We have now been in Texas for a month. We came here to attend Old Settler’s Music Festival and exchange a few hours of labor for free tickets. In 2019, on our first cross country trip, we stumbled upon this festival and were offered the chance to work for tickets. We have since learned that most of these big festivals run on volunteer labor. This knowledge has allowed us to attend other festivals in Utah, Idaho, and Key West Florida!

However, most festivals do not allow you to bring your dog. With this in mind, our friend Kaitlyn in San Marcos Texas had offered to watch Ginger for us while we attended. She asked us to come to her a couple days early to be sure her two adorable pitbulls and Ginger were cool with one another.

At first it appeared that everything was going to be copacetic, but soon Ginger’s playful nature irritated Kaitlyn’s older dog Shorty and they ended up getting into a scuffle that left Ginger with a bloody nose and Shorty with a bloody ear. Needless to say, leaving the two of them together for over a week was not going to work.

When we adopted Ginger, we knew there would come times that we would have to board her and now that need had presented itself. We found a very nice pet resort in San Marcos and made reservations to take her there. Over the next couple of days, we kept the dogs separated while we helped Kaitlyn wth a few projects around her house.

Also, while we were there, we determined that the little fridge we had bought for the van in 2019 was not cooling properly and was draining our solar batteries. Luckily, it was still under warranty. So, we packed it up and sent it in for service.

When it came time to leave for the festival, we dropped Ginger at the kennel and headed to Old Settler’s Music Festival in Tilmon, TX.

The fest didn’t officially start till Thursday, but our work schedule started that Monday. When we worked this festival previously, we had worked a couple days with the team that helps prepare the festival grounds and had camped with them. When they heard that we were returning, they offered to let us camp with them again. They call themselves “The 420 Hill Gang”. This is due to the fact that the spot where they camp is 420’ feet above sea level. (Of course that is not the ONLY reason they have chosen that moniker)

They set up a really nice camp with all their campers and tents in a circle around a huge grill where they cook communal meals and have guitar picking sessions every night.

We had a great week hanging out with our 420 friends.

This year, we had been assigned to work the team that makes sure all the other volunteer stations were stocked with water and ice to help combat the heat. The job as super easy and by the time the festival actually started on Thursday afternoon, we had already completed our required hours.

The funniest thing that happened that week was one night while hanging out with our 420 friends, someone asked Tanja what had we done with Ginger. She replied that since dogs were not allowed on the festival grounds, we had taken her to “the pound”. Everyone was shocked and outraged that we could be so callous. It was only after being accused of being a bad dog owner that Tanja realized she had misspoken and had to clarify herself.

When the festival was over, we picked up Ginger and returned to Kaitlyn’s house. We got an email saying that the warranty company had determined that the fridge was not reparable and they sent us an Amazon gift card for the original purchase price. Since we had been quite happy with the fridge, we used the gift card to purchase another of the same fridge along with a new 3 year warranty.

We spent another couple nights with Kaitlyn and then went to visit my nephew Danny and his family in San Antonio. We had a very nice visit with them.

After that, we returned to Kaitlyn’s one more time to pick up the new fridge. We also bought new all terrain tires for The Whale. I am curious to find out if they were worth the price!

After leaving there, we purchased an annual pass to all the state parks in Texas. We hope to visit as many of them as we can before we head back to Florida.

The night before last, we visited some Dutch people in Harker Heights, TX that Tanja knows through her sister.

At the moment, we are camped in a free Corps of Engineers campground along the shore of Lake Whitney. We will probably spend a few days here and then head north to the panhandle before it gets too cold.

That is about it for now. Will write more in a month or so.

Oh, and for those who have been following this blog for a long time and know how much trouble we had with destroying or abandoning step stools?

We are still using that same old ugly kitchen step stool. We have not driven over it or abandoned it once

Once again, I have waited months to update this blog. While we had a lot going on, very little had to do with “Vanlife in the Whale”. (And again, I have been being lazy as far as this blog is concerned. )

Tanja and I traveled to Holland on what we had planned on being a five week visit before resuming our vanlife escapades. However, upon arrival at her mother’s home, it soon became quite evident that she no longer had any business living alone. Tanja and her sister began trying to convine their mom that it was time to go to an assisted living/nursing home type place.  She had already been on a waiting list for a spot but had turned it down when it was offered to her, which resulted in her being moved back to the bottom of the list. 

By the time our five week visit was nearing its end, Tanja expressed the idea that she wished to stay for the remainder of the summer in the hopes of finding her mom another opportunity.  I on the other hand, was more than ready to return to the States. So, it was decided that I would return as originally scheduled and she would remain behind. 

It was my intention to pick up our dog from my sister’s house and head to Tennessee and Alabama to spend time with my kids and grandkids. There were a ton of things that needed taking care of at the farm I rent to my younger son and there are always projects that my older son’s wife has planned for me at their house. I thought that with nine weeks, I would have more than enough time to take care of all of that. 

However, that was not in the cards. The weather had other plans. Over the course of the entire summer, it was either so ungodly hot or pouring rain that I accomplished very little. 

Tanja, on the other hand, not only managed to convince her mom to accept the idea of moving, but also got her placed in a wonderful facility and with help from her sister, nieces and nephews, got her mothers old apartment completely emptied with a couple weeks to spare!

Upon Tanja’s return, we spent a couple more weeks with my kids and have now finally hit the road again. 

We traveled to Louisiana to spend  a couple days with a really nice older Cajun couple that we met in 2019 and who we refer to as our “road parents. 

They always make sure we get our fill of cajun cuisine. 

We then crossed into Texas and spent some time visiting other friends that we met the last time we volunteered at Old Settler’s Music Festival. 

As I write this, we are relaxing by a campfire in the Sam Houston National Forest. 

Next week, we will once again be volunteering at Old Settler’s. 

I will try to update this again after the festival and will hopefully have some funny stories to share. 

We are both so very glad to once again be on the road with our vandwelling dog Ginger

As I write this, I am laying in bed as Tanja sleeps beside me. It is late yet I am not tired. My mind seems too preoccupied to sleep. Today, I turned 62 and it has me feeling reflective and solemn. It has been six months since I updated this blog. During that time, we have visited family and friends both old and new, camped in beautiful places, watched my son get married to a woman he adores, watched the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean, and watched it set over the Gulf of Mexico.

We have shivered from the Tennessee cold and felt the Florida sun attempt to turn our skin to leather. We have listened to the wind whistle through the trees, and enjoyed the sound of raindrops on the van’s roof.

I love this lifestyle and hope that we will be able to continue living this way for a very very long time.

Most people we meet on our travels are living this way by design. Many are young and are rejecting the traditional paths taken by their parents and grandparents, preferring a life of adventure over one of stability. Many are like us, retirees chasing the freedom that we had previously given up in exchange for safety and security. However, many folks we cross paths with have adopted this lifestyle more out of necessity than by choice. Living this way can be very inexpensive, much more so than paying rent or a mortgage.

A long time ago, I wrote about the plight of these folks and how it seemed to me that the “American Dream” was broken and that we were living in a modern day “Grapes of Wrath”.

I have since discovered a non-fiction book that descibes this predicament much better than I ever could. It is called “Nomadland, Surviving America in the 21st Century”. I highly recommend it. It has recently been adapted into a movie called simply “Nomadland”starring Francis McDormand. It just won the Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture, and Best Director and it is expected to be a contender for the Oscars.

Both the book and the movie help illuminate the dark underbelly of how modern American economics mistreats some of those most vulnerable.

Tanja and I are very fortunate to have a paid off home to return to whenever we choose. I fear the future for those less fortunate

I know that we are not the only ones whose plans for this year were curtailed by Covid19. We didn’t get to tour the National Parks in the eastern half of the country as we had hoped. We had been really looking forward to visiting the Northeast. I had been to NYC and Niagara Falls before but that was it. We have friends who travel to their second home in New Hampshire for the summers and had invited us to visit them while we were in the area. However, due to the pandemic, we just did not think it was a good idea to travel through that part of the country. Not to mention the fear that travel restrictions in that part of the country might leave us stranded somewhere undesirable. Hopefully, we might be able to tour the Eastern US next summer, but honestly, I don’t expect the pandemic to be over by then.

Rather than letting Covid get us down, we decided that since the weather is so nice in Michigan during the summer and since there is so much National Forest land there on which to camp for free, we would spend the summer there. I grew up in Michigan and lived there till I was 31 years old, yet had actually seen very little of my home state, especially not in the Upper Peninsula. I must say, the Wolverine State did not disappoint. We were able to spend time on the shores of three of the Great Lakes, visit several historic lighthouses, saw many majestic waterfalls, hike through dense old growth forests, and do some amazing stargazing. Unfortunately, we did not get the opportunity to see the Northern Lights, but then again, we never really stayed up late enough, so the fault actually lies with us.

Another highlight of our summer was getting the chance to spend time with family and friends we had not seen in years. Meeting in small groups and maintaining safe distances, we were able to reconnect and we really enjoyed it!

As I mentioned in my last post, we have adopted a puppy named Ginger. The lady we got her from was not really sure as to what breed she was, so we had her DNA tested. It turns out that she is 87.5% American Staffordshire Terrier. The test also said that the other 12.5% was too mixed to make a determination. 

In the time since we got the results back, we have met several people who have this breed of dog. It is clear that she will not end up being a small dog and she will definitely be a strong one. When we adopted her, she weighed 16lbs and is currently about 30lbs. The vet has told us she will probably end up weighing 50-60lbs.

Neither of us has had a puppy in many many years and dealing with one is most definitely a learning experience, quite often an extremely frustrating experience. We are very glad that despite her breed, she is not aggressive at all. On the contrary, she wants to play with everyone she meets, regardless if they be human or animal. She is however extraordinarily stubborn! She will happily walk beside us on the leash as long as it suits her fancy. However, once she has had enough ( sometimes after an hour, sometimes after only 5 minutes) she will simply lay down and refuse to continue. This causes quite a bit of consternation for us and quite a bit of amusement for onlookers. She knows her name, the commands for sit, come, and down but again, she will only obey if she feels like it. We will definitely need to enroll her in obedience training!

Once we had reached the western tip of the Upper Peninsula, we decided that rather than backtracking our way south, we would cross over into Wisconsin then continue south through Illinois. Wisconsin was beautiful and we enjoyed visiting that side of Lake Michigan. Illinois, on the other hand, was probably the most boring state I have ever driven through. The only highlight of our time in Illinois was getting a visit from a friend I knew from my time spent working at Pioneer Playhouse in Kentucky. She currently lives in Chicago and came and spent a very pleasant afternoon with us at our campsite.

We endured this year’s journey without contracting any illnesses whatsoever. Not only that, we both managed to lose a few pounds!

As of now, we are back at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Western Kentucky. We like it here very much. We are camped along the shore of a bay on Kentucky Lake. We will stay here for a week or two and then head back to Middle Tennessee to help celebrate my grandson’s birthday.

Beyond that, we really don’t have any definite plans. We shall see!

Oh, and for those who have read my previous posts about abandoning/destroying step stools? On this trip we have been using an ugly old kitchen one. We have not driven over or away from it once. It is ugly as hell, but effective!

We are relaxing in The Whale this morning as the rain patters on the roof of our “little steel tent”. We are currently in a Michigan State Forest campground near Millersburg in the northeastern lower peninsula.

Once again, it has been months since I updated this blog. We spent January thru March in Florida visiting family and friends and also making improvements to The Whale. We now have cabinets, shelving, a microwave, a sink, and running water.

We spent the last week of January in Key West working Mile Zero Music Fest. That was an amazing experience that we hope will become an annual event for us!

Our plan for this year was to work Spring Reunion Music Fest in Live Oak, FL in March then return to Texas to work Old Settler’s Music Festival in April and then try to visit as many National Parks as we could along the eastern half of the country, but Covid-19 caused us to put those plans aside.

Upon leaving Orlando in mid March, we stocked up a month’s worth of food and headed to the Conecuh National Forest in southern Alabama where we planned to hunker down and out-wait the pandemic. However, the universe had other plans. My only remaining aunt, my father’s youngest sibling Betty passed away and so we headed to west Tennessee to attend her funeral. At the funeral home, during the viewing, they were only allowing 5 people at a time to come inside due to the pandemic. So, we ended up with the family “tailgating” in the parking lot and taking turns going in to sit with my Uncle Tom.

The actual sevice took place at the gravesite. The preacher was the son-in-law of one of my cousins. While I am not a religious person, I thought he did a great job. Moving all of us to both tears and laughter.

Once the funeral was over, we headed to Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. They have thousands of acres of land on which you can camp. We bought a pass for only $60 that allows us to camp there all year long if we wish.

We spent about 3 weeks there then headed to see my sons and grandkids.

We spent the next couple months bouncing back and forth between my kids, my Uncle Tom’s, and LBtL.

My son Travis and his fiance Stacy joined us to camp at LBtL twice.

On our last visit to my uncle’s place, we ended up adopting a puppy from one of his neighbors who were looking for a new home for her.

Tanja has been wanting to get a new dog for some time now. However, I was against the idea due to the limited space in our 72 square foot “home”.

I had jokingly told Tanja that if she could find a dog that would fit up her ass, I would consider it.

The four month old puppy, who we met and both became enchanted with was named Ginger and we were told she was a Pitbull/Boxer/Lab mix. We have submitted a DNA test and should soon find out what kinda mutt she actually is. But no matter the results, it is obvious that she will NOT be a little dog.

After spending July 4th with my kids, we headed towards Michigan to escape the oppressive heat.

Since Covid-19, is still not under control, we have decided to spend the summer touring Michigan and staying mostly in the forests up here.

The weather here is so much more enjoyable!

I will try to do a better job of updating this blog but I am not making any promises.

Hahahaha

If you want more info about our adventures, Tanja, on her Facebook, keeps a running journal of our travels and she also posts a ton of pictures to her instagram account

#white_whale_van

I haven’t added to this blog since mid September. While we have been very busy and I could use that as an excuse, the truth is, I have just been lazy. I don’t write this stuff to try and monetize it. The only purpose of this is to keep our friends and family apprised of where we have been and what we have been doing. Some people, who are living vanlife, maintain YouTube channels, post blogs with advertising, and put up daily updates to a Instagram account to help subsidize this lifestyle. I understand the motivation and am not trying to ridicule or criticize those who wish to make a few bucks. It is just that my pension from General Motors is more than sufficient to meet our needs. We don’t NEED the money and honestly it just sounds like too much work.

For those of you who have been following this blog and know about all the trouble we have had with either destroying or abandoning stepstools, i should tell you that now that we have been without one for almost two months, we have become used to not having one. We WON’T be replacing it!

Now, with all that said, I will try to give you a peek into what the last few weeks have been like for us. My last blog post ended with us camped just outside of Mesa Verde National Park. We ended up staying there for about three days. The highlight of that park are the 900 year old cliff dwellings that were made by Native Americans who lived in the area at the time. The walls of the canyons had naturally occurring cave-like depressions in them that these ancient people ingeniously developed into fortress-like homes. They were truly awe inspiring and are the reason I feel that this is one of the top three parks we have visited so far. The other two, if you were wondering, are Yellowstone for the amazing wildlife, and Capitol Reef for the scenery.

After leaving there, we visited Black Canyon of the Gunnison. This smaller, lesser known park is quite impressive. We followed up by visiting Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado. Hundreds of miles from any large body of water, this seems like a very strange place for dunes. We didn’t climb them due to my bad knees which make walking in sand very painful. Also, as far as I am concerned, their beauty cannot compare with the dunes along the shores of Lake Michigan. We only spent about an hour there, the least amount of time that we spent in any place we have visited so far.

Much more inspiring was our next destination, Rocky Mountain National Park. We spent a few days there. We saw herds of elk, a few pronghorns, and we got a closeup look at some bighorn sheep who blocked traffic along the park road. It seemed as if they knew that they were protected by law. They were totally unconcerned with all the cars that had to sit and wait for them to pass. We also got the chance to see a bird that lives among the rocks called a ptarmigan. During the summer months, their feathers are streaks of brown, gray, and black. This allows them to camouflage themselves among the rocks. However, during the winter months, their feathers turn all white so that they may blend in with the snow.

In the highest portion of the park that you can drive to, we hiked along the tundra where the high winds and low temperatures allow very few plants to survive. This cold harsh environment was beautiful in its own way, but we were very happy to return to the warmth of the lower elevations.

For the most part, we avoid the cities. Preferring to remain in nature but since we were now near Denver, we decided to visit the city and to try to spend a little time with Tanja’s godson Dylan who moved there about a year ago. Upon contacting him, he informed us that he was sick. So, we made plans to go to the famous concert venue Red Rocks. Our favorite Led Zeppelin cover band “Get the Led Out” was performing that night. Since it was several hours before the concert was to begin, we contacted our young friend Saul that we had met in Utah. The last time we had seen him, he had told us he was heading for Denver. As it turned out, he was still in town and he met us for lunch. He ended up going with us to the concert that night and he showed us where he usually parked for night. The following morning, he had to take his van to the dealership to get some work done and they told him it was going to take them a few days to fix his “home”. At first he asked us to drop him off at the local hostel, but once he found out it was $60/night, he was hesitant to go. We told him that we had a small tent with us and if he wanted to accompany us back into the forest outside of town, he was more than welcome. He spent three nights with us and we really enjoyed his company. By this time, Dylan was feeling better and we got the chance to visit his apartment and have lunch together. All in all, it was a nice visit to the city. However, the weather reports said sub-freezing temperatures and snow were on the way, so we decided to start heading back eastward. In hindsight, this was not very smart. We SHOULD have headed south. The cold weather chased us. We don’t like to drive more than four hours a day and at that pace, the cold was always just a day or so behind us.

The cold chased us across New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and into Tennessee. We ended up spending one day visiting Memphis and taking in a few sites. The coolest was visiting Sun Studios where many famous artists have recorded, including Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Howlin’ Wolf, and U2. We also spent a little time on Beale Street. I definitely want to return someday.

Next, we spent a few days on the property that my aunt and uncle own near Paris, Tennessee. They live on what I joking call a “compound”. It includes not only their home, but also the homes of two of their daughters. It has only been five or six years since I saw my aunt and uncle, but it had been over twenty years since I had seen my cousins Deb and Donna. We spent about four days hanging out with all of them. It was really really nice. One of the funniest things was my aunt and uncle, life long Democrats, had acquired a dog whose previous owners had named “Trump”. Rather than changing his name, they decided to keep the name because my uncle gets a kick out of being able to say “TRUMP! Go lay down!”

After leaving the “compound”, we headed for Land Between the Lakes National Recreational Area. They have several campgrounds that have picnic tables, fire rings, and pit toilets. We got a 3 day camping permit for only $7.00 per person. However, an even better deal that is available is an annual pass for only $30.00 per person. With this pass you can literally camp on the property all year long, as long as you don’t stay in any one campground for more than 14 days in a row. Since this place is less than three hours from where my sons live, Tanja and I have discussed using this option to spend summers here once we have had enough of traveling so much!

While there, we had the opportunity to meet a really nice couple named James and Shirley. That had just recently retired, bought a small travel trailer, and were traveling the country. We spent a very pleasant evening hanging out with them. We also spent one evening hanging around a campfire with another recent retiree named Mark who travels in a Promaster van just like ours.

Before beginning this journey, Tanja was very outgoing, talkative, and social while I have always been the quiet type doing his best to avoid social situations. Now, I find I actually enjoy meeting all these different people and chatting with them. Tanja on the other hand has gotten to the point where she can only take so much social interaction before she is ready to retreat to the forests and be alone. I find it ironic that the longer we travel together, the more we seem to be shifting personalities.

Next up, we traveled to Mammoth Cave National Park. This is one of the few places we have gone that Tanja has not already been. We spent three nights there and took two guided tours. When I visited the park with my parents in the 1970’s, we were told that the cave included a little over 200 miles of connected passageways. Now, they say that they have explored and mapped 412 miles of passageways and that they may actually be another 600 miles yet to be discovered.

After leaving Mammoth Cave, we travelled to Lexington Kentucky where I lived for about a year after I retired from the car factory. We got the chance to hang out for a bit with Larry and Vivian Snipes who run the Lexington Children’s Theatre. We had a very nice visit with them and they gave us tickets to watch a performance of the Lexington Ballet. I had never been to the ballet before and honestly, I don’t know if I would ever want to go again, but I did thoroughly enjoy watching the big smile on Tanja’s face as she watched the dancers. We also were granted the ability to watch a rehearsal/run thru of the children’s theatre’s upcoming production. We both enjoyed that. On our final night in Lexington, we watched a parade down Main Street that included a Michael Jackson impersonator and hundreds of people dressed as monsters and zombies as they did the dance from “Thriller”.

We spent one more free night camping along the Natchez Parkway at Meriwether Lewis Campground. This place is free to stay at for up to 14 consecutive nights with picnic tables,fire rings, water spigots, and flush toilets. We only stayed one night due to the rainy cold weather.

For now, our van tour is on hold for the holidays. We are currently spending time with my sons. Tanja will soon be traveling to Holland to spend a month with her mother and I will be staying here. Then, after Christmas, we will be headed back to Florida for the winter.

This amazing trip began way back on March 10th. We visited 32 National Parks and spent 234 nights on the road. During that time, we have only spent $680 on campsites. That averages out to only $2.91 per night!

We have learned a lot about traveling this way and are looking forward to touring the eastern states beginning in March 2020!

Yes, we did it again! Before beginning this journey, we had purchased a large Yeti style cooler. It was perfect for the occasional long weekend and would keep ice up to four days. However, keeping it in ice for weeks at a time was getting ridiculously expensive. Over the last six months we have spent about $250 in ice alone. That being said, we decided that, in the long term, it would be better to buy a 12volt refrigerator that we could run with our solar system. They cost anywhere between $200 and $1000 for one big enough for our purposes. After a couple weeks of research, we ended up buying a medium sized one for $350 and added a $35 three year warranty. We figure that, even if it only lasts a couple years, it will still be cheaper than buying ice or a top of the line more expensive model.

It finally arrived yesterday and we were both so excited to receive it. We have been talking about getting one for at least two months. We had it shipped General Delivery to the post office in Moab, Utah. After getting a text message saying that it had been delivered, we rushed to the post office to pick it up. The parking lot was very busy, so, we threw it in the back of the van and drove to the visitor’s center where it was not so crowded. We excitedly opened the box and inspected it. Seeing it was in perfect condition, we perused the owners manual which said that before powering it up, you should let it sit in its destined location for at least six hours before plugging it in. So….we drove to the local McDonalds to purchase one last bag of ice ( McDonalds is the cheapest place to buy ice in Moab.) Finally, really wanting some coffee, we drove back to our campsite outside of town. When we arrived, Tanja opened the back door and said “Where is the step?”

DAMMIT!!!!

We have no idea where we left it. We rushed back to town and retraced all the places we had been, but to no avail. We didn’t find it anywhere. We were so focused on getting the new refrigerator, that we do not even remember taking the step out, but we must have, LoL!

So, once again we are without a step! This makes the third one we have misplaced or destroyed! I knew it was only a matter of time before something happened to it. We think rather than replacing it again, we are just gonna try to get by without one!!

It has been a very busy month since the last blog post. After leaving Mackey, Idaho, we drove to Nevada and visited Great Basin National Park. It was very nice. Then, we drove to River’s Edge Campground in Heber City, Utah where we had agreed to volunteer some time in exchange for tickets to Reggae Rise Up music festival. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and settled in to our assigned “campsite” which was located in what amounted to be a marshaling yard in the back of the venue. Nearby, there were several small campers belonging to some really cool guys named Jackson, Chase, and Hunter who live and work at River’s Edge. They were all extremely friendly, funny, and welcoming. We ended up spending the evening hanging out with them. They called the marshaling yard where they lived the “Lizard Lot” and joking referred to themselves as “Lot Lizards” ( for those of you who do not get this reference, “Lot Lizard” is a derogatory term for prostitutes who frequent truck stops, haha!)

Our first day of volunteering was spent as part of a crew using cans of orange spray paint to mark out over eight hundred 10’x12’ campsites in a big field for the paying patrons who would be arriving later in the week. It was ungodly hot and the Utah sun had us all dehydrated and exhausted by the end of the day. One of our coworkers that day was a young guy named Saul who was only one day younger than Tanja’s son Kelsey. Saul also lives and travels in a Promaster van like ours. Like us, he ended up assigned to “camp” in the “Lizard Lot” as well. We got to know him quite well over the course of the weekend and we hope to meet up with him again on our travels some day.

Our second day of volunteering was spent helping to set up and organize the merchandise booth. This was MUCH less taxing an assignment. We were also immensely glad to be spending time under the merchandise tent rather than in the sun!

Once again, we spent the evening hanging out with Saul and the “Lot Lizards”.

The next day, the festival began. The 800 campsites quickly began to fill up with weekend pass holders and hundreds of more people with day tickets began to arrive. That evening, we were again assigned to the merchandise booth. It was very hectic, but fun as well. That completed our required volunteer hours and we were free to enjoy the last two days of the festival.

We had a great time!

Besides the great music, I was thrilled to meet a young man who called himself “Q” ( he was obviously a “Star Trek the Next Generation” fan) who was selling authentic Tennessee style BBQ pork ribs and pulled pork sandwiches. His family owns a chain of BBQ joints in Memphis and the food he was selling really made me feel like I was back in Tennessee.

The day after the festival ended, we bid goodbye to Saul and the “Lot Lizards” and made our way toward Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches National Parks, all of which are in Utah. There are more National Parks in Utah than in any other state in the lower 48 besides California. Of all the National Parks we have visited on this journey so far, I felt that Capital Reef was the most beautiful and awe inspiring. In Bryce, we met a really cool couple from Pennsylvania named Don and Sherry. We ended up touring Capital Reef with them and spent an evening with them in Moab, Utah. We hope to visit their home next year when we tour the Parks on the eastern side of the country.

We have now crossed into Colorado and are camped in a free place on Bureau of Land Management land just outside of Mesa Verde National Park.

We are very excited to tour this park because it is the home of several Native American cliff dwellings that are at least 900 years old. We have already purchased tickets for guided tours of these incredible ruins!

We are currently camped in Mackay, Idaho in what the town calls a “Tourist Park”. It is a very nice FREE campground with picnic tables, grills, fire rings, and flush toilets. There are no hookups but we don’t need those anyway.

You can stay here for free for two nights without a reservation if there are open spots. You can also reserve a site for 10 nights for only $30!

We are spending a couple days relaxing after a very busy week. After touring Grand Tetons National Park, which was absolutely beautiful, we headed to Idaho. We had been contacted by the lady we had worked for at Old Settler’s Music Festival when we were in Texas. She had heard that we were in the Northwest and wanted to know if we wanted to work another festival. 

Free music festival tickets? Yes, please! The Challis, Idaho festival was called “The Braun Brothers Reunion”. It is put on by a family of professional musicians who grew up in the area and hold this annual festival to raise money for local charities. Not surprising, given the location, the festival has a country music flavor. Not all of the acts were what I would call pure country, some were southern rock, some were rock, and one act ( The Reverend Horton Heat) was pure psychobilly.

Our first day, we helped with early check-in. People who had already purchased tickets were given the opportunity to pick up their wristbands on Wednesday before the gates opened on Thursday. It was a hectic, fast paced afternoon.

We spent that night parked in the driveway of a house belonging to the family that was putting on the festival. In the morning, we found a nice park along the Salmon River where we made our coffee and had our breakfast before heading to the festival grounds. This ended up being our routine coffee/breakfast site for the rest of the week.

Opening day, Tanja helped work the gate distributing wristbands. I spent my shift acting as a shuttle van driver for the artists. My job was not nearly as hectic as Tanja’s. It was really cool to be able to interact with some of the artists on a personal level. 

We had been given not only festival passes, but also backstage/all access passes. This was really cool! When we were not working, we were able to hang out backstage where there was free beer, wine, and food!

The second day, Tanja was again at the gate. Once again, my day was less hectic than hers. I didn’t have to work at all!

That evening, we were invited to hang out at the hotel where the crew and several band members were staying. Evidently, the whole hotel is booked by the festival organizers and every night after the fest, everybody sits in a big circle passing around a bottle or two and a guitar or two and having a sing along. I do not usually play guitar in front of others unless I have had a few drinks. ( ok, more than a few). I had to have MUCH more than usual to get up the courage to take my turn with the guitar in front of professional musicians! It ways a really fun night and we ended up sleeping in the van in the hotel parking lot.

On the last day of the festival, we were both working the gate. This time it was Tanja’s turn to have it easier. She was up front helping with wristbands, but almost everyone already had one. I was behind the security people who were responsible for checking people’s bags for contraband and their IDs to see if they were old enough to drink. If they were, then I was in charge of giving them another wristband indicating that they were old enough to purchase. I was pretty busy, but it was a lot of fun. 

We spent another evening in “the circle” but no one was playing or singing and we went to bed about midnight. 

It was a wonderful time! I have never been to Idaho, and if it were not for this festival, I doubt we would have spent any amount of time here. I am so glad that we did, because we have met some really nice people and the scenery here is amazingly beautiful!

We do not expect to be back for this festival next year. We are planning on being on the east coast this time next year. But we do hope to return to this one in 2021!

After a day or two here at the “Tourist Park”, we will be heading south to visit National Park #21 Great Basin in Nevada. After that, we will be heading to Heber City, Utah where we will be working Reggae Rise Up Music Festival. We are especially excited about this one because we are both HUGE reggae fans and we know and have seen many of the bands that will be playing!

Some people have asked me how we end up with the opportunities to work these festivals. Almost always,the festivals utilize volunteers. If you are interested in attending a festival, check the website and see if they are looking for help!

Oh, and before I close this update, I should note that we have not have any “step issues” since the last post!

Tanja insists that I start this update by saying that this time it was me who left the step out and tried to drive away without it. Luckily, we didn’t get too far  before realizing my mistake. I will DEFINITELY be adding a permanent running board/step when we get back to Florida!

We are currently camped along the Snake River in the Targhee National Forest in Wyoming between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The campsites here are free. There are vault toilets, but no electricity or water. You are allowed to stay for 14 days! The views are astounding and we were even able to go wading in the river. If this was a commercial campground, the cost would be beyond our means. It is places like this that make our journey possible. Out of curiosity, we stopped at a commercial campground about 2 miles from here to inquire as to price. It was $35/night and not nearly as nice as this free place!

We have now been on the road for 144 nights and have spent a total of $442 for camping. That comes to an average of only $3.07/night!

We have spent several nights sleeping in the driveways of friends and family.

As I have mentioned before, when we are in areas where we do not know anybody, we find most of our campsites by searching http://www.freecampsites.net. We also use an app called “campendium”, we are members of a organization called “Boondockers Welcome” that gives us the chance to stay on the property of other members for only a $30 annual fee, we check with the forest ranger stations for recommendations and last but definitely not least, we get tips from other travelers. We have also, on rare occasions, spent the night in rest areas or shopping center parking lots.

Prior to beginning this lifestyle, I never knew places like this existed. I always felt like I was getting a bargain when we visited state parks and spent $25-$30 a night for a campsite. Now, I will NOT pay those kind of prices unless there is absolutely no other option. One night along the California coast, we spent $35 for one night at a state park. It almost killed me!

When we are in the national parks, we are willing to pay up to $20/night to stay in the park. However, we always try to find the least expensive campgrounds in the parks and sometimes pay as little as $10.

Another way we are able to afford this odyssey is that we have almost completely stopped eating in restaurants. We go grocery and supply shopping a couple times a week and try to limit our purchases to under $75 per visit. 

It helps that Tanja and I both are not real picky when it comes to food. We are perfectly happy with rice cakes and peanut butter for lunch ( or like tonight, the occasional dinner, hehe)

We have to be this frugal with food and camping costs because we are spending a fortune in gasoline. We are filling up at least three times a week!

It has been just over a month since the last update. The music fest we attended was very small. It was all local Oregon bands. Some were quite good, some were mediocre, none were awful. On the last day, the music was almost entirely provided by DJ’s and rappers. That kinda music is not really my cup of tea, but they were not terrible.

Then we went to visit some friends who had moved to Eugene last year. We had a very nice visit with them. They had just moved into a new house a couple days before we arrived. We got to be their first houseguests! ( or should I say streetguests since we slept in the van as it was parked in front of the house?).

We spent one day exploring Eugene. It is a funky little place that I wouldn’t mind living in if it weren’t for the harsh winters.

In Washington State, we indulged our inner geek and spent one day touring filming locations from the tv show “Twin Peaks”.

In Whitefish Montana, we had the opportunity to visit a ski resort and ride the lift to the summit for amazing views of the valley below and we also got to spend the day with our friends from the Czech Republic and their adorable children. 

Since the last update, we have visited 5 National Parks. Olympic, Mt Ranier, and North Cascades in Washington State, Glacier in Montana, and Yellowstone in Wyoming. Each park was more beautiful than the last. I can only assume that the Grand Tetons where we are going tomorrow and which I can see in the distance as I write this will be spectacular as well.

Let me start by saying that we have not had anymore “step incidents” since the last post. However, I know it is only a matter of time before it happens again.

Once we return to Florida for the winter, I am going to install a metal step that attaches to the van’s frame. No more driving over it!

Yosemite National Park was beautiful but way too busy for my tastes. I felt as if I was seeing pretty much the same kinda things as we had seen in King’s Canyon, but rather than the serenity I felt there, I felt rushed and crowded due to all the other people at Yosemite.

After leaving Yosemite, we made our way towards San Francisco. A friend from college had offered us his driveway as a free place to park while we explored the Bay Area. Unfortunately, he was working out of town and wasn’t going to be able to hang out with us, so we first drove to San Jose where he was working. Once he got off for the evening, we hung out at his hotel. It even had a pool and hot tub! Eventually, we said our goodbyes and drove to his house in San Pablo. We spent the next day exploring Berkeley where Tanja used to live and the next day, we took an Uber into San Francisco and had a wonderful day. We did all the normal tourist stuff and even got to spend a little time in the famed Haight/Ashbury neighborhood!

We next tried to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park, but there was still so much snow that the only part of the park that was open was the visitor’s center. 

This was quite disappointing. We had debated whether we wanted to visit Lassen or drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. Obviously, we made the wrong choice. 

Crossing into Oregon, on our way to  Crater Lake National Park, we got a message from our friends in the school bus. They were also headed for Crater Lake and wanted to hang out again. They met us where we were camping and the following morning, we all toured the park together. That evening, we got a message from our friends from Prague, Czech Republic, that we had met at a campground in Florida. They were in the area and wanted to hang out, so Tanja, myself, and the “Lucky Bus Kids” spent a few days camping in the national forest with the Czech couple and their two adorable daughters. 

We usually try to find inexpensive places to camp, free whenever possible.

However, I do not feel comfortable without a toilet of some kind. It doesn’t have to be flushable, an outhouse is fine. This does limit the number of free places. 

However, here in Oregon, most of the National Forests have what they call “Sno-parks”. They are large parking lots with vault toilets that are connected to trails for snowmobiles and cross country skiers. From May thru October, they are essentially deserted. People like us are allowed to stay there for free for up to 14 days at a time! We have now stayed at 3 of these Sno-parks. At one, we were the only people there, at the others, there were 3 other vehicles tops. These places are fantastic! They provide a safe place to park without the fear of getting stuck in the mud and without incurring any cost whatsoever!

I am hoping that similar parks exist in Washington State once we get there!

Tomorrow, we are headed to a small music festival for the weekend. After that, we will be visiting some friends in Eugene, then headed on towards Olympic National Park!