Bone has been in many tough situations in his life; he can handle tough questions. Here he rests on top of a saguaro cactus in Arizona looking for border control agents. His lack of official papers, or even a birth certificate, can cause problems at times.
Q: Do you really talk? We’re speaking ethics here, Bone. Blogging is about transparency. That means honesty.
A. Are you crazy? Have you ever heard a bone talk? Of course I don’t talk. I just think out loud.
Q: Curt sometimes refers to you as he. Does this mean you are a male bone?
A. No. He makes assumptions, lot of them. He was showing me to a biologist at a writers’ conference and she suggested I have my DNA tested. “Just cut a small chip off of it,” she said nonchalantly. “You can determine its sex and breed.”
“Just cut a small chip off of it!” Outrageous! I am not some it to have chips cut out of. Besides, I lead a rich fantasy life and have no desire to know whether I am male or female. Call me she, he, or Bone, but never it.
Um, I think Bone is definitely a male in this photo. –Curt
Q: You have travelled all over the world and met thousands of people. How do they usually react to you?
A. With befuddlement. You should have seen the look on the face of the customs agent in New Zealand who tried to seize me as ‘animal matter.’ But emotions run the gamut. There was a Japanese man who got off a tour bus at Yellowstone National Park and wanted to hold me for good luck. Soon there were 40 other Japanese handing me around, oohing, and taking photos. I was thrilled. On the opposite side, I know a woman who refuses to touch me, like I have cooties. “I don’t know where Bone has been,” she states primly. Not surprisingly, there is also jealousy. “I want to be you and travel the world,” a good friend in Sacramento told me.
Some people act like I have cooties. This woman almost dropped me and then washed her hands! –Bone
Her daughter, on the other hand, so to speak, understands proper bone etiquette and respect. –Bone
Q: What is your favorite thing to do?
A. Visit graveyards; there are lots of old bones there. My favorite grave is Smokey Bear’s in Capitan, New Mexico. I once stood on his tombstone for ten minutes trying to communicate but all I could get was something about ‘growling and a prowling and a sniffing the air.’ A close second is the grave of Calamity Jane in Deadwood, South Dakota. What a woman! These are difficult choices, though, when you toss in the likes of Hemingway, Daniel Boone and Billy the Kid. On the light side I once visited Ben and Jerry’s graveyard of discarded ice cream flavors in Vermont. My spookiest experience was a visit to the Capela dos Ossos, the Chapel of Bones, in Evora, Portugal. Those folks definitely have a skeleton in their closet, lots of them.
Bone has a special fondness for unusual graves. Here he hangs out with Billy the Kid in New Mexico. Has he been in a shoot out? Is that blood on his vest?
Q: So, what’s your second most favorite?
A. Too hard; I am a dilettante dabbler, but here are a few.
- Wandering, of course, anywhere and everywhere and by all modes: bikes, kayaks, rafts, skis, backpacks, sailboats, planes, helicopters, trains, cars, RVs, etc.
- Visiting wild, remote and beautiful natural areas. I started life wandering the Sierra Nevada Mountains, John Muir’s Range of Light.
- Seeking out the strange such as ghosts and aliens (I’ve been to Roswell four times).
- Attending unique events like Burning Man but I also have a fondness for any type of fair.
- Meeting weird people like Tom.
Bone backpacking on the John Muir Trail.
Tom being eaten by a bony desert monster.
Q: Speaking of Tom, he and Curt ‘discovered’ you in 1977 and you have wandered extensively with both. Which do you like best?
A. Eeyore, the jackass who can’t keep track of his tail. We’re traveling companions and he saved me from being strung up and buried on Boothill in Tombstone Arizona. I’d robbed a bank, cheated at cards and hung out with women of questionable character. (This is what I mean by having a rich fantasy life. It’s also known as evasion.)
“I was in deep trouble in Tombstone. Wyatt Earp had arrested me for robbing a bank and Doc Holiday was checking me for weapons.
My life as Bone was in serious jeopardy.
Odds were I was going to end up on Boothill, along with Billy Clanton.
But then the ever brave Eeyore came to my rescue! I hopped on his back and we went riding off into the sunset while leaping over large rocks.
Q: Which of your journeys has been most memorable?
A. I would have to say traveling the length of Africa in the back of a truck from the Sahara Desert in the north to Cape Town in the south. Almost falling off the back of a riverboat into a piranha infested section of the Amazon River would have to be a close second. I was perched on the back railing doing a photo shoot. And then, of course, there was the 10,000-mile bike trip.
Bone on photo shoot barely escapes falling off the edge into the Piranha infested waters of the Amazon. “I was falling off when Curt leapt across the boat and grabbed me.”
“I was much smarter when I rafted down the Colorado. I wore a life jacket!”
“That didn’t protect me from pirates. The dreaded pirate Steve held a knife to my throat and demanded to know where I buried my treasure.”
Q: You are often seen scrambling over rocks in remote sections of the Southwestern United States. What’s that all about?
A. I’ve developed a fondness for Native American Rock art. It resonates with my bone-like nature. It’s also another excuse to go wandering around in the outdoors. Plus, some those places might be haunted and it is a great place to look for UFOs. Some of the petroglyphs look amazingly like aliens. Finally, wandering in the desert is known to be good for the soul. Ask the Prophets of yore.
How can this guy and his strange dog not be aliens?
Here I am making tracks across White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. It’s a great place to watch out for UFOs.
Q: Ah, being a born-again bone, do you have any insights into the great unknown?
A. Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Q: Finally, and this may be a little sensitive, but do you always run around naked?
A. What kind of a question is that? Do you think I am uncivilized? For shame. I am the epitome of haute couture! A bow and arrow toting, card-carrying NRA member in Montana has designed and made me two leather vests. What’s more, an 80 plus year old woman in Kansas going on 20 with a crush on Johnny Depp and a room devoted to the Egyptian gods has made me a kilt and several other outfits. Then there is the horse woman actress in Ohio whose husband is an ex-secret service agent who has promised me an outfit and the artist head of a PR firm in the Bahamas who has promised me another. Face it; I am hot stuff, clothed or naked. I may take up a modeling career.
My Bahamian/Canadian friend makes me a new vest in the wilds of Montana. –Bone
Bone, wearing his newly made kilt, fights off a ferocious sea monster in a scene straight out of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’
So… now you have heard from Bone, do you have any questions you would like to ask him? He promises to answer.
NEXT BLOGS:
Friday: The stunning temples of Burning Man.
Monday: Bandon by the Sea. It’s back to the Oregon Coast.
Wednesday: The exciting tale of how Bone was rescued from a life of quiet contemplation. Part I
Wandering through Time and Place 
So many experiences Bone has had! It’s only a matter of time before he (she?) has his own action/adventure movie released. 😄
Ah Carrie, if Legos can make an action flick, why not me? I picture myself swinging from tree to tree like that ape man while pounding on my hairless chest and being chased by a tribe of hungry cannibals. Or maybe I will just show up in one of your books and we can go to Hollywood together as the Maltese Bone. –Bone
Ooh, as someone whose newest book (not published yet) has the word “Bone” in the title, I like that title you’ve come up with: The Maltese Bone. Definitely something there, Bone! 😁
I think I am in love, again. 🙂 What a smart woman you are, Carrie, to put Bone in the title. It almost guarantees a best seller! –Bone
Haha, let’s hope you’re right, Bone, let’s hope you’re right.
We have a question: Have you met Boney M?
Music is in my bones, dear Suan and Mel. While I never attended a Boney M concert, anyone with the smarts to choose a name like Boney M has to be really good. And I find their song, Rasputin, positively mesmerizing. Thanks for talking with this old bone. –Bone
Heheh. Good one. Manage to dodge a jib to the rib! lol
Ooh, a jib to the rib! Is that anything like a koan to a bone? –Bone
LOL. Perhaps a cone for bone!
You, ermmm, I mean Bone, has a rich imagination. Definitely aliens in the petroglyph. I did that same trip through Africa only in reverse – went to Morocco, got the ferry to Spain and drove to London. Was it you or Tom did that?
Alison
Dear Alison,
Curt asked me to respond. Tom took me on the Africa trip. It would have been great but he rarely let me out of his pouch. I think he was afraid that I might run away if we came on an elephant bone graveyard. And I might have.
Either that or Tom was afraid that taking me out and introducing me to his traveling companions might have made them think he was weirder than they already thought he was. Curt always takes me out and hopes people will find him weird.
And yes! That was an alien. I am so glad you agree. –Bone
Chuckle. Thanks Bone. Too bad you you had to stay in the pouch in Africa. I bet it would have been fun to meet a few elephant bones!
A.
And rhino bones, and giraffe neck bones, and impala bones, and water buffalo bones, and lion bones, and… 🙂 –Bone
I’d like to know if Bone always hangs around live humans or does he, she, Bone have any Bone friends?
Dear G,
Well I did marry Bonetta! It was love at first site when I saw her big nose poking out of a swamp in your neck of the woods. She is a 100% Florida girl except she prefers swamps to beaches. We boned around together for a couple of years before deciding to tie the knot at Burning Man. We now have a baby Bone, but that’s a secret. Don’t tell anyone. –Bone
Your secret is safe with me.
Thanks, G. I knew it would be. –Bone
Nice to meet you Bone. If we ever travel together, I’ll introduce you to my companion, Fat Buddha.
Dear Peggy, I would love to meet Fat Buddha! We are both masters of Zen! We are both unfathomable. Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmm. –Bone
Haha, definitely your ‘alter ego’ … must have been hard not to answer for him! 😉
Dear Dave, I am wondering whether I should be insulted here. While I admit to liking Curt’s lifestyle, and that of Tom as well, I am not anyone’s ‘alter ego!’ I am totally capable of answering on my own. Thank you very much. In fact I can go on and on and on… Bone
Whoops … sounds like somebody it’s a bad idea to cross … crossbones, geddit? (I’ll get my coat … )
Ah, don’t take Bone seriously, Dave. After 40 years, his thinking has become a little ossified. 🙂 He got excited about the skull and crossbones idea, however. Now he wants a pirate flag to fly. Somewhere he has a pirate costume…
😀
You’d better watch out. If Bone ever comes across Hank-of-Hair, you know what you’ll have on your hands.
Dear Linda, I had a hank of hair, in fact I had a long hairy tail back when I was connected to a horse. I also had large tourists who rode me into the Sierra backcountry and made my back sway! I was paid in grass. So, if I see a hank of hair coming my way, I plan to dodge it. No Honeycomb for me. 🙂 –Bone
Dear Bone, you crack me up. Are you always this spontaneous? I’m feeling very dull in comparison. What is next on your bucket list? ~ Gus
Dear Joanne and Tim, I have a number of cracks and most of them go up. I always tell Curt that he better treat me right or I am going to split.
Trust me, you are far from dull. Curt lets me read your blogs.
The next big item on my bucket list is backpacking this summer. Curt is going to take me back to the meadow where I changed from being bone to Bone. He will be telling the story of my discovery starting on Wednesday. I am thinking about changing my name to BONE. Thanks for talking with me. –Bone
Bone: would you consider dressing up for different world holidays like Manneken Pis does in Brussels? You could be famous, too!
Hey, I’ll dress up in whatever clothes people make for me Juliann. Right now I have Scottish, mountain man, cowboy, and pirate costumes. My own sewing skills are somewhat limited, however. Are you offering? 🙂 You could become an official member of the International Society of the Bone. –Bone
Bone, I had no idea you were married. Obviously you love Bonetta for her brains and not …well, anyway, you’re my kind of bone. I am sure that after all the time you have spent with humans, you’ve made some observations about them. What is something you know about people that you wish we knew for ourselves?
Wow, Crystal, you want me to philosophize. I’m honored. But first, of course I love Bonita for her brains. What else did you have in mind?
Now for my observations on humans: They are infinitely weird. My feelings may be slightly iinfluenced by the fact that I have mainly hung out with Curt and Tom, however. What do you think, Crystal! –Bone
I am so sorry your human interaction has been limited to the fringe society! Certainly you’ve met Peggy. She at least seems like a good balance to Curt and Tom.
I agree, Crystal, Peggy is like an early summer breeze in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. She just yelled “Yes!” and shook her fist in the air. Not sure what that means. Influence goes both ways, however. Living with Curt for 25 years changed how she views the world in minor but still significant ways. I heard her say the other day that she would have liked to have been a lighthouse keeper. Another time I heard her say she could be happy selling the house and wandering in a small RV! Is she becoming a bit fringe, or is that natural? I’d like an outside perspective. –Bone
I think Peggy is expressing that she views life as an adventure, and that is perfectly natural in my opinion. You seem like a lucky bone, having people around who share your wanderlust. 🙂
Yes. 🙂
Laughing uncontrollably… you have quite the imagination (or is this tall tail all attributed to Bone)? I don’t think I’d want to ruffle his tale feathers. I happened to stumble in here googling Tom Lovering. The name rang a distant bell, but all I could find was this post (the other Tom Lovering didn’t seem like the sort of fellow to associate with high class ummm… bones like Bone!
Looking forward to the Grand Canyon trip.
There are many stories about Bone, Gunta! Funny that you Google Tom and come to the ten questions about Bone. Of course Bone was answering. He’s staring at me now and just said, “Tell Gunta hi! Does she want to take me somewhere?” He lives on one of my book shelves when not traveling. –Curt
I should probably ask Eric. He might get jealous! 😀
🙂 🙂