Build Your Own Wind Charger?

Want to build your own inexpensive wind generator? Check out this entry on our companion blog, Low Tech RV.

Quartzsite Boondocker? An LTVA Warning

Boondockers by the thousands flock to Quartzsite, Arizona each year and camp out on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. But the BLM has done something you may find a bit dirty. Check out "Death, Taxes, and LTVAs" on our Quartzsite News Blog.

Paradise lost

My wife and I thought we had found a bit of paradise a year and a half ago when we first camped at the Water Canyon Recreation Area by the Sonoma Mountains several miles south of Winnemucca, Nevada: free primitive campsites by a creek, beautiful scenery, great hiking, far enough from town for nature, close enough for nurture.

So last week, on our way south for the winter, we planned our route to take us back to Water Canyon for a few days. But as we entered the campground, our anticipation turned to dismay. A fire had devastated the area. In all directions, what had been lush groves of cottonwood trees and sagebrush was now a blackened, desolate wasteland. Even the mountainsides were starkly bare. We parked and stared in silence.

We assumed that a careless camper or smoker was responsible, but a local resident told us the culprit was a lightning strike two months earlier. Whipped by a gusty wind, the flames had swept through 6,000 acres of parched countryside before petering out. The fact that the fire was natural – an act of God – consoled us a bit. The scene reminded us, though, that not all great boondocking spots last forever. In our travels over the years we’ve had to cross other favorites off our list because of development or new restrictions.

All RVers can help preserve boondocking areas by carrying out garbage, observing regulations and otherwise behaving like responsible visitors. Acts of God are in someone else’s hands.

Elbow room

You pull into an isolated BLM campground where there are no hosts, no hookups, no reservations. You’ve got the whole place to yourself, so you choose the most scenic of the16 sites and settle in. A few hours later, another RV enters the campground -- and parks right next to you. All the other 14 sites are vacant, many nestled behind trees. The newcomer could have preserved your privacy and had his own by parking anywhere else. Instead, he decides to snuggle up beside you.

Would you be irritated?

My wife and I faced this situation several days ago at the Hickison Petroglyph Campground off Route 50 in central Nevada. That the unwanted neighbors had the same fifth-wheel brand as us was purely coincidental. The couple said they had parked beside us because the view there was better than at the other sites. They must have felt a bit sheepish by offering an explanation, but they neither apologized nor asked if we minded.

We did mind, although we didn’t tell them that. For several minutes my wife and I fumed about the couple’s invasion. Had the situation been reversed, we would not have parked next to them, we agreed. We would instead have honored their privacy by settling for a lesser view in a more distant site. For the record, my wife and I are sociable. We like people and enjoy chatting with other RVers in common boondocking spots. But we also cherish our elbow room, especially when’s there’s plenty of space for everybody.

What do you think? Was it inconsiderate of the couple to park next to us in an otherwise empty campground, or were we being unreasonably covetous? What would you have done?