By now you all know that Judy and I are what are known as “Full Timers.” That simply means that we no longer have a home tied to a piece of real estate. It means that “Home is where we park it.” Often that is a State Campground or a National Park or a Corps of Engineers park. Occasionally it is in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store, or it might be like tonight, a handy piece of desert near Quartzsite Arizona on BLM land with lots of other Alpine Coach owners.

This evening after we got camp set up we saddled up Path, our trusty tandem bicycle, and set out to explore the camping areas nearby. We also intended on getting in a nice five mile ride for exercise. We barely got started when we observed some folks across the way, perhaps a hundred yards from us, waving their arms and yelling at us. Now normally people don’t get hostile about you riding near their camp until you try to cut between their fire ring and their rig, so we decided they were trying to attract our attention rather than run us off. Well it seems we had happened across some old friends from last winter on Mitry Lake, and they recognized Path. We certainly had a wonderful time camping with these folks and singing songs around the campfire last March. If you want to review, go to our web site and look up the blog called “Dust and Mosquitoes” (under construction, link to come ) Even the title brings back memories.

We chatted for a while with this group, and then renewed our quest for exercise. This time I think we made about a tenth of a mile and we located an Escapee group called the Elk BOF (BOF stands for Birds of a Feather.) Well sure enough we recognized another new “old friend,” and stopped for another chat.

Well you can see where I am going with this, most of the exercise we did get was for our jaw bone, and we barely rode a mile on the desert.

So I propose a question. Why can we live in a neighborhood for years and never know the people across the street or down the block? Why do we need to retire and go into a campground to meet people and make wonderful new friends?

Well all right I will propose an answer also. I admit that we have a tendency to be outgoing, but that isn’t the whole answer. In a camping situation people tend to live outside their rigs. They walk around, sometimes because they have a dog. Also they may have a campfire to sit around, and it is easy to say “Hi,” as you walk by. People like to find something common to talk about. It may be where you are from – perhaps they have a friend or relative that lives near where you lived. It could be where have you been or where are you going next? Many times you find a common interest and you find yourselves exchanging cards. Oh, yes we all have cards to pass out. We have learned to immediately write on the backs of these cards the place and date we met, and the common experiences we shared, otherwise they become a source of great puzzlement. A few of these new friends have joined our ranks of faithful blogee’s. Then we can discover when our paths are crossing again and arrange a meeting. When we do we get to share where we each have gone since we last met. We tell our tales of harrowing adventure and learn about the best places to visit on future adventures.

People with like interests tend to travel similar routes it seems. Almost like Birds of a Feather, and of course that is why people join these BOF groups.

So where does this lead us? My advice to our friends back home is to take a walk. Walk around your neighborhood. Wave at the neighbors and strike up a conversation. We keep a bag of doggie treats on the dash of our coach. When someone walks by with a dog we grab our bag and introduce ourselves. We get to enjoy petting a pampered pooch; we strike up a conversation and once in a while we make some wonderful new friends.

From somewhere on the desert near Quartzsite Arizona we send our love to all of our friends and relatives around the country.

Gary and Judy