theboondork's RV blog

Another night of boondocking in a Walmart parking lot

11/13/2020

Roses are red, violets are blue, a Walmart lot lizard, is the best I can do.

London Bridge Lake havasu Arizona Picture

A good memory for me. Boondocking outside of Lake Havasu Arizona, and taking pictures of the London Bridge.

Last night it got rather windy here at the Walmart parking lot, so I decided to check the weather in this area and see what was going on. And it turned out there's a high wind warning around here, and high-profile, lightweight vehicles are being cautioned about traveling. Having seen at least one semi-truck blown over on I-25 in New Mexico, I take wind warnings very seriously.

I probably should have been aware of the weather report before I left Denver, but since a reservation at the State Park already bound me, I didn't pay much attention to the wind. I will probably chalk this up to yet another reason to avoid reservations, if at all possible, and keep myself free to make travel decisions based on my feelings at the moment. But that doesn't apply to this situation because, as I mentioned before, you can't camp in any Colorado state Park anymore without a reservation.

So here I am, more or less stuck in the Trinidad Walmart parking lot for maybe two more nights because the winds are predicted to worsen tomorrow. I don't think Walmart will have a problem with that because this is not the first time I, and others, have had to stay in this Walmart parking lot for a couple of nights because of high wind warnings. And there are still four or five RVs here that were here when I got to the parking lot yesterday afternoon, so I assume they're also waiting out the windstorm. The temperature got up to 60° today, but it felt like half that with the wind blowing as hard as it was.

Ordinarily, spending time at a Walmart is not all that bad; think of all the shopping you can do when you're living in their parking lot. But in this case, I've got a couple of things working against me. Even though everyone is wearing masks, I still have concerns about the Bat flu. And hanging around inside stores is near the bottom of my list of things to do. Another troublesome issue is Walmart has started their Christmas music marathon, and the sounds of "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" is blaring from every speaker in the building. Which is bad enough considering the banality of it, it's also incredibly annoying to me because a white Christmas is the last thing I'm dreaming of.

I did manage to struggle through the wind to get into the store, and It was a struggle since I'm parked in the farthest reaches of the parking lot, and bought another Rhino 15 foot hose with all the fittings already on it so that gets rid of one of the myriads of problems I seem to have at the moment. I used to get little leaks in the "blue sewer hoses" all the time and looked at them as pretty much disposable, planning on replacing them every year even after duct-taping a few of the smaller leaks.

I've never had a leak in my Rhino hoses before. I carry two, a 15 footer that I use all the time and a 25 footer that I use when the 15 footers don't quite reach, but I've only used it a couple of times. I think my hoses last a long time because I usually don't stay in RV parks very long, so I don't leave my hose hooked up and lying in the yard. And I don't store my sewer hose in the trailers metal bumper like you're supposed to. So I was somewhat surprised to see that I had a leak.

I'm not surprised that a plastic tab broke off the bayonet fitting on the hose because cold weather makes some plastics brittle. And since my hands were cold, I may not have been as careful as I should have. Whatever it is, it's not a problem anymore, and now I can concentrate on my gray water tank valve, not opening and my rearview cameras acting wonky.

theboondork

My new sewer hose. I think it takes a full-time RVer to appreciate the thrill of getting a new sewer hose. A hose you can actually touch without wearing three pairs of rubber gloves

One of the many old buildings at the Vulture Mine outside of Wickenburg Arizona.

Does anyone remember the Coyote with the broken hip that used to visit my camping spot every day when I was boondocking at the Ben Avery gun range outside of Phoenix Arizona? I haven't seen him the last two times I was there. So I assume he's in a better place now, chasing rabbits and prairie dogs, running fast and free without any pain.

10 Comments

Linda

11/13/2020 06:00:19 pm

Staying put during wind advisories is a good thing to do. Walmarts are cheaper in an RV since you don't get tempted to buy things you cannot store. :)

Tom

11/13/2020 06:38:36 pm

When the wind is blowing the way it is now I don't worry as much about being blown over as I do about the white knuckle driving trying to keep it on the road. And when I'm pulling the Arctic Fox in a headwind, I worry about making it to the next gas station.

You're right about that, moving into a home with wheels definitely puts the kibosh on your shopping plans. Fortunately when you decide to live a simpler life there's not a whole lot of things you want anymore.

Tom

OFM

11/13/2020 08:03:32 pm

As I worked with the wiring during modifications on my trailer, I developed wiring schematics to refer to. I found the Northwood wiring style to NOT be intuitive at all.

11/13/2020 08:30:53 pm

I was never much good at reading schematics anyway, so I hope my problem will be a lot simpler than that. I've now checked every fuse that I can find and none of them are blown and very few of them are labeled. So I think tomorrow I will admit defeat, call Northwood, and throw myself at their mercy. But I will probably have to get to a place where I can hook my sewer hose up before I go messing with that electric valve.

I've never liked electric valves, they just trade a lot more things that can go wrong for very little convenience. I would change them out for manual cable pull valves in a heartbeat if the valves weren't so difficult to access.

Tom

11/13/2020 09:33:30 pm

Neither of my AF trailers had electric valves. The valves on this one are buried in the sealed housing holding the insulation etc. The handles that come to the outside world are apparently extra long valve handles. Just like yours neither is accessible. However there is just enough of the sewer pipes exposed that I can cut into the pipe and install new valves when mine fail. I am planning on doing that before my "protected" valves fail in a closed position. Good luck.

11/13/2020 10:21:43 pm

Northwoods didn't put electric valves on many trailers, the valves gave a lot of owners so much trouble that they stopped putting them on my model the year after I bought mine.

If you never get in really cold weather the valves don't need all that much protection. In fact my last El Cheapo fifth wheel had the valves completely exposed to the elements and only the tanks were insulated, and not very well. And even though I was in some slightly below freezing locations every once in a while I never had any problems with the valves. But that wouldn't have worked with the kind of cold my Arctic Fox's been in for the last few weeks.

Changing out old components before they fail makes a lot of sense especially when projects like that don't get any easier the older we get.

Tom

Judith

11/13/2020 09:04:31 pm

Ah geez. Geez. I was trying to think of something positive to say, and all I can come up with is that you've got a primer here for those who are starry eyed about hitting the road in an RV. But I am very glad you haven't made a run for Raton Pass when there are high winds. A plain little old van can be scary. I confess I have a fondness for Trinidad. I like the town. I did have a very special boyfriend from there 50 yeas ago, but I just like the town. When he lived in a house up against the hills as a kid, he said boulders and various sized rocks used to roll down in the yard. So be glad Walmart is out in the open. That's something.

11/13/2020 10:02:34 pm

I've always felt like living in an RV is simply like living in a house with wheels. It's not a vacation, and for most it's not an adventure, and it's certainly not a magic carpet ride. It's just living a normal life with a new view every once in a while.

You have some of the same problems you have living in a regular house and a few more on top of that. And if you want to be a happy camper it's best to have some handyman skills and a fairly comprehensive toolkit because sooner or later you will need the tools and the skills to use them in less you plan on spending a lot of time camped on an RV dealers doorstep waiting for them to fix your RV "when they get around to it"

Yeah if it's windy Raton pass usually gets the worst of it, and getting over it when it's snowing can be a life altering experience. But once you make it over the top it's an easy ride down into the land of enchantment.

Trinidad is a very old town with a long history of Spanish mining, ranching, and farming, but now its known as the "sex change capital of the world" I'm not sure exactly how that came about but its common knowledge that now days things are not always what they seem in Trinidad. So if you ever go to Trinidad looking for that old boyfriend he may be more difficult to spot than you might think.

Tom

11/14/2020 07:48:18 pm

I'm laughing. I haven't been there in 30 years....did NOT know that it was famous now.

11/14/2020 08:04:20 pm

It is strange, if you look at the town, drive through the town, read the history of the town, you would never imagine what its now famous for, but it is. One has to be very careful of one's pronouns when walking around town.

Tom

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Another night of boondocking in a Walmart parking lot

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