BUSTED! When You Get Lazy Bad Things Happen...

... and usually at bad times__ Like late in the afternoon, on Sunday, when you're out in the middle of Nowhere  in New Mexico...

*On the road to Chaco Canyon*

Two or three years ago I cracked the outside leg of the rear spring hanger on the right rear spring. Got it somewhere a welder could get to me and got it repaired before it had a chance to fail.

I caught it because I've always been in the habit of running my eyes over the rig just about any time I stop. Fuel. Camp. Groceries... if I'm walking around the rig I'm kinda checkin' her out, looking for such as will cause trouble if I don't fix it up quick.

Well... it's painfully obvious now, that habit has apparently faded a mite...

*Broken RV Spring Hanger/Mounts*

I say obvious because you can see on that broken hanger that it had been cracked half way across for long enough to rust the cracked edge of the hanger...

I'd planned to just have the left side boxed in advance to prevent the same failure... it's priority just kept getting pushed back... bad choice.

Worse... this failure is right beside the dump pipe for the tanks... so I've been by there right regular... UGH! Just no decent excuses.

Yeah... so it's Sunday in the middle of nowhere and nightfall is comin' on fast. What would your expectation of finding a savior be? yup. Me too. My expectation was Nada. Honestly? I just knew I was looking forward to a night sitting in the middle of the road hoping I didn't get blasted by some sleepy driver who failed to see my hazard triangles and flashin' lights.

I tried tow outfits to get me off the road, nobody had a trailer big enough. Even if they had, it would have been cheaper to just light it up in place and let it burn...

On my third call (Luckily I had good signal!!!) I was talking to a tow guy and had an Idea. "Would you know of a mobile welder that might be around?"

"Well" says he; "There's Marvin up by Broomfield. You could call Marvin's truck and trailer repair. If he doesn't have the gear he might know a fella that does."

Well damn if Marvin doesn't have everything he needed and he'd come out straight away... of course he's an hour and a bit away. Ugh... I'm seeing $$$ flying away fast... Service call. The work it'self. Surcharge 'cause it's Sunday. EXTRA surcharge 'cause "You is in a real tight and I can put it to you hard!"

Yeah... I was feeling low__at the same time a lot of relief because somebody was a comin' to pull my sizzling bacon out of the fire.

Well... by the time Marvin got there the sun had long since set. It was dark, with the wind blowin' pretty stiff... and he set to work.

As soon as he started to work I was breathing easy. It was plain that the Chief stud duck of Marvin's truck and equipment repair knew what he was about. (There have been repairs in the past where this ol' buster got raped purty good and with no alternative options!)

We (He) jacked it up. Then he got some chain and boomers and pulled that axle back where it should be and got the separated pieces clamped together...

*RV Suspension repair ON the road*

With them in pretty good position he could tack them in place and then burn them together.

In a shop with all the materials and tools ready to go and lots of light (That pic above is with camera flash) Not, laying in the dirt, in the dark, in the wind, with cars passing around us in the ditch, a fella might make a prettier repair...

... but the welding, with the plating boxing the back side and over each break seam... it's stronger now than when it left the factory so I'm happy.

*Repaired hanger plated both sides and  boxed*

But then came that time when you figure you might's well just bend over...

"So Marvin... what do I owe you?" I asked... knowing I'd taken better than five hours counting the travel time out of the man's Sunday...

"Well..." he kinda mumbled a little bit..."I get $105 an hour for road repairs... but that's for big trucking companies... how about we call it $300? Does that work for you?"

"Oh HELL YES!" I told the man. I was expecting to hear a lot more than double that! I raced to gather the cash before he changed his mind! :-))

All things considered, I weighed the price of his job out to be a bargain. Would have been a lot cheaper if I'd have paid attention and happened to notice those cracks... long before they became breaks in the dark on a lonesome back road on the Reservation!

Lesson to take away... check your rigs over regularly. I mean check close for cracks in the hitches, suspension parts... frayed belts and hoses... wiring faults...

... and every once in a while... give that nut behind the wheel a good tightening!

So... I decided to blow off Chaco Canyon. Took that night as a bit of an omen. I turned around and spent the night in a wide spot back by the main road. In the morning I resupplied in Farmington figuring to just go spend a couple of weeks chillin' and writing at the Goosenecks in Utah...

Got here... to the Goosenecks late in the afternoon... to find that it was effectively GONE.

The State of Utah has somehow now taken over control of this BLM land. Where it had been Free Boondocking since your grandaddy was pestering HIS grandaddy... it will now cost you $10 a night to park amongst the dirt and rocks.

I don't mind 'em charging a fella when they've put in facilities... but there's Nada. And ya'll can't tell me there's a "Cost" for parking in the dirt, in the desert... a few hundred miles from pretty much any damn thing.

It's just another case of; "There's people out there in the world who aren't PAYING! That's immoral! That's not Patriotic! They can't just live! We got to make them PAY to breathe. Pay to exist. If they don't pay__They got no Right!"

grrrrrr...

I'd have just turned away, but I was too tired and too cooked so I paid the tariff for a couple nights. Tomorrow I expect I'll move on and find a place where a man can still be; Just a man, free on the earth.

Still goin' down the road...

... Got a warm dry camp. Cold brew in the fridge.... and some worked for changes brewing in the future... so all's good.

Brian

"The Mountains are Calling and I Must Go"

... so now we're camped quite some lil' bit closer to those snow fields. Looking north along where our trail will stretch, I can see more snow capped peaks waiting for us... but that's another couple weeks away.

Tuttle Creek was a unique and shining time. More friends were gained there I think than any other previous camp. And the feeling of opportunities gained is strong... kind of an odd thing. I'm curious to see how "things" work out in the future... 

There was one guy, Dale, who's living, and been living for quite a while, on an 80's Honda NightHawk Motorcycle. As soon as he qualified to gather in his social security... he saddled up and left!... then there was Frank... fifteen years or so younger and "Burnt" from the demands of Soh-sigh-uh-tee...

He's been a film/video editor/producer for most of his working life... He took a break for a while hunting for some inspiration and ideas... and his way forward. He was traveling on a KLR. As we were pulling out he was saddled up and riding back to L.A. for another go. ;)

There was Joe, with an old "wilderness" looking trailer.  Just living cheap and digging out of debt... and breathing free... along with several others. The camp was full of folks just soakin' up an Alternative to what's generally force fed by the man...

There was even one fella in the Tuttle camp who spouted long and windy about what it meant if your name was capitalized on your birth certificate... and how he owned his rig, unlike the rest of us. Because he'd bought it with GOLD and not whatever we used... :) How he'd traveled around for years teaching people how to dodge this and that, and how to put judges and such in their place... I think he maybe he needs his meds adjusted.  ;)

It was actually ok though... he provided the rest with some pretty good giggles standing by the campfire! :)

A bunch of guys proving that you don't have to have deep pockets to be Free. You only have to commit to the idea.

Me? I just keep tappin' the keyboard. My 'work kamping'/RV Boondocking income writing just keeps rolling along. I'm at that point in book #4 where the story starts accelerating in my head and all the lines start to converge. This should be a good camp for that effort as well as some web work with the shiny signal we have here...

Even the Air Force got in the show for our departure from Tuttle. 

We were saying our good byes to another full timer that's been seeking a "better" way...

... When I spotted 'em coming up the Valley..


We got us a flyover to celebrate our moving camp. ;)

The plan for this move was to only bump up maybe 80 miles... maybe even "K-mart Kamp" for a night.

The rule in California is if you got more than two axles, 55 mph is your top speed... so my rolling road block fits right in to their legalities. What I don't understand is the split personality when I go from ten wheels to two...

Plant my but on the storm deck of that truck and trailer and I'm just pokey joe. No hurry... no rush... just drift along...

Now... Sling my leg over the seat of that Yamaha and a transformation happens. What's left of my teeth start showin'... my heart starts pumpin'... the wind starts whistlin' past my helmet. I gotta work to keep 'er legal.

It's kind of a cowboy time machine... back to those days on the sunny slopes when I was young and purty... 

Guess I should just be happy that I get to ride at both ends of the beauty "spectrum" huh?

We stocked up some groceries at Vons in Bishop... enough to buy us a tank at their fuel station with a 20 cent discount. Been a while since I bought diesel for $3.79!

Being still only mid afternoon, it made no sense to asphalt it for the night... so, hammerin' head or not I rolled us the rest of the thirty miles or a bit less to another BLM camp at Crowley Lake.

Again, with water and outhouses; a damn fine view from camp and two dollars and fifty cents a night... it hardly makes trying to find a "Free" camp worth the effort! :) With the wide spaced sites, most of which are empty and sizzling internet signal so I can punch away at the buttons getting some work done... this'll work fine for another long setup.

It puts us closer to some places we want to check out from Bishop to above Mammoth Lakes as well... cutting the diesel needed to get here from Lone Pine...

Maybe, if we dawdle long enough, they'll even open Tioga pass over into Yosemite. and we can go the short drive over the mountain rather than the all day drive to get around it.

It's a lot cooler up here. We're near to 3000 feet higher than the camps down there in the Alabama Hills... but what's a feller to do? Ya Gotta go where the Mountains are!

*A New Camp and a New View*

*Sunrise lights up our New Mountain*

This camp has long views in every direction... and some of  'em have that strange, pull you feel inside... that aching, longing hunger for something the full understanding of which hangs just out of reach...

Not a bad feeling... just that sort of mysterious urge that keeps you curious, keeps you moving... keeps you searching...

The desert is mostly behind us for this season... it waits for us to return in the fall. Up ahead are the coastal ranges along the Pacific. The beaches of Oregon and Washington... Mountains, roads and trails to explore...

Summer is close and like Mr. Muir said;

"The Mountains are Calling and I Must Go"
Brian

What Does a The Tomb Raider, Dumb and Dumber, and The Cost of RV Boondocking All Have in Common?

ME! :))

Ha ha. Ok... it goes like this... Let's see if I can keep this in some vuh-rye-uh-tee of crony-law-jiggle order...

So... yesterday, knowin' a blow was comin'... we went in to town, did our laundry, did some grocery stockin' for a couple days of bad weather. I was already knowin', from past marks left in the dirt that this place was Arizona gumbo when it gets wet.

That means if you're a wheeled veehickle... ya'll ain't goin' NoWhere... 'thout tearin' things up.

So... With that in mind we go to town... and what does my forgetful mind leave behind? The empty fuel can for the generator. As good as our Solar system works... it can't make much juice on cloudy, stormin' days. We'd be needful of running Ol' Squeal N' Belch to keep the batteries hummin' during two days of bad weather.

Leavin' the gas can behind = DUMB. and all probably 'cause I'm gettin' so squeaky cheap that my procrastinatin' sub-conscious was likely payin' attention and tripped my memory that was tryin' to take the can along, in a self-flagillatin' effort to cut my paradoxical spendthrift ways!

Yup... bein' me is a full time job!

... and that = involving the Cost of RV Boondocking! Which is pretty comical on the face of it since the rent right where we're living today is ZERO! ;)

The whole deal got stirred up 'cause this was what was on the way...

The weather man predicted a 1/2 inch where we're at... we got according to the same fellers... about an 1 1/2" of liquid sunshine... it's what we in Arizona call WET!

Now, down here they got this clay that when it's the right consistency, drivin' on it is kinda like an epileptic tryin' to roller skate on greased marbles.

But... since we WERE in town anyway... and it had got down to past three in the O'clock... we ran by the Town Cemetery to pilfer a few six gallon jugs of water! ;) and that = Tomb Raider! :))

I have no recollection of ever sneakin' our water out of a cemetery ever before! :)

Well... the storm blew in right on schedule and of course the batteries; with the heater runnin' and the computer burnin' up eel-ek-trawns with all my button tappin, I found it necessary to take the truck to town for some genset gas...

Well, enter that Arizona Gumbo...

If ya'll been 'round here for any time at all you know how I feel 'bout bozos tearin' things up with their 4 by's! and there I go... boxin' myself into a corner where I have to lock'er in 4by to get out... and I'm out there in that ol' dodge... uh huh... cuttin' some pretty good tracks through the muck just barely finding enough traction to move... when I SHOULD be sittin' inside warm and dry and NOT makin' ruts!

I'll have some shovelin' to do as soon as things dry off enough to move the dirt and before it sets up like concrete and repair the damage I done... an THAT = DUMBER!

The only thing that matched my mental lapse is a guy near by drivin' a big rig outfit... he's got a big class eight tractor pullin' a GI-Normous fiver...

He tried to move THAT tractor around to hook up in this slip N' slide stuff. The front end mired in when he pulled around to back in... He was out tryin' to dig the front out when I left. I figured to see him still strugglin' when I got back.

I was surprised when I turned off the pavement and came up the lil' two track to see the tractor had in deed got in under the trailer...

He actually managed to get the parts of his rig together without tearin' things up worse than I did. I'm guessin' he must have some of the same feelings 'bout things I do... cuz if ya'll look close at the photo above... he's over there on the left... trying to fill in the ruts with a board where he'd mired the front axle. This would be DUMB #2 :)

At this point whoever his friends with the lil' car were loaded 'em up and hauled 'em away for a while. That's a good thing. If he'd tried to haul that monster out of there in this weather he'd be stuck deep... somewhere between where he's parked now... and that lil' bush on the far left! :))

So... properly self chastised for senile foolishness and careless dispopulation of my fuel can... We broke out the schnaps... heated up some of that Cemetery water! mixed 'em all up with a special, magical brown powder... and warmed up the cold afternoon!

Something in the process must have tickled my writing parts. On top of a couple of blog posts I banged out in the morning I assembled a couple of thousand words on the next Ben Jensen Novel... and then had this post done prior to 9pm last night!

I sure hope bad weather isn't what's required to keep my literary gears crankin'!

Juuuuuust 'bout Done for the day!
Brian

RV Boondocking A Bit of a Cowboy Bikers Back Trail...

Dawn in a new camp... the sun just breaking over the Santa Rita Mountains behind us... lighting the peaks to the west...

*Sunrise on the Santa Rita Peaks in Arizona*

Yup... after careful and thoughtful consideration tempered by a bit of fuel cost cogitation...

...we decided to brave the altitude of Madera Canyon; And climb up to the towering heights of 5,000 feet in the Arizona High Up and Lonesome. ;)

The road into this camp might be a lil' intimidating if you ain't been here before...

Along with a shallow ford, you've got to climb over a few pretty sharp humps, maybe three or four feet high... I'd guess  if you're pushin' a forty foot, or even a bit less, rig... you'll high center 'fore you can cross 'em.

Truth be known, gettin' into some of the spots to camp might cause trouble with anybody draggin' a fiver with a Fifth Wheel hitch.  When you're truck leans 6 degrees east... and your trailer is leanin' 5 degrees west... and your hitch only has five, maybe 7 degrees of side tilt... ooooowheeee! You put some torque on frames... for sure and for certain...

... another of the reasons I use the gooseneck hitch conversion setup... no bind... no worries!

Pullin' in to this site, the truck was climbing and leaning left... the 5er was nose down sharp and leaning right... and the only thing I was concerned with was runnin' into my scooter! ;)

With camp set we unhitched and took a quick scout up canyon. The last time we were here to Madera Canyon was in the summer of  '85. It's been a while. 'fore that... it was cowboyin' in the '60's!

Had a bit of a sad moment climbing the canyon too... Some adventurous pilgrim had built a snowman, right directly in the middle of the lane... stick arms and all...

... well... that lil' pile of snowflakes was juuuuuuust a might taller than the punkin's on the truck's axles...

He kinda lost his head and quite a lil' below it as we passed... yup... snow-a-cidal yondering cowboy! ;)

They had a bit more snow here than we'd gotten at the Pima County Fairgrounds... It was pretty plain that they'd even had to run a plow over the trail...

Part way up the canyon is a cabin converted to a gift shop... The place just caught my imagination. Don't it just strike you as having the flavor or some sort of a fairytale cabin in the woods?

Had a conversation with a pair of Canadian couples; The first out of Quebec, and the second from Manitoba; when we got back to camp and were gonna head out on a walk... They asked was there any wildlife around here...

I should smile. You got Coatimundi, Mule deer, rattle snakes, black bear, cougar, birds of a few dozens kinds and sorts including Turkeys... get just south and east they've had Jaguar wandering back across the border out of Mexico... 

The Feds have been trying for some time to inflict Mexican Grey wolves on the folks here... kinda like what they done up Montana way. They've kinda run into an unexpected problem here though. The folks down here are... uh... let's say a lil' less... um... tolerant of Federal Impositions. You might have noticed that in OTHER political disputations.

Well... after several tries... it seems that every wolf transplanted has come down with a severe and fatal case of heavy metal toxicity. Yup... juuuuuuuust a lil' bit of civil disobedience in Arizona.

Some of the other Wildlife 'round here is the sort I'm intimately familiar with...

I'll tell you what... drop a rope onto the calf of one of these eared sows and you juuuuuust might have an experience you can call Western! 

It was just a few miles north of this spot in these same mountains; near what was then the ghost town ruins of a place called Helvetia when I was just 14; I remember racin' up a dry creek bed, tied hard and fast ( a green kids mistake) with an angry bovine of the female variety hot on my horse tail... slingin' a rack just like that one! Yes sir! Western!

But for a Cowboy, this is what makes all the mud and dust; 

The cold and the poor pay...

The broken bones and the long days... worth every drop of sweat.

Fresh calves in the spring time.


Evey winter a cowboy says; This is the last one.

Every Spring he says; One more year.

We walked west from camp up the road to see what we could see...

The sun shining and the dogs able to lope through the grass... the Sierrita Mountains across the valley... the other side of Green Valley.

 

... as always... goin' out... down hill... is always easier than the turn around at the end-O-day and climbin' the grade comin' back. I'm not sure we've fully ree-coo-pur-eighted from that flu! ;)

 

From our camp you look out across over Green Valley... and you see the mines against the Sierritas on the other side...

You can juuuuust see the angle of the dumps of one mine under the branches of the tree on the right... if you zooooooom in and look a mite to the left...

... You'll see the dumps of the mine I spent 'bout 6 years at. I helped pile up a goodly bit of that rock you see in the dumps above... Duval mine. Is where I picked up my wheeze and pro-pen-si-Tee for bronchitis and Noo-Moan-ya. That rocks dust don't do a feller much good. Even if it comes with a fat pay check.

One of those two mines was used as the base camp for the Holnists in Kevin Costners "The Postman". It looks a lot like the pit I worked in... but... I've not been able to get farther than the pit used is/was owned by Park Electrochemical Corporation.

There's a lot of history for me 'round this country... a lot of it I can't tell you about though... The statute of limitations ain't run out yet! ;)

Gonna be settin' right here in my Home Country for at least a week. It feels good.

Another Day in the West
Brian

From Zion to Lake Mead and Back to the Kaibab

We hauled out of Zion late. We're late starters, but we make it up by being early stoppers! ;)

We found a night camp on the rim of some badlands "canyons" just a bit south/west of Overton, Nevada.

I think we may have gotten a bit prejudiced. After Zion and the Narrows... a lil' place like this looks more like a ditch. ;)

It does have its attributes though. One, it's Free! :) and two the quiet and space is precious to such as me, even with the first impression of bleak and barren; and as you'll soon see, bleak and barren isn't always as it appears...

We weren't the first by any stretch to find this place. The tip came from the campground host at south campground back in Zion...

Just a bit farther west of us, across one of the shallow canyons was where the more Elite folks set up. ;) Funny how it seems to work out that way... the six digit rigs tend to congregate in one area... and us lower level wanderers camp up in another.

Though we might be less flush... most of the boondockers "Over here" seemed to be set up, maybe even a lil' better for long term camps... ;)

... No Matter your economic status... the sun rises over Free men just the same...

With the sunrise we continued our southern migration... passing by Lake Mead along the way.

Coming through the treeless expanse of the Mohave Desert... finding a few Palm trees poking up out of the rocks and sand is a little surprising...

If I remember the name right, this is Blue Point Spring... Walking up to the oasis it surprised me to surprise a frog!

He'd been sitting by a clump of grass on the bank of the hidden stream. The grass was so thick that I could actually only see the water in one tiny spot (where I'd seen the frog jump). What's sweet though is to Hear the water gurgling in its stream bed... through this thirsty land... as it works its way through the grass.

There was even one tiny lil' fish, maybe an inch and a half long swimming near the bank of that one small visible bit of water.

The amount of Life in these small lil' Oasis in the desert is pretty remarkable..

If you turn around and look back upstream, toward the head of the spring...

 This doesn't exactly look like country you'd expect to find frogs and fish in... does it?

Looks can be deceiving... I suppose a fella should remember that...

Running a bit farther south... we got closer to the lake... and could clearly see how low it remains... The lake itself has been down for years...

... It's been dropping since 1997. Some of the cause is a bit of drought... though... in the Desert... it is ALWAYS drought. The folks planting lawns and golf courses don't seem to grasp that fact.

75% of San Diego's water comes from THIS lake... The guys running the show have already projected the HIGH likelihood of it going effectively dry in the next 30 to 40 years... The problem with the lake is not the weather... it's way too many people trying to drink out of it... and water lawns... where lawns were never intended...

I remember lots of folks having green yards in Tucson when I was a kid... They'd bought Green Gravel!

We continued on south past the Hoover Dam... Years ago we used to drive across it... now it's not visible over the concrete walls of the new bridge built to bypass traffic around it. You can go down another road and still take a tour I guess.

By mid afternoon we were back in our Kaibab Camp of previous years... or near to it...

*180 degree panorama of our Kaibab camp area*

*Kaibab National Forest near Ash Fork*

You can just see the rig poking out of the Junipers in the lower right of the photo... We got there in plenty of time to take an afternoon walk through the neighborhood and renew acquaintances with some of the neighbors.

*Kaibab Nat Forest Antelope*

Farther on up the forest road was a mob of other locals... must have been over thirty in the area. They all appeared to be working their way NW at sunset. Must be a big roost area off there somewhere...

*Ravens  on the Kaibab in Arizona*

Curious buggers. One of 'em followed and buzzed Heidi and the dogs for a while the next day...

Kinda spooked her... Said she could hear his wings as he flew up behind them so low she thought she could reach up and pluck a feather...

Woosh, Woosh, Woosh!

Maybe if she had, he'd learn his manners! :)

*Our First Sunrise ~ Back on the Kaibab*

We've been here for three nights now, and will pull out tomorrow morning, bound for Phoenix International Raceway... and a week of NASCAR, driving for dollars. ;)

*from the hilltop behind our camp on the Kaibab National Forest*

Pretty good yard for bein' Rent Free...ain't it? You can't get more Frugal than that! Like I've said... I can't think of a better way to be livin'... It works for me!

Boondocked on the Kaibab
Brian

When You Hear; "RV Boondocking"; Does It Make You Nervous?

Does the thought of being camped out in the wild and free make you quiver? Why? This ain't 1870 any more. The Souix stopped raiding the camps of rovers a long time ago.

You  may only need a little RV Boondocking confidence.

Now, I'm not telling you to stick it in gear and drag your fiver over Buffalo Pass like I did. Fact is, most boondockers, with regular sized rigs NEVER drag 'em through the sort of country where I twist and torture mine! :) and some like Mike up Wyoming way... drag his through places I won't push my boots!

The two weeks we spent camped on top of Buffalo Pass I never saw another rig bigger than a pop up or a smaller pickup camper. The rocks that really required 1st gear and four low generally stop the more reasoning individuals.

Just the same, that shouldn't stop you from enjoyin' the benefits of RV Boondocking. There's a jillion miles of road and thousands of camps to enjoy without makin' your lady or your guy grab their ears and squeal; "We're all gonna DIE!"

Fact is, you can get to 'em all pretty much with ease! Is this scene below Boondocked enough for you?

 But, you say; "We've got a big rig to fit our needs and tastes! We can't go to such places."

My reply? If you look just to the right of the picture above, you'd see...

*High Style Boondocking - Look Ma! No Resorts!*

... a tandem axle diesel pusher. Is that big enough for you? His RV Boondocking camp is costing him $12 bucks a night... unless he's 62 or an Army Gimp like me... and then it's $6.

I'm sure there's a lot of folks just getting ready to haul out and see if the road is the place for them. Here's a suggestion; If you're not an experienced sailor I'd not recommend you dive straight in to a trip around the world. Sail along the coast for a bit and get your "Sea Legs."

If you're looking into RV Boondocking 'cause the thought of living in that big rig above with five more just like it parked 15 feet away on every side in an "RV Resort" don't tickle your thistle... You're on the right track.

Just take it slow. Learn easy and don't ruin the journey 'fore you get started, by jumpin' into the deep end, when you can't swim. Gain a bit of experience and then fully equipped and with the green knocked off you can CRACK OUT!

The best opportunity I can think of is Quartzsite in the winter. It's kind of "Basic Training" for Boondockers. Everything is right there. Dump Stations, Water, Trash, fuel, repair people... and best of all... a "Few" thousand other Boondockers scattered across the desert that are happy to lend a hand to a new convert. Have a problem? Just ask and half a dozen will come on the run to give you a hand and show you the ropes.

The alternative to that is a place like this camp we're in right now; Forest Service Campgrounds. Sure we're in a "camp ground." but there's no hookups. No sewer lines. No power. just a hand pump water source and an outhouse. Boondocking in High Style.

The great thing is they give you the time and space to get your feet on the ground and work out the kinks; while you take your hikes through open high country like this, just outside your door...

Rather than the jostling, noisy, paved roads through the "Resort" at $35 bucks a night.

You've got all the systems right there, built into your rig. Why not use 'em?

Over time as you wander, without even thinking about it, you'll start to develop the second nature habit of registering water sources, dump stations, fuel stations you can get into and Back Out Of!  Even public dumpsters and trash transfers! to get rid of that stuff. You'll start to discard the packaging that you can - at the grocery store - rather than having to deal with it in camp.

Over time you'll grow all the skills, tricks and talents of a genuine Boondocker.

You may never get silly enough to drag your fifth wheel over 4X4 roads like SOME yonderers out here do... ;)

What can I say... I have an evil giggle that's heard when I get the startled big eyed looks filling their windshield when "They" come sizzlin' around a bend on the back country, one lane dirt track to be confronted by the radiator of my rumbling Dodge... followed closely by the towering silhouette of my fiver! Muhahahaha!

But... you don't have to...

You can get to plenty of Suh-Wheet RV Boondocking Country... without ever kicking your truck into four wheel drive or calling a tow truck to drag your rig out of the mud...

And as your experience grows and your confidence swells you can start to stretch your envelope a bit. You can go occupy camps you scouted with google maps and checked out with your truck or your toad and expand your horizons with glorious memories of Far Country...

All the photos of this post are a soft morning hike from the camp that big Ol' bus is parked in. Anywhere He can go... YOU can go. Don't anchor yourself in town with the idea you Can't. Come out into Shining Country and find out what you've been missing...

Just... take a minute to Think About it before you follow SOME guys too far... Especially if you hear; "Hey guys! Watch this!" :)

Staying High in the Rockies
Brian