Tag Archives: Yuma

Camper Life Month #8 in Dragoon-A-Saurus Rex de la Mantequilla

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Well month #8 kicked off with a bang because this is when we traded in our old pop-up for a 33-foot RV. As I wrote in my “upgrade post,” this one decision turned our February upside down, for the better and worse.

Related: We Upgraded! How Our New RV is Making Life More Awesome…and Complicated

Before I get started with my monthly recap, I suppose I should explain the title a bit. We’ve been trying to come up with a name for our new RV, which is no easy task. You see, it has to be incredibly random, relevant, and packed with inside jokes…all at the same time. For instance, my Jeep’s name is Chief Surfs with Manatees.

Well, at least for now, we’ve settled on a name: Dragoon-A-Saurus Rex de la Mantequilla. It roughly translates to “a large mounted infantry that has been threatened and coerced into the mountains to be named the king of butter.” He/she will go by “Dragoon” for short.

Anyway…

Places We’ve Been: Month #8

Month #8 can largely be summed up by one phrase: “Stuck in Yuma.” It’s funny, because we never actually intended to go to Yuma, Arizona at all. We actually had a campground booked in the Palm Springs area of California back in mid-January but were scared away by excessive rain and flooding. Yuma was a backup plan, and we stayed there in one way or another for over a month and a half.

We stayed at two different campgrounds in Yuma, and then decided to take a trip to Mexico for a week of pure vacation. While in Mexico, we settled on the idea of upgrading our camper and bought a new one in Yuma. This decision sent us on a side trip all the way back to Atlanta, Georgia to take care of a slew of logistical nightmares. I couldn’t stand to go back to our old Yuma campground with the new RV, so we switched to another one. Then after a long-cross country drive back to Yuma, we finally got unstuck and made our way to San Diego.

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of “homes on the road”:

Yuma, Arizona: Home on the Road #31

  • Highlights: Switched campgrounds for one with more space and fewer annoying people, first few days in our new RV!

For less than 24 hours, all of our worldly possessions were in one place at the same time: RV, Jeep, 5×8 U-Haul

  • Lowlights: We are STILL in Yuma?!, new campground is out in the middle of lemon fields – kinda nice but so far to get to anything

Yuma to Atlanta Side Trip

  • Highlights: Seeing my best friend and meeting her one-month-old baby girl, drinking bubble tea, an awesome AirBnB in Chamblee, GA, donating lots of lots of stuff to Goodwill, squeezing in a hike at Rockhound State Park in Deming, New Mexico on our last day of driving

Best AirBnB (studio apartment) I’ve ever stayed at

10+ donation loads later…

Nice to see mountains and cacti again after a trip back east…missed New Mexico.

  • Lowlights: Driving 30 or so hours each way, having to leave our new camper behind because it’s a gas-guzzler and doesn’t make financial sense for a quick cross-country trip, dozens of logistical nightmares, DMV license and registration issues for the RV and Jeep, cleaning out and totally eliminating a 10’x12′ storage unit, being exhausted all the time and never sleeping, getting bug bites from cheap motels

San Diego, California: Home on the Road #34

  • Highlights: Amazing campground (Sweetwater Summit Regional Park), successfully towing our Jeep here with no issues, incredible weather, trails for running, greenery and wildflowers everywhere you look outside, pedaling the Bayshore Bikeway, kayaking in the fog from the Chula Vista Marina, cute “island” town of Coronado, Gaslamp Quarter outing in downtown SD, surprisingly no traffic anywhere, sitting outside in the sunshine to work

Yep, Monkey’s in the trailer!

  • Lowlights: No Wi-Fi but not a big deal, lots of bunnies outside that drive Monkey (and therefore, us) crazy

Yep, Monkey’s in that kayak with me too. Nice to have the boats back with us again. She’s an old pro at boating.

Realizations & Ramblings: Month #8

In no particular order, these are some random thoughts that came to me over the course of month #8 on the road.

  • During month #8, I started to understand why people DON’T full-time travel and just plop down in a house instead with occasional trips here and there. The logistics of making this work really get to you and can make the whole thing feel totally not worth it at times. Society is not designed for people like us and seems to just wait for us to fail and fall in line. I felt like this a lot in month #8. However, I know that if I just gave up and plopped down somewhere, I’d have nothing but regrets.
  • We upgraded to the new RV at the absolute perfect time. We were both getting a bit burnt out on the lifestyle for various reasons, and this new home on wheels has totally recharged us and reminded us why we’re doing this.

Only in Texas.

  • My anxiety levels were at an all-time high in month #8 due to all the hassles of trying to beat the system for the sake of keeping the lifestyle going.
  • But in the last week, things have slowed down and we have more time to relax because of simple time-sucks that aren’t an issue anymore (walking across a campground to use the bathroom, do dishes, etc.). With the extra time, I’ve found myself starting to play guitar again, organizing drawers, and catching up on shows (recently added Big Love to my mix).
  • Exercise-wise, I’ve finally worked up to doing 100 push-ups, squats, and various ab crunches per day. We retrieved some resistance bands from storage, so I’m looking to add these to the mix in Month #9.
  • Dealing with the sewage system in the RV isn’t as bad as I expected it to be.

My go-to road trip fare: egg, avocado & veggies on flatbread.

  • Camping with a pit bull mix has been getting increasingly difficult. We have run into blanket dog breed bans the most in Grand Junction, CO and Palm Springs, CA. Some campground owners are idiots and flat-out tell you that your dog is unsafe and unwelcome there just because of who it was born to. Other owners are apologetic and make excuses about their insurance policies and safety clauses, but it doesn’t make it much easier to accept. And it’s not just pit bulls either…doberman pinschers, rottweilers, and others are being discriminated against as well. Everyone who meets Monkey loves her. She is obsessed with people, getting petted, and rolling over to get better petting angles. If these assholes would simply meet her and give her a chance, they could have had our business. Pit bulls and pit bull mixes have enough trouble getting adopted from shelters as it is. If people knew about these types of hassles caused by faulty perceptions, it might be even harder. It all just makes me really sad and angry.
  • Totally unrelated to all that, we’ve also been trying to train Monkey to not pull on the leash. It really makes walking and hiking miserable, and it’s gone on for too long. The current strategy is using cheese as a non-pulling bribe, AKA “cheese therapy.” We’ve tried other things in the past, but we’ll see how this goes.

On a positive note, Monkey is starting to take to our new RV and loves staring out her very own window 🙂

  • We are literally spending hours looking for campgrounds that meet our needs lately. And honestly, our needs aren’t that unreasonable: internet and phone service in one way or another, campers under 55 allowed, pit bull mixes allowed. So much time wasted by the inefficiency of this industry’s searching and booking systems. I’ve heard about some tech-savvy people trying to improve this process and bring it up to 2017, but an industry disruption needs to happen sooner than later.
  • We downsized our storage unit in Atlanta (10’x12′ for $200/month) to a much smaller unit in Yuma (5’x5′ for $41/month). Not only is this helping us become more minimalist and cut the waste, but it’ll also make RV loan payments easier, keep the adventure going for longer, and save our extra things on the side of the country we’ll likely plop down on someday!
  • The San Diego area seems pretty ideal as a potential plopping spot, but damn it’s pricey.

  • We are now “those people” you love to hate on the highway…RVers with a really long towing set-up cruising at 66 max. On our last full day in Yuma, we got a tow bar installed on the Jeep. Five hours and $1,300 later, we are totally “those people.”
  • We have a checklist of probably 50+ items that are part of our new RV take-down process. This includes everything from draining the sewage to locking the outside storage cabinets and raising the jacks. I’m learning a lot, and it’s actually not as intimidating as I thought it might be. It involves less manual labor than the old pop-up did, but perhaps more brain power. Of course, it’ll all get quicker and easier each time we do it.

Looking Ahead to Month #9

We finally made it to California, nearly two months late, so we’re planning to stay here for a while. We’ve only been here a bit so far, but we’re already VERY familiar with all the issues of camping in California:

  • Private campgrounds are freaking expensive
  • Limited internet and phone reception in state/regional parks – an issue for full-time work
  • Discriminatory bans against pit bulls and other dog breeds
  • Silly 55+ age restrictions

However, we’ve gotten our next couple places lined up in the Banning, Burbank, and Santa Barbara areas of California. In fact, I’ve arranged for my parents to come out to Burbank to meet us for a long weekend! They’ve never been to SoCal before, so we’re planning to do some Hollywood/L.A. touristy stuff, and I think they’ll get a kick out of seeing our new RV.

If anyone reading this that I know is in these areas and interested in possibly meeting up or sharing some must-see tips, comment here or email me please! We’ll make the best out of you yet, California. It took 8 months to get here, and there’s no turning back now.

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Catch up with the journey:

A Day of Love, Hallmark Cards & Our 7 Month Camper-aversary

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Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
7 months on the road,
Yep, it’s really true.

Happy camper-aversary to us, and happy Valentine’s Day to everyone else!

Places We’ve Been: Month #7

Month #7 kicked off by leaving the crowded Vegas campground and opting something totally different – boondocking in Mojave National Preserve. Our original plan was to head to Palm Springs, California after that, but persistent and heavy rains scared us away and drove us to Yuma, Arizona instead. We stayed in Yuma quite a while trying to get everything lined up for a trip to Mexico. Then we crossed the border into Baja California for a true non-working vacation (finally!) and back to Yuma to finish off the month.

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of “homes on the road”:

Mojave National Preserve, California: Home on the Road #30

  • Highlights: Boondocking next to a canyon far from civilization, amazing Hole in the Wall canyon right behind our camper, pleasantly disconnected from technology, the stars at night, seeing Monkey overcome a really challenging climb

  • Lowlights: No heat on 30-degree nights with canvas walls

Yuma, Arizona: Home on the Road #31

  • Highlights: Decent weekly rate, sunny and warm, met fellow (young!) long-term RVers Sara and Mike (check out Sara’s blog), Imperial Sand Dunes, yoga at the Yuma prison guard tower (every Monday evening at 5:30), date festival and Mardi Gras festival downtown, 80-degree weather

  • Lowlights: Very crowded campsites, way too many overly-friendly snowbirds in a constant need of chatting, high winds, not enough hiking/biking trails

Baja California (Ensenada & San Felipe): Home on the Road #32 and #33

I wrote an entire post devoted to our six days in Mexico. Check it out here: Road Tripping to Mexico in the Age of Trump…with a Dog

  • Highlights: Easy border crossing, incredible ocean and mountain views, perfect 70-degree weather, the beaches, cheap food and beer, the vineyard region, taking an actual vacation and not working for a few days

  • Lowlights: Lots of planning & logistics to get down there, loose dogs everywhere, potholes on roads, pushy sales vendors, everyone wants a tip, expensive gas and tolls

Thoughts & Ramblings: Month #7

In no particular order, these are some random thoughts that came to me over the course of month #7 on the road.

  • We started doing circuits of push-ups, squats, and crunches around Christmas and increasing the number of each by 5 every 3rd day. We’ve actually been keeping up with this INSIDE the camper on cold days, which is an amusing sight to see.
  • It’s really hard to find campgrounds in the Yuma area for people under 55 years old, that allow dogs over 20 pounds, and that don’t require you to be self-contained (have your own bathroom). What’s up with the snowbirds and all their rules?
  • We celebrated Monkey’s 3rd birthday in the camper! I can’t believe she’s only been with us a year. I can’t imagine this camper life without her.

  • We don’t fit in with or particularity enjoy the prevailing camping culture or demographic. I’d love to go off-the-grid like so many other vanlifers, but we haven’t made the big investment in solar panels, generators, etc. yet. However, I can’t stand traditional RV parks much longer, so something’s gotta give.

Sometimes I feel like we don’t allow room for enough spontaneity in our busy camper life schedule. But an example of something awesome we stumbled across was a wood craft festival in Yuma. Made me really miss crafting, and my husband even found his mom a birthday gift here.

 

Although the southwest has been MUCH less rainy than the east coast, rain is still brutal when your camper sinks into a mud pit.

  • On a whim, I joined a Facebook group called Make Money and RV. We actually met up with a couple living a similar lifestyle to us on the road in Yuma and it was really fun to swap stories and tips.
  • I have been considering taking virtual guitar lessons via Skype from another couple I met through a Facebook group called Make Money and RV. I’m stuck in a practice rut and totally plateaued in terms of getting any better. I haven’t pulled the trigger on committing to lessons yet because I’m worried that my internet situation changes every week or two and often sucks.
  • Dates are a big deal around Yuma. We went to a date farm and a date festival. I thought I hated dates after being force-fed raisins as a child.
  • Good craft beer is hard to find in Arizona liquor stores. However, liquor is plentiful and cheap. One day, I bought a bottle of Three Olives s’mores vodka for $2.99. However, it was disgusting…lesson learned.
  • I’ve been wanting to read a textbook-style book on how to identify plants while hiking. I’ve found some paperbacks on Amazon, but no good Kindle options. Suggestions welcome if you have any recommendations.
  • However, I have been neglecting reading books in general and watching too much TV. I’ve started getting back into the whole reading thing with some short stories on Kindle, like The Fluted Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi and The Plagiarist by Hugh Howey.
  • Mexico made me feel pretty ignorant with my sub-par bilingual skills.
  • I’m at an age where I feel age-blind. People who are anywhere between 20 and into their 40’s all feel like they’re my age.
  • Here are some photos with captions!

Date farm!

Abandoned mine shacks in the Mojave desert.

Most interesting yoga destination in a long time: historic prison guard tower in Yuma.

Muggins Mountains: destination for a rugged BLM hike

Looking Ahead to Month #8

It wasn’t until we had a few days off to really disconnect from routine in Mexico that we started seriously considering our next phase in this camper journey. I’m not going to say any more just yet, but I will be sharing a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT very soon to kick off month #8!

Catch up with the journey: