The weather forecast for the second week of April is filled with red flags of high wind, dust storms, rain storms and 30˚ degree temperatures as I leave Las Vegas.  The forecast didn’t say snow but to me that temperature and rain = the 4 letter word, SNOW!!!  No thanks!  Git while the gettin’s good! After yesterday’s 65 miles of rough, rocky, wash-board road, I knew I needed to check the bolts that secure my nest (a slide-in camper) to the pickup bed.  I did and tightening they need. After squirming around in the dust to get under the truck to tighten the bolts, I figure my nest will stay where it belongs. Avoiding any tragedy is a corner stone to having a successful Adventure.     After being in the dirt for an hour or so I dusted myself off and looked around.  Mean ominous storm clouds had stolen the sun; so much for the chance of a colorful sunset over Toroweep (http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/t... » Click here for the full story.

    Everything is copasetic; this may be boring, though. I’m waiting for my dinner to cool and I just got done with the battery shuffle. Writing about what I’m eating may be more interesting, because I know nothing about electricity, except I capture reddy kilowatts with my solar panel and it puts them into a deep cell marine battery that powers my laptop computer, so I can see my photos there. I’m skimming some morsels off the top of my one-pot meal and the flavor screams. If this was on a menu it would be a top seller, but this is about electrical power.     I need the electricity for the laptop, which I could surely live without back here 25 miles deep in Big Cypress National Preserve (www.nps.gov/bicy/) in southwest Florida, but it’s very convenient to have even though I’m not close enough to civilization for the internet or email. I just shut off the rock station on the radio I was listening to in the back... » Click here for the full story.

    Since the National Park Service gave me an off road vehicle (ORV) permit, which allows me to drive in the back country of Big Cypress National Preserve (http://www.nps.gov/bicy/) here in the Everglades in a painless, simple, the way it should be process, I can camp 5-10 miles deeper in the American Jungle. Last year they denied me a permit, although I had the same vehicle. A park ranger refused to measure the tread on the truck’s tires correctly, so they didn’t have the required nine inches. I went back a second time and another ranger did the same. As I was leaving the Preserve I tried again and a third ranger measured the tread including the sides as the instructions say, and was willing to give me a permit. I laughed, told her of two previous tries, that I was leaving, that I just wanted to see if it would happen again, and I’d ask for her next February.  I’m camped at Pink Jeep Camp Ground.  No tent anymore; in a tent, that’... » Click here for the full story.