The hobbies I have loved and lost

I keep hoping clicking the pics well make them better, but sad to say 'tis not to be.

What a huge campsite, I thought this was a group campsite, but the campground host told me this is just for one RV and I'm welcome to stay here. But I'll probably move, I feel guilty tying up a spot this big.

It sure is a great feeling to wake up to a new view... At least it is for me, but I guess some of that depends on your hobbies.

Many years ago, one of my favorite places to be was Las Vegas, I wasn't much of a gambler, but I enjoyed the sights and the sounds and even the shows I could see while I was there. And I guess I went there enough to call it a hobby.

Guns were a major hobby of mine, and I enjoyed being anyplace that had something to do with my gun hobby, shooting, hunting, shooting competitions, and gun shows. I loved waking up on a weekend morning boondocked in a gun show parking lot somewhere in the country. It was not only enjoyable for me, but it also turned out to be very lucrative.

Fishing was also a long time, important hobby for me. Living in Miami Florida I had the boats, and fishing equipment for any kind of fishing, from lightweight tackle for casting a fly to a trout, or a boat rod that looked like a broomstick with a large Penn reel on it for trolling in the Gulf stream. I enjoyed catching and eating most anything. But I sold and gave away most of my fishing equipment before I moved to Colorado, knowing that very little of the equipment I had would be suitable for normal Colorado Lake fishing.

I had other hobbies also. I've been in love with motorcycles even before I was old enough to get a drivers license. And skin diving and spearfishing was a big part of my life in Miami. But downsizing and simplifying my life didn't leave much room both physically and mentally for dealing with all my different hobbies, so taking pictures of things and blogging have replaced most all of my previous hobbies.

And there's nothing wrong with that since I enjoy taking pictures. What better hobby could there be for a person that travels than photography. Everywhere I go opens up new opportunities for photos, and my blog gives me somewhere I can show my pictures; photography and blogging are so symbiotic it boggles the mind.

So having a new view means more to me than just being in a new place, it opens up more opportunities for the photography hobby that I love. Like I've said in the past, "the only place I like better than where I'm at, is the place I'm going to be."

Theboondork

Valley of fires is a BLM "recreation area," and with my Geezer Pass I'm paying six dollars a night to stay here, but it is boondocking, there's no hookups where I'm at, just a picnic table shelter, a trash can, and a water faucet down the street. There's also a barbecue, and a campfire ring. But those are verboten because of the fire concerns in New Mexico.

This is the tent area. Even though it's supposed to be only for tents the campground host said that since the Bronco is half tent I'm welcome to stay down there if I want to. So I'll probably move to one of those boondocking spots, I feel bad taking up space for the largest RV when all I really need is a place big enough to park the truck.

I found this truck camper camped down the road from me kinda interesting. He's in a three-quarter ton Chevy pickup, like mine, and his Lance 855 camper has a dry weight of almost 3000 pounds, I looked it up on the Internet,  that's how I know.

So it seems to me that once he fills up his 30 gallon water tank, his propane tank, a few gallons in the holding tanks, all his personal stuff, and a couple cases of beer, this thing is going to weigh near 4000 pounds and it's sitting in a Chevy 2500.

Now I have no way of knowing what sort of things he's done to the suspension to carry that kind of weight, or how far he will be able to carry it. But he's from Québec so at least I know he can go this far.

This is a complicated looking arrangement. These campers looks like they bought a folding tent that could be mounted on the bed of the truck. And then figured out that packing and unpacking all of that, so they can run to the store, got very annoying very quick....Hmmmm; I wonder where I've heard that before.

So they made a trailer to mount the little tent in so the truck could be free to run around. But if that's the case, couldn't they just pitch a regular tent on the ground and avoid the trailer altogether? After all they've got to put the tent up and down on the trailer, same as on the ground.