Arizona 2024: Day 14: Vail, AZ: Hit me with those laser beams

Lovely night sleep in this not so secret free camping spot. Morning walk was down one of the unnamed trails over towards the Saguaro National Forest (east section). I did not make it there, turned back after a few kms. I did cross into the Arizona Trust land. As I crossed the dirt road in the land trust, I’m pretty sure the guy in the truck camper was sunning himself in his birthday suit. I stayed a respectful 50 meters away while he held his dog in front of himself, kind of Austin Powers like. We are not camping on that land as we don’t have a permit (and can’t get one online cause the app does not know about Canada) and the road is dirt and heavily traveled by ATV and related toys.

Our mission for today, which we chose to accept, was to do nothing. No driving! So, we made a little cafe outside and enjoyed the slightly chilly (breeze assisted) but very sunny outdoors. We watched in fear as potential new neighbours drove by. There is another camping opportunity about 40 meters down the road from us and it can hold 2 camping appliances. This one, only can hold one.

Around 1100 two SUVs drove into the site next door, turned around and parked side by side. Our view is partially blocked by the cacti, mesquite trees and palo verde trees so we couldn’t see much to figure out what was going on. Drug deal? Tryst? They stayed there about an hour then left together (probably too long for a drug deal). Just after they left, a pickup truck arrived. Some minutes later they shot off a few rounds from probably a .22 pistol. They do that here. Many of the wild campsite reviews on iOverlander include phrases like “there was some gun fire, but it stopped at night and wasn’t too close”. Welcome to America. Pickup truck buddy stayed for a few hours after the gunshots and then went about his merry way. We are not going to go and check if there is a freshly dug hole over there.

Amy posed for a picture. I shot it portrait style.

We had a few other potential campers do a u-turn when they saw our site was occupied.

We did some reading. I finally started the book offspring #2 got me for Christmas. Geddy Lee’s “My Effing Life”. I’m actually reading this one with my eyes, not ears. So far it is interesting. Just finished the chapter where he gives the history of his parents during WW2. For those that don’t know, WW2 as a really bad time. Many bad things happened. There were evil people. Many people suffered. Don’t deny it. He does warn the reader that they can skip that chapter. But the reader should not.

Mrs Milddogs did some reading and took a complete inventory of the birds and cacti near us.

Nice dinner then we went for a sunset walk. Amy loves all of the new smells. She occasionally walks into a cactus but has not suffered injuries. We saw either two rabbits or the same rabbit in two spots.