theboondork's RV blog

yee-haw!!!

12/20/2022

Click the pics, a lot of early-morning effort was involved here.

Bluewater casino in Parker Arizona Picture

The Bluewater hotel casino.

Despite my inherent laziness, and total lack of motivation, in an effort to not bore everyone too much, I'm still trying to take better pictures of the same places I've been before. And I'm doing this largely by attempting to take pictures when the lighting is better, which a lot of the time involves getting up before the sun.... This is one of those extra effort pictures.

Continuing my inability to be counted on to be someplace, when I woke up this morning I decided to remain at the Bluewater casino for one more day, since it's pleasant here and I'm in no hurry to get to Havasu.... Or anywhere else for that matter.

If there was a compelling reason to get to Havasu, I could be there in an hour. But since the only reason I'm going there is to hang around till Christmas is over, and there's plenty of boondocking in the area, so I don't have to worry about a place to stay, I figured I should slow down and enjoy the trip.

I haven't done any gambling here, and don't intend to because it just doesn't interest me. From everything I know about casinos, Indian casinos have some of the lowest paybacks, and yes the Bluewater casino is on a reservation and is owned by the Colorado River Indian Tribes known as CRIT. I don't know for sure but I think a lot of the different tribes that lived along the river didn't have enough people in a single tribe to pull off a deal like the Bluewater casino. So they got all the tribes together that live on the river, pooled their resources and called the group CRIT.

Finally some warm weather, it was in the 60s today so I actually had to open a window for a change. And when I get to Havasu tomorrow its going to be in the high 60s and by Christmas day its supposed to be in the 70s.... YEE-HAW !! T-shirt weather at long last.

Theboondork

One of my boondocking van neighbors. These Dodge camper vans are more inexpensive than the Mercedes vans, but I still see a lot more of the Mercedes vans on the road than these.

The Colorado River. It's the Bluewater the casino was named after.

Sunset at the Bluewater casino.

This Polaris RZR [pronounced Razor] was playing around in the hills next to the river, and he started up a really steep hill and I didn't think he could make it up! I could just picture that little car with his whole family in it going tumbling down the hill throwing people out is it went.

But he made it.

The Bluewater casino at sunset.

8 Comments

Linda

12/21/2022 02:38:43 pm

My first Mercedes van was badged as a Dodge. At that time Dodge was the place to get maintenance done on a Mercedes engine. Not anymore, though.

Tom

12/21/2022 02:55:18 pm

When I was trying to decide between a van camper and a slide-in truck camper, the only van camper that interested me was the Mercedes mostly because I think it looks better than any of the rest of them. And I would prefer a diesel, but I was reading too many Internet complaints about the difficulty of getting the diesel engine worked on.

One of the best things about having a Chevy or a Ford is the ability to have it worked on in almost any little town in America. And the thought of having a broken Mercedes diesel van towed for 300 miles to somebody who could fix it, was not appealing to me.

Tom

OFM

12/21/2022 04:03:49 pm

I totally agree with you about the van brands.

12/21/2022 05:21:37 pm

Thank you Barney. Of course I don't have to worry about that any more, as I seriously doubt if I'll ever have the money to buy a decent van. I've pretty much bought into the slide-in camper deal, and so far have see no reason to change. I certainly can't decide to get a bigger camper, because I've been there and done that. And there's not much in the way of camping equipment to go smaller than what I've got, except a tent.

My one big concern is, what happens if I get so geezerly that living in the Lance becomes too difficult. At that point would I decide it was time to come off the road and stop being a full-timer? Or would I want to get something easier to deal with like a van thats lower to the ground?

While Boondocking, every day I see people living in cars and mostly SUVs. You probably don't see that very much in an RV Park, because they can't afford an RV Park, their boondocking on public land like I am. I look at them and wonder, is that my future? An SUV is the cheapest thing to live in. Storage is very limited, but by then I'm not going to have much to store anyway. All I need is a way to go from a cold place to a warm place, and six months later reverse that. Maybe in a few years all I'll need is an SUV, a camp stove, and a sleeping bag.

But in the end It always comes down to the same thing when you get old... Your health.

Tom

12/21/2022 07:52:46 pm

You are thinking quite clearly about your future options. One thing I have already experimented with years ago is if I could COMFORTABLY live in a mini-van. I took several one to two week trips in them when I owned them and the answer is YES. I used a portapotty and it worked out well, Cooking was a one burner camp stove. And foam filled air mattress was very comfortable. It was not really much different than the fellow of Rolling Steel Tent is in now.
My continuous getting rid of stuff and simplifying is starting to pay off big time as I continue to head for simpler and easier . A few weeks ago I made a run at putting all my living stuff in the truck and found out it all fits in the truck just fine. Lots of options are swirling in my head these days, This last fall and eye injury really drove home how little time I have left to run and play. Merry Christmas.

12/21/2022 08:35:14 pm

Yeah that's the main thing, you have to enjoy your life. No one can do it for you because you're the only one that knows what makes you happy. The trick is to find out what truly makes you happy, and do it.

One of the things I did was get rid of as much stress as possible. I looked at what bothered me the most about full timing, determined it was pulling a trailer, which was surprising considering how many trailers I've owned, worrying about all of its tires and bearings, backing it up, finding places it would fit into, that was really my biggest concern during the winter when I'm traveling.

Not having that thing behind me changed my life for the better. Now I can go to the Walmart in Lake Havasu without having to worry about my trailer sitting out in the middle of the desert all alone with almost everything I own inside of it.... Having my home on my back like a turtle, that goes everywhere I go is such a feeling of freedom it's hard to believe. Mary Christmas to you too Barney.....

Tom

12/22/2022 01:23:46 pm

Many people find a minivan to be a good vehicle in which to live. The cheaprvling.com website gives you lots of guidelines about how to do that. Homesonwheelalliance.org has work days where they help you install things you might need for free. Like you said, lots of people out there living in basic vehicles. I decided I would still need solar power to run a microwave but even that is doable.

12/22/2022 03:55:04 pm

I'm hoping I don't end up boondocking in a car, it's just not a good look. I've talked to a few people that were boondocking in their car and they seemed like really nice people, just down on their luck, or older folks that just don't have the money to live any other way..... And that's why I said its not a good LOOK.

Thanks for those websites even if I don't intend to live in a car, there's information there on living small, and small is the way I have to live.

You know; I have mixed feelings on my microwaves. I used it some in the Arctic Fox because I had a lot of solar panels on the roof, and those 150 amps an hour that it used was doable because I didn't use it much or for very long. But every day I look at the one that's in the Lance, and one day I want to keep it, and the next day I want to throw it in the nearest dumpster, and use that cabinet for storage, which I really do need.

Tom

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