02/28/21 Benson, AZ – I worked last Saturday and got this Friday off and I made a lot of plans. At first, I was thinking about going to Yuma to visit a friend from the beet harvest, but found out that it was an 8 hour drive from here. That might not sound too bad, but I don’t drive that long of a day, and am not familiar with that part of the state. Instead, I opted to camp out at the Dragoon Mountains near Tombstone. First, one of my hiking friends asked me if I wanted to see “Nomadland” at the show and I agreed. I also wanted to go to Tombstone with a group of folks from the resort who dress up as old Western folks and take some pictures. The plan was to go to Tombstone, take pics and have lunch, then meet the other women at the show in Sierra Vista for the movie, then go camping. I am happy to say that I accomplished everything on my list!
Tombstone was a gas! I met up with another coworker who is into photography and we walked around with the group taking pictures and making portraits. I had a lot of fun! Everyone went to Big Nose Kate’s, formerly the Grand Hotel and I was treated to lunch. We went downstairs to the basement and saw and old silver mine shaft that someone had occupied, and most of his belongings were there on display. Kind of weird and eerie.
Then, it was on to Sierra Vista to meet my other friends at the show. “Nomadland” is a movie that is based on a non-fiction book written in 2017 by Jessica Bruder. Frances McDormand played the main character and many Utubers and real nomads were in the movie, too. It was about the life of a youngish widow whose town in Nevada was abandoned that forced her to leave. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but it was a sad story about nomads and made me feel kind of sad and depressed. I was told that the movie is free on Hulu, and it will probably come out on other channels as well. I left with mixed feelings, but I am glad I saw it.
It was around 5pm and there was a car crash right in front of the theatre, and we were rerouted to some unknown road that went into a subdivision. When we finally got back on the main road, it was around 5:30p and I raced to get to the Dragoons.
What a drive! It took about a half hour to get to MiddleMarch Road from Rt. 80/82 and then another 45 minutes or so going 20 or so miles down a rutted (washboard) road to the BLM camping sites. Jeez, I hate these roads, but it’s the only way to get to dry camping for free and park next to incredible views. It was dark by the time I turned off the road to the loop and was lucky to find an empty site on a Friday night. The van did just fine! I left on Sunday and headed back to the resort after some shopping and having a snack attack. More on the boondocking trip later. I took some photos that I’ll share, too.
Stay safe!
urbanvanconversion 