Go home, we’ve been told, and stay there! Definitely good advice during a pandemic. However, some full-time RVers, like myself, have no home to go home to other than our house on wheels.
Go home you northern snowbirds who have spent the winter in warmer climes. But then campgrounds started to close, public and private. I’m thinking parking lots like Walmart were on overflow. As states shuttered down and travel bans were more than encouraged some part-time residents of northern states were told not to go home, stay where you are.
I felt safe and comfortable in the Sonoran Desert, mostly boondocking on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In fact, it’s the one time I was happy that BLM doesn’t spend a lot of time patrolling and enforcing the 14-day camp limit. Maybe under the current circumstances someone decided to leave us boondockers alone unless we caused problems. Most don’t. But there is the issue of eventually having to dump holding tanks, take on water, and fill propane tanks. I always paid for that by treating myself to an overnight at a RV park, that thankfully was still open. I don’t want to see people forced to dump their tanks on the land somewhere.
Summer is coming and the southern desert will soon reach 90°F+. Much like not leaving kids and pets in your car when the summer temperatures rise, you don’t want to be living in a RV without air-conditioning. I personally don’t like AC as it tends to make me sick. That’s why I spend summers at high elevation. Some folks go north. Some people can afford to live in a RV park, if it’s open, to plug in for that cool air. But some people can’t afford that. In fact, the reason some people live full-time in a RV is they can’t afford anything else. So it’s not just old retired people. With housing prices so high many young people are living on the road and some in cars. I am thankful to have basic comforts.
While people were hoarding toilet paper I tried to figure out where I’d store more than 12 rolls at a time. RVs are a tiny house with limited storage for dry goods and refrigerates. I live alone and don’t eat much so I’m OK food-wise. But I still have to shop and don’t like to do that on the best of days let alone now when I don’t want to be around people.
And that brings us to social physical distancing. If you live with others in a RV it’s not always possible to be six feet apart. I guess couples and families may have to deal with that in a house also. When in stores some people are better about giving space than others. I do a little, I-don’t-need-to-go-down-that-aisle-right-now dance. Yes, I wear gloves and then wipe everything down before it goes in my tiny house. I haven’t worn a mask yet and don’t sew. However, a friend shared this idea and if I can find a clean T-shirt I may sacrifice it.
We, not all, haven’t been living in reality, and this enforced time might be a HUGE wakeup call. Parent’s trying to be teachers and nurses will better understand their important role in life. No human being can live and survive the way things “have always been” which really means, things need to change. Change is hard. We all have questions, maybe some answers and a few possible solutions. I’m not going any further with that right now.
Like you, I’m doing my best to hold back fear of an unknown future. Unless Bryce Canyon National Park closes before April 12th, I still have a, temporary, home to go home to. I truly believe all our national, state, county, and city parks should be closed for the safety of staff even more than visitors. I will be quarantined for 14 days while working in my RV and my duties will be a little different than the usual Park Ranger out roving and answering visitor questions. If the park closes, I just don’t know yet.
These are weird times, like nothing most of us have ever lived through. We don’t know how long this will last. Please, keep checking in with family and friends even from a physical distance. Stay home as much as possible. Be safe, be well. And hopefully, you have a home to go home to.
Maybe it was time for the world to reboot. I will hold on to the thought, this is not forever.
How are you doing? If you’re a full-time RVer with no home to go home to please let me know what you’re doing.
Please remember, this is mostly my own personal opinion.
You, as many are beginning to, realize the situation and it’s seriousness. It will be tough for a while, but the world has faced worst times and came out of it. Like I told my daughter, this is not bombed out Leningrad or Dresden, or Yemen today. We have food, utilities, etc. It could be a lot worst. It will get better. And we have an opportunity to change things for the better. It’s up to us.
How could I forget the horrific devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yes, this is a bump in the road compared to other situations people have lived through and survived. Chins up. We are tough. We will endure and move beyond, but this will take a while, probably a good long while.
I didn’t mean to be dismissive about the plight for some RV’rs, but when I can look across the river(150-Ft. away) from our place and see the homeless living on a hillside under tarps and cheap tents, if they are lucky, in the current cold front going through with lightning and an inch of hail covering the ground and more coming down, and their tarps and tents whipping in the wind and no heat, because if they light a fire they will be cleared out by the police, I can’t get to sympathetic about the RV’s possible situations. I spent 9-years on the road in the seven western states camping 8-ft. camper in my in cities, towns, state parks, rest stops, the side of the road and boondocking. I got rousted once near Carpenteria, but the police gave me to noon to move on. So that might the strategy for today, just keep moving till you can find a spot to rest awhile..
Finding a dump, water, and recharge today could be and issue. I had a dual battery set-up on my truck that charged the vehicle battery and house batteries when on the road and at idle with a Semi Truck 160-amp high output alternator which charged the batteries in half the time as the typical light truck altemator.
These days I would also have a minimum 100-watt solar charging set-up and a small generator, though, I hate the thought of having to deal with generator. I also had a big cargo box on the roof for extra water, barbecue, fire pot*, and other crucial gear like my FolBot kayak, tarps and props for tarping the rig for shade.
10′ x 12′ tarps on both sides of the rig and a 12′ x 16′ suspended over the rig on removable stanchions greatly reduce temps around and in the rig. When not covered, I had Marine style solar fans in the roof over the dinette, bunk, kitchen/galley, potty room.
When you spend considerable time on sailboats around the east Pacific and Caribbean, you learn a few things to deal with being away from the amenities of a marina that are applicable to RV’s. Even in the harbor anchored out you are disconnected from utilities, but only a dingy ride away from cold cervezas and ice cream.
Despite the current issues for Rv’ers, I’m a bit envious of those still out there.
*Fire Pot; A wash machine tub with pipe legs and a spark screen. We made quite a few over the years.
You all be safe.
I realize there are many people out there right now in worse shape than I, or other RVers. Just sharing my thoughts.
Part of the frustration/fear, is not knowing how long recovery could take.
A good long while. Until a vaccine is universally available.
I didn’t provide this bit of info regarding your concern about ‘how long’.
The 1918 pandemic lasted almost three(3)-years.
I expect C-19 to last well into next year, despite some misplaced optimism expressed by others I won’t mention. But, we could develop a vaccine a lot sooner and with rapid deployment, end this scourge sooner then later. It won’t go away on its until a ‘herd immunity’ is pervasive. We need the vaccine to end it quickly.
I have been aware but can’t even begin to realize how this could go. As long as we can keep our basic needs met we can survive this.
We are not even close to using the extreme measures that Italy and China used, their doctors, nurses, EMT’s are in biological space suits and are using biological cocoons to transport patients. We can’t even provide a supply of decent masks, so I expect this to go very bad for some time.
For sure, the so called ‘Apex’ is a moving target and for some areas and newly developing C-19 areas, it will be a while, probably well into summer before we start seeing a significant reduction in infections, but that doesn’t mean an end to possible infection. That possibility will be with us until we can be vaccinated. Reductions in the infection rate will only continue if we continue with the necessary safety regimes recommended by the WHO and the CDC and Epidemiologists/scientists.
COVID-19 Projections
World Health Organization
John Hopkins University & Medicine
Harvard Health
That didn’t work so again.
COVID-19 Projections https://covid19.healthdata.org/?mc_cid=0322883432&mc_eid=3aa80bcf42
WHO> https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019?mc_cid=0322883432&mc_eid=3aa80bcf42
John Hopkins University> https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/?mc_cid=0322883432&mc_eid=3aa80bcf42
Harvard Health> https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/coronavirus-resource-center?mc_cid=0322883432&mc_eid=3aa80bcf42
Too bad the last pandemic in 1918 wasn’t taught to us when we were in school. This one is well documented. Question is, will we be prepared for the next one?
Sadly, I don’t remember most of the history taught in school, at the time it didn’t seem to relate to my reality. How wrong was I?
My grandparents were young and living in very rural western Montana on a homestead when the Spanish Flu hit the area. So they told us about it. and my dad schooled us on it and I studied it where I could in libraries.
My dad a biophysicist, born five years after the pandemic, was very concerned about another possible pandemic in the fifties. He ran a county health department.
No place was safe. Entire villages of Inuit and other Alaskan natives died in the pandemic.
I found and read my dad’s well worn copy of Stewart’s ‘Earth Abides’ when I was about twelve or thirteen, and the possibility and expectation of another worldwide pandemic has been with me ever since and I have spent many hours over the years studying viruses and pandemics, and keeping tabs on any threats we have had in the past 60-years and the historic plagues of old. We have dodged some bullets over the years. but there will be more coming at us in the future, quite possibly very soon.
The White House Office of Pandemic Prevention needs to be reconstituted, soonest.
Gaelyn you are indeed in a difficult position, with your permanent home at Bryce and Bryce may close. Both BLM and FS are closing many/most/all campgrounds and the popular boondocking areas in California are also closed. At least you are mobile in an area familiar to you. Stay Safe as we all sit tight wishing the best for you.
Thanks. I will make it. This won’t last forever. Comprende?
Hi Gaelyn, I saw a clip of a news woman just throw her papers up in the air and say “well, just add that to the list. “ she had been discussing a significant winter storm forecast incoming to that part of Idaho when that 6.5 earthquake hit while they were on the air. They were really shaking. Part of the Yellowstone geology coming loose.
In the process of scrapping our travel plans for this year I received an email from Likely Place RV Resort in northeast California and they are opening for the season 4/11. So not everything is closed. They just closed Zion and the reason for that is too many out of state visitors. Highway 9 will remain open through the park but they’ll block pullouts. No stopping. It seems, we had 9000 visitors to the park last weekend and that was it for the surrounding towns and the mayor of Moab was freaking out because they have similar visitation ( near Arches) in their tiny town with a 17 bed hospital. Comparatively, not that many people live near Bryce and the area seems to be welcoming. Other than no eating in restaurants, schools closed and different open hours for stores, Utah is open.. I think a lot of the snowbirds have gone back to their winter homes. When you come into Utah on I15 there is exit 2 to the airport. The 2nd exit on that can turn right into Arizona and there is a dirt road leading to petroglyphs etc several boondockers out that way usually all winter into spring and they were there the other day ( about 3000ft. Elevation). Messy email, I know. I’m just trying to suck it up. My husband is 80 with conditions so he won’t be able to go anywhere until there is a vaccine. This was the year for the redwoods.
Mary
Mary, I was sleeping outside during the August 1959 Yellowstone quake. It shook the Okanogan valley pretty good. It was my first experience with an earthquake.
Thanks for your input. My problems and inconveniences seem petty small compared to others. There is a Bryce community and many work in the park, just not right now. Glad there are some RV parks still open. Good tip about the boondock area, thanks. Be well, take care of you and husband. Those redwoods will be there.
I can’t help thinking of the thousands of full timer’s out there with nowhere to go. Many of the friends and bloggers that I know have retreated to relatives homes and properties to wait it out. Not an option for so many others in more dire situations. And yet, selfishly, I will not open my space to an unknown RVr who needs a place to be. Known friends would be another story, but I pray it doesn’t come to that.
I am surprised there aren’t more people here near Congress. I understand not inviting strangers to your land under these conditions.
I am riding out the mess in a commercial campground outside of Del Rio, Tx.
I am glad you have a place to be. Stay safe.
I enjoyed this very much Gaelyn as it is good to remember that ‘one size’ doesn’t fit all when it comes to rule making. We have a situation in Greece with some unfortunate travelers in ‘caravans’ as the RV is called here, who have been trapped in Greece as our borders have closed and they are unable to return to homes to the north. I have felt sorry for them as I am certain they didn’t plan a holiday to last for weeks in Greece. They are not allowed to stay in one camp site for long and so they must move. My blood boils when I read posts from ex pats who live here throwing a fit about ‘these people’ seen on roadways traveling around ‘our’ country and potentially ‘spreading’ their CV germs. For heavens sake, I have replied, they have no where else to go!! And we too are guests in this place. . .so the holier-than-thou attitude needs to be put in the round file. Guess a crisis brings out both the best and worst in us all. . .Stay safe and well. Keep the posts coming.
Thanks. Best if an RVer can just stay in one place. If a campground is open what’s the difference how long someone stays if they follow the physical distancing rules. How awful to be trapped in a country not your own or by your own choice. I am sorry to hear the ex-pats speak that way. I believe you’re right about crisis. Stay safe.
Hi Gaelyn, very interesting post about RVers. On another note, I tried to comment on your Friday Foto Fun post. Was a challenge. Did you receive my “email” giving my number? I forgot it now. Please let me know if you received it. Stay safe. Jo
Thanks. It’s a different lifestyle. I did receive your comment and replied.
We are lucky we have a home in a very small hamlet of only 10 houses and we have a large hedged garden to enjoy when the weather is good, which coming into summer hopefully the weather will be good. Our only problem is to go shopping and that we have only done so far once in our 23 days of lock-down. We have a house big enough not to get under each other’s feet. We are still allowed out once a day to exercise but the distance has been cut back to a radius of 1 km from home now. Luckily we have a dirt track that runs in a loop close to home, I walked it 5 times yesterday to run up 6 kms. I feel we are the lucky ones, just wish we did not have to shop at all but thank goodness for the stockpile of bottled and dried fruit and vegetables over the past few years. We can survive for a while. Take care and stay safe , Diane and Nigel
You are in a good place under bad times. I need to get and walk more. Be well.
I have reservations in commercial RV Parks for the next 12 months. So far none of them have sent me a cancellation notice so MAYBE I have a place to live. It is local governmental bodies that are closing down Parks not the Park owners. Try to find an area that is not experiencing many cases and the Parks will most likely be open. The northeastern or the southwestern parts of NM are an example. See: href=”https://www.koat.com/article/covid-19-maps-of-new-mexico-latest-coronavirus-cases-by-county/31901067
Glad to hear that. I don’t usually stay in RV parks for very long, although I did this winter with the PT thing. It’s really not in my budget. And I’m still hoping to get back to Bryce. Be safe out there.
Hi Gaelyn,
My mom has been working overtime in her retirement to make masks. She’s got fancy filter masks and the simpler, just-for-show variety. I will happily send you one if you have a mailing address (another challenge for the full-time RVer, I know).
I hope you make it to Bryce ok. If all else fails, the BLM land around Grand Junction, CO is plentiful, and the Natitonal Forest land on the Grand Mesa is gorgeous and cool in the summer (elevation of around 10,000 feet keeps it fresh, even in the hottest part of the year). The dump station at the Fruita Welcome Center is free and still open.
Stay safe and sane!
Lisa
Thank your mom. I would have you send a mask but don’t know how much longer I’ll be near my mail. Thank you for the offer. I do hope Bryce will be my summer home. Otherwise, I figured there’s always the Kaibab NF at 8000 feet in northern AZ. But I will keep your suggestions in mind. Be well.
Thinking of you and hoping Brice (and other NPs) will still employ rangers to prepare for when this is over. ..we had planned to stay in Florida until Mid May and then fly home. But Florida is such a hot spot for the virus and people so without common sense we felt we had to leave . Scared of getting stuck there during hurricane season . If one happened there, we’d be herded into a shelter because our park model would not be safe. I shudder to think what will happen if it’s an active storm season. Air flight was not a good option either for us either as it’s a long complicated flight with two transfers and the possibility of cancellations. So We’re on our way home to Oregon now in a tiny trailer …taking a huge risk, but so far so good. We’ve found private RV Parks open all but one night, when we stopped at the police station and asked for suggestions of where we could stay…it was a lot next to the station. All that might be because We have been in states that were slow to close down …tomorrow we’ll be in Wyoming and then the plan would be Utah, so I hope we will be able to find places there.
We are definitely social distancing together. I don’t believe anyone has suggested couples cohabitating or families need to isolate from each other…that would be impossible ! We are definitely wearing masks and gloves when we get gas and hook up and register (half of the places we’ve stayed handled it totally by phone). We brought enough food (I hope) with us.
If FL was that bad you made a good choice to get out and thankfully have a place to go in OR. Taking a new to you trailer across country probably feels strange but you’re not new to the mode of travel so should do fine. Asking at a police station is a good idea as they probably keep you parked nearby and safe. Utah is just beginning to shut down so you should be able to find a place to stay. I would hope families would shelter together for mental support if nothing else.
Bryce officially closes tomorrow and my boss is pushing to get me there. I hope to know more soon.
Be safe out there. You’ve been on my mind.
Yep, we are in uncharted territory. What I read is that after we flatten the curve, nobody is sure what to do until a vaccine appears.
I am retiring June 1 and I may not be back at the office even then. I’ve been worried about what to do with all the crap I have accumulated over the years.
Don’t ‘worry’ about you accumulation, just start thinning it out, now is a good time. I have way too much stuff in the 5th-wheel proven by not needing anything for the last six months. Well, except for a bandana.