Slab City ~ The Slabs

Feb 3/15     Beautiful sunny warm 80's day.  End of our ride before we loop back to our campground.  It looked like there were lots of open sites but we were not keen on Boondocking here.......   We think we need our "clamping" or "glamping".
aka classy camping or glamorous camping.

Welcome Booth to Slab City

 Slab City is an interesting place.
Very interesting.
And a different way of living - totally off the grid. 

Snowbirds in Slab City

 Slab City is what some call the last free-place in America. It’s sort of a drifter’s camp that, due to a bureaucratic technicality, is under nobody’s jurisdiction.
There is no charge for parking for as long as you stay.  There is no Mayor or control.  The camp has no electricity, no running water, no sewers nor toilets, and no trash pickup service. Many campers use generators or solar panels create their electricity.  Many of the campers get supplies 4 miles away in Niland.
The land is on a World War II Marine barracks of Camp David.  Thus the name from the concrete slabs left behind.   It was decommissioned in 1956 and all buildings were torn down.

Home is where the Heart is....

Outdoor kitchen... notice 2 satelite dishes?

cool paint job

This is Off the Grid living.  One resident refers to the residents as "high tech hobo's".  Snowbirds (about 2000) move in around October and out again by May; and the full time residents of about 150 remain.  They enjoy being left alone.  Away from a rigidity of society in controlled towns and cities.

Old Van and a flying machine

a collection neatley placed around the campsite

The temporary residents - Snowbirds boondocking in RVs tend to camp in groups of like-minded people and similar interests such as Fulltime RVers, Canadian RVers, Single RV camping clubs, and even Hippies, and young train hoppers and “travelers”.

Another group of campers

You may have seen it in the Media......

• Jon Krakauer wrote a novel entitled INTO THE WILD and it was made into a movie.  Young Chris McCandless spends time with itinerant residents of Slab City and strikes up a relationship with a teenage girl.

• Vice created a YouTube video featuring Slab City called "Living Without Laws: Slab City, USA.

 It was featured in the NPR radio documentary program Hearing Voices episode "Small Town"

Bus plus boat = a pirate?