Go West old man!: Empire Ranch

A bright sunny warm day to move again. This time it was a short 40 mile drive south to the Empire Ranch in Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. More BLM land with AZ State land adjacent. We are parked here for a week before going to EOT next (more on that later).

Before we left the fairgrounds our neighbor came over to say goodby to Skye! Crystal just had to; she had seen Skye a few times but hadn’t had much real contact. Her black pants had real contact now! We talked for quite a while, learning a lot about her and her family, husband & 2 kids, a small ranch near the Colorado Springs couple we talked with last night on the other side of us. They’re trying to decide whether to buy land down here in AZ or Hawaii. There’s quite a choice.

We got down here and fund our favorite spot was occupied and there were two rigs in our next fav spots. But it turned out that one couple in a big Class A towing a Jeep had just arrived and was actually in the “road” choosing their camp site. Will and Linda are full timers, he used to be a cowboy and then got into roping. The other camper are friends of theirs, retired NY farmers. Might be an interesting week as we get to know more.

After getting all set up, I mean more than we did before, generator, Starlink, extra solar panels for the cloudy days forecast. So then we took a hike up the wash and back down the road. A couple miles and Skye found her favorite water hole. A well fed water hole for the cattle but this one is not all muck. It has some algae but is clear water.

We have been in touch with friends from Richmond who are at a state park near here and some old cowboy friends I haven’t seen in a few years who live about an hour away.