Rain? Not so much.....

 7:35 am - Wednesday - December 15th - Anza Borrego Desert, CA - 35° F, 78% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the south....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 61° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were supposed to be on a plane headed to SoCal from Oregon for Christmas with our kids, but the Wuhan flu intervened....several of our kids' friends came down with it, and our kids thought it wise if we not travel in a crowded airplane to spend time with them, when they had been exposed to the Wuhan flu, so we cancelled our plans and remained in Seal Rock, OR for the holiday.

As often happens here in the Anza Borrego Desert, the weather forecast of 1/2" of rainfall over the course of the forecast rainy day did not really materialize.  We were supposed to have rain beginning around 10 am lasting into the night, and we had prepared accordingly by putting chairs, wood, and Honda generator inside the trailer.  I've already posted the amazing sunrise pictures showing all of the clouds, and even a pre-rain rainbow....how often do you see a rainbow before it rains?

The pre-rain rainbow

We've both been hoping it would rain for about 10 days now to give the VW a good rinsing, but the most we have gotten to date was a light sprinkling, which just made the car look worse.....lol.  Just a couple of days ago the forecasts showed 99-100% chance of rain, but everything changed.....at least it changed at our locale.  I didn't want to begin any projects that would be interrupted by rain, so I puttered around doing a lot of nothing until we finally decided to drive into La Quinta to pick up the last of our online purchases from Amazon that had been delivered to the Amazon locker, plus do a little Christmas shopping for our grandkids, whom we will see on Christmas day!  We'll drive into Ontario on Christmas morning to spend time with most of them, and then drive back home late afternoon.

We stopped first at the Amazon locker to pick up two packages, then onto Home Depot to pick up an online order, over to COSTCO to fuel up the VW at $4.24/gallon for premium unleaded (we paid $5.49/gallon on Monday for 5 gallons.....enough to get us to and from Agua Caliente Springs, and into La Quinta Tuesday).  Mind you, $4.24/gallon is still outrageous, but it is the best we can hope for in SoCal.  TLE found several Christmas presents in COSTCO, then it was over to the local Stater Bros. to buy some of their Peppered Bacon, and then, finally, to the local In 'N Out Burger for a #2 combo (Cheeseburger, fries, and medium drink)......

.....we were back home by 1:15 pm with still no rain, but another rainbow against the cloud shrouded mountains to the north.....

....we had barely emptied the VW of our purchases when it finally began to rain.  It never rained hard, but it lasted  for about 30 minutes.....just enough to rinse off the VW, which allowed me to wipe her down, and restore a smile to her face.  It continued sprinkling on and off for a couple of hours, but I'm pretty sure we did not get a fraction of the forecast 1/2" of rain.

TLE's sister, Phyllis, called late afternoon to catch up, and mentioned in passing that one of her friends, who reads our blog, did not understand what I meant by 'boondocking', so I thought I would take time to review the different forms of RV camping.  Obviously, the primary form of camping most RV owners enjoy is at an RV park with full hookups (water, electric and sewer).  Then there are those who do a lot of 'dry camping' in box store parking lots where there are no hookups, but you are close to services.  There are some who take advantage of 'courtesy parking' as they travel across the country.  Courtesy parking is parking curbside in front of someone's home, or in their driveway free of charge, and perhaps having access to 15, or 20 amp electrical.  By and far the most extreme form of camping, which we prefer, is 'boondocking'. The definition of 'boondocking' can vary slightly from person to person, but most would say you must be completely off the grid in a very remote place with no electric except that which is provided by your solar panels, or generator, no water except what you bring with you in your fresh water tank, and no sewer.  That is what we are doing right now.  You can boondock on BLM land (where designated), on National Forest land (where designated), and many other places.  Sometimes you pay, and most of the time you don't, like where we are right now.  Sometimes there is a time limit, but some of the time there is not, like where we are right now....

Two of our favorite 'boondocking' sites.....Anza Borrego Desert, CA (above), and Goosenecks State Park, UT (below)

 

....to us 'boondocking' is the the ultimate in independent living, and very 'green'.  While we are parked, in this case for over a month, we are not burning fossil fuels, except when we use our Honda E2000i generator, which can run at low idle for about 6 hours on .95 gallons of gas.  We use less water than we would in a sticks an bricks home, and only use electricity which we generate, mostly from sunlight.  It is a very inexpensive, and satisfying way to live.  I think we are at our nomadic best when we are 'boondocking'.

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