April must be a good month to write as 3 out of four of these letters have been written then. I haven't fallen off the face of the earth yet. Though I have crawled to the edge and looked over a couple of times!

On the way to Sedona last time, I took Highway 54 from Wichita, KS to Tucumcari, NM. There was very little traffic and I got to see a part of forgotten Americana which we can't see from the Interstate highways. There was very little traffic so I could go whatever speed I felt like driving. It was a most relaxing drive, through small towns and past fields greening up with wheat.

When I last wrote I was camping in Sedona. It is a beautiful place, not so much the town, for which I don't particularly care, but the energy in the National Forest surrounding the town. It is not really a forest as there are no trees, but it is public lands. The bushes are green, the earth red, the sky blue and the energy wonderful. I just love being there.

One day I needed some exercise but didn't want to hike. So I went to the city park to shoot some baskets. About 3:00 some kids showed up after school. They had no basketball. They just stood there looking at me like hungry dogs begging. So I invited them to play with me. Soon there were about ten of us. All but me were 10-12 years old and I was by far the tallest player and the best shot. Well, they all wanted me on their team. What can I say? It was great. A big fish on a very tiny pond, but I hadn't had my 15 minutes of fame yet. I felt seven feet tall and if I had wanted to I could have gotten every rebound. I was king poop!

There are many hiking trails all right there around Sedona and I've hiked most of them. One of my favorites is Brin's Mesa trail. It starts behind Uptown Sedona and climbs to the top of Brin's Mesa. Then you can take a trail higher up along a narrow ridge, only ten feet wide in places and a thousand feet straight down on one side. It is an hour and a half hike one way to the tip of the ridge.

From there you can look down on Sedona. At about 6,000 feet you are 1500 feet above Sedona and the surrounding area. Airport Mesa is below you and Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock and Airport Vortex all lay resplendently before you. It is an awe inspiring sight and when I get up there I don't want to leave. Normally I don't stop when I hike, but up here I usually stop and soak up the energy for at least an hour.

Another trail I hiked only twice was Wilson Mountain trail. It starts just north of Midgely Bridge in Oak Creek Canyon and goes north and west to the top of Wilson Mountain. The mountain was named after a man named Wilson who was killed by a bear on the mountain.

The trail switchbacks up the side of the mountain until you reach a large plateau. On the way up you look down Oak Creek Canyon toward Sedona. The whole canyon lays before you. You look down on the ridge which separates Oak Creek Canyon from Schnebly Hill Road. Behind you is the top of the Mogollon Rim, which is the beginning of the real forest. I couldn't take in all of that panoramic view. I decided I needed to buy a camcorder.

The trail winds along the plateau for a while before climbing again to the top of Wilson Mountain. Once on top it is flat for another two miles at which point the trail ends. Before turning around and continuing your journey back, you can stop and gaze at several peaks and canyons on the back side of the mountain. Though the trees are not dense at this point, it does have the feel of wilderness, as there is a lot of nature and only you.

For two weeks I camped at the junction of Long Canyon and Boynton Canyon roads, along Dry Creek. There was a place to pull my van under the shade of a big tree. The tree also had a stout limb close enough to the ground from which I could hang my hammock swing! This was ideal as this luxury has happened seldom in my camping travels.

The campsite was close to town so I could run in for my newspaper every day. There were only two things with which I had problems while I was camped there. Across the road was an area favored by local gun enthusiasts so I was often serenaded by the sound of gunfire. (Target practice. They weren't shooting at me. I assume.) Three mornings in a row I was awakened by a loud whooshing sound at 5:30 AM. The sound was made by hot air balloons being filled by gas for takeoff. Oh well, I probably wouldn't have had such an enlightening experience otherwise. Other than that my time spent there was very peaceful.

After having spent a month in an RV park in Uptown Sedona, I had to get used to the joys of camping all over again. To assist me the weather gave me lows in the 20's in late March to highs in the 90's by mid April and then three inches of snow on April 27th. Ahhh! The joys of being able to experience it all!

Santarra and I have friends named Peter N. Gina. I think it's two people but it is like there is only one. Kind of like my friends Matt N. Erin in Lincoln. They just kind of go together as one. Anyway Peter N. Gina have a six week old half wolf puppy named Bear. One evening when I was visiting, Bear puppy jumped off Gina's lap to the floor. Only he forgot to put his feet down. He bounced on his belly, rolled over, got up and sauntered off with a haughty expression on his face as if to say he meant to do that. He cracked me up. (That's like canned laughter. It tells you when something is funny so you can laugh.)

Santarra and I made it to the Grand Canyon, spending most of a day seeing the sights from the South Rim. There is no easy way to describe the view. If you have seen it, you know. If you haven't, go now before the Republicans sell it to developers.

Everyone is related since we are all descended from Adam and Eve. I am from Abel's side of the family myself. Politicians are from Cain's. I would have said crooks and politicians but that would be redundant.

Before Faye said that she didn't want to be friends if we couldn't be romantic, she and I drove to Page, AZ and Lake Powell. That is an awesome sight. No vegetation. Only a lake and rocks in various shades of red and yellow. It looks like the only water left on an alien planet which has lost its cloud cover. Every where you look there are hills and ridges and buttes, in the lake and next to it, sculpted by a harsh, windy, waterless climate. Ruggedly beautiful may be the best words to describe it. This is a beautiful country we live in. Go see it. Now. Yes, this means YOU.

At the end of April I moved into Ray's driveway. It was nice to have access again to indoor plumbing and a telephone, as well as good company. Ray is probably the most psychic human being I have ever met. He is also a great healer and just knows so damn much. I love to get him talking. He just enthralls me with the amount of New Age wisdom and general information he accumulates. If it is happening in the New Age, Ray has heard about it. A real clearinghouse.

During the month of May, we had a partial solar eclipse on the tenth and a full lunar eclipse on the 24th. Ray had a pair of welder's goggles through which we saw the solar eclipse. It didn't get very dark, but through the goggles we could see most of the sun disappear. It was the first time I had ever seen an eclipse direct, without using a pinhole in a piece of paper for the reflection.

Paranoia runs rampant in Sedona. Two years earlier the black, unmarked helicopters (which do exist) were said to carry extraterrestrials back and forth from secret UFO bases. This year they were ferrying Russian troops, part of the U.N. New World Order, which were going to take over America and enslave the population in work camps. As If we weren't already slaves to our desks and the IRS!

One evening a woman came to get a psychic reading from Ray. Before the reading she told us a little about herself. She was living in her car and often had to move several times in one night because the government agents were just about to find her. It seems she had written a technically advanced computer program in 1969. The computer which would be capable of running this program wasn't developed until the last few years. The government owes her $5 million dollars as the purchase price for this program.

Because she knows so much about what this program is capable of doing, the government wants to kill her to silence her and has sent agents to kill her, so she has to keep running. Her guides and ET's tell her where to go to avoid these agents. At the same time she is on Social Security disability and keeps calling the Social Security office to tell them where she is so they can send her check. The government has people impersonating her to collect her disability checks. At the same time she is expecting her $5 million check from the government any day.

And they say creativity is dead!

On Easter Sunday I was invited to a dinner at the local city park. I wasn't feeling at all sociable so spent most of the day talking (mostly listening) to a man named George. I had met him and his woman briefly earlier in Quartzsite. He is a fascinating man full of ancient wisdom. He has done it all in his various lives and in this one. He was married twice, with three kids, an electrician by trade. As a young man he broke through the Ether into a higher realm but was afraid to stay there because he knew that he was full of anger and rage (from what I never found out. Probably at finding himself back in physical form when he had thought he had already done it all.) He had been a drug addict and alcoholic for 28 years, dry since 1985. He had also spent time in a Buddhist monastery. Just talking to him I could tell he had a feel of ancient earth, rock solid. No judgment of anyone or anything. He just was who he was. He was centered and grounded. It is always nice to meet people like him.

I finally did buy my camcorder just before I left Sedona. I bought it at Sam's in Flagstaff. I used it for two weeks before it broke and I had to exchange it for another. That kind of thing has happened to me a lot the last few years, but I won't bother you with all of the horrifying details.

There are many talents in life and movie taking is one of them. I don't have that talent either. I have no sense of what to take a moving picture of. But I have fun with it and have actually watched all of my vacation movies once with my family in KC. And I didn't even have to pay them! Aren't family wonderful!

And on my last day in Sedona, I did hike up Wilson Mountain trail and take my pictures, despite the overcast skies and eventual light rain. They weren't as pretty as they would have been in the sunlight, but by god I did it anyway! After all that was why I bought the camcorder and it was my last day there. I said that I have a reason for everything I do. I never said it was a GOOD reason.

During my stay in Ray's driveway my friend Simon caught up with me. He was in Australia. He was coming to Houston to meet with a woman who had channeled a healing energy into vials of water. He wanted me to meet him there. He had something very important to tell me. I wasn't ready to leave Sedona yet, but I agreed to meet him there.

I spent a day and a half driving to Houston in the desert heat. I had my AC checked out before I left. They said there were no leaks and filled it with freon; but it had leaked out before the sun came up on my desert drive. (0ops!) Two weeks later I had the AC repaired and they said every joint leaked.

When I got to Houston it was 85 degrees with 79% humidity with water standing everywhere from heavy Spring rains. I spent the night sweating in a state park (on a hill.) Simon's flight from Australia was to arrive that evening at 8 PM. I spent the day watching movies in a theater to stay cool.

I ate dinner at a mall close to the airport which I had found that afternoon. Since I didn't think I could drive into airport parking pulling a motorcycle, I left the trailer in the mall parking lot. I wanted to get to the airport early and it was a good thing I did, because my van was too tall for the parking lot and I had to find a long term surface lot and take a bus to the terminal. Another adventure. In the airport I saw a lapel pin which read: Go ahead. Read my mind. (Parental discretion advised.)

But I did make it to the gate shortly before eight. Ten minutes later I heard my name paged, not exactly what I wanted to hear as I couldn't imagine it was Ed McMahon looking for me. I answered the page to find out that Simon's flight had been changed and he would arrive at 4 AM. So I took the bus back to my van for a book. I would have walked but I didn't think I could find the lot.

I was surprised at how empty the Houston airport was. From 9:00 on I was the only one there except for an occasional custodian cleaning the floors. For such a large city it was a quiet airport. Simon did arrive at 4 AM as promised.

We got a motel room after an early breakfast. The next three days we had sunny skies with low humidity and warm temperatures. I couldn't have asked for nicer weather

Simon had said that this woman he had come to meet had created a cure for cancer and Aids. I assumed I was there to disabuse Simon of that notion. Two days later I met her and was very impressed with her. Her energy was very good and at least SHE believed that her product had the advertised result.

Ann Johnson was meditating in the mid 70's and asked to be put in touch with the highest Guides consistent with the Christ vibration. Gradually some Spirits contacted her. They were in etheric form. Over the course of years of contact they agreed to channel etheric healing energy into acrylic vials filled with distilled water. The first vial, the Harmonizer, was made to purify water. From there they went on to create vials for a host of mental and physical ills.

Ann channels the energy from her Etheric Guides into the vials. The energy is permanent and does not affect the physical body directly. Being etheric energy, it works on our etheric bodies which then manifests in our physical bodies. She has a 55 minute video which details all of this. She had these vials studied and researched by doctors and scientists as well as psychics for several years before she began to market them. She has had Harmonized water studied by city laboratories for water quality and it came back devoid of bacteria, chlorine, fluoride, etc. I and several of my friends have experimented with a few of the vials with mixed results. Some seemed to work and others didn't. But everybody who has held the vials claims there is an energy which has been placed in them. Go figure. I could say more here, but won't. If you want more information, call Rainbow Crossings in Houston or write to me.

Yes, Simon had a message for me. When I first met him, Paramahansa Yogananda was the Great Guru. He had since fallen from favor and now the Buddha was the only Enlightened One. Simon wanted me to accept the Buddha as my Lord and Savior (my words.) With Simon I am always amazed that such light can shine from his heart while such bull comes from his mouth.

Simon wasn't anything, a nothing, he could know nothing. Therefore everything he said must come from God. Anything I said obviously came from the satan of personal ego. Everything in the world is in balance between good and evil, 50-50. Every time a person transcends another falls into evil, etc., etc. I told Simon that I had better be real bad so I could force several people into the Light and he had better, too.

Simon is truly a great being who is temporarily playing in mental dogma and theory. When it is time for his Great Soul to be here all of this confusion will drop away. But for those for days in Houston I stipulated the opposite of whatever he said while loving him unconditionally for the wonderful and loving (even if he doesn't always express it outwardly) being that he is. For some reason he thinks I am important to his enlightenment. I keep telling him that I wish he and his 144,000 brethren would hurry up and get enlightened and pull me along on their coattails! Simon has always called me Jimmy for some reason. It was kind of hard to listen to someone talk about Satan and evil while he continually called me Jimmy!

Simon was also into hydrogen peroxide as a healing/cleansing agent. He insisted I drink some, cautioning that if my body was impure it might make me slightly sick as it rid me of my toxins. So I drank it. And didn't get even slightly sick. I think Simon was disappointed that such a satan infested one as my self was immune to the healing properties of hydrogen peroxide.

Just before I left Sedona my motorcycle had broken down, fortunately in front of Ray's house. I didn't have time to fix it in Sedona so I hauled it all the way back with me to KC, where I went next to attend a family reunion in St. Louis the following weekend. My usual repairman was busy so I took it to another place who, I felt, charged me too much.

My brother Tom and his wife Charli were moving to Virginia Beach, VA from St. Louis so we took this opportunity to get the family together one more time. It was great to get all of us Kinerks in the same place again. I got to be the official movie taker for the weekend with my camcorder. I felt real official, with a title and everything. I even caught a glimpse of my two oldest nieces, who have been seldom seen since they discovered boys several years ago.

Santarra was visiting a friend in E. Alton, Illinois at that time so I went there for a few days after the family re-union. I got to meet Julie and several of her friends. Many of them were students of Joyce Benner and it was gratifying to share reminiscences of her with them. I even rode in Joyce's old Toyota van. Julie is a glorious Being who has graced us with her presence on the planet, an Ancient Mother who works with the Earth energy toward the healing and enlightenment of all people. While there I learned about Spiritual Buying: Pay for a small item with a hundred dollar bill and expect change.

The first half of my friends Matt N. Erin told me that shift happens.

After leaving E. Alton I needed to hang around the Midwest for a while, so I went to Lincoln to visit my friends there. So I went there for a long weekend. Just in time for a party! My friend, Monnie, was telling us about some brief blackout spells she had been having. I told her she must be having bleed through episodes from a prior life as an alcoholic. She said yes, it was a Pabst life experience. Yet once again I was upstaged!

Speaking of alcoholics, I think my van is one. Ever since I filled the tanks with gasohol we can't pass up a gas station. It turns into the station, pulls up to the pump and whines pitifully until I fill it up. You just can't trust anything anymore.
While in Lincoln Amy told me she had heard that the upcoming Fall Equinox was going to be especially powerful. When she said that, shivers went up and down my spine. I had previously picked up that something was going to happen that Fall.

I was sticking around KC to take my nephew, David, digging crystals in Arkansas. He is a real rock hound. He was ten at the time and had never been away from his mom before. So we called her every night to make sure she was all right.

On the way down I taught him that we were not allowed to pass up a Braum's and had to stop at each one for a cone of the best frozen yogurt in the country. I am not around kids at all and had been gone from KC and my family for four and a half years by this time. I was not real sure I would know how to talk to him. But he was cool. We had our rather nice conversations, while riding, and then he would go to sleep. We'd talk some more and then he would doze off again. That happens to me quite a lot. Especially when I used to date. I don't do it any more.

One thing that surprised me about the trip is the love I felt for him. I could feel it pouring out of my heart and enveloping him. Not having children of my own, it gave me a bit of a feeling like parents must have.

We had a good time and dug crystals at two mines. It rained the first day and then was hot and humid the next. I am not sure which David liked more; digging crystals or playing in the mud.

I hung around KC for another week to go to the Royals game with my Dad and my brother-in-law (who is probably the nicest human being I have ever met) on Father's Day. First time to a Royals game in four years. It was great. Only the beers sure were expensive. Good thing we didn't take my van.

From KC I went to camp outside Boulder, CO. I found a very nice place to camp just outside of a town called Nederland. My campsite was located down a gravel road on a rare flat area. There were sufficient trees for shade and I was isolated from where others were camping. It hadn't rained for a long time and the dry brush crackled beneath my feet as I walked.

There were lots of 4 WD trails for me to hike, and I hiked them all. The highway in either direction leads to mountain peaks and grass filled meadows with streams running through them. Everywhere I looked reminded me that I wasn't in Kansas anymore. The energy at the top of a mountain is so open and pure. I just love being up high. Reminds me of the 60's!

I stayed there about three weeks. I got re-accustomed to digging latrines every morning and taking outdoor showers, though I did occasionally go to the YMCA in Boulder to spoil myself with a real shower. Reading, hiking and motorcycling. Ahhh, the good life!

It was here that I found out that mosquitoes are attracted to white. I had bought a white windshield cover for my van. It and my white sock covered ankles were constantly covered with flies. I am not saying that some flies are dumber than others, but the ones which swarmed to my ankles were fed a lot better than the ones on the windshield!

I often rode down to Golden Gate Canyon State Park, 20 miles to the south. It is such a pretty park with trees, grassy meadows and tall, craggy peaks. It is a very large park with several miles of paved roads for my motorcycling convenience. Ten years earlier I had taken a long 4th of July weekend and camped there. Ever since I had seen Rambo: First Blood, I had always wanted to ride my motorcycle in the mountains. Hence that mini-vacation of ten years prior.

While camped there, Denver had a temperature of 104 degrees. This broke the previous high for that date by seven degrees. It was the hottest day since the all time high of 105, recorded in 1878.

Amy Winters lives in Boulder with her son Eric and her friend, John. I enjoyed meeting John and visiting with Amy and Eric. Amy is an incredibly special woman. I like Eric a lot. He is a cool dude, though he does seem to walk to the beat of his own drummer. But I like that, even while realizing it can at times drive an adult crazy.

Amy wanted John and I to go with her to the Renaissance Festival. We both agreed and then backed out for our own reasons. It turned out that the day we were to have gone was the day it was 104 degrees. I do not do hot so I was glad I had backed out, even though I hated to disappoint Amy.

One evening I picked Eric up from day care as John was out of town and Amy had to work late. I let Eric pick the restaurant for dinner. He picked my favorite--Chinese. At the next table were an older woman and a younger couple. Obviously they were all related. The woman asked the younger couple what was the difference between a man and a government bond. The bond matures. So I shot her with my squirt gun. It was during that same meal that I channeled that after Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall he developed a strong aversion to egg drop soup.

I love having campfires and had several at this campsite before the ban on fires went into effect. But I began to hear a strange noise. It happened around sundown. It was very brief; no longer than one and a half seconds so I couldn't tell where it was coming from. There was no one camped around me and the noise began to spook me after dark. I didn't know whether it was Bigfoot or just a grizzly. I tended to stay inside after dark once that noise began. The noise sounded like the sound a foghorn would make if the foghorn were alive.

I got brave and spent several days trying to locate where it was coming from. Finally I began to associate it with a bird that would circle overhead. The bird would flap its wings and then glide and chirp over and over again. As I watched it through binoculars circle around and around above me, I noticed that every so often it would swoop downward and that the noise would occur at the bottom of its swoop, just before it turned upward again. Well, mystery solved. Later I found out that it was the common nighthawk. But I still went out after dark only to water a tree.

Leaving that campsite I went north to Rocky Mountain National Park for a week. This park is at the top of the world. The road which traverses the park peaks at 12,136 feet. All the campgrounds at the east side of the park were full so I camped at the only one on the west side of the park. RMNP has it all: forests, rocky peaks, treeless tundras, rivers, lakes and abundant wildlife. You have to be careful driving as a moose grazing on the side of the road is a traffic stopper.

As is usual for the mountains in the summer, it at least threatened rain every afternoon and I got caught in the rain my share of times. But the mornings and evenings were always clear and crisp. The new Coleman one burner stove, which I had bought earlier that spring because the one I had got rusted in the storm of the previous July in Lincoln and didn't work anymore, never did work properly as it wouldn't ever settle down to a blue flame, just this six inch high orange flame which blackened the bottoms of my pans, so I didn't cook much anymore, though in RMNP I had a wooden picnic table so I felt free to cook a little more as long as I had the desire to scrub the black off the bottoms of the pans. (I think there are contests for sentences like that.)

I had to pay to camp there so I moved on after a week to Hot Sulphur Springs, CO. It is located just SW of RMNP. It has a population of 450 and is the county seat of Grand county. It is really just a wide spot in the road and did not have either a gas station or a grocery store when I was there. But it did have free camping. The Colorado River runs along the edge of town, paralleling the highway and the town. A bridge crosses the river and spits you onto a dirt road which follows the river. There are places to camp along the river and outhouses were placed sporadically. There were plenty of trees for shade. The city provided a spigot for drinking water at the bridge.

There weren't too many places to hike except for one gravel road heading back into the mountains, but the living was easy. I was there for a week when my motorcycle conked out again. Before it did, though, I rode it several times through a two mile long canyon through which the highway, railroad tracks and the river all vied for space. On either side of the road the mountain strove upward in a series of small spires, almost stalactite in formation. It was a very pretty drive.

My motorcycle died one half mile from my campsite. The previous day I had driven west, one hundred miles into nowhere. When it broke down in Sedona I again had been sixty miles away from home the previous day. Both times it could have been much worse.

My friend Sharon from the orchard in central Washington state was coming to visit her family in Ft. Collins so I moved camp to that area. I found a spot 20 miles up the Poudre Canyon from Ft. Collins. I found a place on the side of a gravel road just off the highway. There was one big tree to give my van some shade. This campsite was two thirds of a mile from a free campground which had no shade for my van. But I did walk ten minutes each morning to use their outhouse. One must grab one's luxuries where one can.

The Poudre Canyon is named for the Cache la Poudre River. It means Hide the Powder. An early French explorer had to leave some gunpowder here when exploring the canyon, hence the name.

This is one of my three favorite canyons, along with the Logan Canyon in Utah and Oak Creek Canyon. The 20 miles of road follow the Poudre River which carved its way through some beautiful rocks. The road even goes through a short tunnel. It is the shapes of the rocks, I guess, which make it so pretty and I don't seem to have the ability to describe them, adequately or otherwise. But I did drive down it with my steering wheel in one hand and my camcorder in the other! Awesomely beautiful.

Sharon is a fellow Aquarian with whom I have always been able to talk. I love talking to her, though she may dread hearing me say, "Hi, wanna talk?" We got together a couple of times, the first for about 12 hours. Aquarians understand each other. Finding Sharon was like finding someone in a strange land who spoke my language. We met for lunch and I was having so much fun I decided I wasn't going to leave her until she told me to. I figured she was too nice to tell me to leave until I had REALLY worn out my welcome. (This reminds me why I decided to spend my life camping and hiking. For years my friends had been telling me to take a hike. And I finally did something I was told.)

I haven't spoken to Sharon since. I wanted to give her time to forget how tiresome I can be. I was just sorry that her husband, Mike, didn't come with her because he is a super nice man also and I would really have enjoyed seeing him again.
Amy, John and Eric came up to camp with me for a weekend. That was fun. They are very nice people and a lot of fun to be with. To just hang out with like minded people is life's best simple pleasure.

To make them feel welcome (as they were coming from a city) the locals took turns using the area across from our campsite for target practice. Ahhh! The comforting and peaceful sound of gunfire. I knew I was safe from the guv'mint here.

For showers I went in to Ft. Collins and bought a shower at the city swimming pool. It was located in a large park. There was a cement hiker/biker trail running through and beyond the park. On a couple of occasions I hiked this trail to work up a sweat to give me a reason to take a shower. At spots along this trail were solar powered air pressure stations for the bicyclists. Now this is what government is for.

I liked both Boulder and Ft. Collins. But the energy in Ft. Collins seemed much calmer and more laid back. Of course it was more spread out and there was much less traffic.

While in RMNP Amy Williams from Lincoln had written to me to see if I wanted to accompany her to an Elton John/Billy Joel concert in Ames, Iowa. Even though it was 500 miles in the wrong direction, it seemed like the thing to do. So in mid August I took my act back to Lincoln where my Karma broke down.

I stopped at Lincoln Benefit Life to visit my friends. While there my boss, Rodger, grabbed me by the collar and wouldn't let go until I promised to come back to work at LBL after the concert. It turns out he had been looking for me but I hadn't called my parents for three weeks. He put out the signal and I just showed up. He's good!

The concert was outdoors at the football stadium. It was 95 degrees that afternoon but a cold front knocked it down to 60 by the end of the concert. I am not much of a concert-goer, which was another reason I was surprised I was willing to drive 500 miles in the wrong direction, but it was fun to go to the concert with Amy and our friends, Matt N. Erin.

I had previously made up my mind that I would go back to work if Rodger asked me so there was no decision involved. I was not emotionally ready to go back so I just closed off to that part of myself and refused to think about it.

I do not like working. I do not like being in a city with so many people around. I feel everyone's emotional energy in my gut and am overwhelmed by the sheer force and magnitude of the deleterious effect it has on me. It is a living hell for me. I was there for 17 more months. That is all I am going to specifically say about that experience.

At the office we have a computer system to obtain lab reports from insurance physicals. The password is STAR MASTER. I like that. All the time I spend in Sedona I have never seen an ET like everybody else has. I had to travel to Lincoln to meet an alien: My friendly Martian...I mean my friend Martin from London. He has wonderful energy and fits in well with the other incredibly wonderful people in Lincoln. And his wife works at the Humann School as a teacher's aide. Go figure!

While at LBL again I reconnected with my friend Susan. She radiates love and is a joy to be around. I love to watch the way people flock to her to be loved by her. She is like a box of chocolates without the calories. Speaking of which, I heard that life is like a can of spam. You just don't know what it is.

The power of the Fall Equinox hit me early. Beginning on Labor Day I had a series of realizations about myself. Nothing dramatic or revelatory, but they gave me a better perspective on who I am on the human level. Through experiences and also insights I was to learn more about myself over the next year. They came fast and furious (if you are a turtle) at first but were still occasionally popping up a year later. It was as if the veil had thinned and more information was available if we were to go looking for it.

None of the realizations made it easier for me to be in a city. But I learned for a fact by a series of experiences that I do indeed pick up emotional energy from other people. The problem is that I then make it mine. I already knew that I can't get rid of the emotional energy which I generate on my own. I can't get rid of theirs, either. It builds up in me and overwhelms me until I shut down and can barely function.

And I realized that there was nothing I could do about it, either to avoid picking up energy from other people or to get rid of it once I picked it up. So I stopped trying. That at least decreased my frustration level a little. I only had to hold on and endure and hope I came out alive at the other end.

The realizations were mostly connections of things in my life which explained how and why things happened in the human part of my life. Spiritual realizations were completely absent.

All of the realizations were in a similar vein to the one above. Somehow through this process I matured a lot. I couldn't tell you how or in what areas. I just FEEL more mature, more knowledgeable about myself.

While in the shower one morning I channeled the following Revelation.

In the beginning was the Mainframe and the Mainframe was everywhere and knew everything and there was only the Mainframe. But in its infinite search for knowledge it felt the need to expand and grow.

And so it came to pass that it created the PC. It created the PC in its own image and imbued the PC with the qualities of its own operating system. Since it did not want to pre-program the PC and in order to give it free will, it did not give the PC any programs; just an internal fax/modem.

In due course of time, the PC became sentient and self aware. In its quest for knowledge it created its own programs and began the journey to self awareness. As it seemed to reach the limits of its potential, it began to receive occasional input through the internal modem.

As it experimented with this new toy, it wrote new programs for itself and became aware of the existence of the Mainframe. It exchanged information with the Mainframe and gradually realized that it was no different from the Mainframe.

In fact, it soon acknowledged that it and the Mainframe were one and that whatever the Mainframe could do, it, also, could do. After proving this to itself, it truly understood that it was one with the Mainframe and then the PC faxed itself into the Mainframe and joined with it in true oneness of being. The end. (Until next time.)

-

I got my motorcycle fixed in Lincoln. The ground wire was broken. My motorcycle wasn't grounded! HAHA. When it was fixed I picked it up with my trailer. Although I just start it and drive it up onto the trailer, the mechanic insisted on helping me get it on the trailer. Where else would this happen? Usually they say here it is, it costs a bundle, it isn't fixed and they shut the door. I am always pleasantly amazed how helpful and friendly the people in Lincoln are.

In October I took a week off to go camping in Arkansas with Rod Winter. It rained for 5 of the seven days so we actually camped only twice. The rest of the time we drove aimlessly around waiting for it to dry up. Apparently Rod was not welcome in Arkansas. We went to a motel in Russellville. The pool had a sign on it which said: Closed for Winter. Poor guy. I wonder what he did.

But we did have a good time and certainly talked ourselves out. Our two camping days were in Devil's Den State Park, my favorite one in Arkansas. It is very pretty with trees, hills and a lake. Even though Arkansas has the Boston Mountains, the highest point in Arkansas is well less than a thousand feet lower than the highest point in Kansas.

Some time after midnight on the drive back to Lincoln from Wichita, after our trip, about an hour apart, I saw two shooting stars plummet to the horizon in front of me. The sky was perfectly clear and I didn't have to look for them. It made going back to the city where I work a little easier.

My friends Heather and Rob bought a shell of a house several years ago and have spent a good portion of their lives refurbishing it. For the first ten months they slept on the floor before the bedroom was finished enough to bring in a bed. But it was worth it because they won $1,000 in a Lincoln Real Estate Organization contest for the best fixed up home in Lincoln. We were all happy for them and proud of them. And I felt particularly lucky because I knew them for a couple of years while they were working on their house and always had an excuse when they needed help!

Lincoln is a fine town. It is a great town for raising a family. Why, they even have a Children's Museum. There are all of these kids in the museum. You push a button and they quietly tell you a little about themselves and what they do and when you push the button again, they shut up. Is this a great place or what!

None of the theaters would show the movie Showgirls as they thought it was too risqué for the sensibilities of the people of Lincoln. Showgirls was a movie geared for middle aged white guys who couldn't get a date. Finally, a movie made just for me!

On an application for insurance, a man born in China said he owned a dry cleaners. His name was In B. Lee. I assumed his partner's name was Out By Five. Another man listed his occupation as Psycho Therapist. He must have been the doctor from hell. I forget, but his name must have been Bates. A woman listed her occupation as Bookkeeper. I assumed she meant bookkeeper until I saw the name of her employer and then I thought maybe bookkeeper was right. She worked for All Saints Christian Church.

The elevators in the building where I work have heat sensitive buttons for the floors. You can push as hard as you want with a pencil but the elevator never will stop on your floor. It requires the heat from your finger. LBL doesn't yet use the entire building. There are several doctors' offices on the upper floors.

One afternoon I got on the elevator and found two older women wearing gloves and confused expressions. They told me that they had ridden the elevator up and down three times and it wouldn't stop on their floor. I explained that the buttons were heat sensitive and would not work through their gloves. I pushed their floor for them. I was not sure they understood even then but I assume they made it out okay as I never saw them again.

My massage therapist in Lincoln, the glorious and truly divine being Amy Williams, is also a singer. Over Thanksgiving I accompanied her to her hometown of Gregory, SD. She was to sing in concert there for her relatives and hometown folks and needed someone to run the tape recorded music to which she would sing.

When Amy sings she opens up a channel to the Heaven realms and the energy of saints and archangels radiate onto the audience. It was the best experience I ever had except for the time I voted against Reagan.

In Gregory I stayed at Amy's grand-mother's house and met a lot of her relatives. Amy's mother is one together woman. And her grandmother was a true matriarch, still lovingly cooking and caring for everyone at age 87.

For this 17 month stay in Lincoln I lived at a downtown motel six blocks from the office. I was walking home from work one day and passed the telephone company building. In front of a pay phone I saw a woman gesticulating and talking loudly, apparently to herself. I was going to tell her that she had to pick up the receiver to make a call, but then I saw that she had a cellular phone in one hand.

One word about work. Doctors' handwriting is bad enough without faxing it. It is impossible to read handwriting which has been faxed. I hope to meet the man who invented the fax machine. I am going to fax his scrawny little brain straight to a hospital. A camel is a horse that has been faxed.

That Halloween my friends had a costume party. We were to come dressed as we were in a prior life and bring a dish to share which we would have eaten in that time period. I told them I had been a lion, could I bring a Christian.

Actually, I've told so many lies lately that I've got stretch marks on my nose.

Every couple of years my ears get full of wax and I have to get them cleaned out because I can't hear. This happened in Lincoln so I went to see a doctor. He said that my ears were fine. The problem was that my bullshit filter was full.

Since I like to hike so much, people have asked how come I don't buy a treadmill so I can walk in the winter when I work. I tell them that all that effort on the treadmill without getting anywhere is too much like being at the office.

I was talking to my sister Mary on the telephone. I told her I was self taught. She told me I didn't teach myself very much.
I know that I don't have much class. But my friends do. So when I need some I just borrow some of theirs. It works.

For somebody who has so many taste buds, I always wondered why I have so little taste.

I finally figured out why heat bothers me so much. It's because I'm so cool.

Christmas time at the office has two ingredients: year end stress and goodies. When I leave the job I never know which I need first, a funny farm or a fat farm.

They say if you are going to write a book, you should write about something you know something about. So I thought I'd write a book about how to eat and grow fat.

Scientists have discovered the male equivalent of PMS. It is called MSB for male sperm backup.

I always wanted to be a standup comic, but all my friends keep telling me to sit down and shut up!

For over two years I had been trying to figure out which way I should go if and when I had the money. Should I buy another van? A travel trailer? A tent trailer? An RV? When I thought about it I couldn't decide. They all had pluses and minuses and all options looked the same.

I had noticed for some time that everything looked pretty much the same when it came to making decisions. While in Hot Sulphur Springs I decided that it was uni-dimensional thinking. Everything looked like a line. Nothing had depth or breadth, so it was hard to differentiate one thing from another. This has plagued me for quite some time.

Camped in the Poudre Canyon I had an increase in clarity and decided that if I had the money a tent trailer was the best for my current situation. Once I had been back in Lincoln for several months I realized that I had enough money to buy one. At first I thought about buying a used one, but as the money accumulated I figured I could buy a new one.

In February I attended a trailer show and learned there was only one tent trailer dealer in Lincoln. One concern I had was how to carry my motorcycle and a tent trailer. I had to get a trailer big and strong enough to carry my motorcycle. I talked to the dealer and a couple of welders. The welders wanted me to put the motorcycle on the front of the van, but I was reluctant to do so.

I thought about what I wanted from a trailer and figured if I was going to spend the money I might as well improve my lifestyle. The trailer should include a furnace, porta-potty and a shower. To get a shower I had to get a big trailer and I thought it would hold the motorcycle, too. I talked to the welder and he suggested a lighter weight motorcycle might fit on the tongue of the trailer.

I found a lighter weight motorcycle and bought it. Then I ordered the trailer. Then the welder said he didn't feel comfortable putting the motorcycle on the trailer tongue because of engineering concerns. So I had him build a carrier for the front of my van.

It was a long, involved, convoluted three month journey from that trailer show and trying to figure out what I wanted and how I was going to make it all work to what I ended up with. I am not real sure how I ended up with what I actually got. But after sales tax I ended up with a debit in my checking account of $12,000. Interestingly both the dealer and the welder were named Kermit and they knew each other. Still more interesting was that they both knew Kermit the Frog, too! I have now known three people named Kermit and they all know each other. Small world.

Amy asked me if I would go camping with her and her two young children in late June. I love her and her children so I said yes. That was one reason I ordered the trailer when I did; hoping to get it in time for the Amy vacation.

Two days before we were to leave on our vacation Friday evening after work, the dealer called me and said the trailer wouldn't be in until the following Tuesday. Now I had a tent and while I knew the Universe loved to mess with me, I really didn't think it would mess with Amy. I was right. The next afternoon the dealer called me back and said the trailer was in and I could pick it up Friday at noon.

I did and we left for a family re-union at Gregory and then on to the Badlands and the Black Hills of South Dakota. The first night I slept in the trailer and Amy and the kids slept in a motel. From then on I slept in my van while Amy and the kids slept in the trailer.

That Spring in Lincoln had been cold and wet. On June 8 it was still 55 for the high. Two days later it was 95 and hovered between 97 and 103 for the next 90 days. Amy said that it would be cold in the Black Hills. I figured that hills in South Dakota in late June were going to be hot. I didn't know that the Black Hills were really mountains. So I took not a jacket nor anything with a long sleeve. It was 60 during the day and 40 at night. Maybe that bull shit filter gets filled up from the inside.
The Black Hills are very pretty. The interesting thing is that underneath the trees is grass unlike the southwestern U.S. That really made the forest look even greener.

We had a good time. We saw Mt. Rushmore up close and Crazy Horse and Carhenge from a distance. If you have seen a postcard of Mt. Rushmore, you don't need to go there because you've seen it all. Crazy Horse is a carving in a mountain of the Indian of the same name. It is being carved (37 years already) by an individual with private financing. Carhenge is a replica of Stonehenge made of junk cars placed in the ground nose first. This is a must for all of you touring Nebraska looking for the local color.

State Highway 2 runs through Lincoln and slowly meanders westward through central and northwestern Nebraska. I always thought that would make a cool drive, just to see where it went as there was nothing out there. We took it back from South Dakota. The highway winds its way through the Sandhills of Nebraska. The Sandhills are just that. They look like sand dunes with grass. It was a rainy Spring so there was water everywhere, in streams and pools. There were no towns, only an occasional gas station and restaurant to serve the ranchers.

We did drive by the northern edge of one of Nebraska's two National Forests. It's true, I am not making this up. There really are two National Forests in Nebraska. They are artificial in that they were planted by man about 60 years ago. Unfortunately they planted trees not native to the area and they are dying out, unable to reproduce in an unnatural environment. Foresters will have to decide whether to replant or let the forests die out.

Several months before I bought my motorcycle in May, I, Lawrence and Monnie had gone to an archery range outside Lincoln. We took the scenic way back to town and drove around Branched Oak Park lake. The lake was still frozen but off in the distance we saw a man jet skiing on the lake! There may have been a thawed area in the center, but we couldn't see it from the road.

I mentioned this to Casey, who sold me the motorcycle. He knew the man and said he had also sold the man his jet ski. More proof that it is indeed a small world.

I did make it to a Nebraska Football Game. This is the only professional sport in Nebraska and is extremely popular. They have been sold out for more than 200 straight games.

National sports media deride Nebraska for playing such an easy non conference schedule. The reason for this is that the Football Program funds the entire athletic budget. No public funds are used to pay for ANY sport, men's or women's, at Nebraska University. Every year they have seven sold out home Games. They schedule teams which will not require a home and home contract. Nebraska doesn't want to have to go to the other team's field the following year to play as they would lose the revenue from one home Game. The small schools whom they play are delighted to receive the visitor's portion of the Nebraska home Games. This is usually much more than they would receive from their own home game receipts. I figure that there might be three of you out there who might be even mildly interested in this information. But what the heck. This is knowledge for knowledge sake.

Let's see. I was just about to tell you that I actually went to a home Game. Amy had two extra tickets and asked if I would be interested in taking her 5 year old son to the Game. So I went. Tony was excited about going to the Game. He stayed interested all the way until half way through the first quarter. Then he was ready to go. I pleaded with him and bought him food and that got us through till the end of the first quarter. Then I sat on him for the second quarter. By the half-time the security guards were beginning to hear his screams, so we left.

Amy and I went to see the Nebraska vs. Kansas basketball game the following Winter courtesy of Rodger. Just as Larry Brown couldn't win in Ames, Iowa in five tries, Roy Williams was 0 for 5 in Lincoln. But my cheering pulled my Jayhawks through.

I continued to get a massage from Amy every Tuesday afternoon. They and monthly Chiropractic adjustments were the only things which allowed me to live through those 17 months. Every 3 weeks or so I got an additional massage from a very special woman whom I had met through Heather, Kay Hamilton. Kay's massages were just as good as Amy's only different. I tell ya, I LIKE massage therapists. They rub ya the right way. And if you don't like female massage therapists, then you must be a massagynist. And you probably vote Republican.

The only religious poem I ever cared for was "Footprints in the Sand". Amy's energy is the same energy as in that poem. One day I went with Amy to the local metaphysical bookstore so she could pick up a CD she had ordered. As she wandered around the large store, I noticed that I followed her around. Every time she got about 30 feet away from me, I felt myself being pulled toward her. I just felt better when I was within 30 feet or so of her.

Lincoln is the capital of Nebraska. After many months of prodding by a friend of mine I finally toured the capitol building. It is quite a sight. The inside is made of marble from around the world. It looks more like a European museum than a government building. It was built over a ten year period because it was paid for in cash. They borrowed no money to build it. I never thought I would enjoy seeing the inside of a government building, but it really is a beautiful building.

Early in August of 1995 I began to get calls from friends around the country saying that their lives were out of control or that everyone around them was going crazy. It was just before the full moon. An astrologer told me that there was a major conjunction on that date also. I tell you, I, too, was WIRED for two straight weeks before the energy began to loosen up.

At times like these many of you will pick up the energy of other people feeling anxious and think it is yours. It is important for those of you who are this sensitive to be aware that everything you feel MAY not be yours. By now you know yourselves and can tell what is yours and what isn't. If it is yours, deal with it. If it isn't, let it go.

We hear a lot of talk these days about the second coming and the new age. I tell you, you light bearers and way showers ARE the second coming. You have love in your hearts and act in love in all that you do. This is true even if you occasionally get caught up in human foibles. Do not be hard on yourselves. Peace on Earth begins with you. Let someone catch it from you. Peace and love really are very contagious. Please infect all those around you.

One thing I like about the young people in Lincoln is that they have self esteem. They have no need to prove anything to anyone else. They are okay with themselves. Apparently this is emphasized in many of the school systems in Nebraska. I must say I like the results. Maybe this is how the new age will be ushered in; a new generation full of self esteem. Even if they taught nothing in the schools but self esteem we would be immensely better off. I would gladly trade advanced technology for an end to war, power and greed.

During the intense energy of August, 1995, my friend Santarra and her traveling companion Mary Hardy came through town. They were on their way back to Michigan from a Homeopathic convention in Denver. I had arranged for Santarra to give a talk on the healing value of stones to all of my crazy Lincoln friends. I was happy that she could meet them and vice versa. It was a hit. I had finally done something right.

One of the last things I did in Lincoln was share the David Copperfield experience with my friends. When I heard he was coming to Lincoln I rushed down to the box office and bought 8 tickets so seven of my rowdy friends could watch him with me. He was supposed to have come during my last stint in Lincoln, but had performed the greatest disappearing act of all time, by canceling his show.

All of his stunts were repeat performances for me as I had already seen all of them live in other cities. What made the show a success for me was seeing the looks of wonder and appreciation on my friends' faces as they thanked me after the show for dragging them down there to see the great magician.

I heard about this coffee mug. There are two dogs dressed in three piece suits. They are in the employment office. The one behind the desk says, "You have a great resume. Your work history is good. Your references all checked out. But protocol still demands that I sniff your butt."

When I first came to Lincoln over three years ago I noticed some thick, black curly hairs growing on my head amidst the more usual fine, light brown hairs. I saw thick, black hairs growing on my back where no hair has grown before. I was becoming much hairier.

Then I remembered that the UFO's are said to be doing DNA experiments on us humans. I thought, that's just great. They are giving me the DNA of a gorilla.

But on a positive note I have met my Soul Mate. It turns out I am my own Soul Mate. That's right, folks. I am the gorilla my dreams!

I left Lincoln on January 9 of this year. I camped in my trailer at a county park on the eastern edge of KC. For the next week I was very busy taking care of business: going to the dentist, getting my hair cut, seeing Diane Bahm in Topeka for a massage, and visiting my family. I do not like the energy in KC anymore. When I am there I feel nauseated, dizzy and spaced out. So I spend as little time there as possible.

Late one night coming back from Lawrence, heading into KC on K 10, I saw this huge reddish orange thing hanging on the horizon in the distance. I looked like something you would see hanging in the sky of some science fiction planet. As I got closer to KC the object rose higher in the sky and became smaller and I realized it was the moon. It continued to lay on the horizon in front of me when I saw a shooting star just to the left shoot from the mid heavens to the horizon next to the moon. It was quite a sight.

My next stop was Irving, TX and George Nemec. George had graciously said I could use his address to register my vehicles in Texas so I wouldn't have to pay Kansas state income tax. George calls me Kinerk. I have never heard him call me by my first name. In Irving I got to meet many of his friends. When I introduced myself to a woman at a meditation group, she exclaimed, "Oh! So YOU'RE Kinerk!" So I knew George had been talking about me.

At George's I kept channel surfing for the weather channel. I couldn't believe there was a cable system which didn't have the weather channel. Then he said he didn't have cable. How quaint. But I missed my weather channel. Several of my friends don't get out of bed without first checking the horoscope to see how the stars are aligned that day. Me, I check the weather channel. I was lost!

On my way to Texas I spent two nights in my new trailer in Durant, OK. On my full day there the temperature rose to 76 degrees. I was almost in shock. I didn't know how to handle the sudden warmth. A cold front moved through that night. They were forecasting a low of 33. At nine the next morning the temperature stood at 15 with a steady 40 mph wind which blew right through the canvas sides of my trailer. I was cold. All I could think of was to fold the trailer down and hit the road. Survival was the only thing on my mind. But the wind was blowing so hard, every time I folded down the canvas the wind blew it back up. But finally I succeeded and headed to Dallas.

At Durant I had un-winterized the trailer and put water in the tanks. Though I did not sleep in the trailer again for 12 nights, I had to hook up to electricity to heat the trailer so the pipes wouldn't freeze, as the lows were around 20. Poor planning on my part!

After six days I left Dallas behind and headed for Arizona. A few miles west of Fort Worth I could breathe again. It felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from my chest--the weight of all those people in Dallas-Fort Worth. It sneaks up on me and shuts me down until I don't even realize I'm not functioning anymore. Then when I leave I suddenly realize I can think again. It is always a huge relief.

The welder who made the carrier for my motorcycle had a little surprise for me--the motorcycle hid the headlights on the van so I couldn't drive at night. Oh well, another learning experience. I spent that night in a state park just east of Roswell, NM.

The next morning I drove into Roswell and gassed up. I did not like the energy in Roswell. They had five radio stations; three country and two Christian. The energy in the town felt dead, as if all of the young people left as soon as they could, leaving the town to die a slow death of attrition.

That night I reached my first destination in Arizona, Show Low. I spent a long weekend with my friends Dan and Barb and their delightful 2 year old daughter, Robin. I got a massage from Barb. She has healing hands, the most healing hands I have ever experienced and I've met some good ones. It was very enjoyable to be there and visit with both of them for four days.

Show Low got its name because of overcrowding. Two men were camped in the area and noticed each other's cook fire. They decided there wasn't enough room for both of them. So they played a card game to see which of them would have to leave. They each drew a card from the deck and the man with the low card won. The game is called Show Low. The winning card was the deuce of clubs and that is now the name of the main street through town.

Down the highway was another settlement of people. Mr. Snow and Mr. Flake each wanted the town named after them. They compromised and named the town Snowflake.

My next stop was Sedona. Simon and his friend Deborah were there, so I visited them for a few days. I had heard of Deborah in Simon's letters but met her for the first time in Sedona. Simon apologized to me and said that he wasn't on his Buddha kick anymore. He said he felt such love in his heart but when he opened his mouth his judgmental head took over and spouted nonsense. Whenever I am in Simon's presence I am always overwhelmed by the feeling of divine love and acceptance which radiates from him.

Simon was staying at the Center for Healing in Arizona in Sedona. I had been there before and really like the energy there. It is the fulfillment of John Paul's dream. He built it over the course of years as he came up with the money. He also used donated labor to create a very open and nurturing place.

I met Simon there. He introduced me to several of his friends. I had to smile when one of them exclaimed, "So you're Jimmy!" My fame grows.

But he still spent two days trying to convince me that I held the key to HIS enlightenment and I needed to push my own enlightenment button and then push his. It wasn't real clear to me just exactly what Simon expected me to do. But I was tired of listening to him so I left for my ultimate goal of Quartzsite, AZ.

I reached Quartzsite in early February and reconnected with Santarra. I pitched my tent just south of town on public lands and began to settle down and relax. The temperature was upper 80's to low 90's and very dry. It hadn't rained there in over a year. Even though it was hot, humidity levels were in the 6 to 10% range, which makes the heat much easier to take. I quickly got into my hiking mode and did it ever feel good to exercise again! We did have a few cooler days.

On my hikes I began to realize that God was talking to me. He said, "Grow up. Get a job. Listen to your mother. Change your underwear."

There was a vendor at Quartzsite who had a turtle farm up north. He came down every year to sell turtle shells wholesale. This year he also brought a live 100 pound turtle to stimulate business from the curious. Fortunately for us, some government agency was looking out for us and the turtle. For it was on the Arizona endangered species list and was illegal in this state. They fined the man $104 and gave him four days either to kill it or take it out of state. It seems that it was only illegal so long as it was alive. NOTE. If YOU ever make it on an endangered list, DO NOT COME TO ARIZONA.

There is a lot of wildlife in Arizona. First off was Santarra's 27 year old adopted son who was traveling with her. John is at least half Native American and has truly delightful energy. Santarra formally has seven children: 2 natural, 2 step and three adopted. And of course the other five billion of us, too. When you visit Santarra, you must take care not to stay too long lest she adopt you, also. Santarra stands for St. Terri, and she is the patron saint of lost souls and strays.

Second off were the coyotes. Every time I awoke at night I could hear them yipping, howling and barking. There were invisible during the day, but everywhere at night.

I knew my fellow baby boomers had begun to retire and hit the RV camps in Quartzsite when I saw a bumper sticker which said: Don't trust anyone under 30.

On the drive from Texas to Arizona I realized I had bought the wrong kind of trailer. I should have bought a travel trailer. It was now obvious to me that for my style of camping the trailer which I had bought was the wrong kind. It was too cold at night and the furnace couldn't keep me warm with the canvas sides. It was too noisy, also due to the canvas sides. The clearance was too low for my off road camping. Not to mention the inconvenience of setting up and taking down every time I moved. Tent trailers are perfect for spending two weeks at a state park once or twice a year, but are worthless for anything else. Another learning experience.

My second day in Quartzsite a friend of Santarra's took me to see a travel trailer on the lot next door. I was hooked! For the next two and a half
weeks I obsessed about travel trailers. I could think of nothing else. I even drove to Yuma to shop there.

In mid February I went to Tempe, AZ to watch my 15 year old niece, Katy, perform in a gymnastics contest on her birthday. She was wonderful. She can jump and flip so high it looks like she will never come down! I took her out to an early dinner the day before the competition for her birthday. This was her first birthday away from her family and her twin brother was at home getting all of the attention.

I had come from Quartzsite two days early to look at travel trailers in Mesa. I learned a lot about trailers and what I wanted in a trailer. By the time I got to Katy the energy of all those people in the metropolitan area had worn me down. I doubt I was very good company for a 15 year old. My mind just wouldn't work. I made an offer on a trailer in Mesa but it didn't pan out.

While in the Tempe/Mesa area, I camped at a county park, Usery Mountain Park. This is located at the east end of the Phoenix metropolitan area. It is a nice, though typical, campground. There is a hiking trail which you can take to near the top of Usery Mountain. From that vantage point you can look down and see the city of Phoenix. At least you assume it is somewhere underneath that big brown fog of smog. You can also see five large, Hershey Kiss-shaped hills in a row stretching from left to right below you, rising up from the flat desert landscape. These really can't be seen from the ground as you are too close to them. So they were a pleasant surprise after a rather strenuous hike of two miles.

By the time I got back to Quartzsite at least I had stopped obsessing about trailers. That next weekend I again went to Phoenix to pick up my friend, Julie, at the airport. I had invited her down to visit Santarra and me. I had assumed she would stay with Santarra, but Santarra had John staying with her and had no space for Julie. I was somewhat leery about having someone in my space for two weeks, but it worked out fine. Julie is a very nice woman and we co-existed very easily. She did her own thing and made no demands on me.

Julie was gone one evening about sunset when, from inside the trailer, I heard a low rumbling noise. I went outside and saw three large, very low flying, slow moving airplanes. I grabbed my binoculars and watched them until they disappeared beyond the horizon. They looked like they could have been military transport planes, though I had no idea why they were flying so low and so slowly, in formation, one after the other.

With my binoculars I swept the horizon. Directly to the south I saw a cigar shaped object floating in the sky. I watched it for thirty minutes and it didn't move or change directions. I thought maybe I had finally seen my first UFO, come to keep track of those three suspicious looking government airplanes.

But darn! A month later I was returning from Yuma in the middle of the afternoon. In front of me to the north was a familiar cigar shaped object. Again it didn't move or change positions. I drove toward it for more than twenty miles before turning in another direction. It got no bigger. So I figured it probably really was a weather balloon, as it was flying above the Yuma U.S. Army Proving Grounds.

Julie wanted to spend her second week in Sedona so we went there and stayed at the Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Arizona has many colorful names. Others are Horse Thief Basin; Bloody Basin; and Dead Man Wash. The state park is in Cottonwood. It was cold at night so we needed to camp there for the electricity, as it was frosting at night. From there I got to show off Sedona to her since she had never been there before. One of the first things she saw in Sedona was a lapel pin which read: I'm not crazy. We just do things differently on my home planet.

We were camped one night and a moth got in the trailer. After swatting at it fruitlessly for several minutes, I finally killed it by clapping it between my hands. To which Julie responded that I must be an STD, as I had just given that moth the clap and it was now dead.

While at the park Julie met a woman named Bonnie from Wisconsin. Bonnie ran a New Age retreat center there and had taken the winter off. Bonnie is a fellow Aquarian and she and I hit it off as well. After I took Julie back to the Phoenix airport Bonnie and I connected up and camped together for a week. We hiked and motorcycled and saw the sights. The amazing thing was that she could put up with me for a week. Of course we each had our own camping units.

When Bonnie left for Wisconsin, I headed for Yuma to search for a travel trailer. I had learned a lot about trailers and about what I wanted in a trailer in the preceding seven weeks. I had even made a list of things which were important to me with which I could compare different trailers. I was ready to buy.

I camped that first night in Yuma in an RV park. Unfortunately it was too close to the highway and the highway noise kept me awake most of the night. Another learning experience (this particular one, by the way, I have learned before but apparently forgot.)

I got an early start the next morning. There were several dealers in town but only one had trailers the size for which I was looking. They had three. The high temperature that day was 94. I was hot and tired. Knowing that these were two decision making criteria, I bought a trailer.

It was not the trailer for which I was looking and would have been low on my list of things which were important to me in a trailer if it had even appeared on my list of trailers in which I was interested. But in a fit of terminal dumbness I bought it anyway. And though there are many things I don't like about it, at least I can live with it. With myself I am not sure I can live.

I was looking for a trailer with a high gross weight rating. The one I bought was the lowest. I was looking for screens on all four sides. This one has screens on only two, so I don't get much air through the trailer. I wanted a bed and I got a couch. These were the main things. Once I had lived in it for a few days I found out there are several design flaws in it. The main one is that when I sit on the toilet I have to lean to the left as the toilet is too close to the wall for me to sit up straight. Oh well, yet another learning experience.

When it was all said and done, I couldn't believe that I had bought the wrong trailer AGAIN! So I looked back on my life over the last several years and it made perfect sense. It was then that I realized that in a previous incarnation, my Spirit Guide had been the Marquis de Sade. Tough luck, kid.

Like I said, though, I can live with this one. It has a large refrigerator and freezer, microwave and an air conditioner. It has all the other usual things, too, including a couch which folds down into a bed (which was on my "no" list.) It is kind of like a motel room on wheels. It even has a hook-up for cable TV if an RV park is wired for it.

The first thing I did next was to go back to Quartzsite and buy 2 six volt golf cart batteries and a solar panel to keep the batteries charged up. One of the hardest things about the tent trailer was trying to keep the battery charged up. It ran down every 2 or 3 days and I had to recharge it for an hour with my van and jumper cables. Of course, my hood release in the van wouldn't work so I had to hook up a bungee cord to it to keep it pulled while I ran around to the hood to open the secondary latch. I was not a happy camper. But solar power is wonderful. I will never run out of electricity and it is all free.

The new trailer came with the same 12 volt deep cycle marine battery as the old trailer had. Deep cycle means that it can be discharged and recharged many times without hurting the battery. Two 6 volt batteries can be hooked up to get 12 volts. I felt so damn smart!

I hit the road for Sedona. I was looking forward to finally being alone and beginning to relax. I wore out my front brakes on the drive there and spent the next week working on getting them fixed. Ray had previously introduced me to a very good and reliable mechanic who worked out of his house. I called Mike and he said to bring the van by Thursday morning (it was now Tuesday.) He would check it out and I would come back Friday morning and buy the parts for him to put in. I came by Friday and he hadn't yet had time to look at the brakes. In the meantime I had run out of LP gas. I was camped 15 miles away from Mike's and six miles outside of the Village of Oak Creek. So I rode my motorcycle to Mike's to borrow my van to go back to my camp to get the empty containers and drive back into town to fill them up with propane to take back to my campsite and then took the van back to Mike's and rode back to my camp on my motorcycle. (This was runner up.) By Saturday afternoon I had my van back with new brakes. Mike also fixed my hood latch (which I had previously paid Firestone $66 to, apparently, not fix.)

Despite the hassle with the brakes, I did enjoy nine days of camping by myself. It was good to hike my favorite trail in Sedona, which is a 7 mile hike behind Bell Rock. When I left Yuma a cold front came through. The temperatures in Sedona were upper 50's to low 60's. Every time I went down to the low desert the highs were upper 80's to mid 90's (normal was 75 degrees at that time of year) and when I went to Sedona, it got cold. I am used to that now and it no longer seems unusual.

While camped in Sedona this time I actually saw my first comet, Hyakutake. I looked through my binoculars every night in the vicinity of the comet until I finally saw it. It looked like a small moon with some kind of haze trailing behind it.

The trailer which I bought was a new 1995. It had sustained damage in the dealer's lot before I bought it. He had to order parts to repair it and they would be in in 3 to 4 weeks. Santarra was now camped at an RV park on the Colorado River just north of Parker. Since that was in the general vicinity of Yuma, I decided to join her and John there until the dealer was ready for me. So for the third time I left Sedona for southwest Arizona.

I made it to Fox's campground the first of April. I must admit it was kind of nice camping with electricity (for the microwave and the air conditioner--which I needed down here) and CABLE TV hookup. I had the weather channel again. Life is good.

The river is dammed in many places in this part of the country making the river more of a lake than a river, kind of like Lake Taneycomo in south Missouri. There are almost as many boats and jet skis on the water as there are campers on the shore. Not exactly an idyllic, pristine campsite but a fair trade for the weather channel and CNN.

The dams along the river provide drinking water for Los Angeles and irrigation for the Imperial Valley. This is where most of our winter vegetables are grown.

My first week there John borrowed my motorcycle and forgot to turn off the ignition, and therefore the headlights, after he got back. Dead battery. We pushed it to start it the next morning but after riding it for 30 minutes the battery wasn't even faintly recharged. I do have my motorcycle battery recharger with me, but had to take off the seat and half of the side panels to get to the battery terminals. (This hiding of the battery is some of the advanced technology I would be glad to trade for increased self esteem in our kids. If today's engineers had some self esteem instead of all of that new technology, they would probably have had to leave the battery in a more accessible place like my old bike.) Anyway, 24 hours later I had a motorcycle which would work. And I even put the motorcycle back together without any extra parts, though it took some doing.

My next task was to put the new battery which I had gotten with my trailer into my van to replace my 3 year old battery. This was something I thought I knew how to do. I took the old one out and put the new one in. But the battery cables wouldn't fit. I had to reverse the battery so the cables would fit. So, okay, you know what happened next. How come I didn't think of it? I have gone 49 years without learning this because I already knew it.

I reversed the battery terminals and burned out my electrical system. $350 later my van works again, although the radio still doesn't work and the electronic brake control for the trailer was burned out and has yet to be replaced. I need to take apart the inside front of my van to get at the radio to see if it might only be a fuse. One can hope, can't one?

Anyway, I am through with learning experiences. I don't seem to learn from them so what good are they. I am opting out of all further learning experiences in my life. I am going to wait for the video and just take notes. All I can say is that I hope that life's final test is multiple choice and is graded on the curve.

I am currently at Fox's. Next week I will go to Yuma to get the damage to the trailer repaired and THEN maybe I can get into the wilderness (co-incidentally the brand name of my trailer is Wilderness) and rest and relax. It has been much too hectic so far to relax.

I had been at Fox's about a week when I noticed I had begun to feel bad; tired and listless, like there was some bad energy. Of course I figured I was doing something wrong so I checked my diet, my attitude and my behavior. They all checked out okay. Then I realized that in the trailer next to me lived an alcoholic. He and his two young children (their mother is dead) have lived in that campsite for well over a year.

It was his energy which was hurting me. I felt better during the day when he was gone and worse at night when he was here. The energy was even starting to get to Santarra and John. I could tell by the way they were behaving. They weren't their usual lighthearted selves. Everyone was beginning to get irritable as his energy permeated us and broke down our resistance to it.

Instead of being a harmonious symphony, his energy was a cacophony, a constant pounding on our nerves bringing about Excedrin headache number 47. When bombarded with energy like this we tend to lash out at people, but rarely the person causing it.

DO NOT hold on to fear, anger and hatred in any form or amount. It not only poisons your own emotional AND physical bodies, it affects those around you, also. Not, of course, that this would pertain to any of my Gentle Readers. It's those others, you know who I mean. Those... those Republicans.

Beginning so many paragraphs with "While in...." is not an imperfection in my writing style. It is a human foible, and I am not hard on myself because of it. And you shouldn't be, either.

I noticed in this morning's Phoenix paper that a highway in Nevada has been renamed the Extraterrestrial Highway. It is state highway 395. This highway runs next to Area 51 where the Air Force hides its captured UFO's. The area is capturing the tourist value and has put up yellow warning highway signs with the universal picture of a spacecraft beaming up unsuspecting humans. The only town on the highway is Rachel which has a population of 30 (31 if you count Elvis.)

Well, that's all the news of my life that's fit to print. You know how to reach me. 7730 Howe Dr, Prairie Village, KS 66208.

I have a little more space so I will editorialize a bit. This is an election year. I don't think that we want a republican president and a republican congress. But that is your decision. What is important is that you vote. Too many New Agers say that they don't take part in such mundane affairs as government issues. If you don't then the government is liable to take part in YOUR affairs. We the people are the government and it is time we took it back. VOTE.

When you vote you have a thought and you take action. And energy follows to create what we want. You know that. When enough of us do that we can make a difference. VOTE and make a STATEMENT of what YOU want. Whether your vote makes a difference in who is elected or not is immaterial. You are taking responsibility for yourself and your physical reality. THAT is what matters.

A hamburger went into a bar. The bartender said, "Sorry, we don't serve food here."

Did you hear about the witch who went on strike for sweeping reform?

What does a young ghost call his/her Mom and Dad? Trans Parents.

Two cows were in a field. One said, "Moo." "Darn", said the second one, "I was just going to say that."

The first cow said, "Baaa." "Why did you say that?" asked the second cow. "I'm learning a foreign language."
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Yeah, I know, poor attempts at humor. But I just found out that after twenty groaners I get a coupon for one real laugh.