In one of my previous letters I had mentioned that I had driven across the southwest US about as close to the Mexican border as you could. I was wrong. You can get closer to the border. This time we did! At least in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Eagle Pass, Amistad Reservoir, Seminole Canyon, Big Bend National Park, Bisbee and Douglas Az, Tombstone, Patagonia, and a couple of Wal-Mart parking lots, and a real nice rest area in New Mexico. We just kind of moseyed. Kat still isn’t wild about the desert and hot places, but I’m working on her.
We walked along the Rio Grande in Big Bend and took a look at Boquillas, Mexico. It used to be that you could cross the river and walk into town and maybe buy a few things. Now the Border Patrol is watching. We watched two Mexicans on horseback ride along the Mexico side of the river with bundles of walking sticks that they try to sell to us ‘Gringos’. But this day the Border Patrol was watching too closely. They asked but we had to decline. Boquillas seems almost like a ghost town after 9/11. There is no crossing at Boquillas and it must be two hundred miles on a dirt road to anything south in Old Mexico. It seems a shame! It was dirt poor before, now maybe it’s worse. I think their livelihood was trade with the Gringo tourists of Big Bend and now that‘s pretty much gone
Tombstone was great! Well, it was great if you discount the RV park we picked. We stayed at Stampede RV park. Kat said “I guess something sure went on a stampede through here.” But bad choices happen and we don’t let it get us down. It’s not like we’re pitching a tent. We are self contained! Anywho! Kat liked Tombstone. We walked Main Street and did some shopping, ate dinner at one of the old saloons. Six Gun Charlie’s or some such. Then we spent the evening at Big Nose Kate’s drinking margaritas and watching karaoke. We met and talked with some soldiers down from Ft Huachuca destined for Iraq. We wished them luck. I didn’t see Wyatt this time. (My last trip I met and talked to Wyatt Earp. I still think of how much my dad would have loved that. He loved to watch the old westerns on TV, especially anything about Wyatt). But we did meet an ‘old timer’ playing his role as an ‘old timer’. If you don’t remember, lots of folks in Tombstone dress in period costume and entertain the tourists. It’s a ‘cool’ spot and we’ll get back. We’ll just pick a different RV park.
We visited Post Office friends Bob and Jan and Paul and Pam in Green Valley and Phoenix, respectively. They are well and it was good to see them. We spent a few days in Quartzsite and at Buckskin Mountain State Park. Buckskin is on the Colorado River. I got a few days of sun there. That and a little bit of hiking. Although next time I need to take a little more water so I can make it ’all the way’ to the mines back in the hills. I came up just a bit short this time. Then it was through Nevada into California. We stopped at Laughlin, Sam’s Town, Pahrump, Death Valley, Bishop, Silver City, and Border Town. Along the way we had some snow, lots of wind, and too &*% much dust. The snow I’m sure is a result of global warming. Yeah, Right! We were coming out of a coffee shop on Main Street in Bishop, CA when it started blowing snow off the Sierra Mountains above us. One of those really neat quiet times that you just don’t get often enough. Mind you, it had been 70ish the day before. Some guy came out on the street just after we did and yelled, “Yup! Must be some of that “global warming”. Our sentiments exactly! It shattered the moment but we had to laugh. We really got a dusting of sand in Death Valley. It’s several weeks later and we’re still finding dust. Just no way to keep it out when the wind comes up in the desert. What a mess! Kat’s still pissin’ and moanin’! Kat’s best friend (and now one of mine), Toni came over from the Bay Area to spend a night with us in Carson City. We had a good dinner and lost a few bucks in the casino. And then it was time to head for Oregon and Goose Lake.
This part of the “Two Goose” segment was cut and pasted from an email I sent to someone. So it’s in the present tense or whatever and not written in the past tense like the rest. It’s been a long time since 8th grade English and maybe I’m not explaining this properly but I think you get the idea. Which is, I don’t want to go through and do a rewrite.
……….Goose Lake State Park is right across the CA border in central OR. We can hit CA with a rock. When you cross the state line you have to make an immediate left turn or you miss it. Anyway, we're volunteering for the month. It's a small park and we're just getting it opened up after the winter. It was supposed to open on the 15th but we've had water well problems. Bad pump. So we're still not open. Don't expect it would be busy anyway. Yesterday we woke up to snow. That's gone now but it's 7AM and only 23o. It’s been a mite cool! But we've been feeding and watching the birds and deer. Lot's of wildlife. One day we got to herd some cattle out of the 'day use' area. We have a little gas cart to drive around, a "Gator", and we used that. Just happened to find them there and said "what the heck"! We were laughing and yelling and herding them little "doggies". It was a first for both of us. So we're having fun and hardly working. Goose Lake has geese! Lot's and lot's a' geese! And lot's of other wildlife. So far we've seen deer, they wander through by the herds, 20-30 at a time, the aforementioned cattle, we have a badger in the woodpile, or did?, coyote, golden eagle, a great horned owl, who seems to be a resident in these parts, gray and ground squirrels, herons, millions of quail at the feeder, we have a billion Evening Grosbeaks, and zillions of LBJ's (that‘s ‘little brown jobs‘ for the uninformed). I might be forgetting something? I had a list but threw it away.
Now I’m back to real time! Whatever!
We had a couple of real ‘birders’ come by our site one day. They were attracted to ‘our’ birds. We talked for some time. While we were watching they identified 3 or 4 birds we didn’t even know we had. Cassin’s finch, lesser Gold Finch and a couple of somthin/somethins ( I recorded them but can’t remember off the top of my head). But these two were really experts. They would kind of cock there heads and listen and tell us what kind of birds were in the trees, what sex they were and which side of the mountain they came from. He was some kind of professor and gave birding classes and she was just as good. It was impressive.
There were a couple of other notable events at Goose Lake. We came up with a new sport. It’s called “Fire Ring” golf. Pretty simple really. One club of your choice and one ball. The object is to get the ball into or hit the fire ring. The winner of the ‘hole’ gets to pick the next hole (fire ring). With 47 sites and fire rings we had choices. We were kind of loose on the rules. It was a nice day and nothing to do, so we improvised. And we didn’t have any visitors at this point. Then we did some ‘penny squishing‘. There were train tracks down by the lake and I thought it would be fun to ‘squish’ some pennies. So we did! One turned out shaped like a heart. Kat sent that one to Toni (see above) who collects ‘squished’ pennies. (FYI, we found that old dirty pennies work best. They have more character) We were going for something bigger when we left. I put a quarter down, but we hadn’t had any trains by the time we left. I told our replacements who are going to be at the National Rally we’re going to in July. They are going to try to bring me my quarter.
We did have jobs at Goose Lake. I helped with the plumbing and cut grass. Kat picked up cow ‘plop’ and did some computer and office work. We both did some clean up and just kind of what needed done. We’re just volunteers remember. I tell all of the folks we work for that this motor home rolls both ways, in and out. So be nice! And they always are. We have worked for some good folks and have lots of fun too! Goose Lake was no exception. What a life!
tty much unnoticed. I'm referring to what I suppose is typically thought of as Eastern Oregon. That part east of the more popular areas around Bend where so many folks go to ski or play golf or stay at nice resorts. The large eastern half of the state out a ways from the beaten path without much of a real destination spot to speak of. I don't know how it would be properly described? Some of it is mountainous and tree 
covered. Pine and fir I guess? Some is semi-arid with dry lake beds or shallow almost dry lakes. Some of it is cattle county. The area near Summer Lake is cattle country.
tty much unnoticed. I'm referring to what I suppose is typically thought of as Eastern Oregon. That part east of the more popular areas around Bend where so many folks go to ski or play golf or stay at nice resorts. The large eastern half of the state out a ways from the beaten path without much of a real destination spot to speak of. I don't know how it would be properly described? Some of it is mountainous and tree 
covered. Pine and fir I guess? Some is semi-arid with dry lake beds or shallow almost dry lakes. Some of it is cattle county. The area near Summer Lake is cattle country.
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