theboondork's RV blog

To Boondock, or not to boondock ?

5/4/2023

Clicking the pics is up to you, a click makes it easy for you to view, but if there current size is fine, click when you want , there's no deadline.

It's been a long time since Rattlesnake island, that's it in the middle of the picture, has been cut off from the mainland because of high water. Normally you're able to drive a vehicle over to the island to fish, picnic, or go for a swim. But now the waters high enough that the natural jetty that goes from the mainland, to the island is under several feet of water.

Not much going on today; it was windy in the afternoon, so I didn't feel like getting out and doing much of anything. I sure do miss boondocking. Right now, if I want to take a picture of the lake, I have to walk up a hill for about 100 yards, which is a real pain to walk all that far just to find out there's not a cloud in the sky, and the sunrise is marginal at best. It will be great to return to a boondocking spot where I can see the lake out the window. I'll be boondocking for a few days starting tomorrow, but that means I'll have little or no refrigeration until I can fix the fridge, hopefully, Monday.

Plenty of plug-in sites are available for Sunday and Monday, so I could have electricity for my refrigerator if I wanted while working on it. But I don't know if that's what I'll do; it depends on how much I want to return to boondocking.

You know, come to think of it, in the past, I've mentioned in my blog things like, "I would pay to boondock even if a regular campground was free." That's not exactly what could happen right now, but it's close. I can stay in one of the boondocking areas for free, or I can stay in a full hookup site for four dollars a night, which is kinda almost like free as far as I'm concerned. And yet I'm having to give serious thought about whether I want to boondock or not. And the only reason I even have to think about it is that it might be handy to have electricity while working on the refrigerator. Other than that, I had much rather be boondocking.

Theboondork

Camping at Elephant Butte State Park. I sure like having electricity at the moment, so my refrigerator is working, but I'll be happy to be boondocking again tomorrow so I'll have more space, and a better view.

Pink wildflowers in my camping spot.

A lot of birds are very active right now since it's nest building time, and the males and females are frequently seen together such as these exceedingly rare, New Mexican Bowlegged Cormorants. These rare birds don't bother building nests, they just lay their eggs on a branch and hope they don't roll off.... I guess that could explain why their exceedingly rare !

6 Comments

OFM link

5/4/2023 06:42:17 pm

Back in 2007 to 2009 I spent a lot of wonderful time boondocking and exploring along NM 52 going from Elephant Butte SP looping west and north to the Datil area. Black dam is along that route and it was great to visit. It was a non-functional dam when I was in the area. It has a good gravel road to it. Of course Winston and Chloride need visits if you have not ever been there. Have fun.

Tom

5/4/2023 07:49:17 pm

Thanks for the info Barney. I was in that area last Fall, but it was so cold I had to get South as quick as possible.

I'm keeping up with your blog, and I see you're having problems finding suitable RV parks, and my prediction is that situation will get worse before it gets better, because there's so many RVs on the road now days which will without a doubt cause higher prices, and RV parks finding ways of making more money with less effort, such as what you're experiencing with RV parks wanting people to live there all year. Which is nothing new of course, this was being done in South Florida back when I lived there, and Escapees has gotten rich leasing out campsites by the year, and most of them have a looong waiting list.

From a business point of view it makes perfect sense for the RV Park owners to do what they're doing. If the RV Park has 30 spaces that they can rent out on an annual basis at $500 a month they will net about $180,000 a year. And if or when they want to expand their business, having a steady, reliable, income makes them look a lot more stable, and increases their ability to qualify for a bank loan so they can build 30 more annual campsites. Offload the entire business to an LLC. Pay yourself a small salary and retire a millionaire.

What could happen, but probably won't; is you may have to look deeper and deeper into RV parks that are, shall we say, somewhat less than safe, to find what you need and have to deal with more and more problems with the tenants.

It seems like earlier in the year you were boondocking in Southern Texas, and now you're talking about living in northern Alabama all year and taking a mini-vacation now and then like I do when I'm in Denver, so it sounded like you're suddenly coming off the road, which as you know is a slippery slope straight into the door of an old geezers home where you will be slurping tapioca pudding until 1900 hrs. when the caregivers trundle you off to bed.

Just to keep you out of an old folks home I would suggest you buy a annual New Mexico camping pass and try living there for the entire winter, changing state parks every two weeks. I believe that traveling keeps you young, because it challenges you both mentally and physically which has to be a good thing. So fill up your roof with solar panels, your empty space with batteries, wave goodbye to the dark side [RV parks], and be welcomed into the light.[Boondocking.]

Tom

Linda

5/5/2023 02:59:39 pm

I just read a quote that made me think of you. "Nothing is impossible. Yet, I do nothing every day." That's me, too.

5/5/2023 05:57:09 pm

I can relate to that Linda. For me, not doing very much every day is fairly easy, but doing absolutely nothing, is hard work; but the satisfaction I get from accomplishing nothing is worth the effort.

Tom

Larry Worsham

5/6/2023 05:43:02 am

Thanks for pointing me to OFM's blog. The new approach of private CG for a annual lease is disheartening for those not liking to stay in one place for long times. It is not an unusual approach. The private student housing around Texas State in San Marcos does a similar thing. They require a year round lease even though most students go home in the summer. Students are always looking for a sublet. Escapees is similar but it is fairly easy to sublet your space. We have stayed in Escapee parks in high demand areas this way.

One either has to plan a trip making reservations far in advance or do the research into finding boondocking spots. I wonder how well Harvest Hosts works? I would guess that are probably one nighters.........

Oh well, stuck at the homebase due to family health issues.

SAFE TRAVELS!

5/6/2023 07:25:50 am

As is often the case, I started out responding to your comment with a sentence or two, and before I knew it I was on my 2nd cup of coffee and hadn't figured out a way to end it. So yet again, I will make my response your comment today's blog post, and you will have to wait till this afternoon to wade through an inordinate amount of mindless drivel that passes as my daily blog post.

Tom

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

To Boondock, or not to boondock ?

Leave a Reply.

Archives

CONTACT THEBOONDORK