August 11 -- Guns 'n Discovery

I'm taking a gun with me down to "Faranuf", my house in Portal, AZ. It was a tough decision, but I decided I needed one "just in case". The main difficulty was in finding ammo -- Big 5 in CA didn't have any, same with the Big 5 in Henderson, NV. The guy behind the gun counter in the NV store said to check a gun store down the road -- and that guns stores are all over the state -- but wouldn't you know it, the one time I wanted to find a gun store, I couldn't find a single one. But when I got back to Overton, I stopped by the RV park where my trailer "Discovery II" is being stored (I traded-in Discovery I in late January to get an upgraded model that had solar panels) and talked with Stan, the "go-to" guy there, and mentioned not being able to find .22 ammo. He told me to try the Ace hardware store up the street in Overton, so I did -- and he had both .22 ammo and .22 birdshot (or snakeshot). Why the dearth of .22 ammo? The guys both in back and in front of the gun counter at Ace's speculated that it's (a) a government plot, or (b) a problem at the manufacturer; I'll go with (b) as the most likely. I drove into Henderson, NV in the morning along the scenic Northshore Road and while in town picked up my 2014 tax return, 3 gallons of redwood treatment for Faranuf's decking at Lowe's (also hard to find), and trailer tire covers at Camping World, as Discovery II will be sitting outside at the RV park for another 4 and 1/2 months before I return in January to spend a month or so there. Tundra II is chock-full of things to take down to Faranuf, and I packed in even more stuff while at Overton from the trailer -- classical guitar, clothes, DVDs (I'll have no TV during my initial time at Faranuf; I figure I'll be busy enough with maintenance, hiking, photography and such), etc. While in "Pedro" I bought a "cow catcher", aka front grille guard, for Tundra II as I wasn't about to have another encounter with a deer, which totaled the much-lamented Tundra I --

I'd also bought a hybrid bike; my 1994 Trek mountain bike was stolen out of my father's condo garage, where I was staying during my time in San Pedro. As it turns out, the hybrid is a much better bike for the Portal area, with its mix of both paved and dirt roads. Here's the bike, a Diamondback with disc brakes -- 

As I mentioned earlier, I bought tire covers for Discovery II. Here's both Tundra and Discovery at the RV park -- 

Discovery weathered being out in the elements for nearly 3 months quite well; I didn't even need to wash "her", which I was thinking of doing. So I made her ready for another 4 months of vacancy, headed back to the hotel in town where I'm staying, used the refreshingly-cool pool (I'm going to miss swimming; it's been my main source of exercise these past few weeks), and got a colorful sunset in the bargain -- 

I'll be seeing a lot more of those at Faranuf. Today it's a drive down to Tucson where I'll stay for 2 days, then it's on to Life as a Portalite...