Ya nevah know whatcha gunna git…

After being home for a few weeks Bree and I decided we needed to take “X” (we still haven’t named the RV) out of the barn and test drive the new lifestyle if only for a day or two.

As I wrote in my very first post, we bought the RV in an auction on eBay and even though it was in really good shape overall there were/are still a lot of things that we needed or wanted to fix/upgrade.

I’ve spent most of my time learning about the different systems and how they work (especially our 12v system) while Bree has been cleaning and sewing like mad. All of the upholstery and trim came in what we’ve dubbed “old person green” although I’m pretty sure that Winnebago refers to it as sage. Our description is way more apt.

That definitely would not do for Operation Tally Ho so Bree has been redoing the interior in crushed purple velvet and zebra stripe. Yeah that’s right – purple velvet and zebra – I said it, you gotta problem with that playa? We realize that has taken us directly from 2004 retirement home to 70’s pimp palace but hey, it’s definitely not boring!

So this past weekend was our weekend of choice. After working on our projects from Friday night to well into Saturday we finally put the rubber to the road.

After eating dinner and visiting with our good friends James and Kellie it was time to decide where to sleep for the night. Enter our first boondocking experience of what is sure to be many. Boondocking or “dry camping” as it’s also known is basically just being completely self contained and having no outside hookups or facilities.

Boondocking can be a fairly romantic notion if you’re out in the wilderness somewhere plunking yourself in the middle of nature, completely contained and self sufficient without the need for an electrical outlet, water hookups, and a place to dump your…. well….. dumps.

Bree hates the term dump so she is trying to come up with other terms. So far she’s latched on to eliminate. I’d imagine there will be others as time goes on. She’s very creative that one. Like on our trip back from Texas we both wondered if there was a secret-societyesque hand signal (a la the 2-fingered “bikers wave”) that RV’ers flashed to each other while passing on the road. Not seeing anything after passing numerous rigs Bree created her own. It’s an undulating forearm at a 90 degree elbow bend while making a sound like a cross between what you’d think underwater bubbles would sound like mixed with that middle eastern tongue thing. Words cannot do it justice so I’ll be sure to post a video one of these days. It’s sure to spread like wildfire in the RV community so now you can say you know where it all began.

Back to the boondocking. Urban boondocking I would say does not have quite the romantic notion that it would out in nature. A lot of people boondock in a parking lot overnight during long driving stretches which is actually allowed at most Wal Marts but this is obviously a short term thing done out of necessity not really a living style. You’ll also see (at least here in San Diego) a whole segment the RV population boondocking around the city under bridges and in industrial areas. Most of these folks seem like they might be on the homeless+ plan. They aren’t technically homeless because they do have their home on wheels, but by the looks of these rigs it doesn’t quite seem like it might be their first choice of living situations. This is only a guess of course and just an observation not a judgement.

On James’ suggestion we end up choosing a small parking lot around Mission Bay that was technically “closed” from 10pm to 4am but looked like it was very out of the way and off the beaten path. Here’s the breakdown of the night.
11:45pm – Park (note 3 other vehicles in lot)
12:15am – Go to sleep
12:50am – Wake up and wonder if Bree installed a heater under our mattress that had been activated without my knowledge or permission and had already raised my core body temperature to 137.2 degrees.
2:15am – Cali’s (our girl dog) whimpering and actual pawing of my leg wakes me up letting me know that she’s not happy with the new living conditions and she wants her doggie door installed in this new house so she can come and go as she pleases and has become accustomed to.
2:20am – whimpering does not magically stop and I stumble into complete darkness to put on pants, find shoes, find leashes (why I don’t know), find light source, take both dogs outside to do their thing. (I note there is only one other vehicle in entire lot..a truck with a tow trailer)
2:30am – return to bed after returning dogs and unsuccessfully trying to locate secret hidden mattress heater
2:55am – move to overhead bed open all windows and hatch in an attempt to lower core body temp back to sustainable levels for human life
3:00am – sleeping!!!
3:15am – awoken abruptly by blaring horn alarm from ONLY OTHER VEHICLE IN ENTIRE LOT. It seems the source for this alarm is not only a mystery to me (and I’m sure Bree) but to our neighbor as well because it takes dude over 5 full minutes to figure out how to shut it off.
3:23am – alarm again. SERIOUSLY??? FIGURE…IT…OUT
4:30am – “blissful” sleep is shattered as lights fill the windows and all sorts of noises are going on outside. This is not short lived but rather repeated over and over again. I finally manage to roll over and look outside to see cars flooding in the parking lot one after another. It seems every person is getting out of their cars and detaching a bicycle. I fumble for phone…google “San Diego Bike” and the second listing says “Mission Bay Triathlon October 3, 2010” YAYYYYYYYY.

It’s suddenly become apparent that we’ve spent our first night boondocking in what appears to be the freaking “mission control” “ground zero” central staging area for the day’s event. Note 1 – THE SUN IS NOT UP. Note 2 – Triathletes are obviously strange mutant night dwelling creatures that need less sleep than the general population. Who does this?

4:30-7:30am – Toss in and out of sleep while the mutants continue to scurry around the lot and prep for their days torture.
8:00am – Take dogs out for a walk around the bay and snap the picture I used at the beginning of this post of Bree on the RV (Cali running loose because I dropped the leash to take the picture) in our completely packed lot with cars surrounding the RV in our once solitary spot.

Sweet call on the parking spot James. Awesome.

I’m thinking I might sign James up for the next triathlon in town as my way of saying thanks pal!

It’s all good of course! We know there will be plenty of shenanigans like that going on as we travel across the U.S. and we’ll have to just roll with it, laugh, and make the best of whatever situations we end up in. We have about one more month before we make the leap out of our place and into Operation Tally Ho and RV living full-time so look for posts from the road then. Until next time.

Tally-Ho…

Boondock Saint,
Matt