WHAT I LEARN FROM BOONDOCKING

Here is a shot of Boomerville that I took yesterday when four of us went off on a geocaching adventure - which was cut short when I dropped the GPS off a cliff! Once again, Odel was the hero, climbing down a rockfall to retrieve it for me. After bouncing off the sharp Arizona desert rocks about a dozen times, the GPS still worked!

That was enough adventure for our little posse, so we returned to camp without a successful find... but no injuries, so we just called it a WIN.

Last night we went out for a special celebration dinner: Jan and Barry Kessler's 11th anniversary. We returned to Julieanna's Cafe, where we helped them celebrate last year, too.

Here is our happy group, left to right: Barry, Jan, Pam, Steve and Odel (and my plate). I had saved up my "shower allotment" of water so that I could take a (short) hot shower before dinner. Oh, it felt so good to be clean.

And that brings me to what I learn from boondocking: how much I love the luxury of LOTS of HOT, soapy running water! We only have a 10 gallon hot water heater - large by RV standards, but tiny compared to a typical household - so we never have unlimited hot water... but a boondocking shower involves using a minimal amount to get wet, turning off the water to soap up, then using another teeny amount to rinse. It takes a lot of willpower for me to turn it off and hop out!

When we left Yuma, we drove a couple of hours east, to Gila Bend, AZ, where we checked into a full hookup RV park. We fell on Scoopy like cockroachs on a crumb - Odel swarmed the outside with a soapy brush while I vacuumed, dusted, scrubbed and polished every inch of the dusty inside. As I write this (clean, after a long, hot shower), we have the TV on, the TV satellite dish on, several lights on, the hot water heater and refrigerator running on the electricity the RV park has so thoughtfully provided... this is luxury living.

And that is one of the reasons I like boondocking: it reminds me of what the luxuries are - unlimited water and power! Long, hot showers! Clean counters, sinks, floors! Washing clothes in the machine!

Boondocking gives us a lot of freedom, and it is always fun to see our Boomer friends at the annual New Year's gathering... and then fun to take that first, long, hot shower in the newly cleaned rig. Now Odel is talking to the TV (watching the Orange Bowl), and I am off to make a cup of tea (heating my water in the electric pot!) and do some reading. Tomorrow we're moving on to Tucson.