Chapter 5 - Days 26 thru 30

 It seems I don't blog when I'm not moving! :D 

3/26 - I stayed one more night at the dispersed camping I'd been at since the 24th.

3/27- Headed to Flagstaff, or really Bellemont, for a couple of nights. Had some frybread, saw the World's Largest Kokopelli, and tried to find parking at the Montezuma Castle National Monument. 

Stayed for a couple of nights, 3/27 thru 3/29, at the Village Camp - Flagstaff. Now, if you're looking for a posh place, this was it. And the price was really good. Full hookups, garbage pickup each morning, a BAR, and more. A BAR. :D I didn't get anything there, but still. I could have.

3/30 - Left Sunday and drove to Cella Winery outside Kingsman, AZ. Back to Route 66 with me. 

I'd initially planned on circling back to Flagstaff for some site seeing, but Google had other ideas. So, instead just enjoyed the drive coming out of the pine forest in high elevation to the sand dunes of Kingsman.

Sandstorm coming off fields in Kingman

Lil' vines and The Beast

Tomorrow I had into California *gasp* for a couple of days. Actually I won't be back in AZ for a WHOLE WEEK. Picking up Ben in Las Vegas, doing a swoop into Utah and then back into AZ.

Chapter 5 - Day 25 - Dispersed Camping and Off Grid

 3/25 - I'm hanging out in dispersed camping outside Sedona. I haven't done a 'what's dispersed camping' in a while, and seeing I'm not driving anywhere today I thought it'd be a good time to write about it again.

How I use solar power to survive and work in the wild.

When I bought The Beast I requested it be solar-enabled. Which means all of the converters, etc are installed and there's a plug port externally. Good thing for me, The Beast came pre-set up for this. I did have to purchase specific solar panels by the suggested company Zamp Solar because of the inverter. But, I am NOT disappointed in the panels, their output, their construction or anything else associated with them. They're sturdy enough to endure daily packing/unpacking.

These two panels can keep up with my daily drain on the house batteries (fridge, water pump, water heater and heater fan) as long as I have direct sun.

ALSO, and this is important. You need a way to power your 'normal' electronics. The Solar system on the camper charges the house batteries. These are not useable for powering normal items.

I have a power cube from Goal Zero that I can charge via solar panels (specific for the unit I have) or via 12V charging cord. This cube is the saving grace of my dry camping experience. It can be used to charge everything. Phones, computers, whatever you have. 

Newest version of what I have. Yeti 500

And, lastly, if all else fails or it's cloudy... there's the onboard generator. It uses gas from your regular gastank. As long as you have 50 miles worth of gas it can be run. The generator allows you to use your regular plugs inside the camper for electricity and run your AC.

I honestly try not to run the generator. It's far more expensive to replace that than it is the other power options I use.

What the hell is dry camping anyway?

Dry camping - any camping you do without hookups, specifically electric and water. Carry in/carry out is typically expected with dry camping.

Dispersed camping - staying on public or private land within a given area without electric, water or sewer hook ups. Typically it's on government owned/leased/agreed upon land out west.

Boondocking- Basically dispersed camping is a type of boondocking, but it can encapsulate more. Boondocking can also be when you are camping on private land, typically someone's yard or driveway or in a business' parking area. Again, no hookups are included.

Off-Grid - means the same with homes. No electric hookup.

Websites I use to find boondocking locations:

Harvesthost - a website you pay a yearly fee to join, offers nearly 10,000 locations across the country that allow dry camping/boondocking. Homes, businesses, churches, etc are all locations included.

Dyrt - Similar to HarvestHost but has dispersed camping locations, pay-by-the-night locations and dump sites

Hipcamp - a website to book nightly stays at LGBTQ+-safe accommodations for camping; great way to meet amazing hosts!

Google - searches for BLM Camping, Dispersed Camping, BLM Land

Water and showers

Most gas stations will let you fill up your fresh water tank if you ask nicely. Or, if you go to a State Park they sometimes have a place you can use. If all else fails, find a water filling station (Google will help). I have 40 gallons and can go about a week on that IF I fill gallon jugs for drinking purposes at the same time that I fill the tank.

(I'd love to insert a pic of the camper fully hooked up, but I don't have a single one.)

Truck stops are your friends for showers. Love's is by far my favorite. Their showers are SPOTLESS and for $17 it's well worth every penny. I rarely shower in the camper. Sink baths and wipe downs are my daily cleanup. Now, if you're a daily showerer and you're cringing, then dry camping might not be for you. Water is actually harder to come by than electricity. If you need to shower every day either get used to paying at truck stops or stay at RV Resorts.

There you have it, folks. The good, the bad and the dirty of traveling off the grid.

Chapter 5 - Day 24 - Straight roads are boring

 3/24 - Drove a couple of hours from Quartzite to Prescott. Same ol' drive I've been doing for days. Brown, desert, cacti... Oh, WAIT. Vehicles over 40 feet in length are prohibited. Winding road ahead. I'm in. What? I'm 30 feet long.

This was the most fun I've had driving in weeks. It was terrifying, cliff side driving with no barriers, switch-backs, it was so much fun. 

WAIT. There's even a better example, that I took later in the day.

Welcome to Jerome. It's on a freaking mountain side, with roads made for carriages, not The Beast. Hairy is the only thing I can say. I'm proud I did it, but I don't plan on ever doing it again. 

I ended up outside Sedona-ish. Not exactly where I'd planned to end up, but that's where I am. Three nights scheduled here in the same place. We'll see if I stay. There's a ton of things I want to see around Camp Verde, Sedona and Clarksdale. Might venture out after work and then mosey back to the camping areas.

Chapter 5 - Day 23 - Brown for as far as the eyes can see

 March 23 - Don't get me wrong, there are absolutely beautiful parks of AZ. But most of what I've been driving and hanging out in for the last few days is deserty, dry, brown, bleak and post-apocolyptic. 

Drove from Wellton to Quartzite which was a little over an hour's drive. I took pics, as I do, but didn't stop to see anything specific. I did, though, get to drive through some farmland and see the aquaducts. Pretty cool.

Lettuce I think... thought at first cabbages, but I think it's two colors of lettuce

Oh, look, mountains

Chapter 5 - Days 21 and 22 - Took the weekend off

 I took the weekend completely off, driving Friday to Wellton, AZ and hanging out at a 55+ retirement RV park. No, I'm not 55 yet, but they let me in anyway. 

I did laundry, read, napped, watched some tv, read some more... It was delightful. 

Here's some pic of my drive from Painted Rock Petroglyph Campground to Wellton (about 2 hours)

Sunrise Friday morning

oh, look, more mountains

Yuma proving grounds, US Army's sandbox

Where Wellton is, and all the other places I've stayed so far.

Chapter 5 - Day 19 More Desert

 3/19 - This morning was chilly but sunny. 42 degrees in the camper. Good sleeping weather, not so good functioning weather. The goal today was to go to a dispersed camping site in the Pipe Organ National Monument area. But, that didn't work out. It would have been cool, too, but all the sites were taken. So, off down the road we went.

Photos from the trail up to the campground I didn't stay in.

I went through three or four border patrol checkpoints on my drive. All very nice guys. Their presence is huge down here.

The area around Gila Bend has this massive dairy farm. The fields are irrigated, of course, and so very green against all the brown. It was jarring to see it, to be honest. 

And right across a street is a huge solar farm. These are curved panels so they might be collecting the heat as well. I haven't looked into it yet.

We ended up in the place I was going to stay tomorrow night. This will be nice, having two nights in a row at the same place again. Painted Rock Petroglyph Campground. It's a state-run 'primitive' site with about 80 campsites. All with a fire ring and concrete picnic table. I'm in site 51 on the outer edge. Hoping for creature sightings.

Photos tomorrow of our site. I thought I took some but did not. 

Chapter 5 - Day 17 and 18 - Tombstone

 I'm catching up! LOL

3/17- Drove the 40 mins from the State Park I stayed in overnight to Tombstone. Very old western-y. I drove by all the things. The location for these two nights is a HarvestHost location. Third and Survey Shopping Society is the name of the store. The store wasn't open but the proprietor met me, and quite a few others, at the location to get us settled. 

I decided to stay an additional night because it was going to be windy on the 18th. 

And again, solar for the win! There is definitely plenty of sun now, so my batteries are happy. 

Off tomorrow toward the western side of the state.