I haven't posted any Saguaro Cactus photos in a long, long, looooooooong time!

And now, for a very longwinded Chaybert story!

Well... Looks like the longest adventure of my life has finally come to an end. I have completed my great big loop, and reached home base. Mesa Arizona. I don't think Mesa will ever feel like home, but everyone needs someplace to consider home. The company I work for is in Mesa. I have a comfortable place there to park my motorhome. So, for now... That's it. I never thought I'd be really excited to see Mesa. I don't really like it there, but right now, I am thrilled to be back. I just need to settle in and stop running for a while.

Seven years ago, I took the trip that changed my life. I spent three months in a pop-up camper, and did a full loop around the country. It was the best three months of my life. I never felt homesick. I didn't want to go home. I loved it so much, that I wanted to spend many years just doing that, just traveling around. Three years ago, I sold my house, and bought a motorhome. I thought I could just take off, live on the road, and never look back. I was wrong! After spending 4-5 months in Florida, and the deep south, I have to admit, it felt REALLY GOOD to get back to New Jersey, and see my friends and family, and settle in for a little while. Then I went to Maine for six months, which was FANTASTIC, but STILL it felt good to get back home afterwards. So... That's the repeating pattern I have found since I've been living in this thing. I have about a five month limit. Five months of running around, bouncing from place to place, being in a different spot each week, and I start to feel totally burnt out and need to stay put for a couple months. Whether it's in New Jersey, or Mesa, Arizona, I just need to settle in and stop running.

This trip smashed all my previous records! 9 1/2 MONTHS ON THE ROAD!!! What a crazy whirlwind tour this has been. I left the office in Mesa, mid April. With the exception of spending one full month In Durango, Colorado, I have not spent much more than one week in any one spot in 9 1/2 MONTHS! Now THAT'S a roadtrip! I hit Grand Canyon, Havasu Falls, Page, Bryce, Zion, Vegas, Sequoia, Yosemite, Mono Lake, Monument Valley, Durango, Rocky Mountain National Park, Denver, Colorado Springs, New Mexico, then spent the last three months bouncing around Texas. Moving the motorhome isn't like just jumping in your car and taking off. Each time I relocate, involves hours of stowing things away, fastening things down, disconnecting things, hooking up my truck, which gets towed behind... There is a whole big checklist of stuff to do every time I move. Then when I get to wherever I'm going, I have to reverse the process. Disconnect the truck, take out everything I put away, and aim the satellite dish (A BIG PAIN IN THE ASS!!!) I just went and looked back at my calendar to tally up the stats. In total I camped in 46 different places. Stayed in the parking lots of 22 different Walmarts. That doesn't include sidetrips where I ditched the motorhome, and slept in the back of my truck. Did three of those. If I include my sidetrips, in the past nine months I have passed through 26 states. Even did one trip where I flew into Reno Nevada.

I know everyone thinks I have this dream life, and I'm on vacation all the time. I thought the same thing, four years ago, when I decided to sell my house, and do this. Like I said before, when I took my three month trip around the country seven years ago, I didn't get homesick for one second the whole time. I guess deep in my mind, I always knew that I did have a home to come back to, and that was reassuring. After three years of doing this, sometimes it does still feel weird and kind of depressing. Sometimes when I've been running, running, running from place to place for a few weeks strait, I think, 'Alright... I've had it. I just want to go home.' And then, I remember, I don't have a home, and it makes me kind of sad. I think, 'this is IT! I'm living in a Walmart parking lot. This is my home!' It's the little things I miss. Things you totally take for granted when you're a normal person, living in a normal house. Above all... Just knowing where everything is. Something I never even would have thought of when I decided to sell my house and do this. Just having a favorite grocery store, knowing how to get there without thinking about it, and knowing where everything is in the store. Funny how you don't think about that until it's gone. I stay in each place for a week or two. As soon as I have figured out which is my favorite store, and can remember what aisle the Spam is in, I move on and start from scratch all over again. So... That is just one of many reasons why it feels so good to get back to home base. Mesa sucks, but at least I know where everything is. This will be a nice break from more than 40 weeks of bouncing around from place to place!

So... I'm not going to be doing much photography in the next month

But, it's a dry heat... No, actually it's quite pleasant out right now. The hot spell finally broke yesterday. Earlier in the week it was 100 degrees every afternoon. I can't believe people actually live in this place year round. And, to think... It's still April. This is just a tiny little preview of what's to come next month. The sun is SOOOOOO strong down here. I have so many windows in the motorhome. It's like I'm in a greenhouse. The air conditioning can't even keep up with the strength of the sun. It's pointless. I gave up on the AC, and bought some extra fans. Now I have so many fans in my windows, my motorhome has turned into a wind tunnel. Seriously, anything that is not weighted down just gets sucked through the living room and blown out the bedroom windows. I had to go out to the local camera store and buy a bunch of Nikon cameras. I finally found a perfect use for Nikons. They make fantastic paperweights.

This shot is from Saguaro National Park, East, from a visit to Tucson a month or so ago. I got there for sunrise. This was early in the morning, as a storm rolls in, in the background. I find dead Saguaros kind of fascinating. They have this wooden skeleton inside of them, almost like an animal.