We were fortunate recently to have a Cowboy Poet perform here at North Ranch. She writes about fifty-plus years of ranching experiences with her husband, Dan, who passed away recently. This from a “way back when” interview I did of Carole Jarvis because I was so impressed with her “down-to-earth” poetry. “When I announced to my mother I was marrying a cowboy, she said, ‘I’m not surprised. You’ve wanted to marry a cowboy since you were five. Where’s his ranch?’” He doesn’t have a ranch. I’ll marry the cowboy first and start from there.” She always performs for Wickenburg’s December Cowboy Poet’s Gatherings where she claims, “Nobody is trying to impress anybody. They don’t exaggerate; they just remember big.”
Carole brought with her a very talented friend, Susie Killman, a singer with a voice like an angel who writes many of her own songs and accompanies herself on guitar. You could feel your heart soar when she told her singing stories. She and Carole are soon headed for the 25th Annual Texas Cowboy Poets Gathering at Alpine, Texas.
From that old interview, I wrote, “I love these poets. Their reality takes you where cattle graze under a moonlit 
sky and you hear the fire crackle. You can almost taste the beans and feel the hot coffee trickle down your throat. The Christmas Eve loneliness is palpable and you aren’t the only one with wet eyes when the storyteller brings you back home again.”
This has been a fun week (although I still don’t have news on my “Astrobump.” Life on Wheels Friend, Dick Reed, treated me to a Mexican lunch at Anita’s and a few hours of Geocaching. We found three right near North Ranch. Friend Marie and I are making plans for a “headin’ north” spring adventure…but I’m not going to give you the details yet. Maybe you can travel north with us! Someone was kind enough to give me their extra ticket to see Country Music’s John Michael Montgomery at Wickenburg’s Webb Center last Friday night. He will be inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame later this year. Considering his songs are life’s stories, it was disappointing that the background was so loud that you couldn’t understand all the words. It is really amazing that tiny Wickenburg draws such talent.
He was here because it was Wickenburg’s Gold Rush Days. You do not purposely go downtown unless you are partaking of the activities. I still can’t believe I found parking in the immediate space of the Arts and Crafts booths where I spent my token twenty minutes seeing all the booth wonders. It is always beautiful stuff, I just don’t need it. They had a parade on Saturday and the usual rodeo, melodrama, classic car show, shoot-outs, and other entertainment throughout the weekend. Whenever you are going to be RVing in an area for a while, check out the local activities. It is always fun to experience a place rather than whipping on by.
The other major activity Linda and I did in Tucson was climbing all over Biosphere #2. Our first question was, “Where is Biosphere #1?” Maybe everybody else knew but we didn’t realize it is our planet earth. Maybe others didn’t know either because the guide did explain that first. I bought two books, “The Human Experiment” by Jane Poynter one of the eight people who lived it for two years (and twenty minutes) (1991-1993), their activities that included growing their own food, butchering goats and pigs, and their difficulties in getting along with each other in this 3.15-acre totally enclosed “sealed terrarium.” The second book by Rebecca Reider, who arrived on the scene in 1999, writes about, “Dreaming the Biosphere.” I haven’t had time to read it yet but know it will also be fascinating. I’ll be writing an article on it later this year.
I’m not sure which is better in understanding this project, reading the books before you take the tour and understanding what you are seeing better, or taking the tour then reading the books and visualizing where everything is. I started full-time RVing in 1986, and was without a lot of communication much of the time, so I was only vaguely aware of this project. Life goes on when you are having fun…RVing. God Bless until next week.
Minshall’s RVing Alaska and Canada and RVing Adventures with the Silver Gypsy books are available thru Amazon & P.O. Box 1040, Congress, AZ 85332.
At 45, Widow Minshall began 20 years of solo full-time RVing throughout Alaska, Mexico, and Canada. Sharlene canoed the Yukon, mushed sled dogs, worked a dude ranch, visited Hudson Bay polar bears, and lived six months on a Mexican beach. She lectured at Life on Wheels, published six RV-related books and wrote a novel, “Winter in the Wilderness.”
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