Simple Living and Simple Travel

I’m not a campground-type person. On my 65th birthday last month, I celebrated with a six-mile hike up Dog Canyon at Oliver Lee SP and did 1000 reps of various leg, delt, pec, and core exercises. Not anywhere near the stuff Jack LaLanne did to celebrate his birthdays but probably better than most of those my age. Not all that shabby for both a cancer and transplant survivor. I also had a glass of wine from a bottle of 7 Deadly Zins (which Larry and Judy suggested a while back), very tasty. Had my first physical since 2001; weighed in at 20 pounds less than when I graduated high school. I love not being part of the ‘norm.’ I used my last loaf of Dave’s Killer bread that I picked up in Moab; life is over. Guano. At least I have my freezer back. Remember I’ve said that I don’t tend to relate to solo full-timers who don’t have a pet? Often there is something missing when caring for an animal/human on a daily basis is not part of one’s life. I realized that I also don...

If you were at Bottomless or Brantley SPs in the past year or so, you might have noticed a family living in a 13’ x 27’ tent with an 11’ vestibule. Well, I went over to Diana and Ross’s site (yep, hard to forget their names) a couple weeks ago as they were striking their tent for the last time. Ross works in the oil industry around Artesia and the family rented a U-Haul trailer every two weeks to move back and forth between the two state parks. Diana home schools the two girls. They found a house to rent in a decent area of Artesia and are going to settle in for a while. They liked the lifestyle, although the summer was tough, and at some point will come back to it or get an RV. The day after I got back to Bottomless, the water was turned off, the bathroom/shower was closed, and the wi-fi was down—merry christmas. Then two days with highs in the 20s, when it’s usually in the 50s. Had to run the furnace to heat up the area where the gray water tank is until it thawed out and I c...

I stayed in southern Utah later than I have in previous years; it’s sure beautiful. I was trying to prolong the time of freedom before getting back to the state parks. They aren’t bad, just restrictive. Well, the showers can be bad. One park has the showers turned off by the time I get there and three of the other five parks I tend to use have pretty poor showers. Guano. But, I most assuredly need my annual social fix. Meeting new people and touching base with those I’ve come to know over past winters. It would be way unhealthy to always hard-wall camp off-the-grid with no one around to talk with. I eventually get acclimated to RVing each winter; it’s just strange. Neighbors, people always around, numerous rigs, outside night lights, noise, dogs, designated parking spots, close to a city; typical realm of the full-timer. I generally find it dull. Maybe not so much dull as mundane, common, almost has the feel of living in a trailer park or having a place in town. What I value in my ...

I was wondering if I was going to be able to stay here until the end of November. These roads get slick when wet. There was a dusting of snow on November 3rd and I was thinkin’, uh-oh. The inside temp on the morning of the 4th was 38. Then the cold spell hit in the middle of the month. The first morning’s inside temp was 34. It’s too early in the cold season to deal with outside temps going down into the teens at night—so I wimped out. A few nights, I kept the Wave 6 on, set to its lowest setting (I think it is 1500 BTUs, no much but it worked quite well). I felt like such a wuss. Other than the two back-to-back nights a few years ago with minus 6 and 8 temps, I think this the only other time I’ve had heat on through the night while dry camping. One thing I looked for when deciding on a trailer was having a window at the head of the bed. It’s cracked open even on the coldest nights. One day it was pretty much overcast and I spent a good deal of time working at the table with ...

I reread last month’s page and added a paragraph after the one about solo hiking. It sounded a bit off to me and needed to be clarified. I also added something about nada guides. It’s the reference I always use when looking for the value of used RVs. I had someone visit me here for a few days, so I also went back to last month’s page and added a paragraph on solo RVers/campers and depression. I added it after the paragraph on, ‘Not everyone is suited for full-timing.’ Maybe I should change the name of this site to, ‘Simple Mishmash.’ Podcasts got me through the two days of driving from Salida to Utah—5 Car Talks, 3 Wait, Wait…, and 4 stories from The Moth. Four slow climbs provided plenty of time for listening; two at 25-30 mph. And I have an 8 cylinder! I stopped in Montrose on the way to Utah and RVed for three days, electric hookup but didn’t bother with water or sewer. It was like a mini vacation with having wi-fi, Pandora internet radio, and ...