to park overnight near a popular tourist area. I passed many a country driveway with an RV parked in it and, with evening approaching, frustrated, and unable to fi nd a suitable, safe, and aff ordable location, I brazenly drove down one of these farm laneways, introduced myself, and asked this middle-aged couple if they could allow me a small corner to park just for the night. How lucky I was – Cathy and Joe could not have been more welcoming. T at’s when it occurred to me: Wouldn’t it be great to see Welcome Boondockers signs hanging from mailboxes all across the country? T ere must be thousands of RVers like Cathy and Joe, willing to share their driveway for a night or two. Boondockers Welcome sprang forth from the generosity
I received from fellow RVers who I had never met before. T rough it, RVers can introduce themselves and contact each other securely to arrange free driveway parking for a night or two. Members can set how oſt en, when, and which guests are welcome and there’s even a category for those who can’t provide a boondocking location themselves. Best of all, you can search for available spots based on the area you plan to be in, with a global map showing every location currently available world-wide. Bringing the concept from idea to reality was another story
– it was a lot more diffi cult than I had imagined. Although I created and maintain another website:
www.frugal-rv-travel. com, I quickly found out that what I wanted fell into a whole other category. T e type of on-line tool I had in mind was far more
complicated than I could build on my own. I researched membership soſt ware options. T ey were expensive and also too limiting for what I wanted. T e site would have to be custom-built. I got a rough quote: more than the cost of our RV! In the end, it was my daughter who came to the rescue. She
gave me a beautiful giſt : her help with bringing my vision to life. She’s a computer engineer, and was able to use her skills to create the site I wanted. I think we have created a service that will endure – one that
benefi ts RVers and the RV industry as a whole. We already have hundreds of members with boondocking locations across the continent. Our hope is that it will continue to grow and spread outside of Canada and the USA and give us the opportunities and incentive to travel in our own country but also to visit parts of the world we never thought we’d see by RV.
When not on the road,
Marianne Edwards and her spouse, Randy, make their home in southern Ontario. Marianne is a site moderator for
www.boondockerswelcome.com and also the author of a series of guidebooks:
The Frugal Shunpiker’s Guides To RV Boondocking. She can be reached at
www.boondockerswelcome.com and
www.frugal-rv-travel.com RVT 148 • JULY/AUGUST 2012 19
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