theboondork's RV blog

did I make a mistake? And if I did, do I care?

2/14/2024

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Last nights sunset in the boondocks.

I have to admit when I came to Lake Havasu, I didn't realize how little time I had before I wanted to get to some events at Ben Avery gun range.

Had I given this more thought, I would have gone to Wickenburg to watch some team roping and had plenty of time to get to Ben Avery's gun range. But now I'm stuck with spending only one week at Havasu before I want to head to Ben Avery.

I think the problem is I get used to doing things on the spur of the moment without giving it much thought and leaving it up to fate, chance, and blind luck to have things turn out okay, and usually that works. But whenever I have a place I want to be at a certain time, which is rare, I need to give my travels more thought.

Oh well! I'll have to shorten my visit to Havasu, scratch any thoughts of going to Laughlin, Nevada, and boondocking in the casino parking lots, and get back to Ben Avery's on the 23rd. It could've been a lot worse; normally, I have a boondocking reservation at Ben Avery's for these events, but thankfully, I found some state trust land a couple of miles from Ben Avery's that I plan on staying at. Which will not only be convenient but also save me 70 or 80 bucks in boondocking fees had I stayed at Ben Avery.

if you like a desert environment, Lake Havasu has plenty of it.

But I would be the first one to admit that the Lake Havasu area has some of the most desolate, God-forsaken country I've ever been in.

As desolate as this place is it's amazing that they could actually get people to live here in the beginning... Of course building the London Bridge in the middle of the desert had something to do with that.

And now the bridge in the desert brings a lot of people in, and a lot of those people are boondockers that spend their winters in the desert, on the outskirts of Lake Havasu city.

6 Comments

Judith

2/14/2024 07:50:56 pm

Actually, I like to see desolate country. Always have. Too bad it's not livable.

Tom

2/14/2024 08:33:37 pm

Well there's plenty of desolate country to see in Lake Havasu, all you have to do is get more than half a mile from the Colorado River, and you can have all the desolate country you can stand.

But thanks to our modern life it's all quite livable. Everything is air-conditioned. There's plenty of chilly river water to splash around in as it roars out of the snow-covered peaks of Colorado. And an air-conditioned car can whisk you off in an hour or two where the land is green, the flowers grow and barren dry hills are but a memory.... Almost every place nowadays is livable.

Tom

Larry Worsham link

2/15/2024 06:54:16 am

Another Space Invader adventure last night. We are heading East on I-8 and decided to stay at Painted Rocks BLM CG between Dateland and Gila Bend. Before leaving Anza Borrego I checked the BLM site and it said all sites are reserved and you HAVE to book on line. Same day bookings are accepted. Reviews indicate that you can book onsite by going online. I decided to go ahead and book a spot before we left Calif.

Upon arrival I found someone in my reserved site. They were nice folks fortunately. I showed them my online receipt and they agreed to move. I helped them access the page on their phone and they looked around at sites. After they packed up they left the park.

I normally would have taken another site and let them stay there but I didn't want to get into the same situation with someone else or have to double pay.

Their is no host on site. Is this a new payment method for the BLM to avoid having to collect money at the site? I assume so. Place was not over crowded and is spread out. Nice BLM CG at $8.00 a night. Have new vault toilets and petroglyphs. The charge a $8.00 reservation fee but credit $8.00 if you have a Senior fed pass.

SAFE TRAVELS!

2/15/2024 09:29:27 am

Yeah, Larry, that sounds like a mix-up, maybe because of the new system.

Like I said before, good deals never last, especially free ones. I've noticed a few federal campgrounds in my travels that have the usual drop the envelope in the Iron Ranger as a payment method, and have added "pay at the site" gadgets so you can scan your credit card. I've only noticed those pay at the site gadgets in the last three or four years, and appear to be a good way for the government to make money off the public land that belongs to the people without the expense of hiring someone to take the money.

How long before all this new technology gives the federal government the ability to charge all of us boondockers to boondock on our own BLM public land? It seems to me all it would take would be a website where you buy your annual boondocking pass for a hundred dollars a year, that allows you to boondocking on all BLM land, similar to the free boondocking in New Mexico's annual pass. Us old-timers with the federal geezer pass would be grandfathered in, of course... But how long will WE be around?

Your phone would contain the current valid pass, and if you're caught boondocking without it, the IRS would automatically add $100 to your taxes due, and the Justice Department would give you six months of hard time at Leavenworth... However the punishment would be highly dependent upon the political affiliation listed on your voter registration card.

Tom

2/15/2024 04:52:27 pm

In talking to folks this is the first year of this system. Noticed some blm land or school land outside the CG. Regulars say they can't get a host to stay out there. You are right. They will figure out a way to squeeze the bill fold. I recall a few years back some politicians or bureaucrats suggested cancelling the Sr. Pass. Good Sam, Escapees and other groups raised hell. I'm sure it will come up again....they don't seem to give up.

SAFE TRAVELS

2/15/2024 06:38:27 pm

I don't know how they could get hosts to take care of school trust lands. There are millions of acres of it scattered all over Arizona. And watching for people camping on it without paying would be almost impossible. From what I've read about the school trust lands, the local cops are supposed to keep an eye on the land. But there's so much of it out in the middle of nowhere, and the police seem to have their hands full already doing their regular job, that driving 50 miles out in the sticks just to tell a boondocker to move on because he didn't pay his $15 annual fee probably explains why I have never seen a deputy when I'm boondocking on school lands, and I've never talked to anyone who has.

Instead of canceling the federal old geezer pass I think they ought to give a free pass to all the national parks to every veteran, after all veterans are the reason we have a country to have a national park in.

It would be difficult to cancel the federal old geezer pass because mine says right on the back that it's a lifetime pass. But they could easily stop issuing them to anyone, and those of us who have them won't be around all that long anyway.

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did I make a mistake? And if I did, do I care?

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