Two wenches and a president

We haven't seen our old RVing friend Lynne in several years. She moved from Oregon to Minnesota last year and she said if we come anywhere within a day's drive, she'd get out her RV and come meet us. Well alrighty then, that sounds like a plan. We plotted our course east to use Highway 80 and found a campground just north of Iowa City. It turned out that we would be meeting over a weekend, so I had to make reservations rather than just trusting our luck. This was a COE (Corps of Engineers) park and they are very popular local destinations for weekend travelers. The reservation system (Recreation.gov) showed about 80% of sites were open and available during the week, but I snagged the last 2 sites open for Saturday night. Lynne would be arriving sometime on Friday night, we took advantage of the firewood for sale (6 pieces for $5) and started a nice fire in the campsite's fire ring - we had marshmallows now! This took a bit of doing because we had no kindling - nothing to get a fire going. We dug in the trash for some cardboard and it finally took.

As much as we were looking forward to seeing Lynne, anticipation was even greater for her beautiful dog, Finn. We've been seeing photos of him on Facebook for several years now and couldn't wait to meet him. What a joyful pup he is. I'm so glad that Lynne has him as a companion.

Jim's long-lost brother? They have the same mustache!

Saturday morning with our coffee, we asked Lynne if she'd be interested in visiting the Herbert Hoover Presidential museum which was only about a 20-minute drive. She said, "Sure!" So, off we went. Jim and I are big fans of Presidential museums - we've been to every Official Presidential museum, and Hoover's is one of our favorites. 

We left Finn in his air-conditioned RV, unplugged our van and drove it the 20 minutes to West Branch, Iowa, and the Herbert Hoover birthplace and museum. Little did we know that it was "Hoover Days" - Aug 6-7. What a treat. The streets were blocked off and there were tents, booths, and exhibits all thru town. The first item of business was lunch. We found this great bar/restaurant called The Downunder, because it was in the basement. Very cool ambiance with the old brick, good beer and great food. 

If you scan this code you'll get a video overview of Herbert Hoover's life

After a full and very interesting afternoon, we headed back to the campground to take Finn for a walk and relax. 

Lynne has always referred to family and friends as Pirates and Wenches. I'm not sure where that came from, but it's fun. 

We settled in for a quiet evening and wanted to build a fire. We had plenty of good firewood, but still no starter pieces. Lynne had an ax and tried to split some wood into smaller pieces, but it wasn't working so great. At one point, we both bent down and started blowing on the same spot of hot coals - voila! the fire took off,

Who needs fire  starter? All it takes is two wenches to blow..

What a great weekend. I love how RVing allows us to stay connected to friends. I was reminded about why we are friends with Lynne. Not only is she beautiful, talented and accomplished, she is also crazy smart. It was so fun exploring some history with her at the Hoover museum as she added some local Iowa farmer perspectives. We had non-stop conversation well into the night. And, marshmallows over the fire were pretty good too! We Love you, girl! err I mean wench.

After she left on Sunday, we stayed on and did one of our "What Does This Button Do?" shows. Episode 217 - prepare to be offline

Rocky Mountain high

Time to head east. The normal route east across Colorado is Highway 70 - but it's had some major mudslides and is closed. Highway 50, going east out of Montrose also had some mudslides and is closed during weekdays. They have it open on weekends, so we decided to stay at Heath and Alyssa's one more night and leave on Saturday. Don and Kim recommended a side road over the Cottonwood Pass. We follow their advice whenever possible, so here we go.

A drive over a stunning 12,000 foot mountain pass, camping in a beautiful national forest campground with a nice walk along a creek and a real wood campfire. Then finish it off with a soak in a natural mountain hot springs. That was our last 24 hours

Jim was very happy with the ease at which our Roadtrek climed this pass

This is the Collegiate Peaks national forest campground. We snagged one of the last spots.

It was cool enough to have a fire. Where are the marshmallows?

Collegiate Peaks and Chris' history

This is an area in the Colorado Rocky mountains where there are several mountains, including Mt. Harvard and Mt. Yale, that are over 14,000 feet. Too bad none of them can call themselves the highest point in the continental US because that honor goes to Mt. Whitney in California at 14,495. A looooong time ago, when I (Chris) was a hippie hiker/backpacker I climbed the mountaineer route to the top of Mt. Whitney with my boyfriend, Bob. One summer we also took a trip thru Colorado and did some backpacking in the Collegiate peaks area. I can't remember exactly where, but I found this photo of me on the balcony of a cabin in these mountains. It had a sign in the window to the effect that backpackers were welcome to use the cabin rather than pitch a tent. Cool.

Chris - circa 1975 hiking in the Collegiate Peaks

Jasper - the dog (left) and Bob

Bonus

We found a hot springs! Just down the road from our campground. Cottonwood Hot Springs They had several pools, ranging in temperature from 98 to 106 - that's hot! They also promoted the fact that these hot springs were not sulphur, that means they don't stink! They are mineral - mostly Lithium.

Where travel meets business

We learned of Heath and Alyssa years ago from our friends Chris and Cherie. We followed their website and were particularly interested in their New Zealand travels. We followed their lead and rented an RV for our New Zealand adventure. We continued to follow Heath and Alyssa's blog as their life changed. They had a baby and started to look to settle down. Ever the entrepreneur, they decided to buy property for an RV park. They settled on a home and property in Montrose Colorado. 

But we're not talking just any RV Park. Heath and Alyssa are RV Entrepreneurs, and they have built a community of like-minded RVers. They produce an annual RV Entrepreneur Summit where experienced folks talk and wannabes listen. They wanted an RV park where their community would be happy to stay and work. An RV park, a community, a co-working space. A new place for a new kind of entrepreneur. 

We were intrigued.

We made arrangements to stay a couple of nights at their "Schoolhouse with a view" They made it clear that it really was not an RV Park yet. No hookups, no roads. But they did have boondocking parking areas and they did have the schoolhouse, a communal area with showers, kitchen, a gathering area for all the guests, and high speed Internet - fiber optic 300 mbps. 

We have a strong feeling that anything Heath and Alyssa set their minds to will be a success, and we wanted to see it.

We made our reservations using a booking system called hipcamp.com. 

We were coming in from the north after visiting the Colorado National Monument, so we stopped in town for a late lunch/early dinner. We found Horsefly Brewing Co. in Montrose that was quite accomodating. Beer and fish tacos - yum

Their campground is right on the main road (550) south of town, there is no sign so we had to pay close attention to the Google Map directions to the lat/lon position. Once we turned in we were in a large gravel parking lot with a line of trees at the back. That was the designated parking.

Boondocking only. See the schoolhouse at the left. That is the communal space.

The main room in the schoolhouse. This is where their RV Entrepreneur Summit will be held.

Separate rooms provide a space to do our online streaming, using their high-speed Internet connection

I hope we get to come back in a couple of years and see how it turned out!

Decisions, decisions

When the Escapade was over we found ourselves in a situation we haven't seen since our very first year of living in the road. There is nothing on our calendar until October in Florida. We could go in any direction our hearts desired, and take as long as we want.
After meeting up with Kim and Don, we were in Utah and just too close not to visit our friends in Park City.

Driveway camping at Tom and Margo's

What a view from their deck!

Lots of fires further west makes the sky so smoky

After we left Tom and Margo's we had some research to do. Were we going to go south? Monument valley is still on our list. Or do we go straight east and go across rocky mountain national park? Or can we go a little bit south and visit the brand new RV Park owned by Heath and Alyssa, then turn northeast? Once we're headed east, are we going to go all the way to the jersey shore before heading south, or turn at Missouri or Kentucky? We wanted to visit a friend in Minnesota, but that's awfully far north. We came up, roughly with 3 different routes to get from Utah to Fort Lauderdale, FL.

We needed to decide which of these 3 routes to take before we passed the blue star

The first decision point was in a little town called Duchesne, Utah (the blue star above). Going straight thru on highway 40 would lead to Rocky Mountain National park. Taking a right on highway 191 would take us to Heath and Alyssa. I decided to stop for the night in Duchesne! 

We stopped for the night in Duchesne (the blue star) to think about which direction to go

Yes, I was driving myself crazy, but I was also having fun. I love using Roadtrippers.com to play with different routes and see what's out there. It makes it oh so easy to "play what if." What if we go to monument valley, then east to Florida? What's the difference in miles if we go to rocky mountain national park, then east to new Jersey, then south to Florida?

Roadtrippers allowed me to plot each possibility, then turn them off or on to answer my what if questions. It makes it so easy. And it shows me cool things along reach route that I wouldn't know about otherwise. Like a hot springs on the west side of rocky mountain national park. We love hot springs! 

Armed with all the answers to the multitude of what if questions, Jim and I poured ourselves a glass of wine (or 2) and talked it over.

I said, it appears to boil down to seeing people, or seeing places. Jim said, unless there are other factors involved, I choose people! Ha! Decision made, we turned south-east at Duchesne in order to stay at Heath and Alyssa's property.

Bonus! 

Along the way was a national park that Don and Kim highly recommended we visit: Colorado National Monument. Wow.

And, we found a crazy place to stay the night - a Harvest Host location called Buzzard's Belly. It's located in an old ghost town called Cisco. One of Cisco's claims to fame is that the movie "Thelma and Louise" filmed some scenes there. So, we found Thelma and Louise on Amazon Prime Video and watched it. Yep, we recognized a few shots. This is one of our favorite things to do as we travel - watch movies filmed in the location.

You've heard about the middle of nowhere? We found it.

   

Wild camping with Don and Kim

 We first met Don and Kim at an FMCA rally in Gillette, Wyoming in 2013. We were there doing our Geeks on Tour seminars and they were there promoting their company, Harvest Hosts. (they have since sold Harvest Hosts and are now retired.) We hit it off right away and were fascinated to hear their stories of RVing in Europe, Africa, South America, Australia and more. I don't think we've ever met anyone as well traveled as they are. Don would tell how he would just use Google Earth and look at the satellite views of the local landscape when they were RVing in Turkey. When he saw a likely place to park, that's where they would go. What amazing experiences they've had. When they heard we were going to Croatia in 2017, they said we had to visit Plitvice - we did, and how right they were! Whenever possible, we'll follow their advice.

Plitvice Lakes in Croatia in 2017

Don even wrote a book: Americas Overland. The term "overland" is used to indicate driving adventures off the beaten path. They are way more adventurous than us! We've visited them at their home in Arizona and they've visited us in Florida, but we've always wanted to see them in their 'natural habitat' of boondocking somewhere. Our opportunity finally came this summer after the Escapade in Rock Springs, WY. Don and Kim planned a few weeks in their RV heading north from Arizona, and the goal was to meet up with us somewhere south of Rock Springs. That spot turned out to be in the Flaming Gorge area. They sent us the coordinates on Google Maps and we followed the directions from our Google Maps. True to form, they were not parked in any campground, just on a dead-end forest road with a gorgeous view. It was thrilling to follow the directions and find their truck camper RV parked at the end of the road. 

After a delightful happy hour, dinner, and generally catching up, we determined that they would lead and we would follow the next few days! Oh boy!

We made one standard stop at the visitor's center, then they took of on a side road - a loop - through the 'geologic area.' 

After that beautiful side trip, we went back up to highway 80 and west to Evanston where we took a smaller road headed south thru the Uintah-Wasatch Forest and some pretty high mountains.

There, Don had researched on Google Earth, and iOverlander and maps.me I believe, to find a "dispersed camping" parking spot just off the road. When we first pulled in there were already a few campers already there, but after a while the one by the river left - giving us one of the best campspots ever!

Here is an aerial photo that Don took with his drone. I love how this perspective gives you the true picture of where we are! And, his drone is just so tiny. Jim's is large enough that he doesn't even bother to bring it with us. I told him that he needed to buy one of these little guys (DJI mini2) so we can take photos like this!

Don and Kim even got us on a hike! We used to hike a lot, but it's been years. 

Nice happy hour spot, right?

And, great Sunday brunch too.

Loved it! Thanks Don and Kim. Can't wait to do it again.

Oregon Trail

 In between the FMCA and the Escapade, we had a few nights to play. We found a Harvest Host location that was unique. It wasn't just a parking place outside a business - it was a parking place along the old Oregon trail AND a covered wagon ride down to the river where a steak dinner was cooked in Dutch Ovens. This was a highlight of our time in Wyoming.

Another night we decided it was worth going just a bit out of our way to go to a hot springs we have visited before and stay at the RV park where we also stayed before. Saratoga Hot Springs and Deer Valley RV Park.

Hot Springs conversations - we met some nice young men who were hiking the CDT - Continental Divide Trail. We learned that they have a podcast - it's fun to listen: Camp Walk-Along podcast.

Travel days

 After leaving Eric and Tami's in Mobile, our next planned stop was Waco Texas to see our good friend, Frank Drew. That's a distance of about 650 miles and it took us 3 days.

In Vicksburg, we found an Elks Lodge with RV parking. We use the Allstays website to find them. This was lodge #95 which means it's pretty old!

The next stop was a regular RV park, called the Hitchin Post. Really, it's a trailer park, with lots of people who obviously live there permanently. We find a lot of these that have one section for transient RVs. It had hot showers, good electricity, and even decent Wi-Fi.

We were comfortable enough that we could attend our normal Friday morning meeting zoom call, and then kept the setup going to record some screenshots that Jim needed for a Toastmaster presentation for the Virtual Toastmasters conference this weekend.

Next stop - Frankie's!