You’ve waited almost your entire life for this moment; you’ve looked forward to this day with great anticipation. You have finally retired!
Of course, one does not have to wait for retirement to enjoy the freedom of living and traveling the van life. **
A happy retiree
How do you reward yourself? You go out and purchase a new cargo van. You’ve watched a ton of YouTube videos on how to convert your van and where to camp across North America for basically no money by boondocking. All those YouTube videos have convinced you that you can do this.
CamperVan Conversion
The day has finally arrived.
You’ve got your van all loaded up with all your camping needs. You jump into your van start the motor and see your home in your rear-view mirror as you drive off.
You’ve driven quite a few miles this first day into country that’s not familiar to you and as the sun begins to fade away into dusk, you begin to think about one of those YouTube videos describing a beautiful and quiet boondocking campsite.
You begin to think that it may not be a good idea to just turn into some unmarked dirt road and hope to find the perfect boondocking campsite. More often than not, that decision will turn into a dead-end road or private property.
And to make things worse, it’s beginning to get dark in a hurry. So, what to do? Relax, don’t get stressed on your first time out in a situation such as this. Getting stressed in a situation like this only adds to unpleasantness and produces nothing positive.
At this point, I would recommend finding a rest stop along the freeway, a Walmart parking lot or even a low-cost private park for a day or so to get your bearings.
There are several available apps that can help you find what you’re looking for. Some of the apps that I’ve used are:
iOverlander – helps find free campsites
Campendium – find free and low cost campsites
RV Parky – find RV parks
Trip Advisor – great for finding restaurants, attractions, etc along your route
Roadtrippers – excellent for helping plan your trip with things to do and see
FreeRoam – helps find campsites
Pilot/Flying J – great for finding truck stops. Some offer free overnight camping
Trucker Path – excellent app for finding truck stops, gas, overnight parking, etc
Chimani – a guide to navigating parks, planning, etc
Gas Buddy – finds cheapest gas where you are
WAZE – an excellent GPS in real time
Maps and Google Maps
And, my favorite is not an app but a website – www.freecampsites.net. Simply go to this website and type in your location and find free campsites anywhere you want to camp.
BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land is my favorite place to boondock. BLM land is not that plentiful east of the Mississippi River, but out west, it’s plentiful. This is land owned by the Federal Government and it’s ours to use for recreational purposes and camping on for up to 14 days at a time in most locations. I just returned from a trip to Arizona and New Mexico after several weeks of boondocking and had a wonderful time.
BLM Land in Sonoran Desert
The only campsite I paid for was inside the Grand Canyon National Park. It was a beautiful and well-maintained campground for only $9.00 per night.
Colorado River Winding It's Way Through The Grand Canyon
Again, do your homework and you’ll find those perfect boondocking campsites. Once you get familiar with finding them, the faster you will get at finding just the best boondocking campsites out there and the more you will enjoy boondocking.
** I have written several articles on proven ways to earn money on the road. Check them out in previous posts.
Source: Most of the photos in this blog are provided courtesy of pixabay.com.
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Until next time…
