The Quail is almost grown!

We're so excited to get it here and be able to get to the most remote parts of desert mountains to camp and hike.  So many places we have had to look longingly at but knew that even with our fully decked out (e.g., skid plates, 4WD, AT tires, heavy duty suspension, etc.) 350Dually/Slide-in Camper we couldn't get to.

This rugged beast is designed to go anywhere we can drive our Toyota 4Runner Off-Road.  And that means almost ANYWHERE!!! 

Thanksgiving with Bill and Kathy

They drove out to spend Thanksgiving with us.  They had been at Zion National Park and our home was on the way (sorta.......not really).

Vicky fixed a turkey:

 

And one evening we went out for dinner at Serranos/

The Quail is hatched

Two months ago we had the most amazing campsite above the rim of the Grand Canyon.  We had planned on spending 5 days there, hiking the rim.

Unfortunately, a very strong wind developed which destroyed some of our camping supplies and which made erecting the tent impossible.  Consequently, we had to spend the night sleeping in the "Desert Rat" (i.e., the Toyota 4Runner) which, for two people our age, was extremely hard on our joints.

We have also taken the Rat out to other places (Death Valley, Kofa Wildlife Preserve) and tent camped.  Although we can still camp in a tent, we have found that it is not ideal, again because of our age.  Setting everything up means a lot of lifting and pounding.  And despite trying various methods, we can't find a way of sitting in a tent.  Getting up off of the ground where we are sleeping without anything to grab hold of was feeling a bit precarious, especially when we needed to do this in the dark.

The desert, where we camp and hike, is often windy. There is nothing to break it.  We are now more conscious of that fact than we were when we could sleep in the Lance camper where we were protected from the wind.

Bottom line: Sleeping in a tent is no longer a possibility for us.  We tried, but found it didn't work.

Second to bottom line:  This difficulty with tent camping is not one that should be the deciding factor in how we use the Rat.  We purchased the 4Runner to be able to get to places where even our Ford 350 Dually with the Lance slide-in camper can't get to (and it can get to places that virtually no other RV-like rig can get to).  And we have found that the 4Runner is an amazing vehicle that really can get us almost anywhere we want to go.

So, our solution to the dilemma of how to sleep when using the Rat was to purchase another type of RV to use with it.  We are now going to be a two-RV family.

What we have ordered is a Teardrop camper which, for us, is essentially a hard-sided tent that can withstand wind and rain, where we can sit, and where when we get out of it we are starting from a sitting position and not from the ground.

What we found when we looked into Teardrop campers is that most of them seem to be set up like typical RV trailers.  By that we mean they are complete with everything one would need for an RV park except they don't have a bathroom.  They can get very pricey.  The advantage of this type of Teardrop camper for many people is that they can be hauled by most passenger cars--you don't need a pickup.

But we wanted something different, something more useful for our purpose of sleeping in remote areas.

We researched a variety of companies and settled on one that is based in Wisconsin.

We made the right choice.  The company keeps in contact with us, on almost a daily basis, answering questions, giving suggestions and ideas without trying to pressure us to add more features than we want.  They have been great in terms of making sure we have exactly the Teardrop that suits our needs.  

The company is TC Teardrops.  Ours will be the ORE model (Off Road Expedition).

It is smaller than the usual Teardrop.  Narrower and shorter.  Both factors are important because we want to be able to haul it up steep and narrow roads.  And we aren't really looking for a "camper," but, as we said, a hard-shell tent on wheels.

The other factor is that this one (the ORE model) is designed to be for off-road use.  It has a heavy duty axle, All-terrain tires, skid plates, a rotating hitch, high ground clearance, electric brakes, and more.  It is light. 

We can take it almost anywhere we can take the Rat.   We already have several places we know about where we will be able to haul it and use it, and we can't wait to go to some of them.

Our plan will be to use both RVs.  If we can get to a place in the 350/Lance, we'll take it.  If we want to go somewhere with very rough roads where the 350/Lance is too heavy, wide, and long, we'll take the "Rat" and "Quail."

It is interesting in that Teardrops are made by small firms, often it appears to be family businesses.  The larger RV manufacturers don't want to fool with these small RVs, because the big money is in the biggest units.

Isn't that great?  Small businesses step into a void, fill it, create a successful business.  If that isn't the American way we don't know what else to call it.

We expect delivery early in December.

Here is a photo of our Quail just as it is being hatched:

p.s.  Our 350/Lance is our Turtle--it carries its home on its back.

        Our 4Runner is the Desert Rat--it can scurry anywhere.

        Our Teardrop is our Quail--just like Quails do, it follows along behind!

No wonder the Butterfield Stage Line went bust in 1861......

Our theory is that the stagecoach drivers, like us, could never find the route and were constantly getting lost in the desert.

We spent this camping trip searching for the Butterfield Overland Mail Company route--an important historic mail route that ran from Missouri to California.  It isn't easy to see in the following photo, but you can make out where it ran through what is now Arizona.

We were camping near it below the "N" in New Mexico--about halfway between that N and the M in Mexico.

 

The Butterfield line carried passengers and mail from 1858-1861.  The Civil War ended the company.

The trip took 25 days.  They did not stop to allow passengers to sleep!  They had to sleep on the stage, which makes sleeping on an jet these days seem downright luxurious.

First class faced the front.  Coach faced the rear (I made that up).

We wanted to camp in the Sonoran Desert National Monument.  Vicky had found some places where we could do dispersed camping there, and then we thought we could find Butterfield Pass on a hike.

Alas, despite lots of investigation and reading of BLM websites, when we got to the National Monument all of the roads into it were blocked off.

What?

It was very peculiar because it was clear that the roads inside the National Monument were good roads, and were well maintained, and, in fact, showed that some vehicles had recently passed on them.  However, we had to find a place to camp just outside it.

After doing some additional research we discovered that this part of the National Monument had been closed since 2008!  The reason was understandable--it was being destroyed by off-road vehicles.

After we hiked for a couple of days inside the Monument (which was allowed), we found that the reason it was such a haven for off-road vehicles was because this particular desert was flat, without many rocks, and without many washes.  In many places you could have driven your Prius off road.

So the plan had been to restore the area, create campgrounds, create trails, etc., but, of course, that had not been done or completed.

Consequently, we could not get to the most interesting parts of the National Monument--the hikes were too long to get to them because we had to camp outside it.  But it's better than letting the area be completely destroyed.  So, while we were disappointed we supported the decision by the BLM.

One of our goals had been to find the Butterfield Stage Route, so we could find the Butterfield Pass over the mountains.  On our second day hiking, while searching for it, we were walking down a (very) rough side road and saw this sign:

Isn't this truly a bizarre sign to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere?

It's difficult to read, but it says

Mormon Battalion Trail

and then (I kid you not) on the left horn it says 1846 and on the right horn it says 1848.  

What the Gilbert Stapley Stake and 1st Ward means is totally obscure, and we could find nothing about it.

Now, when you think of "Mormon," you usually get images like this:

or this:

 

or this:

 

But this?

Well, after doing some research, we found that there was a battalion of the US Army formed with Mormon volunteers who did so in order to get in the good graces of the United States.  They were trying to get to Utah.  They were given an allowance for uniforms, but were given permission to wear their own clothes.  Consequently, they used the money for wagons, oxen, etc., to get from the Council Bluffs, Iowa, area to Utah.  

(Interestingly, my father's family were Mormon who camped a winter in Council Bluffs.  Many of them died there, and so they stayed in that part of Iowa and became members of an off-shoot of the Mormon church).

So, this was a bonafide US Army Battalion, whose job it was to build this road to California and to make it so that California would not join Mexico in the Mexican-American War. 

However, lest you think they were wimps, they actually did fight a bonafide battle.  (That is, if you consider a battle against some bulls to bonafide  then they did.  For real  They fought a battle against some bulls).  Here is the Wikipedia entry:

"The only "battle" they fought was near the San Pedro River in present-day Arizona against a sizable number of wild cattle. The battalion reached this area in November 1846, and their presence aroused curiosity among these animals. After the bulls of these herds caused destruction to some of the mules and wagons and resulted in two men being wounded, the men loaded their guns and attacked the charging bulls, killing 10–15 of the wild cattle, causing the event to be termed the "Battle of the Bulls".

Isn't history interesting?

So to celebrate their only military victory, the Mormon Batallion must have adopted rotting bull horns as their insignia.  Odd, but hey, remember, after all they were Mormons--the same Mormons who believe that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from Golden Plates by using a device called the  Urim and Thummim (for real), and after the translation all of these things were conveniently taken by God back to heaven, I guess for his private museum or something.  Maybe he has one of these rotting bull horn signs in his museum too.

After something like Golden Plates, a Urim and Thummim, and baptizing dead people against their will, using rotting bull horns to celebrate their lone military victory doesn't seem so odd in comparison, does it?

OK.  I am exaggerating a bit.  The Mormon Battalion also (sort of) had another engagement:  THE CAPTURE OF TUSCON!!   There was a small detachment of the Mexican Army there who, when hearing that the Mormon Battalion was approaching, ran for their lives so they wouldn't experience the same fate as the bulls (i.e., after they won the Battle of the Bulls the Mormons ate them). 

After doing more research, we found that this particular trail had an entirely other history.

It is also the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail.  Ever heard of it?  Neither had we, although it was a pretty big deal 75 years before the Mormons fought the bulls.  

In 1775 Juan, etc. etc., led a large contingent that basically opened up California to Mexico. The route they mapped was successfully used for about five years until the Yuma Indians made a fuss about all of those people trampling through their land ("Get off my grass!").  

We made it to a part of the road where the BLM had planned on opening the National Monument and had erected signs.  At this spot was this sign commemorating this expedition.

 The trail:

There was also another sign there about the Mormon Bull Fighters:

A different sign than the first one.  

Now, having spent many, many months in BLM areas, we can tell you that it is very unusual to see these types of signs.  They are clearly hand-made, old, and done by some volunteer organization many years ago.

Now, back to the Butterfield mail line, which had been our original goal (although the other routes we discovered were just as interesting).

Out on a spur road, a rough one, we spotted something quite a ways out into the desert.  It was two (very) old and faded signs about the Butterfield route:

These were hard to read, but of more importance, the trail was impossible to find.  We lined up the two signs and took a reading, and tried to follow the reading and the maps we had.  But to no avail.

All that is there is signs--no trail that the signs are there for.   And if the BLM was funded as it should be the whole thing would be better because we have met a LOT of people who work for the BLM and they care!

Anyway, we were undaunted.  So that night we got out our maps and tried to draw the mail route on our GPS device.  

The next morning we hiked up a road and found it!  We found where the trail originally went, and where the BLM had erected information signs.  

We hiked a bit on the mail route, but because we had hiked so far from our campsite outside the National Monument to get to this spot we couldn't do what we had hoped to do, which was to reach the Butterfield Pass.  

To celebrate finding the route we tried to take a selfie.  However, selfies are kind of difficult when your camera is a 3-pound Nikon:

We took some other nice hikes in the area:

 

In the afternoons we sat at the camper and looked at the desert for a few hours. 

This was our camping spot.  We didn't see a single soul for the four days and nights we were there.