We continue to have new experiences…the latest being meet ups. The first was we met up with a group called Nomads Helping Nomads over in Ehrenberg, AZ. We had met some people who became friends in Utah when we were boondocking (camping on public land where you have no hook-ups). They live in a school bus that they built out. They organized this event for a group of their friends to come together an work together/help each other with projects on the vehicles they are living in. It was happening in the area we were planning to be so we agreed to join them. It started as a facebook group that they invited their friends to and then others invited others and in the end over 100 vehicles showed up. People helped one another with whatever projects they needed help with from mechanical help on vehicles, to solar panel installs (lots of people looking for help with that!), to building out cars, vans, school busses, cargo trailers for people to live in.
It was wonderful to see people helping out with whatever skills they had. Some had very little but were very generous. They even took a collection and got one gentleman tires so he could safely travel. People were so welcoming and we met people from all walks of life. Everyone has a story and a reason why they have chosen the nomadic life. Some have experienced tragedies from illess, to broken relationships, to losing their jobs and ended up in that life because of the lack of other options and others have chosen that life because they realize it is their dream to have that kind of freedom and not be as encumbered as people can be who live in a traditional home. Darrel even had the opportunity to put his recovery gear to use and pulled a couple of people out that had gotten stuck in the sand.
From there we headed about a half hour down the road to Quartzsite, AZ where we met up with people that own the same kind of motorhome that we own. There were about 20 Safari Trek motorhomes that attended this year. The attendance was less than half of what it was last year because of covid. It was fun to meet up with people from all over the country who were able to come. People visited and showed what improvements and upgrades they had made to their motorhomes. It is also fun to compare notes with others who are living in a motorhome full-time and getting tips from them about what has worked well or been a challenge.
Random other observations we’ve had…
– Dates need to be refrigerated after being opened
– People take very interesting pets on the road with them…dogs have been by far the most common, cats, an African grey parrot, an injured pigeon that had been rescued
– Long showers are the thing full-time people that boondock seem to miss the most
– You can live full-time on the road with just a bicycle and a tent.
– A kangaroo rat can move in and make a mess of things very quickly. It really liked paprika, but was also interested in flour, granola and tea. Thankfully it also liked peanut butter and quickly met it’s demise once we noticed it’s presence.
– Arizona desert sunsets are amazing
– Genuine kindness and love can transcend all cultural, political and racial differences.