During our first Summer boondocking on the Mesa in Taos New Mexico, I never slept very well because I was constantly on edge about people messing with our stuff outside while I slept. We’re way out in the middle of nowhere, in a community of people who are a mix of salt-of-the-earth hippies, the conspiracy theorists, and relatively normal people. Ya know, as far as “normal” goes on the mesa, which isn’t sayin’ a lot. There’s a strong sense of community there, but it definitely feels a little more like Mad Max than the American Dream, in-spite of the fact that many of the people out there love it. In-fact, I love it there, but it didn’t change the fact that, at night, every noise outside had me peeking out the window.

One night at about 3 AM, while we were parked on our small parcel of land in Taos, I woke up to the distinct sound of plastic sliding along my gravel driveway. It would intermittently start, then stop, then start again. After listening for a few minutes, and concluding that it was definitely not the wind this time, I woke Kate up and asked her to listen. She started to say “Alex, it’s just the wind” when the sound happened again. She then said “Okay…that’s weird”

So, I jumped out of bed and peeked out the window, and I could not see anything because, again, we’re on the freaking Mesa and it’s super duper dark there. So, I shut the door, grab a kitchen knife (lol) as well as a flashlight and open the door. I flash the light around the area and say “Who’s out there?!” at this point fully panicked and expecting a zombie or something to come crawling at me.

In response to my call, I hear nothing more than a shuffling sound, and it was walking toward me, but I still couldn’t see anything. I promptly shut my door, locked it half-panicked, looked at Kate and said “wtf do I do?!”

I ran over to the window next to my door, turned on my camper light, and looked outside, and laughed. I looked at Kate and said “You’re not gonna fuckin’ believe this.”

It was…well…just watch the video.

Yep, that’s right. Donkeys. Two donkeys. They apparently got out, and were roaming the area. We shoo’d them off and let the community know – apparently they belong to one of the locals who located them and brought them home the next day.

Oh, Taos.