Hole in the Wall

So today we escaped the noisy (and with one very obnoxious dealer) Avi Casino.  We need to go west because our goal is to visit my brother and his brood in LA (Los Angeles, not Louisiana) before it gets too hot to be this south.

We escaped not a moment too soon, because it's bike week.  The first sign was a man showing another man how loud his bike's stereo could go next to us in the dry camping area.  He let it run for several minutes because the biker gang insignia on the back of his leather jacket is a pass to do whatever he wants.  I was still getting ready to ask him to turn it down before he went ahead and shut the God-awful racket off.

We dumped and took on water at the KOA across the street from the dry lot.  I asked if I could purchase (PURCHASE, mind you) some showers.  I was rudely told no, with the added trivia information of the showers being for their guests only.  Not really information I'd asked for or needed to know.  I was a guest there two days ago, but I will definitely not be one again.  Enjoy your bikers.

As I was dumping two more bikers pulled in to the KOA.  Their stereos were low.  They rose the volume all the way up as they drove past me.  In the United States this is how uncouth men harass women.  I did not look at them.  Nope.  No matter how slowly they drove, going out of the way to go through the dump station bay instead of the other road.  I never turned my head toward them.  "HA HA!" --Nelson  "You get nothing!" --Willy Wonka.

I get it.  You are God's gift to women because you're a bad boy biker, and a female who dares to be outside alone in your frame of vision is supposed to acknowledge you.  Gape in awe at your coolness.  Make you feel like really big bad men on your big bad motorcycles.

Sorry, but I'm trying to dump 35 gallons of human feces.  Maybe I can stroke your fragile male ego some other time?

These are bike gang members, not some guy riding a bike on the weekend to feel the wind through his hair.  I was a ghost writer for former bike gang member who found Christ.  He described the lifestyle to me ad naseum.  It did not leave a good impression.

Moving on...quite literally.  I was headed for a BLM boondock in San Bernadino county (not sure on the city).  It was a much longer drive than anticipated and I regretted not feeding my mom before we left.  Garmin, my GPS and frenemy, said 48 miles.  It was more like 70.

We'd planned on boondocking on a dry lake bed.  The road to it was too rough.  We ended up instead at a pay campground called Hole in the Wall.  https://rvdumpsites.net/#!21224&query=sitedetails

It's a beautiful camp site, but it ain't free.

I don't know if you can see that, but it says $12/day.  TWELVE DOLLARS A DAY?!  What am I?  The Queen of England?!  But wait...there was a little small print that said it was half-price with an access pass.

My mom has an access pass!  WHOO HOO!  Six dollars a night!  (A nice guy at a National Park in Nevada gave it to her because she's handicapped.  We almost forgot all about it).

SIX DOLLARS A NIGHT IS STILL TOO HIGH!  (Says the girl who tried to spend $100 at a craps table before the obnoxious dealer told her to get lost {long story}).

But we're sick of driving and I don't want to try to go down that sketchy road again to the boondock.  I paid for four days.

So yeah, a lot of people who read this blog come from my Facebook and don't know how to camp in a National Park or Reserve (or whatever).  So that picture up there is of the self-pay maker.  It tells you how much per night.  On the post to the right is a bucket full of envelopes.  You fill out the envelope with your license number, spot number, number of nights you want to stay, name, and whatever else.  Then you put cash or a check inside to pay.  You rip off the tab from the envelope, which you also copied your details on.  The sealed envelope goes into the metal box.  The tab goes on the post with the number of your campsite.  You pick whatever site you want usually.  There's no reserving.

Here's our site.  It has a fire pit and two picnic tables.  No hookups (not for $6 a night people) but it does have an old-timey water pump which I plan to use to do our laundry.

Also in this camp ground is several pit toilets.  What's a pit toilet?  I guess there's a pit under the toilet.  I didn't look down the commode.  I get grossed out easily.

The campground is GORGEOUS.  I mean, postcard worthy views on all sides.  Now I'll destroy what your imagination comes up with with my craptastic photos.  My camera sucks...but I'm cheap.

This is what an empty campsite looks like.

Can you find the jack rabbit?

Back of our campsite

Oooo...cactus.

RV Sue is probably rolling her eyes at my pathetic framing and composition.

Maybe the jackrabbit was in this one...?

Okey-dokey.  We're here until Saturday, then onward to the west.

It's worth noting that if you come out here you better be well stocked on everything you need and have plenty of gas in your tank.  There's a dump station and water, but 30 miles from the nearest anything.

I Don't Even Know Where to Begin

Well...we bought a new RV. 

We got it last month February, 2016

After we drove to Yuma in December and I hit a post with the trailer I never wanted to tow again.  I kept telling myself to just stay put, months at a time, and wait until the travel trailer was paid off before buying a new rig.

I mentioned before how I was stressing over the thought of a huge RV payment for the next 20 years.  I thought I could resist the lure of an $80,000 new motor home.

But I couldn't.  I never want to tow again.  NEVER!  I hate towing!  I HATE IT!  I hate trying to get gas at these gas stations meant for tiny cars.  I hated hitching up.  I hated not being able to boondock for extended periods because hooking and unhooking the trailer was such a pain in the ass.  I hated not being able to back into RV spaces and having to beg or bribe men to back in for me EVERY SINGLE TIME.

I don't hate living in the old RV, when we were parked, unhitched, and new we were staying put for a while.  The problem was that it was tough to write with all the distractions.  I needed more privacy and a better place to work besides a dinette where I was facing my mother.  Mostly though...I needed something that wasn't Hell to transport.

With this motor home and its generator we are going to be able to boondock on BLM land the way I'd always intended.  In fact, that's what we're doing right now.  We got out of Yuma to BLM in California and plan to stay here the month.  It's the LTVA near Senator's Wash.  If I have the energy (I've been lacking that lately) I will take pictures of our beautiful temporary home.

The new RV is awesome.  We already had a long trip in it when I went back to Nevada to register it.  I love driving this thing.  It handles like a dream.  I'm not stressing at the prospect of moving it here or there.  Getting gas is easy.  If I get in a corner it's easy to back up and turn around. 

It can incognito boondock in a parking lot too!  It only takes two spots.  The coach is fully accessible with the slides in!

 I have an office now.  Sadly the fricking table ripped off the wall, but I've put a new table in place. 

Here's how it was before.

I had to do a ghetto fix.  Yeah.  Making the $80k RV look dumpy already.

The table ripped out of the wall.  There just wasn't a good fix for that table.  It had one point of connection and the screws were in particle type wood.  I guess it wasn't meant to be in dinette form when we drove with it.  This is actually a bunk bed, but I keep it as a dinette to have as my office.  There's a curtain I can hang up for even more privacy.  I'm working here now.  I love it!

I also love my loft.  The cab over bunk is huge and I can sit up in there.  It's another place where I can use the computer.

Here it is before we moved in.

Here it is now.  My mom didn't want to be in the picture.

There's a bunch of other stuff to report on top of this.  We got a washing machine so we can truly stay off the grid.  We have solar getting installed on Friday.  We have new crappy inverters instead of my old mac-daddy one.  I will post about this stuff at another time.  I really need to get writing on the next book.  This $80k RV ain't gonna pay itself.  x_x  I also need to update the blog image.  Yargh.

Thousand Trails Soledad Canyon, Acton California

Hello my lovelies!!  Here is me (right) and The Mom.  We went to the pool opening ceremony party thing at the Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails.  They had a photo booth, so we took some pics.  I am hesitant to post pictures of myself due to weight gain, but I think this one is okay.

Here we are!

 So, like I said in the last post, we've come early to our next Thousand Trails camp due to the failed boondock.  I went online and got reviews of this park.  I'm glad I did because I learned that you can only get Verizon Internet in the N section, which is up a steep hill.  Reviews also stated that there were a lot of spaces with bad electric (they gave us a list of spaces to avoid) and that many of the bathrooms were closed. 

Gorgeous mountains in spitting distance all around

I parked the RV next to a bathroom only to find that it was one of the closed ones.  Boo!  However, I explored today and found an open bathroom a short walk away.  Yay!  We won't have to use our RV shower. 

I mean...our shower's not the worst thing, but we have our litter box in it so it's kind of a pain to dig everything out and clean it before use.  Then it's your typical small RV shower/tub and it's hard not to bump the plug.  If you do it closes and the little tub fills up with water.  I had trouble avoiding this so my mom will have problems too.  Then we only have a 5 gallon hot water tank that has to be heated up with our precious propane before we can shower.  It won't last long so that means Navy showers where you douse yourself wet and then turn off the water while you soap up and put on shampoo.  The you turn on the water again to rinse off.  The showerhead handle has an on/off switch to make this easier.  (You don't have to shut the water fully off and mess with the water temp each time when you turn it back on).

 I love the peaceful atmosphere and scenery of this place.  I'm not as upset over the closed bathrooms or electric issues that some people complained about in the reviews.  I tested this site's electric before setting up and all was good.  We're not hard to please.

This is not really desert.  We have loads of vegetation and wildlife.  Bobcats even!!   The views are stunning in all directions.  There was a trail I forced my mother to hike with her walker yesterday.  There were so many critters!! OMG!

Today they had a party for the new pool opening.  Its a huge pool!  We got free eats and everyone was nice.  It was fun.  RV parties are great because you can just show up and know that people will talk to you even though they don't know you.  There's no such thing as wallflowers or feeling left out.  You don't have to dress fancy.  You don't have to act fancy.  It's just down to earth fun!

Look at the trees!  I haven't seen trees like this in so long.  It was nice and cool too.  It's May here and around 60-70 during the day.  The nights get pretty cold.  Not uncomfortable though.  It's long sleeve weather.  Much nicer than the heat of Palm Springs.

The local animal shelter was there with all the dogs they felt would be good pets for Rvers.  This little guy caught our eye.  If the girl had been pushy we would have caved and adopted her.  OMG...that face!

But we don't know how to dog.  It would be a new thing for us.  Also we were worried our cats would tear her to shreds.  My cat Scrappy is called Scrappy for a reason, and it ain't just cuz she loves food scraps!

There is loads of space here and it's a beautiful park-like setting.  I mean...I LOVE THIS PLACE!!

;o;  There.  I said it.  

This is the sort of place that gets me thinking about buying one of there leased spots and sticking around.  But nay...tis too soon for such decisions.  Still, we're only 40 miles from LA.  This would be a good city to launch my screenplay writing career.  :p 

So this is our home for the next three weeks.  :)  I'm liking it so far, but I'll keep you posted!