Mule and Little Girl
“Mule” and his mule companion “Little Girl” made their way along Highway 36 through Plumas County on June 16, before planning a short rest stop in Chester, just a few miles ahead of them.
Mule said that he and 27-year-old Little Girl live outside, 365 days a year, camping in the forest at night before continuing onward to parts unknown.
“Our lives are spent between destinations,” he said. “We live this way because it’s in our bones,” adding that they travel all over the western United States.
This day they’re heading to the town of Chester for a few supplies, before eventually heading westward toward the coast, to pause temporarily at the Pacific Ocean, perhaps, unless they “change their minds” and decide otherwise, he said.
“Little Girl is my family,” shared Mule. “I wouldn’t be worth anything without her.” Despite Mule and Little Girl living a nomadic existence, he said he maintains a website, 3mules.com with photos, linked to a Facebook page using a wireless computer to write a blog about his travels.
Mule writes on his website: “Who are we? Where are we from? We are mules. … We live outside all day, every day. Where are we going? Nowhere. We’re already here: the outside, the web of life, the beautiful earth; a place like no other. … A place of golden sparking light, a place for anybody and everybody.”
My wife took a picture of him and his mules in Hillcrest, a neighborhood of San Diego a number of years back (when we still lived there). She saw them on her way to work.