theboondork's RV blog

flash floods? Natural disaster? or convenient time to take a bath?

2/2/2024

Click the pics

Yesterday afternoon it was cloudy, rainy, and was still raining when I went to bed last night.

It's good to be back in Quartzsite again. I'm not sure why because I've been here so many times, but something keeps drawing me back to the place.

There was a lot of rain predicted for yesterday, and since I didn't know if there could be any flooding, I decided to go to an area where it's high, and there's no chance any flash flood waters could reach me here. I doubt if any of that will happen today; I'm more worried about early next week when there's a lot more rain predicted and maybe needing a safe place to be when that happens.

Driving to my boondocking area, I could see there are still lots of flea markets here selling just about everything under the sun, and RV dealers still have hundreds of RVs for sale here in Quartzsite, so the town looks pretty busy. Still, it's not packed like it probably was a week ago.

I'll drive to Parker and buy groceries from Walmart sometime this weekend or early next week. Parker is about 35 miles from Quartzsite, and a 70-mile round-trip is a lot to get some groceries, especially since I can't carry much weight and don't have a place to store much of anything. But with the small grocery stores here in Quartzsite, everything costs almost twice as much, and needless to say, their selection is not that great. With the cost of diesel fuel, a 70-mile round-trip gets expensive to save money on groceries.

A while back, I was told that some folks in Quartzsite would take turns going to Walmart with a shopping list and get several people's groceries. That sounds like it would work pretty well as long as the people aren't too picky about what they end up with.

It was a bit chilly when I went to bed last night. Probably because of the humidity being so high with all the rain.

I took this picture of Quartzite last night from my boondocking spot. I parked up on a little hill to avoid any chances of being involved in a flash flood, especially at night while I'm asleep.

But like I said before, early next week is the time I'm really worried about because there's going to be a lot more rain lasting for a longer period of time. So I'm going to be scouting around looking for a good place to boondock next week.

This morning dawned with a few scattered clouds that quickly burned off after breakfast.

8 Comments

Judith

2/2/2024 08:36:02 pm

Glad to see the intrusive ghost RV did not show up in your new spot. Your Pacific front arrived here in TX this evening with a bit of thunder and a bit of nice rain...not a lot of either, maybe a half inch rain, but wind is behind it!! For at least a day.....

Tom

2/2/2024 09:03:18 pm

I'm glad there was no ghost RV out there also. When I write things like that after dark, I can scare myself... But it looks like the ghost RV is gone, but definitely not forgotten.

It looks like this El Niño thing is causing a lot of problems, but from what I've read, it doesn't last long only a few months. So it's possible it will be gone before I leave the desert this May, and Arizona might be rewarded with a Superbloom of desert flowers again this Spring.

Tom

KennyD

2/3/2024 09:56:17 am

Geez, it is always something. If not neighbors inside the thousand yard circle, it's possible flooding. Getting harder and harder for proper boondocking. Saw miles and miles of empty space on a YouTube around Burns, OR, the other day. Course, there was a foot of snow, so there's that to contend with, but certainly no close by neighbors.

2/3/2024 02:49:46 pm

Well KennyD, I understand why you would see it that way, but I look at it a little differently. When my dad was stationed at Homestead Air Force Base in South Florida..... I know it looks like I'm off track but stick with me here. There was a squadron of B- 58 Hustlers, that at the time was our state-of-the-art bomber designed specifically to carry nuclear weapons to the other side of the world.

The problem was when it was taking off it was the noisiest plane known to man, and since my dad and the rest of the family were living on base housing at the time, which was only a mile or so from the flight line, the house shook, and the windows rattled when those things were taking off. And all of my complaints about the noise got the same response from my dad, "Son, that's the sound of freedom."

Jumping from the past, back to the present. Living in an RV full-time has its problems, and living in an RV full- time while boondocking has even more problems, which is why most people don't do it, and if they do it, they don't do it for long.

But there's one big reason why I put up with a few hardships of living the life of a long-term boondocker, and thats the freedom. There's very few ways you can live that have the freedom to go where and when you want, especially if you don't have much money, than living as a boondocker. So I count my minor problems as challenges and figure that every problem I overcome makes me stronger.

Almost 40 years of living in the Colorado mountains has taught me everything I needed to know about living in the snow, and the most important thing I learned was... I don't want to do it no more.... And anyway, have you seen what Oregon politics is like, I don't know how people can live like that.

Tom

Linda

2/3/2024 11:59:23 am

I've never given my grocery list to someone else to buy for me but I have carpooled with three of us in one car to go buy groceries. We took turns driving. At that time we had a VW bug--you'd be surprised how much you could pack in that trunk.

2/3/2024 03:00:21 pm

Yeah Linda, I think the carpool idea sounds a lot better than giving someone a bunch of shopping lists. But at least now since everybody has a cell phone you could send one person to do all the shopping, and any problems or questions could be overcome with the cell phone.

Of course you had plenty of room in the trunk Linda, that's where the engine shoulda been.

Tom

2/4/2024 01:09:55 pm

Yup. That sure confused a lot of people.

2/4/2024 01:44:16 pm

Yeah when the beetle came out Linda, having an engine in the rear was a real shocker for most Americans, but it seems like most of the folks that had one really liked it, and always have a story to tell about their beetle adventures.

I'm in the position now of needing to go to Walmart in the next day or so, and I really don't like to make that drive to Parker just for a few dollars worth of groceries. So I might make a mini-vacation out of it and spend a couple of nights boondocking at the Bluewater casino, just down the street from Walmart.

That way, I won't have to drive as far on the same day, and it sounds more like a fun thing than just a long drive to get some groceries.... After all, wherever I park is home, and I don't care where I park.

Tom

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flash floods? Natural disaster? or convenient time to take a bath?

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