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Boondockers Welcome


PixieChick

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You want to be the chair person? How about a Toyota Motor Home .org members boondockers club? I'll be the first to offer. Brownfield Maine well behaved kids and pet welcome (best to wait till spring unless you like cold and snow).

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In a perfect world it looks like a great idea. In today's litigious society - I don't know. I'd like to believe all campers share a sort of common bond and are therefore trustworthy - but in reality that is probably far from true. A property owner lets people camp on his/her land and somebody gets hurt - who winds up being liable? Places like Walmart have tons of insurance, as to most campgrounds I suppose. I've had enough problems just letting people hunt on my land. I've been told by both my insurance-companies (NY and MI) that I'm better off not giving formal permission to anyone but family and just let people sneak in. That way my property insurance covers me in case of a mishap. I'm not trying to be a wet-blanket. I wish things were different. If there was a proven-to-be-valid no-cost waiver that campers could sign to protect the property owners - this would be a great thing to have available. I've got over 120 acres of rural lands in NY and MI and would love to participate (as a camper also) - but only if it didn't mean a huge legal risk. I just went through this with hunters and the final result was - give NO permission or get proof of each hunter's own insurance for any mishaps on my (and my wife's) land.

On a similar note my wife and I made a trip to the "big city" today to go to Walmart. Got there and there was a guy sitting there in his Ford Ranger truck with the hood open and jumper cables laying on the ground. He was half -asleep inside the truck. I went over, woke him up and asked him if he had a problem. Yes he did. Dead battery. He said he'd been asking for help for hours and all he spoke to were afraid to give him a jump-start in fear of a having something go wrong and a law-suit. He also asked a city cop and the cop told him that they are no longer allowed to give jump starts. The cop told him to call Triple A. I gave him a jump but even I was a little hesitant. Last winter a FEDEX truck fishtailed in the snow and got stuck in front of my house, sideways, in a ditch. He asked me for help. So, I got my bull-dozer out, hooked a chain to the truck and pulled him out. I warned him first that he was REAL stuck and that bumper didn't look very strong. The bumper came half off the truck but the FEDEX truck came out OK. Next day a rep from FEDEX called and wanted me to pay for the damage! Helping people is not as much fun as it used to be.

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You always have the option of saying you are going to be on a trip in a certain area of the country and is there anyone in the group willing to host you for a night or two...

That's a good plan too!

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Its cool to see different peoples values,

I can't understand why id want to park my rv in front of a strangers house. Other than the charge up the deep cycle batteries I'm killing id just as soon park in front of a nice park.

Oreilly auto chharges batteries for free though and are likely much closer than another rvers house

I sometimes look into a service where I. Might park my rv at someones house to house sit it, but the pay involved hasn't gotten close to me to cover driving back and forth to it yet.

Last pplace I want to go in my fully enclosed hhome is some house in suburbia. Free doesn't cover it from my end.

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Not every one lives in suburbia. I would rather park in some ones yard from this site then a WalMart.

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We've had many occasions where we just needed a legal place to park overnight so we could get some sleep. I'd love the ability to find a rural place (like my wife and I own) in order to park. Went through that in Rockland, Maine recently. All the campgrounds we called were closed for the fall/winter. Luckily we got one campground owner on the phone - and she told us that they were closed but we could pull in there and camp for free. We had the whole campground to ourselves.

Many people still live in rural or semi-rural areas. I also know that there are many routes where there are no Walmarts or open campgrounds to be found.

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I'm with you, jdemaris, on having a safe, secure place to park for the night. I rarely plug in no matter where I plant for the night, so those things aren't necessary for me. The one thing I like is going to sleep knowing I'll be in the same place when I wake up. I live 3.5 miles up a gravel road in the woods in Montana and anyone would be welcome to spend a night or two here but getting here can be tough on a Toyhome if the road surface is acting up with potholes and washboard. Nothin' like a quiet night in the pines, though...

John

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my favorite yard is the truck stop that has showers.

I can get coffee, shower, fuel and pistachios for the ride when i wake up. No hookups needed. Granted the toyhome is a bit out of place at night along side 15 big rigs and the purr of their diesel motors; but I love the sound and smell of diesels. I often muse on the notion of unbolting my sunrader shell and dropping it on a white 12 valve 1998 cummins powered ram 3500. I'm sure I would have to shim the RV though to make that fit.

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I do the Truck Stop gig also. The "Loves" are my preference as they are generally newer and larger. I can usually find a nice spot in the car parking area out of the way of traffic and away from the entrance/exits. Be careful backing into spots so you don't rip off holding tanks or drain plumbing.

JOhn Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

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I like having internet and electricity. I've heard some truck stops have parking with service snorkles that clamp in the window - swipe a credit card and you have AC, internet and a power plug.

Anyone had experience good or bad?

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^^^ this is in fact true; with the growing rise in diesel cost many stations have taken advantage of fleet computer monitoring of idling. Truckers are penalized for idling when on downtime in non owned rigs; the solution is to use one of the newer stops with the high AMP hookups, wifi etc. Essentially its like camping but only paying for what you use and the space is free.

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We live all most a 1/2 mile from a hard top road in a town of 1100 people living on 43 square miles of land. Needless to say it's quiet so it's all most impossible for me to get a good nights sleep in any thing like a walmart or a truck stop I can sleep through a coyote howl but not a diesel idling. We did a gathering here once with 102 people in campers ,motor homes and tents and I could not see a one of them from the house and they were 200' away.

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^^^ this is in fact true; with the growing rise in diesel cost many stations have taken advantage of fleet computer monitoring of idling. Truckers are penalized for idling when on downtime in non owned rigs; the solution is to use one of the newer stops with the high AMP hookups, wifi etc. Essentially its like camping but only paying for what you use and the space is free.

Diesel idling is now illegal in many areas and I suspect soon won't be legal anywhere in the USA for big-rigs. That's why many sleeper-cabs now are set-up like RVs. DC refrigerator, low-draw mini-microwave, and a diesel-fired cab-heater.

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We live all most a 1/2 mile from a hard top road in a town of 1100 people living on 43 square miles of land. Needless to say it's quiet so it's all most impossible for me to get a good nights sleep in any thing like a walmart or a truck stop I can sleep through a coyote howl but not a diesel idling. We did a gathering here once with 102 people in campers ,motor homes and tents and I could not see a one of them from the house and they were 200' away.

Sounds like the town I live in. 47 square miles and 1800 people. I have no neighbors in sight from any direction. If I walk up in an upper field I can see one dairy farm in the distance. Just the way I like it. But the "new" Interstate is maybe 3 miles from us. We're near the top of a mountain. Sometimes it sounds like that highway is in our back-yard (no snow, frozen ground, and no leaves). Summer there are times we cannot heat it at all.

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Boondocking at a fellow RV-er's home would be very nice, I'd think, compared to a parking lot...I've used Walmart before though, pulling my little '67 Pathfinder, travel trailer. Didn't sleep but a wink or two due to the noise and it was kinda creepy. I don't like truckstops either. I like people and in my experience, I find most folks to be kind and decent, and I would think that staying in a fellow rv-er's driveway would be very nice. Socializing is the best reason to be on the road (for me, anyway).

We live 3.5 miles off the main road -nearest neighbor a mile away, nearest town and the I-5 is 10 miles away-(population 3300).

Like Dolphinite, our poor road situation would deter most motorhomers, but the offer is there nontheless...Like jdemaris, coyotes and owls are all you would hear at nite.

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Wife and I went to RV show last weekend (I like to look around and get ideas). Talking to one of the salesman who was very interested in our Toyhouse.

Anyway. Most people at this show are City Dwellers. A couple times a year, they pack up the kids in the RV and go out to one of the state parks, with 200 other RVers and camp out for the week. We jokingly told the sales man, we already live out in the sticks, so we pack up our RV, and camp out at an inner city shopping mall parking lot for a few days. (you're supposed to laugh at this point)

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

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i did laugh, but remembered a cousin of mine that lived in Santa Cruz mountains, a place we would leave the central valley of California for to get out of the heat and flat lands. they would pack up the trailer and come down into the valley for a week at a time to the flat and heat for a change :) from what i have read here i believe many if not most like the little toy homes so they can get to out of the way places other means won't get you to and still be able to have some of the comforts of home. last summer took my adult son down a logging road and stayed next to a creek. no one else there and free :) and not far from Yosemite, actually just out of the park boundaries. a larger motor home would not have been able to get there because of low threes and narrow roads. we even crossed the creek three times by the time we got to the chosen spot. it was about an hour drive to cover the 10 miles off the paved road.

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That looks a lot like the area of New York my dad lives in. Syracuse is the closest city, but he's out in the country.

My daugher works in Syracuse and lives outside the city in Cazenovia. I live near Cooperstown - about 120 miles east of the Syracuse area.

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Yeah, we talk to a lot of folks at the Farmer's Market, that come to Redding from the Bay Area to escape the fog and enjoy the heat. A lot of house boats on Lake Shasta too. I on the other hand will be heading up to Mt. Shasta, which has two free campgrounds and to the Oregon/Washington Coast to escape that heat this Summer. Hubs loves the heat so he's good.....

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  • 1 month later...

I've really enjoyed this thread and its implications. I also live in a very rural area, 200 miles from any city of size. I relish the quiet and live on a dead end road where if I hear a single car, I wonder "who the hell is on my road!" it is a county road, but I love the quiet. So, in travelling, I try to find forest service roads, fire roads, logging roads, and if I have to go through a real city, I try to get the hell out there as soon as I can. Last year I was headed to Canada on my motorcycle, and as it got dark I needed a place to camp for the night. I was on the coast of Northern California, and could find nothing, and in the dark I pulled into a KOA campground. $40 bucks for motorcycle and small tent. Not my cup of tea. I was crowded up against a poor young couple with an infant with cholic. They had my sympathies, but I surely got no sleep. Oh, an abandoned road for me.

What occurs to me is that many of us seek quieter pastures, maybe similar to our rural home, and others, coming from crazy cities seek some quiet as a contrast to the insanities of city living. Ok, cities can be of some fun, but they're not really habitable in my opinion. So, in my Toy/Winnie, I head to Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Eastern California, Nevada, Montana, Canada. And before long the world will be rid of us old farts, men and women who are travelers and campers, seeking solitudes and just enough company to be civil with. May you find yours.

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Hey thank you, Karin. I really appreciate the invite and will definately take you up on that. I hope to explore as much as the Pacific Northwest as possible and Seattle is on that list. Hoping to utilize the Odyssey to check out a few of my favorite things to do in the Cities I want to see as well... things like Farmers Markets, Food Co-ops, Botanical Gardens/Specialty Garden Centers and Specialty Yarn Shops, any kind of festivals/workshops to attend.

Although our 3.5 mile access road to our 14 acres is pretty rough most of the time, it is quiet out here, and there are a few fairly level spots to park you too are welcome if the need arises. Not much around here to do or see though...;)

Thanks again for your kind offer..

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Our family owns a 120 acre tree farm on a quiet county road here in WI. If you are passing through southwestern Wi send me an email.

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I have two properties, one on a lake chain that has 120v standard hookup, water hookup and view of lake with dock for guests with RVs in south central Michigan which i am more than happy to share and my newly acquired property is way up north by traverse city in Wexford/Manistee county bordering over 2000 acres of State forest but totally rustic. That one is top secret invite only.

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