Pullin' Chocks

Scariest 2014 Event

We had an event that rattled us good this first year on the road and this post will tell that story.  We thought we would do a lot of boondock (no hookups) camping when we bought our trailer and we set the trailer up to do just that.  However, most of the boondocking we have done to date is the overnight variety when we are enroute from one location to another.  We may boondock 3 or 4 nights in a row as we move from one place to another.  Mostly we have been stopping at WalMart's, Sam's, Lowe's and similar Big Box stores and other large shopping centers; truck stops have also been readily available to us but a lot of the truck stops are busier and noisier, and it can be hard to get much sleep.  In the east it is harder to find free parking spots, but out west there are lots more wide open spaces and firm ground to park on.

I thought I saw a good first opportunity for us to boondock along I-15 just east of Barstow, CA.  While using the Google Maps feature I found a great looking parking spot well off of the highway at Exit 213 where there was absolutely no infrastructure.  I thought no one would get off there and we would be far enough from the highway that we would be able to sleep.  It was about in the right place giving us a 300 mile drive for the day, perfect I thought.

I-15 East, Exit 213, the perfect stopping place in the middle of nowhere, or so I thought...

Look at that fantastic looking free pulloff area.... and look at the volume of traffic on I-15!

We arrived around 4:00 PM and it appeared just as we had imagined from the pictures and it was far enough from the road to be comfortable.  I didn't fully realize the situation along I-15 in that this is pretty much the one and only best route between Los Angles, CA and Las Vegas, NV.  Tons of traffic on this route is an understatement and it runs 7 days per week 24 hours per day.  There is continuous truck traffic carrying supplies in and out of Las Vegas and an untold number of visitors coming and going.  Nevertheless, we set our trailer up, popped out the bedroom slide so we would have plenty of room and be completely comfortable.  In the shopping centers and truck stops it is very rare that we extend any of our slides so it is a bit more cramped when stopping in those locations.  We ran the generator and made a nice dinner and soon it was dark.  We showered and got into our sleeping clothes and retired to bed.  As we layed there in bed, in the total darkness of the Mojave Desert far from any civilization we noticed that cars and trucks were pulling off at our exit about every 20 minutes.  However none of these vehicles came into our parking area, but I can tell you every single one of these vehicles got our attention and stirred us from our resting positions.  I was not as surprised by the number of vehicles on this section of highway, but I was completely caught offguard by the number of vehicles pulling off at this exit in the middle of nowhere with no services.  In our travels we have seen many, many trucks pull over and rest, and some cars too.  So I figured that's what this was too and that made sense.

Then it happened.  It was now 11:30 PM on a Wednesday night.... middle of the week.  Two cars exited the highway and kept coming toward our parking spot.  This area was big enough for another camper rig, but these vehicles were not campers.  The cars pulled in, head to head with our rig less than 20 feet away.  Both cars were shining their headlights right at the front of our rig for a very long time.  The headlights flooded in our bedroom window that is on the slide sidewall that faces forward when the bedroom slide is deployed.  There was loud music, car doors opening and closing, and cigarette smoke. The spidey senses were on full alert very quickly.  We certainly didn't want to get out of our trailer now, but we were waiting for the occupants to approach and start messing with our truck or trailer.  It's now midnight in the middle of the week, in the middle of nowhere.  These folks don't work, at least not day shift, and I figured that they were up to no good. 

Long story short, these two cars finally left after about 45 minutes which seemed like 4 hours.  We quickly pulled our day clothes on over our bedclothes and got out of the trailer, prepared the trailer for travel and got out of there within 10 minutes!  We rode another 30 miles to the next town, Baker, CA and found a truck stop there.  We were immediately security comfortable again; our level of room comfort and relative quietness was gone, but it was well worth the trade!  I admit, Gari said this was not a good place before we stopped there, but I assured her it was fine.  Well it wasn't fine and I will have to rethink my boondocking ideas, and continue to increase my acceptance of Gari's good ideas and skepticism of my bad ideas!

Fortunately for us, with a little help from our Guardian Angels above we made it to our currnet destination Yuma, AZ and are enjoying the area very much.