The Importance of Hookups

Camping season in Quartzsite ends April 15th. The BLM closes their lands and it is time for RVers to move along.

I had no idea where to go next so I pointed my rig north and followed all the red, white and blue license plates to Idaho.

I learned there are primitive forest and desert areas that allow dry camping, so long as you leave after two weeks. Dry camping means no electricity, no water; pack-it-in pack-it-out.

That was fine with me. I didn’t want to move too far or too fast, and it gave me time to explore places I would never see otherwise.

I found a site in Idaho in a beautiful green forest near a big blue lake where a few other RVers camped. Excellent! And free! All was quiet until some guy pulled up in a big, fancy rig and demanded a site. He pulled up to a site where an old camper had reached his 14-day limit and started honking.

“Old man, I want this space! Move, please. You’ve been here two weeks.”

The old man stood up, stretched and yawned. He lit a pipe and began cleaning up his site preparing to leave.

Not fast enough for fancy-rig guy.

“Hurry up, please! I want this spot.”

The old guy refilled his pipe and disconnected his hose and electric cable.

Hose? Cable? Hookups?! This old guy found a campsite in the forest with hookups! Never having the privilege of such luxuries, I had not noticed he was plugged in. Sure enough, there was a wooden post with an electric box and a faucet. No wonder mister fancy pants was hot for that spot.

“Come ON, old man! Hurry it up.” More rude honking.

The old man smiled, nodded and tucked away his hose. The he shuffled back to the hookup post, lifted it out of the ground and tossed it into his camper.

Fancy rig guy turned from maroon to purple as the old man drove away, chuckling.

I wonder if there is a market for dummy hookups?

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A pal in Cal sent me a comment for my last column, about employees wearing ink to work – and little else:
“The beautiful thing about body-art when you’re 20 something is that it starts to sag like hell when you turn 40 something.”

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Cate Mueller is a web designer, editor, reporter and photographer in Bouse, Arizona. To visit her website, click here.