Read Listings Carefully with Passport America

We've been staying in a friend's yard for the last few weeks.  I need to be in this area because I'm being flyed out for a convention from the airport here.  I'm not going to give the exact location info because of reasons.  This isn't a boondock anyone can use other than me and my mom anyway (since we're with a friend).

Today was our dump/shower/laundry day.  As you know I usually go to Passport America RV parks so we can get everything done for $12-$20.  We've been going to this one RV park for the last few dumps, but were told last time that they only gave 3 days per month and we would not be able to use Passport America again until November.

Annoying, but whatever.  There is another Passport America park in town so I went there today.  And, of course, it didn't work out.  This park only accepts Passport America until the end of September.  

It was my fault for not reading the listing, but lesson learned.

Instead of paying $50 to camp there, we paid $10 to dump.  Now we're back in our friend's yard and just need to take showers.  For laundry either my friend will let us do it at their house or I'll use my buckets.   :/  

We're welcome to shower in my friend's house but really don't like to.  There are thirsty roaches who like to hang out in her tubs.  Kind of major ick factor for me.  Also my friend has a creepy husband and I just don't like being naked in his house.

Anywho, we're going to watch to see their car leave and then run over and fight the roaches for a bath while they're out.  We'll see how they feel about sharing their washing machine, but, as I said, I'll use the buckets and plunger if I have to.

A Creepy Boondock

Usually when I say a boondock is creepy I mean that there are creepy people around or other signs that the place might not be safe.  This time I mean creepy in the traditional creepy sense...but we'll get to that later.

After a day and night of living out of water buckets we were itching to get going the next morning.  Unfortunately the wind was still making it feel like the RV was going to tip over at any moment.  I opened the curtain to my bedroom loft (the bunk above the cab) and saw my mom bundled in sweaters and coats with her winter boots on.  Yes...it got pretty dang cold.

She looked at me and said, "We are getting out of here TODAY."

I acquiesced and started climbing down to start my day.  That's when she pushed her cellphone in my face.  It was 2:15.  I kind of overslept.  D:

The reason was that I was finishing a book I've been struggling with for a few weeks and was up until the wee hours.  Leaving this late is a problem because the days are getting shorter and my mom can't drive when it's dark out.  She has vision in one eye only, and that eye has macular damage.  She's blinded by headlights and streetlights.  As you know I drive the RV and she follows me in the SUV.  We had to get to Pahrump before dark.

So we set out, and the wind wasn't quite as bad as I anticipated.  We stopped in Beatty Nevada to eat at a Dennys that was inside a casino.  See...that's a problem right there.  Daylight hours were slipping and the temptation is too great for us not to gamble for a little while after we ate.  I saw a billboard for a campground and figured we'd just pull in there for the night.  We couldn't boondock (go without hookups) another night because we had no water.

The billboard said the RV park was '2 minutes ahead'.  For people from outside the USA, that's how we estimate driving distance here.  If you ask someone how far away somewhere is an American will answer you in the amount of time it takes to drive there, not the actual distance.

Well two minutes passed and there was no sign of this RV park.  Next thing I know I'm driving into the Death Valley National Park.  x_x  Crap.  The shadows of the mountains are starting to get really long and I have no idea how we're going to make it.  I smack Garmin awake and demand for her to tell me where an RV park is.

I saw the Furnace Creek Death Valley campground and pull in.  These type of campgrounds usually don't have hook-ups, but they do usually have a dump station with potable water.  You give me that and I can camp anywhere.  I was desperate.

We ended up in a nice spot that did have full hookups.  It's a beautiful park.  These National Park or State Park campgrounds are really swanky.  We enjoyed the night of air conditioning at half-price with my mom's America the Beautiful card.

After a good night's rest we headed the rest of the way to Pahrump.  People, Death Valley is GORGEOUS.  And this is from a woman who sees beautiful mountain views on all sides.  The scenery down there, yellow cliffs, breathtakingly tall mountains with layers upon layers of smaller mountains before them...it's really worth the trip.

So we get to Pahrump and head for our old boondock here.  I know we camped in my mother's Pastor's yard last time, and we will eventually go there this time, but today I needed to do a lot of work and it can be tough with all the Pastor's grandkids.  They're great kids and I like entertaining them.  I just need to focus on work now.

Last time we used this boondock we were 50 feet from the highway.  I didn't want to camp there this time.  On our last day in Tonopah we went out to eat and came back to find people skulking around our RV.  -_-  They bolted fast when we showed up, and nothing was taken or damaged, but it shook me up.  I want to camp where people can't see me.

I started going down the winding dirt roads of this area of BLM.  I drove for a while, and eventually found a level spot near a lot of desert trees (not juniper, thank God) that mostly block us from the Highway a mile away.  You can see us if you're coming North, but not if you're coming South.

We set up the camper, got groceries, and came back.  As I'm unloading the groceries I turn around and BOOM!  A sheriff's car has pulled up.  @_@  WHAT THE HECK?!

I smile and give my friendliest "Hi!"  Because being super polite and friendly to cops always serves me well.  He says hi back and then leans into his car to speak on the radio.  I stand waiting.  After several minutes he pops his head back out and says, "Never mind.  I have a call to get to." 

And then he drove away.

@_@  Um.  Okay then.

I wasn't too frazzled because there is a BLM sign right by us.  This is definitely a legal camp.  I think he just saw us trying to hide and wanted to make sure we weren't cooking meth.  I really don't know though.

So I do a tour of our camp area, just scouting around to see what junk humanity has left before us...and I see this.

I turn to my left and see this...

What in the fricking...THEY'RE ALL OVER THE PLACE!

Wait...that one has writing on it.  Let's see what it says...

 'Beloved puppy?'  Oh.  It's a pet cemetery.  One of the 'caskets' has been dug up and the lid was torn off.  Probably by a coyote.

Okay, fine.  That's a lot less creepy than some Blair Witch shenanigans.  We'll let the puppies rest in peace.

Stranded Without Water

So, at that dreadful RV park our RV was so unlevel that when I filled my water tank it read 'full' even though it obviously wasn't.  Once we got more level back at our boondock it read only 50% full.  -_-  However, we're not completely level here either, so today, already, our pump isn't pumping any water from the tank.

I made the executive decision that we would head to Pahrump today.  However, I was rocking in my bed this morning.  We are having winds like you wouldn't believe.  I've just put in both slides because they were shaking so bad we were scared something was going to break.

Nope.  No way.  I am not driving the RV in winds that are so bad that we think we're going to get knocked over when we're parked.  Honestly, I don't really think we'd tip over (though I've witnessed high profile vehicles falling over TWICE when they took a sharp turn too fast) but when the winds are this bad you are getting knocked all over the road.  You can get knocked into oncoming traffic by a violent wind.  No thank you.

So here we are at the boondock, unable to leave, and out of water.  But wait!  We're not out of water because I filled my two 5 gallon buckets with 2.5 gallons each of water to do laundry.

WOW.  That was seriously lucky.  My mom and I usually go through 8 gallons per person per day, but we're going to make it with only 5 gallons today.  It lets us flush the toilet, give water to the cats, and clean our coffee cups.  We'll be out of water by the end of the day, without a doubt, but at least we can stay put during this windstorm.

Joy Land RV Park, Tonopah NV

HOLY CRAP WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?!?

This is my first impression of this RV park.  It was the only Passport America park in Tonopah, and when we saw our toilet stuff filling up the pipe we knew it was time for an emergency dump.

When we got here there were no RVs.  I had no idea where the 'park' was.

Garmin took us down sketchy one-lane dirt roads with horrifyingly low wires.  There were yards full of garbage, shells of ancient cars, and lots of miner-era buildings falling apart.  My mom said, 'This is creepy,' through the walkie talkie. 

We finally get to an open gravel lot with a sign that says Joy Land Rv Park.  Except...where the heck is it?  All I see is open dirt.  Dogs barking draw my eye to an RV surrounded by chicken wire.  Next to it I see electrical boxes spaced out on gravel with scrub-brush growing here and there. 

Oh.  So those are the spots. 

I head for the only building.  It's the laundry room/bathroom and it's locked.  I'm starting to wish I had called first.

"Hello?  Hello?  Does anyone run this RV park?"

Eventually a man on a motorcycle pulls up to the RV with the dogs and tells me to pull in where ever I want.  He says the owners come by 'sporadically' and will check me in when they do.

Well, I've got a dangerously full black tank and a back-log of laundry (I tried to keep up with it, but it got away from me.)  I pull into the least scrubby spot and start my dump routine. 

We are more unlevel here than we were at the boondock.  -_-

Oh well.  I call the number listed in Passport America and a man comes in a truck to check me in and give me the key to the bathroom.

I ask him where the trash is.  He points to a black rubbermaid trash bin which is the same size as the one I had for my trash pickup every week in Pahrump.  When I go to put our three bags of trash in the thing is already full.  Well, I don't care.  Getting rid of trash is mandatory at our RV stays.  I pile it on top. 

The ladies room is one toilet, sink, and shower.  My mom goes first.  There's no toilet paper and it's pretty dirty.  Whatever.  That's why you wear shower-shoes.

I bring our backlog of laundry to the two-washer laundry room and to my astonishment a Class A pulls up!  It has a satellite on its roof that's even taller than mine.  How the heck did it get under the wires?

Well, while they're checking in I claim the two washing machines.  My thinking is that these are full-timers just like us doing the same thing we're doing and they have a pile of laundry too.  Yeah.  Sure enough.  She comes in a little later asking if we're using both machines.  Yes, we were.

One of the dryers has had the coin box stolen off it, so it no longer works.  We hang half our clothes on the RV ladder and put the rest in the only available dryer.

So yeah.  This is quite the dumpy little place.  It gives us everything we need, though.  We can handle it.

Mineral Museum, Hawthorne Nevada

We had a great night's stay at the El Capitan Casino boondocking area.  It helped that we won a fair chunk of change in the casino while we were there.  I never asked any of the casino staff if it was okay to overnight in the lot.  There were other trucks and campers there, and no one came to bother us.

Before we left Hawthorne I made sure to stop at the free museum in town!  I always like to look around these museums when I get the chance.  They are kinda starting to look the same, though.  Mining is a prevalent theme in northern Nevada.  Hawthorne has a large military base, so there was some of that stuff too.

I love old bottles of medical stuff or cooking stuff.

This is a wash plant for gold prospectors.

Military stuff.  Bombs and giant ass bullets and stuff.

Vodka bottles.  Wow, fancy.

Tobacco tins.

More bottles.  I wish I could have gotten a closer look, but this was behind glass.

After our outing we proceeded to Tonopah and are there now.  I'd show you a picture of our boondock, but it's exactly the same as most of our boondocks, and in fact we were at this spot around the same time last year.  It's scrub brush and mountains.  We'll stay here until we need to dump and then continue the rest of the way down to Pahrump.