FROM THE SHORELINE TO THE DUST BOWL

SUNRISE ON MITRY LAKE, ARIZONA

The early bird gets the worm probably means the same thing as the early fisherman gets the fish. And so it was about 5 o'clock this morning as pick-up trucks towing clanking old boat trailers started rolling in to Mitry Lake on the bump infested & dusty road right beside us 20 feet away from our motorhome!!

Beautiful sunrise over the peaceful lake as the squawking sounds of the duck like coots rippled through the air. The splash of solitary fish & the flocks of snowy egrets across the lake reminded me I was standing out there on the shoreline.......... in my pajamas. In my rush to get some snowy egret photos I had rushed out the door & hadn't bothered to get dressed. To add insult to embarrassment, I didn't get any snowy egret photos either:((

Took the dogs for a walk around the area & climbed a nearby rocky hill for a few overlook photos. It's a very scenic area but I wonder what it will look like after they kill the vegetation along the shoreline road. EARLY MORNING FISHERMEN ON MITRY LAKE

Because of the car & people traffic going by on the road we decided to head out of the area & find us a new site west of Yuma. Checked our maps & boondocking books plus some boondocking info on the computer & headed off for a place called, Pilot Knob. Sunday morning meant light traffic going through Yuma & before long we were about 15 miles west of the city & exiting the Interstate as Sidewinder Road for a look at Pilot Knob. A paved road ran parallel to the interstate on the south side & a number of RV's were scattered about on the south side of the road. We headed west down that road until we saw a few more RV's & pulled off onto the sandy & hopefully hard packed desert floor. Found us an ok spot with nobody close by. Lots of room for the furry guys to run around & not bother anybody. It's kind of an unwritten rule amongst boondockers that you don't bother or crowd other people by pulling in close to them & we always respect that. Boondockers are a different breed of people from other RV'ers who prefer the more crowded RV Parks. We just prefer to go our own way, do our own thing, & not bother anyone else along the way.

There is a large U.S. Marines Airborne base in Yuma & we can see Marine helicopters heading back & forth to their gunnery range in the Chocolate Mountains over to-wards Niland, California. It was last year around this time when we were in Slab City that I saw gunfire coming out of the night sky on that gunnery range. It was quite a light show.

IT'S THE CACTUS SHADOW MAN AT THE DUST BOWL

To-morrow we'll head west again & probably up into the Salton Sea area. Supposed to be lots of free BLM areas around there so we'll see what we can find. Would be nice to find a spot we like & just stay for awhile. We'll see.................................

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