Sunbeam Lake RV Resort, Thanksgiving 2017

Sunbeam Lake RV Resort, which is located in Seeley, CA, just off Interstate 8, was the place Sash and I had chosen for a two-month stay to sit out of the rest of 2017.

The price seemed right, $520.00 a month, with electricity extra, and plenty of space at each site. It also put us close to the Mexican border so that we could hop over and get us cheap medication that would have otherwise required doctor’s visits, medical tests, and grossly-inflated prices in the States.

Finally, a break from all the 90-100 degree F heat that California experiences during the summer, helped us feel more relaxed, though for the first couple weeks here, temps started creeping back up. Otherwise, it has tailed off and we are enjoying mild weather now.

And somehow, we’re getting really strong Verizon 4G LTE connection. Interestingly, we’re also getting strong Wi-Fi signal from the resort, except they limit people to one connected device per site, and if you stream movies or download big files, they kick you off.

Don’t you just hate rules?

We hate to say it, but it looks like Sash and I are getting old.

Sash is going through this thing where many of her high school classmates have died over the years, and it seems like more and more keep dying. I guess that what happens when you get older. For me, I somehow can’t help notice that I spend more time in places where other 50+ year old people are. I mean, I now tend to prefer bars where there are folks in my age range, and look, we’re currently staying in a snow bird RV resort.

If anything, the fact that we’re staying in a snow bird park has only led to us feeling self-conscious. Yes, it is an RV resort, technically, but everyone else here is largely permanent. Many do spend six months here and go back north for the summer, but that doesn’t make them travelers, does it? Many here have converted their spaces into park models, effectively mobile homes. It’s not really a place of vagabonds and road gypsies, it feels more like a mobile home park.

And I guess that’s something we are taking notice of as we travel around. There are parks and campgrounds where folks are mostly transitory, and others where they are mostly permanent. But frustratingly, the places where they are mostly transitory are a lot more expensive, and filled with families with terrorist kids. So, Sash and I find that we either have to pay a lot of money to stay, or find a park that makes us feel old.

But while we’ve been here, I’ve come discover that our toy hauler doesn’t have any kind of heat-reflecting barrier in its ramp door. This is apparently, why it gets so hot inside. When the sun shines on the ramp door, all that heat transfers through and radiates the inside. Our air conditioner just can’t fight that heat well enough to keep us comfortable.

The reason why the ramp door has no insulation is because it was built to be extra strong. It has a 4,000 pound weight limit whereas other toy hauler brands have a 3,000 pound limit. There just isn’t enough space in the ramp door for insulation or barrier.

So, I purchased some Reflectix radiant barrier. It’s like a bubble-wrap lined with aluminum. I draped it on the outside of the ramp door, and now absolutely no heat comes through. Our air conditioner actually is able to cool things down.

One nice that happened while we’ve been here in Seeley is that I found a local brewery that I really like. It’s actually located in Imperial, about 10 miles north east. Humble Farmer Brewing is a local favorite among farmers and hunters, the kind of people you’d normally assume gulps down the cheap, fizzy yellow water stuff. But nope, somehow Humble Farmer is slowly turning this part of California’s grain belt into discriminating craft beer aficionados, albeit ones that wear John Deere caps and Carhart shirts.

Thanksgiving came and went for us, but unfortunately for Sash, she fell pretty ill. She needed a lot of rest, so there was no cooking, no going out, no hanging out with friends for her. She just slept all day. Meanwhile, I took Mia with me and drove to San Diego, to our old apartment building, and hung out there for their annual, “Friendsgiving”, which is a Thanksgiving for people who don’t have any family to go to. I brought back plenty of eats for Sash.

But back to the subject.

We’ve decided that boondocking is really what we want to do. We’d rather find obscure plots of BLM or National Forest land, and just set up there for two or three weeks at a time.

As a result, I’m doing more research on getting our toy hauler geared up for some long term boondocking.

Actually, this trailer is pretty well set up as it is. We have a 5,500 watt generator and a 36 gallon fuel tank to go along with it. We have a 100 gallon fresh water tank, a few propane tanks, and our trusty little charcoal grill. What we don’t have are solar panels.

We don’t technically need solar since we have a generator and fuel supply to power everything for a couple weeks. But, I just don’t want to fire it up every time I want a cup of coffee.

However, I’ve begrudgingly arrived at the conclusion that a solar solution is only feasible and economical for light 12 volt applications, like running LEDs, powering a water pump, or charging batteries on our electronics. But to run a toaster oven, brew some coffee, slow cook a roast, blow dry hair, is just not going to happen without a lot of expense on big batteries, a big inverter, and lots of solar panels. It would take several years to pay for itself, and even at that, it’s still dependent on bright, sunny weather to make it work.

Well, I’m still going for a solar set up, just not a big one. Maybe like, one roof-mounted panel and maybe double the battery capacity that I currently have.

It will likely be next April or May when we get that done.

So, to finish up on that thought, I want to say that staying in RV parks is probably coming to an end for Sash and I. We may still stay in them now and then, but otherwise they are getting expensive, and tough to feel comfortable in. Sometimes it’s tough to find one with availability space for the time frame we need and good Verizon 4G signal.

I guess when we spent a week boondocking at Rockhouse Campground, it really opened our eyes on what we were missing out on. Perhaps, all the months we’ve spent thus far in RV parks was needed to help us transition from apartment living to RV living, and now we’re ready to live off-grid.

I’m actually really excited to start boondocking again.