Category Archives: Death Valley

One Year On The Road

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It has been one year on July 12 that I started my fulltime RV’ing lifestyle.  I can’t believe it has been a whole year.  I took the time to go back through this year and show you some of the highlights of my adventure.

Be sure to click and then click again to enlarge all photos.

July, 2010 – Inyokern, CA –  My very first campsite at the beginning of my adventure.  I was really a rookie back then.

July, 2010 – Sequoia National Park – Boondocking in Fish Creek Campsite in the Sequoias.

August, 2010 – Sisters, OR – Camping on the Metolius River outside of Sisters, OR.  What a fantastic spot.

August, 2010 – Crater Lake National Park.  Words cannot describe this beautiful place.

September, 2010 – Eugene, OR – Getting my solar panels installed.  My boondocking will be much quieter and more efficient from now on.

October, 2010 – Albuquerque, NM – Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta – 10 fabulous days with other fun Lazy Daze owners.

October, 2010 – Palomas, Mexico – Central park.  Visited there after attending Escapees Chapter 21 Rally.

October, 2010 – Deming, NM – Rockhound State Park – This a rock hounds dream park.  Lots of different rocks.

November, 2010 – Socorro, NM – Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge – Visited there during the Festival of the Cranes event.

December, 2010 – January, 2011 – Death Valley, CA – A beautiful view of Death Valley during an annual Lazy Daze Rally.

January, 2011 – Quartzsite, AZ – Got together with a bunch of Lazy Daze owners during the Quartzsite RV Show.  It was a blast boondocking in the desert.  Lots of food, a campfire every night and the BIG TENT RV Show.

February, 2011 – Anza-Borrego, CA – Boondocking in the Anza-Borrego Desert.

February, 2011 – Niland, CA – Boondocking with the LOW’s (Loners On Wheels) at Slab City.  Everyone should go there at least once.

February/March, 2011 – Benson, AZ – The winter SW Lazy Daze Rally at Pato Blanco RV Resort.  Lots of great food and people.

March, 2011 – Picacho Peak, AZ – A civil war re-enactment at Picacho Peak State Park.  Event lasted all week-end with gun battles and actual tents and other equipment during that era..

March, 2011 – Douglas, AZ – Visiting with friends at Bell Starr’s Silverado Ranch.  Belle is wearing the pink hat.  We all helped Belle work on her ranch projects.  A MUST see.  She is quite a lady.

April, 2011 – Alamogordo, NM – White Sands National Monument.  Very surreal.

May, 2011 – Carlsbad, NM – Carlsbad Caverns.  A MUST see.

May, 2011 – Melvin, TX – I just had to visit there.

May, 2011 – San Antonio, TX – The Alamo in downtown San Antonio, TX.  Another MUST see.

May, 2010 – San Antonio, TX – The San Antonio River-walk.  A really neat and fun place.

May, 2011 – San Antonio, TX – The Tower of Americas.  The view from the top is spectacular.

May, 2011 – Luckenbach, TX.  I just had to visit here because of the song made famous by Willie Nelson and Waylan Jennings.

May, 2011 – Blanco, TX – My campsite in Blanco State Park.  How about that for a back yard?

June, 2011 – Fort Worth, TX.  The highlight of my year.  Being able to visit my family.  It was sooooo much fun.

July, 2011 – Karnack, TX –   Caddo Lake State Park.  I spent a week here and loved every minute.

It has been a wonderful year.  I have traveled 12,702 miles in 6 different states and 2 different countries.  I have attended 8 RV Rallies where I have met a lot of people, learned a lot about things I never knew anything about, and spent money upgrading my rig.

This year has been much better then I even anticipated.  I met a lot of great people who I continue to keep in touch with.  I am looking forward this next year to travel to places I have never seen before and meet more wonderful people.

Death Valley, CA

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I spent the holidays with my sister Bev and her super husband Bob.  It was a great time although it rained almost every day.  Bev and I also took our Mom out for the day to Fashion Island where we had lunch and checked out the huge tree.  She really enjoyed that.  Also took care of a medical exam.

Two days after Christmas I headed out to Death Valley to meet up with Roger Nickey and a whole group of Lazy Daze owners who were having a rally.  They have been doing this annually for the last 14 years.  I got a late start and it took me hours to get out of the LA area.  I decided to stop at Barstow at a Flying J where I spent the night.  The guy next to me in a big Monaco Class A ran his generator ALL NIGHT.  I got up early to a little rain on the ground but decided it was OK to drive.  Finally made it to Death Valley. We were dry camped at Sunset campground just across the highway from Furnace Creek.

Be sure to click and then click again to enlarge all photos.

A good view of the snow on the mountains surrounding us.  It was cold and the wind was really blowing at times.

Roger under the Natural Bridge.  It was about 1/2 mile hike from the trail-head.

Roger drove us up to Dante’s View which was located about 5,400 feet above the valley floor.  You could see for miles.  Very cold and windy.

Jim  and his wife owned a Lazy Daze and just happened to be driving through the area near where we were camped.  We invited them to join us and they stayed for several days.  How ironic that he should run into us.  We all called him the “Bubble Man” cause he could make these giant bubbles.  He had a special bubble formula that would work with the Death Valley climate.  He let me try it too and it was really fun.

There was a Borax Museum in Furnace Creek that told all about borax and the Twenty Mule Team that used to get it out of Death Valley.  Right behind the museum they had a large display of all the old equipment used back in the late 1800’s.  It was really a neat display.

Where we were camped was 176 feet below sea level.

These are the wagons that the twenty mule team would pull.  The first two wagons were filled with borax and the third wagon contained water and hay.  The whole load weighed approximately 36 ton.

This is what it looked like the day we broke camp.  It was really cold.

On the way out of Death Valley you climb to about 3,000 feet.  This pic was taken at about 2,00 feet.

Finally I took this as we were heading toward Pahrump, NV.  It was snowing almost all the way.