O'Neill Regional Park

Dry Camping. Boondocking. RV Dispersed Camping.

Dry camping (boondocking):

Is camping in a campground or any area without water, electricity, and sewage hookups, including parking lots or driveways. In the United States, most campgrounds operated by the US Department of the Interior and most state and county campgrounds do not have full hookups for water, sewage, or electricity.

Whatever you want to call it, we needed to become more familiar with it. Earlier in the month we booked our Anniversary trip for Big Sur, where we would be dry camping for 4 nights/5 days. We have never done this before. I like electricity. I really like lights. I like being able to see at night. This could really be an issue. In an effort to be better prepared for our anniversary trip we thought a dry run (get it? Dry run? Dry Camping? heeheehee) would be best. We are lucky enough to have a great little campground right down the road from us, O'Neill Regional Park, where they do not have hook ups. This was the best test run for dry camping. The only downside was that we had zero free time. The Husby was working EVERY weekend from Labor Day on through our anniversary trip (and after, for that matter) in November. However, we knew this was non-negotiable. We HAD to do this while still being pretty close to home/civilization. So, he took a weekend off. October 11th - 13th. 

It was by far the most unorganized, most slapped together, hair pully-outy trip ever. EVER. We forgot just about everything. We both had the attitude of its only 10 miles away...it's only the next city over...its only O'Neill...it's only 2 nights....it's only... This was our downfall. We didn't leave our house until after dusk. We didn't bring fire wood. We only brought fire needed foods. We forgot our dog leases. We left our house hungry. I think the list had like 3 more items on it, but I must have blocked them out. By the time we got set up, it was after 8pm and we were grumpy, cold, and starving. As mentioned earlier, we weren't far from civilization. We had In&Out for dinner. I had a shake. While camping. I added Baileys to said shake. It made everything better.

After all the drama the first night, the rest of the trip went fairly smoothly. We were able to figure which items pulled the most battery power and how far the battery would take us. We found out that the overhead fan, which I love, sadly, sucks up the most power. That and the Fridge. Everything else was fairly minimal.

Always futzing with something ;-)

Puppies enjoying some sun.

Our camping buddies joined us for the day

We had a pretty decent site - #41

Finally got firewood!

Poor cold puppies lol

Shush! I'm not a morning person!

Things we learned on our 5th camping trip (1st Dry Trip):

1. Do not arrive at the site hungry. DO NOT.
2. Regardless of how far or how close the campground is, you still need to prepare your trip ahead of time.
3. We do not need to have the lights on inside the trailer when we're not in it. ...kinda fee like that one's a duh. Oops.
4. In & Out is always good. 
5. The fridge will last 36hrs without a hookup. After that it beeps every 10 seconds. It still keeps the insides cool-ish, but not for long. 
6. 36hrs really isn't that long. Uh-oh. 

Stay tuned! Coming up Next: Big Sur Anniversary Trip!