Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Living in the Moment


I was outside our rig reading a book. When I came to the end of a chapter I folded the page, set the book down, and closed my eyes……. And just sat there absorbing my surroundings, feeling the warm wind blowing across my body, listening to it rustle the flag on our neighbors rig. Soon I was hearing other subtle sounds like the cricket in the nearby grassland and the sand hill cranes roosting ¼ mile from our rig. Does it get any better than this?
We are boondocking two hours southeast of Tucson at the Whitewater Draw WMA (Wildlife Management Area). Our neighbors are Jim and Brenda Jordan who turned us onto this area a few weeks ago are parked just yards away. You can stay for 3 nights free, no water, no electric, no dump stations no frills whatsoever. After spending 5 weeks in Tucson this is just the place we needed to be.


What caught me off guard was the fact that we were not really here. Over the past week Barb and I have been planning our spring and summer travels….Where will we go?  When will we get there? What route will we take? What is there to see along the way? Our minds were hundreds of miles and weeks ahead of where we actually were.
Sometime you need to remind yourself to slow down and live in the moment. It's not like we have been parking cars in the sweltering heat of Florida for 12 hours a day, we were in a beautiful spot and not enjoying it to its fullest. This may sound strange coming from someone who is just traveling from place to place, but we have caught ourselves doing this more than once, looking ahead to where we are going next and not thoroughly absorbing where we were at. So with a change of attitude, that’s what we did. We relaxed, read, played with the dogs and bird watched over our 3 day stay in the area.

The WMA has several trails around the wetlands where you can see a variety of waterfowl, shorebirds, deer, javelina and other feathered friends. Over those three days we woke up before sunrise twice to watch the sandhills head to their feeding areas and watched the sunset each day when they came back to roost.
Thousands and thousands of Sandhills

Javelina!

Avocet
The mule deer bucks still had their antlers!

Shovler
I was told this was a Vermillion Flycatcher


Sand Pipers


Cinnamon Teal

Gadwall
On our second day there we jumped in the truck with Jim and Brenda and headed over to Bisbee to check out the sights and walk the town. Along the way we came across the adjacent town of Lowell which in the end we enjoyed just as much, if not more than Bisbee. Lowell has very few actual businesses that are open. In fact I only saw a Co-op Market and a restaurant. The remainder of the town looks like everyone dropped what they were doing several decades ago and just walked away……the cars, the buildings, the signage were from decades gone by and very cool to see….








The following day Jim and Brenda left leaving us alone with the sandhills. We enjoyed the day taking walks and honing up on our photography skills. This was our first time staying in a WMA which is surprising given how much we love the outdoors. We will now be looking for more of these hidden gems in the future!

Sunset with our rigs in the foreground

Departing from Whitewater Draw we drove two hours back to Tucson....but first a stop at......
Dairy Queen!
We spent one more day with Forrest, Somer and Lily…..well really it was a ½ day. Time for one more dinner together before we continue our journey north. So what are our spring travel plans?  We plan on being in South Dakota the first week of April where we will continue our land search…. There I go again! We have 2-3 weeks before we are there and have lots of adventures planned between now and then. Winslow, Petrified Forest, Antelope Canyon….lots of places to see and lots of opportunities to live in the moment.

34 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great way to spend a few days, just being in the moment. Look forward to your posts from northeast AZ.

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    1. Looks like you guys are having a blast in Texas! We have never been to NE Arizona so we are really looking forward to visiting some of these areas.

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  2. If you worked the Strawberry Festival, it would really make you appreciate your lifestyle. Lowell looks pretty cool. Barb has some nice shakes.

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    1. Ha! But think of all the fun things you get to see and people you meet!

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  3. Bisbee is on our to do list for next season so I think we'll add White Water and Lowell. Looks like a great area. Safe travels!

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    1. Make sure you stop by Lowell as well! Bisbee is not big rig friendly so I would set up at Whitewater (21 miles from Bisbee) then drive back over to the Bisbee/Lowell area.

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  4. Yes it is sometimes hard to stop looking ahead and enjoy where you are. I typically do this planning over a couple of days every 2 months or so by getting Ray to give me a list of the things he wants to see so I know the direction of travel and then research all of the areas of what there is to see and then planning out places to stay to be able to see the things he wants! I put all of this into a word document, cutting and pasting bits of interesting things, reviews on places to stay etc. and then put it away so we can enjoy what we want to see. Seems like a bunch of work but it makes me feel better having a plan even though it usually changes about 15 times before the end of the 2 months. We saw White Water Draw a couple of years ago. Beautiful peaceful place.

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    1. We aren't quite that organized. We tend to plan our general route in advance but don't really start looking into site seeing opportunities until just before we get to the area.

      We generally look at other peoples blogs that we know have been in the area to see what the top sights are and plan accordingly.

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  5. Love the thoughts about Living in the Moment! We slowed a bit this past season and really enjoyed it in Colorado last season. But now since we'e been stuck here in CA for almost 5 months we really need to move along...our time here has really added a new dimension where you can't travel which we never thought would/could happen. We'll still take it slower this season but we're looking forward to enjoying the East coast again so that means we'll be moving and grooving like we did in year one. Your pictures of all the nature and the cars came out Great! Hopefully our paths will cross this season somewhere Down the Road! Safe Travels!

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    1. If you guys are passing through South Dakota on your way east look us up! Your comment reminded me of our first year when we rushed from place to place like we were on vacation and we had to hurry to fit it all in.

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  6. Living in the moment is the best way to be but some of us have to watch that clock and head back Home. We also get to plan for our trip back in the fall.
    Keep Enjoying Life and Be Safe!

    It's about time.

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    1. Ya, that whole 6 months in the States thing really puts a damper on the exploring during the summer.

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  7. As I read this Steve is sitting at the computer planning our trip north. So ready to leave Florida. Lowell looks like a a cool place to take pictures and Bisbee is a place I've wanted to see. I never get tired of the Black Hills! Enjoy!

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    1. We are looking forward to reading about your summer adventures, looks like you guys will have a good time!

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  8. Looks like a perfect place to relax after Tucson. Seeing all those sandhill cranes would be awesome.

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    1. The noise when they departed and returned was deafening and very cool all at the same time!

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  9. Great wildlife photos. Love the sandhills.

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    1. Thanks, we really enjoy photographing "wild" wildlife. Definitely challenging.

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  10. Fun stuff!! And we also LOVED Lowell. We have stopped in there twice now and probably will again if in the area. We ate lunch there, can't remember the name of the place off hand but they had pretty good pie I remember.

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    1. We did not even know Lowell existed. That restaurant must have been good as they had a line out the door the entire time we were there.

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  11. Good thing you did your planning first before deciding to live in the moment. Otherwise you end up like me...in the moment with no particular place to go. ;-) That looks like a lovely boondock spot. Putting it on the list, as I have never been to Bisbee.

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    1. Now that is funny! But we really enjoyed a lot of the places you go so you must be doing something right. You would really enjoy Whitewater Draw.

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  12. Good find!! Have to add that to our list!!! Safe travels!!

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  13. Great pictures Lowell looks like a cool place :)

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  14. Whitewater looks amazing, Jim. I remember how cool it was to hear the sound ONE Sandhill made flying over me. Hundreds would be crazy!

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    1. They come and go like clockwork to the point you could guess what time it was. The sound was deafening and certainly woke you up in the morning.

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  15. Great pics of the birds! Love the small towns - more additions to the list!

    Also - love your thoughts on "living in the moment!

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  16. Some very cool pictures and great trip ideas to add to our list! It can be so hard to live in the moment, but when we do, wow! Safe travels!

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    1. We will definitely be looking into WMA's in the future, very cool places to stay.

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  17. Good for you guys. We need to remind ourselves of the same. Loved the bird pictures especially the avocet!!

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    1. Thanks, they are not very common so we are always excited to see one! My favorite was the flycatcher as we have never seen one before.

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  18. Great reminder to live in the moment! Loved the pictures. We've put Lowell on the trip planner for this fall. :-)

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    1. I am getting ready to post our Lake Powell adventure, it was great!

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