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theboondork

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    everywhere
  • Interests
    Photography, travel, my blog

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  1. I'm a full timer that boondocks a lot of the time. I have property in Cochise County, Tombstone to be exact so I've spent time there in the summer but mostly in the winter. The climate is moderate compared to some places but my water hose will freeze overnight sometimes, and one time I remember in September the temperature was 111° so the winters can still get pretty cold, and it's a desert so the summers get really hot. One of the reasons I'm a fulltimer is because I don't think there's any place in the United States where the weather's nice all year so I live in the Southwest in the winter and Colorado in the summer.... It works for me. theboondork.com
  2. Thank you very much Twotoes, I appreciate the compliment. I envy the scenery you get to experience in the summer, if I had a job I would imagine working in a National Park would be a great place to work. It just so happens rickeieio I know exactly what you're talking about. I sold my two restaurants when I was 47 years old and retired. I could've stayed in business longer but I'm basically lazy and like to enjoy life. But I also got tired of paying high insurance rates, high taxes, lawyer bills, accounting bills, grocery company bills, and employees. Sometimes it seemed like I was the only one involved in my business that wasn't making money. And then there was all of the various state and local governments that treated me like a cash cow, and at the same time making laws that made my life difficult. So I don't live as high on the hog as I did in those days, I own very little, I owe nothing, and I live in a home with wheels. But I'm happier than I've ever been in my life. theboondork.com
  3. Thank you very much Boutdone. And I hope your motorcycle project is coming along well. theboondork.com
  4. Thank you very much for that comment, it caused me to do a lot of thinking and I'm even going to talk about it on my Blog post today. But since I'm 73 years old it doesn't take much to make me happy anymore, sometimes just waking up in the morning is enough. theboondork.com
  5. Thank you 2gypsies, it doesn't take much to make me happy anymore, once I finally figured out that "things" didn't make me happy my cost-of-living dropped considerably.
  6. I just posted my expenses for 2019 on my blog at theboondork.com so if you're interested in what it cost for a full-time RVer, and part-time boondocker, to live your welcome to drop by and have a look. I know my numbers won't look like anyone else's numbers because one of the best things about being a full-time RVer is we all get to live the kind of life we choose and the numbers you will see on my blog will be based on the way I chose to live in my fourth year of full timing. theboondork.com
  7. I appreciate the offer of the r1200gs it's a beautiful and incredibly engineered motorcycle but I'm afraid I might have a little trouble pushing it up the ramp onto the back of my Arctic Fox fifth wheel. And speaking of pushing a motorcycle up a ramp I didn't mentioned it before because my comment was getting too long, but just before I sold my Yamaha WR450 I rigged up a winch to pull it up the ramp. I made an attachment point at the front of the ramp so the winch could be quickly and easily put on or removed, and made a Y-shaped harness that attached to the handlebars and the winch cable. The little 2000 pound pull weight winch I used I bought from Harbor Freight tools on sale for about 50 bucks. The key to the whole concept working was the winch came with a remote control so I was able to walk beside the motorcycle holding it up right and steering holding onto one handlebar, although it didn't take much steering because the Y-shaped harness kept it going straight all the time. This worked great the two or three times I used it but shortly thereafter I bought the little Beta 250 and no longer had a need for the winch. And speaking of the Beta, I bought that brand because they have a factory kit you can buy for a couple hundred bucks that has a seat, a little gas tank, and a higher gear ratio rear sprocket that bolts right on the Beta and makes it look like a real motorcycle instead of trials motorcycle. It's not Street legal of course but I think it might only take a lighting kit to make it so. theboondork.com
  8. I'm a long-time motorcycle guy both street and dirt but I'm 73 years old now and don't ride as much as I used to. I'm a solo full timer and I boondock most of the time. I have a fifth wheel and had a motorcycle rack welded to the back of the fifth wheel and for a couple of years carried a Yamaha 2016 WR450 that is a street legal dirtbike. The Yamaha weighed 279 pounds and to me it ended up being too heavy, and actually way too powerful to deal with and still have fun. My motorcycle carry rack is about 2 feet off the ground and the ramp that I roll it up on is about 6 1/2 feet long. I rolled it up and down that ramp dozens of times and I always had to use a running start, or idle it up the ramp, if it had weighed 300 pounds I'm not sure if I could've made it. I eventually figured out that the difficulty of loading and unloading was causing me not to use it very much. As a rule of thumb if something is difficult I will avoid doing it. I sold the Yamaha 450 and bought a little Beta 250 trials bike that weighs 159 pounds, I put a seat on it because trials bikes don't come with a seat believe it or not. It's a dirtbike only which is okay with me because I didn't ride the Yamaha on the street very much anymore feeling it was just getting more and more dangerous to be sharing the road with 5000 pound cars. The little Beta 250 has been great, it's lightweight which means I can easily push it up the ramp without a running start, and always have control of it because it's light enough for me to manhandle. If you visit my blog and poke around long enough you will find things I've written about living with motorcycles while boondocking, it's at theboondork.com
  9. For me during the summer I go back to where I lived before I became a full timer, Colorado. There's a lot to see and do, the scenery's spectacular, and by going higher or lower in elevation you can quickly and easily cool off or warm up. As for campground recommendations I can't help you, I boondock most of the time. theboondork.com
  10. Thanks for pointing that out Linda it's very true. I lived in Miami Florida for a considerable amount of time and it only had two seasons, hot and humid, and very hot and humid, but then every once in a while for a change of pace there would be a hurricane. theboondork.com
  11. A lot of what you need will be based on what size motorcycle you have. If it's something big and heavy like a Harley it's going to be more difficult and expensive to tote it around with you. I carry a 250cc dirt bike on a rack welded to the rear of the frame of my fifth wheel, and because of the light weight of the dirt bike, its no problem at all. I think living in an RV while you're at these temporary job sites is a great idea and is one of the main reasons that I first got involved with RVs myself. As you probably know by now living in hotels gets very old after a while and you never feel at home because you never are. But an RV will quickly become your home and then you will be home no matter where you park it. I'm a full-timer so I'm speaking from experience here. RV Park monthly fees are very reasonable, and if your job is going to pay for it that's even better. I would suggest that whatever RV you decide on that you talk to the manufacturer, not the dealership salesman, but the manufacturer, and ask them if their RV is built for full-time living. Most RVs aren't. My decades of experience with RVs tells me that you might have less problems and live more comfortably, with an RV that is designed and built to be a four season, full-time RV. theboondork.com
  12. I swapped out my four Trojan lead acid batteries for four lithium iron 100 amp BattleBorn batteries about two years ago and have been very happy with the results. They're extremely lightweight, my solar panels charge them up quicker than the lead acid batteries, their zero maintenance, I can take them down to 90% discharge without damaging them, and there supposed to have a longer useful life than lead acid batteries. There's more good things about them than that, in fact I believe they beat lead acid batteries on almost any criteria except one.... Cost, it takes a while to get over the sticker shock, I'm still working on it. theboondork.com
  13. As a full timer I love the deserts of southern Arizona, and most of the time that's where I will be in the winter. I spend my summers in Colorado where I've lived for the last 30 years and where I'm located at the moment, but will be hitting the road heading south about the middle of October. I stay in Texas every few years either on Padre island or farther south where it's warmer which is where I will be going this coming winter. My choices of where I like to stay is based on weather, and me being a boondocker. Its usually fairly comfortable in southern Arizona during the winter, and there's plenty of BLM land to boondock on for free so I don't have to worry about reservations, there's always room in the desert for me and my Arctic Fox 27 – 5L fifth wheel. theboondork.com
  14. Like a lot of other folks, as a full timer I carry a bunch of tools in my Arctic Fox fifth wheel because I not only keep it repaired myself, I've always got a do-it-yourself project I want to complete, or a do-it-yourself project to fix the last do-it-yourself project I did. All that means mechanic tools, carpentry tools, electric tools, and plumbing tools. In all the years I've been RVing I've never needed a gun, but there has been a couple of times when I felt a whole lot better knowing it was there. Theboondork.com
  15. If you're into boondocking there's good boondocking a few miles south of Wickenburg, and just outside of Congress. And as you probably know already there's an Escapees Park between Wickenburg and Congress.
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