I’m fully hunkered down
Well, if you're looking for a nice, quiet place to spend the holidays, you're way too late. State parks are overflowing, RV parks are full, and boondocking spots are not only limited, but usually in a condition that's barely usable. But not to worry, make the safe choice and hunker down at home and ride out the holidays watching YouTube videos of funny cats and sad unadoptable puppies.
There are so many people now, especially people with RVs, that there's a lot of pressure on places to camp, both paid places and free boondocking areas. Everything changed during the COVID nightmare, and it will probably never get back to what I would call normal again.
But despite all that, I still think that full-timing is a great way to live. It's not for everyone of course, nothing is, but for retirees that don't want to be sitting at home for the rest of their life, staring at the same tree in their backyard, and shoveling snow every winter, being able to hop in some kind of an RV, and go somewhere the sun is shining in the winter. A new view is just around the corner. Full-timing offers a lifestyle that keeps you physically and mentally younger than those who prefer to stay in a house with no wheels.
Theboondork..... The journey is what matters, not the destination.
A tiny piece of the Chatfield reservoir shoreline.
Part of the two and a half mile long earthen dam at Chatfield reservoir.
The Chatfield dam.
Even though I consider Darrell Goza highly qualified regarding dams, locks, and power generation, who can be reached at https://gozatravels.blogspot.com/ I to know a few things about dams and their inner workings, I usually keep that knowledge to myself so as not to embarrass any of the professional dam experts.
So I offer this brief explanation of the structure you see at the Chatfield reservoir earthen dam. This concrete structure is known as the dam dipstick building and is used to measure the depth of the reservoir, which changes almost daily. So every morning at 0700 hrs., a dam employee carefully creeps out on the walkway from the dam to the dam dipstick building, where there is a dam dipstick exactly like the oil dipstick in your car, except it's 300 feet long. The dam employee pulls the dipstick up hand over hand for the entire length of 300 feet, wiping the dipstick on his shirt as it goes up.
When the dam dipstick comes out of the water, the dam employee slowly puts it back in, which by then is lunchtime. He is relieved of his duties by one of the other dam employees, who proceeds to pull the dam dipstick out of the water once again, making careful note of the depth of the water on the dipstick.
Once a month, those dam dipstick numbers are turned in to the dam supervisors, who continue to pass those numbers to the higher-ups until they reach the top dam supervisory level at the Corps of Engineers, where no one gives a…….