Did you replace a window with plywood?

It was a conversion camper. That is the wall of the closet next to the rear bench seat/fold out bed. Window was still in place.

Trying to justify one of these new camper vans but can't pull the trigger on ~$100k.

If you're up there again, not too far south on US 93 is Bandit Brewery in Darby.

i've been "in the market" for a camper van for a while and ultimately quit searching because the converted vans and even vanilla vans good for conversions are all selling at a premium now due to the demand

ones that were especially pricy considering how little utility they gave you were the old westphalias where one of those with just a bed and some storage bins with 300k miles on it would sell for the same price as a new mercedes sprinter that had a kitchen and bathroom and looked nice enough to be featured on an instagram profile etc


so then i'm in the ozarks, and my buddy says "hey our friend from KC is coming into town, you should join us all for dinner" and so i join them - the friend is a guy who figured out there were certain necessary plumbing materials which are vital and due to covid shutting down production, were very hard to come by, what he'd do is contact the manufacturers directly, get exclusive purchasing rights for his region, pay a 2x price premium to do that, and then just hoard everything in warehouses

now, whenever anyone in the greater kansas city area needs to build anything, they eventually wind up calling him because he's the only contractor who access to the materials which are required - at which point he won't sell them the products but instead have his own guys install them

so as you can imagine, he's just been absolutely crushing it last few years



so what does that guy do with that money he makes? he goes out and buys 1970s westphalias and original parts - fixes them up and resells them - again, he's basically "cornered the market" as he's the guy who is responsible for several dozen of them which have been rescued from scrap yards and currently on the road and he has another 2-3 dozen currently being worked on

he alone has enough of the supply to drive up all westphalia prices - much like how Jose Mugrabi personally owns enough warhols where he gets to set a floor price because any warhol selling for what he considers to be too cheap he will bid on to either drive up the price or just acquire it and prevent others from getting one below his artificially created floor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Mugrabi

once that man dies (he's in his 80s) we're going to see warhols plummet in value unless his children decide to take up the mantle




the reason why he was down in the ozarks that weekend was he found an original seat for sale and was going down to buy it

Temp just crossed 100 and still have 5.1 miles to the truck. 1.5l of water left and that is the last bit of shade left. Gonna sit under that bush and have a snack. I don’t know why, but I love the desert.

It's been nice knowing you.

Sorry to disappoint. Had already made it home. I did enjoy that shade though.

A Hundred isn't bad if your used to it.

as if az was out there live posting while drinking his own piss

This is worse than the bear picture. I need to be more prepared. I used to never take pictures. I figured my memory was always better but I’ve learned I like sharing the wilderness.

Anywho, it’s not often you take javelina by surprise. The have keen noses. But I walked right into a group of at list six that were bedded down just minutes before sunset. That’s as many as I could count but it sounded like there were more. Barely got my phone out to catch the last one running and squealing through the bushes.

i'm sure if i took enough acid that'd be one hell of a photo

here for the L25 discussion...

I'll have two, please.

It’s mid October and the summer in the desert is still raging. Decided to head to the norther mountains where it’s only in the 80’s.

There’s a creek that I have been wanting to locate a rumored third spring that contributes to it. I’ve been to the other two. People have told me of a third but apparently, you have to really want to get there. It’s not easy.

Let’s get started - sorry, I’m still a **** picture taker but these are better than the javelina. And even the bear though not as exciting as her.

Trailhead - let’s get rolling



Next time I am around here, this summit will be my destination - I’ll need to plan a path-



Here’s the little creek -



Uhh, is this the spring? I hope not.



Ah, this must be the spring everyone told me about. It is very healthy. I was going sit in it for a while but chose not to disturb things. Had a snack and contemplated the trek back. Very beautiful and remote spot. I wish I was a trail camera guy. I’d plant one here and see all the wildlife that show up here for a drink.

beautiful country az

anyone in here a gold bug that goes searching thru panning or metal detector?

Quick pre-work hike to greet the morning sun.

I'm "outdoorsy" in that I like drinking on patios.

as do a majority of people alive on this earth

Took a nap here and hiked back after sunset.

beaut

I’m tired. Gotta love the desert though. There are some flat stretches.