Threshold crossed, but this is not what I advertised
This isn't the post where I talk about what I learned at the gathering of RV and van dwelling people -- I still have to put that together and I don't want to wait to record and share my impressions from the last couple of days.
I crossed an important threshold in the last few days -- the one between the state of mind where my van feels like something I want to get out of at the end of the day to a new state of mind where my van feels like a cozy and comfortable place to spend the evening and the night.
I noticed this because the night that I spent in the Planet Fitness parking lot, I felt really comfortable. I had asked at the desk whether I could park overnight and the answer was that while they couldn't explicitly give me permission, that they were open 24 hours and no one would notice. When I parked for the night the lot was bustling -- this is by far the busiest Planet Fitness I've seen. When I woke before dawn there were far fewer cars, but there were clearly people using the gym then too. Then I looked farther around the lot, and within easy walking distance I could see two truck-campers, a pretty big motorized RV, and a box truck that looked like it had solar panels mounted on its roof, all of which I'm quite sure spent the night in that parking lot too. Compared to mine, those vehicles scream "I'm sleeping in here" (except the box truck -- I'm just guessing about that one because I didn't get close enough to make sure those really were solar panels that I saw).
I'm starting to see the world a bit differently through the lens of finding a place to park for the night. Little bit by little bit, I'm developing a comfort zone for this way of traveling.
Backing up a step, the drive from Quartzsite to Yuma was a bit frustrating. It's a looooong 2-lane highway, mostly straight, but with dips into areas that flood when it rains instead of keeping the road level and building bridges over those spots. Some of those dips are pretty intense and there are no warnings that they are coming up, so I can understand why the RVs up ahead were going 45-50 in a 65-mph zone. But with the line of cars backed up behind them, I think that they should have used one of the many opportunities to pull off the road and let us pass. They finally reached their destination 20 miles before Yuma and left the route, which stopped the most impatient drivers from passing as dangerously and allowed us all to travel at a less-frustrating rate of speed.
Shortly after that, the landscape changed from raw desert to irrigated agriculture. I couldn't tell what the crops were that I was seeing; some looked bright green and leafy and some looked grassy. I started seeing signs advertising farm fresh products-- surely that will tell me what they grow -- nope, all the signs ever said were "farm fresh" and with no more information than that, I wasn't about to stop. It turns out that I observed was pretty accurate -- they apparently grow lettuces and grass in that area in the winter: https://www.yumachamber.org/agriculture.html
After my night in Yuma, I drove to a town North of Tucson to visit a friend and I'm writing this from luxurious surroundings. Part of the drive here was just lovely, through an area that was like driving through a desert botanical garden (that was E. Park Link Drive off the Picacho Peak exit from 10). Part of the drive here was past the stinkiest stock yards I've encountered in many years (that was maybe 20-30 miles East of Yuma on 8 -- if you're ever driving along there and start to smell a faint hint of livestock, roll up your windows and switch to recirculated air immediately -- you'll thank me 😅).
The other noteworthy event from that drive was the different experience I had at the border control checkpoint near Yuma. When I was waiting in line, they walked their substance-detecting dog back along the whole line of vehicles, and the agent who was talking to drivers asked me if I was a US Citizen and then asked what the things sitting on my dash were for (in a rather gruff tone). "They're solar lights," I said, picking one up and turning it on to show him. He observed, "You're charging them." I said, "Yes, I charge them while I drive." Then he waved me through.
I'll be staying at my friend's house near Tucson for a couple of days. I hope to get some more blogging done while I'm here. Since I don't have any more photos to share at the moment, here's a video that is a time-lapse of the event I attended near Quartzsite. It's kind of meditative and has some lovely sky movement in it. https://youtu.be/klsm5f_I1zM
I crossed an important threshold in the last few days -- the one between the state of mind where my van feels like something I want to get out of at the end of the day to a new state of mind where my van feels like a cozy and comfortable place to spend the evening and the night.
I noticed this because the night that I spent in the Planet Fitness parking lot, I felt really comfortable. I had asked at the desk whether I could park overnight and the answer was that while they couldn't explicitly give me permission, that they were open 24 hours and no one would notice. When I parked for the night the lot was bustling -- this is by far the busiest Planet Fitness I've seen. When I woke before dawn there were far fewer cars, but there were clearly people using the gym then too. Then I looked farther around the lot, and within easy walking distance I could see two truck-campers, a pretty big motorized RV, and a box truck that looked like it had solar panels mounted on its roof, all of which I'm quite sure spent the night in that parking lot too. Compared to mine, those vehicles scream "I'm sleeping in here" (except the box truck -- I'm just guessing about that one because I didn't get close enough to make sure those really were solar panels that I saw).
I'm starting to see the world a bit differently through the lens of finding a place to park for the night. Little bit by little bit, I'm developing a comfort zone for this way of traveling.
Backing up a step, the drive from Quartzsite to Yuma was a bit frustrating. It's a looooong 2-lane highway, mostly straight, but with dips into areas that flood when it rains instead of keeping the road level and building bridges over those spots. Some of those dips are pretty intense and there are no warnings that they are coming up, so I can understand why the RVs up ahead were going 45-50 in a 65-mph zone. But with the line of cars backed up behind them, I think that they should have used one of the many opportunities to pull off the road and let us pass. They finally reached their destination 20 miles before Yuma and left the route, which stopped the most impatient drivers from passing as dangerously and allowed us all to travel at a less-frustrating rate of speed.
Shortly after that, the landscape changed from raw desert to irrigated agriculture. I couldn't tell what the crops were that I was seeing; some looked bright green and leafy and some looked grassy. I started seeing signs advertising farm fresh products-- surely that will tell me what they grow -- nope, all the signs ever said were "farm fresh" and with no more information than that, I wasn't about to stop. It turns out that I observed was pretty accurate -- they apparently grow lettuces and grass in that area in the winter: https://www.yumachamber.org/agriculture.html
After my night in Yuma, I drove to a town North of Tucson to visit a friend and I'm writing this from luxurious surroundings. Part of the drive here was just lovely, through an area that was like driving through a desert botanical garden (that was E. Park Link Drive off the Picacho Peak exit from 10). Part of the drive here was past the stinkiest stock yards I've encountered in many years (that was maybe 20-30 miles East of Yuma on 8 -- if you're ever driving along there and start to smell a faint hint of livestock, roll up your windows and switch to recirculated air immediately -- you'll thank me 😅).
The other noteworthy event from that drive was the different experience I had at the border control checkpoint near Yuma. When I was waiting in line, they walked their substance-detecting dog back along the whole line of vehicles, and the agent who was talking to drivers asked me if I was a US Citizen and then asked what the things sitting on my dash were for (in a rather gruff tone). "They're solar lights," I said, picking one up and turning it on to show him. He observed, "You're charging them." I said, "Yes, I charge them while I drive." Then he waved me through.
I'll be staying at my friend's house near Tucson for a couple of days. I hope to get some more blogging done while I'm here. Since I don't have any more photos to share at the moment, here's a video that is a time-lapse of the event I attended near Quartzsite. It's kind of meditative and has some lovely sky movement in it. https://youtu.be/klsm5f_I1zM
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