Good morning

[Qxxx]

The Dometic 711 looks like a good unit. No one is going to try and use that unit as portable.

 

[bonvanroulez]

Looking at the literature for that Dometic 711 toilet, it's a marine toilet designed to be permanently installed on boats with a discharge hose and deck fitting to connect to dockside pumpout stations. It also needs a connection to a pressurized water system.

 

[bonvanroulez]

In the La Posa LTVAs outside Quartzsite there are plenty of toilets to allow any rig that is not self-contained to find a place to camp as near or as far from neighbors as desired. By actual count I think there are 12-13 toilets total in the 4 different areas. The most remote ones in La Posa North are about 3 and 4 miles in from the entrance station and have beautiful and remote spots to camp within the roughly 500 foot required. There also seems to be a lot of flexibility on the 500 foot rule with many campers more like 1000 feet away.

Imperial Dam LTVA is a little different in that the toilets are close to the entry station as well as one in the "Pit" area, so the areas around those toilets tend to be pretty busy. There would seem to be more enforcement of the self-contained rule in the outlying areas because you only see bigger self-contained rigs in those areas, while the camper vans, tenters, and small trailers stay close to the toilets. Imperial Dam also has those big-rig campers that set up close to the toilets to the great annoyance of tent and small rig campers that have to be there.

There is no "BLM Inspector", just rangers and BLM employees that have a good idea what belongs where and will issue warnings if you're somewhere you don't belong.

The situation at the other LTVAs is different. At Hot Springs, Pilot Knob, Midland there are no toilets in the campground and only self-contained rigs may stay there. At those LTVAs there are full-time hosts that have full discretion and the last word as to the rigs that camp there, and as I have witnessed they will turn people away or ask them to leave after they've set up camp, because they weren't in a real self-contained rig per the BLM rules, including vans and small trailers like Scamps without holding tanks. At Hot Springs and Pilot Knob there are 14 day areas nearby for van campers, tents, and small trailers.

 

[Qxxx]

In the La Posa LTVAs outside Quartzsite there are plenty of toilets to allow any rig that is not self-contained to find a place to camp as near or as far from neighbors as desired. By actual count I think there are 12-13 toilets total in the 4 different areas.

From my experience over the past 3 winters, I wouldn't quite phrase it that way. At South, the areas around toilets were always mobbed by big rigs as well as a lot of tents. At West, I don't believe there are any toilets, and at North I think they just put those in and I didn't get to drive in there. That sounds like the best bet for isolation.

2 winters ago, I drove into Imperial dam, and I agree, as there was no place near the 2 toilets that I could even wedge my van into, the big rigs were so tightly packed. And just half mile back, there was no one, but too far from the toilets.

This winter I did drive all the way into Wiley's Well LTVA, and immediately turned around and drove back out. It was pure dust in there, and the road was very iffy. It was graded, but was mostly dug 3-4' below the level of the surrounding sand, and there was a long stretch where it went through a deep wash. The wash was graded but might be nasty if it rained a lot. As a chicken in a van that's been stuck 3 times in deep sand, I didn't stay.

 

[bonvanroulez]

It sounds like you haven't really gotten out of South which is by far the busiest and most crowded of the LTVA areas. The toilets on the west side of the highway are nearest Old Yuma Road between West and going into Tyson. There are 3-4 toilets over there and those areas don't get very populated.

At North there is a big one by the entry station, then continue east for 3/4 mile to a junction of a long road that runs NW to SE. Turn left onto that long road and there is a toilet in about 1/4 mile. Turn right and there is another at about 1/4 mile,another at about 1 mile from the turn, another mile to the next one, and another mile to the last one, so 4-5 miles from the entry off the highway. Several of those toilets are brand new. The LTVA boundary is another mile or so beyond that then the road continues to the mountains.

All of those areas stay really uncrowded, especially the ones furthest down the road. It would be hard to get much more remote, although I know some great secret spots in the LTVA. 

Of course South is the busiest because it is the location of the water and dump. But they are in the process of developing an entirely new service area in the back of Tyson off Old Yuma Road. They are drilling the well now and when completed a ranger told me it would have 6-8 dump stations compared to the 2 at the present location, along with new water fill stations.

 

[Qxxx]

It sounds like you haven't really gotten out of South 

All the talk about South was rhetorical. 

This winter, I actually stayed for a month in La Posa Tyson Wash, in the area with the single toilet, and that's where I had the trouble with the 2 Class-A hogs. And basically the whole rest of that area was filled with big rigs, spread out "just so" in a manner such that there wasn't really adequate spaces in between for "courteous" flopping at a "nice" campsite. Also, I didn't know then about all the toilets towards the back of North, so thanks for the rundown.

 

[bonvanroulez]

Here's a map showing the 3 facilities in the back of Tyson. I thought they added a 4th back there but might be mistaken. The scale of the map is deceiving as those 3 toilets are a good distance apart.

I put in the red arrow; that's the location they are drilling the well for new dump facilities.

 

[bonvanroulez]

And from the same crappy old map, the facilities at La Posa North. The ones at the entry aren't shown. I added the 2 red Xes at the location of the brand new facilities. For scale, the toilets down the road are each spaced just about exactly one mile apart.

 

[Qxxx]

I put in the red arrow; that's the location they are drilling the well for new dump facilities.

That's a good place to put the dump, as there's not much space right at that spot for camping, as Old Yuma Rd is quite near Tyson Wash.

 

[Qxxx]

And from the same crappy old map, the facilities at La Posa North. The ones at the entry aren't shown. I added the 2 red Xes at the location of the brand new facilities. For scale, the toilets down the road are each spaced just about exactly one mile apart.

Looks good, easy to find.

 

[travelaround]

@Maki - are you doing okay with all the unrest in your city? Hope it is still far from your home and places you normally go to.

@everyone - Good morning. I need to get yard work done today. Expecting 70 degrees today and rain tomorrow.

 

[maki2]

@Maki - are you doing okay with all the unrest in your city? Hope it is still far from your home and places you normally go to.
Thanks for asking.

No marches have happened in my neighborhood, it is close enough to downtown that they go there instead.  But not so close that protestors would want to walk to my neighborhood on a march.

 

[maki2]

Good morning, well it is afternoon now. Woke up to rain pounding on the roof but it has just now slacked off. I might still be able to get in a little work on the trailer today after the pavement in the parking space dries out.

But first I need to pack up a vintage Dremel tablesaw, getting it ready to ship off to Florida to someone who emailed asking if I had one for sale. That sale will add some money into my renovation fund. I have a few things to pick up at the grocery store today so I will take a tape measure along and see if I can find the perfect sized cardboard box in the pile of boxes they have near the checkout counter.

 

[maki2]

As to the protest in Seattle. Antifa is not taking over Seattle despite what POTIS posted on twitter.

This is just the mayor agreeing to let the peaceful protest take place in a focused area where the protestors wanted to do it. That is called negotiation and compromise. So now instead of trying to get through police barricades with much of downtown Seattle being disrupted the protestors have instead barricaded themselves inside of a single block surrounding one building, a police precinct headquarters, which the protestor leaders decided represents what they are protesting against. The building is their physical symbol of what is wrong. On the orders of the mayor that police precinct building was boarded up and the exterior sprayed with fire retardant. The staff was moved to other locations and the protestors were told they could surround the building as long as they stayed peaceful and did no significant property damage. So now that the protestors the place to gather that they wanted things have calmed down in the rest of the downtown area. Now the protestors are gathered in that spot doing speeches, teach-ins and media interviews and such.

 

[travelaround]

@Maki - sounds tame the way you describe it. Hope everyone stays safe.

Good day here - I pruned a rose bush and published a yard tour video on my Booktube channel.

 

[maki2]

Went to the hardware store today and bought a tarp so I can create a rain shelter along the side of the trailer. I need to get that brake wiring job finished.

I do have a big 12x12 popup canopy shelter but with the trailer up on blocks it won't quite fit underneath.

Made sure to buy a white tarp not too big, 8x10 so that it can be used later this summer if I need some extra shade as well as rain protection. Then I ordered some suction cup clamps so that I can position it on my car or my van as needed for quick and easy temporary setups.

 

[maki2]

This evening in a local TV news event the Mayor of Seattle, Jennie Durken was asked how long was the 6 block area in the neighborhood of Capitol Hill going to be allowed to be occupied by protestors?.

Her response.... "I don't know, we might have a summer of love".

 

[bullfrog]

I was in service during the “summer of love” and always felt like I missed out. Maybe I should go to this one but can’t afford to loose too many brain cells at this point! Would hate to have them knocked out of me like the 75 year old guy in New York.

 

[travelaround]

@Maki - your mayor's summer of love comment has been on national news.

Today....... errands: shopping, post office and transfer station. Now I'm home.. just had lunch and I'm going to spend some time reading.

 

[maki2]

The Seattle Mayor was also asked what she thought of the "autonomous zone". That is what the protestors have declared the 6 block area they are occupying in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. Her response was that part of the city has been an automomous zone all of my life.

Which was pretty accurate as even when I first came to Seattle in 1969 it was Seattle's version of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. The large street graphic of Black Lives Matter being painted there goes right along with all the rainbow, gay pride, graphic crosswalks that the city has allowed to be painted and remain on the streets in that neighborhood. It is still a culturally diverse area in terms of race, gender choices as well as the arts. Lots of art colleges, art supply stores, book stores, cafes, a community college, etc in that area. The Black Lives Matter street graphic in Seattle is not just yellow letters like the one in DC, instead the shape of the letters are being filled in with mural type scenes.