Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is park Landia,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. We saw a loft
Speaker 1: in Chicago, moving to an RV and now we're traveling
Speaker 1: in the country full time with our dogs, been exploring
Speaker 1: American's national parks and today we are bringing out another
Speaker 1: episode of boon Docking with Brad. And today's topic is
Speaker 1: in the name, it is boon docking, So it's about
Speaker 1: our first time boon docking. It's about different like safety
Speaker 1: measures you have to go through when boondocking and different
Speaker 1: things like that, just to help you understand what it's
Speaker 1: kind of like to boon dock. So many you might
Speaker 1: be asking what is boondocking? UM. Boon docking is when
Speaker 1: you're going to be off the grid, UM, not attached
Speaker 1: to electricity and water for the night. So you have
Speaker 1: to learn how your r V is self sustainable UM
Speaker 1: to do these like one night's two up to a
Speaker 1: week in some places. UM of what's called boon docking.
Speaker 1: So you're not UM, you're not hooked up, you're just
Speaker 1: on the lamb basically, and you have to like fill
Speaker 1: your water reserves and you have to use your generator
Speaker 1: and how it all works and you have to understand
Speaker 1: your electricity flow so you can know to not like
Speaker 1: microwave and cook a pot of coffee at the same time.
Speaker 1: There's many places to boon dock across this country, um,
Speaker 1: from rest stop areas to Bureau of Land Management areas
Speaker 1: to Wally World and beyond. We've done Wally World many times.
Speaker 1: What's Wally World Walmartin? Oh yeah, you've definitely heard me
Speaker 1: Wally World before. But that's a great question to ask.
Speaker 1: So with boon docking, there's a lot of different issues
Speaker 1: or fears that come about. Um when you're first doing this. Um,
Speaker 1: I know when we refers doing this, Matt was asking
Speaker 1: questions like are we gonna be uh like, uh, we're
Speaker 1: just gonna be parking here at this rest area for
Speaker 1: the night. Um, we're gonna just be on Wally World
Speaker 1: for the night. Oh, we're gonna be you know, just
Speaker 1: parking on the side of the road for the night.
Speaker 1: And it's you know, not logical fears, right, There's definitely questions.
Speaker 1: But um, up until this point, have we had any issues. No,
Speaker 1: aside from just being called occasionally. I think that's the
Speaker 1: biggest issue. But I would say that's more because of well,
Speaker 1: our heater in our r V is on the fritz,
Speaker 1: and we don't want to use a space heater while
Speaker 1: the generators running because it puts too much power to
Speaker 1: the generator. So sometimes we'll just leave on the engine
Speaker 1: in the front half of the chassis of the truck
Speaker 1: r V to stay warm, but then it gets really
Speaker 1: hot and so we have to turn it off and
Speaker 1: then we'll turn it back on in the morning type
Speaker 1: of situation. But there's a lot of different things that
Speaker 1: you have to deal with when owning an r V
Speaker 1: and uh getting them fixed and finding the time to
Speaker 1: get them fixed, because sometimes you're just on the run
Speaker 1: and going all the time and just traveling so much.
Speaker 1: So when dry camping, there's definitely a lot of questions
Speaker 1: that come about, um, are there gonna be a lot
Speaker 1: of like wild animals and bears and things like that,
Speaker 1: And even on the Bureau of Land Management where they
Speaker 1: allow boondocking, you're not gonna have um too much wildlife
Speaker 1: or too much fear of that because um it's normally
Speaker 1: in a part of the land where it's not like
Speaker 1: covered in forest. It's not like you're gonna be driving
Speaker 1: twenty minutes into the woods. Um, you're gonna be on
Speaker 1: the outskirts and where there's not a lot of things,
Speaker 1: but you still have to be bear aware and you
Speaker 1: have to put away your foods and things like that.
Speaker 1: You don't want to leave them. I'll leave them out
Speaker 1: all night for animals to to get them. UM. A
Speaker 1: lot of people have the other question, can you leave
Speaker 1: your rig um certain situations yes, other situations no. UM.
Speaker 1: I would not leave your rig in a truck stop,
Speaker 1: but that's kind of obvious, right for many reasons, just
Speaker 1: a lot of people coming in and out, and you're
Speaker 1: not supposed to stay in truck stops more than sometimes
Speaker 1: four hours, sometimes six, sometimes twelve. It just depends on
Speaker 1: that state. So you actually have to look it up
Speaker 1: as you're traveling. So boon docking is it's pretty um
Speaker 1: simple in the fact of set up, but there's a
Speaker 1: lot of technicalities behind it to really find the right places. UM.
Speaker 1: There's great resources out there like free roam, which is
Speaker 1: an app that will help you find it. Then there's
Speaker 1: like campadem um, and then another one is uh the
Speaker 1: Bureau of Land Management BLM offices, ranger stations, and then
Speaker 1: even word of mouth. UM. But they're going to tell
Speaker 1: you where, when, and how. A lot of these apps
Speaker 1: have even cell phone strength signal to um what the
Speaker 1: local areas like. So it's actually there's some great resources
Speaker 1: out there to help you find those places when you
Speaker 1: are looking for um boondocking opportunities. There's always this thing
Speaker 1: where Matt and I are together and we have fins.
Speaker 1: We're not alone. Boon docking alone is definitely a different
Speaker 1: experience UM, and there's some different fears. I mean, even
Speaker 1: the times where I was out there and Matt was
Speaker 1: on a trip back home to Chicago or um somewhere else, uh,
Speaker 1: A boon docking by myself was totally different. UM. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to turn on the lights. I didn't have
Speaker 1: like a safety and numbers type of feel, and so
Speaker 1: I just kind of stayed in the dark and just
Speaker 1: like like jumped on my tablet and watched the movies.
Speaker 1: And I did not make it a home. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of weird, but I, you know, these were irrational
Speaker 1: fears that I had, and now, UM, I don't have
Speaker 1: those same exact fears. But in the beginning, when we
Speaker 1: were just getting started and it was the first time
Speaker 1: by myself, like you know, everyone can have that fear
Speaker 1: of just like where they're boondocking and you know, not
Speaker 1: wanting to have conversations with people, but most people won't
Speaker 1: bother you. If you're boon docking for long term, there's
Speaker 1: some things that you definitely have to check. You want
Speaker 1: to make sure that you're propane is full, UM, your
Speaker 1: batteries are charged, and refrigerator works while um not attached
Speaker 1: to power. But when we get into boondocking for a
Speaker 1: long time, there's some things that you want to know.
Speaker 1: Is like you're even if you're on like beer of
Speaker 1: land management land or your boon docking and a rest station,
Speaker 1: a lot of times you're not allowed to use your
Speaker 1: generators at night. Uh, there are still quiet hours per
Speaker 1: se um and that's so you don't disturb the wildlife
Speaker 1: at night. It's also so you don't disturb your neighbors,
Speaker 1: you don't cause any issues. So you have to really
Speaker 1: understand what you're getting into. You're going to set up
Speaker 1: your r V almost similarly to when we were talking
Speaker 1: about hooking up the r V, but basically the first
Speaker 1: thing you're gonna do is you're gonna go over to
Speaker 1: your A C unit and make sure that your a
Speaker 1: C is off, your heat is off, because that creates
Speaker 1: a big surge when you start your generator. And what
Speaker 1: we're talking about right now starting a generator because you
Speaker 1: want to have electricity to charge your appliances, you want
Speaker 1: to watch a movie, you need to work, you need
Speaker 1: to you know, showers, so you want warm hot water,
Speaker 1: and you know, how do we do these things? How
Speaker 1: do we turn those on? Um, So basically, you're gonna
Speaker 1: go to a C unit, turn it off, make sure
Speaker 1: that nothing's on, and then you're gonna go over and
Speaker 1: in the side of our r V we have a
Speaker 1: built in generator. So basically we have a button on
Speaker 1: the inside that just hit start. You prime it first
Speaker 1: by pushing the button down for about five seconds and
Speaker 1: the light will come on to let you know you're good,
Speaker 1: and then you hit start and you hold it and
Speaker 1: then your generator will start. Our generators fuel comes from
Speaker 1: our engine, so we of course have to make sure
Speaker 1: that we have a full tank of gas. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're it's an off board generator, you know you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to make sure to have a like five
Speaker 1: gallon jug back up and things like that to make
Speaker 1: sure that you don't run out of fuel if you're
Speaker 1: staying UH in a boon docking situation for multiple times.
Speaker 1: Because there's always different types of generators and how they're
Speaker 1: set up within your RV, so it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: little bit different for you than it is for Matt
Speaker 1: and myself. But once your generators on, what we do
Speaker 1: next is we push out our bed and so that's
Speaker 1: where our slideout is in the rear um, so we
Speaker 1: push out that beds that way we have our full
Speaker 1: bed um and then I normally turn on the hot
Speaker 1: water heater, so I'll have to make sure that my
Speaker 1: propane is on on the outside. So basically I'll have
Speaker 1: to walk around the r V to where our propane
Speaker 1: tank is. I'll make sure that that is open so
Speaker 1: that way propane is fueling into the r V, and
Speaker 1: then I'll come back in turn on the hot water heater,
Speaker 1: and I'll wait for about five seconds to hear the
Speaker 1: pilot kick on, and then that is what allows me
Speaker 1: to know, okay, it's on, because you'll know, once you
Speaker 1: start getting used to this, you'll hear this like sound
Speaker 1: inside of your RV that UH is telling you that
Speaker 1: it's on. It's a little bit different sounding, but the
Speaker 1: rhythms more like that. But yeah, so then you'll have
Speaker 1: that on. You'll be able to do dishes, you'll be
Speaker 1: able to um, take warm showers, wash your hands with
Speaker 1: warm water, different things like that. Now r r V
Speaker 1: with the heater, it's UM having issues with the blower motor. Um,
Speaker 1: that's what I've gotten it down to so far. I
Speaker 1: just have to take it in and really get it
Speaker 1: figured out. But that's actually kind of good because that
Speaker 1: means my fridge it's still getting propane to keep it cold, um,
Speaker 1: even when that generator is off. There's different things like this.
Speaker 1: There's different technicalities that you have to understand when boon docking.
Speaker 1: That's different from electrical setup because our fridge works off
Speaker 1: electricity as well, and so when we have electricity coming
Speaker 1: in from the r V park, it's all fine and dandy.
Speaker 1: We don't have to worry about propane. But when we're
Speaker 1: boon docking, we do have to worry about propane. And
Speaker 1: so that is when you have to understand how your
Speaker 1: systems start to flow. And through a year of r
Speaker 1: V ownership, over a year now, UM, I've really started
Speaker 1: to understand these. Now there's some technicalities that I don't
Speaker 1: quite get yet. But that's a learning thing. So I'm
Speaker 1: I'm a learner and I'm figuring it out as we go.
Speaker 1: And this is a beautiful part is our heater doesn't
Speaker 1: work because that propane pilot is separate from the hot
Speaker 1: water pilot light. Um. And then there's even another one
Speaker 1: for your oven and still open things like that. So, um,
Speaker 1: you have to understand where your pilot lights are, um,
Speaker 1: what they do to control the temperatures within your RV. Right,
Speaker 1: so keeping cold food cold, frozen food frozen, keeping shower
Speaker 1: water hots that way you're not taking a freezing cold
Speaker 1: shower in the middle of the winter because that happens. Uh.
Speaker 1: Those are miserable. I have to do one or two
Speaker 1: of those last year, and um uh yeah, I definitely
Speaker 1: don't want to do with that again. You are listening
Speaker 1: to park Landia from my heart radio. Hi, I'm Matt
Speaker 1: and I'm Brad. This Parklandia. So can you leave your
Speaker 1: rig after you set it up? Can you leave it? Yes,
Speaker 1: you can leave your rig there as long as you know, um,
Speaker 1: it's in an appropriate and safe area. Now you're gonna
Speaker 1: want to lock your door, is you know you're gonna
Speaker 1: want to do all the safety precautions that you do
Speaker 1: with a normal home, but you're not going to get
Speaker 1: your thing uh towed away in most cases. Um, unless
Speaker 1: you or maybe more being obnoxious, you're destructing the land,
Speaker 1: You're you're you're just being overall jerk. That's when they're
Speaker 1: gonna take you know, take you out. But if you're
Speaker 1: being respectful of your neighbors of the situation of boondocking,
Speaker 1: then you're gonna be fine. Um. You know, if you're
Speaker 1: closer to a city, of course, you know you're gonna
Speaker 1: want to take some extra safety precautions. Um. And that's
Speaker 1: coming from t people from the city. But honestly, most
Speaker 1: people aren't gonna mess with you uh in these situations either. Now,
Speaker 1: when it comes to leaving pets alone when boondocking, I
Speaker 1: have a hard time leaving Finn in our r V
Speaker 1: while we're boondocking, So it kind of limits the things
Speaker 1: that we're able to do when boondocking for an extended
Speaker 1: period of time. Um. But if I do, or when
Speaker 1: I do, like let's say we're going on a little
Speaker 1: hike and we're coming back, I always make sure that
Speaker 1: generators running with the a c or heat or on
Speaker 1: whatever is necessary to make sure that Finny doesn't get
Speaker 1: uh too hot or too cold, because we want to
Speaker 1: take care of him like he takes care of us.
Speaker 1: So you're going for your first time boon docking, ever,
Speaker 1: I would recommend to make sure to know where the
Speaker 1: closest r V park is. And the reason why is
Speaker 1: because you want to test it out locally. You want
Speaker 1: to test out near your home or within a friend
Speaker 1: or family's home before you just go do it for
Speaker 1: a whole week. You know, you want to go learn
Speaker 1: kind of like what we did with Mammoth Caves. You know,
Speaker 1: when we were first learning how to just hook up
Speaker 1: in r V, we went to man Caves and we
Speaker 1: checked it out and tried it out, found our mistakes
Speaker 1: and our issues, and that really helped us in the
Speaker 1: long haul um because we had like a small instance
Speaker 1: of what we needed. And then in these situations and
Speaker 1: boon docking, when you're going to do that, you want
Speaker 1: to test that out locally as well. You can even
Speaker 1: test out in your own backyard, but just make sure
Speaker 1: that you're not going to your fridge in your home
Speaker 1: for a beer. You want to know that you can
Speaker 1: have a cold beer in your in your fridge in
Speaker 1: your r V as well, So make sure to take
Speaker 1: the time to learn about your r V. Watch some videos.
Speaker 1: There's great YouTube tutorials on YouTube about boon docking for
Speaker 1: the first time, mistakes, for the first time issues that
Speaker 1: they run into. And I think it's really an important
Speaker 1: thing to do your research before you just go halfway
Speaker 1: across the country to think you can boon dock anywhere
Speaker 1: and everywhere, because finding these places are not easy. They're
Speaker 1: not close to things, they're not going to be in
Speaker 1: your national parks, their normal not around your national parks.
Speaker 1: But sometimes you know you can get away with it
Speaker 1: for the night, but you know you have to be
Speaker 1: very careful because you do not want to disturb the wildlife.
Speaker 1: The reason, the main reason why boondocking is not allowed
Speaker 1: in national parks is because people will run their generators
Speaker 1: or their vehicles all night. Well, that changes the ecosystem,
Speaker 1: the wildlife's behavior, the whole entire shebang of what that
Speaker 1: national park is about, and it's about preserving and protecting
Speaker 1: those animals and wildlife. So when people are boondocking in
Speaker 1: national parks and the large numbers, it's not safe for
Speaker 1: that environment. So that's boon docking with Brad. That's one
Speaker 1: of the hardest episodes to really talk about because there's
Speaker 1: so many different situations with boondocking. And if you have questions,
Speaker 1: please please please reach out to us on Twitter at
Speaker 1: park landy up Pod, Instagram at parklandia Pod, or or
Speaker 1: start a conversation in our Parklandia Rangers Facebook group. This
Speaker 1: is about like campfire conversations. We really want you to
Speaker 1: start a conversation so we can get community impact and
Speaker 1: and feedback because that is what makes Parklandia so special
Speaker 1: to us, is the community that it's building. So please
Speaker 1: reach out to us. We're so excited and so happy
Speaker 1: to have you listening today because we love all of this.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to park Landia, a show about national parks.
Speaker 1: Parklandia is a production of My Heart Radio, created by
Speaker 1: Matt Carouac, Brad Carouac, and Christopher has the otis producer
Speaker 1: and edited by Mike John's. Our executive producer is Christopher
Speaker 1: hasiotis our researcher. It's jeff Lyn shield A Special Things
Speaker 1: goes out to Gabrielle Collin's Crystal Waters and the rest
Speaker 1: of the Parklandia crew and Hey listeners. If you're enjoying
Speaker 1: the show, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It
Speaker 1: helps other people like you find our show. You can
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Speaker 1: out our photos from our travels on Instagram at parkl
Speaker 1: India Pod and join in on the conversation in our
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Speaker 1: for listening.