Hi Folks… First of all, a huge welcome to all of our new patrons! For you who have been with us for a while, thank you for your continued support : ) Our programs are only made possible because of you! That you are here reading this means you’ve chosen to support our vision of adventure and the flow of information. Regardless of how long you’ve been with us on this journey, we want you to know that you being here really means a lot to Kathy and me!
Ok, The Details…
We recently traveled to Quartzite where our plan was to spend a month exploring that area further. As it turns out, the internet there was terrible. It HAD been really great a few weeks ago but because of all the people now swarming to Quartzsite (Arizona), the towers cannot handle the traffic. The speed (2 weeks ago) was a solid 20 megs down and an amazing 35 megs up! Way enough to broadcast all day long with no issues. A few days ago it was .6 down (ugh!) and 1 meg up… Pitiful : /
So… We left! But not before we went on a short adventure!
Several miles out across the Mojave Desert is another of the mysterious intaglios created by … who knows! These are medium to very large glyphs etched into the desert that are mostly impossible to see from the ground. Though the designs are different from those on the Nazca and Palpa deserts of Peru, the process of etching the figures into the earth is much the same! Desert patina-covered stone (a dark brown color) that has not been disturbed for thousands of years is carefully pushed away from the surface revealing the lighter-colored earth beneath (it’s mainly sand in Nazca and Palpa).
We took quite a few photos while there and also shot some great drone footage! We’ll post the photos and drone footage in another day or two. Here’s a link we found on the internet showing a 360º look at the intaglio we visited!
From Quartzsite, we decided to travel 109 miles back toward the Phoenix area. There is a really great place just north of Phoenix near Black Canyon City that is super nice and inexpensive. If you take a look at the GPS track map you’ll see exactly where we are! Best of all, the internet connection here is awesome! We have decided to stay here a month – which means we’ll be here for Christmas! On January 1st we plan to hit the road again and head toward Tucson, Tombstone, and all points south! Of course, our destination and travel plans depend on the weather!
While we’re here we plan to book several shows. Our list has been growing the last few weeks and we’re now in a great location to resume the Jerry Wills Show broadcasts!!! Plus, today we made a special trip back to our storage unit (50 miles away) to collect a huge bundle of old photos that we’ll use to tell the story from the year 2000 expedition to Tocache. I had forgotten how many photos we have! Bundles that haven’t seen the light of day for nearly 20 years were pulled out. We start going through them tomorrow!
Now that we have these and the journal I kept during that expedition, we’re ready to dive into the process of storyboarding these together to tell this amazing story. Honestly, this was the most epic and dangerous adventure I have ever been on. And for Kathy, it was her first full high adventure into the most dangerous place we have ever ventured into together!
BTW, Kathy ultimately discovered five lost cities as the result of this trip!
Here’s a brief look into how the Tocache adventure started…
To get to our expedition launch point we hired a private pilot in Tarapoto to fly us into a remote part of the jungle near Nuevo Tocache. The pilot was a young man who spoke perfect English (20 or so). We later found out he used this plane to fly drugs between Columbia and Peru.
Midway to Tocache, we encountered a really powerful lightning storm. The twin-engine Cessna was being thrown around as lightning flashed around us. There was no way to continue, so we were forced to land in Juanjui, a small village occupied by the Shining Path and Narco-Traffickers… very dangerous!
In case you’re wondering, we were only carrying a 35mm film camera, no video equipment, and no communications equipment at all. Things really became exciting from that point on!
Yeah, it’s quite a story that no one, not even our family (except for Bryce, our son), has ever heard in its entirety because it would have freaked them out. You will be the first to hear this story from start to finish, and we’re really excited to share this with you!
These broadcasts will be available to every patron at or above the $2 level. We’ll announce the broadcast dates for all shows in a few days here on Patreon : )
Ok, Back to work… There’s a lot to do! We’ll be in touch soon!
Jerry & Kathy