Home

A former coworker recently wrote a blog post about where she calls home. She has relocated several times in the past years with major moves of her belongings into new communities. With these moves and knowing she still has more major relocations to make because of her spouse’s career, her blog touched on where home was. At her recent wedding, this acquaintance wrote that her officiant talked about home as being more with someone than a physical location.

Those words resonate strongly with me.  

Six years ago my husband and I decided to give up our “stick and brick” home (a term used by RVers to indicate their permanent physical abode) and chose to live full-time in our fifth wheel camper and travel around the United States.

When the question of “Where’s home?” is asked, we answer with a multitude of different answers, but always end up with “Home is where we park it.” in reference to a phrase used in the camping industry. 

Legally home is in the State of South Dakota where we chose to “relocate” to after selling our home. But we also say we’re from New England because of our family routes. Sometimes we reference Florida for our home as we’re now spending our sixth winter in the same resort where we have a sense of community.

However, for me, none of these locations feel like home.

We’ve talked about where we’d consider settling down if we were to get off the road or if something happened to one of us. When we started our travels, we naively thought we’d find an area that really spoke to us and say this is it. Now that we’ve been to just about every state, I can say that I wouldn’t be able to make up my mind about any one location. There are regions that I would want to spend several months visiting, but to stay consistently for years, I don’t think so. 

No matter where we've visited, because I've been there with my best friend, my love and supportive partner in life, home could be anywhere we have set up our camper for the time frame.

So for me, where is home? As my acquaintance indirectly shared in her blog; Home is where the heart is.

Summer 2015 week 5

Our fifth week on the road started out with an enormous day.  Leaving Langtry Vineyards, we reached the Pacific Coast and headed north towards the Redwoods Natl. Forest.  We saw a sign for a drive thru tree and decided to check it out.

Unfortunately our truck (even if we didn’t have the camper attached) was too big to fit through the cut out in the tree that smaller vehicles could drive though. But we still had fun investigating the giant redwood and gift shop attached.  While there, another traveler suggested we take the Avenue of the Giants on our way north, rather than stay on the primary highway.

The Avenue of the Giants paralled the main highway so it wasn’t a major detour. The road was much narrower than the highway and there were many places without much shoulder space with redwood forests abutting the roads.  We felt so small in that area.  Even pictures of our 13’ truck camper looked like a child’s toy truck next to some of the trees. 

We had our first sighting of the Legend of Bigfoot while in the Avenue of the Giants - one of the display boards mentioned that a couple claimed to have spotted the elusive beast a short distance in from the road while hiking one day.  Bigfoot sightings have continued since then on up into Alaska.

We stopped at Eel River Brewery for the night, another Harvest Host destination. Eel River had a flight of 12 beers for a tasting - and although we split the tasting, we knew we shouldn’t be driving anywhere afterwards.  Eel River Brewery was in Fortuna CA.

The journey north contuned along the Coastal Highway and entered the Redwood National Forest. We had many beaches to stop and view the Pacific Ocean and even let Rugby run along some beaches. We stopped in Port Orford OR for the night.

Port Orford is listed as the furthest west city of the lower 48 - we stayed 2 nights at the RV park and explored the town and beach on our day off. The campground was nice and the owners were very friendly and hands on.

During our days off we look at maps and redesign our journey towards Alaska to include other locales we might try to visit since one never knows if they’ll be this way again.  While in Port Orford OR, we decided to head inland and visit Crater Lake instead of going up the Oregon coast. In my researching the route, I found a State Park fairly close to Crater Lake and we headed to the Joseph Steward State Park in Prospect OR.

Our next day we headed up to Crater Lake.  Some of my quick research of the area had advised that only 1 section of the park road was open to traffic because of the snow still on the roads.  I found it interesting that on May 18, they still had so much snow on the roads that you couldn’t drive the entire route.  We still decided to head up to the Lake and were greeted with spectacular sights on the mountains, lake, and the snow. There were snow showers going on across the lake during our visit and I then understood why the roads were still closed.  Even on our drive, there were places that the snowbanks along the edge of the road were higher than the truck.

We spent the night at Seven Feathers Casino & RV Park.  The park generally charges $40-$45 a night, but one review I had read said to mention a billboard along the highway and you’d get the night for $19.  I asked about the rate and was told the billboard promotional was about to end but that I could get the site for that rate.  We decided to go to the casino for their buffet dinner and then we also played some blackjack.  We had a fun evening and came out just slightly ahead after deducting our night’s expenses (dinner and rv site).

Not wanting to press our luck we headed out the next morning and drove to Silverton OR where we stayed at the Silver Spur RV Park.  As we’ve done in the past, due to my dislike of driving on Interstates, we were taking primary routes throughout the states to move about and this was a park that fit my routing plans.

Leaving Silverton OR we headed Washington State and Mount St. Helens. Driving through the valley on our way up the mountains to see Mount St. Helens was interesting.  35 years later there were still many areas with no vegetation because of the devestation of the blast and volume of ash and mud that flowed after. One location we passed was a home that had been under construction and was to be completed right around the time of the eruption. The volcanic eruption caused a major mudslide through the river valley and that in turn caused major destruction to anything in it’s path.  The home that was being built was an A-Frame and the first floor was filled with several feet of mud which quickly turned into an almost cement form. The house is still standing and furnishings like the stove and fridge which were installed but never used stand frozen in the devestation of the afterflow.  

When we finally reached the park, the view of Mount St. Helens, although 7 miles away, was spectacular. In fact, the entire drive to and from the mountain was beautiful with the trees and valleys.  We spent the night at the Silver Cove RV Park in Silver Lake WA. 

Remainder of Week 4 Travels

And so, my intrepid readers, the week 4 travelogue continues as we leave Death Valley and continue our journey through Pacific Coast States on our way to “The Last Frontier.”

We traveled along many roads through numerous mountain passes and ridges.  Our third night of week 4 found us boondocked at a supermarket in the town of Bishop CA.  For us it was a beautiful stop as there were snow capped mountains on either side of the roadway and with bright blue skies, the images reminded us a lot of being back in New England and especially the White Mountain region of NH.

Our next destination was Lake Tahoe and we spent 3 nights at the Lake Tahoe RV Resort to allow us time to relax from all the driving.  Originally we planned on 2 days drive, 1 day off but found that some locations didn’t work out as well as planned for where we’d take our day off, or that the driving conditions or distance neccessitated a longer rest period.  The Lake Tahoe RV Resort is an Encore Park and for those that have stayed at Encore before, know it means extra fees for nothing. When we last stayed at Encore their nightly “resort fee” was $3. Now they’re up to $4.  When I asked the folks at the resort what the extra fee was for I got a different answer (local room tax and resort activities). I challenged the manager on the resort activities response since they offered nothing extra at that time of the year.

Another issue I had with Encore is with their Passport America price - in our guidebook it said to call their 800 # to make a reservation, but when I phoned at 1pm on Saturday, no one answered.  The Lake Tahoe folks said they couldn’t do the reduced rate themselves, that it had to be a reservation through the main office.  When I let them listen to the 800 #‘s recorded messages for 15 minutes with me, the check in desk clerk finally decided that we weren’t going to get an response from Encore for at least 2 days because of it being a weekend and made my reservation.  Ah the fun of Encore.

While in Lake Tahoe, we decided to go out for a nice lunch and received recommendations of the casino buffets.  We drove in to town and found parking and then tried to find the buffets - all 3 casino buffets were dinner only, so we found a local place for lunch.

After our stay in Lake Tahoe, we headed west across the State of California, passing around Sacremento and then into wine country where we spent the night at Langtry Vineyards. We sampled some of their wines at a wine tasting and ended up buying a bottle for enjoyment later one.  Langtry Vineyards was a Harvest Host location - that is, a business that offers boondock camping to a limited number of units.  We were surprised to learn that Langtry Vineyards was started by Lilly Langtry, the actress Judge Roy Bean was so enamored with that he named his town in Texas after her.

At the end of 4 weeks travel we had covered 3898 miles since starting this epic journey.

Mojave Desert and Death Valley

When we first crossed in to the state of California, we were looking for an Information Center. The only one we found in Needles was a Desert Information Center, so we stopped to see what type of info they had. The woman was very friendly and had lots of information, but only about the deserts parks in the area: Joshua Tree, Mojave and Death Valley.  Thinking we were going to do the Mojave the next day, I focused primarily on details about there and trying to choose a good route for driving.  The woman advised that certain roads in the park were good while others were unpaved and not bad.  

Now in my mind, when I hear the words “Mojave Desert” I think of dry, sandy, barren flat parcels of land.  This was not so.  The Mojave was quite hilly and even had several mountain ranges. There were several steep climbs and downgrades as we passed through vast areas of Joshua Tree cacti.  There was a sand dune section in the park, but nothing like my expectations of the Mojave Desert.

Our favorite joke about the Mojave was not the landscape but the roads in the park.  We found them to be awful, full of holes, cracks, bumps and falling apart. Speed limits were posted for 50mph but we stayed closer to 35 to avoid ruining the truck or tires. This was one of the alleged  “good roads” from the information center the previous day. We wonder what her idea of a “bad road” would be.

The Mojave Desert was not as big or time consuming as we intended and we decided to head to Death Valley National Park with the hope we could find a campsite for the night. And with my preconceived concept of what the Mojave was going to be like, all ideas about Death Valley were gone as well.

We arrived at Death Valley around 3pm and started our descent in to the valley - elevation changs went from 4900 feet above sea level to Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level.

Entering and leaving Death Valley there were many mountain climbs and steep downgrades with numerous twists and turns as the roadway followed old riverbeds or gaps in the mountain passes.

The landscape down in Death Valley was more in turn with my idea of a desert area; dry and barren of vegetation.  What I was not prepared for was the height and number of mountains we drove over to get to the lowest portion.  In my mind, we were going to be starting close to sea level on our descent in to the valley.

The National Park campground was nice and as we were visiting in mid May, fairly empty. During our evening walk with Rugby, he was the first to notice a coyote and gave a loud bark to alert all.  That coyote trotted away. Around the next brush I noticed another coyote, as did Rugby.  This coyote did not turn away, rather it watched us continue on our stroll. Shortly after we returned to the camper, we heard one of the coyote calling to another with a yipping call - Chuck commented on his surprise at the sound as he always thought coyotes howled.

An interesting fact is the highest and lowest point in California are 100 miles apart and in the same county: Death Valley at -282 and Mount Whitney at 14,505, both in Inyo County.

Grand Canyon Senses

Taste: technically our taste sense was utilzied 60 mile outside the Grand Canyon when we had supper in Williams, AZ. It was a nice meal but not as fantastic as the one in Albuquerque, NB. I had duck and Chuck had filet mignon. While the restaurant was the top rated one based on Yelp and Trip Advisor reviews in the Williams area, it’s not going to be a meal that stands out in my memory.  We stayed in the National Park’s campground for a few nights and did not dine out at any of the restaurants located throughout the park, but I did get rave reviews from Chuck for the pizza I made one night; he claimed it was my best one yet.

Touch: naturally in a national park a lot of what you touch is the ground beneath your feet and railings along walkways. A few times I’d reach out to touch the needles on a conifer tree or a rock as I got into a seated position for a photo. One thing we definitely felt touched by was the cold and rain. Winds blew through the canyon and updrafts would catch us with strong gusts when the winds below reached canyon walls. The weather our first day in the park was rain and some of the updrafts from rain clouds below our level at the rim blew rain. At one location we watched a family standing on rocks and the females’ hair were standing on end from the electric charge in the air from the rains.

Sound: numerous foreign languages were spoken, primarily Japanese but also a lot of people speaking German, French. Many cultures were represented throughout the park. One couple we heard responding to the general question of where are you from respond with Urkraine.  Other sounds heard were the winds blowing through the valley and trees, ravens cawing and lots of camera shutters clicking. At one overlook, about a mile above the Colorado River, we could hear the roar of the rapids, although rather muted from that distance.

Smell: cedar is the predominate scent along the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Tree trimming had taken place in various areas of the park before our arrival, allowing the cedar scent to permiate the air.

Sight: Instead of writing about what we saw, I am using some of my photographs to convey the images.

Summer 2015 Week 4 Day 1

Can you believe that over four weeks have gone by on our journey? Since I wait until the following week to make my post, I’m much further into the trip than you my readers are.

This was such a fun day it's getting it's own page vs sharing it with the week.

Leaving Needles CA, we decided to backtrack the 20 miles into Arizona for the less expensive diesel fuel, even though we only were down 1/3 a tank or 20 miles (C replaced the regular sized 32 gallon tank with a mammoth 60 gallon over the winter). Looking through maps, reading others blogs and trying to fit in destinations we wanted to see, I decided that while we were back on the east side of the Colorado River that we’d travel the longest section of Route 66 before crossing back in to California.

What a trip we had. Our destination was the ghost town of Oatman, AZ. The drive was a blast with hills and curves and dips and corners every few feet. And the landscape that went along with it was fun also. Just before we reached Oatman we saw a sign advising of burros in the road. 

Around the next corner, there it was. Standing to the side of the road. 

Over the next hill there were 2 more. 

Up the rise and 6 or 8 standing in the road, not moving an inch. I had to nudge one with the truck to get enough room to pass by. When prospectors first came to the area, they used burros but modernized equipment made it's way in and the prospectors didn't need the pack animals, releasing them to the wild.

Their descendents still live in the desert and around Oatman. Because humans have continued to have contact with the burros, they are quite tame and expect handouts from vehicles. 

Up in Oatman was fun, lots of old store fronts, some of which were open. There were even 2 restaurant options and we chose to have lunch in an old hotel. There was an guitarist entertaining the diners with story and song. His singing was so so but the stories of the town were fun.  

One tale involved all the money stapled to the walls. In his story, the money on the walls started with miners and their pay. The miners were paid with paper and found that the dampness and soot of the mines did not ply well with their money. So on pay day, they’d leave money on the wall to cover their bar tab. When the bartended felt they had used up their allowance, he’d take the money down and the miner would put up some more funds. Over the years, as tourists started to come through town (this is the hotel Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their wedding nght), they saw the money on the walls and added their own bills, including their name and date of visit. It’s unknown how much money is on the wall and what will be done with it, but for now it’s an interesting sight and tale.

After our visit to Oatman we headed back towards CA so we could see the Mojave Desert the next day. I kept searching the internet for a campground closer to the Mojave than 25 miles away and stumbled across some information about a Whistlestop Town of Nipton CA which had a hotel, eco cabins and campground. Phoning ahead they said they had space and we headed over. In it’s heyday, Nipton was a nice oasis town.  Today the only trains that pass through are freight trains and they don’t stop.  Nipton has converted to solar power and they produce 80% of their own electricity with a solar farm. When you arrive in “town” you stop at the Trading Post to check in. Next door is a restaurant that’s been closed for several years, then the 5 room hotel/conference center. Behind them are the campground and eco-cabins.  The cabins are wooden framed buildings with tent canvas upper walls and roofs.  They have one or two double beds, a table and chairs and a gas heater.  As part of the eco side of the business, the bath house was a Quonset hut with 2 toilets, 2 sinks, 2 showers and a sauna (which didn’t look like it had been used in a long time based on the cobwebs present). This was an all inclusive bathroom - no his and her sides, just individual stalls with doors. The floor of the bath house was dirt with a few raised walkways throughout, but none close enough to allow you to walk above the dirt from the shower to the exit door. Our RV site was adequate, a full hookup (w/s/e) in the shade of trees. The only downside to the place was the proximity of the train tracks, no more than 200 yards away. When the trains passed by, the ground shook. There was 1 train in the afternoon while we were setting up, and 2 during the middle of the night that woke me (C slept through the first). The people in the Trading Post / office were great and shared with us many details about their town including the solar panel, that they use to be the #1 lottery ticket outlet in the state (were closest to Las Vegas back in 1990) and the population of 8 year round.  Except for the train during the night, this was a great bare knuckles place and we’d consider staying here again.  Hotel Nipton, Nippeon Camp and Conference Center