We drove all day today, listening to music, singing and talking, reflecting, being, watching scenes and landscapes go by. We decided to skip the southern portion of the Grand Canyon as we'd heard from several locals that this time of year it is particularly overcrowded. We'll either swing back from the north side later on, or skip it altogether.
So we drove and drove, making a few stops to explore until the sun began to go down and finding a place to camp became imperative. We stopped just outside a town called Quartzsite, AZ, which seemed to be made of trailers and RVs. Signs all over town suggested there were camels in the area, but we saw none.
Carr, resourceful as ever, found some BLM lands on the map, around the northern outskirts of town. It's free to camp there, but you do have to register with the host, an older Mexican-American man who lives on the edge of the BLM land and gives out permits. We stayed and talked with him a while, listening mostly. He told us he had been a marine, that he had served in Korea. He said he came back "distorcionado", which he said happens when you have to come back to the regular world after going to war. He spoke of being discriminated against by white police officers even after serving in the military, and his concern over the current political situation.
So we drove and drove, making a few stops to explore until the sun began to go down and finding a place to camp became imperative. We stopped just outside a town called Quartzsite, AZ, which seemed to be made of trailers and RVs. Signs all over town suggested there were camels in the area, but we saw none.
Carr, resourceful as ever, found some BLM lands on the map, around the northern outskirts of town. It's free to camp there, but you do have to register with the host, an older Mexican-American man who lives on the edge of the BLM land and gives out permits. We stayed and talked with him a while, listening mostly. He told us he had been a marine, that he had served in Korea. He said he came back "distorcionado", which he said happens when you have to come back to the regular world after going to war. He spoke of being discriminated against by white police officers even after serving in the military, and his concern over the current political situation.