11/11

11/11 is a good date to click some pics

The bronco patiently waits for me to settle in for another night of living off grid.... Or as some might say, saving the world from global warming one amp at a time... And staying far enough away from the ocean that rising sea levels can't reach me, just in case.

Coming back from the Walmart in Parker yesterday, I was headed back to Dome Rock, where I boondocked for the last couple of days. But just as I was coming up to Plumosa road, I thought to myself, I don't need to drive all the way out to Dome Rock; why not just drive down Plumosa road and boondock someplace different? And so I did.

I've already been changing my full-timing RV lifestyle; I just didn't realize it. Moving from place to place like I've been doing during my winter travels, I thought I was going to these different places for a reason; after all, to hitch up and move the Arctic Fox was a major production, so I needed at least some semblance of a reason for going through the stress of moving that trailer. But living and traveling in the bronco is shaping up to mean that I don't need a reason of any kind to move anytime.

Since moving the bronco is so quick, easy, and stress-free, I've been boondocking in different locations lately simply because I CAN. If I want to move down the road a mile because the view is better, why not? If a noisy generator is bothering me, I don't have to sit there and listen to it anymore; in a matter of minutes, I can move across the road. Or, if the neighbors are inconsiderate and noisy, I can move to greener pastures without breaking a sweat.

In fact, that's already happened once. When I pulled into Box Wash boondocking area in Wickenburg, Arizona, a while back, I had settled into a boondocking spot. And after lunch, a huge triple axle 5th wheel pulled up about 100 feet away from me and unloaded four large barking dogs, cranked up a generator, and worst of all.... They turned up their music on their outside speakers.

Oh, how I hate outside speakers! Now I don't know what RV manufacturing genius decided that putting outside speakers on an RV was a great idea, but somewhere, at some time, an RV designer told his boss, "I have a great idea! Let's put loudspeakers on the outside of everyone's RV so they can entertain everyone at the State Park campground with their music." I don't know what happened to that individual, but I hope there's a dark corner in the deepest part of Hell reserved for the person that came up with that idea and the idiot that approved it.

But I digress. Now I can move anytime I feel like it, and if I go to the store, I don't have to return to the same spot I left, I am free to come and go as I please, and without having to worry about finding a boondocking spot big enough to put my Arctic Fox in.

                                                                    Theboondork

My nearest neighbor at Dome Rock was a van..... Naturally.

Meanwhile.... I'm boondocked in a forest now.

Back from Walmart in Parker Arizona, I pulled into the Plumosa road boondocking area for the night. If you look to the left of the bronco you can see my nearest neighbor, it's a van.... Naturally.

It appears that Van folks tend to gravitate towards boondocking areas and mostly to avoid the crowds at RV parks. I guess that makes sense when you see all the advertising for camper vans showing them out in the middle of nowhere next to a Lake.

So I guess camper vans attract folks that are less interested in the social aspects of RV Park life, and more interested in the solitude of nature. And some of these Van dwellers that I talk to come from cities, and tell me most RV parks remind them of the cities, the crowds, the noise, and the traffic, they're trying to leave behind.

And speaking of Parker Arizona. On my way to Walmart I spotted this odd site. I have to apologize, I took this picture with my cell phone and it was at least 100 yards away.

This school bus/RV/Mad Max movie prop, was parked in Parker and I assume most of its inhabitants were on the street corners pan handling for money. These are usually rainbow people which is a hippie group I see here every once in a while. Looking at the bus, I think one thing we can say for sure is there are no artists in this group.

It's fairly clearly written on the bus that it's a suicide awareness bus which doesn't surprise me at all considering how many people having to live on this bus must have considered suicide on numerous occasions.... I know I would.

There appears to be a hippie perched on the pickup truck topper that is skillfully blended in to the top of the bus as if it came from the factory that way, and he seems to be giving a lot of thought to how he ended up in this position, and what his future might be. And from the looks of his situation he's probably very fortunate to live this close to a group of folks who are aware of suicide and recognize its symptoms.