The Escape

Chapter 1

Well, after a year I had finally accomplished my goal. I had found a small line cabin, as I called it, up in the mountains in a small valley. It took me months to track down the owner and have him set a price on it. That included the four acres that the whole valley and the small rough road that got me there. He included the mineral rights that went with it as he said he didn't have a use for them. When I went to the county seat to register the quit claim deed, I found out that two acres were in Arizona, two acres were in New Mexico, and the cabin straddled the line. I didn't have to go to New Mexico to file since the original deed was registered in Arizona and they would do the paperwork and send it on. I had paid all the fees when the clerk asked me if I wanted to transfer the old quartz mine to my name since it was listed as part of the property. Of course like an idiot I did, and there went another hundred dollars down the drain. She was able to show me on the map where it was supposed to be located. I hadn't seen it when walking over the area. Now that I was legal, it was time to do some of the repairs to be able to move in.

Six months later, I finally got everything ready. I had even been able to enclose the small spring on the valley wall and piped it to the cabin. When the inspector showed up it was a big surprise, but he rapidly told me it was just a routine visit since I was only doing repairs and not building. Some kind of BLM rule required the inspection since I was surrounded on all sides by free range. They had to make sure I wasn't polluting the grazing outside the valley. Hell, it was sand everywhere you looked except where I was located. There was about a half an acre of heavy grass near the spring and then nothing but sand everywhere else around the valley. There was only one way in and I had put up a metal gate to close off the road and hung "No Trespassing" signs on it. The valley walls were about thirty feet high in a large oval. It would be an excellent wind break during the monsoon season and the dust storms would blow around me. Anyway, he looked around, had a cup of coffee, said he couldn't see any problems, and climbed back in his truck and left.

(I know you're wondering when the story starts, hang in there with me and we will get going as soon as I get the small crap out of the way.)

There wasn't much work to be had in the nearby small town, so I had befriended a couple of the local guys who hauled in firewood all winter and stacked it by the cabin. It was mostly mesquite logs, if you could call them logs, but they did burn hot and threw out a lot of heat. They also helped me with the lifting since I have a bad back. They mostly wanted beer and a few bucks for smokes. It worked out great for me since my small VA pension only let me have so much to work with. I made a deal with Zeke, an old fella that used to have a junkyard. He had a 7.5 kw propane generator out of an RV that he sold me cheap. Now you probably are wondering where all the money was coming from, but you have to remember I had been planning something like this for several years. Every month I bought dry goods and anything else I thought I would need when I finally found the place I wanted. Over the last three years I had been able to store quite a lot, buying bulk and online. I made do but didn't have much left over at the end of the month until my next check came into the bank. The first night I stayed at the cabin, I didn't get much sleep because of all the new sounds around me, but mostly because of the quiet. I had been living in town close to I-10 and between the traffic and the trains going through at all hours of the night and day, there wasn't much quiet to be had there.

Well, when I got up at sunrise, I fixed my coffee and had a bowl of oatmeal before hooking up the pickup bed trailer to my Crown Vic and heading out to get my generator. We had made an enclosure for it out of stone behind the cabin to protect it from the elements. I had already wired the cabin so other than the propane tank; it was ready to be connected. Wiring it up I could do without messing up my back. I had asked old Zeke to find me some tanks but I hadn't heard if he had found anything. I made arrangements with the guys to meet at the small truck stop and store nearby to do all the heavy lifting. When I picked up the guys at the store, they were all excited about some new flu virus that was spreading all over the east coast. I didn't pay much attention but headed directly to Zeke's. When we arrived, Zeke met us outside his shop with a big smile on his face.

"Well you owe me an extra fifty bucks."

"For what, Zeke? I thought we had settled on the price last month."

"We did, but there were a few extra expenses I didn't count on. Besides, I not only got you a five hundred pound tank, but also three fifty pound tanks. Since you were nice enough to pay me cash before you even picked it up, I decided to spend the time to rebuild the whole thing. I had most of what was needed lying around the shop. Now, are you going to tell me that isn't worth fifty bucks?"

I just grinned, counted out the fifty, and handed it to him. We followed him into the shop and I was surprised to see the generator bolted to a couple of short 8x8 rafter logs and running off a twenty pound tank. The thing was so quiet I didn't realize it was running till I put my hand on it and felt the vibration. I looked at Zeke with a shocked expression and he was grinning at me and laughing.

"Well, since you said you were putting it in a stone enclosure, I added another muffler and a longer exhaust pipe so the noise wouldn't echo. I doubt that inside that cabin of yours you will be able to hear it running. Besides, it was just junk I had lying around here and it gave me something to do. That thing has been running since yesterday afternoon when I finished putting it back together. It hasn't even used half of that bottle of propane, so if you fill the tanks I got you and hook them together, they should last you a long damned time. Oh, and ole Jerry down at the old station in Rodeo said he has enough propane to fill them a lot cheaper that you will find in Willcox or Safford. I suggest you drop the generator and come back for the tanks and go get them filled. I have a small hand cranked lift that will pick up the tanks that you can attach to your pickup bed. You can bring it back after you get the tanks installed at home. Don't worry about the weight as it is rated for 10 tons. I also have the hose and regulators already assembled that will let you hook them in series. Then you can pick out which tank to run off of. Let's get her loaded."

I wasn't much help, but with the three of them it was loaded and the winch attached in less than a half an hour. All in all, it took less than an hour and a half to load, unload it in the enclosure and load the empty tanks. I headed to Jerry's to fill the propane tanks. The drive was longer than anything else and by 2 in the afternoon we were on the way back to the cabin. It took us longer to build a base for the round RV tanks than it did to unload them. The big tank I put on the end to make it easier to get to since I was planning on using up the RV tanks first. I won't say what Jerry charged me to fill them, but I will say it was over two hundred dollars cheaper than what it would have cost me at either of the commercial plants. I was glad it was almost the end of the month as I didn't have much left in the bank. I bought the guys a 12-pack each and several pouches of rolling tobacco. They were happy as I was when I headed back to the cabin to hook up everything.

Now me being the normal man, I hadn't realized what a mess I would run into in order to hook up the generator to the cabin wiring, and the three burner stove and oven I had bought out of a wrecked RV. Old dummy me had forgotten I had to install a convertor to go from ac to dc current. As you can tell, I wasn't an electrician, so I had to go to my friends to download and print detailed instructions on how to wire it up. Since the lights in the cabin were 12 volt and the plugs were 115 volt, I hadn't realized what a pain it was gonna be...