Campground Ramblings

[gcdonner]

I’m in the reopened public library today. They have some very nice computers here so I thought I’d check in for a bit and I’m enjoying once again some of great conversations here. Have missed you all.

Glad to have you back Max. I have been without power for a week, so it's nice for me to browse again too.

[MaxPC]

Unfortunately our project motor home is long finished and ready to roll, and diesel fuel is cheap, but there's nowhere to go. The trip we were planning for three years looks like it will have to be postponed because of the shutdowns.

Mike, a number of states have kept their state park campgrounds open. You may be able to get some vacationing yet.

I’m in the reopened public library today. They have some very nice computers here so I thought I’d check in for a bit and I’m enjoying once again some of great conversations here. Have missed you all.

Glad to have you back Max. I have been without power for a week, so it's nice for me to browse again too.

George! You had some really bad weather I see. Is everyone and everything safe apart from the power? One of those generators to power the house might be your next shade tree project. TN gets a lot of bad spring weather I hear.

[gcdonner]

Unfortunately our project motor home is long finished and ready to roll, and diesel fuel is cheap, but there's nowhere to go. The trip we were planning for three years looks like it will have to be postponed because of the shutdowns.

Mike, a number of states have kept their state park campgrounds open. You may be able to get some vacationing yet.

I’m in the reopened public library today. They have some very nice computers here so I thought I’d check in for a bit and I’m enjoying once again some of great conversations here. Have missed you all.

Glad to have you back Max. I have been without power for a week, so it's nice for me to browse again too.

George! You had some really bad weather I see. Is everyone and everything safe apart from the power? One of those generators to power the house might be your next shade tree project. TN gets a lot of bad spring weather I hear.

I have a generator and am working on a plug in setup to run most of the house without all the extension cords I have been using, mainly to keep the refrigerator and freezer going. I need to get the water pump hooked into the system. Hauling water is a real pain.
Everyone is doing well and we are back to church now. My wife and I and one other young family chose to self quarantine in obedience to Romans 13:1-3, while the rest of the congregation held on to "forsake not the assembling of yourselves together..." We figured the church restrictions were for our own safety and not for the curtailment of worship. Our state has pretty much lifted those restrictions, though it was never a matter of mandate but rather a request/suggestion, unlike some other places. It certainly is time to lift all the restrictions, which in my opinion, looking back, were never needed. I think history will demonstrate that it was a kneejerk reaction to ill informed "experts". I might even suggest that there is an agenda behind the whole thing which really has nothing to do with public health.

[MaxPC]

I have a generator and am working on a plug in setup to run most of the house without all the extension cords I have been using, mainly to keep the refrigerator and freezer going. I need to get the water pump hooked into the system. Hauling water is a real pain.

I agree, getting the water pump hooked into the generator is essential; not just for drinking water but also for the ability to flush toilets.

Glad you're able to go back to church. We can't yet. The bishops are extra cautious because we receive communion every Sunday.

[Valerie]

I’m in the reopened public library today. They have some very nice computers here so I thought I’d check in for a bit and I’m enjoying once again some of great conversations here. Have missed you all.

Glad to see you back Max!

[MaxPC]

Glad to see you back Max!

[Neto]

Roughing it without actually.

Modern "boondocking".

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/07/success/ ... index.html

(When I was a kid at home in Oklahoma, 'boondocking' was driving a vehicle across country, off-road, especially a car, which was not designed for that type of terrain.) I'm thinking 'real' camping is when you carry everything on your back, and the only way out is more of the same. I suppose using a horse or a mule would count as well, or going in with a canoe, especially if it requires portage. (Never done it with a canoe - can hardly swim, so that wouldn't work too well for me.)

[Ken]

Roughing it without actually.

Modern "boondocking".

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/07/success/ ... index.html

(When I was a kid at home in Oklahoma, 'boondocking' was driving a vehicle across country, off-road, especially a car, which was not designed for that type of terrain.) I'm thinking 'real' camping is when you carry everything on your back, and the only way out is more of the same. I suppose using a horse or a mule would count as well, or going in with a canoe, especially if it requires portage. (Never done it with a canoe - can hardly swim, so that wouldn't work too well for me.)

For me, "camping" is living outdoors with a vehicle and "backpacking" is living outdoors on foot. So a "camping" stove would be a 3-burner Coleman that you use with a cast-iron skillet and a "backpacking" stove would be a lightweight folding device that weighs 4 ounces and can only cook one thing at a time. An RV that is larger than a studio apartment that has stainless steel appliances and a big screen TV with satellite dish is not "camping"

When I was younger I did a ton of actual boondocking in the Pacific Northwest and on up the Cassiar and Alaska highways to Alaska. With just an old Toyota 4x4 pickup with a canopy on the back. In fact I boondocked all the way across the US and Canada to Maine.

These days though I would never do it mostly because I have a family in tow. But also because the woods around here are so full of so many homeless vagrant types, many of them cooking meth and doing other unsavory things and often armed to the teeth and vaguely desperate. I don't even go to the self-serve forest service campgrounds scattered all over the National Forests in OR and WA anymore because you never know who you will find there, but prefer well managed state parks and private campgrounds that actually have security and active management.

[temporal1]

i miss Max’s ramblings, would enjoy them continuing, even sans campground.

Neto, you remind me of an experienced snowmobiling friend we had in Vermont. His advice was, “Never drive out further than you’re willing and able to WALK back.”

This is sage advice for all sorts of adventurers.

(We tent camped, never RV’d, never boondocked.) but we hiked.

[Neto]

i miss Max’s ramblings, would enjoy them continuing, even sans campground.

Neto, you remind me of an experienced snowmobiling friend we had in Vermont. His advice was, “Never drive out further than you’re willing and able to WALK back.”

This is sage advice for all sorts of adventurers.

I just remember the time I hiked through the jungle with several of the Indian men for 9 hours (to give a man a penicillin shot), and then thought about how I would have to repeat the trip the next day. (We didn't have any kind of stove. I carried water, a bag of rice, and a couple cans of sardines, and of course a nylon hammock.) Rained most of the day going. It was almost dark when we got to where the sick man was - a thatched roof house with no walls and a dirt floor. I held a flashlight under one arm while I mixed the penicillin and gave him the shot. It was cold at night with no blanket, and hearing the jaguar some place out there didn't help any, either. Gave him another shot in the morning, watched him for a while to be sure he wasn't going to have a reaction, then two of us started back. Took 10 hours, with me hobbling along with two stick to keep from falling over - bad knees. Walking down flooded trails with water half way up to your knees and stepping over huge fallen logs has a way of doing you in (or at least it did me). We stopped some where around noon, and split a can of sardines. Mixed in some farinha (manioc meal - look it up) to soak up the oil. I gave him the can, and I used a leaf for a plate. (The others carried the sick man back to the village several days later - in a hammock tied to a long pole, taking turns carrying him, and cutting a new, more direct trail as they went.)

But hiking in some place in the winter would be another story. I do not do well in the cold.