American Girl Wash

Today began just like the past few days, a walkabout, but in a new place, not just for this year, but a different spot than we usually holed up in here along Ogilby Road. I took a hike over to our old spot just to see what is happening there. The approach off the road is a little sketchy now, we might have been able to drag the Solitude over it, but maybe not. There is no one over in that part this year and I think maybe that is because of this fellow we spotted there last time we were in the neighbourhood a few years back.

There is a sign over there indicating that you better stay on the trail, as these fellows and their buddies the desert hares might be having some kind of races going on. He has a hard enough time eeking out a living here in the desert without us infringing upon his territory so we are happy to find another spot.

This desert is completely different than back in our old spot at Bouse and walking is easier, not many hills, but the featurelessness is somewhat misleading, so I need to keep track of where I am going and make sure I don't just wander off into the desert and become a legend, lost forever.

These things, balloons that float off into the skies, should be banned, they are probably the most common thing I find wandering about out here, a few every year. They get released to celebrate everything from birthdays to memorials and then litter the landscape and either endanger the wildlife, like my friend the desert tortoise, or spook some unsuspecting horse and rider when one of these things leaps out waving a shiny flag at them. It is probably not a coincidence that just yesterday a friend of mine back home, down the road from Dogpound, was asking people to stop buying them. This one is safely in the landfill now. I am not sure we will have much of a sunset here tonight, as I write this journal late in the afternoon, we are getting a little rainfall, enough to dampen the dust here alongside the wash so for now I will stick in a couple of shots of the desert and the sunrise as I wandered about out there.

It never fails to surprise me how the sky can change so rapidly here, but those time-lapses I have shared have shown that pretty clearly.