theboondork's RV blog

Peace and quiet

3/17/2021

Clicking the pics might stop global warming, or it might make it worse. Who knows?

An almost cloud free sunrise this morning.

It was an exceptionally peaceful and quiet night. I guess I had gotten used to the somewhat busy atmosphere of my boondocking spot at Lake Havasu and my somewhat noisy and brightly lit parking lot boondocking in Laughlin, so being back to the peace and quiet of the Quartzsite desert was a very pleasant change.

Fortunately for me, background noise and ambient light doesn't bother me, which is why I can sleep in truck stops and Walmart parking lots. It's somewhat annoying until I get used to it, But it doesn't make me unable to enjoy my life. Which to me, one of the keys to being a happy boondocker, is being able to not only tolerate a less-than-perfect campsite but to keep enjoying your life despite a less than optimal situation.

Light is something that also doesn't bother me when I'm trying to sleep. Parking lots are often pretty bright at night, and casino parking lots especially so. Maybe it's the fact that I worked a lot of shiftwork when I was younger, and getting off work at various times of the night and day got me used to going to bed when I was sleepy, not when it was a specific time of day. It made me more tolerant of sleeping in a brightly lit environment.

Whatever it is, I can live with just about anything, but sleeping in a place that's quiet and dark as the desert, or a forest, is what I prefer.

theboondork

Due to extreme laziness, and a total lack of interest in accomplishing anything, I haven't taken any pictures to put on my blog. So these are left-overs from Lake Havasu.

I took this at the RC airfield in Sara Park across the street from where I was boondocked in Lake Havasu. For about 10 minutes this guy flew around doing any kind of stunt you could do in a real airplane, and probably some nobody would try in a real airplane.

I stuck my head in the door of this lady's office and asked, are you expecting me? And she said no, so I said...... I knew you were going to say that which makes me a lot more psychic than you are, and left.

10 Comments

OFM

3/17/2021 05:08:25 pm

Those clear desert nights are wonderful but a long way from dark, especially on full moon nights. But, oh my, I do love them.

Tom

3/17/2021 07:07:36 pm

Yeah it is kind of weird how the desert is so bright when the moon is full or even near full. I think that may be because the desert is so dark normally that any amount of light looks like a lot.

I like to take pictures of the stars ever now and then in the desert. Because of the darkness and the clear air the desert seems to have more stars than anyplace else. To find dark places I always use the "Dark Sky Map " on the Internet. I used that to find out that the Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado is a very dark area. And it was true when I camped there in the little Bronco pop-up camper I didn't even have to look for the Milky Way it popped right out of the sky.

Good to see the grandkids are going to get more grandpa time, grandkids need all the time they can get, especially when they're old enough to learn how to fish.

Tom

Judith

3/17/2021 08:07:17 pm

Glad to see you are back out in the boonies. That sunrise is very nice, even without clouds......

3/17/2021 09:18:46 pm

Thank you Judith. The boonies is one of the places I'm very comfortable. I can deal with towns and crowds for a little while, but I need the forests or the desert to be able to look around and see something besides buildings. And for me the best place to do that is "the high lonesome," with mountains reaching to the clouds, endless forests, and the Bear and Mountain Lion for neighbors. Well maybe not so much the Bear and the Mountain Lion, maybe the squirrel and the rabbit.

Tom

Tim

3/18/2021 07:26:16 am

Your photo of the RC airplane brings back memories of when I used to fly those little planes. If you turn your photo upside down, my flight patterns looked exactly like that. Of course, I could only do them once with each plane . . . clean-up on aisle 5 was a common phrase we used.

3/18/2021 08:23:01 am

LOL! Great to hear from you again Tim. Yeah that was my experience when I briefly dipped my toe into the RC airplane waters. It quickly became apparent that I was going to run out of money long before I gained the skills necessary to keep the plane flying. The only luck I had flying anything was my Mavic drone, and it literally flew itself and all I had to do was tell it which way to go.

But flying RC airplanes is a fairly popular hobby for full timers. They learn where the airfields are in their travels, and wherever they go their welcomed with open arms by the club members in that area. And being a full-timer you have plenty of time repair you're not so successful flight patterns.

Tom

3/19/2021 02:42:46 pm

I flew RC planes for a couple of years and even after I improved, I would still have crashes. Back then, almost all planes were gas fueled and even if I didn't crash them because of my own ineptitude, they would get fuel soaked and finally not be worth reparing anymore.

I've looked into some of the RC fields out west and they look great, not nearly the number of trees that we have here (which is how I lost most of my planes). However, I would imagine it would be a lot windier out west, which is how I lost the other half of my planes. Most of the planes are electric now, I believe, which would fit in well with a RV with a solar system installed.

BTW, I was watching a video on YouTube of a couple that downsized to an Arctic Fox 27-5L from a larger fifth wheel and they said that they wanted a used unit, but couldn't find one anywhere. People that buy 27-5L's tend to hold on them. I spend last Sunday afternoon out in mine and I'm always impressed when I spend time in it. It just feels solid.

Hope everything is going well there. Even though things have gotter busy, I still follow your adventures every chance I get.

3/19/2021 04:49:45 pm

In my travels, I have learned that there are a lot of hobbies that work very well with the RV lifestyle. And a lot of hobbies that don't. But for the serious hobbyist it doesn't matter how inconvenient it is, you can always find a way to carry that boat, or that antique car everywhere you go. It just depends on how much money you can spend and how much of your life you want to revolve around that hobby.

Yes, wind can be a problem in the West, but there are ways around it. If you're going to fly RC airplanes you may find out that you have to start early and be done by lunch. Or you might find out that small lightweight RC airplanes just don't have the power to fly in the slightest breeze so you might just need a bigger airplane. Or it could be certain times of year are great for flying but certain months you need another hobby. Probably the same in your area, I imagine there's not a lot of waterskiing going on the last few months.

I'm still considering downsizing just like the folks you saw on the Internet. If I were living in RV parks most of the time and boondocking every now and then, I would be perfectly happy living and traveling in the Arctic Fox. It's really the boondocking that makes me want something smaller so I can go anyplace my truck will go. Being able to do that opens up a whole new world of boondocking that I only get to experience during the Summer taking mini-vacations in my little Bronco slide–in camper.

I don't know what size 5th wheel those folks on the Internet were downsizing from, I know there is a difference between traveling in a 37-foot trailer and a 30-foot trailer. But to me, that's not enough of a difference to make the change. I can't think of any place I've ever been in the Arctic Fox that you couldn't get to in a 37-foot trailer

And to me downsizing is more than just something smaller. I want something that has less to worry about, fewer moving parts, lighter weight, fewer things to go wrong. But I'm not ready to put on a backpack and hitchhike yet.

I'm doing just fine Tim, living the life I love, and loving the life I live, and still wouldn't want to live any other way. If you love your Arctic Fox just sitting in it, imagine how much you'll love it when it's parked under a palm tree, and you're sitting in a lawn chair under the awning sipping on a mint julep.

Time is not our friend Tim, it's a sad quirk of nature that the happier we are the quicker time goes by. My weeks go by like days, and at my age, that's a mixed blessing.

Tom

3/19/2021 06:35:14 pm

Hi Tom,

I guess everything is relative. I went back and checked and they downsized from a 44 foot toyhauler to the 27-5l. They wanted to keep it 30 feet or smaller so that they could fit in state and national parks that have a 30 foot limit. They also wanted better insulation and four season capability. The channel is "Chickery's Travels" if you're interested - I believe they are both military veterans, so you have something in common with them and might find it interesting.

I've toyed with the idea of a truck camper as well, both before and after I bought the 27-5l. Once the virus hit, I thought about getting a small, lightweight one to travel down to see my Dad so I wouldn't have to fly, but decided against it. Even with a 3500, I can't carry a very big one; would really need dualies for much of anything. But, there where a few that would work.

That's about the only good thing I can say about continuing to work. Time goes really slow until I take a vacation, then it zips by at light speed. I'm guessing when I retire, I'll blink my eyes and a decade will have gone by. But, the retirement horizon is getting closer every day. I just turned 62, so that's another milestone that I've been looking forward to.

As I get older, I'm whittling my hobbies down somewhat. Enough to always keep me busy, but not enough to be overwhelming. I don't see myself ever getting bored.

Glad everything is going well!

3/19/2021 07:19:51 pm

Yeah that is a big difference. I don't think my RVing brain even thinks in terms of 44 feet. More than likely since it's a toy hauler it would be a triple axle so by getting the Arctic Fox they not only lost some size and weight they lost some tires and bearings, so that makes more sense to me.

I'll check out their channel, thanks for letting me know.

There are some good things about slide in truck campers, and anything I would consider would have to be relatively lightweight which I think leaves out most of the Arctic Fox line up, and ones like the Bigfoot. But of course as we know when it comes to RVs lightweight translates into flimsy, and very little insulation, which is usually not conducive to being a happy camper. But if you're not adverse to traveling to places where the weather is more moderate from season to season you don't need as much insulation.

Whittling down hobbys is a good idea, whittling down everything is a great idea. Packing up to go full-time I knew all about the pitfalls of taking too much stuff so I only took the bare essentials.... Now here I am six years later and I've probably gotten rid of a third of the bare essentials and another third is on the bubble. So my recommendation is, pick out only what you absolutely positively cannot live without..... And then throw half of it away. Your going to do it sooner or later you might as well do it before you leave.

Remember like I've said in the past, your going to change when you go full time. So don't make many plans before you leave, just go, and things will fall into place. Things that are important to you now won't be when you settle into your full-time life. Your going to be perfectly happy living with less stuff, maybe happier than you've ever been.

Tom

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