorrow is another day! Over to Crazy Cookie!

Crazy Cookie: I think Lazy Laurie is on top of the pecking order (boo hoo hoo, I tried so hard). She got the biggest piece of pancake that day. I am laying eggs and should be the one on top, but the older chickens are hard to beat. Psst, I think they are turning into roosters. They have these new side claws (called spurs) which is very rooster-like. Anyway, moving on. I am still very popular in these parts. I keep my feathers clean. Today two kids came by. From the whole flock, I was the one they got out of the chicken tractor. They put one of those awful leashes on me and walked me all over. I tried to hide but they tugged on me. The other chickens were impressed so that’s a positive, I guess. My agenda for the week: Fight for the potato peels and bits of grits, Go in zen mode so I can lay eggs and hopefully climb that elusive pecking order. Laters.

2023 promises to be another memorable year. We have decided to take a trip through the wild west once more. We hit the road on Jan 10. It was not without its challenges in terms of getting ready and taking care of all the little things that can go wrong in our absence. I am sure plenty will go wrong despite our planning.

Moving on to the positives, we hit the road in freezing winter. Ten days and thousands of miles later, we are in sunny Arizona. Our first destination is a ham fest at Quartzsite Arizona that begins tomorrow. We have roped our daughters in to take their first ham exams this week at the ham fest. They will try to get their technician licenses, just as Johan and I did in 2019!

This trip is a lot different from the previous for the following reasons. We towed a jeep along last time. This time we are towing Elfie the school bus. Dory, our giant transit bus camper, is a super trooper, merrily towing along Elfie. The second big deviation is that we now have two dogs to stub our toes in the bus instead of one. Where are these staid dogs they often show in ads that lay around blissfully in moving vehicles? Our dogs are constantly whining, pushing, falling, fighting and doing pretty much the opposite of what dogs are “supposed” to do!

Last, but certainly not the least, we decided to take along our chickens to the trip! I know, I know. That’s crazy, silly, wild, you name it. But yeah, we can’t part with our ladies. In order to prepare for this monumental occasion, Tanya and Johan made a nifty chicken tractor for our chickens. Pictures below. Upon much goading, Rosie, our older dog, and Crazy Cookie, one of our two younger chickens, have agreed to write a paragraph each in my blog outlining their experiences. See the end of the blog.

The first few days of our trip were eventful in the sense that we left town in a big hurry. We couldn’t afford to work in the bitter cold anymore. Dory and Elfie weren’t hooked up together so Johan drove Dory and I drove Elfie. We talked using ham radio. This was the maximum I have used my ham radio license so far. It was pretty enjoyable.

Finally in Tennessee, Dory and Elfie were coupled and since then I have been involved with running our daily lives as smoothly as possible. This involves keeping the camper reasonably clean, keeping the kitchen running and schoolwork going. Additionally all animals are kept reasonably happy and satisfied.

We stopped at the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) museum at Sweetwater, TX, and the Permian basin petroleum museum in Midland TX. Both the museums were informative and fun to check out. We liked the WASP more than the petroleum museum, but they both had their charms.

Other than that, its driving, rest areas, gas stations, walmarts, dog walks and chicken care. I will let Rosie and Crazy Cookie take it from here.

Rosie: So I am 13+ now. You would think that my humans would let me enjoy my twilight years in my crate, with an occasional adventure in the backyard. Well, you would think wrong! My humans have assumed that I am as enthusiastic about a road trip as I was back in 2019 when I was practically a spring chicken. They are dragging me all over creation, with this obnoxious husband of mine named Kylo Ren, and, get this, chickens. Ok more later.

Crazy Cookie: It was a fine January day. I got up thinking about which chicken I needed to bully in order to remain on top of the pecking order. Guess what! My big roosters (people) from the house have lost it totally. They put us in this box (I do like the box, its shiny!). The box was put in a big yellow box that has wheels and we have been unceremoniously carted around throughout the country. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to that crumb I hid behind the tire. I am sure the blue jay got it (sigh). Anyhoo. Every morning and evening, they pull shiny box out, tip it and remove the cardboard under us. Then we get to free range. Then they put a new cardboard in. But the worst is when the young girls called Tanya and Leena put us on leash like their four legged monsters and let us walk around in that. Ohhh. I have to recover from my ordeal. More later.

Winter is fast approaching. We are now in the Thanksgiving week, kids home and all that fun stuff.

Lots has been going on. This summer and fall have been unlike any I have ever had, thanks to Smule! Here’s the background story!

I reconnected with my old friends from my teen years back in June. These are all the kids of my dad’s colleagues, and we have always held a very important bond. My dad was a scientist with the Indian Government and they used to go on these months-long field trips looking for minerals. During this process, they ended up making very close friendships. So they all were super tight, and there were a lot of such families. As kids we spent our time with their kids and we all grew up together. Then as fortune would have it, the institute that they worked in decided to make housing apartments for their employees. So now we all ended up in the same location and we had a blast. All of us would hang out, celebrate festivals, have parties, go for walks, discuss crushes, maybe have crushes on each other (!) and we would also make productions. The department would celebrate an annual day or the Indian Independence day and we would create skits or practice a song to sing for them. Once, famously, we girls produced a fashion show. That was the best we ever did. The parents joined in on the fun. I remember all the moms dressed up as men and doing a song production. The dads had their own productions. It was all a great time and a welcome break from our punishing school life.

Anyhoo, fast forward to now, thanks to COVID lockdowns and Whatsapp, we came together and reminisced about the good ol’ days. One of the girls who was a great singer back then started sharing her recent singing projects on Smule. I learnt that Smule is a cool karaoke app where one can record their voices on their favorite songs. How fun! Since I have been a closeted music buff my entire life, I got the app and have been enjoying singing all kinds of songs. A kind of interesting feature of Smule is that you can produce duets by singing only parts of a song and then posting it. If anyone else anywhere else in the world decides to sing the same song, they may find your song and can record their voice on the other half. As you can imagine, that can be a blast with all kinds of creative possibilities. So that’s been a ray of bright sunshine lately in my life.

Unfortunately work front has not been so great. I decided not to teach because of COVID and the idea of hanging in a room full of college students. Its amazing how much I miss it sometimes. My teaching had gotten better over the years and I miss all that interaction. Since it seems that I will be stuck not teaching next semester as well, I am thinking of some new ways to engage myself. I am now working on an Engineering website, but so far I haven’t put in enough time to create a smooth layout. That is a project to look forward to.

I also found this amazing book called Breath by James Nestor. I am in the process of reading it. A lot of the information is not new there. Since I come from the land of Pranayama (deep breathing), importance of correct breathing is something that I always knew. That’s funny, because I breathe so badly. Anyway, I just started reading this book and the first chapter already blew my mind. It talks about evolution, and how as we evolved, our brains grew. This gave us an advantage as a species but in the process has deformed our nose and jaws to the point that most of us have impacted breathing. This is also funny because we humans are the only species with impacted breathing and that is due to our better, bigger brains as well as our ability to control our voices. So all that gave us a competitive advantage over other species has also impacted our health. I guess our ancestors didn’t think about that! Anyway, after all the reading from Weston Price, this is getting all the information together really well for me. Hopefully I can use this to improve my and, more importantly, Tanya’s breathing.

Kids are doing great. They spent the last year home due to the lockdown. Leena was homeschooled. That went ok, except for the fact that she was very rebellious! Every day was a battle to begin. She ended up making a lot of progress but I am not sure if I can homeschool again! The other downside was that she really missed being with other kids of her age and got incredibly lonely. She is back in her old school and is quite happy. Tanya studied online last year. I really enjoyed being a part of her Mathematics education. She is in tenth grade now and back at school. I hope this continues but she is a joy to watch right now. She has gotten very good at Mathematics and I am over the moon about it! She has also developed an interest in coding and is taking a class in computer graphics or coding. She took a course in computer animation last year when she was home and I spent quite a bit of time trying to help her with coding. This year she hasn’t asked (Thank God!!) and seems to be having a blast in that class. She also seems to love Biology, so I think she is in general on a good path. She also seems to be making friends, really doing all the things that makes this mom happy!

Johan is always busy with his projects. One of the apartments is getting fixed up and he has been somewhat involved. He also fixed up our old school bus. Very sadly our school bus (Elfie) crashed last year. He was driving close to Dubois and lost control and the bus flipped over. Luckily he was unscathed and although Rosie dog had a serious injury in her back leg, we were able to nurse her back to a reasonable gait. However, at that moment the bus looked totaled and was twisted. With amazing perseverance, hard work and dedication, Johan got the bus back to running. He actually improved the layout to add a bathroom and has a 4×4 transmission on the bus now. We tried to improve the interior by painting it. Finally after months of sitting around, we took Elfie on a road trip to the Outer Banks a few weeks ago during the Halloween weekend. We had an amazing time. Pics below.

Before logging off a word on the dogs. Rosie, our older German Shepherd, has reached the ripe old age of 12. That is usually considered old for German Shepherd dogs, but she is doing ok. One issue that Johan mentioned what that her back side was buckling. This is due to nerve demyelination, which is very common with old German Shepherds. Being the great dog parent that he is, he decided to take care of the issue using his Engineering angle. While I have been supplementing her diet with ginger, garlic, turmeric and Vitamin B, he has been giving her laser treatments to initiate remyelination. Rosie turns out to be the dog we have learnt everything on, from taking care of all her many wounds with Epsom salt, to homeopathy, to leech treatments and now to laser therapy. Hopefully things go well. Kylo Ren, our young German Shepherd boy, is now one and a half. He is what a dog his age should be and more. He is naughty, of course. But more importantly, he is capable of giving a lot of love, and has a large heart. Unfortunately he is also over protective and an alpha, so training him has been a major challenge. We are getting him under control, but it is a daily job. I guess in his mind he is the Supreme leader, just as the original Kylo Ren from Star Wars!

Been a year, time to write.

In the past I always thought that our lives seem to completely change every six months. We seem to move in a new direction every six months and it seems like our previous life was very different. The rest of the world always seems stable.

That is no longer the case!

The world caught up with us finally and now the whole world has completely changed!

After we got home from our trip last year May, we did the usual things. Summer, followed by my teaching in the fall. One highlight of last year end was our trip to India.  We did two spectacular things while in India. The first was that my parents, Tanya, Leena and I went to Jharkhand, where I was originally born! This was their first trip to my home state, and my first time back there since I came to the US. It was great fun!

Spring 2019

Chicken maze

Tanya’s birthday 2019 – with BFF Zeyla

Leena’s party

Fun in the creek

Arm painting

Face painting fun!

Arts fest 2019 – Tanya’s art

Leena’s art

Geronimo by Tanya and me

Working on the pond

Tanya putting together my robot for my class

Halloween is hard work!

Pumpkin galore!

Treating chicken for Bumble foot by soaking in Epsom salt

Halloween costume – Ghost of Dandelion the chicken meets Toothless the dragon

Halloween party!

Tanya off to her first party at school

Snow fun!

Thanksgiving

The other lovely part was my parents’ 50th marriage anniversary celebrations in Hyderabad. Johan flew in and my relatives came together to have a spectacular party. The best part was meeting everyone. It was the greatest. And a direct antithesis of what was to follow.

Parents 50 years ago

Parents today!

That was some party!

Our Indian Avatar!

Family time was fun!

Good times

Visiting family in the North of India

Ramgarh, Jharkhand

Dinner with family in Ramgarh

Hey, I caught a fish!

The star wars cousin club!

This cousin club likes to spend time poking at fishes!

We got back to the US, and bam! The world shut down! Coronavirus hit the world and everyone is now avoiding other human life forms and is roaming around in masks. Rosie was initially very curious about our masks. She thought we were wearing them to amuse her (of course, everything is about her!). Soon she was bored because we stopped going for our morning coffee trips to Websters. We also stopped having visitors, so she had no one to complain about. Our town’s streets grew quiet as all the students left town and did not return.

Sadly, Ma passed away in March at the great age of 98. We are happy she was here for 14 months a couple of years ago. Those were good times.

Oma

Netherlands 2019

Websters 2018

Breakfast 2018

Leena’s birthday with Oma 2018

Other than the threat of the disease lurking in the background, we have been having a good ol’ time in Elf land. Luckily we had been working on getting our pond going last year. We finished it in spring. Johan set up an elaborate gutter system to let it fill up with rain water. Our pond filled pretty quickly. It turned out to be a huge blessing, since we wanted to avoid the public pools. We used the pond during hot days. We set up a couple of pumps and have been putting pond plants. We also brought in some goldfish.

Following that we brought in some rocks from the creek to increase surface for micro organisms to thrive on. I guess we also brought in fish eggs, because now our pond is FULL of fishes! They nibble our toes when we go in! We brought in some tadpoles and waited until they turned into frogs. We released them in the pond, but haven’t seen or heard from them since. Hopefully we will see some frogs next year. The pond is a great project. Soon hopefully we will be able to use it for aquaponics.

We set up our gardens better this year. We have the vege patch as always. We also have had our berry patch for the past couple of years. We also have the perennial herb patch, pumpkin patch and a corn and strawberry patch. So our yard is a patchwork of vege patches! The greenhouse is producing veges, although this has been an overall disappointing year in terms of production. The weather was off, and I think my vege garden needs some serious nitrogen fixing and cutting back of trees for more sun. We still have managed to can and freeze lots of vegetables.

Ms. Leena’s 8 now!

COVID relaxation time!

Water turbine project

Keep ’em working!

Setting up the pond

Tree fun

Pond’s filling up!

The big baby gets fed

Big baby also gets art-ed! Oil painting by Tanya

Lake Perez

Pond’s full. Rosie gets the most of it!

Street painting 2020

Johan’s birthday present-DO robot made by Tanya, painted by Leena

Stunning pencil drawing of Oma by Tanya

Cake happy birthday boy!

Tanya’s birthday!

Cake!

Birthday girl

Star war crazy icecream cake!

Why use spoons when you have a tongue

We set up a second fence to keep the chickens and dog from wandering off outside the yard. We also fixed things around the place and are revamping our home. We are busy fall cleaning and making our house nicer.

Johan has more car projects than I can keep track of. Suffice it to say that he is staying super busy with them.

The kids are home this year. They are both taking apart printers, computers and whatever else Johan wants them to work on. Tanya is virtual schooling and Leena is homeschooling. Maybe time to hit the road again this winter?!! Hmm, sounds nice to me!

After being on the road for months, we forgot how much of a home Dory, our camper, had become. We were reminded a couple of nights ago when we decided to camp out by the Warm springs in Death Valley, CA. The roads to the Warm springs are not really maintained and have a lot of stone and debris. So taking Dory there was out of question. Instead, we packed our trusty jeep with a tarp and blankets and took enough food to last 24 hours and left Dory parked on top of the mountains at South pass. The road was rough to say the least. We bounced around for a good three hours along Saline valley road and finally reached the oasis of Warm springs.

The water is heated by contact with hot rocks far below the surface in regions with recent volcanic activity. The water is hot, not warm. We took some good soaks and then had our dinner and made a makeshift tent and fell asleep. Woke up the next morning, had breakfast and then soaked another time after which the water started feeling a little too hot. True to its name, Death Valley got deathly hot around mid day after which we headed back “home” to Dory.

We left Death Valley yesterday. It was via the Saline Valley road which is quite rattly in itself, especially with Dory. It was a long drive, but we finally got to the highway. We decided to let Rosie out for a second and guess what.. we had lost our jeep in the drive! We spun around and found the jeep after a mile. It had come undone and slipped off into wilderness. But we were amazingly lucky that it stood straight and had not rolled over. It started right up and we were able to drive to Lone Pine, CA. Now we are in the process of getting the tow fixed! Quite an adventure, to say the least.

Other than this, we have been to some pretty cool places last couple of months. One was Trona pinnacles which looks other worldly. It has these tufa (CaCO3) pinnacles jutting from the ground.  We also saw the lovely red rock canyon, Joshua tree and other places of less significance to other tourists. We love the offbeat places, though.

Talking about offbeat, we ran into Pisgah lava tubes on our way to red rock canyon. This place had many underground tunnels from volcanic activity. We got a chance to go in and through these tunnels. It is incredible.

Dory is able to provide us with good showers and all kinds of comforts (food storage, electricity). All the things we take for granted take a whole new meaning on the road. Our most important concern is usually where we will find good water. Still, the rewards make it worth any discomforts.

One other thing we have started doing is working in local libraries. We visit them whenever possible and use the internet, read books and generally unwind. It is highly rewarding and a unique perspective.

Setting up Dory’s shower

Popcorn in bus

At Kitt Peak

Hiking on a hill near Tucson AZ

Pima air and space museum, Tucson

Breakfast in Dory

Biosphere2

Dinner in Dory

Tombstone, a Western town

Gun fights galore

What a great actor!

At Bisbee Queen mine

At Solana generating station

Johan at his dirty best

At Imperial sand dunes

Bubbling mud volcanoes

Leena making tea

Setting up camp at Joshua tree national park

Tanya is a good climber

What a baby!

En route Barker dam

Barker dam

Lake Mead action

Creeping out of a lava tube at Pisgah lava tube

Me and my bunny underground – Pisgah lava tube

Red rock canyon

At Trona pinnacles

Burro

Camping outside Warm springs, Death Valley, CA

Jeep out on its own adventure when our tow broke

We have traveled for a month now. Its educational and interesting every day!

Taking up from where I left off…. we went for a 10 mile bike ride in Quartzsite, AZ the morning before we decided to move on from there. The ride was great, except for the last two miles! Poor Rosie was so tired, she plonked on the ground as soon as we reached Dory! We packed and left, only to have the Jeep tire come apart on us soon after we hit the road. Johan put on the spare and we drove direction Yuma, AZ. At Yuma, Dory started giving trouble with its “Check engine” line staying on and the cooling fan running nonstop. With intense trouble shooting and running diagnostics Johan figured a control module was bad. He ordered a new one to be shipped to Ajo (using this wonderful feature called General delivery).

Before we left Yuma we visited their prison museum right at the bank of Colorado river. We did some research and realized that the Colorado river which runs all the way from the Rocky mountains had not been able to reach its intended destination (Gulf of California) for 16 years prior to 2014. Due to various dams built across the river, it does not reach the ocean. It did reach the ocean for a couple of weeks in 2014 by lifting a dam in Mexico. The advantage of the river reaching the ocean is that it allows marine life to thrive at the junction.

Once out of Yuma, we traveled to the Organ Pipe Cactus national monument. We spoke with the rangers and then camped at the Twin Peak campground. We went on long hikes here, once near arches at Mount Ajo, and another time at the nearby Milton copper mine. We went to an oasis called Quitobaquito which was really right off the Mexican border. It was an exciting trip, with the border within our reach and border patrol all over the place. Quitobaquito had Sonoran pupfish, which is an endangered and protected fish species. We learnt to recognize cacti such as Saguaro, Cholla, agave, hedgehog and the Palo Verde tree. We left the national park and are now camping at BLM lands near Ajo. We were at breakfast at a restaurant today that was selling Saguaro syrup and Prickly pear (another cactus) syrup. Both are rich in minerals. It is interesting to realize that food is made out of these cacti. The syrup is cooked pretty much the same way as maple syrup. Saguaro syrup tastes like heavy molasses.

Ajo has large abandoned open pit Copper mines. In 1911, a leaching plant was built in Ajo to process 5000 tons of ore a day. A smelter was set up in 1950, which increased the capacity to 30,000 tons. Due to unions and EPA requirements, the plant was shut down in 1983.

At Quitobaquito

Hiking at Mount Ajo

Prickly pear cactus

Tanya at lunch duty

Tanya at fire duty!

Making new friends is bittersweet

Colorado river at Yuma

Biking at Quartzsite with Snugglebug behind Johan!

The fabulous Hudson Hornet!

In a jail cell. They look like jailbirds, don’t they?

Tire troubles

Dory trouble

Leena on water duty

Johan at his best

Ajo copper mine

At the Mexican border 2019 (fence behind)

We have been on the road for almost a month, and it has been a great time! Starting where I left off…

We arrived in Piedmont, SC on Sunday the 6^th of Jan. There we had a few uneventful days at a hotel, while Johan went to work setting up an EzEddy. From there on, our trip actually began. We took the Southern route and drove I-20 followed by I-10 in Texas. There was a storm in the north, but we managed to keep clear of it. En route we checked out museums and attractions.

We saw the Soule steam feed works museum in Meridian Mississippi. It had some well kept steam engines and the longest operating line drive shaft (106′) in the US.

We then visited the WASP museum in Sweetwater, TX, which features Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) that flew during WWII. They came into existence when male pilots were in short supply (1942-1944). Interestingly, when WASP sought an official designation as members of the military in 1944, the Congress said “no”. But after a prolonged fight, the WASP did get military status in 1977. The museum was touching in the way these pioneering women flew and have since struggled to maintain the museum.

We then stopped at the Petroleum museum in Midland, Tx. This area is interesting in the number of pumpjacks for crude oil production. They also had a lot of windmills! Crossing Texas takes a long time, especially when you are not going too fast. We saw mountains in Mexico and the landscape change to desert as we moved westward.

After a long haul, we finally arrived at Quartzsite, Az on Jan 17th and have been here ever since. We first attended Skoolie Palooza where a bunch of school buses converted into campers camped at a location. We checked out other peoples’ conversions and they checked out Dory. All in all, it was a great time. One passerby told us that there was a ham radio group at a different location in Quartzsite. I mentioned to Johan that I had wanted to be a tech when I was 16, and lo and behold, he went and got us signed up for it on Jan 25th. We learnt that there was a technician test the next day, and so we moved in with the ham radio group and started studying! We took our tests on sat and proudly passed!! So now Johan and I are ham radio technicians.

Leena had her birthday yesterday and we did a treasure hunt for her in Dory. In the evening we had cupcakes. So altogether we had a lovely time. We will be moving towards East Arizona soon and then go back westwards in a few days.

Swimming at the hotel

Leena’s birthday treasure hunt!

Repairing bikes

Outdoor kitchen

Solar water heater 2.0

Solar water heater 1.0

Working on batteries

Tanya’s hand print

Destination skoolie

Arizona cactus – Gila Bend

Fixing a fuel leak

Fun with random tire

Mountains in the background are in Mexico!

Pump

Checking out the oil bit

Fuel sources

Pit stop

WASP

Texas geology

Up a silo

Happy faces

School room

Dory book shelf

Dory kitchen

Dory storage for pots and pans

Dory pantry and sink

Dory pantry

Soule steam works museum

So it is finally time for us to satisfy our desire to travel without a deadline and go back to the great west. After months of thinking, planning and dreading, we are now on the road. It is a good feeling.

The day after we left we were blessed by the sight of full sun. Seeing it made us realize how bad it has been in central Pennsylvania the last few months with its perpetual overcast weather.

We made a relatively easy trip down south to Greenville, SC. We left on Friday afternoon and arrived on Sunday. It was just the greatest feeling to be driving and doing our own thing. We slept in a Walmart lot on both nights and are now in a hotel for 3 nights while Johan installs his machine.

En route we stopped at the natural bridge of Virginia, a little up north of Roanoke, VA. It was quite a beautiful bridge and we had a great 2 mile hike on the Cedar Creek trail right by the creek. It was delightful and we saw a nice waterfall in the end.

Just starting our trip

At the natural bridge (this one’s not natural!!)

The “real” natural bridge

Nice walk

Atop a tree at a rest area

Monkey

Goofin’ around

Rest area fun!

The girls started their own blogs.

Tanya: lazylaurie.wordpress.com

Leena: deadlynadder.home.blog

… you gotta take the ocean to Dory!

End of the teaching semester at Penn State is a hectic time for me. So we thought.. why not make it more hectic than usual? Make sense, right?

We embarked on our journey down south on the last day of my classes. Picked the kids from school and we were off. The destination(s)? Smokey mountains, Atlanta, GA and the Outer banks, NC. Dory, our camper, was parked outside the house and duly packed.

Our first stop was the Warrior’s path campground in Tennessee right before the Smokey national forest. We reached there on Friday and it was overflowing with campers with kids. Our girls quickly formed their groups and disappeared. Ah, the bliss!!

We proceeded to drive through the Smokey mountains and then reached campground #2 called Stone mountain campground in Atlanta, GA. The place was quieter than quiet, but we had a water front spot, so it all worked out!

Rosie at the Warrior’s path campground

Rocks galore

Things to do in Dory – play mastermind

At the Stone mountain campground!

Leena trying yoga

What bliss!

Lunch

How to make a fire 101

Stone mountain in the background

Just wow!

Women from all the generations

This reminds me of Hyderabad!!

Painting glass stones in Dory

Crafting in Dory from all the rest area catalogs- this is one of our favorite past times!!

Rosie at the Warrior’s path campground

Rocks galore

Things to do in Dory – play mastermind

At the Stone mountain campground!

Leena trying yoga

What bliss!

Lunch

How to make a fire 101

Stone mountain in the background

Just wow!

Women from all the generations

This reminds me of Hyderabad!!

Painting glass stones in Dory

Crafting in Dory from all the rest area catalogs- this is one of our favorite past times!!

After bolting out of busy Atlanta as fast as Dory could take us, we drove until we reached the border of Georgia and South Carolina. We decided to stop for the night when we saw a campground there. This turned out to be a hidden gem. The lake Hartwell campground and was spectacularly beautiful. We again got a water front spot, but it was so much nicer than the previous one in the way you could access the water. We stayed there just one night. We then went on to the Outer banks, NC. We reached Ocracoke, or Pony island, on Thursday and took up a camping spot by the beach. It was off season and simply lovely. We had originally planned on staying until Saturday noon, but then stayed on Saturday night as well. We even contemplated abandoning our responsibilities and sticking around on Sunday night. But we got rained out on Saturday night and it rained all of Sunday, forcing us to grow up and face the world again! We quickly left the island after that and drove homewards. We reached home at 11 am Monday, drove straight to school and dropped the kids off! The trip was officially a success.

Lake Hartwell campground

Rosie playing with Tanya!

Breakfast!!

We got pretty used to setting up camp, building a fire and cooking

Dory on the ferry to Ocracoke

Feeding seagulls

Feeding seagulls

Leena’s pyramid

What a beauty!

Treasures on the beach

Dory is getting more and more finished

Eating at Ocracoke

Biking around

Beach fun!

Dory got pretty close to the ocean. Since she couldn’t make it across the beach, we brought a piece of the ocean to Dory. She looks pretty happy, doesn’t she?!

Happy Dory. The pictured Dory the fish is the official mascot of Dory the bus!