theboondork's RV blog

I finally figured out what I want to do with my life

9/28/2021

Roses are red, violets are blue, why click the pics? I don't have a clue.

Snapdragons

Picking up where I left off yesterday. I never knew what I wanted to do in life, so I've done a little bit of a lot of things, never thinking that's what I wanted to do with my life; it was just what I had to do to make enough money to feed and house my family at the time.

So here I am, 75 years old, and I finally figured out what I want to do with my life... I want to live full-time in an RV and travel. Now that does seem a little late to figure it all out, but I reckon I never spent a whole lot of time thinking about it, seeing as how I was too busy trying to earn a living instead of having a goal or making any plans for myself.

But now that I've figured out what I want to do with my life now I can look into the details of how I want to live that full-timing RV lifestyle. And even though I don't know exactly what it's going to be, I do know that I enjoy boondocking more than living in an RV Park. I think I can say that I've stayed in some nice state parks and other public or government-run camping places, but I don't think I've ever been in a commercial RV Park where I would want to spend more than a few days unless I absolutely had to.

There are several reasons why I enjoy boondocking so much; number one would have to be the freedom to come and go as I please. After all, coming and going as you desire is the most basic of freedoms, I believe not being able to do so would be called... prison. It would be very difficult for me to go back to living on a schedule and having to be certain places at certain times, I know I'm not normal with that philosophy, and I can deal with deadlines for a short while, but it would be difficult for me to live that way.

Another reason I enjoy boondocking so much, and this ties in with what I was talking about yesterday. I try not to get too deep in a rut. And as lazy as I am, a rut is an easy thing to get trapped in. It is just too comfortable to stay put and not challenge myself to do something different or go someplace that's more interesting. And the longer I stay someplace, the deeper the rut gets and the more difficult it is to get out of.

I enjoy being in control of as much of my life as possible and overcoming the various hurdles and complications that can arise when you don't know where you're going to sleep tomorrow, the next day, or next week. And even though that can be a challenge, Still, I'm confident I'll be able to figure it out. Because overcoming hurdles like that is the trade-off you have to make to earn the freedom to come and go as you please.

So right now I will go, and come back tomorrow if I please.

Theboondork

Purple flowers.

Pink rose.

10 Comments

Judith

9/28/2021 07:45:38 pm

Those snapdragons are breathtaking. You do have a way with flowers.

As for your being a boondocker, I have full confidence in your being able to figure out what you need to when you need to in order to suit yourself and enjoy.
Would love to be on the road to the boonies myself but not enough to do it.

So I'll keep checking on you and your progress! Interesting!

Tom

9/28/2021 09:21:08 pm

Thank you Judith, your very kind. Most folks don't care about boondocking and just consider it a way to spend the night somewhere until they can get to an RV Park, and a lot of RVs are designed to be in RV parks most of the time. Folks that stay in RV parks in general tend to be gregarious social people that enjoy being around other RVers and like to participate in RV kinds of things and enjoy their campgrounds happy hours and ice cream socials and other gatherings, although the Bat flu has put a crimp in a lot of that socializing.

But boondocker's like myself tend to be more introverted, and don't mind having a few people around but the awning to awning scenario that most campgrounds offer is usually to be avoided.

But hang in there I'll be on the road myself pretty soon. I'll spend a few days down in southern Colorado searching for the elusive Sandhill Cranes before the end of this week. And then I'll be back in Denver until about the middle of October, and then like the wild Goose, I'll be headed south for the winter.

Tom

Darrell

9/28/2021 08:00:12 pm

Hello Tom,
Good luck and have fun out there boondocking. I never had the desire to do it in the desert areas. The drawback for me was leaving my RV in the middle of nowhere, with nobody else around, during the day while I would be out exploring an area. There are times when I leave the campground early in the morning and not return until dusk. But the beauty of our RV'ing life is each of us finds our own way of enjoying the freedom we have earned. Have fun, be safe.
Darrell

9/28/2021 10:03:25 pm

Great to hear from you Darrell, and glad you made it home safe from your trip up north.

Just like you said one of the best things about RVing is there's no right or wrong way to do it, you get to choose your own way and that's the right way.

I know what you're saying about leaving your RV out the middle of nowhere all by itself because it used to concern me a lot more than it does now. You would be hard-pressed to find someone more security conscious than me. Years of living in Miami Florida taught me that anything that's not locked up disappears. And if it is locked up the lock will disappear to. I lock my truck up even when its sitting in the driveway, in other words I'm very careful, and expect the worst.

But I don't let that affect my enjoyment of life. I take precautions, but I do what makes me happy. Yes I'm boondocked in the desert, but there's almost always other RVs in the area. I don't want to beat up my truck and the Arctic Fox, so I stopped looking for lonely boondocking spots 10 miles down a beat up dirt road a long time ago.

I'm happiest when I'm somewhat near a little town so I can buy groceries and do some sightseeing, so I pick my boondocking spots with that in mind. And since boondocking in the desert is pretty popular, I'm never completely by myself.

I don't carry anything that would devastate my life to get stolen, but I think losing my computer would come pretty close. And as for damage to the trailer, it's insured and yes it would be a mess if something happened to it, but I've been boondocking for most of my life and I've never had anything bad happen yet.

If you want to try boondocking you should go to Quartzsite Arizona sometime during the winter. Most of the 200,000 RVers in Quartzsite will be boondocked out the desert all around the town and even with that many people there there's still plenty of room where you can be by yourself if you want to. And it's the greatest place in the world to talk to and learn from, some of the most experienced boondocker's you ever run into.

Dang I didn't know I was going to write this much, I shoulda turned this comment into tomorrow's blog post.

You stay safe also Darrell. I miss your blog when you go silent for a while.

Tom

Ken Hufnagel link

9/29/2021 12:12:53 pm

"It would be very difficult for me to go back to living on a schedule and having to be certain places at certain times, I know I'm not normal with that philosophy,"

I disagree, I think that is quite normal. I think a lot of folks do that just to earn a living as you did.

Or maybe I'm abnormal too...

9/29/2021 04:42:05 pm

Thank you Ken, it helps to have someone else feel the way I do. Freedom is really hard to give up once you've tasted it, I know one day when I get to geezerly I won't be able to do the things I want to do, so I try to enjoy it while I can.

Tom

Linda

9/29/2021 01:42:49 pm

Whoa! That snapdragon picture is so beautiful I'm tempted to hook up my printer to see what it can do with it.

The trick with losing a computer is to have everything backed up recently. My internal hard drive died a couple weeks ago so I had to start over. Backups are wonderful! I even keep a flash drive in my pocket with the most critical items on it in case there would be a disaster while I am away. I NEED my computer.

9/29/2021 05:04:31 pm

Thank you so much Linda. Most folks don't think of a printer when they see my pictures, usually a shredder is the first thing that crosses their mind.

I know what you mean about the computer Linda. My computer started out as something I liked and enjoyed, but since going full time its now something I also need.

My computer has become a part of me. It's literally the first thing I look at in the morning, the last thing I look at it night, and waaay too much in the daytime.

Yes having a hard drive quit working is a disaster without a backup, I backup some things but I don't mirror my hard drive like I should. The computer I've been using for the last four or five years is a 17 inch Asus G74 which was a hot set up when it was new but its getting a little long in the tooth. It has two SSD hard drives in it and since they're not mechanical they seem to last longer than a regular HD with disc's in it.

Tom

9/30/2021 03:30:26 pm

The drive that died was an SSD. They give you no warning; they just stop working all at once. the computer was eight years old when it happened.

9/30/2021 05:50:27 pm

Well I don't like to hear that. I've always trusted my SSD drives more than my mechanical drives, but then again eight years is pretty old for computer equipment. Computer equipment goes by dog years, every year of age equals seven computer years. That means your computer is about 56 years old, and I remember when I was 56 years old a lot of my parts quit without warning.

Tom

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I finally figured out what I want to do with my life

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