New Mexico Adventures

I did a little trip to Carson National Forest in the north eastern part of New Mexico on Memorial Day weekend.  It's an area I hadn't explored before and I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it is.  I went with my ex-wife and our dogs.  We didn't have a particular place in mind, I had done a little research and found a nice state park but when I went to make reservations it turned out the state parks were still closed to camping due to COVID-19.  We decided to risk it and look for some camping on BLM land or dispersed camping.

As we were driving towards a little town called Cimarron a small, barely noticeable brown and white NPS style sign caught our attention.  We stopped, checked it out and saw three campgrounds listed.  The closest was 20 miles down the dirt road.  We went into Cimarron, filled the gas tank and headed off toward McCrystal campgrounds.  The road wasn't bad, any car could make the trip but it was heavily rutted in areas and looked like it got soft when it rains.

The majority of the land on either side for the first fifteen miles or so seemed to be private ranch land.  After about an hour and a half we came to the notice board.  Not being sure of weather the campgrounds were open or not I hoped out and checked the notifications.  Nothing but the usual rules list and a fire ban letter dated from April 2020.  I assumed that since that letter was current the Forest Service was keeping up to date notices so we pushed on.

When we arrived at the campground the only people there were some young kids from Texas desperately searching for a toilet.  The vault toilets were all locked up, which was our first hint something wasn't right.  We stopped and checked the notice board for the specific campground and found the fee deposit box was taped shut and no other information.  We were puzzled but decided to set up camp.  It was a very nice 60 site campground and we were the only people there.  We spent an hour or so walking the dogs around before starting dinner.  The only vehicle to pass by that entire time was a US Forest Service truck.  We stood by nervously waiting for him to stop and tell us the area was closed.  He waved and kept on going.

The rest of the night was peaceful and uneventful.

The next day we took a ride to explore the other campgrounds.  We ran into another Forestry truck at the next campground.  I'm pretty sure it was the same guy from the night before because of the bushy beard.  It was putting a wooden sawhorse up with two notices and informed us the campgrounds were closed without elaborating.  I asked if we would have to leave then and he shrugged and said he really wasn't going to say one way or another.  I feel like he probably should have been a little more decisive.

We ended up cutting the trip short and getting a hotel in Taos but overall it was a good time.

Off Roading, Overlanding and Camping Resources

 I've always loved camping.  I've done it to varying degrees my entire life.  Some of my happiest memories are of camping with my grandparents when I had to be around five.  I remember my grandpa walking around Dillon State Park greeting all the other campers.  He would wander up and talk for what seemed like hours.  Of course I was five so it was probably more like 10 minutes.  The grandparents had a regulation camper which was a novelty to me because we had a Sears pop-up camper (or one similar).  My favorite memory in that camper was the time the front awning collapsed during a heavy rain storm and Mom, my two younger brothers and I were trapped inside until Dad came back from work to free us.  I'm pretty sure Mom could have broke us out if necessary but it rained all day anyway so why get out.  I also attribute that day to my love of camping in inclement weather.  Even now I love camping in the rain and cold.  Even snow.

 Later on in life I got to camp in the Alaskan wilderness as part of my job.  We would get flown by helicopter into the bombing ranges at the base of the Brooks Range and camp for two weeks.  We would ride around on our four wheelers looking for MK 84 bombs to blow up.  Our branch chief was a hunter and trapper who would stay behind and shoot ptarmigan (a game bird) with his BB gun, clean and cook them or alternatively we would catch and cook trout.  That was probably the highlight of my camping life.  There's a reason this blog is called "Life's Been Good To Me".

More recently I did a lot of tent camping with my wife at the time.  As that went on though I found that sleeping on the ground in the mountains of Colorado sucked as I got older.  I started watching Expedition Overland on YouTube.  I had really been attracted to overlanding long before that was the name for it, I still just call it camping to be honest.  But these guys had a 2016 Toyota Tacoma that I fell in love with.  Pretty soon I got to fantasizing about having a rig like that.  Being older and wiser than I was in my 20's and 30's I realized that to sink all of that money into something isn't realistic for a guy in his 50's who now has to plan for retirement.  Unfortunately I ended up getting divorced.  We had to sell the house and that's when I ended up getting, what I refer to as the midlife crises mobile.  I've never had a moment's regret about spending the money on it.  I feel like I've already gotten my money's worth.  Last year was filled with so many great trips I have a hard time remembering them all.

I'm looking forward to getting back out there.  Here are links to some of my favorite sites:

Trail Recon - Brad is a retired Navy Master Chief and now full time YouTuber.  He started out more rock crawling oriented but has been transitioning over to general four wheeling and camping adventures.  His channel is very professionally filmed and edited.

 venture4wd - Chris has been living full time in his Jeep for over three years now.  He's a very down to earth, no nonsense guy.  He doesn't have a lot of fancy equipment and doesn't focus on the off-roading as much as the adventure.  He's traveled all over the US and Canada and features beautiful photography and videography.  He also features very little music which I love.

4WD Action - a YouTube channel by what I'm assuming is Australia's largest four wheel drive magazine.  Beautiful Australian scenery, camp "cooking" segments and a lot of what we here in the States would call good old boy humor.  Just a lot of Toyota vs. Nissan shit talking and friendly teasing.

That's pretty much it for now.  I look forward to posting some camping stories in the near future, or at this rate probably the middle distant future.

Back To My Usual Ranting And Raving

I just learned that the Federal Trade Commission requires a warning in front of videos of model building and if this title screen is to be believed you can't watch the video if you are under 13. I just assumed it was another country but, nope, it's here. 13 was the age I was building models and I had a dad that bought me the safe model glue. 

Here's a link to the awesome submarine model build.  Go check it out unless you are 13 (just kidding definitely check it out if you are 13)

And here is the legislation that the nanny state is so proud of.  I get the feeling that not one kid has been saved from the evils of huffing by this stupid rule.  It looks like this one specific section is just part of the bigger regulation. COPPA

One Last Coronavirus Post For Now

I'm sure that everybody is tired of hearing about the Coronavirus but seeing as no one reads this blog I'm going to do one more.

Between 1998 and 1999 (literally, this happened over Christmas and New Years week) I came down with a flu.  I'm not sure if it was a seasonal flu or what, I just remember hearing the usual anecdotal stories about everyone catching it.

I was visiting my Mom and Dad and spent the next week immobilized in my old bedroom while Dad poked his head in occasionally to check on me.  Although, the condition I was in he could have just as easily sat right next to me and I never would have known.  I remember there was talk of going to an emergency room but I can't remember if I went or not and if I did it didn't help.  I think I was too sick to go.

One thing I do remember is that I have never been in such pain.  I've never experienced such a searing fever followed instantaneously by bone aching chills as I had that week.  It sounds very similar to the tales survivors of Coronavirus are telling now.  All I know is I don't want to experience that ever again.  In my 30's and in much better shape than I'm in now it was no joke.

Take this shit serious.

Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things

Turns out drinking Old Fashioneds and getting fired up about starting blogging again doesn't necessarily lead to actually blogging again.  I'm not really enthused about anything right now.  I think maybe writing about what's going may be interesting.  I'm not sure people want to hear about the Coronavirus but I've always looked at this blog like Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House On The Prairie books (at the risk of sounding pretentious).  I would like to think a historian would look at this in a hundred years and extract something useful about life in 2020.

I would say that the social distancing and self-quarantining hasn't been going on for a full month yet and already everywhere you look you can see the veneer of social self-discipline breaking down.  The governor of Colorado issued a statewide shelter in place order that just started yesterday morning.  I saw more people outside at the apartment complex than I've seen, well since I moved in.  I would attribute that to people who have already been cramped up for a month realizing that it could be another month or longer and finally needed some fresh air.  The one's that really annoy me are the people on Facebook and Twitter that start going on about the Constitution.  There are enough articles about what the Federal and state governments can and can't constitutionally do during national emergencies that I'll just let you Google it.  And God knows probably four or five years ago it's possible I would have been yammering like one of those self-appointed Constitutional lawyers myself.  The thing is, the other side of this take is the very annoying "Stay the F**k Home!" crowd.  They are just as omnipresent and in my mind just as scary.  As this goes on I feel like these people will take the policing of quarantine "breakers" into their own hands.  There was a video Michael Rapaport posted on Twitter that I wanted to share.  It was him slowly driving past a farmer's market in L.A. cussing out the people there for being outside.  It was creepy in a stalker fashion and this was before the mayor of L.A. put in the shelter in place order.  I'm not sure where farmer markets come down on the list of essential businesses but I'll guarantee super markets are more packed than that place was just judging by his video.  Anyway, I was going to share it but going back through his scuzzy timeline left me feeling like I needed a shower so I stopped looking.

I think the two extremes or just fringe groups though.  It seems like society is pulling together pretty well all things considered.  The results are varied, the CEO of Texas Roadhouse is suspending his own salary, Ford and other auto manufacturers are building parts for ventilators and private citizens are sewing masks.  That's good.  Celebrities with their hearts in the right place singing Imagine.  Not great.

I remain optimistic that the world will come out of this stronger than we went in.  Time will tell I guess.   

Love In The Time Of Coronavirus

Four long years.  It's been four long years since my last post.  A lot has happened since then.  My last post was about my father and how I miss him.

Now we are going through an unprecedented event that I've not seen in my lifetime.  And bare in mind that my lifetime has included the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of Soviet Communism and also 9/11.  I'm not here to go on at length about Coronavirus right now.  I have been wanting to restart writing on the blog for quit some time and for quite a few different reasons.  My divorce and boredom being two.  My ex-wife starting her own blog and my recent new found love of camping being two more.  And finally the last straw is probably the state of the world right now (and a few too many old fashioneds).  I'm going to try to get back into this blogging thing again.  Vloging isn't for me as I'm way too ugly for that but I'm hoping to include videos from time to time.

Oh and 4 years later I still miss my dad.