December 27, 2025
Kofa Wilderness, AZ
I guess it’s not much of a blog if you go nearly two years between posts, but I’m catching up now, so perhaps I can be forgiven. Or not. Whatever.
When last I left you I was in Mexico in February of 2024. After leaving Rancho Dionisio, I spent a couple of nights on Laguna San Ignacio and went on a whale watching excursion. No great photos, but really good time.
The boats can put themselves in the vicinity of the whales, but cannot approach them. Several times a whale approached us, rolled over so its eye was out of the water, and seemed curious to check us out. Looking into that huge eye one strongly suspects a good deal on intelligence and curiosity. Pretty special.
I got horse to barn syndrome at that point and started heading home, though it took teh better part of a week to get there. I spent a couple of nights in Prescott as I wanted to check it out as a possible place to live. (Ooh, foreshadowing!)
I got home the last day of February to discover a pipe had burst and water had been flowing onto my heated floors, probably for about six weeks. I suspect that long as there had been a -12 degree night in mid-January. Water onto heated floors. Over a long period of time. That’s bad, right?
It was bad. Very bad. Lots and lots of mold. Thick, colorful, healthy, vibrant mold. All over the first floor. Pretty much the entire first floor needed to be demo’d. All drywall up three feet from floors. All custom cabinetry. The beautiful slate floors. Luckily upstairs was pretty unscathed. As far as stuff, I on ly lost some furniture (which I was not terribly attached to) and some high school yearbooks. That part could have been much worse.
To summarize 2024:
- Insurance paid for a furnished apartment.
- They (Travelers) took forever to approve the settlement.
- My contractor submitted a bid in June, but it wasn’t approaved until October.
- Reconstruction started in November.
- I moved back in the first week of April.
- I managed to sneak away to Malta for a week in the fall, but no other travel that year.
As soon as I moved back in I prepared to put it in the market. The sale closed in early July. I had all my stuff placed in storage and moved into an AirBnB in Prescott. After a couple of months of looking, I found a nice home with a beautiful view. Having been there now several months, I absolutely love Prescott. Should have made that move years ago.
Other than the two days driving the van down from Spokane, I haven’t done any van travel since I got back from Mexico. Until this week. I’m camped in one of my favorite desert locations, on Palm Canyon Road south of Quartzite. Headed to tomorrow to Anza-Borrego State Park in California to meet up with friends Jack and Charles, the latter I haven’t seen in over ten years.
Gonna stay near some Native American pueblo ruins on the way home and try to do some drone imagery there.
So, that’s the down and dirty. Baja was fun, moldy houses suck, Malta is wonderful, I love Prescott, and it’s good to be back out in the van again.