theboondork's RV blog

A very special day.....That I almost forgot

10/28/2022

Clicking the pics will send shivers down your spine.

A few Halloween pictures from my daughter's neighborhood.

Oops! I didn't pay attention to what day it was until I looked at my calendar and found out this is my seventh anniversary of full-timing. So I'll have to put off finishing my story from yesterday until I properly recognize this momentous occasion.

Well, today is a special day.... At least for me. October 29, 2015, is the day that I signed the closing documents on the sale of my home in Woodland Park, Colorado. I then hitched up my truck to the Arctic Fox and drove down my driveway, out of my neighborhood, and into an unknown life of living full-time in an RV.

RVs, of course, weren't unknown to me, having owned several of them previously, but living in one full-time without a home base to retreat to and rest up from my travels was new to me and frankly somewhat scary.

When I drove out of Colorado a few days after I closed my bank accounts, and tied up some loose ends. I had no idea where I was going or where I was going to stay, and I no longer had a home to fall back on if things didn't work out, so I was more than a little concerned.

But after I overcame my initial fear of being on my own, I realized that the situation I was in was the best thing for me. Because without someplace to fall back on if things went sideways, I had to make this full-timing life work no matter what because I had burned my bridges and boats and had no direction to go but straight ahead. And once I realized that, to this day, I've never had a second thought about being a full-timer.

Being someone that never liked to make plans, live by a schedule, or go from appointment to appointment, I definitely felt I had done enough of that in the jobs I had, or the businesses I owned, so I wanted to keep all that scheduling to a minimum and "wing it" as much as I possibly could. Because to me, the freedom to come and go whenever and wherever I wanted was the main reason I decided to become a full-timer.

I quickly learned that staying in RV parks was not going to give me the freedom that I was looking for, so I started boondocking more and more and finally figured out boondocking was giving me the freedom that I had been missing trying to live from reservation to reservation at RV parks. I was only truly happy when I could come and go whenever I wanted. So I made up my mind that I needed to be the best boondocker that I could be, and found that the more I boondocked the better I felt.

Now I have no problem camping in normal camping places such as full hookup RV parks, state parks, Corps of Engineers, almost any place if I have to. But I'm happiest when I'm boondocking.

This is getting a bit long, so I'll finish it tomorrow.... If you're lucky.

Theboondork

The wicked witch of Colorado

The wicked witch of Colorado flying on her broom. This is my favorite Halloween decoration in the neighborhood. It looks fantastic and the witch is actually bigger than a normal person... Very impressive.

The exceptionally rare, but very dangerous, Green Widow Spider.

8 Comments

OFM

10/29/2022 04:00:05 pm

October is a good month to start in fulltime RV life, Mine was Oct. 7 and I have never had a hint of wanting any dirt to own me again. As you know I boondock when it is my choice also and do parks when that is what is comfortably available.
The good news is my first eye surgery is next Thursday so I am finally getting to progress toward rolling some Arctic Fox trailer wheels after Christmas. Be safe my wandering friend. Yes I am a bit envious of you. When I came up here to Grandkid Land in July the plan was to roll right after Labor Day.

Tom

10/29/2022 04:29:27 pm

Will it just goes to show you, when you're old and geezerly is hard to make plans more than 15 minutes ahead of time, and if you do you'll probably forget them anyway.

Everybody I've talked to about cataract surgery just loves it, and the most common statement I hear is, "I wish I'd done it sooner." So odds are you'll come out of that operation with eyes like an eagle so I would recommend you don't immediately rush to a mirror to see how you look; take it slow; you may have aged a bit since the last time you could see clearly.

I think it would be a good thing to be able to spend the Christmas holidays with grandkids, my family keeps wanting me to do that, and I would except the weather can be pretty cold and snowy that time of year and I just don't like being cold.

Tom.... Not having toooo much fun trying to stay warm.

JUDITH

10/29/2022 08:12:40 pm

Ha, yes, That is the downside of cataract surgery - looking in the mirror for the first time afterwards.
So your 7th year on the road. And a satisfying 7 years. So that's good!
That flying witch is definitely a winner. Very good indeed. Wonder how they did it. Maybe they bought it.

10/29/2022 09:17:31 pm

Yeah they bought it, in fact, they bought it at Home Depot, there are a lot of Halloween decorations there.

Yes, it has been a satisfying seven years, I don't know what else I would've been doing if I wasn't a full-timer, probably sitting around the house thinking about how much I dislike yard-work, and shoveling snow. Or, since I have a photography hobby, maybe I would've been taking pictures around the house, but that would get pretty boring after a while.

I would probably still have an RV so every once in a while I could take a trip somewhere warm; I always enjoyed that. And while I'm somewhere warm, I would probably start thinking about why would I want to go back to someplace that's cold; why don't I just stay someplace where the weather's nice all the time? But I can't do that because I can't leave my house and all of my stuff, I love my stuff. Would it be possible to sell the house and just live in my RV??.... No that would never work, that's just crazy talk.... I'll just walk out in the backyard and take a few pictures, just like I always do.

Tom

Linda

10/30/2022 01:17:37 pm

You family has very creative neighbors. Yes, I'm sure they bought most of that stuff but they still have to be creative enough to want to do so. I think most full timers put our creativity into planning where and when to go. And your photography, of course. Barney's photography, too.

10/30/2022 02:23:11 pm

Sometimes I plan on where I would like to go, usually from things I read on the Internet such as the balloon rally in Gallup New Mexico, which required a campground reservation. But I prefer going to places where there's no scheduling to be able to stay there, such as Whitewater Draw in southern Arizona where all the Sandhill Cranes stay for the winter and I can just go there anytime I want and boondock. And of course places like Q where there's things to do, and places to see, with plenty of boondocking in the area and no scheduling required ..... Except to avoid the place during the Big Show.

So I much prefer going places that takes very little planning, a good example of very little planning would be me wanting to take some pictures of the towns on the old Route 66. I can go whenever I feel like it, so that gives me a goal, with no pressure of a schedule.

And I'm just as lazy about the pictures I take, if I see something interesting I'll take a picture, if not, I won't. I seldom go somewhere to take a picture, the balloon rally will be an example of me going somewhere to take a picture. But most of the time I just try to be someplace where there's things to take pictures of.... It's a lazy man's hobby.

Tom

10/31/2022 11:09:42 am

When we drove Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica, I made lists pf potential places to see and stay along the way. Then it took us more than a month to drive that 2000+ miles. Slow travel is good.

10/31/2022 03:58:55 pm

You're right Linda, slow travel is a good thing. I've always feel sorry for folks that say they've got a two week vacation and they're going to spend that time visiting every National Park west of the Mississippi. I'm sure they come home a lot more stressed out than when they left on vacation.

Tom

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A very special day.....That I almost forgot

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