January 25

Cool evening in Sun City AZ.
We arrived here at 1230 local time. Spent last night in a casino parking lot in Indio. Got caught by darkness again

!knocked several oysters loose then went back to his bed.

He tried to open both the oysters and the clams with the piece of steel but immediately realized it was futile. He ended up smashing all of the bivalves as he had done before then settled back and enjoyed a meal of oysters, clams and berries. He washed it all down with water from the spring.

After eating, he pulled off his footwear and examined his feet, there were a couple of red spots on one heel and two of his toes but no blisters. ‘I’ll have to try and go barefoot and toughen them up,” he thought. With nothing else to do and quite tired from the days efforts he crawled into his make shift shelter and was asleep in minutes.

A few hours later, as the colder night air settled in he awoke but having nothing to cover himself he could only curl up into a ball and wait for sleep to come once more. 

Chapter 4.

Bob woke just at sun rise the next morning. He stiffly backed out from under the cover and finding a spot clear of rocks, he forced himself to do some vigorous exercises. Between the rising sun and his efforts he warmed up in a few minutes. He took a swallow of water, noting that he only had a half bottle left. He was already tired of raw oysters but having no choice he cracked open two that were left from the evening before and this time chewed them thoroughly before swallowing. As he sat and ate his breakfast he stared at the sun glinting off the rippled waters of the channel.  Suddenly a thought struck him and he jumped to his feet, “Where did I leave it? It must be here.” He cried aloud.

He went to his scrounge pile and quickly found the thick bottom of the broken glass jug. He laid it carefully on a log, pulled on his socks, his one shoe and the “moccasin” then picked up the newspaper pages and felt them. “They must be drier.” He muttered.

He looked about and spotting a small branch projecting out from the bush, hurried to it and draped the paper over it.

“I need fines, maybe some pitch.” He snatched up one of the multi-purpose plastic bags and headed to and along the deer trail. He hurried along until he was where the patch of pine were growing and leaving the trail he was soon shaking dead needles caught in the lower branches into the bag, When he felt he had enough he then moved over to one of the bigger trees and searched around the lower trunk. The first tree was all unbroken bark but a second one had several scars where limbs had broken off and he was able to scrape away almost two handfuls of dry pitch. One limb was still hanging by a sliver of wood, he broke it off and then broke it into several small pieces. Everything went into the bag and he returned to the beach.

He decided he should wait for a little while longer so walked to the narrow little bay where he had found the running shoe. He focused on one spot where because of a concentration of wood debris he had avoided the first time. Throwing the wood to one side he worked his way into mass of twigs, logs and water worn boards. His first find was a battered one gallon paint tin, the lid was still intact which explained its presence. Next came a piece of heavy plastic sheathing followed by a worn and tattered square of canvas. There were several more plastic bags and finally a tangled ball of nylon fishing line.

He spread out the canvas, threw everything onto it and after gathering the corners swung the bundle over his shoulder and made his way back to the camp.

He resisted taking a sip of the last of his water and set about making a  rock lined pit. When it was completed he retrieved one piece of the hanging paper and crumpling it up he patiently arranged a small handful of the pine needles and sprinkled some of the more crystallized bits of pitch over the needles. Next he arranged some of the finest twigs from the pine branch in an open side teepee shape. He fussed with everything a bit more then picked up the broken jug bottom. “God I hope this works. I know a magnifying glass will but is there enough in this?” He asked aloud.