Out of the Park, and into the Desert

On Friday the 15th about 11:15 one of the employees of Holiday Palms Rv Park came by and reminded us that we were scheduled to check out today by noon. When we checked in  we somehow had the idea we were good till noon on Saturday, but a check of the paper work confirmed we needed to be out by noon on Friday.

So we immediately started the process of preparing to move, and by 12:06PM we were pulling out of the RV park and on our way to the desert to join a group of RVers who all belong to www.RvForum.net.  It was only a short drive, about 3 miles, and the directions we had were excellent.  There were no problems finding the place except we had to remember to turn where the "dusty road" sign used to be:)

There we only a couple of rigs already there, so finding a place to park was not a problem beings that there is about 11,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land in the area to park on!  It costs $40.00 to park for 2 weeks, and you can renew your permit as often as you want.  Another option is to pay $180.00 for a 6 month permit.  No hook ups out here, but it a beautiful and quiet desert!  For people who like to four wheel or ride dune buggys, it is an idyllic place. Here is a shot of a few rigs that are with our group.

After getting set up, we decided to go up to Parker Arizona, about 35 miles north, to stock up on groceries at the Safeway, and a stop at Wally World to get some rechargeable batteries for our walkie talkies.  It was an easy drive, as there is not much between here and there except sand, rocks, and scrub brush.  When we got back to our camping spot, after stopping at the local RV supply store to pick up some glide tape to repair one of our front curtains, a few more rigs had shown up, and because another group had set up close to our group, we all decided to move our group a little to the east. So after we moved the motorhome, unloaded and put away our groceries, we settled in for a quiet evening, and looked forward to meeting new people and making new friends in the morning.  Because of our new and larger battery bank, we didnt have to run the generator, and were still able to run the computers and a few lights till we went to bed.  Here is Ann putting up our front curtain after replacing the glide tape.

When we woke up Saturday morning it was pretty cool in the motorhome, as we didnt run the furnace during the night.  So first thing I started the generator, kicked in the heat pumps that are built in the AC units, and to speed the warming, I also started our propane powered Kozy World heater. In about 10 minutes is was up to about 74, so I shut down the propane heater, and let the heat pumps keep us warm. I also turned on the electric heating element in the water heater,and  we we both charged our cell phones.  One thing boondocking teaches is to be efficient!  I didnt have to run the heat pumps for long as it warms up pretty fast in the morning, and then it is opening the roof vent and a window or two to keep it nice in the motorhome, while it is about 70 or so outside most days.

The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon we just chilled, and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the desert.  At 4:00PM the group had its first "happy hour" where we all introduced ourselves, visited, and got happy till after dark.  It is really a diverse group that belongs to this forum.  One of the members is a retired phlebotomist from Des Moines.  The rest are from New York, Washington, Arizona, and places in between.

On Sunday we decided to go into town, do some laundry, and then go to "the big tent".  That is where most of the booths are set up for the RV show.  The laundry went pretty easy, the place was busy, but we didnt have to wait.  Finding a parking place close to the "big tent" can be a challenge, but we lucked out, and found one pretty quickly, and not too far to walk to "the big tent".  We cruised around the tent, lots of non RV stuff for sale, and there was also a lot of booths advertising some camp ground, city, or Canadian Province.  There was not near as much RV "stuff" that I expected.  We did buy a shut off valve for our shower that lets you set the water temperature, then shut the water off while retaining he temperature setting.

You do this so you can shut off the water while showering, and not waste water by either letting it run, or readjusting the temperature.  This is a handy way to save water while boondocking. This is good as it seems that water is going to be the limiting factor on how long we can boondock without either moving, or bringing in more water.  The new battery bank is performing as expected, batteries are still showing full this morning, while not running the generator for almost 24 hours.  The propane is doing well too.  We are only using the on board propane for cooking and the refrigerator.  The propane heater runs off a separate 20 lb. tank, and so far we have only run the heater about an hour total.

Out here in the desert TV reception is poor to non-existent.  We have either been using park cable systems or "over the air" channels to watch TV the last month, but a couple days out here without any TV, we decided to subscribe to Directv, so at 4:30PM today an installer is supposed to be here to hook things up, and get us going.  We have single LNB dish on the motorhome, which we plan to use for short stays, but we will be getting a triple LNB dish and tripod when we stay long enough someplace to make in practical to put it up. Also, when we get home Directv will install a triple LNB dish on our house and run the necessary cable for a house system.  As it is 2:30, it is now only "two hours till Wapner" :)

The last purchase we made yesterday was a 300 watt inverter for Ann to use in her "office" to power her laptop,  and her work lamp.

 We hoped it would also run the laser jet printer, but upon further review the printer takes about 500 watts.  So we will have to run the generator, or get a larger inverter when we need to print something.

When we returned from our day of laundry and shopping there was still quite a group at "happy hour", so we joined for while.  As rain was expected last night and today, before everyone went their own way for the evening, we covered up the wood pile, and everyone took their "happy hour" chairs back to their rigs.

In our "happy hour" spot we have built a fire ring.  In order to build it, everyone is to bring a couple of rocks to each get together, and by the end of the rally, it should finished.

Because we had eaten a late lunch while shopping, we decided to fore-go dinner, and just spend some time on the computer before calling it an early night.

Hopefully, that should bring us up to date with the rest of the world.

Paul