theboondork's RV blog

who would trust me to be in charge of anything?

9/12/2023

The pics can be clicked if your quick, wait too long and they'll be gone.

Some of the hills and valleys near Fairplay.

My wife flew away to visit relatives for a while, and my daughter's family is flying to North Carolina for three or four days tomorrow, so I will be left alone. And other than missing my family, the worst part is I will have to cook for myself .....so I may starve.

But all of that Leaving does put me in complete charge of an empty house and an unoccupied condo. But with everyone gone, there's nobody I can order around... Except for the cat. And if you're even vaguely familiar with cats, you will know that they don't take orders..... they give them. So, I'm required to feed the cat and let her in and out twice a day.

with those two vacant homes just laying there will I stay in one of them while everyone's gone? Even though I could, I won't, why? Because the Lance is my home, and I'm perfectly comfortable living in the Lance. Even though both homes are temperature controlled all day and night, so no one is hot during the daytime and chilly at night, that's not the way I want to live.

The seasons in Denver are slowly changing and becoming comfortable during the daytime and chilly at night, and I want my body to slowly change with the seasons and get used to warm days and cool nights. That's the way folks used to live, their bodies adjusted to the varying temperatures so they were fairly comfortable all the time.

And if you're a long-term boondocker getting used to the way nature works is very beneficial, and trying to work with it instead of fighting against it, I am able to stay fairly comfortable using very little heat, and almost no air conditioning. And I can do that not because I'm tough, but because I slowly get used to the temperatures nature is giving me. So I prefer living in the Lance.

Taking care of all these homes is a lot of responsibility for someone who avoids as much responsibility as is humanly possible, having learned many years ago that if your irresponsible, people won't ask you to do anything that requires even an infinitesimal amount of personal responsibility.

But that didn't save me in a case like this, where the family so desperately needed help to the point that they will even entrust someone as irresponsible as I am to take care of two homes and a morbidly obese cat.

theboondork

Old building on Fairplay's Main Street.

Fairplay restaurant.

8 Comments

Bill

9/14/2023 04:21:42 am

I skimmed to the comments immediately, since I needed clarification.
Wife??
Who knew you'd gotten married?
Please explain.
Inquiring Minds Want to Know.!!

Tom

9/14/2023 08:09:29 am

Sorry Bill, it's not a secret I just don't talk much about my personal life since that's even more boring than my full-timing life.

I got married over 50 years ago, and I'm still married. But when my wife and I sold our home in the Colorado mountains about nine years ago we discussed what we were going to do, and I wanted to become a full-timer and travel staying away from the snow as much as possible. My wife, not enjoying travel all that much, wanted to move close to where our daughter lived near Denver and help with the grandkids.

Since the last place in the world I wanted to live was near a big bustling city, and the last place my wife wanted to live was in a TRAILER! we had to come to some kind of an agreement.

I had always heard that if a couple wants to live together in an RV they both have to want to equally as much, or it's just not going to work. So we did the only sensible thing. I moved into the Arctic Fox, and my wife bought a condo less than a mile from our daughter's house.

Were still married, we get along just fine, and were both happy because were living the kind of life we both wanted to live.

Tom

Leo Porter

9/14/2023 07:13:29 am

Tom
This is kind of simple but how about an arm attached somewhere above the opening of the tank storage area with a pully device that will lift the tank level to the storage area where it can be pushed into the storage area. The arm can be folded away flat against the side of the Lance when not in use.

9/14/2023 08:49:30 am

That's a unique idea, Leo; I guess that could be called thinking outside the box.

My biggest concern would be since RVs are built so cheap, and I think Lance would be right up there near the top of the cheap list. I would be concerned about components of this hoist arm with a full tank of propane hanging on it withstanding the weight.

Since I've made quite a few modifications to my various RVs, I have noticed that wherever the factory wanted to mount something that had to withstand some weight, they have substantially reinforced that particular area and some of the surrounding area.

I probably couldn't do that without considerable effort on my part because I won't know what's under the place I would have to mount the folding hoist arm without tearing out some fiberglass to find something structural that would hold the weight of a full tank of propane.

But that is a good idea Leo, and I really appreciate you taking the time to offer your very unique idea.

Tom

Linda

9/14/2023 11:16:14 am

Living the way each of you wants is a good thing. I love that you are still friends. My Dave is my best friend. I'm lucky he was willing to live full-time in an RV for three years before he needed to go home. I stayed out winters for another three years but it got to where I missed him too much so I came home, too. I miss RVing but I missed Dave more.

9/14/2023 12:01:59 pm

That's a beautiful love story, Linda, I'm glad you shared it with all of us.

Tom

Glen link

9/14/2023 03:24:46 pm

Not sure this is practical but could be a solution for changing propane tanks in your Lance. Assuming there is some space between the side of the Lance and the truck bed. Also, there is a place to secure the pully that won’t pull out.

Mount a small pully above the compartment door or inside the compartment. Install a shaft between two mounts that allow it to turn. The end of the shaft will fit in a cordless drill if no more than 3/8 diameter. Run a small nylon rope with a hook on one end, run the end without the hook thru the pully and down to the shaft. The shaft will need something to secure the end of the rope.

Place the hook on the full tank, use the cordless drill to slowly wind up the rope and raise the tank high enough to allow you to push it in the compartment.

When done, pull the rope out of the pully and store it for the next time.

There may be small ratches winches they would fit under the side wall.

9/14/2023 04:28:38 pm

Thank you Glen, I'm getting so many good ideas that I only wish I had the mechanical abilities or the ambition to accomplish some of these things.

I think your idea would run into some of the same problems that Leo's idea had. Lance campers, especially the older, cheaper ones like mine are put together with spit and glue with a little cardboard added for strength in critical areas. So locating an area that would have enough strength to hold up a full propane cylinder, other than the bottom of the box it's sitting in would be risky at best.

But I'm finding that in everybody's suggestions there's a clue to something that might work. So when you suggested that there is some space between the side of the camper and the truck bed, that reminded me of the empty space in front of, and behind the wheel wells on the truck. That empty space is a little bit wider than the wheel wells themselves, so the camper can slide into the bed of the truck. And unlike some truck campers where there is a cubby door inside the camper that you can open and see the empty space, the Lance has no such door so I can't see that empty space from inside or out.

Now I know the propane cylinder has a diameter that's bigger than that empty space but maybe I could do some things in the Lance that would make a propane cylinder fit into that empty space in the truck bed so I could load the full propane cylinder from the inside of the Lance.

More things to think about Glen, I sure appreciate the thought and you taking the time to make your comment.

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who would trust me to be in charge of anything?

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