Thursday, December 3
Midland Long Term Visitor Area, Blythe, California
I get the skinny on why the water spigots are turned off at Miller Park.
Our 14-day, short-visit permit ($40) expired. Yesterday, December 2nd was the last day covered by the permit. The crew and I ride over to the camp host’s site to buy another permit and find no one home. Today we try again.
I sit with the camp host couple at their picnic table.
Bridget and Reggie wait in the Perfect Tow Vehicle. While filling out the stickers and form for another two-week permit (Dec. 2 – Dec. 17), Netta, Jim, and I discuss the water spigot situation at Miller Park. Here are excerpts from that conversation.
“I read in the May 2015 City Council minutes that the water was turned off at Miller Park last year and then it was turned back on because RVers complained.”
“Yeah, we did. We put up a stink and they turned it back on.”
“Why was it turned off in the first place?”
This is what Netta learned last winter . . . .
“Well, some farmer was sneaking into Miller Park during the night and filling a big tank. He’d take out 4,000 gallons at a time. Of course it showed up on the meter and he was caught.”
“Kids would turn on the water and flood the whole parking lot. . . . One time I saw a kid playing in the water and I told him to stop wasting water.”
“The homeless people would sit under the spigots and take a shower with their clothes on.”
“And, of course, you have some residents who pay a water bill and don’t think anyone else should get free water.”
As I’m leaving, Netta is on the phone contacting a person who wrote a successful letter last year on behalf of RVers at Midland LTVA.
The best solution I can come up with is putting locks on the spigots. Every night a city employee would lock the spigots and in the morning turn them back on. It wouldn’t be a perfect fix, but it would prevent middle-of-the-night hauls of thousands of gallons at a time.
As the Perfect Tow Vehicle carries the crew and me to our campsite, the farmer is on my mind.
If he had a crop in the field and his well went dry, and all his work and money to live on and pay bills was about to dry up, crumble, and blow away, I can see where he’d be pretty darn desperate.
I’m reminded how fortunate we are.
The crew and I have a snug home, reliable transportation, enough money for food, clothing, (and water!) and anything else we need. We have each other and we have our health. We can move about freely and choose our yard, changing it whenever we want. We can live in good weather almost all the time. And I don’t have to go to work!
Am I thankful? You betcha’!
I write these thoughts for those of you who are dreaming, working, saving, down-sizing, waiting for health problems to go away, hoping the house will sell, and/or dealing with any other life events that keep you from living as a vagabond, whether full-time or short term.
You may be discouraged. Maybe you think all the preparations (and sacrifices) aren’t worth it.
Well, this full-timer found out it is worth it!
Today’s weather is gorgeous! After a few chilly days with downright cold mornings, the temperature goes into the 70s. Our outdoor room is a “hot pocket” with reflected warmth.
I admit I fall asleep in my lounger. The nap lasts a few delicious minutes until the Reginator finds my peaceful sleep intolerable and jumps on my chest.
Reggie wears his green fleece “jacket” in the morning.
I wonder how to wrap up this post.
The answer comes in the form of a rosy glow next to my laptop — the sunset through the back window of the Best Little Trailer. I grab the camera and rush outside.
Here it is, unadulterated — no glamorizing, no fiddling with the colors in editing — the real deal.
This is what a sunset looks like from southeastern California!
Do you have any suggestions regarding the water spigots at Miller Park?
rvsue
NOTE: Again I remind you to check comments under the previous post. Interesting and informative conversations continued right up to the publishing of this post.
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