theboondork's RV blog

Good news at last

4/19/2021

Clicking the pics will allow you to see the same things I see, only better, because I need new glasses.

New Mexico skies.

I talked to a Park Ranger today and was told that the boondocking situation at the New Mexico state parks is back to normal... YEA !!... Which of course, means that with my annual camping permit, I can pull into any New Mexico State Park and camp in a boondocking site without going through the Reserve America reservation system, just like it used to be. Needless to say, this is excellent news.

This news made me go driving around a little bit today to check more carefully into an area I'm interested in boondocking for a few days. It's very near where I was the other day when I took pictures of where the Rio Grande pours into Elephant Butte Reservoir.

Getting a second look at that area does look pretty interesting, so that's probably where I'll spend next weekend. I saw several different kinds of birds near the water, but I was on a bluff and kind of far away, so I would need to figure a way I could get closer to the water, but the climb down from the bluff I was on looked pretty steep to me.

But that's just a tiny problem; I'll be so happy to get back to boondocking I really won't care where I'm at.

Theboondork

This is a giant New Mexican Short Billed Hummingbird. These hummingbirds, fully grown, can be almost 3 feet tall, weigh up to 25 pounds, and are very destructive to the indigenous flowering plants.

The rosebush this hummingbird is sitting on has been destroyed by the voracious eating habits of this corpulent bird. They consume the nectar and the flowers, the twigs, the sticks, and even the roots.

The only thing good about this bird is Walmart sells them every Thanksgiving and Christmas, labeled as Honeysuckle Turkeys.

I can see myself boondocking here. It's got everything I like. No neighbors, million-dollar view, and it's free.... Throw in a pack of Coyotes howling at night and I'm in heaven.

6 Comments

Judith

4/19/2021 08:20:44 pm

Well, yea! That is good news for sure. Looking forward to more photos....Hope you don't have any hummingbird feeders out. Those things can empty a two cup feeder in about 30 minutes. You'll have to get a job...to buy sugar.

Tom

4/19/2021 08:51:45 pm

Yeah I'm used to those normal-sized hummingbirds about the size of your thumb. But I think that giant New Mexico hummingbird would probably have to be fed from a 5 gallon bucket. Fortunately this part of New Mexico is about the only place you find hummingbirds that big.... And you Texans thought everything in Texas was big.

Tom

Linda

4/20/2021 02:02:26 pm

That is excellent news indeed! I keep looking online at vans--I so want to be back out there. Sprinter now makes one that uses gas instead of diesel--no DEF! I'm tempted by the short one in which I would do a Bob Well's type no-build conversion. The odds of that dream becoming a reality are slim, though.

4/20/2021 03:38:04 pm

You have to dream before you can make a plan, you have to start somewhere and a dream is the best place to start.

I think if I were going to build out a van I would do what you suggested, and what I did back in the 70s. I would insulate and carpet everything, and put something easy to clean on the floor. I would put two vent fans in the roof, and a Little Buddy infrared heater in the corner. A mattress that would fold off to the side. A little table to hold my propane stove, and something resembling a sink. And I would need one comfortable chair to sit in and put my computer on my lap.

There would be a few more things of course but I would try to keep it as spartan and simple as possible, concentrating on a comfortable place to sleep, and a comfortable place to sit.... Most other things are optional.

Without any knowledge whatsoever on how to do anything I managed to make my Ford Econoline van a place I could live semi-comfortably for a week or so, and I would imagine with all the information on the Internet right now about van conversions you could probably come up with something that would fit your lifestyle perfectly.

So keep dreaming, dreams have a habit of coming true.

Tom

4/21/2021 03:20:10 pm

I have two 2.5 gallon folding water cubes with spigots. We used to sit those on a picnic table with a dishpan on the bench below. Instant running water. :)

4/21/2021 03:45:57 pm

Yeah that's the sort of thing I'm talking about. Very simple, very few things built in, being able to run to the store without spending a lot of time "breaking camp." The simpler the better.

I would consider building a van like that, but it would have to be one I could stand up in but new ones are expensive, and like I mentioned before, I just don't trust used ones.

But if I go the slide-in truck camper route, my truck has about 190,000 miles on it now, and even though it's a diesel all the rest of its parts are still normal and wearing out, all the while getting a bit long in the tooth.

There's a lot of things I can do to solve this problem but right now they're all based on me hitting the lottery.

Tom

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Good news at last

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