Unwritten–rules Of Boondocking. Oldsmobile. Shopping and Roofing.

 

For "tRaVersing Thursday" or RV Day:

Do you follow the responsible–but unwritten–rules of boondocking?

"Do you follow the responsible–but unwritten–rules of boondocking?

Most rules are just plain commonsense, which you wonder sometimes whether that gene was left out of some people’s gene pool.

Pick a campsite away from others. Many boondockers value their solitude and privacy, and prefer not to have neighbors close enough to hear their generator, TV, and conversations, or to be lit up by unwanted porch lights. That is why they are not in campgrounds.

Upon arrival, walk the site with a bag and pick up any man-made trash left behind by previous campers. It won’t take you long, will infuriate you, but will bring the point home–anything that will not burn to ashes, carry it out.  And it will make your campsite that much more enjoyable.

Find ways to hang things other than driving nails into trees. There are plenty of ideas for clothes drying hangers or racks or poles that clamp onto your picnic table to hang a lamp. Slide in hooks for your awning rail can be used to hang lights, a bird feeder, trash bag, etc.

Keep your campsite neat. Put things away when not in use. Nobody want to see all your possessions strewn around your campsite like a yard sale in progress.

Pick up only downed and dead wood for a campfire. Chopping limbs off trees or uprooting bushes to burn is something only clueless teenagers would do.

Think safety when building a campfire, especially this season when parts of the country, like Texas, are as dry as the desert in July. Scrape all debris several feet away from your fire and keep your fire small. Build a rock ring or dig a depression to contain fire. And when you leave, return the fire site to its natural state.

If you plan on dumping the gray water from dishwashing and rinsing, be sure to wipe all food bits off cooking and eating utensils with a paper towel first. Always use biodegradable soaps. Dump gray water on thirsty plants or bury in a hole (and cover it with dirt) well away from your campsite. Food bits draw unwanted smells and critters.

Alter your site as little as possible. Walk your site looking for trash, even if you think you haven’t left anything behind. Often paper blows away unnoticed, so make your reconnaissance a wide circle around your campsite. When you leave, your site should appear as if no one had been there, just the way you would like to find your next boondocking site.

Remember that the way others–hikers, off-road wanderers, officials–see your site is the way all RVers are seen. Set a good example, that of a responsible, environmentally-aware, and conservation-minded steward of the land. It’s good for all of us. And thank you for doing so.

In last week’s blog, How to find dispersed boondocking campsites on public land,  we looked at how to find campsites on public lands. Once you find a suitable–and legal–campsite, it becomes your responsibility to follow certain unwritten rules of boondocking so your presence does not impact the campers that follow you. Unfortunately, you’ve likely seen trashy campers in your travels, practicing behavior that gives a bad name to RVers, boondocking, and the RV lifestyle.

Most rules are just plain commonsense, which you wonder sometimes whether that gene was left out of some people’s gene pool.

• Pick a campsite away from others. Many boondockers value their solitude and privacy, and prefer not to have neighbors close enough to hear their generator, TV, and conversations, or to be lit up by unwanted porch lights. That is why they are not in campgrounds.
• Upon arrival, walk the site with a bag and pick up any man-made trash left behind by previous campers. It won’t take you long, will infuriate you, but will bring the point home–anything that will not burn to ashes, carry it out.  And it will make your campsite that much more enjoyable.
• Find ways to hang things other than driving nails into trees. There are plenty of ideas for clothes drying hangers or racks or poles that clamp onto your picnic table to hang a lamp. Slide in hooks for your awning rail can be used to hang lights, a bird feeder, trash bag, etc.
• Keep your campsite neat. Put things away when not in use. Nobody want to see all your possessions strewn around your campsite like a yard sale in progress.
• Pick up only downed and dead wood for a campfire. Chopping limbs off trees or uprooting bushes to burn is something only clueless teenagers would do.
• Think safety when building a campfire, especially when parts of the country, like Texas, are as dry as the desert in July. Scrape all debris several feet away from your fire and keep your fire small. Build a rock ring or dig a depression to contain fire. And when you leave, return the fire site to its natural state.
• If you plan on dumping the gray water from dishwashing and rinsing, be sure to wipe all food bits off cooking and eating utensils with a paper towel first. Always use biodegradable soaps. Dump gray water on thirsty plants or bury in a hole (and cover it with dirt) well away from your campsite. Food bits draw unwanted smells and critters.
• Alter your site as little as possible. Walk your site looking for trash, even if you think you haven’t left anything behind. Often paper blows away unnoticed, so make your reconnaissance a wide circle around your campsite. When you leave, your site should appear as if no one had been there, just the way you would like to find your next boondocking site.

Remember that the way others–hikers, off-road wanderers, officials–see your site is the way all RVers are seen. Set a good example, that of a responsible, environmentally-aware, and conservation-minded steward of the land. It’s good for all of us. And thank you for doing so."  By Bob Difley.

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On This Day:

GM announces phase-out of Oldsmobile, Dec 12, 2000:

"On this day in 2000, General Motors declares that it will begin to phase out the 103-year-old Oldsmobile, the oldest automotive brand in the United States. Oldsmobile had once been one of the most venerable and innovative American brands--Olds cars were the first to have decorative chrome trim, for example, and the first to have fully automatic transmissions--but a GM reorganization in the mid-1980s had drained the brand of most of its unique identity.

Lansing native Ransom Eli Olds created the Olds Motor Works in 1897. Ten years before (reportedly because he did not like the smell of horses), he had built a steam-powered car. After a factory fire destroyed 10 of his 11 prototypes, Olds focused on trying to perfect--and sell--the only car he had left: the small Curved Dash runabout. He was successful: the runabout soon became the nation's most popular automobile.

In 1904, the Curved Dash became the first mass-produced car in the United States. That same year, Olds investors ousted the company's founder. (Ransom Olds wanted to keep on mass-producing inexpensive cars that ordinary people could buy, while the investors wanted to build pricey luxury automobiles.) Four years later, Olds Motor Works merged with Buick to become General Motors. Within GM, Olds was known as the "technology division": it pioneered V-8 engines in 1915, chrome plating in 1926, the Hydra-Matic automatic transmission in 1937, and the Rocket V-8 in 1949.

Olds (it became Oldsmobile in 1942) was the most middlebrow of the GM "ladder of brands," squeezed between mass-market Chevrolet and Pontiac and luxury Cadillac and Buick. Despite a new slogan--"This is not your father's Oldsmobile"--that debuted in the 1980s after the GM reorganization, buyers eventually began to lose interest in the brand's offerings. The brand was also notoriously slow to react to trends: for instance, it was one of the last American carmakers to add sport utility vehicles--the most popular and profitable cars of the 1990s--to its lineup.

In 2004, four years after GM made its announcement, the phase-out of Oldsmobile was complete. That April, the last Oldsmobile--a cherry-red Alero--rolled off the Lansing assembly line and went straight to the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum nearby, where you can see it today."

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Yesterday.

This morning, I couldn't get online. So much happened yesterday that I didn't have time to a draft a post in Live Writer.    Finally, I have switched out some Ethernet cables, and now it is up and running again.

Yesterday had to be a shopping day, I was out of fresh veggies for my juicer, and I wanted to get some special food for Ava, my 'new' old cat. 

Misty and I went to get Jay, and had our walk down there, while he fiddled and diddled getting ready.   Jay took the battery out of his mother's truck as we had to take it back to the Interstate distributor on the way to Conroe.  The Interstate battery in the Puddle Jumper was giving me trouble too, so he went to disconnect it, and found out that the positive terminal was loose.  So maybe that battery is OK.

We had several other stops to make on the way, all time consuming, but got the new battery, and then went to Walmart to get Jay a battery charger, and a new answering machine for me.  We parked in the back, as there was no room in the front parking lot,  but the store didn't seem crowded.

More time was spent at my favorite Krogers for things that Jay and I needed, and then a stop at Petsmart for Ava's food. Then a stop at another Krogers so that I could make a bank deposit. It was after 3.00pm before I got home. 

Just as I was eating some late lunch, the buyers came to get the old galvanized roofing that came off my old RVport.

The couple came towing a horse trailer with a horse that they had just purchased.  It had those sunken dents above it's eyes, a sure sign of not enough food, and it's feet were in terrible shape. I hope they take better care of it than the last owners.  The wife must have been 10 months pregnant, and was helping move the long sheets of roofing, hoping that it would make her go into labor!

The big problem was how to get the long roofing in the slant load trailer without hurting the horse. We tried different ways, but it was so long that it just wouldn't fit. The horse was really calm while all this was going on, and just ate hay.  In the end the husband put the roofing through the bars on the outside and slid them into the empty part of the trailer, but it was sticking out about 18" outside of the side of the trailer.  That was going to be a hairy hour long drive back to their home. 

This took quite a while, and I was tired out from the shopping and wrestling with the roofing, then my internet went out, so I fed the animals and went to bed early yesterday.