One of the great things about meeting people online is you tend to immediately share something in common. Friendships are started based on a shared interest, whether it’s dogs, RVing, or whatever.
We met Joel and Ross online in 2006, when Jerry was diagnosed with cancer. Their Great Dane Moose was on the same path, and throughout the next two years, we became friends. Joel and Ross sounded like such nice people, and gave us an open invitation to stop by and visit them in Paso Robles, near San Luis Obispo, CA. “Be careful what you ask for,” we warned them, and showed up after leaving L.A.
What a fun surprise it was to learn we had other things in common besides our heroic dogs. Joel and Ross live on five rural acres, in a solar-powered house, and even drive an electric car. They have many animals, and a great little garden too. Their compound resembles what Jim and I envision for ourselves someday. Here’s a clip of Joel giving a tour of his gopher-proof greenhouse:
Among RVers, no other camping area evokes such intense reactions as Slab City. People either love it, or hate it. There is no gray area among this 640 acre dismantled military base near the Salton Sea.
“The movie depicts Slab City as this really cool RV hippie community, where people of all ages hang out – peace, love, happiness, rock and roll, and all that. Well yesterday, we drove two hours to Slab City and nothing could be further from the truth.
Slab City is an RV slum, pure and simple. It’s actually really sad – people living in tents and abandon vehicles. There were even remnants of burned down RVs strewn all over the place. It’s amazing to think that people actually live this way in the US – and it’s only 80 miles from swanky Palm Springs.”
This intrigued me. Liz is a nice person and I like her a lot, but the two of us are quite different. I’m crunchy granola and like to keep things simple, while she’s a high flyin’ New Yorker who’s into manicures,and the glamourous life. Once I saw what she thought of Slab City, I figured if she hated it, I’d probably love it.
I was right.
Slab City: The Last Free Place
Do come here with an open mind if you plan to visit. Many people we know would be completely offended by the post-apocalyptic look of the place.
To come here requires someone who is willing to look beyond the surface, to scratch a little deeper at a situation to learn the real story.
Free camping. It’s a spot of abandoned, state-owned land where hundreds of travelers from all over the world come to stay for free, some permanently, others just to ride out winter. Call us squatters, if you will, since nobody has “official” permission to be here.
Serious Boondocking. There are no facilities whatsoever: no electricity, water, or trash. Nothing. The closest dump station is 8 miles away.
Kinda trashy, in places. Yes, there is some garbage and abandoned RVs around. The state doesn’t care about this spot, and the closest city refuses to clean it up since residents don’t pay to be here. It’s up to campers to be responsible for taking trash to town, and like any neighborhood, some people are better about this than others.
Very Social. There is much to do and see here, including social clubs, a couple of concert stages, a library, an 18 hole golf course, a church, hot springs, and more. We’ve been to two potlucks, and seem to be doing something every night of the week. We’ve never been so active in one location before.
What Slab City Isn’t:
Lawless. Contrary to how the media portrays it, I don’t feel in any more in danger here than I do in most cities. Sure, there are some sketchy looking characters, but if you keep away from them, they’ll most likely keep away from you. The county sheriff makes regular runs through here, and Border Patrol is constantly driving through.
Depressing. There is more creativity here than any tidy suburban neighborhood I’ve been to. Residents have contributed many hours of labor to build free amenities like the golf course (with free equipment!), concert stages, church, or the public shower down near the springs. I’m impressed that people would do so much with so little, in such an unforgiving desert environment. Now if they could only get it together to do something about the trash . . .
Mainstream. It’s as if someone took a sampling of every kind of ethnicity, personality type and mental disorder, and shipped them here. There are international travelers, old folks, musicians, fulltime Rvers, wandering travelers and offroad enthusiasts, all camped out in the same area as drifters, people struggling with addictions, mental illness and/or homelessness. Everyone seems to get along, following a live and let live attitude.
The desert scenery outside Slab City is beautiful, surrounded by a rugged mountain range. On most days, you can look east to the Chocolate Mountains, about 2 miles away, and watch the US Navy spend your tax dollars by practicing bombing runs and playing war games in the air. We took two hour bike rides without seeing another soul.
The other day, Jim went to see Solar Mike, about our solar system. Mike asked Jim “How long are you staying?” Jim replied with “oh, a week or two.” Mike looked at Jim with a knowing look and chuckled… “Yeah, right.”
I think he could tell just by looking at us. The Slab City lifestyle is agreeing with us, and we’re going to find it hard to break camp this week.
There are two kinds of fulltime RVer couples on the road. There are couples where both partners really love the lifestyle, and can’t think of living any other way. Then, there are couples where one partner loves it, and the other was dragged on the bus kicking and screaming. Some couples’ personalities fit perfectly into fulltime RVing, while others try it, then put their RV on the market before summer’s end.
If you happen to be the reluctant RVer, Doreen Orion’s book – Queen of the Road – is perfect for you.
When we left California in June 2007, the cost of biodiesel was comparable to diesel fuel. Maybe a few cents a gallon more, but to me it was worth it to do my part in helping the planet.
However, since returing to the West Coast, we’ve had a harder time finding anything better than B5. Even back in Eureka where we first started filling our tank with it, locating an outlet was challenging.
Suddenly, not as many stations seem to be offering it anymore.
When we finally did pull into a station that had some, they were selling it at $4.00/gallon for B100. Almost twice as much as even the priciest diesel in San Francisco. We pulled out of that station faster than we pulled in.
It’s disappointing to see that biodiesel is becoming less of an option today. Someday in the future we’ll build our own stealth fueling station, but until then, it looks like nasty ol’ Number Two will going into our tank.
If you have any secret sources for finding biodiesel on the road, please let us know with a comment below!
On the road again . . . like a band of gypsies we go down the highway.
Ok, I know it’s cliche, but it had to be done.
Just over a month after arriving in L.A., we said tearful goodbyes to the family yesterday, then headed up to Paso Robles to meet Moose’s family, our heroes who showed us that dogs can live great lives on three legs. We wouldn’t be the wandering hoboes we are if it wasn’t for this incredible pack. We had a great visit. More on that later.
Meanwhile, we’re boondocking on classic desert BLM land near Red Rocks State Park. This place is filled with OHVers on weekends, but weekdays are relatively quiet. Friday, we’ll head to Palm Springs to catch Willie Nelson live!
We are huge Willie fans, and have been trying to get to one of his shows for years, but never made it. Finally, our universes will collide this Friday night. I can’t tell you how excited we are about it.
Till then, we’re gonna get re-acclimated with life on the road. We’ll soak up the sun, go on hikes, watch sunsets, and write our guts out here in the desert. I just hope we can view the Inauguration tomorrow morning on the web without getting FAP’d by our satellite provider.
Seems like whenever we are deprived of real ethnic food for a while, once we do get anywhere near it, we automatically head for the nearest Chinatown for some dim sum. In our travels, we’ve experienced five official Chinatown districts in: Seattle, Toronto, Manhattan, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Seattle’s Chinatown is the lamest ever. Some Chamber of Commerce people christened it Chinatown, but it’s really just a place on the rougher edges of town where a lot of Asians live. The city put up some tacky Chinese gates there, but we didn’t buy it. There’s not much to check out, and the dim sum was boring. It was a real disappointment when we visited last November, especially after being cut off from real Asian food for almost all of 2008.
Manhattan’s Chinatown was a good experience, but felt a little too modern and spread out. We haven’t been there for years though, so we’ll give it another try next time we ditch the rig and head into the big city.
Toronto’s Chinatown is the only one on the East Coast worth checking out. With three different Chinatowns in the greater Toronto area, there’s tons of great food, and lots of colorful scenery. We definitely got our dim sum fix there, in fall of 2007. The one thing we didn’t like about it is that it was just too darn big to see it all.
But don’t be in a hurry, because in Chinatown, you go nowhere, fast. There’s so many people on the street, that navigating through the dense crowds takes patience and time. Several weeks ago we got our first real dim sum fix there since leaving California in 2007. We happily committed dim sum suicide at Gold Mountain. Go there.
And when you’re stuck in the crowds, you’ll forget you were ever trying to get anywhere, because you’ll be amazed at all of the crazy, completely unidentifiable food stuffs, like these.
For anyone who wants to see what it costs to live a (relatively) frugal lifestyle on the road for seven months, here’s our last Expense Report of 2008. It shows December numbers, along with totals from June to December. The most surprising finding? We actually lived on $23,597. That’s $11,799 each. I think the last time I lived on that kind of dough was back in high school.
Our Top Six Expenses from June to December 2008 were as follows:
Food: $3,725 total / $532 average each month (about the same as last year, same timeframe)
One of the great things about meeting people online is you tend to immediately share something in common. Friendships are started based on a shared interest, whether it’s dogs, RVing, or whatever.
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