PIRATE CAMP '24-25....................Desert SouthWest

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Well, I was correct - it really hurt today. Oh well. But I am getting around a bit better, in spite of the pain so that is very good indeed. I can bear my weight on my right ankle, so that means she only needs to spot me when I move to and from the wheelchair, and not lift me. She got out for a few hours today, took a walk at Fort Clatsop. Apparently it’s a pretty nice day out there…

Without Carole around to do the nursey things like pile up pillows and ice packs I’d be in real trouble. Turns out one of the women who works in the motel front office here has also done some nursing, so they have bonded a little. All in all, for a painful, literally lame kind of day - it was not terrible!
Glad you are feeling at least a little better today. Your very own private duty nurse? That is a real blessing for a nomad in a medical crisis 🥳
 
Brian of Pirate camp will be showing up at Pirate camp this season recovering from his knee surgery! Here is hoping that surgery gets him more mobile and in a lot less pain.
 
I got some cool news Today..............

When I left Orlando 7 years ago I donated a huge collection of Negatives of Orlando from my business to the Orange County Regional History Center...........This year a curator has started to Digitize my donation of 250,000 negatives

The State of Florida has eliminated all funding to the Arts this year.......SO the Center has produced a 2025 calendar of my studio's OLD images as a fundraiser............After 50 years in business I was the last studio owner with Copyright and Negatives.

The History Center especially liked the 1960's images when I was still a child in New York ! I saved all these images from their cardboard tombs in the back of the studio. No one ever looked at the Old stuff stacked on the floor. The studio had 9 photographers at one point !

Here's a photo and text from the press release

1728494855433.png

""Let’s help the HSCF and share some cool history together! To highlight the valuable work that may not proceed without additional resources, we have created a 2025 calendar using images from the collection of Esquire Photographers, showing some amazing visions of Central Florida from the last century. This impressive collection was gifted to us by Esquire Photographer Doug Seibert in 2018 and will be an invaluable resource for researchers and photography enthusiasts as well as lovers of Central Florida history. But we have only scratched the surface of what may lie within. Without your support, these images will lay fallow and undiscovered as we will not have the resources to scan and catalog them. We are asking for a donation of $30.00 (more is always appreciated) in order to receive one of these gorgeous full-color 2025 calendars that give a glimpse into our region’s past, and serve as a reminder of what the future can be if we are able to achieve our mission of preserving and sharing Central Florida’s continually unfolding story.""

The whole story.............
https://mailchi.mp/ocfl/apr22_history-center-enews-14926761?

I'm stoked............................Arrrrrrgh
 
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WOW. That is really something!
Our very own captain being a calendar guy!
Stupid jokes aside ….that is really great thing to have done and a great way to use those photo archives to help preserve even more of them.
 
Very cool!!

And with Hurricane Milton heading towards Florida as I type this, physical archives of this rarity and value are at risk.

Thanks for sharing!

BTW as a ham operator I am monitoring what we call Hurricane Nets. That's a network of hams both within the state and in other states, ready to pass health and welfare traffic and reports of storm damage.

Standing by.
 
Well we have arrived in Pahrump............the temps are finally slowly dropping

Pahrump has a new LAW this Oct 14...........Police can now trespass people camping on private property without a complaint...........BLM has placed "14 day camping" signs EVERYWHERE to avoid encampments
 
I got some cool news Today..............

When I left Orlando 7 years ago I donated a huge collection of Negatives of Orlando from my business to the Orange County Regional History Center...........This year a curator has started to Digitize my donation of 250,000 negatives

The State of Florida has eliminated all funding to the Arts this year.......SO the Center has produced a 2025 calendar of my studio's OLD images as a fundraiser............After 50 years in business I was the last studio owner with Copyright and Negatives.

The History Center especially liked the 1960's images when I was still a child in New York ! I saved all these images from their cardboard tombs in the back of the studio. No one ever looked at the Old stuff stacked on the floor. The studio had 9 photographers at one point !

Here's a photo and text from the press release

View attachment 36596

""Let’s help the HSCF and share some cool history together! To highlight the valuable work that may not proceed without additional resources, we have created a 2025 calendar using images from the collection of Esquire Photographers, showing some amazing visions of Central Florida from the last century. This impressive collection was gifted to us by Esquire Photographer Doug Seibert in 2018 and will be an invaluable resource for researchers and photography enthusiasts as well as lovers of Central Florida history. But we have only scratched the surface of what may lie within. Without your support, these images will lay fallow and undiscovered as we will not have the resources to scan and catalog them. We are asking for a donation of $30.00 (more is always appreciated) in order to receive one of these gorgeous full-color 2025 calendars that give a glimpse into our region’s past, and serve as a reminder of what the future can be if we are able to achieve our mission of preserving and sharing Central Florida’s continually unfolding story.""

The whole story.............
https://mailchi.mp/ocfl/apr22_history-center-enews-14926761?

I'm stoked............................Arrrrrrgh
I got some cool news Today..............

When I left Orlando 7 years ago I donated a huge collection of Negatives of Orlando from my business to the Orange County Regional History Center...........This year a curator has started to Digitize my donation of 250,000 negatives

The State of Florida has eliminated all funding to the Arts this year.......SO the Center has produced a 2025 calendar of my studio's OLD images as a fundraiser............After 50 years in business I was the last studio owner with Copyright and Negatives.

The History Center especially liked the 1960's images when I was still a child in New York ! I saved all these images from their cardboard tombs in the back of the studio. No one ever looked at the Old stuff stacked on the floor. The studio had 9 photographers at one point !

Here's a photo and text from the press release

View attachment 36596

""Let’s help the HSCF and share some cool history together! To highlight the valuable work that may not proceed without additional resources, we have created a 2025 calendar using images from the collection of Esquire Photographers, showing some amazing visions of Central Florida from the last century. This impressive collection was gifted to us by Esquire Photographer Doug Seibert in 2018 and will be an invaluable resource for researchers and photography enthusiasts as well as lovers of Central Florida history. But we have only scratched the surface of what may lie within. Without your support, these images will lay fallow and undiscovered as we will not have the resources to scan and catalog them. We are asking for a donation of $30.00 (more is always appreciated) in order to receive one of these gorgeous full-color 2025 calendars that give a glimpse into our region’s past, and serve as a reminder of what the future can be if we are able to achieve our mission of preserving and sharing Central Florida’s continually unfolding story.""

The whole story.............
https://mailchi.mp/ocfl/apr22_history-center-enews-14926761?

I'm stoked............................Arrrrrrgh
Doug, that’s really wonderful!
 
This is the week I will leave the high country and wind down the roads heading to Quartzsite and Pirate Camp. The weather shows a cold front coming in on Thursday in this mountain campsite with freezes in the early hours surrounding sunrise. That is pretty much typical for this time of year at this location. What was not typical is all the heat wave, warm weather over the last few weeks.

See some of you folks in a few more weeks. Same place, same time of year!
 
Quartzsite is still 100°.......................We'll wait a little while yet

Had a real "Ranger Contact" yesterday.................Two Rangers entered camp to check our set-up and explain the new emphasis on enforcing the 14-Day Camping Limit/25 mile move..........We're now on-the-clock for a departure date

Did you see that crazy "Catch the Rocket" booster.......................WOW !

Had another B'day this past week...........71 yrs old........Old Man !

Glad I'm not in Florida at the moment......Friends and Family are OK.....Waters rising! Florida is so flat........It takes two weeks for the water drainage to hit max Flood stage on the St Johns River
 
I am going to do the trip to Quartzsite in easy stages of camping a week here and two weeks there maybe even a couple of two weeks campsites for gradually descending in elevation. I am thinking I will try a new route South this year. The BLM dispersed camping over by Kingman gets pretty crowded. The rangers there are also enforcing 2 week stays as it is fall hunting season in those dispersed camping areas. So locals report anyone overstayed as they too want to camp there.
 
Going to start heading toward Q myself in a few days. Starting to get a bit chilly here at night.
A friend I have camped with before told me abut a not too hairpin turn dangerous route south to Congress, AZ. He sent me a whole bunch of image captures of turns on google maps which was pretty confusing but I sorted it out into 3 segments of start and end points on google maps.

The Prescott national forest dispersed camping is 7 day limit! So I identified the last dispersed camping road in the Williams Kaibab National District on Hwy 89 just before you enter the Prescott Forest. That location has 14 day camping so it will do for my first campsite heading South. Maybe I will like it enough to stay 14 days. Maybe the temperature and weather will be pleasant. There are always a lot of maybes on new routes during season changes in fall and spring🤣
 
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A friend I have camped with before told me abut a not too hairpin turn dangerous route south to Congress, AZ. He sent me a whole bunch of image captures of turns on google maps which was pretty confusing but I sorted it out into 3 segments of start and end points on google maps.

The Prescott national forest dispersed camping is 7 day limit! So I identified the last dispersed camping road in the Williams Kaibab National District on Hwy 89 just before you enter the Prescott Forest. That location has 14 day camping so it will do for my first campsite heading South. Maybe I will like it enough to stay 14 days. Maybe the temperature and weather will be pleasant. There are always a lot of maybes on new routes during season changes in fall and spring🤣

I haven't decided on a route yet, though I am thinking of taking 17 south. I'm waiting on a package before I head south, so I have time.
 
I do not like Hwy 89................
This route avoids all those hair pin turns on 89 that are South of Prescott. I would never take that route either up or down towing my little trailer. I hate driving along roads with huge drop offs.

Basically this three segment drive is from Hwy 40 near Ash Fork get onto hwy 89 heading South. Then I will stop at the Walmart Super Center in Prescott, the street at the end of the shopping center that Walmart is in is AZ Hwy 10 also called Iron springs Rd. Then take HWy 10 to the little town called Skull Valley. I will take a rest stop break there. Then continue South on Hwy 10 until it intersects with Hwy 89 and take Hwy 89 on to the town of Congress.

That route shift from Hwy 89 over to Hwy 10 avoids all the steep windy sections on Hwy 89 that begin South of Prescott.

After it cools down more I will head further South from Congress and check out the Wickenburg AZ area. I have heard there is some good dispersed BLM camping around there. Then from there it will be on to Quartzsite and Pirate Camp!

Maybe I will enjoy that route and change of scenery and maybe I won’t. But at least I will get out of the rut I have been wearing into Hwy 40 to Hwy 95 that I have been traveling in the last 3 fall and spring seasons.
 
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