rvsue and her canine crew

Spike is back!

I don’t want to push him too much because he’s coming off his pain meds.  Spike hasn’t had a pill since yesterday noon and he doesn’t seem to be in any pain, as you’ll see in the slideshow below.  The wound area is slightly swollen.  The wound itself is closing up.

Campfires are not allowed.

Our camp in the Coconino National Forest on the west side of Highway 89 across from Sunset Crater is beautiful.  However, evidences of fire cannot be missed.  Many of the trees are burned about halfway up their trunks, and some are totally burned and dead.

As the crew and I explore off the forest road, I look for traces of animal life. 

I see hardly any.  As Ken says, “Gee, this forest is like a morgue.”  I don’t know that I’d go that far, because the forest is coming back to life.  Grass and flowers grow over the volcanic rocks and new pines are everywhere.   I don’t see any animal tracks or scat, and rodent burrows are scarce.  Even the birds are less in number than any other place we’ve camped.  It’s a natural cycle, even if the fire is caused by a careless human.  A clean forest is emerging.

When we return from our morning hike, I find a surprise in my inbox.

Beck and Diane, whom I met at Burro Creek Recreation Area (near Wikieup, AZ), are boondocking nearby!  We’re going to get together before they leave for a new camp soon.

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About slideshows . . .

I wish I could make the captions larger and bolder.  If you increase your monitor’s zoom by 125% or 150% to full screen size, it will be easier to read the captions and see the photos.  In fact, this will make the entire blog more comfortable to read, especially if you find the font size too small for your eyes.

Out-of-pocket expenditures . . .

As you can see below, the crew and I have been “living on less and enjoying life more” during the first ten days of the month of May.  Tomorrow the PTV is going in for an oil change.  Other than that, I don’t anticipate any unusual expenditures this month.  Well, I could get a haircut.  Now that would REALLY be unusual.  Geez.

rvsue