Want To Come With Me?

So today was super windy. We had 40 – 60 mph winds with up to 80 mph gusts. I was going to go see Billy the Kid’s grave since that is the closest place left that seems interesting. It’s about 200 miles away, so not far in my book. Unfortunately the winds made it challenging to go. The highways were either super challenging or closed.

Usually when I go places it’s just me. Inviting someone on a trip only goes so far:

Me: “Hey there! Want to come with me tomorrow?”

Friend: “How far/where are you going?”

Me: “Just the eastern border of Arizona, so around 700mi”

Friend: “Sorry bro that’s too far”

I always bring my backpack (with speaker and rain jacket inside), lego, big camera, little camera, and an energy drink or two. I love traveling and I thought it would be cool to take pictures of my lego to keep me from being too lonely. It’s a BB8 lego set! I have 2 just in case I bring one to the Grand Canyon, the wind blows and it rolls off a cliff. As you can see it’s easy to carry around and not super fragile like some of my other sets. This one is my first one. I barely went anywhere with it. I didn’t have a car at the time so I just took one picture at Philmont and that was it. This is in front of the Villa durning the fall. I had to lay on the grass to get this shot. Sometimes I have to look like a weirdo in order to get nice pictures. I’m quite nervous about my appearance sometimes so if I walk into Fenway Park and try to get a pic with the Red Sox in the background and get a thousand weird looks then I will probably be insanely anxious.

Originally I was just going to write about Philmont. Sort of give an unofficial tour or basecamp and such, but I decided it would be more exciting to just show everywhere I went.

Typically my friends only want to come with me because they need something. Like cigarettes or soda from the town store. Not because they actually want to go see cool things with me. BB8 is that friend that comes with me regardless of whether I’m going on a meditation drive or a national park road trip. A meditation drive for me is a drive just for the drive. Sometimes I find unique things and decide to go to see them. One such place is only 20-30 min away. I kind of suck at giving directions sorry. Basically it’s Philmont to Cimarron. Then get on the highway to Raton. Then turn left on the dirt road right before Cold Beer. Then drive all the way back. At the end you will find Dawson Cemetery! I honestly thought I’d get attacked by a mountain lion or something so I was in and out of the car quickly. Brief history lesson! So there was a bunch of coal mines and a few accidents. Now there’s a cemetery. I was hoping to explore an abandoned mineshaft or something, but no such luck.

Sometimes I just drive somewhere on a whim. Point of Rocks is a good example. I found it labeled between Springer and Clayton on my New Mexico map. So I grabbed my stuff and off I went. We will go over my trip planning skills some other time. If you are, in fact, driving from Springer to Clayton you will eventually pass the sign to the Point of Rocks. That’s exactly what it is. A pile of rocks. I drove almost 2 hours to see some rocks. At some point 200 years ago or whatever some Lewis and Clark wannabes stood on these here rocks to get their bearings. Cool! *sarcasm* At least it was a nice day out.

So at some point in the summer I got really bored and walked around basecamp taking pictures. It was probably right after the Ute Park fire. I first took BB8 to the mail room at Admin. There’s a few scanners, a computer, and a bunch of mail. Luckily there was only one person to judge me and my ridiculous picture taking poses. Admin is right behind the giant flagpole if you come into Philmont on the road from Cimarron.

Since I was already close to the commissary I went there next. Unfortunately there were people working here so I was super quick to avoid the anxiety I mentioned earlier. Bb8 got to drive the forklift though. So it was worth it! The commissary houses a bunch of warehouses, freezers, coolers, and food. The people here are the reason you get delicious trail meals while hiking.

So on my drive to Oklahoma City we (Ethan, bb8, and I) stopped next to some construction equipment to take pictures. There were no signs saying I couldn’t take pictures of a lego with the vehicles so hahahaha that’s why I did. There was literally no people there so it was safe to take pictures. The only problem was we were next to a temporary gravel highway so every time someone flew by they would send a ton of small rock missiles our way. My car didn’t lose any windows that day fortunately. ~This is a forklifts big cousin. That’s the reference here.~

The next stop was the statue in front of the CHQ (Camping Headquarters) office. It’s one of the first neat things you see when you arrive in my humble opinion. CHQ is another place I go to check mail. I also turn my applications in here and check in/out. Right next door is logistics! This is the building you come to to plan your hike/itinerary. They have a massive map of Philmont and staff that use the super confusing radio codes. In the background you can see the bell in front of the CHQ Dining Hall. That’s where I will be for a few weeks this summer. Before every meal the crews line up to watch the rangers perform their song/chant and do their very exciting trust fall. It goes a little like this:

Someone screams: “One day I was walking around with my bb8 lego at Yellowstone and I met a bear. I preceded to tell the bear that there was a honey shortage at camp 67 and he needed to go help out right away. All of a sudden all I could think of was….I WANT TO GO BAAAAAAACK TO PHILMONT!…….”

Ok so that’s a kind of boring version. There’s a bunch of other lines that go along with it, but that’s the general idea. After the song everyone standing on the bell rock thing does a trust fall. It’s pretty cool to watch.

At this point it was getting a little hot so we stopped for some water. It’s always good to stay hydrated! *I’m a hypocrite here. I drink almost exclusively soda.* You might notice I put the antenna on wrong! Next I walked all the way through tent city to get a picture with the welcome back sign. I got it on my little camera. My cousin got me a cool instant camera so I attempted some pictures. It looks a little old school this way. As you can see I wasn’t able to focus or set the exposure settings, but I think it is one of my better pictures.

It’s about 1000°F over there so we went back over to outfitting services to cool off. Bb8 set that up himself. It’s bear bag. Basically you put all of your ‘smellables’ in it so animals like bears can’t get to them. Smellables could be anything from toothpaste to your trail meals to a shirt you spilled Gatorade on. This is also where you get your trail meals, pots and pans, tents, and other equipment you might need for your hike. ~Ok so I did this almost 7 months apart so don’t kill me if the weather looks different.~

Next door is the equipment warehouse ~I didn’t take notes on everything, so I’m sorry if I get a name wrong.~ When I walked over in my Philmont greens to ask the guys if I could take a picture inside I got HARDCORE judgemental looks. It’s not everyday someone walks over with a lego to take a picture. They have a bunch of weird things in there too like alien statues and pink flamingos.

I guess if you are that person that gets super homesick or really really want to pay to use the phone you will be the one using the phones near the other mail room. Yes there’s a bunch. From my understanding you buy a card from the Tooth of Time Traders and then you can use the phone. The ToT (for short) is the place to be if you forget something at home. There’s also cool tee-shirts, patches, belt buckles, footwear, and other things.

Nearby we have the Conservation office or Cons for short. The cons staff build trails, campsites, help with fire prevention, fix things, cut down trees….to name a few. I think it would be cool to take a picture with a chainsaw or the Masticator (like an upgraded bobcat), but I went on a Sunday sooooooo I didn’t find anyone. So you can use the gravel road next to cons to get back to staff parking. I mean you can also cut across to the parking lot, but who wants to do that when you can take the scenic byway of sorts. We passed the fleet of school busses. They help shuttle crews in and out of the backcountry. You can see bb8 as the whole dot in the middle. Closer view. ~I didn’t open the door. It was like that.~

The infirmary is basically a mini hospital. It has doctors, medics, hospital rooms, and lots of medical expertise. I came here last summer because I burned my arm on an oven. See the mistake was I told my mom. She was like ‘go or I’ll tell your boss.’ So I went. See? It’s not that bad. Just a little red. I give it a 4/10 for pain. The chemical one is worse lol. Anyways, the infirmary gave me ointment and a bandage wrap. My wrapping skills are abysmally bad.

So I was telling this like a story, but I seem to have gotten off track sooooo…

A while back I bought my dad a brick at the National Scouting Museum. It was a lot of money, but totally worth it. He seemed happy when I told him. We also took a few more statue pictures. Statue pictures are fun.

So before I said that one of the first cool things you see is the statue at CHQ, but I retract that now. The sign is way more exciting with all the boots on it. You can see Mr. car in the background too haha. He travels with me as well. Even if BB8 is busy and can’t join me. I’ve never thrown my boots on the sign because then I’d have to buy new boots! In the pavilion over there near Mr. Car is where they kept the old Carriages and stuff while the museum was being worked on. Have you ever driven a vehicle like this? ~Note I didn’t actually climb on this. I have long arms.~

If like me you lose your mail and you walk from Admin to CHQ office and you still don’t find what you are looking for you can go to the CHQ mailroom. On the way there you might pass this cool sign which will tell you where to go to find everything EXCEPT your mail. I have spend many minutes of my life searching for my mail. Shortly later you will arrive here to find that your package or letter is somewhere else. That literally always happens to me. Hahaha It’s ok.

One place that you can go to exercise is the workout room. Usually just staff go, but sometimes people from Cimarron come too. ~This is unconfirmed by me as I don’t work out.~ Much to the amusement of my friends I snapped a few pictures. I’m not a very strong guy, so that is an accurate depiction of how much I can lift.

Ok so we went to most of the interesting places at CHQ. I didn’t try to get a picture at the shooting range, COPE course, or cattle headquarters since that would’ve meant an awkward conversation with upper management.

I work at PTC or Philmont Training Center. It’s across the street. This is the main office and yet another place I go to check for mail. A few of my friends work here. Lots of office work so not really my place to shine.

There have been a few times it snowed at the ranch and I took that opportunity to take more pictures. You can’t really see the Tooth in this one. (The Tooth = the Tooth of Time mountain.) This was right after a storm. Usually there is a nice white fog or mist right after. Here’s a throwback to the BB8 fall Villa shot. Winter edition! I had a better camera for this one. Sadly I got all wet laying in the snow and I had to dry BB8 off after.

One place we haven’t discussed yet is the Philmont Fire department. It was really really windy when I went to take this picture. The firemen are really nice and do such a great job when trouble does arise. There isn’t really a full scale city fire department like in Boston here. There are more like a bunch of mini ones. One between Springer and Cimarron, Miami (New Mexico), a couple at Philmont… you get the idea.

Have you ever been to the commissary in the fall season during food packing? I have! BB8 got to sit on the sealer. You might be in awe that this very machine probably kissed the bag of food you opened! Haha maybe not. In the summer almost all of the empty stacked boxes are gone so I thought it would be neat to see everything before the party started. This is a small portion of all the pallets that sit in the commissary warehouses. Basically we take all the food like Oreos, dehydrated meals, Gatorade, squeeze cheese… and pack it into bags ourselves. It’s pretty repetitive, but doing it with your Friends is cool. This year they are packing 400,000 bags. Isn’t that crazy?

That’s about it for my Philmont basecamp tour. I have a few other pictures so let’s go through them together as well. I stopped here on my way to Oklahoma City. It’s on the border of the Texas panhandle. It’s a lot like the Sand Creek Massacre NM, but bigger. I know I say this a lot now, but this was also in the middle of nowhere.

I went to Farmington last December and the whole point of me going was to see Aztec Ruins NM, get a souvenir patch, a stamp for my National Park passport, and take a picture with bb8. The doorways were pretty small for me, but perfect for a lego! My friend Graham told me that there was a way out at the end. That was a lie. I had to shimmy back with my backpack, camera, and BB8. I’m not afraid to hike my lego up a mountain or around a venue like Red Rocks Amphitheater. This is at the top of the mesa at Tent Rocks National Monument. You can see for miles and miles up here. Hiking bb8 up isn’t that hard. I just take the antennas off and carry him in my backpack. However, the camera bag swinging around like it owns the place is really annoying. On the way to Aztec Ruins I tried this sort of risky sunrise shot in the Carson National Forrest. There I was laying in the middle of a highway at 5:45am in the semi dark. I’m still working on my photography as you can see. I find it challenging to get the background focused without totally blurring out the foreground (bb8).

Another great question for any lego enthusiast: Have you ever taken a picture of your lego set above a big dam(n) spillway? ~Hahaha stupid joke point for me!~ I have! That was at the Navajo Dam in northern New Mexico. It’s a little hard to tell just how high this is, but it’s pretty nuts. Go up and you are basically in Colorado.

That’s about it for this blog. Sorry if I bored you out. If you stayed as hyped as me then that’s great! I can talk forever as you can see. I have a few +1200mi trips with bb8 planned out for this summer. In the meantime, I’m going to try to do a few smaller ones. I’ll write another blog, next time I’m in the mood, on how I go about choosing a destination. Thank you to my Aunt for providing this amazing road map.

Hope you have a good day! Thank you for reading!