Showing posts with label snowbirds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snowbirds. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Boondocking - FREE Camping, or close to it...













We HAD to check out boondocking... as even in our day of ever tighter rules and restrictions, RVers were saying it's out there and it's good. A favorite seems to be dispersed camping on BLM land. It worked at Quartsite...and everyone we've met who has ventured onto BLM lands has said they've had no problems...as long as you stick by the few rules. (Stay close to some kind of road and obey any posted signs.) We went online and bought an ebook that got us started at: http://www.rv-links.com/boondocking.htm I'd say it's a special kind of adventure...as you don't worry about the cost. The first picture was taken May 28, 2011, at Settlement Reservoir, in a canyon above Tooele, Utah. Bob caught the only fish in the lack (no one else got one) and I climbed the ridge of the hill in the foreground and "ran like a wild horse". Our camping spot was a few miles up the canyon right on a perfect mountain stream, down away from the road in a shady grove of elms. We stayed two nights before it SNOWED. The branches were resting so heavily on our new RV that when we pulled out it twisted up our TV antenna like it was thin wire. (Yes, Bob forgot to retract it.) We parked across the street until snow removal equipment dug and plowed us out.

Next we tried the free camping at Grantsville Reservoir, down in the nearby (warmer) valley. We were surprised that there were nice tables, grills and a restroom. The roads were dirt, but the scenery (with the new snow) was excellent. In the middle of the night a drunken "cowboy" started sliding his pickup around our RV at high speeds. He had been sliding in the mud earlier with his ATV, along with his son. But a big truck sliding our way was enough to make us get up and move out of the campground. We parked down by the water. The fish were cold and went deep, so we went home to warm our toes.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Steps Toward Hosting







Sorry...one of the first things you'll need to do is sell your home....unless you can afford to maintain more than one home and have compelling reasons to keep yourself tied down. We took a big loss on the sale of our home (closing July 26, 2011) but we are ever so grateful to be out from under the bills and payments. Do you know what it's like to have NO mortgage, utility bills or house insurance and taxes to pay? Try it.




We put our house up for sale February 21, 2011, and headed south in our new RV. It was fringed with icicles and burdened with ice on the undercarriage until Las Vegas heat it it. We were on our way to Quartsite...the mecca of western snowbirds. We heard it touted by a bird who came to one of our many moving sales. There were supposed to be flea markets and rock displays stretching out into the giant BLM boondocking ranges. FREE camping!...along with panning for gold and finding all types of mineral treasures. As a former Geology Major, it sounded too good to be true.