Chuckwalla Mileage May Vary

Since we have no jobs and no income, we sometimes pay attention to how much money we spend. Danine pays the bills. I am the budgeteer. Unfortunately, I only spent one semester in engineering, zero semesters in accounting, and eventually graduated with an ever-versatile English degree. This means the budget I employ is sufficient, but not thorough or utterly precise.

Anyway, I estimated we would get about 10 mpg and we get between 10 and 11. That’s good. I estimated we’d drive about 18,000 miles during the trip, but we’ve already gone about 13,000. Looks like I’ll be maybe 8,000 miles too low. Oops. I also estimated we’d average $3.00 per gallon. That is almost impossible to predict. However, our monthly estimated gas budget is $540 and our actual is $550. Not bad!

Until now. Before leaving Tucson, I filled up for $2.81. Yesterday, I filled up in Borrego Springs at the cheapest of the three stations for $3.59. Today all three places are $3.79. This is not good for the budget. We may start coasting a lot more.

Actually we can spend as much as we want. It simply means that the theoretical house we buy when we return will get smaller and smaller. So as fuel costs rise and unforeseen cavities require filling, we hope housing prices continue to fall. So far, so good.


Bobby and Elise in the Slot


Crannies in the Wind Caves

Today we burned through some of that expensive gas going to the Slot and then the Wind Caves. The Slot is famous because it is incredibly narrow, suck-in-your-gut narrow, “Hey, my foot’s stuck!” narrow, “Pass me a chisel or pass me some Crisco,” narrow. Elise walked through it without a problem. The Wind Caves look like something from Tatooine in Star Wars, but, in fact, they are nature’s english muffins, all nooks and crannies.



One highlight at the Slot was seeing a chuckwalla right by the trail. Our chief spotter, Elise, found it. It didn’t seem phased by us and waited for Danine to shoot its picture before leisurely crawling away.


RVs in the desert

One phenomenon we have noticed is the frequency with which folks boondock in their RVs all around the desert. Boondocking is just staying in a spot without hook-ups or developed campsites: basically pulling off the road and parking. As you drive you can look out across the flats and see a constant sprinkle of RVs spaced throughout the brush. We could do this too I suppose, but haven’t felt very inspired to do so yet. Of course, these boondockers may be roughing it, but they aren’t crazy. They still have their satellite dishes and TVs.


See our little truck?