Day 51 - Needles Marina Resort

Our month here is coming to an end. We check out tomorrow morning. This is the first time we’ve stayed in the RV in a single location for a month. This place is sort of a between the typical pavement RV parking lot and a campground. The sites are large with some bushes providing a little bit of separation between sites. The parking pads are gravel and the rest of the site a mix of sand and some vegetation. The only grassy areas are the pet areas. To keep them green, they require regular irrigation. There are a couple of RV areas where it is a parking lot but they are set aside for overnight or short term stays. The sites along the water are reserved for those staying five months or longer. And there are quite a number of people here who do stay that long.

BTW, 78°F Today!

What’s Been Good - It’s been great to be able to receive packages as many RV parks don’t accept mail or packages. The Thousand Trails parks almost always accept medication but some charge for the service. While we were here, we have received numerous Amazon boxes, the solar panel, and a box from home with all our mail (including a lot of junk mail). That has been really convenient. Having decent Internet has been very convenient and it was $25 for the month. My MacBook Pro and the iPad Pro are both on the Apple public beta program so the updates are usually pretty large. Being able to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube has been nice. The data rate is still less than Verizon but it’s more than good enough. Except during the evening when everyone is probably watching Netflix. As you may have noticed from my posts, I really enjoy the pool and the jacuzzi. Bridget said that I don’t want to boondock since there is no pool/jacuzzi out there.

Meeting people has been good. And if you go to the jacuzzi in the evening, you almost always meet others. After a while, you get used to seeing the same people while walking around. What has surprised me are the number of RVers from Canada. When talking to others here at the park, one of the main reasons for returning every year has been the people. Plus, the monthly rate here is a bargain. $335 plus electricity. We’ll see what the electricity is when we check out tomorrow. I suspect that it’ll be higher than we originally thought since we’ve been running the electric heater at night. This is in addition to the propane furnace. This RV doesn’t have very good insulation.

Not so Good - Obviously the weather could have been better but that doesn’t have anything to do with the RV park. The cost of things in California has been hard on the town of Needles. There are very few businesses as they just can’t compete with similar businesses across the river in Arizona. I’ve mentioned the cost of fuel several times but that sort of extends to just about anything else. The only minor annoyance with this location is some of the “Weekend Warriors”. During the week, it’s pretty quiet but on weekends, the place fills up. The weekenders actually use the outdoor speakers and TVs on their RVs or play the stereos in their vehicle with all the doors open. This RV park does attempt to have the long-term sites further in from the entrance and the overnight spaces next to the entrance. But that’s not always the case.

Bridget used her kayak again today and not being windy makes a huge difference. I guess the inflatable kayak does present a lot of area to a cross wind. If we let some air out of the bottom, it’ll sit lower in the water. Next time.