What do you use your RV for?

By Bob Difley There are as many different reasons why people buy RVs as there are makes and models to choose from. RV ownership usually begins with a single purpose, such as spending an annual two-week vacation and several additional weekends a year at popular RV resorts like the Jellystone Parks or your local state park when you have young children. Many buy their rigs to make frequent family visits to relatives or reunions, visiting plush RV resorts with golf courses, fishing or hunting trips, connecting Harley riders at rallies like in Sturgis, South Dakota (some of which tow multiple Harleys in a trailer behind their motorhome), and hobbyists who follow the chili cookoff circuit, remote-controlled model airplane rallies, bluegrass festivals, and participants in civil war re-enactments. If you bought your RV to visit your grandkids, who don’t have enough space to offer you a room (so you stay in your RV in their driveway), you probably don’t even know that there are such things as chili cook offs (photo above), where hobbyists spend several weekends a year–competing in chili cooking contests competing for thousands of dollars in prizes–from the Desert Rat Regional Chili Cookoff in California to the Massachusetts State Cookoff. In fact you probably also don’t know that the International Chili Society’s website lists these cookoffs in states all around the country, including several winning recipes. The point is that once you purchase your... Read more

More California state parks scratched off the closure list

By Bob Difley It’s rare when you find a government employee/bureaucrat that, when given a difficult job, comes through with creative ideas and then makes them work . (Note a rewording of this sentence in my comment below.) California may have found one in State Parks Director, Ruth Coleman (who has worked for both Democratic and Republican governors). When Governor Jerry Brown took office, one year and four months ago, the state parks were faced with the closure of 70 of their 278 state parks by July 1st because of budget shortfalls, declining revenues, and all the other problems confronting states today. Since then she and her hard-working staff have managed to pull off what the politicians couldn’t, working out deals with a variety of partners that enabled her to remove 12 parks from the closure list.  And agreements are in the works to scratch another five off the death list. An additional 20 deals are being worked out with various organizations and businesses to work out a plan with county and regional park districts, cities, and non-profit groups to operate the parks for at least a year, giving the economy time to recover and to find new sources of funding. Ms. Coleman has also offered incentives to park department staff to come up with creative ideas to keep the parks open, like the opening of a wine-tasting kiosk at Topanga State Park in Malibu and holding a blues festival (photo) at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma. These are creative... Read more

Does a bad boondocking trip kill the concept for new RVers?

By Bob Difley In last week’s post,  A boondocker’s bag of tricks, among the many responses was one that got me thinking about how RVers view boondocking–especially those that don’t.  ”Bobbie” wrote: I don’t know why everyone raves about how great boondocking is. We went to Quartzsite, AZ to boondock with some friends who have gone there the last 4 years in January. The RVs were almost bumper to bumper, or side to side, just as close or closer than many campgrounds I have stayed in. The nights were cold, and we had to use our propane heater. We used about two- one lb. propane tanks per day. We were told we could not run our generators after a certain hour at night or until a certain hour in the morning out of respect for our neighbors. We got no tv service, even with the antenna. We took full showers every other day, with wash ups on alternate days. I like my long hot showers and missed not being able to have one. My friends went into town daily to Mesa RV for the free lunch, which would be great if it was close by but, it was about 8 to 10 miles into town and the same back to the rv. I figure it was at least 1/2 to 1 gallon of gas per day into town not counting all the gas we spent in getting the rig and tow car down to AZ from our town in central CA. For the $1000 or more the trip cost us, to my way of thinking was not worth it at all. Give me full hook ups and long showers, and electricity, and WIFI, and cable tv any day. I will gladly... Read more

A boondocker’s bag of tricks

By Bob Difley Camping overnight in a Walmart parking lot, a rest stop, or a forest service campground where there are no hookups is not difficult and most RVers once they get a little familiar with their rig have done it. But the real trick to successful boondocking is knowing how to get that third, fourth, or fifth day–or even a week or more out of a boondocking campsite–and be completely comfortable and confident doing it. The trick is in managing your resources–water, electricity, and waste. Familiarize yourself with these resources–electricity and how fast you deplete it from your batteries, drinking water and how much you waste (and the resultant waste water filling up your gray water tank), and filling the black, or sewer, tank–and how fast you deplete them or fill your tanks, then practice ways to stretch out their use. Getting as many days in the boonies as you can squeeze in between having to pack up camp and drive off to replenish electricity (charging your batteries), fill your water tank, and dump your waste tanks, is what makes boondocking successful, and staying out longer, and doing it comfortably, is what makes a boondocker happy. It also takes experience. Every time you boondock, you learn a new trick or two to extend your stay. Simple, common sense acts–that with experience become second nature–like not letting your faucets run, taking Navy showers, re-using the water you run when waiting for hot water to come, reducing... Read more

Forest Service’s new Travel Management Plans restrict driving in national forests

By Bob Difley After five years of work with local authorities and recreational providers, the supervisors of the various national forests are finishing off their mandated Travel Management Plans (TMP) that will designate where you can drive in their forest. Many of the forests have already published and implemented their TMP and others are being added as their work is completed. Former Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth had named unregulated motor vehicle use as one of the four biggest threats to the national forest system and directed all forest supervisors to write new plans that lay out–in detail–where motor vehicles are permitted. The Wallowa-Whitman National forest in northeastern Oregon is one of the latest to announce the completion of their long-anticipated TMP which will be released to the public in the next couple of weeks. Forest supervisor, Monica Schwalbach, wrote in a letter to the Baker City Herald that the plan “creates a balance between providing motor vehicle-based recreation opportunities and reducing damaging effects to natural resources.” In most forests–including the Wallowa-Whitman–driving motor vehicles and boondocking was previously allowed on all forest roads. The TMP, however, will designate those roads where driving and boondocking is permitted. If it is not permitted, it will not be allowed and a fine could result. The TMR will also outline specific areas where boondocking (dispersed camping) is permitted. If not... Read more

War over oil? $5 pump prices?: Looking again at electric vehicles

By Bob Difley The passing of the $4 a  gallon gas price this week didn’t seem like so much of a threshold as a speed bump on its way to $5. The Iran controversy is driving Wall Street speculation on the price of oil–which already has pushed prices well over $100 a barrel that will probably stay there for some time to come–resulting in exponential rises at the pump. It doesn’t help to rationally point out that the rise in the price of oil does not warrant such extreme escalation of pump prices, everyone is going to get what they can get out of it before the closing of the strait of Hormuz, the next war in the Middle East, OPEC raises oil prices,  and Wall Street speculators drive oil futures prices sky high and we all park our rigs. Whew. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about. But whenever the price of oil jumps, the news ratchets up the hope that the political cavalry will ride in with more drilling for domestic oil, escalating natural gas to the fast track to get it to the market sooner, and pushing development of alternative energy such as solar, wind, geothermal, etc. So I found this one little tidbit in the world of electric vehicles (EV) that sounded like it might have possibilities.  The problems with EV are multiple, including battery output limiting the vehicles’ range, cost of batteries, lack of charging infrastructure, dynamics limiting vehicle size, weight, and power, etc., and the desire of car owners to have the same or... Read more

Save effort and a back ache with a portable water pump

By Bob Difley Experienced Boondockers know that the efficient handling of waste water, electricity, and fresh water can determine how long they can camp without having to dump waste tanks, re-charge batteries, and refill the water tank. Adding  a portable water pump to your rig’s boondocking gear  can help save you effort, time, and hassle–and maybe a wrenched back. A portable pump can come in handy for chores you might not have thought of, such as transferring water from portable water containers–such as Jerry jugs or a water bladder–to your RV’s water tank. No more lifting heavy water jugs to pour into your tank, just back your pickup or dinghy up to your rig, attach a hose from the pump to the water container and another from the pump into your water fill opening and pump away while you enjoy doing something else. You can also use a pump to: Pump water from a mountain stream or lake into jugs for transfer into your rig. Use this only if you use bottled or purified water for drinking, washing dishes, and brushing teeth and your water tank just for showers. Empty the water from your fishing boat, kayak, or canoe after a sudden rainstorm. Put a shower head on the outlet hose and use it to wash off sandy feet or muddy shoes–pumped directly from a bucket outside so debris doesn’t enter your gray waste tank–or move it to any area outside your rig that needs washing off. A good, inexpensive pump would be one similar to the Attwood... Read more

Keep your fresh food stores safe from microscopic creepy crawlies

By Bob Difley Developed nations such as the USA and Canada have strict laws governing the handling of food from the pickers in the fields through the processors to the canners or baggers. Handling of livestock is also controlled and inspected from the time it leaves the ranch or feeding pens until it ends up in the meat counter or in plastic wrap in the supermarket. But as you all too often read in the news, food bugs (not the kind you can see) still get by the most stringent inspections and into our foods. While most of us are familiar with and have confidence in our local food suppliers, we unfortunately can’t tell when foods contain something that will make us sick. Whether you purchase food from a major supermarket supplied by big agribusiness producers or from the back of a farmer’s truck at a local farmers’ market you can’t tell what pathogens might sneak through. Boondockers must be especially careful in the handling and storing of fresh foods when stocking up before a trip,  some of it hidden from view until discovered when the storage area empties out, often having been subjected to a wide fluctuation between heat and cold. We also often keep foods beyond the safe date since if we’re camped out in the boonies we can’t just pop down to the market to replace questionable items—and we are often a distance from medical care as well if we do get food poisoning. We also might be a bit stingy in using wash and rinse water on dinnerware and cooking utensils... Read more

Safety precautions and common sense can prevent wildfires

By Bob Difley The BLM has issued a warning for Northern Nevada on the lack of moisture and warm day time temperatures and that campers and boondockers must use caution when building fires. The dry state of already dry BLM land in other states calls for the same measures. Texas, for instance, has had its driest year in decades, and you’ve seen what happened to the state as wildfires ravaged millions of acres. Little rain or snow has fallen in any of the southwestern deserts and wildfire danger is very high. As a result of these conditions and to remind fire builders, the BLM published these guidelines for building a campfire. Park vehicles so that the exhaust system does not come in contact with the dry grass, weeds or leaves. If off-road vehicle use is allowed, internal combustion equipment requires a spark arrester. Please stay on designated roads and trails. When burning debris check local weather conditions, have water nearby and available and know your counties outdoor burning policies. Never leave a campfire unattended. Leave campsite as clean and natural as possible. Remember the basic rule of, “Pack In Pack Out”. Never use any type of fireworks on public lands. Keep stoves, lanterns and heaters away from combustibles and never use inside a tent. I would add the following: Don’t build a fire when the wind is blowing hard. Keep a bucket handy to use to throw water on any errant sparks that escapes and to drown your final fire. Use a folding... Read more

RVers perk: Trade out your help for free camping in national parks and monuments

By Bob Difley Do you want to make $600 to $750 a month while living in your RV in a beautiful location and doing what you like to do. Let’s see how an ad for a job like that might look: Wanted. RVer to live on location in National Park (NP) or Monument and spend 20 hours a week helping park officials with RV park registrations, light maintenance, and other upkeep needs as necessary. No two week limit on how long you can stay. If you now enjoy visiting our national parks and monuments this ad would attract your attention. Especially the potential of living in a national park for months where now you are limited to two weeks.   And earning some supplemental income is good too. The above situation is available now. But let me clarify first. If you were to take a regular job somewhere it is unlikely that you would be given free housing so whatever you earned, some of it would go for housing or, in the case of RVers, staying in an RV park. So to juxtapose the national park offer from one of earning money and paying for an RV park, instead you trade out your earnings for a free campsite. Same result–almost. If you got a job making $10 – $15 an hour (most temporary or part time jobs don’t pay as well as fulltime or career jobs) and worked 20 hours in a week you would earn $200 – $300 or about $800 – $1,200 a month. After paying $20 to $25 a night (no monthly rates in national parks) you would have between $200 to $450 left over. Out of this would... Read more

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