Don’t Squeeze The Shaman…

stick and it’s attached accessories…that is! Read on…I’ll explain.

Yesterday Mary and I visited the cultural center here in Cortez, Colorado and she outdid herself! She bought a shaman stick…92 inches tall and 32 inches wide!

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

Here she is with skulls and feathers already wrapped for protection…

I begged and pleaded with her…Where are you going to stow it? Please bring it back and get your money back! But no…she was determined to keep it. I’m not going to tell you what she paid for it because you wouldn’t believe it. She said I’ll carry it back home on the airplane…but after a little reflection…she decided she couldn’t do that. Then she said…I’ll ship it home and the two sales gals were laughing aloud as they told her a shipping store was just two blocks away…so off we went with Mary carrying it right along Main Street.

Eight blocks later at the shipping store, she found out it would cost more to ship it, than what she paid for it…she was determined to still ship. Only to find out the box would be larger than UPS or FedEx would accept. To ship it as freight via a truck would be so outrageously expensive even she rejected that idea. So off we went back along Main Street to our awaiting Ford Bronco II. We just managed to get it inside and close the doors. Back to the motorhome we went.

I kept on saying…where are you going to stow it? She kept on saying…I’ll figure something out! When I first Met Mary almost four years ago, her youngest daughter told me…when mom gets her mind made up…don’t even think you are going to get her to change it! This was one of those times she was talking about!

Back at the motorhome she started looking for places to stow it…

Maybe we could hang it from the bedroom ceiling…hmmmm…no that won’t work…

Maybe we could put it in the shower…hmmmmm…no, that won’t work…

After considering several other locations within the motorhome to no avail, it ended up in our largest outside storage compartment. All the while she was shouting at me…don’t squeeze the Shaman…meaning the associated skulls and feathers…

So there it will remain for the about next 1.5 years…thoroughly in my way…until the motorhome returns to her home in California in about October/November of 2013!

By then I really needed a drink. So I went across the street to the bar at the American Legion (where we are parked) and met some real friendly people. Mary eventually joined me and we went out on the back porch overlooking the horseshoe courts…

Soon the horseshoe throwers arrived and the games began. They take their horseshoe throwing very seriously in this part of the country…as though every throw was in a World championship competition…

We had a hamburger while we watched the activities. Then back to the cultural center to see some Indian dancing. Mary wasn’t going to miss that! I’ll show you those photos tomorrow. Today we will move the motorhome to Mesa Verde National Park for a three-day visit. If you don’t hear from us, it means we couldn’t get an Internet signal.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

Why I No Longer Read Or Watch The News…

I last listened to or read the news back in 1998. I just got tired of all the negativism. I’m not sure why journalist find it necessary to look for the negative and ugly things in life…but most seem to do.

Here’s a great example I stumbled upon a couple of days ago on the Slab City Yahoo Group. I arrived at Slab City yesterday. Before reading on see my Blog post from yesterday at http://wp.me/pDCku-2XZ

Slab City is a deserted military base from World War II. It’s one square mile on the desert floor, three miles east of the small town of Niland on the southeastern shore of the Salton Sea. All the structures had been removed and only the concrete slabs remain…hence the name. RVers discovered this place back in the late 1960’s.

When I first came here in January of 1996 there were about 5,000 RV’s within the one square mile. Because of difficult economic times in recent years…the numbers have fallen off. Last year there were perhaps only about 500 RV’s.

My rant against the news media today is because of the following recent video about Slab City from CBS News…

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7391717n&tag=strip&mid=5538

My complaint is that the correspondent found it necessary to emphasize the trash and danger, rather than the good things to be found at Slab City.

Here’s the link to my Picasa Web Album photos showing Niland and Slab City during my visit in 2006…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/NilandSlabCityCA

This CBS video totally misrepresents Slab city. The truth is that it is like a small city. Three miles away in downtown Niland, RVers have access to water and a dump station.  Some folks live there year-round despite the 120 degrees in the Summer. Some RVers spend from October to March there. A water truck comes by with deliveries…a propane truck does likewise. You can get a newspaper delivered…heck…UPS even delivers there.

Many of the people who live at Slab City actually choose to live there and actually like it! I stopped here to visit friends on my way to Yuma, Arizona. I only was there for one day this time, but in the past I’ve spent weeks at a time here.

HOWEVER…I must confess that this year the Slabs seemed to have more trash than I’ve seen in recent years. In talking with my RVing friends there, they tell me a of true “homeless element” appears to be settling in at the Slabs and that some appear to be inconsiderate of others regarding trash disposal. What some regular RVing Slab folks do is…when going in to Niland for groceries, is put their trash in the trash cans outside of the grocery stores (there are two grocery stores in town). There is even a Slab City resident who will pickup your trash and haul it to the landfill a couple of miles away for $0.50 a bag. Perhaps the economic times will bring more of a “homeless element” and the Slabs will further change. That remains to be seen. I can even see how a CBS news crew…with their good paying jobs…can look down their noses upon the unfortunates. I still do not forgive them for accentuating the negatives instead of the positives that can be found at Slab City.

Thank you CBS News for reminding me of what I’m not missing by reading or watching the news any longer. It’s a good thing you do not have to rely on me for your livelihood. GET OF OUT THE GUTTER CBS NEWS…LITERALLY!

Regardless of how CBS News chose to present Slab City…I really like the place. As a matter of fact many folks do! If you have the chance to visit there…you should not pass it by. You’ll especially like Salvation Mountain. Click this link to see my report on this unique piece of Americana that I wrote on December 18, 2010…
http://wp.me/pDCku-106

Late breaking news about Salvation Mountain…click this link…

http://mobilecodgers.blogspot.com/2011/12/is-this-life-well-lived.html

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

The Idea Didn’t Work Out…

I’ve been hauling around a bicycle on the back of my motorhome or towed Ford Bronco II for about ten years and I have never been happy with the storage arrangements. It’s such a hassle….the taking off and putting back-on process. It ends up being more work than enjoyment. And now that I have Mary in my life…I have two bicycles to deal with. Oh Joy!!!

Since I was so unhappy with the previous storage arrangement…I thought I’d try a new idea. When we were in Mendocino a couple of months ago, we parked behind a van than had a bicycle on a fold-down hitch. The owner seemed happy with the arrangement. Hmmm…so I decided to give the idea a try and ordered the parts.

Over the last several days I attempted to get the arrangement to work in a way that I could be happy with. This photo shows the fold-down hitch on the back of the Bronco with one bicycle attached…

That didn’t seem too bad.

Then I moved on to putting the two bikes on the rack…

In the photo all appears okay…but appearances are deceiving. In this mode the bikes are too close to one another and they didn’t mount properly. So I added the extension to be used in the four bike mounting mode. That set the bikes apart and they were mounted properly. The I put the cover over everything and evaluated the situation. The cover ended up big and awkward to handle…plus it blocked my rear vision from the drivers seat in addition to blocking the the rear tail and brake lights from behind. That’s not good…so the cover had to go.

With the two bikes on the four bike extension it put the outer bike way out there…so much so that when I tried to pull the rack back into the upright position and insert the holding pin by myself…it required a much too strenuous effort to accomplish. Realizing that sometimes when we are out and about shopping we sometimes open the rear lift door on the Bronco several times a day…I then knew this was not a good idea. So after several hours of messing around with this idea…I knew the fold-down hitch also had to go.

So now both bikes are now mounted on the back out the motorhome…the lesser all all evils…

I’d just as soon get rid of both bicycles for the little that we use them…but…Mary still insists she wants to ride a bicycle…so they remain.

So now I start the fun process of returning the items. The cover we bought from Amazon…no problem. In five minutes I had a prepaid return label and UPS will pickup the package at Mary’s doorstep on Monday.

The 26 pound bike rack was purchased from a different vendor and will prove to be somewhat more difficult to return. First of all…they are not open on the weekend…so I couldn’t communicate with them yesterday…got to wait until Monday. Then they charge a 20% re-stocking fee…we have to pay for the return shipping…about $20…got to get a return authorization number and arrange to get UPS to pick it up…yadda, yadda, yadda!!! This company needs to study how Amazon handles returns. I’ll never buy another item from the bike-rack vendor ever again. ‘Nuf said…the idea didn’t work out!

I was scheduled to depart for the south land Monday morning. Since I now have to wait until Monday to communicate with the bike-rack vendor and there’s a weather forecast for dense fog on Monday morning…I’ve been forced to delay my departure until Tuesday morning. Such is life!

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

More Low-Light Test Photos…

In yesterday’s Blog entry I posted six low-light test photos taken with my new Sony DSCHX5V Digital Camera. They were also the very first photos taken with this camera. Last evening at dusk Mary and I took another walk around our campground. Using the Anti-Blur low-light setting will allow us to take photos in museums where flash photography is not allowed. Here are ten more test photos…

This low-light setting on the camera is really interesting. When you take a photo…it actually takes six different photos at different exposure settings and the combines them into one final photo. Amazing technology!

In other news…

My other Sony camera which was sent to Sony for repair was returned to me yesterday. It was then returned by me to Amazon via UPS. The replacement/exchange process is now complete. The new camera seems to be working just fine.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://lulu.com/panamaorbust