theboondork's RV blog

decisions, decisions.

4/2/2020

don't forget to click the pic

boondocking Sunset Quartzsite Arizona Picture

Another boondocking sunset in Quartzsite.

Giving up on waiting for the BLM office in Yuma to either call me back or respond to my email I called them again this morning and found out their just as confused as they were before except now the lady I talked to had heard about some of the things that the BLM is considering and there not good.

A few days ago when I made some wild guesses as to what the BLM might do about the current covid situation here in Quartzsite I based those guesses on what would be best for all the RVers here at the LTVA's and the boondockers on BLM land that the BLM refers to as "dispersed camping". What never occurred to me is what effect all of us RVers might have on the small communities in the area especially Quartzsite, and its Inability to take care of us RVers, our needs and our problems.

Well it turns out the BLM was very concerned about that and are apparently considering closing not only the LTVA's but surrounding dispersed camping areas as well. Yet another example of why I try to never make firm plans.

The logistics of how they would inform thousands of people scattered throughout the desert in this area of this new rule, or how they would enforce the rule with the limited amount of personnel they have is beyond me, but maybe this would explain why they're having trouble figuring out what to do about the situation.

Now the lady I was talking to was not sure about anything and apparently was just telling me things she had heard around the office, but taking into consideration the lack of services in Quartzsite at the moment, especially medical services, and with lots of businesses shutting down in Quartzsite, closing off the desert boondocking areas does make sense.

The lady was trying to help me as best she could but it was obvious she simply didn't have much firm information to go on so the last thing she said was "Call back in a week or so and we will probably know more".

Well that's a bummer! maybe I'll have to go find some BLM land closer to Phoenix. All along I knew I couldn't stay here too much longer because it's already starting to get a little warm, not baking a potato on the dashboard of my truck warm, just opening a window and turning on the vent fans warm. so it looks like I'm going to have to make a decision based on hardly any facts at all which just so happens to be my favorite kind of decision because facts just confuse me anyway.... So here are my choices.

I stay here at the LTVA comfortably sheltered in place and hope that the BLM doesn't make any drastic changes that will require me and a thousand other full-timers to find new homes?........But if I do that it could mean getting caught up in the possibility of a sudden panicked migration of a huge herd of full timers roaming southern Arizona looking for places to stay?

Or do I want to bug out early before the grits hit the fan and find another place to stay while there's still a chance of their being one available?.........But that may mean taking a chance that I might have to wander endlessly seeking a safe place to stay while the rest of the country is locked down and wandering strangers are treated with fear and suspicion.

So it looks like once again I may be called upon to live by my wits which is happening so much lately that I'm really wishing I hadn't been born with only half the amount of wits everyone else has.

theboondork

desert flowers Quartzsite Arizona Picture

some wild flowers growing near my boondocking spot.

Old tree growing next to a tiny arroyo.

Could this be my future?

12 Comments

Darrell

4/3/2020 06:33:29 pm

Are you considering going home to your daughters and ride out the "storm" from there?

Tom

4/3/2020 07:26:43 pm

That's a very good question Darrell I'm glad you asked. Yes I've given a lot of thought to going back to Denver, in fact my daughter called me the other day telling me she was afraid they're going to close the state and I wouldn't be able to get back there if I wanted to. But I told her that being a legal resident of the state of Colorado they probably wouldn't or maybe even couldn't keep me away from my home.

One of the reasons I'm still hanging around where it's warm is I dread going back to Denver when it's cold and snowy and to me Spring is one of the worst times to be in Colorado because it might be nice one day and snowing the next. The daytime temperatures aren't to bad but its quite frequently below freezing at night so I would have to heat the Arctic Fox with the noisy furnace instead of my radiant heater so my basement pipes didn't freeze. And because of the rapid weather changes the roads can go from just fine to Whoa Nelly!! Before you know it.

The other reason is Denver like most other big cities has a lot of coronavirus, it's not terrible like some of the hotspots, and I sure hope it doesn't get that way, but it has way more than southern Arizona, and I'm so afraid that I would be more susceptible to catching it without knowing and then pass it on to my family.

I've been hoping that by the time the weather warms up in Colorado they will have developed more ways of fighting the coronavirus and hopefully the virus peak will be over in Colorado so there's less chance of me getting it and passing it on.

I agree wholeheartedly with your comment to Barney that its good to be home at a time like this and I do worry about things like getting sick and not having a doctor available, but I figure the boondocking life I'm living now where I hardly ever come in contact with another person, my chances of catching something are pretty remote. But I would like to be with my family, it's times like this that I miss them even more.

But then I think about how the news says one of the reasons the virus is so bad in Italy is they have a lot of old people that still live with the family, which normally is great, but now Grandpa's old weak immune system can't fight off the virus and he gives it to everybody in the house. I don't know if that's true or not but it makes me very concerned about going back to Colorado until the situation improves.

See what happens when you ask a one sentence question? Thanks for giving me the opportunity to write this Darrell, I've been kind of down lately and it actually made me feel a little better.

Tom

Larry Worsham

4/4/2020 06:01:30 am

You are between a rock and and a hard spot. I read an article or blog post the other day that the BLM was discouraging RV's from coming to your area saying that it was overcrowded. The person in the post questioned that statement. The post also said that they would close down April 15 like they normally due. I also read that most private CG's are not taking short stay RV;s but only long term rentals. I;m at a place where I feel safe as long as I stay at home but our county has 42 cases at this point. I understand the govt. discouraging travel but don't understand why the won't allow boondockers on the federal lands. Forcing folks into the cites can only possibly make things worse. I don't know if it is control or ignorance. Stay safe......................

4/4/2020 01:39:33 pm

I question that statement to. I think there's more people here in Quartzsite on a normal winter day than there are right now. And only a tiny minority of how many folks that are here during the Big Show.

It's getting so looking for a place to stay that has no confirmed Covid is kind of hopeless, almost every place has some now, I just figure on being more careful.

I don't understand the whole stopping the boondocker thing either. Maybe the government knows something we don't know. Maybe we can give the Covidvirus to the Saguaro Cactus, and the government decided that getting rid of the boondocker's looked better than putting up a bunch of posters saying "Don't Hug The Saguaros".

You stay safe to Larry.

Tom

Tim link

4/3/2020 09:11:57 pm

It looks like it's getting tough out there right now. I was watching an RV YouTuber there in Arizona and he was told by a ranger that all the BLM land and forest land in the area was going to be shut down and he had to move. Not sure what he's going to do.

If it wasn't so early in the year, I would recommend making a beeline to your property and hunkering down until this settles down some (of course, there are disadvantages, like cell service). You're right, probably one of the last things that mature people like you or me should do is be around kids. And, if you go to your daughter's, your grandkids are going to want to see you as much as possible.

Barring gong to your property or your daughter's, how about finding an RV park somewhere in Colorado? It's not ideal because of the cool weather, but I don't think any of us are going to be able to choose optimal conditions right now.

4/3/2020 09:51:28 pm

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do either but I'll think of something, I always do. Yeah kids are germ factories no doubt about it but nowadays they're not too bad because they're not going to school. My grandkids aren't playing with anybody except each other so right now my grandkids are probably about as germ-free as their going to get.

Yeah there might still be some snow at my property. I think it was last year I got back to Denver in late May and I got several inches of snow right after I got back, And my properties about 4000 feet higher than Denver.

Right now I'm making some calls trying to find a place in southern Arizona to stay for at least long enough to get over the government shut down the end of this month. Most of the state parks in Arizona are actually still open but state parks don't have weekly and monthly rates, so hanging around a state Park for two or three weeks at $35 a night can get pretty expensive. And wherever I get I want to be as far away from people as possible and that's not easy to do in a lot of private campgrounds.

Fortunately for me being a boondocker that can stay out for extended periods of time gives me a lot of opportunities to choose from even during tough times like this. So I'm not worried, it'll work out one way or another.

Hope you're staying safe in the big city, it seems like they've figured out that the best way to stay safe is to stay away from people as much as possible, I know that may not be easy but its the very best thing you can do.

Tom

JWFitz

4/4/2020 12:46:55 pm

Not the news I was hoping to hear. I have been at the LTVA near Imperial Dam since November. I won't be able to stay much past the 15th because of the temps. The plan was to use BLM land to hopscotch through Nevada and Oregon on my way to Washington.

.

4/4/2020 01:45:52 pm

Don't panic yet. Wait till I panic and then run in the opposite direction.

What I heard was just scuttlebutt from the first person that answered the phone at BLM headquarters in Yuma and I've see nothing official yet. But I am starting to pack up a little bit and get physically and mentally ready if I have to change plans fairly quick.

Tom

Linda Sand

4/4/2020 02:19:31 pm

Many of the Quartzsite businesses only staff for the winter rush then close down, or close to it, for the summer, I wonder who is staffing those places now?

There's an LTVA west of Blythe, California. I wonder if it will close, too? I don't think they have water there, though.

The Old Fat Man link

4/4/2020 04:18:07 pm

We have room for you over here at Broke Mill RV Campground about 4 miles south of San Pedro. San Pedro is closed right now.

4/4/2020 04:36:51 pm

Thank you for that Barney, I really appreciate it. But I've made some phone calls and I believe I've found a place where I will be heading tomorrow morning which will keep me where it's still warm, and away from any crowds. If it works out I'll blog about it tomorrow.

You stay safe Barney, you do a lot of walking around, you should wash your hands and your feet.

Tom

4/4/2020 04:30:49 pm

Well hardly anybody is staffing those places now because almost everything is closed. What didn't close because the season's over, closed because of the virus. Last time I looked the grocery stores were still open, and I think the dollar store was still open. But the town is pretty deserted.

On the other hand I'm almost never there this time of the year so I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like, especially the boondocking areas. They don't look crowded to me but the BLM on their website is saying their crowded and the lady I talked to on the phone said they were crowded. I don't know if their legally crowded or not but there is still a lot of people there.

If they close the LTVA's I assume they were close Blythe also, because they're talking about too many RVers in the general area of Quartzsite.

Tom

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