theboondork's RV blog

bug out, or hunker down.

2/17/2021

Don't forget to click the pics, as few and uninteresting as they are.

Sunrise.

I've been keeping up with the bad weather going on in Texas and thinking about how lucky I am that I chose the Arizona desert to spend the winter in, but it was only a matter of luck. I've spent winters in Texas before and more than likely will again. And every Fall, when I'm thinking about where I want to spend the winter, Texas is always near the top of my list. So this winter, I chose wisely, but not because of any skills or knowledge on my part; it was merely a matter of luck.

But knowing that I was lucky... this time, does not mean that will continue, and maybe I had better look a little more in-depth into the possibilities of what might happen weather-wise and take a few more precautions. Since my "official" residence is in Colorado, and Colorado is generally not a place you want to head for if the weather is cold and miserable in the South. I might or might not be able to run to Colorado to escape a bad situation like what's going on in Texas at the moment.

Bugging out and heading for greener pastures would probably be my first choice in the event of extended cold weather and a lack of electricity at RV Parks. But being able to stay put, not drive on dangerously icy roads, and hunker down until the worst is over might make more sense if I could live at least semi-comfortably until the situation improved.

That second option goes along with my feelings of self-sufficiency, and being able to deal with whatever life throws at me while remaining safe and comfortable. I set up the Arctic Fox in a way that allows me to live comfortably without hookups for extended periods comfortably. And as I found out earlier this winter, when Arizona was pretty chilly, rainy, cloudy, and I received little or no charging from my solar panels. I lived reasonably comfortably for about a week, which is actually longer than I thought my batteries would last.

But maybe I should try to do better than that just in case of an emergency. And beef up my abilities to stay comfortably boondocked in even colder, cloudier weather..... Stay tuned.

theboondork

The wind was blowing pretty hard today so I didn't get out and do anything, and since I didn't have any pictures to show, I just stepped outside and took these.

There's a fire down the road from me, I saw the fire trucks go by. I don't think it's a vehicle fire because the smoke isn't black. Probably just a brush fire, but the wind is blowing it towards me. Fortunately there's not much combustible around me except..... Me.

10 Comments

OFM

2/17/2021 07:52:47 pm

My first Arctic Fox was a 30 foot model with two large slides. It was a bear to keep warm up in Washington State. The slides leaked lots of air until I spent the time to stuff the openings with flexible foam. That effort ruled out bringing them in until the foam was all removed. But it was a sit in one place unit while I was working up there. I think that since my current unit is about half the size volume as your unit makes mine a lot easier to heat and cool.

Tom

2/17/2021 09:06:47 pm

There's something to be said for that, it is easier to heat a smaller space, and my Arctic Fox does have a larger living room when the slide is out. I don't need to bring out my bedroom slide to live comfortably and quite often I just leave it in.

I don't know what year or model your Arctic Fox was but this one is sealed up way better than the previous two fifth wheels I've had. Even with the wind blowing directly at the living room slide I don't feel any air coming in, and I've never had any water leaking in during some pretty heavy rains. But of course Washington state sets the standard for rain and I've never had the Arctic Fox up there. But I spent a lot of time in the Bellingham area visiting relatives and a few water leaks was pretty normal for my other two fifth wheels

I'm not sure if yours had double pane Windows but they really do help a lot. And my wife made insulated blackout drapes for all the Windows in the Arctic Fox and they go a long way to keeping out the cold.

You may recall the story I've written about on occasions that the reason I bought the Arctic Fox was compared to the other brands of fifth wheels sitting on the dealer's lot in Arizona during the winter, they were all closed up but their inside temperature was the same as the outside air. The Arctic Fox was the only one I went in that had held the nighttime cold, and the salesman and I had to step outside the Arctic Fox to talk because it was so cold inside. And he apologized saying they normally open up the Arctic Fox's so they will warm up during the day.

You want to talk about something that's hard to heat, my little Bronco pop-up slide in camper is made cheap, with thin insulation so when the furnace goes off it only takes five minutes before it's back on again, but in all fairness when I'm running around the mountains in the late Spring early Fall, it's pretty normal when I'm around timberline for the night time temperatures to be in the teens, and I don't sleep with any heat on so I have a really good sleeping bag made by Wiggy, right in Grand Junction Colorado, I believe its the only sleeping bag made in America now days. It's a rectangular bag good for 0° and I've always slept comfortable in it.

But the latest Texas experience, along with the bat flu pandemic has led me to not completely trust the utility companies to keep me supplied with electricity and water should I need it, and I'm considering ways to help make myself more self-sufficient especially during the worst of times, after all anybody can boondock comfortably during the best of times. I don't know what I'm gonna do yet but all options are on the table, including extreme and outlandish ones like [Lord help me] getting a generator.

Tom

Judith

2/17/2021 08:26:35 pm

So, another lovely sunrise. Sigh. Well, it will show up here sometime soon. And come the end of July, this will be unimaginable. I was happy to see OFM posted. Enjoy your lucky choice on the winter location!!

2/17/2021 09:31:13 pm

Yeah by the end of July, Texans will be complaining about the heat, and saying it's the hottest in recent memory, and wondering if they'll ever see cool air again. At which time they will load up the wife and kids into the Family Truckster and head for the Colorado mountains.

My experience of being on the road and living in a house with wheels is that Internet is spotty and sometimes difficult to come by, so when a blogger disappears for a while, it's often because of the lack of Internet. I think I've pretty much got mine sorted out so that it's very reliable. My Verizon Mifi coupled with a VPN so Verizon can't throttle me even if they want to has gotten rid of most of my Internet problems.

I guess I've been lucky enough this winter that no matter where I choose to go next winter I'll be washed away by a flood right before a tornado picks me up and drops me into a volcano.

Tom

2/18/2021 11:49:22 am

Is there a specific VPN that you recommend?

2/18/2021 01:39:39 pm

I've only had one VPN, and I just bought the one that had the most recommendations from several different sources and that was NordVPN.

So I don't know about any of the others, and the service they perform is not really something the average person can check. So I don't know if it's any better than the other ones but it's always at or near the top in anyone's recommendations.

Tom

Linda

2/18/2021 01:02:24 pm

I don't understand how a VPN can keep Verizon from throttling you. My Dave was not able to answer that, either. I wonder if I've intrigued him enough to send him researching it?

2/18/2021 02:00:01 pm

The phone companys use different kinds of throttling, one kind is on the "unlimited plans", which of course aren't unlimited, they throttle all of your traffic once you go past a certain amount of gigabytes that you've paid for.

Another kind of throttling is what I have on my Verizon MiFi, which again is supposed to be unlimited, and in a way it is, but in a way, not really. They throttle me based on the amount of bandwidth in the area I'm at, and how much of its being used by regular customers using their 20 gig or whatever number, on their guaranteed plans. So when the area I'm in gets busy, they will throttle me, maybe a little maybe a lot, if there's a bunch of people on the Internet that out-rank me.

Q has always had a very small bandwidth and while I've been here on this current winter trip at certain times of the day especially late afternoons when everybody's getting on the Internet my Internet has been terrible, sometimes useless. But when I turn on my VPN it cloaks my identity and I get normal Internet speeds.

You'll have to excuse my lack of technical knowledge in this area especially the use of proper terminology so I don't totally understand the way it works, all I know for sure is when I'm behind my VPN I have normal Internet.

This doesn't work on your normal 20 gig "unlimited plan" like I have on my phone, and using my phone as a hotspot. It only works on my MiFi plan, but that's all I care about because that's the way I get all of my Internet.

Tom

2/19/2021 03:44:47 pm

Thanks. That helped me understand. I appreciate your non-technical language.

2/19/2021 05:41:41 pm

I didn't get a VPN because it would keep Verizon from throttling me, because actually I didn't know it did that until I tried. I got it because it helps keep my computer safe from all the weirdness and hacking going on out there now days.

Back in the day a VPN would slow down your Internet speeds enough to be bothersome, but from what I understand that's not much of a problem now days, and it certainly hasn't been a problem for me.

I can't think of any downside to having it, and there does seem to be some safety associated with it. And If you sign up for a two-year hitch the monthly cost is not enough to worry about.

Tom

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