Marty's Travels

I neatly avoided the wind this morning, and landed back at the SKP park in Deming. In a few days I’ll head to Las Cruces.

The only notable thing here (besides the expected wind) is the cold.

I was interested in seeing the annual Quilt Show in Tombstone, especially after seeing the work of the Amish in Indiana and environs. They had some nice quilts, but almost all were machine quilted; those hand-done were folded in cases and couldn’t really be seen or touched. It was more of a quilt sale than a show. In terms of quality, the Amish win hands-down, but machine quilts are much cheaper.

The stiff wind came in today, and it will continue to be blowy and cold for the next several days. I’m going to travel to Deming tomorrow morning in hopes of avoiding the worst gusts, then sit for a few days until the wind drops a bit. It will still be cold, though.

Whenever it gets really cold I go through the math to answer the question of whether it’s better (cost-wise) to heat with propane or electric. The answer depends on the rates for each in terms of BTU per hour, and it’s always pretty close. Not enough to justify a full-hookup site over a dry-camping site, unless other factors apply.

First, I’m still laughing at Brian William’s quote on NBC news: “Mitt Romney is trailing santorum all over the country”. Bad choice of words.

Anyway I’m in Benson at the SKP park to wait out some stiff cold winds due tonight and tomorrow. I’m much happier in their dry-camp area with plenty of elbow room and views of the valley and mountains as opposed to being buried amongst buildings.

Tis the season for the comedy of state legislatures. I’m in Arizona, but I know full well the show is just as ridiculous in every state as new bills get filed for the serious deliberation required over the next few months.

One bill filed here addressed the language teachers use, specifically limiting it to the FCC standard for radio and TV. George Carlin’s Seven Deadly Words but without the problem of actually naming the words in the bill. Pretty nifty trick, but it looks to me like the FCC rule is in serious jeopardy. The defender of the bill cited a list of complaints that sounded to me like “Kids nowadays! Just listen to the way they talk! Where do they learn this? And look at their clothes, and the hair! It’s the teachers! It’s the music! Something’s gotta be done!!!” Yeah, pass a law. That’ll do the trick.

Another good one is forming a volunteer militia under the leadership of the governor. This militia would respond to civil emergencies, rescuing old people from earthquakes, fires, and floods, transporting pregnant women to the hospital, and, oh yeah, defending the border against Mexican invaders when time is available.

Someone (duly elected by responsible thinking citizens to represent their best interests thoughtfully and responsibly) proposed a bill to fire teachers using partisan speech or books in the classroom. Someone pointed out the definition of partisan was not included in the bill. Someone else noted that there are some rather educational books that could be considered partisan. I wonder who it is that decides there is a violation.

I don’t know who introduced these bills, but I think there should be a law that old white men in legislatures and Congress should sit through a middle school civics class every year, and pass it. White women and all persons of color need not bother since they already understand the basics. Likely because they paid attention then.

I spent last week at the SKP park in Casa Grande, today I moved to the Snider Hill BLM spot near Tucson.

My toilet broke this morning: At just the moment when I needed it the most, it refused to flush. I have been fighting this thing for two years, setting aside some money to replace it when it failed. Today was the day, but I was heading to Tucson on a route that I presumed would be a bit bumpy, and worse in my situation, very dippy. I went to LazyDays in Tucson and the guy there had a special replacement to show me: it was much better designed, extremely easy to repair, had a good warranty, and carried a good price because it had a flaw that mattered not to me. It was easy to install, but emptying the old one was not a lot of fun.

Naturally, I drove very carefully and slowly on Indian 15 and Ajo Highway, a most pretty and peaceful alternative to the interstate, flawed only by nagging thoughts of spillage occurring.

I spent a week at Casa Grande in a spot far too narrow for my rig. I decided that future stays here would be in dry camp which is much easier to park in. I wanted the electrical service to equalize my batteries, though. It had been three months since I last plugged in.

I’ll be in Tucson for several days, anticipating some rain tomorrow and then cooler temperatures for a bit.

Compared to the 2008 Republican turnout, 17% of the voters in Missouri went through the useless, stupid, exercise of casting a ballot yesterday. The meaningless election in Missouri offered a great chance to see how many of our voters had no clue they were wasting their time, which is the number I was curious about.

I’d bet that, regardless of party, the 17% figure likely applies to the entire national electorate.

I wasn’t surprised that well over 50% of these poor souls voted for Santorum….

This is a political post. Skip if you’ve better things to do.

The Missouri primary is completely useless, a waste of time and energy. Despite knowing this, the legislature voted to hold it anyway, at an estimated cost of $7 million dollars. Right off the bat we now know at least 51% of the elected representatives in Missouri are really dumb and certifiably irresponsible.

Despite that it’s well known casting a vote in this event is completely useless, I expect votes to be cast. I also expect Republicans to raise cries of voter fraud, but that’s normal. It struck me that having the database of voters in this primary would be most interesting: really stupid people of Missouri. Admittedly it would only include really stupid Republicans, but I’d bet you could use this number as a pretty good estimate of really stupid Democrats in Missouri.

So who do the certifiably really stupid voters of Missouri vote for? If I were running, I wouldn’t feel it much of a victory to be the stupid people’s choice. But let’s see who the dumb people “elect”….

I got up this morning and thought I’d had enough of Quartzsite. Since I was planning on leaving tomorrow anyway, I packed up and moved to Casa Grande, to the Escapee park.

It’s been three months since I’ve hooked up to anything, so I can use my converter to equalize my batteries.

I’ll be here a week.

The brush around here has been getting greener. Not that you’d notice the change day to day, but in general, over the last few weeks.

Blackbirds are forming up flocks, I noted the other day. Way down in south Texas they are doing the same: the route to the polar circle takes a million minds to navigate.

I saw flowers next to the road today, they weren’t there two days ago. Lupines, mainly. This won’t be a wildflower year, but if one is looking at the subtle, it’s apparent now in the desert.

The grackles were making noise today in Blythe. They make more and more noise as the sun gets higher in the sky, culminating in the breeding season. Personally, I’ve learned that noisier grackles means more output from my solar panels. My batteries fill up far before the grackles reach their crescendo.

Spring in the desert is a real treat, look carefully to see it.

The numbers of RVs are declining fast, some vendors have pulled out, and the rock people are packing up to move to Tucson. Meanwhile there is a little tent show that’s pretty bad. It’s fascinating to see how quickly the event grows here, and how quickly it disbands.

Other than the wind storm I’m sitting in right now, the weather has been good and will be fine for at least a few more days. Right now I’m thinking about heading to Casa Grande, maybe to sit for a week or so.