Out in the Middle of Nowhere

Someone who reads this blog recently asked me, “What do you guys do out there all day?”  So I thought I’d talk a little bit about life out in the middle of nowhere.

Customs are different here compared to other places we’ve been to.  For instance, services such as repairs and other maintenance required when living off the grid are considerably cheaper than in any urban area.  People seem very casual, unconcerned about money.  It seems that many people enjoy the isolation and are here for that very reason.  We’ve been told that there was a poll some time ago, in which local residents were asked what services, such as sewer, water, and electric, they would most like to see.  Apparently the answer was, “Services bring people – we don’t want ‘em!”  With this in view, locals are a bit wary of visitors such as ourselves, and some services have two price tiers, one for locals and one for outsiders, though both prices will still be less than in or close to a city.  As I’ve mentioned before, we spend considerable time maintaining our presence here, a trade-off of being in a remote area and still needing tank maintenance and power.  Solar power works well here with all the sunshine, but the panels still have to be turned several times a day to be at the right angle for maximum capture of solar energy.

Attitudes toward garbage and recycling are different here, too.  One thing we noticed in Canada and Alaska is proactive recycling and garbage collection.  In Canada, the only bags available in stores are often paper grocery bags for which a hefty $.25 is charged, so everyone brings their own bags.  In Alaska and the northern states, people also bring their own bags to shop.  Out here, although reusable shopping bags are sold in stores, you don’t see people using them, and at checkout there seems to be confusion as to what to do with them.  We’re fine either way, because we have our own bags but if we are given plastic we don’t throw them, as they come in handy for many uses on the road.  I’m sure there is some kind of recycling program in Arizona, I just haven’t seen it. 

I’ve mentioned before that we do a lot of driving because everything is far from everything else.  It’s an hour to a dentist or a fully stocked market here, an hour and a half to a hospital, and two hours from the nearest VA facility and some medical specialists, as well as any kind of specialty shopping. 

What do we do for fun?  Out here, you make your own entertainment.  We have evening fires with music from some really good speakers, and our host Sajad likes to set off fireworks.  We’ve also done some shooting (pellet guns).  And out here with almost no light pollution, the star-gazing is amazing.  My phone camera cannot do justice to the beauty of the night skies out here.  I have tried several star-gazing apps for beginners.  I haven’t really mastered them, but have learned enough to spot Venus (the Evening Star), Mars, Jupiter, Sirius (the Dog Star), and several constellations.  My favorite is Orion, the hunter, with the three-star row as his belt.  The easiest app to work that I’ve found so far is SkyView Lite.  It lacks clear instructions, but is great for just pointing at the sky and knowing what you are looking at.  The locals guard this beauty jealously and, we’re told, are not friendly to anyone wanting to build if the result would be the emission of more light.  We keep our trailer floodlights off except in case of emergencies.  Even the firelight is sometimes enough to make the stars less visible.  In those cases we let the fire burn down a bit.  One night, I even saw a shooting star!

Then there are indoor amusements.  We have Internet capability so we can watch streaming services such as Netflix.  And we’ve found several local organizations that put on programs occasionally, in a small room at the local volunteer firehouse.  We went to one talk about the James Webb telescope, another on predatory animals living in this region, and one afternoon the little room was packed with people of all ages listening to a retired cowboy tell of the life he led many years ago.  Each of these talks was conducted by an expert.  This area is a bird-watching mecca, but even so, a local joke goes that there are more PhDs around here than birds.

I also discovered a weekly Kundalini yoga class being held there.  Mashawn and I attended last week and enjoyed it.  We are not new to yoga, but Kundalini yoga is new to us.  It was both invigorating and relaxing!  We hope to attend regularly. Finally, we experienced a bit of local nightlife – an open mike at a nearby bar and restaurant, with amateur country and folk musicians.

The yoga class is in the afternoon.  But in the evening, one thing we have noticed about indoor events here is, they close up quite early compared to city hours – 7 or 8 pm.  But then it takes longer to get home afterward, so that could be the reason why!