Rubber Tramp Rendezvous

 

Definition from the Urban Dictionary.

1. Rubber Tramp

A person who travels and lives out of their vehicle (normally an RV, van, bus, etc.). They stop and stay wherever they choose for however long they want, but eventually, so as long as there’s a way to put gas in their tank, move on.

2. Rubber tramp

A person that lives in, and creeps around in a vehicle that looks like it's barely held together with rubber bands, chewing gum, and chicken wire. They're often seen parked in the back of supermarket parking lots, or hanging around public parks, alleys, shelters, welfare offices or liquor stores.

Definition number one certainly fits us, as it does for everyone we’ve met here at the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous. Maybe in another ten years or so we’ll fit the second definition, but I hope not!

This is not your typical RV gathering with happy hours and pot lucks, although everyone is invited to join the morning and evening 2-3 mile walks, which we have several times. They did have a chili dinner Saturday, but since it had meat in it we didn’t attend. Turned out there is one other vegetarian, so we will join in the soup dinner next week.

Bob, the organizer, giving Homer some much needed belly rubs before our morning hike.

There is quite a variety of living arrangements.

Randy (Mobile Kodgers) and Laurie, whom we met in Silver City, NM last year, are also here.  Nice to see some familiar faces.

Our first four days here we just hung around camp, hiked on the forest service roads, and relaxed. We did take a drive to Camping World, just a few miles west. Jim bought a 12 volt outlet, which he intends to install one of these days. There is a retired electrician here just in case he needs help. We also explored some jeep roads in the Subaru looking for other possible campsites.

Some sights from our hikes. We’ve seen lots of wildlife, elk, deer and pronghorn, but they were moving too fast to photograph.

Art in the forest?

On Sunday morning I awoke to see what appeared to be fog, not normal in this dry climate.

By the time Jim got up it was obvious there was a forest fire. He called the number to report a fire, and was told it had started the night before in Shultz Pass and they were working on it. Guess it was fairly small, as by that evening the smoke was gone. We were happy since we didn’t want to leave this lovely spot.

Yesterday we finally took a drive to Flagstaff to get some info at the Visitor Center, pick up some groceries, and check out the dump situation. There is a very nice Giant station 8 miles from here with a free dump and water. We won’t need it for another week or so, but wanted to be sure we could get the Lazy Daze in. Shouldn’t be a problem.

Last evening we went back to town for dinner with Debbie and Todd, recently retired and trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. He has a travel trailer, but took off from Yuma for 4 months in a small truck camper to see if he could live a more minimalist lifestyle. He did want to look at our Lazy Daze, though, since he is also considering a smaller class C.

Flagstaff has several microbreweries, and last night we sampled the Flagstaff Brewing Co. located on historic Route 66, where the food and beer were both good. The downtown area looks interesting so one of these days we’ll have to take a walk around. We like what we’ve seen of Flagstaff so far. Quite different from Prescott, where there is a large population of retirees. Being a college town and surrounded by National Forest with it’s variety of outdoor activities and tourist attractions, there are a lot more younger people here, which makes people watching much more entertaining.

Since my thoughts are all over the place today, I will add one more link to Bob’s most recent blog post, Choose Life-Reject Fear.  Great food for thought!