Rubber Tramp Rendezvous

I went to bed before 9.30 PM last night and slept in this morning until almost 9 AM!  that is 10 AM central time for some of you which is the time zone we left.  We are Mountain time and let me tell you It felt great and I needed the rest. 

I had to hurry and get dressed to make it to the pancake breakfast .. ooops I was too late, they started at 9 AM but at least I was in time for the meeting.  As you know I’m not one who likes to eat breakfast.  I did manage to snap a few snap shots of the clean up

they had a fire going as it was a bit on the nippy side, but the sun was out and it didn’t take long to warm things up nicely

Today’s topic was how to live on less money and who was living on the least.  I was shocked that a few were living on $400 per month!  The shocking thing was they were enjoying life and were not deprived.  I applaud anyone who can do that. 

we’ve meet so many people and as you all know me .. I have trouble remembering names but I can their dogs

The meeting lasted until around noon and then we all broke to go on walks or home to get warm.  Some of the people here live full-time in cars, van, class B, class C’s, Class A’s, 5th wheels, pull types and cargo trailers.  Several are here camping in tents even .. It’s a unique group, we have engineer's, a doctor, nurse, musicians, we are amazed how educated most everyone here is … there are many more back grounds of this group.  It’s an amazing group and Bob Wells is a truly amazing person.  He is a writer and started this group .. you can find his website here ..   http://cheaprvliving.com/ or here is his living green site .. http://cheapgreenrvliving.com/index.html

over half of the full-timers are living the green life and living off the grid where they do not park in RV parks with full hookups.  They have batteries, solar and generators for all their electrical needs.  They are self contained even in their vans and cars. 

It’s amazing to see .. we have learned so much just the little that we have been here and true to the RV nature everyone is friendly and always willing to help anyone out who needs it. 

some live this life style because of situations that have occurred in their lives and others do it as they were tired of being a slave to the world and wanted more out of life then working to still have nothing but debit. 

there are several projects going on  helping others .. one lady is having a kitchenette installed in her van so she will have a sink, another is having a 12 volt refrigerator installed and another is getting solar panels installed. 

here is some pictures of the different rigs that are home for many

I have a very happy husband since today is Sunday you all know what that means .. YES .. football!!  My hubby is a happy camper as he can watch his football using our inverter and batteries now.  While he watched football the dogs and I went for a walk.  Once the sun comes out it warmed up enough that a sweet shirt was all I needed for our afternoon walk. 

Tonight was a hobo soup night for dinner.  Everyone was to bring either a can of soup or a soup ingredient.  I know it sounds disgusting but it actually turned out to be good soup.

the soup is cooking here and they had another pot of soup with no meat for the veggie people. 

Everyone got their belly’s full and once the sun set it was too cold and so everyone started heading for the warmth of their home.  It’s going to be another cold night.  

Our furnace did great and we had the battery bank to supply it to run all night long.  We survived our first night of extreme cold temps boon docking on BLM land.

We came home fired up the generator to charge up our batteries and watch some TV.  I decided instead of wasting propane with the furnace to bake some cookies and it solves hubby’s sweet tooth craving.  So we got warmth and home made cookies.

Hope your all staying warm, we are and enjoying our stay here in Q .. stop in again and see what were doing tomorrow

California and installing batteries and inverter

We got up and started getting around once the sun came out and started warming things up nicely.  First on the list was to attend the 10 AM GTG with the group.  Today was best tips for the full-timing and boon docking lifestyle .. learned some great things.  Next on the list tado is purchase a couple more batteries and the wire to meet our electrical needs without running the generator all the time.

After going into Q and checking out Solar Bills and Discount solar about our battery needs it was decided that with the inverter we purchased staying with 12 volt deep cell setup would be the best.  So that meant heading to CA to get the same battery we have already since it’s fairly new it wouldn’t be a problem using it.

We came upon the inspection station

We had no problems crossing inspection, we were waved on through.

I had forgotten my camera and used my phone so the quality is not that great but I have a picture of my first CA sign!

we got our batteries and decided to check out some of the local stores.  We got oranges for .39 cents a lb!  We bought almost 5 lbs and they cost $1.84! 

we drove around and did some looking and then decided we better get home on a beautiful afternoon so hubby could go to work

I was able to get a picture of the Arizona sign! 

I

back home we had to do some cleaning out to make room for our new batteries.  The sun has warmed things up nicely and hubby is sporting a t-shirt, I’m in a light weight long sleeve shirt. 

hubby doing some cleaning and measuring

once hubby figured out how he was going to install the batteries and inverter we did the measuring and wrote everything down and it was back to town to purchase the wire and things we were going to need. 

Finally the batteries and inverter are installed and working great!

We still had some daylight time and while hubby was working I put some potatoes on the grill for baked tators and then we had hamburgers.  It was an easy dinner meal.  I love the griddle that I purchased to use on our grill.  I hated to grill as everything always caught on fire with the new grill I do not have that problem.  Hubby is going to cut the handles off for me so that our lid will close all the way.  Right now it doesn’t close shut but still cooks great. 

After dinner was done we headed over with the rest of the group and enjoyed a camp fire until we got to cold.  We retired to the warmth of our home and watching some TV while our batteries are being charged up with the generator.  It’s going to be a real test to our boon docking setup tonight with temps being predicted to go down to a low of 24!  So glad that we got more batteries installed so we can run the furnace all night long.  Stay tuned to see how we survive the coldest night we’ve ever been in our home now.  Our motorhome was no problem as all our plumbing was inside .. the 5th wheel it’s in that basement so running the furnace is a must.

Touring Quartzsite

We woke up to a nippy morning.  Turned on the generator and fired up the electric heater and the furnace to take the chill off.  Once we got warmed up we headed over to the 10 AM GTG with the RTR group. 

the desert has a beauty of it’s own .. we are falling in love with it!  We are enjoying our alone time.  We decided we go into town and check out a few things. 

We are parked on the 14 day limit BLM land, although we are told during the month of Jan it is not enforced as by next week there will almost a million rigs parked here. 

you find open land and pull and park where you want

some come with other groups and some come alone

We got home from the gathering and took the dogs on a walk and then loaded up to head to town to check out a few things

first on our list was to check out Discount Solar and Solar Bills for some research on batteries, cables and 300 Amp fuse.  We need to increase our battery bank and we purchased an inverter in La.  Since we put in an household refrigerator we have to install this setup for summer months for those hot temp days.

after discussing what we wanted with both places we decided to come home and do a bit more research online before we jump in.  We do know we will  not be going with solar at this time.  We will continue to use our generator to charge the batteries.

next on the tada list was to head to the most popular book store in Q

This is Paul .. he is the owner of the book store .. he was giving a concert when we arrived

WOW .. he can rock the piano and sings pretty good .. since it was a bit on the chilly side today he had on a coat .. your wondering what the big deal is about that?

Well you see Paul used to go completely naked and then the city of Q required that he must at least wear a jock strap.  So his wife crotched him one and that is all he normally wears.  Now you know why his book store is so popular.  I did find one of my favorite romance authors books that I have not read … I got them 3/$1.00.  We stopped by a couple of the grocery stores and checked out what they had and their prices .. wasn’t bad for a small town .. next was the Dollar General to get me some lip balm .. my lips are already dried out, cracked and sore from this dry air and sun.  We checked out the Family Dollar as well and got some paper plates.  We are limited on our water and electric supply so we are ruffing it ..

We came back home and wow the wind has began to blow and is rocking us .. were gonna be rocked to sleep tonight.  Since it was so windy and too cold out to dinner on the bbq grill we cooked inside.  I threw some pork chops in the oven and that helped heat up our home nicely and some mac and cheese on the stove top and dinner was served.  After dinner we went back where the RTR group is and enjoyed some visiting  .. there was no fire tonight due to the strong winds .. we stayed until I got too cold and we headed home.  When we got home the wind had blown down our satellite dish.  Hubby went to pick it up and tried to set it back up but the wind had destroyed it, it was all bent up.  So I got on the phone and called dish and a new one will be arriving around 8 AM.  We fired up the generator, took the chill off and did a bit of internet and then it was off to bed.