Long drive, RV Parks Aren’t All the Same, Camping Practice

Dear friends and family,

I write you from sunny and windy Lake Havasu City, joined here by 58,000 mostly retired people or those serving them.

This is my halfway point to getting to the lowest point in Texas to start my Gulf Coast Non-Motorized Tour.

Since I ended the bike trip early and since hurricane and tropical storm season seems to be extended these years, I thought this a good place to hang out and wait until a better time to start my trip. 

And, there is the fact that I have only been on this boat for a total of about two hours, so not quite an expert at rowing and sailing it yet. Here I have a sheltered and safe marina and even a comfortable place to stay-or so I thought when I booked it over a month ago.

I hurried to drive and time my arrival when the office was still open, so was first happy I beat the four PM closing time by arriving at a little after three and then disappointed that Arizona does not follow daylight savings time and it was after four and the office was closed.

The guy at security was able to find my reservation and let me in the gate. I knew ahead of time my stall number and proceeded to park the truck, towing the boat, into the narrow spot, tight between two single wide mobile homes. I opened the truck gate, heated myself a can of soup on the camp stove and crawled in the bed to read the brochure before sleep. The brochure seemed pretty strict about the type of outflow for sewage that the renter’s RVs must have and even the electrical hookups. 

I used the men’s room at the clubhouse for sewage and my solar panel and battery for electrical, I am not sure that this is what they meant.

So I fell asleep early as I was tired from the long drive and was awakened by a very stern voice from behind the open bed gate asking “Are you sleeping in this?”

“Yes sir” I answered, with respect.

“Well that won’t work here, this park is for self contained RV’s only”

“But I told them when I rented the spot what I was driving” I pleaded.

“You better take it up with the office as soon as they open”

“Ok, will do. What is your name?”

“I am XXX (actual name not used on purpose)” security here. Retired LA cop.

Not somebody I probably want to mess with, I was thinking. Every night as I camped in RV parks on the way here, they all saw what i was doing and everybody seemed comfortable with it. Lesson learned somewhere here.

Shit, the day before Thanksgiving and I am out a place to stay and thinking I was to be settled, a place to learn the boat and hang out comfortable for a couple of weeks. I am feeling stressed and stupid. What will I do now?

So, I went to the office at the Arizona opening time and as I walked in was greeted with “Are you the guy from site A63?”

I guess they heard about me already, I thought to myself. 

” I have a creative solution for you” she mentioned.

Of course I was up for hearing about a creative solution.

Her solution was to rent me a spot without RV hookups where I would have to jug water, provide my own electricity (with my solar panel and big battery) and use the clubhouse for bathroom. (Exactly the way I will be living onboard, except for the clubhouse, once I get enroute:).

I solution much better than what I thought originally, and only thee quarters of the price. The credit to my account paid for the moorage for the same period so I don’t have to relaunch every day. 

So, now I am out on the “Point” enjoying the solitude and peace and stars, and getting to practice camping in a small area (truck bed instead of tiny boat cabin for practice)

This community, Lake Havasu City, is the result of entrepreneur (yes, chainsaws) and inventor Robert P. McCulloch’s vision to develop a place to test his outboard engines and have a retirement community. Sometime in the sixties he bought thirteen thousand acres from the federal government for that use. In 1968 he bought the London Bridge, which as we all know from the song “London bridge is falling down, falling down…” which it was. He paid 2.46 million dollars to the City of London, for it to serve as a centerpiece for his new resort. The only problem was there was nowhere that needed a bridge. There was a peninsula, so he dug a channel making it into an island and a need for a bridge to the mainland for his new bridge to serve. And of course an English themed resort at the base. 

I am not sure what I think of that whole idea except I do love the story!

The adventure continues.

Sending love,

Charley