September 29, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Lassen Volcanic National Park

Although this week was largely about dealing with work stuff, other things did happen. First we were joined at our campsite by 7 young adults from American Conservation Experience. It is a really cool program where young adults can volunteer their time and earn money for college and/or college credit. The group we have is here for 9 days, then has 5 days off, then comes back for another 9 days. They are very diverse, coming from all over the United States and there is also a young man from Germany, a girl from Manchester, England, and another girl from Korea. I was a little concerned at first because of the possible noise factor since they are tent camping behind us, but they work all day doing manual labor out on the property, come back at dark and eat and settle in pretty early. They are a really nice group and Lee has spent quite a bit of time with them. I’ve had other things going on, so was less available, but I did make them some hot apple crisp one night (the German guy loved it) and bought them some fresh strawberries another day at the farmer’s market. I guess for them this is a pretty cushy gig since they are so close to town. Often they backpack deep into National Forests and are 15 miles from the nearest anything. I definitely know this is a gig for young people though as they work hard all day and end up washing up in the nearby stream since there are no showers. Pretty impressive really, and an experience I think every young person should have.

The ACE Tents

They rotate who cooks every night and all meals are prepackaged and brought in coolers.

Lee loves working with young people, he volunteered frequently at the Keene High School career center’s video program, and he had a great time helping them get settled, but I had a pretty stressful week. So by Thursday I was ready to get out. I make a list when I come to an area of things I would like to do and then when I am feeling antsy pick from the list. Thursday evening we tried the Willow Creek Wildlife Area which is BLM owned and a nesting area for many birds including Sandhill Cranes. I knew this time of year it would be much less active but wanted to give it a shot anyway. Unfortunately it was a disappointment as it was just a road next to a creek and there was limited bird activity. We walked for a while, but the ranch next door with its strong cow smell drove us back to the truck. Still it was good to get out and at least I crossed something off the list. The most exciting thing that happened was when we flushed some ducks and I managed to get a shot of them. No clue what kind they are but it was neat.

Here’s the road we walked down

This cow was seriously stalking us

These guys kept fallowing us. Not sure what they were looking for us to do but was pretty annoying

The whole group kept following us as we walked. Not sure what they were expecting us to do but was pretty annoying

The creek was pretty but often overgrown and hard to see anything

Anyone know what kind of ducks these are??

I did get this really good picture of Susanville when we were driving back

Saturday we had talked about going to Lassen, but Lee found out he needed to drive some bikes down to the beginning of the trailhead. The local bus service can take a limited number of people with bikes, the 27 miles to the beginning of the trailhead, but when more sign up BLM services takes them in a trailer. Pretty cool that they do this and Lee took the bikes of 14 boy scouts up while Stan rode in the bus with them and talked to them about the history of the area and the trail. Then Lee and Stan rode some of the old logging and Forest Service roads along the trail and checked out some of the more remote locations on the trail. They had a nice time and I went to the farmer’s market. Unfortunately, it was the last farmer’s market of the season so I stocked up on meat from a local rancher, got lots of vegetables and gathered information from a couple of the people there who continue to sell from their farms after the farmer’s market stops. Since it’s still quite warm here, they have produce into October. The rest of the evening we just relaxed and splurged on some local Chinese food to celebrate my new endeavor. Unfortunately it was terrible…buffalo wing sauce on the General Tso’s chicken terrible. I will say we both really miss our Feng Tong in Keene! Twice in 9 months we have tried Chinese food on the road and both times it has been spectacularly disappointing. I’ve tried to master some Asian recipes at home, but really nothing can take the place of super good Chinese Food. Ah well…can’t have everything. We did take a little drive into town to check out the 60th anniversary sale at the local Big 5 Sporting Goods store. They are pretty common in the small towns out west we have been in, but I didn’t expect much. Turns out the sale was great and we ended up buying two Outdoor Ripcord 2L hydration packs for $25 each!! Much cheaper than Amazon and a backpack is something I wanted to try on in person to check comfort level. We knew if we were going to be taking hikes we absolutely needed these, to solve the water carrying problem if nothing else, and the price was right and timing was perfect for our planned hike on Sunday.

Sunday dawned and finally we were getting to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park, the number one thing we wanted to do in this area while we’re here. We were told it was like a “mini Yellowstone” without the crowds and since we had never seen anything like that before we were very excited to go. Since it is at high elevation and is closed when it starts to snow, we knew sooner was better than later. We came in from the northern route and the first place we stopped was the little museum. Actually, Lassen Volcanic National Park has a very cool story on how it got started. On May 22, 1915 a large explosive eruption of Lassen Peak was photographed by a local resident which brought national attention to the eruption and set the stage for the establishment of Lassen Volcanic National Park on August 9, 1916. It’s pretty amazing that the event was captured because this was still the days of the old-fashioned cameras with metal plates. The pictures, which have been blown up into wall murals, are really terrific considering the era and available technology. The museum also has an example of an old seismograph with explanations of how they differ from the newer ones. We got to see several newer ones as we went through the park and it’s clear that the government is still actively monitoring the volcano. After seeing the museum we started on the drive, which is roughly 30 miles one way through the park. It’s a really nice road and makes the $20 seven-day pass worthwhile. We got in for free with our America the Beautiful pass and am I happy to say that we have now broke even on the pass and still have 10 months worth of use on it!The first place we stopped was called Hot Rock. After the volcano explosion this huge rock was thrown through the air and landed in a meadow. Those of you who have been following know how much I love rocks and this is absolutely the coolest rock I have ever seen. It feels really smooth and is a great design so of course I had to climb up and get some pictures taken.

The road side view of Hot Rock

The back side is even cooler…I could have hung out here for a while

We continued driving and the views were really amazing. After Glacier I have been a bit worried that no other view could impact me the same way, but this was really cool. It’s different of course, but really stunning in places and the mounds of rocks caused by the explosion were really unique.

Beautiful lake in the background between the two trees

One of the neatest views is the Vulcan Eye. This outcropping was actually formed by lava after the explosion and it looks like an eye staring down on you. Very cool and a teensy bit creepy.

After driving awhile we found a great lunch spot at Lake Helen. The water in the lakes looks very green but I walked down to the lake and saw that the rocks are covered in clay and mud. Still pretty though and we enjoyed our sandwiches before moving on to our hike at Bumpass Trailhead.

Lunch site

Great view from the picnic table

There are many hikes in Lassen but after doing some research I picked Bumpass Trail. The hike is 2.6 miles round-trip and leads to Bumpass Hell which is one of the major “hot zones” in the park. The hike was described as moderate (which I agree with), because it is at high elevation and the trail is rocky. The trail does have many sharp rocks and I actually slipped and fell pretty hard when we were getting started because I was looking at a very cool rock…of course! The inclines are mild though, with about an 500 feet change in elevation to the site, and then a 250 foot descent into the site itself, and the only really rough part was coming out when at the beginning it was pretty steep. The best part of the hike, besides the end, was the fact that it was along a cliff and the views along the way were totally breathtaking. I really like when the hike itself has neat stuff to look at and not just the thing at the end.

Lee putting on his new pack

Seismograph monitor at the beginning of the trail

Lots of rock slides along the way

Amazing views

Most of the walk looked like the views above but as we got closer to the end we had a pretty neat encounter with a chipmunk. Now if anyone here doubts that Lee’s spirit animal is the chipmunk, please see the proof below that he is the chipmunk whisperer. There were tons of these little guys everywhere and most were pretty skittish, but this little guy saw Lee and knew just what to do.

Chipmunk catches sight of Lee

Chipmunk walks right up to him

Actually crawls on Lee’s foot sniffing him

Eating the trail mix we pulled out and tossed to him. He particularly liked the almonds

After the chipmunk encounter we started to smell the sulfur. Be forewarned these hot spots do smell, but I think it was completely worth it for the amazing views. I have personally never seen anything like this before and was totally fascinated. We spent quite a bit of time looking at all the different sections and just tried to stay up wind as much as possible. The fascination far outweighed the unpleasant smell in our minds and we really really enjoyed it.

Bumpass Hell named for the explorer who discovered it, was going to turn it into a tourist attraction, and then lost his leg when it fell through the crust into the steaming hot mud

Steam vents

Hot Pools

See the bubbles in the back

Bubbling mud pots

These signs couldn’t be more clear. We stayed on the boardwalk!!

After the hike we finished out the drive and stopped at the Sulfur Works. This is a huge bubbling mud pot that is right off the road with a wheel chair accessible path. This mud pot was huge and Lee had a good time taking some video of the bubbling. I wandered across the street and saw one of my favorite views of the day. It was a really nice park, we had a wonderful day and it definitely helped me reconnect with why we chose this lifestyle. Plus really cool rocks!!

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September 24, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

A Very Big Step

It was roughly a year ago today when I told my then boss about our decision to become full-time RVers. This was a very difficult conversation to have for several reasons, not the least of which was I was sure that I was going to get fired. I work for a very large company and what I am doing is extremely unusual. Truly, of the thousands of people I work with, I don’t know of one other person who has ever done anything like this. And since it is a very conservative company, and I was in uncharted territory, I assumed the worst. Consequently I did a significant amount of research on what it would take to start my own consulting company. Lee and I had looked at our skill sets and really thought about how we could make money on the road. Consulting was something I have always wanted to try, but with kids and a mortgage it was too big of a risk for me. And for me, a big part of why I was so attracted to the full timing lifestyle was that I thought it would work so well with consulting for a living. I know for many people full timing and minimal working go hand in hand, but that was never my goal. I wanted a lifestyle that would give me more flexibility in my work environment. I never expected it to eliminate the need for our working completely.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when my then boss, Dave, agreed to give it a try. He wanted me to stay in the southeast part of the country, which I felt I could make work at least initially and he also had a small list of requirements that would make him feel comfortable with the arrangement. Since there was so much change going on in my personal life I was very happy to meet those requirements in order to keep the job. If you don’t already know this about me, you should know that left to my own devices I am a not much of a risk taker. I have worked at the same two companies for 23 years and as long as I have had opportunity for growth I’ve been promoted every 2-3 years, have great benefits, and lots of exciting job assignments. I didn’t feel the need to take a big risk and with the responsibility of the kids and the house and life in general I was always mostly content to stay where I was. There was always a part of me though that wanted to stretch my boundaries and see what I could do on my own. I mostly took those feelings and put them into school and for 10 years I worked, raised kids, and educated myself. I completed my bachelors, my master’s, my PMP (project management) certification, and finally my Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification. At the end of the MBA I knew I was done. My skill set was good enough and now was the time to apply it. All of this coincided with the decision to become full-time RVers. I do think it’s important to note here that my professional journey, while somewhat complimentary to my personal journey, would have happened regardless of the decision to full-time. Full timing with its low debt financial position and lack of a mortgage makes it easier to make bolder choices professionally, but I like to think I would have done that regardless of whether I was a full timer or not.

Fast forward to a year later and overall I have been very grateful to have had the opportunity to stay with my company. It gave me some consistency in a year of major change and kept a more than adequate stream of revenue coming in. The situation was not without its stresses though. It has taken awhile to work through how to do my job on the road. Business travel, using home space for work space, the need for constant cell/internet communication, and RV travel days have all been major issues we have had to work through. With Lee’s help, we have addressed every issue head on, and I feel very confident at this point I could do this job indefinitely while being a full-time RVer. Plus my new boss Charlie has been absolutely amazing about it. His stance, since we first talked about it, has been “as long as you are near a phone and an airport why do I care where you live?”. What a great attitude, and hopefully I have paid him back by providing him with lots of value despite my unusual situation. But unfortunately, I am very aware that his attitude is somewhat unique. Co-workers seem to fall into one of three categories when it comes to what I am doing. They couldn’t care less (as long as they are getting what they need, they are really interested and happy for me), or they seem to have an issue with it simply on principle. I learned pretty early on to downplay the more amazing aspects of the lifestyle. People who are largely unhappy don’t really want to hear about how you saw grizzly bears over the weekend. So unless someone asks, I generally just don’t mention where I am, or what I am doing and even then, depending on the people, I tend to downplay the experience. Enough people have fallen into this last category though it has made me nervous about what would happen if I got a new boss. Because of my role, and changes in the company structure, I have had 5 different bosses in the last 5 years. Just in the last year I have had to have the full timing conversation with two different people and both times it was very stressful. Basically, any time you do something unusual in a large company it increases your risk position. Since I tend to be risk averse by nature, that’s not a comfortable position for me to be in.

Wow, I am really taking the long way around here, but I think it is important to fill in the background for others who might find themselves facing a similar situation. Plus, it is therapeutic to write about it. Overall, things have going well with the job. I am grateful as I said for the stability and certainly for the paycheck, but the last couple of months have been a little more difficult for me. A couple of things happened that started to change my outlook some. First we spent a month with Howard and Linda of RV-Dreams and I got to see first hand what it looks like to both live the full-time lifestyle and make a living on your own terms. While we were there I had a couple of bad days in particular and Howard and Linda spent quite a bit of time talking to me about my situation. Linda summed it up beautifully by saying I had a foot in both worlds and was struggling with that. Then we went to Glacier and I experienced both the high of what this life could be and the low of struggling with limited cell coverage. I have never felt the limitations caused by the need for cell phone, internet, and airport so keenly as when I was in Glacier and it was not lost on me that the only way I even made that work at all was by taking a week of vacation time. For the first time in years I was completely disconnected from work and I found that very freeing.

And then something very interesting happened.

When I got back from vacation and was slogging through a ton of emails, I saw one that said I was eligible for a voluntary separation program.

The email was close to a week old and stated that the company was offering an enhanced separation package to people who qualified. As an interesting side note, last year they also offered a similar separation package but I was 30 days shy of the years of service needed to qualify. Yes, just 30 days. At the time I was pretty mad at the world for not qualifying, but now in retrospect I believe that was absolutely God looking out for me. I really don’t know how I would have done with so much change at once, but I am absolutely certain our life would look very different now and many of the best experiences we have had this year simply would not have been possible with that much immediate financial pressure. This time, however, the timing was almost too perfect and this is where my faith in God comes into play. Yes I am risk averse, and yes I am not a huge fan of change, but when God lays out a path for you that is that clear, well in my opinion you are an idiot if you don’t follow the path. So, I applied for the Voluntary Separation and after a nerve-wracking 10 days received the call that it had been accepted. Contractually I can’t talk about the specifics of the deal, but it does allow me to pay off our remaining debt (except for the RV) and gives me full salary and health care at current prices for quite some time. Basically, it puts us in the exact position we originally thought we would be in after selling the house, and allows us to really see if this lifestyle is financially sustainable for us. I have been very honest about our budget and expenses in this year, and in the back of my mind I have wondered whether or not we could make this work without my real world regular salary. Now we will get the opportunity to find out, plus we will truly get to experience what full timing is like without the compromises required by my job. Is it a big step? For me, yes, and here’s a list of questions and their answers that have been rattling around in my head.

Can we do it? I have no idea, but smarter people than me believe we can.
How will we fund it? Hopefully through multiple revenue streams including RV Tech, videography, work kamping, and consulting.
What about health insurance? I get health insurance at current rates for several weeks and then will look at COBRA versus Affordable Health Care. Not crazy about what that will do to the budget but we are going to need to figure that out, like so many other people. Thankfully, we have been very healthy and I have been contributing money to a HSA account for several years and I have over $10K in that fund, which I get to take with me. That will hopefully cover any expenses for a few years. Of course something catastrophic could happen at anytime, but in that scenario I will be glad we took the time we had and really lived life and saw things. The monthly cost of insurance is a real concern though.
What will our lives look like? At this point I have learned enough about this lifestyle to know that I have no clue. I do have zero expectation that it won’t involve compromise. The difference is we hopefully get some say in what compromises we will and will not make rather than someone else deciding for us.
What if it all goes horribly wrong? First I have faith that God wouldn’t lead me down this path just to pull the rug out from under me, but to answer the question, worst case scenario we can always stay for a while and find traditional jobs.
Am I excited? Not really. Just being honest here. Mainly I am dealing with feelings of fear and loss. I know that’s kind of sad, but I am not a throw caution to the winds kind of person. Hopefully as I work through the more negative emotions, the more positive emotions can take their place.
What am I afraid of? The simplest but most powerful fear is of being poor. I grew up poor, and know firsthand what that is like. I also understand poor isn’t about how much money you have but more about the quality of your life. I knew a farmer who lived on $10K a year and she was by no means poor. I also understand that this is a deeply rooted fear which is at the heart of my reluctance to take financial risks. It’s time for me to face that head on and conquer it once and for all. The second fear is much more complicated. I wrote about changing the way I define myself in a blog post several weeks ago. Giving up my job is really going to bring that to a head as what I do for a living has always been a major piece of how I define myself. During this transition some serious self-examination is definitely called for, but to be honest I am not looking forward to it. I think most people go through this experience the first time they lose a job or a company they have built, but I have never been in that position. I have never been fired or downsized and this is the first time in my life I have left a job without having another one to go to. Weird right? So this is long overdue, but ultimately people who come out the other side always say they are better off for the experience.

My main goal at this point is to give myself time to work through all of this and keep as much of it off of Lee as possible. Small space, lots of emotion, not a great combination. He has been very supportive, especially since he just went through this himself almost a year ago, but ultimately it’s my journey and I need to take responsibility for it. And take a lot of deep breaths. That always helps.

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September 20, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Week in Susanville

Our first week in Susanville was a bit of a mixed bag. The spot was great and we got to do some cool things, but both Lee and I got a stomach virus on Saturday which lingered into late Thursday. It’s been so long since we’ve been sick we weren’t very prepared for it, but we muddled through and managed to end the week on a high note. On Saturday, Jo and Ben, fellow Class of 2014 Dreamers, came to see us with their beautiful husky Peyton. Jo and Ben are traveling nurses and took their very first contract job in Maine back when we were still trying to sell our house. Then we got to see them again when we were both in Florida last winter. It’s been 6 months though since we’ve been together and it was very nice that they made the trip from Reno to say hi. A lot can happen in 6 months of this lifestyle, so we had things to talk about and it was good to get reconnected. I was a little ambitious on the menu though, making three new menu items, and spent more time cooking than visiting which was kind of a bummer. It was very nice seeing them though, but Lee and I both got more tired as the day went on. After they left it was clear something was going on physically with both Lee and I. I know you don’t need the details, but there are times when the small space and one bathroom can be a little difficult.

Despite not feeling well we still needed to get acquainted with the town and complete some grocery shopping. Plus we made a firm commitment to ourselves that for the next several months we would commit to a new approach to the food budget. After discussion we decided we would work on four major areas and hopefully would not only eat better, but would spend less money.

Have food for travel days to ensure eating out is not necessary
- There is a big difference between choosing to eat out on travel days and having to because you don’t have anything that can be made easily. We have several meals that can be pre-made and are easily heated up so we have hot, filling food for travel day lunches and dinners. The only challenging part is that you must plan ahead. Some of our travel day meals that we prepare and freeze in advance are sloppy Joe’s, hamburgers, spaghetti, chili, leftover fried chicken, and pulled pork. None of them are fancy, but they are definitely hot and filling, which is a good thing.
Create a weekly menu plan that includes enough meals and leftovers for most of the week.
- Eating full meals is actually more expensive than eating “catch as catch can” throughout the week, BUT eating full meals with leftovers, if planned carefully, can actually be less expensive and certainly eliminates waste.
Minimize food waste
- First and foremost use what you have, especially any item that can expire. Take notice of what you are throwing away and start meal planning accordingly. For example: hamburger buns come in a pack of 8 and it’s difficult for two of us to eat 8 buns in a week. So if I am going to buy buns I try to plan at least two meals that require them. Better chance I can use them before they go bad. It does lead to some restrictions on what we can eat and when, but since food waste makes Lee nuts, and the money waste makes me crazy, it is something we are willing to do.
Create a shopping list that directly relates to the weekly menu plan.
- Since we are trying to incorporate more fresh foods into our diet along with doing some bargain shopping, sometimes the ingredients come before the menu plan. We discovered a Grocery Outlet Bargain Market here in Susanville and went to check it out prior to making our weekly meal plan. They also have a fantastic farmer’s market here on Saturdays so again we bought fresh food first and then filled in the rest with items from the standard grocery store.

Just to be clear, we do buy name some brand items, and at this point I am unwilling to stop trying new recipes which often require more expensive ingredients. We are just being more purposeful with our purchasing decisions and meal planning. We are better organized, better fed, and hopefully will save on our budget. Either way since food is one of the highest variable costs we have it is important to us that we have a game plan on how we are dealing with it.

The items they have are extremely well priced and the people who run the place were very nice

Great farmer’s market for such a small town

We grow what we sell is what you want to see

So, shopping and menu planning was the primary focus of the early week along with Lee organizing the Day Camp and me getting caught up on work. The illness just kept getting worse though until Wednesday when I actually took a sick day and slept about 10 hours. I can’t remember the last time I took a sick day, but I felt majorly yucky. Thankfully that seemed to mostly kick it for me, and Thursday afternoon, I decided I just needed to get out and explore a bit. We decided to go and visit the Litchfield Wild Horse and Burro Corral . The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for the Wild Horses and Burros that are on federal land. Since the horses have few natural predators, they monitor the population levels and occasionally round-up the horses when they surpass the estimated 22,000 that the land can handle. Those they bring in are treated for illness and malnutrition, gelded, and eventually put up for adoption. According to the locals it is a controversial program, because many people feel the horses should just be left alone. I was curious so Lee and I drove over to Litchfield to check it out. I didn’t have many expectations , but was really impressed by what I saw. The horses are divided into large roomy pens by sex, and in the case of males, age. They were very well cared for and many of the animals were beautiful. They were obviously wild though as few approached us and only once got close enough for a pat on the nose. The employee at the office was happy to let us wander and see and then afterwards she spent some time answering out questions. After seeing it for myself I am sold on the program. These horses are adopted out for around $125 and they live on a trial basis with the family for 1 year prior to the adoption becoming permanent and the ownership papers being transferred. In those cases where the horses cannot be adopted and over crowding becomes an issue, they are released back into the wilderness area from which they are taken. Speaking of which, BLM never takes all the horses in an area, they just reduce the populations. According to Program Assistant Viddel, “It is not our intention to eliminate the wild horses. Simply to control the population.” I liked her, I liked the setup, and the horses were absolutely beautiful. Well worth a visit if you happen to be near one of the facilities in the west.

BLM Horse Corral Office

Burros

Lee walking down the center between the corrals

Look at the muscles on this horse. Amazing

Map showing all the areas where wild horse live. Marked in black

The mares and babies were in a separate pen…the babies were more curious but the moms were having none of it. Makes sense since they are the most vulnerable in a wilderness situation

The visit was very interesting and totally free. If you would be interested in adopting one of these horses please keep in mind you need to arrange transport and they require a rest period after every 24 hours of travel. They also obviously need to be gentled, but wow, what beautiful animals.

Friday was a busy work day for both of us so we really focused on work throughout the day. Lee spent the week looking at all of Howard’s RV-Dreams, pictures so he can use some of them in the videos he is creating. Since Howard takes more pictures than I do and has been collecting them for 10 years this is a bit of a monumental task, but important for the creative process. He made it through 2011 this week, so hopefully by the end of next week, he will have copied all the ones he needs. Subsequently we didn’t get to do our walk through until around 5:30pm and we saw that a huge tree had fallen and blocked the bike path. This was weird. I mean what are the odds since it obviously wasn’t tampered with in any way. The situation was complicated by the fact that Stan was out of the office with minor surgery and it was after hours for the maintenance man. Lee did call Stan because we were concerned it would be dangerous, but the chainsaw on site he pointed us to didn’t work. Finally Lee got creative, love that about him, and used a hand saw to partially cut the limb and then an axe and a rock to get it all the way. The path was cleared and we both felt quite a bit better about the safety aspect, plus it’s nice to provide a valuable service since this is such a great site.

We were concerned because someone riding a bike fast around that corner could have an accident

The limbs are bigger than they look and heavy wood. I couldn’t lift one. Lee could but there was nowhere to push it to

Lee split the wood with a rock and an axe

Then he trimmed up the edges

All clear and safe again 🙂

Saturday was the day we had been looking forward to. Our youngest daughter Kay has been in the Air Force for just over a year and we have not seen her since last October when we went to San Antonio to see her at her basic training graduation. She and her boyfriend, Jake, met us in Sacramento, which is roughly the half way point between Monterey, where they are stationed, and Susanville. I would love to say we saw Sacramento, but we mainly just hung out with Kay and Jake, catching up with her and getting to know him. The only things we really did all day were eating lunch at Chipotle and buying some LUSH face scrub at a nearby mall. On a side note, I have never been able to use any face scrub or moisturizer in my life until I discovered Lush in Las Vegas. All products are all natural and hand-made, they even put a sticker with the bio of the person who prepared it, and my skin, which always breaks out, loves it. I mention this because if you are going to hang out in more arid regions face cream is a must, and I HIGHLY recommend trying Angels on Bare Skin for the scrub and Celestial for the moisturizer. Lush stores are only in upscale malls, but worth a trip as they will try numerous products on you for free, which is how I was convinced this stuff would work in the first place. And yes, it’s expensive, but the product lasts me around 5 months and I can’t even express how well it works. Anyway, I digress. Lee, Kay, Jake, and I mostly hung out in the mall food court and talked. I would have loved to go outside somewhere but it was HOT. It hit 99 degrees that day, which we were not prepared for having come from the high 70’s in Susanville, and air conditioning was a bit of a must. It was really nice seeing her and nice seeing him, plus the drive each way was absolutely beautiful as we went to Sacramento through the Plumas National Forest and drove back through the Sierra Nevadas. Lots of driving, but so worth it to see my girl.

We stopped to see the other end of the Biz Johnson Trail in Westwood

Love Paul Bunyon and Babe the Big Blue Ox . This wasn't to bad of a statue

Love Paul Bunyan and Babe the Big Blue Ox . This wasn’t to bad of a statue

Huge boulders in Plumas NAtional Forest

Plumas NAtional Forewt had Feather River winding through it

Plumas National Forest had Feather River winding through it

The valley leading into Sacramento

Jake and Kay walking to meet us

Loves her daddy

And he loves her back

They are pretty cute together

This was her are you going to keep taking pictures face 🙂

Lessons Learned

To reduce grocery costs try the following:

Have food for travel days to ensure eating out is not necessary
Create a weekly menu plan that includes enough meals and leftovers for most of the week.
Minimize food waste
Create a shopping list that directly relates to the weekly menu plan.

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September 18, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Work Kamping

One of the things Lee and I were the most curious about when we started full-timing was the concept of work kamping. Essentially, work kamping is when you trade your time and labor for a free campsite. There are many different variations of work kamping, but a common theme is it is a way for many full timers to reduce their campground costs. Since most full timers in years past were retired people, many work kamper jobs are geared towards folks who are retired and want to stretch their retirement dollars a little farther. But with the influx of younger full timers, there has been some change in work kamping and many positions now require more strenuous physical labor and/or more money per hour for work performed. However, with so much variation and so many employers it was tough to really get a handle on what work kamping would look like for us. This coupled with the fact that many of the assignments are long-term (4-6 months is common), although Lee and I were anxious to try a work kamping assignment we were cautious about what we applied for. There are many websites that have work kamping opportunities and the most popular is Work Kamper News, which not only has job opportunities listed but also helps you build an online resume and allows work kampers to review the employers in a confidential environment. Since we wanted to research what jobs were available, we purchased an annual membership. I highly recommend this if you are researching the full-time lifestyle because for a minimal cost of $27 a year you can see all of their job listings. We now have the $47 Silver membership which includes the full listings, daily hotline emails for immediate opportunities, and the online resume builder which makes your resume available to employers on the website.

We have been watching the hot line emails for several months now and have even been contacted by a couple of employers. Unfortunately none of the opportunities fit our existing itinerary. Many people who have been doing this a while follow a route and know what areas of the country they will be in during certain time frames. For those of us who are newer, there are so many things to see we tend to cover more territory and move faster. Although I think we have done a nice job of not rushing all over the country and burning ourselves out (a common newbie problem), we also haven’t been really interested in staying in any one place more than a couple of months at a time. Since most positions are longer than that, for us, work kamping hasn’t really been a good option. I say that knowing full well that we have this luxury since we have income coming in and others may need to commit to a work kamping job right away. If possible though I wouldn’t recommend it right out of the gate, since it is stressful enough settling into the lifestyle and I am not sure I would want to commit to a work situation immediately. There always are exceptions of course. Our fellow Class of 2014 graduates Linda and Scott Malchak found a work kamping job in Texas helping create a new campground and they have been there over a year and absolutely love it. She has some great info about the experience on her blog Conservative RV and I really recommend you check it out to get their perspective.

There really is no one true way when it comes to the when, where, and how of work kamping, but I do intend to share my experiences in this area because I do believe they will be a big part of our lives going forward. Please keep a couple of things in mind. This is our experience and depending on your personality and the employer they absolutely will vary. Also, I do not intend to bad mouth any employer in this forum. If something particularly egregious happened I would probably share that, but in general I am a professional person, these are jobs, and I don’t believe any kind of social media is the place for that. Within that context though I will tell my experience as accurately as possible. It will be a balancing act, but I believe I can honestly relay our experience and still remain professional. Also, it’s worth noting that I only say this now because it’s our first job. Our experience so far here in Susanville has been great, just trying to set the stage for future experiences that may not be as good. Anyway, on with the story.

A couple of months ago we had seen a position on the hotline to volunteer as camp hosts on BLM land and not only was the timing right but the location in northern California was perfect. The commitment was only 2 months and after Lee spoke to Stan about the position we thought it would be perfect. It is a volunteer position, which means there is no hourly pay for work performed, but we would get a free full hookup site. Lee really liked the fact that it’s not actually a campground, but a day use location, that opens in the morning and closes in the evening, and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management or BLM. Stan has worked for BLM for over 24 years and is very enthusiastic about what he does. He seemed like a great guy and the work for site tradeoff seemed very fair. Essentially Lee would open the gate at 8am every day, check/clean the restrooms once a day, and walk one mile of the bike trail picking up litter, then shut the gate at sunset. A couple of hours worth of work 5 days a week and we get to stay in a beautiful setting without other campers, for free. One of the good things about waiting until the last-minute to pick up a job is many of the shorter term positions become available. People leave a position or have an emergency and need to be replaced. The negative of course is the additional stress waiting until the last-minute may bring. We decided to wait until the last-minute, although this really isn’t my normal preference, because we were adamant that we did not want to sign up for a 4+ month job right out of the gate as our first experience. Baby steps. Turns out we found something within a couple of weeks on Work Kamper and then found a second volunteer position in the California Redwoods for December by looking at the State of California website. Another good resource for volunteer positions in particular are the Department of Natural Resource websites for each state you are interested in. Although many of their positions may already be filled, and it requires many more emails and phone calls to nail something down, if you are looking for something in a particular area and love state/federal parks this may be something you want to try out. Lee invested several hours with email/phone correspondence before finding and locking down the Redwood job, but hey, it’s the giant ancient redwoods and how cool is that? One more thing I should mention: season really comes into play with these positions. If you are willing to be in an area slightly out of season there is more opportunity. Since we spent 15 years in New Hampshire a little bit of cold weather doesn’t bother us at all, we actually prefer it, and this allows us to be in areas where there are fewer people, hence more positions are available.

But, back to this experience. We arrived in Susanville on Thursday in the late afternoon after a tiring day of driving. The last five miles into town were an 8% down grade. We were looking forward to getting set up in our new site. What we weren’t counting on was the immediate need for orientation and paperwork. Stan had asked us to contact him when we were close and we drove over to the BLM office. Susanville is a very small town (pop 7000) and the BLM office is on the small side. We didn’t think we could fit the rig in the parking lot so drove around to a parking lot nearby and then gave Stan a call. He had us come into the office and gave us an orientation. It was a really good one. Stan introduced us to people, gave detailed explanations on how things would work, where to get our mail, etc, and introduced us to a ton of people. He also told us all about what the Bureau of Land Management does, showed us maps of the area, and gave us some of the history. He’s a very nice guy who is very passionate about the area, we just weren’t expecting all that information coming off several days on the road so we felt a bit overwhelmed by it all. After filling out the paperwork, he led us to our site and as soon as we pulled the truck in proceeded to give us another two-hour orientation on the site itself. He explained the job duties and told us where all the supplies were plus we walked some of the trail so he could show us the other set of restrooms, trash cans, etc. We asked a lot of questions and he assured us that he was available either by phone or in person for any follow-up issues we had and then he left so we could finish setting up. By this time it was getting kind of late and we were bushed, but thankfully we have our basic setup down to a science at this point and I had some easy travel day food that was ready to prepare. It was all worth it though when we had a moment to look at our new home.

This is the “off side” of our camper, which faces the road that comes into the day use site at Hobo Camp, Susanville, CA

The site is very nice. It sits at the top of a canyon, and is well removed from the upper parking area, and several hundred yards from the main day use area, although we can look down on the picnic area, restrooms and parking lot. We have a nice new power pedestal, which includes two 50amp, a 30 amp and a 20 amp hookup. There’s a sewer hookup, and city water. Plenty of space for our car, a nice heavy picnic table, and a fire ring. Plus, there’s quite a bit of seasoned firewood cut and split and stacked, for our use. In the day use area there are several picnic tables and outdoor grills down the hill along with two pit toilets. The main bathrooms and area was very clean when we arrived although the trail itself and second set of bathrooms needed a bit more work. Overall, it just took Lee a few days to get everything ship-shape and organized and so far maintenance from that point on has been pretty easy. We’ve also been visited by several BLM employees who are just checking in to make sure we are doing fine. They had a bit of a problem with the last working couple and want to make sure everything is going well with us. The last folks were a little overzealous with holding people to the rules, including locking someone in the park and refusing to open the gate to let them out, which is one of the reasons why they are no longer here. We just keep reassuring the BLM employees that we can keep an eye on things without going overboard. Once the initial flurry of visits was done, things have been blissfully quiet. The folks who use the park are very nice and have caused no issues at all so far. Having the place all to ourselves every evening is absolutely wonderful. There are a group of college kids who are volunteering as part of a college program starting next week and will be living on site in tents, but for right now it is just us and we are really enjoying the solitude.

View from our camper down the hill

Here’s our camper from the bottom of the hill

Picnic area

Picnic Area

Very nice clean restrooms. Lee says they are barely used

Cliffs across from the creek whete people like to rappel and climb

Cliffs across from the creek where people like to rappel and climb

In addition to the picnic area, the park has the Susan river running through it that some kids swim in, and part of a very nice rails-to-trails bike trail called The Bizz Johnson Trail that goes for over 20 miles. We are only responsible for the trail a quarter-mile in one direction and a half mile in the other, and the walk to look for litter is good exercise. In October there will be some excitement on the trail as it is used as a qualifier for the Boston Marathon. Generally though, aside from the occasional visit by local cross-country teams, the trail is used by people walking their dogs. Out here in the west, dog walking and dog poop is handled differently than back east. The local ordinance says dogs need to “be under control” and voice control counts. Also, people don’t really pick up their dog poop. The first time we walked the trail I was a bit horrified by all the poop on the sides of the trail, but after talking to the BLM maintenance guy about it realized that’s just the local culture. At this point I just shrugged and let it go and I think that is a VERY important point to Work Kamping success. I don’t live here, I am visiting and there is no point in trying to impose my cultural values on other people. It just annoys folks and frankly what right do I have? As long as I am not responsible for cleaning up the mess (which we are not) then let the dog’s poop wherever they want. My job is to maintain the rules and regulations as they exist and in a reasonable way. Period. For example, medical marijuana is legal in California and occasionally people smoke pot in the day area. We talked to the BLM employees about it and they simply ask folks to move farther along the trail and keep it out of the family picnic area. I can see how someone could get a little crazy on this issue, checking cards etc, but really life is too short. If someone complained or I saw an issue I might politely ask them to move down the road, then again I might not. We have the number of Darren the local BLM law enforcement officer and would be more likely to call him or the police if we saw something suspicious.

But that’s all speculative as nothing weird has happened at all. Just people coming in, walking their dogs, and leaving. The most excitement we have had is several new bird sightings, including a covey of California quail (say that three times fast) and watching a family of deer that likes to hang out near our site. We did ask about local wildlife and were told mountain lions are at the top of the food chain here, but there hasn’t been a confirmed sighting in 12 years. When I asked Stan what to do just in case, he said make yourself as large as possible and then said some people take their shirts off and wave them to make themselves even bigger. He said this with all seriousness and I had to bite my lip to not crack up. If I see a mountain lion I do not think I would start stripping under any circumstances, but I did really appreciate the pointer!!

Steller’s Jay

Western Bluebird

Covey of California Quail

Super cute baby likes to hang out near our wood pile

Overall it’s been a terrific start to our first Work Kamping job. We really love the site, the people are very nice, and we are appreciating the solitude. Will keep you updated as things happen, but I totally get why people do this now.

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September 15, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

August Budget 2015

This was supposed to be the first month of truly reduced expenses. Ah, the best laid plans. I am trying hard to be philosophical about it, but it’s tough as every month it seems we have one large expenditure that blows the budget. So we can look at this one of two ways. Either these first year expenses are one time variances and will not be repeated in year 2, or there will always be something in the $500 range every month and the budget needs to be adjusted accordingly. When it comes to the emotional aspects of this lifestyle I am very loose, but when it comes to money the practical side of my brain kicks in and it is all about the cold hard facts. So I will keep reporting the data and you draw your own conclusions, as I will draw mine.

In August we spent $4700 which was $850 over our budget. More than half of this overage was caused by an emergency purchase of a cell phone booster and associated costs. We were in a campground with no cell service and due to work needed to solve that problem immediately. The other major portion was RV Relocation Fuel which went $289 over our monthly budget. The second number doesn’t bother me so much because we understood these costs would vary from month to month and the yearly number is way more important from a budget perspective. Eight months into the year we have used roughly half of our relocation fuel (money used to travel from place to place rather than money used to travel locally once we get their), so I think we are in pretty good shape in this category overall. You would hope that underages in other categories would smooth that out in the overall budget but sadly that was not the case. For a detailed explanation by category, please see below.

Campground Fees – Did as expected in this category. Half of the month was free because it was covered as part of Lee’s working and the rest was spent on campgrounds in and near Glacier. Since we stayed right in Glacier park for a week I think the cost was more than fair. And the state campgrounds were much less expensive than the local private parks.

Groceries – Honestly not sure what happened here other than most of the month was spent with people, which always costs a little more, and more importantly in areas where there was no Wal-Mart. Shopping exclusively at small, local grocery stores does add up and although we had stocked up prior to heading to northern Minnesota, we still had to buy meat and fresh vegetables locally. I really do miss a large freezer for situations like these, but although we have looked at some alternative there at this point it seems more trouble than it would be worth. With just the two of us for the next few months these costs will hopefully realign, and we have made a commitment in September to eliminate as much food waste as possible.

Dining Out – I think we did really good in this category with an overage of $68 considering we were with people for two months. That was largely attributed to one expensive fish dinner with Howard and Linda, which normally we wouldn’t do but I really wanted to try the local fish in Minnesota and there wasn’t really a cheaper alternative.

Entertainment – Again not so bad especially considering we were in Glacier for two weeks. Steve and I spent a lot of time in gift shops, and although the T-Shirts cost me an overage of $50 in the clothing category overall not so bad for a once in a lifetime experience.

Cell Phone – Overage of $30 for August. We will be seeing a $52 overage in this category every month until the end of the year when I adjust the budget, because for work I simply had to break down and get a Verizon phone. We got the cheapest phone and the lowest plan available, but unfortunately cell/data has now jumped to over $400. Since this is also our television solution, it’s not that far off from what most people are paying, but in August we looked at all our options and have decided to stick with this solution for now. Mainly because we use a ton of data and we are grandfathered in on a double data plan with AT&T. Going 100% to Verizon at this point would result in a significant loss of GB per month at roughly the same price.

Gifts – $80 overage in gifts again this month because I sent a friend some flowers for a surgery she was having. Honestly I just don’t know what to do about this category. I feel like we either need to completely be hard-core and eliminate all but the basics or just own it and adjust the budget accordingly. I will decide at the end of the year.

Propane – This was over by $54 because we were camping with no services in Glacier and it was cold. Initially we tried to watch the propane usage, but I finally drew the line at having no power and being cold. This did put us $53 over for the year and more costs will be coming in obviously, but at Lee’s work kamping job he gets a $100 a month propane “gift” which may actually allow us to stay on track in this category. I guess it’s worth mentioning that no services does cost something even with solar and additional propane costs are part of that. Because the campground fees in Glacier were $23 in addition to the higher propane use, it really wasn’t a good deal financially, but hey Glacier…what are you going to do?

Misc – This was travel cash. We haven’t done a great job of capturing all the cash we have spent although we have worked hard to keep it at a minimum and I have certainly tried. Mostly we need cash for farmer’s markets and firewood when we are stationary, which I have been pretty faithful about adding to the budget, but travel days do use cash, so I captured how much we took out this time and even though we didn’t spend it all in this month I am going to take the hit when we take it out of the ATM.

So that’s where we are. We have another set of travel days in September, but then three months without campground fees while we work kamp at two different locations in California (and hopefully no more one time expenses) so maybe finally we can hit a new low in the budget. My overall feeling about the spending is simultaneously feeling I should give us a break in Year 1 and frustration because I wish we were doing better. Can it be done better? Absolutely. Can we do it better? That is yet to be determined. Since I am currently still working full-time, it really is a non-issue as I am making enough money to cover all these costs. If/when that situation changes these numbers become much more serious. We have tried to live as if we didn’t have the money coming in, but of course that’s tough because we have the safety net. I mention this because it’s important to note that we are living within our means. Our income right now is much higher than the average full-timer, so it’s not necessarily representative of the average experience, if there is such a thing. In any event, we will see how it unfolds. Stay tuned.

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September 13, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Hearing Coyotes

We left Glacier on Monday and started to head farther west, to Susanville, California. I was excited about hitting California at last since that put us one step closer to seeing our daughter Kasey and the prospect of getting to be in one place for two solid months, and on full hookups no less, was great. It turned out to be a very emotional day though. I’m not so great with goodbyes and even though we knew we would be seeing Deb and Steve again soon, it was sad for me. And it wasn’t just leaving them. It was leaving the place. Glacier had a tremendous impact on me. It was the kind of place I had only dreamed about when starting this lifestyle, and to leave it for the unknown was tough. So I wasn’t in the best frame of mind when we pulled out, and then I decided that I really needed to drive.

Lee has being doing most of the driving since I have been working in the car and he’s terrific at it, but I want to do my fair share as much as possible. Plus, I need to keep practicing in order to be as self-sufficient as possible. That may be an odd choice of words since we are absolutely a couple when it comes to this lifestyle, but we have never in our life maintained traditional roles and it’s tough for me that this has been so different. Let me take a step back and explain. Throughout our marriage we have often switched roles. I was the primary care giver and Lee worked the travel job when the kids were very small and then we switched later in life and I was the primary wage earner and Lee had a job with flexibility that gave him the time to handle most of the kid things. Lee’s always been a better cleaner than me, he’s always handled the laundry, and I have dealt with insurance, 401K, taxes, etc. At various times in our marriage we have both handled the checking account and budgets and for the first time ever when starting this life we both are doing that together. When you have three kids and two full-time jobs you do a lot of divide and conquer, and consequently we aren’t very good at doing things together despite 25 years of marriage. Now we are trying to do things together and it has caused some conflict along the way. Mainly because Lee seems capable of handling almost any of the aspects of the full-timing lifestyle and I, who consider myself pretty competent person, often find myself floundering. Plus, to be completely honest there is a whole lot of “I don’t want to” going on in my head around dealing with dumping tanks, mechanical issues, and the driving. This “I don’t want to” attitude is amplified by the fact that many people in this lifestyle fall into traditional roles, where the guy handles the outside and the girl handles the inside. Don’t get me wrong, there are advantages. You physically stay out of each others way during the tear down and setup process and it’s certainly more efficient from a time standpoint, at least initially. But it falls into that whole old divide and conquer mentality that we are trying to get away from. And most importantly, I don’t ever want to be in a situation where I am stuck. If something, God forbid, happens to Lee, I need to be able to function. I suppose I could call Greg, Bill, or Steve and say “Hey, can you fly to where I am and drive me to somewhere with full hookups until I figure this all out?,” But seriously, I am a smart, capable woman and no matter how intimidated I am, I never want to be in that situation.

Sorry, went kind of afield on this one. Anyway, driving is a part of that and although I am very comfortable with driving on flat roads, I haven’t done much on hills. So we were coming down out of Glacier and I kept thinking “on the first break we will switch and I will drive”. Well let me say the road was scary. It’s twisty with some steep grades and I started to get more and more nervous. All of this is happening in my head, I am not talking at all to Lee and then at the first break I just started crying. Needless to say he is pretty caught off guard and we talked about it. He didn’t think it was a great idea for me to practice driving on these particular hills either, but I absolutely hated the idea of not trying simply because I was scared. I won’t bore you with the whole conversation but suffice it to say he was pretty great about it, and he got us through the worst of it and then stopped the truck and had me take over. It still wasn’t easy, but less terrifying, and Lee sat and very calmly talked me through it. As a side note this is a huge advantage of only having one vehicle. I drove for about 1-1/2 hours, and largely did OK as he taught me how to allow the engine to do most of the braking for me. I’m not going to say I ever felt comfortable, but I certainly was no longer terrified at the end, and I feel somewhat confident that I could drive my way out of a hilly terrain situation. Anything more extreme, I need more practice for, but it’s a start.

The foothills and lake I drove around. Very windy road in and out of several small towns. I would love to say I enjoyed the view, but I was way too focused on what I was doing.

Lee has planned our trip to Susanville in 5-6 hour driving blocks (which always seems to come closer to 7 hours with the stops) and our first night we stopped at Thompson Falls State Park. The campground was recommended by Deb and Steve, and I only say that because it is interesting how different experiences can vary. The park was practically empty and since it was raining most of the time we were there we didn’t really get to see anything. It is a small park and along the river, but I found it to be somewhat depressing. There was a train track pretty close by, and the campground had no services of any kind. Plus it was kind of pricey at $28 and for me had a gentle air of neglect. I freely admit my experience was tinged by my overall state of mind, but I wouldn’t stay there again. To be fair though, Deb and Steve spent several days there and really liked it.

Pretty view of the river at Thompson Falls. The campground itself though was not my favorite.

The next day I was happy to leave, and we started out, soon hitting Idaho. I have been to Boise and really liked it and Idaho is definitely on my list of places to spend some time, but driving through the panhandle of Idaho is very hairy. There were several steep hills and one in particular that had a 6% grade and a 25 mph speed limit since it was so twisty turning. Even Lee was sweating it a little and I thought no way would I drive that particular stretch of road again. There are tons of campgrounds along the Snake river though and we saw lots of RV’s despite it being slightly out of season. We think it must be a great place to fish plus there are gold mines still in operation in the hills. It was interesting, mainly because we were roughly following the same trail Lewis and Clark took, but nothing I saw along the way made me want to stop and stay awhile. It was good when we hit Washington finally, because the roads got much better and the landscape started to broaden out a bit. We stopped at our very first Corps of Engineers park in Plymouth, Washington.

People have been raving about Corps of Engineer parks since we started the lifestyle and we have been eager to stay in one. They are reasonably priced, well laid out (sure engineers designed them), and overall considered the best for a place to stay if you run across one. I hate to say that my first COE experience was a bit disappointing. Yes, the park was easy to get in and out of, but again it had an air of neglect to it. There was a ton of dog poop in the field behind where we were, and although it was along a river you couldn’t actually see it because it was so overgrown by shrubs. There was also no access to the water that I could see so when I walked down to the edge the best I could see was the picture below. I was thrilled to have some services though and we hooked up to water and electric for the first time in weeks. We were also excited to see there was a sewer hook-up at the site, but when Lee inquired about it, turns out many of the sewer hookups are “broken” and our site was one of them. If this would have been a regular campground, I am sure my standards wouldn’t have been so high, but after all the hype it was a bit of a let down. The coolest part of the whole stay was the beautiful sunset we saw and for the first time I heard coyotes howling in the distance. That is an eerie sound and more than anything made me realize we were in the West now.

“View” of the river from Plymouth Park

Sunset, colors not enhanced

The next day the terrain really started to change and it was definitely more arid. I had heard that the eastern part of Washington, Oregon, and California was more arid and that was definitely the case. My experiences with Oregon and California have all been coastal so it was hard to reconcile what I was seeing with my view of those states as lush and green. In parts it was pretty though, but overall not my favorite terrain. I am hoping to like the desert when we get there, but this is not what I consider true desert, but rather arid landscape with lots of dead plants in it. It’s obvious there has been a drought, and I understand why there have been so many fires because all the vegetation was painfully dry. I did enjoy parts of Oregon though, particularly the Bend area. We stayed right outside of Bend in LaPine State Campground. LaPine was really nice. They have over 125 sites in multiple loops, over 80 with full hookups. Nice separation between sites and although it was wooded, it was not terribly overgrown. Several hiking trails, close to Bend which is a cool little town, and by far the nicest place we stayed on this trip. I thought the price was reasonable at $26 a night and although cell service for AT&T and Verizon was on the weak side we were able to get service with our booster. The only negative part of the experience was when we switched sites to a pull through. We checked with the hosts who were fine with it and moved to an available site that was a bit larger. We were just hooked up when a Class A drove up and a woman got out and said we were in her site. Apparently they had reserved the site for two days, missed yesterday’s date, but were here today. She was adamant that we were going to need to move, and frankly I was not in the mood for this. There were 40 other sites open in the place and the sign on the site we took had said it was available. She and I were about to square off over it, when thankfully her husband walked up and said he would look for another site. Full on rudeness is not something I have to deal with much in this lifestyle, but obviously it does happen. And I have zero patience for an entitlement attitude, which was coming off her in waves. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and they moved two spots down to an almost identical spot and we were able to relax for the evening.

The next day we finally hit California. For the first time we had to stop at a mandatory checkpoint for both RV’s and Trucks. We were asked a cursory question about whether we were carrying fresh fruit, the answer was no as we had used the bananas up the other night, and were on our way. This part of California is also extremely arid and I could see the results of them being in such a bad drought. Now I know little about farming or the drought conditions, but I will say we saw numerous farms growing hay in August and they were using a serious amount of water to keep their fields green. Again, I am sure there are two sides to this story, but the contrast between the near desert-like ground that was not being tended and the green fields was a little startling. When we hit the Modoc Forest area though the landscape really changed. We were in rolling hills again and lots of evergreens. It was still incredibly dry though and we we were a little concerned when we saw a helicopter flying overhead carrying a large bucket underneath. We have never been exposed to forest fires like this, and when we saw the road was partially closed got concerned. It would have been extremely difficult to turn around, but luckily the firemen were on the job and they were close to putting out a fire that was right next to the road. There were at least 30 of them and I wanted to stop and thank them for their courageous service but of course we needed to keep driving as they were still working. We all know what a courageous job they have done this summer but seeing them at work, covered with soot was humbling. We all enjoy our park system and the work they have done to keep areas safe and open has been extraordinary.

Thanks to them we safely made it through Modoc Forest and then finally to Susanville. I will cover our arrival in my next post, but we are safe and sound and decompressing from our month of boondocking and traveling. Overall, at this point I would say that although Glacier was the experience of a lifetime, getting there and leaving was on the stressful side. Hopefully we will get better at moving around so much, but at this point I still prefer staying in a place for longer stints of time. We will see how I feel though after having exhausted everything to do in the Susanville area, but for right now I am really glad to be in one place and with full hookups.

Campground Reviews

Thompson Falls State Park Thompson Falls, MT 2 out of 5 pine cones

Very small state campground with 18 sites and no services. Some sites were very large and there was decent separation between sites. There is a train track nearby and a road, and there was some road noise and train noise. Dense tree cover, which is not optimal for solar, and the toilets are pit toilets. $28 a night when we stayed there. They have shelters and some group tent camping areas, but charge premium prices for them. It is on a beautiful river with a boat doc and there was a camp host who politely greeted us when we arrived, but the campground had a feeling of neglect. Close to a small town with some stores, but ATT and Verizon coverage was very weak.

Plymouth Park COE Campground Plymouth Park, WA 3 out of 5 pine cones

Multiple pull through sites with electric and water. Great pads with nice picnic tables and fire pits. There is a day use area with beach and boat launch, but no access to the river near the campground. Close to a small town and near a road with some traffic. Lots of dog poop throughout the grass area and the view of the river is totally obscured by overgrown shrubs and trees. Very strong Verizon and AT&T signal. $24 a night. Two sets of camp hosts on site who were friendly and obviously keeping a good eye on the campground. Fine for an overnight stay, but I wouldn’t choose to spend several days here.

LaPine State Campground 15800 State Rec RD, Bend OR 4 out of 5 pine cones

They have over 125 sites in multiple loops, over 80 with full hookups. Nice separation between sites and although it was wooded, it was not terribly overgrown. Several hiking trails, close to Bend which is a cool little town, and by far the nicest place we stayed on this trip. I thought the price was reasonable at $26 a night and although cell service for AT&T and Verizon was on the weak side we were able to get service with our booster. They would be a 5 but their reservation system is a little goofy and we had a problem with a site being double booked while we were there. I really liked it though and would go back for a longer stay.

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September 9, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Staying on the East Side of Glacier

On Wednesday we took our time moving from Fish Creek to the St. Mary’s campground on the East side of Glacier. It was Deb’s idea to split our vacation week between two different campgrounds in Glacier, and it was a good one. Not only did we get to experience both sides of the park, but the two campgrounds had a totally different look and vibe. St. Mary’s is very open, good for solar, and has an absolutely breathtaking view of the mountains from almost every site.

View from our site. The clouds are obscuring the mountains, but when they cleared…WOW!

Plus, bears. Yes, the campground is full of “service berry” bushes and the bears just love to munch on them. We got a very serious talk on bear safety when we arrived, and throughout our stay there were numerous bear sightings by rangers and fellow campers, throughout the campground. In fact, our original sites that we reserved were in a loop that they closed due to excessive bear activity! We didn’t see the bears initially as they come into the campground at dusk and dawn, but you could hear horns from parts of the campground whenever they were seen. The rangers use negative conditioning; loud noises and if necessary shooting them with a bean bag gun, which doesn’t hurt so much as irritate them, but the bears couldn’t resist the berries and just kept coming back. I have to be honest, I was incredibly unsettled. It’s one thing to be on a hike or wilderness and be “Bear Aware” but to have to worry about it when you step outside your rig is a different story. Our site, Loop C #107 was on bear path central and we saw pretty big piles of bear poop everywhere.

This was two steps away from our stairs. See the berries in it?

Service berry bushes everywhere

This nice big present was next to our rig one morning…unnerving.

Wednesday, we got settled into the area and went to the local grocery store. It was a small one and the prices were absolutely crazy but they did have some outstanding Huckleberry ice cream which sort of made up for it. Steve and I are obsessed with Huckleberries and tried everything we could find that had Huckleberries in it. It turns out because of the fires the crop had been small this year and the prices were $75 a quart so everything huckleberry had a high price (ie: $45 for a whole pie) , but we didn’t care. We were huckleberry crazy. Plus Steve shares my love of a good gift shop and there are many of them on the Eastern Glacier side, so we munched and shopped our way through East Glacier. In our defense, we kind of had to because the weather turned. It rained on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and although we would go out and see things during the lighter rain periods we weren’t up for doing any big hikes. The rain actually caused tons of snow up in the mountains and my pictures changed from rocky tops, to snow-capped mountains as the week went on. Poor Deb, who just wanted to go on hikes, had the worst of it, but it was no picnic for Lee and I either. For the first time we had limited battery power, no internet, and very cold rainy temps. We actually talked about moving on at one point, that is what the lifestyle is about after all, but Lee wanted to wait it out, so we stayed. I am glad we did, because despite the crappy weather we managed to squeeze a few things in and they finally lifted the fire ban so the last two nights we got to have a campfire with Steve and Deb. As a side note, Steve and Deb stayed an extra day and on Monday they finally got to do the hike she wanted to Iceberg Lake. It was 5 miles each way through Grizzly country and they had a wonderful time, but you’ll need to read Deb’s blog to get the details on that!

Anyway, I’m jumping ahead.

Thursday was the best day and we decided to get breakfast first. This really great local diner had huckleberry pancakes for $4.95 and the absolute best bacon I have ever had in my life. That’s saying something since I love my bacon, but it was thick and local Montana bacon and so yummy. Our waitress was also very friendly and we talked to her about Many Glacier versus Two Medicine. When she said Two Medicine was the less visited I got interested. When she said there were some great falls there, I was sold.

The Park Cafe

Huckleberry Pancake

Totally yummy Montana bacon

We headed out straight from breakfast in the hopes of beating the worst of the rain and drove to Two Medicine. Along the way we stopped to take some pictures of the lake and I saw two white crosses down a hill. We walked down a path and saw the crosses with bronze plaques on them stating that members of the Blackfeet tribe had their ashes scattered there. It was a beautiful place and I can see why there families chose it.

I absolutely loved Two Medicine. The drive was great and a short walk down a flat nature trail took us to some of the most unusual falls I have ever seen. Running Eagle Falls was named after a real Native American Woman who was a warrior for the Blackfeet tribe. This is very unusual and because her spirit quest took place on top of the falls they have been named for her. What is unusual about the falls is no water comes from the top. Instead the water comes from underground and out of the falls. We actually met a young man who was there spreading his best friends ashes on the site and he told us he had been up top many times and it is just a rocky field. Really neat experience and I really liked the nature trail itself which had signs showing how the local tribes used various plants and trees for medicinal purpose.

The Story of running eagle

The Running Eagle Nature Trail had several of these

On Friday it rained almost all day and we took the day off. It’s been a lot of running around and I just needed a day to chill. We read a little, watched TV during generator hours, and basically vegged. Unfortunately, Saturday wasn’t much better and our tempers were getting a little frayed. Freezing cold rain has got to be my least favorite weather, I’ll take snow over that any day, and the only thing that salvaged the day was the fact that we finally got to have a fire. We had a tiny break in the rain and started one after dinner which was great, but the night was unfortunately cut short by more rain. We drove over to Many Glacier to check it out and found some really nice falls a short way in. Those pictures turned out fine, but it started to rain harder and despite my umbrella but I was super worried about the camera getting wet. We did stop at the lodge in Many Glacier which has a Swiss Alp theme for some hot drinks and Steve and I enjoyed another really cool gift shop, but the rain cut the day short. The high point of my day was I finally found the perfect Glacier T-Shirt with huckleberries and a snow-covered glacier mountain. As a side note, I have been trying to buy a T-Shirt in every really cool place we have been, with the hopes of eventually making a quilt of my travels. Sue can hopefully teach me how.

Overcast day

More clouds

The Lodge

Deb getting warm by the cool fire pit in the center of the hotel

One bear we saw

More clouds…pretty though.. Lee took this pic

Finally on Sunday things started to clear up. The day dawned bright and we decided to go back to Many Glacier. The skies were clear and we got some beautiful shots plus saw some more bears high on the hill. If you go to Glacier and want to see bears from far away, Many Glacier is the place. Just drive along the road until you see people stopping and looking and have them point out the bears. Both times we went we saw more than one. Nothing as cool as our up close encounters earlier in the week but still neat to see.

The rainbow that greeted us Sunday morning

Much clearer day

Immature Sheep or Goats not 100% sure. I think they are sheep because of their coloring

Another bear

This potential bear caves were really cool

These possible bear caves were really cool

It was a much better day and we had a great dinner of Alligator stuffed chicken. Yes it’s true, Deb and Steve had bought it in Louisiana and cooked it for us, so yummy, and another campfire. Right after dinner I heard a car horn going off and walked down to the rig to get my camera, just in case. There less than 40 feet from me by our rig was a 400 pound grizzly bear. I stood there with my mouth hanging open and I swear he turned his head and smiled at me! Then he ambled on his way straight into a deep bunch of bushes behind our rig. It was an absolutely amazing moment and even though I didn’t have my camera it will forever be etched in my mind.

We had a great time with Steve and Deb and look forward to seeing them in Arizona this winter, but on that high note I was happy to leave Glacier and move on to our next adventure in Susanville, CA. Lee starts his first work kamping job and we get to sit in one place and be on full hookups for two months. Not going to lie, I need a little down time, and although I did better than I thought I could with no hookups for almost a month I am ready for some nice, long hot showers!! Still, I will absolutely miss the view.

Campground Reviews

St. Mary’s Campground St. Mary’s, MT 4 out of 5 pine cones

Outstanding views and clear spaces for solar which is important because there are no services at the site. Water spread throughout the campground. but the pressure was so high it broke our water thief device. Good dump station and very attentive staff. The big draw here is the bears. The campground is full of berry bushes and there were several bear sightings in the campground throughout out stay. One of the loops was even closed due to bear activity. The rangers and hosts keep a close eye on everything, but I would not recommend if you have small children.

Recipe

Skillet Green Beans

1-2 pounds of green beans
4 TBL butter
4-6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
salt
sugar
1/2 cup water

Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat
Add thinly sliced garlic cloves and cook stirring frequently for 2 minutes
Add trimmed green beans and a few pinches of sugar and salt; cook 2 minutes
Add 1/2 cup water, cover, cook until tender about 6 minutes
Uncover and boil until the water mostly evaporates about 1-2 minutes
Serve

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September 7, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Going To The Sun Road

Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day, with blue skies and white puffy clouds. When we saw the weather we immediately changed our plans and decided to drive the Going to the Sun Road again. Wow was this the right decision as with the weather we got some of the most beautiful pictures I have ever taken. I will say this. Once before you die you should be on this road. It is like nothing I have ever seen and if you’re not comfortable driving it, they have multiple car tours that will drive it for you. Plus we had a very close encounter with a bear cub that was amazing. Just the perfect day, but I am definitely going to let these pictures speak for me. Oh and Deb asked me to make the pictures bigger. I may give that a try on some of these …let me know what you think.

As we were going up towards Logan’s Pass a short line of cars was stopped. There was a bear cub walking on the wall and people were trying to give it space but it was incredibly narrow and there was nowhere to go. I was particularly impressed by the motorcyclist who backed up as far as they good. Finally the bear went over the wall and I got some great shots of it with the telephoto lens. Very cool!!

Motorcyclist backing up

Bear on the wall

We got some great shots of vistas that were partially obscured the last time we came. It’s definitely worth doing this on more than one day and make sure you drive it both ways as the views change with the light and atmospheric conditions.

Loved this rock, looks like an ice cream scoop carved it out

Nice shot of one of the glacier’s

The waterfalls were running because we had some rain

The parking lot at Logan’s Pass was too full to stop so we drove right past it to a pull off and Lee found us this great place to eat right by a waterfall.

After lunch we were in uncharted territory and headed down into East Glacier. I was surprised by how different the landscape looked and although I think I enjoyed the views in West Glacier more, East Glacier has more hiking trails that go to the glaciers and more bear activity, but more about that in later posts.

Great waterfall right off the road where Steve got wet 🙂 Love his adventuresome spirit

Great views of the sunlight glinting off the glacier

We enjoyed the ride and took the road all the way to the end. On the way we saw our first fire damage, which we found out later had happened about a month ago. It was good to see the forest coming back, but sad to see so much damage. The water in the background is St. Mary’s lake and is absolutely beautiful.

At the end of the road we checked out the campground we would be staying at starting Wednesday. When we got there we were told because of high bear activity they had closed our loop and we would need to move to C. There were only 4 spaces that would accommodate our Open Range or Deb and Steve’s Montana, but we found ones that worked (again more on that later). We also discovered absolutely no ATT, so we had no data for several days which is why this post is so delayed. I’ve been taking pictures like mad though, and if you’ve been reading for a while I am sure you know I hate to get this far behind, so I will playing catch-up as we travel to Susanville, California for Lee’s first Work Kamping job. Anyways, it was an absolutely fantastic day and we were all so glad we took advantage of it because the weather was never this nice again. They actually got some snow in Logan’s pass and closed it for two days the following week, so my best advice is whatever you have planned, rearrange it and spend the nicest day on the Going to The Sun Road. You won’t regret it.

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September 2, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Real Hike in Glacier

I should start this post by saying I have taken many a wander in the woods in my life, but really only been on a few hikes. The difference in my mind is when you need to “pack up”. Since Deb has been hiking her entire adult life, I really wanted to try it with her and Steve and she picked an “easy” hike to start. Be really careful here. Everyone’s rating system is very relative and what’s easy for some, not so easy for beginners. Plus of course your physical state comes into play so for a couple of out-of-shape smokers the bar for easy is pretty low. Also for me the content of the hike is important. I have no interest in hiking for the sake of hiking. I am trying to get to the thing I want to see and hiking is a necessary evil to get there. This may change as we get more experience, or maybe not I only went diving to see the fish, but when your reading this I wanted you to understand the perspective I am coming from.

First I wanted to share what we put in our pack. Most things in my pack came from discussions with Linda, but I have thrown a few extra things in for my comfort. Ask 20 people what to put in a pack and you’ll get 20 different opinions, so my overall thought here is put what you can comfortably carry and what gives you peace of mind. So I carry a “pee pack” which has a Ziploc bag, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, and emergency feminine products. I have at least two power bars, waterproof matches, a compass, water purifying pills, and a mosquito head net. Also a first aid kit I made up that includes antiseptic, band aids, an ace bandage, ibuprofen, and cortisone cream. All of these things are probably overkill to some, but they weigh next to nothing and give me peace of mind. I’ve added two items that are a little bulkier that I am still on the fence about but for now we carry a cold compress and a fingertip wire saw. Here’s how I look at it. What would I need if someone was injured and we had to stay in a location for a while until help came. Is it likely? Absolutely not, but the extra pound or two is worth the peace of mind. The big weight items are lunch, bottles of water, and the camera with extra lens. I drink one 8oz bottle of water per two miles, so we definitely are going to need to get camel backs (back packs that have a water pouch in them) for longer trips. I have carried this pack once and Lee has carried it on another. We split the waters between us and whoever isn’t carrying the pack carries the camera. We absolutely haven’t figured all this out yet, but know we need better packs if we are going to do longer hikes.

So now that I have set the stage on with the hike. Avalanche Lake Trail is on the west side of Glacier and one of the most popular hikes. It starts out as the Trail of Cedars loop trail, which has a beautiful boardwalk and is wheelchair accessible. So you really get two trails for the price of one and if you don’t like to hike the Trail of the Cedars is definitely worth doing in and of itself.

Getting ready to enter the trail

Waterfall on Trail of the Cedars

Deep pool of super clear water at base of falls

As you are going along the Trail of the Cedars loop you will see a sign for Avalanche Lake Trail. This is a 4 mile round trip hike that I found moderately difficult because the trail was rough (roots and stones) and there were some points where the incline was on the steep side for me. BUT, you can go up the trail less than 1/4 mile and see this wonderful gorge. This part of the hike most people can do and there is no reason you can’t see the gorge and then turn around and go back to the Trail of the Cedars.

Loved this cut out the water had made over time

See the rock formations in the back so beautiful

I would love to tak credit for this pic but the settings were wrong on the camera and it was completely a happy accident

I would love to take credit for this pic but the settings were wrong on the camera and it was completely a happy accident

If you are able, you can keep going and hike to the Avalanche lake. The whole middle section of that trail is deep woods, which was interesting, but not interesting enough to take my mind off the hiking (just being honest here), but the end…well the end was like nothing I have ever seen in my life. When we got to the end I thought this is like childbirth. Painful, but so worth it at the end. So since I can’t possible explain what we saw in words, I am going to take you on a picture tour of the hike. These are in order so you can see it as I saw it.

The deep woods of the middle part of the trail

Avalanches cause these trees to fall every year

When I was close to my limit we saw this

When we turned the corner this is what we saw. Words and pictures simply do not do it justice

Many waterfalls on the back rock wall

Lee walked over to a log, closed his eyes, and simply absorbed the moment

The lake had a pink shore from all the rocks and turquoise water…so beautiful

Life always finds a way

When we sat down to eat lunch these cute little guys wanted a bite

Steve enjoying the views

It was 360 beautiful as this was the place we had come in

me, Lee, Deb, and Steve. It was windy so I definitely recommend ear protection

We walked all the way along the beach back to closer to the falls

This is where it got funny. We thought we might be able to make it through the woods and see the falls, so we picked a path and started in. By the way, this is not recommended as bears could absolutely have been in the dense woods. Lee actually took the lead though and we all sang songs to frighten the bears away. My favorite was when Steve, Deb, and I sang ACDC’s “You Shook me all Night Long.” Must have worked as we saw no animals, but unfortunately we couldn’t make our way all the way to the other side and finally turned back.

We walked along these rocks but there is also a path which I do recommend

The path we started on at the back of the lake

This is as close as we could get

The guys put their hand over the end and tried to get us to keep going

It was a beautiful ending to a tough hike and I definitely recommend it if you think you can do it. I am very grateful to Deb planning this and being so understanding about our pace. Also, to see something like that, off the beaten trail…well words cannot describe the blessing of that moment.

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August 31, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Seeing a Grizzly Bear

So funny story, there is more cell coverage in this beautiful National Park than their was in that crappy State Park we stayed in. But I am jumping ahead. Despite the stress of last week we did really have a good time with our friends Deb and Steve and Mario and Ellen. Every night we got together for joint meals and I was amazed at how easy feeding everyone was. We fell into an easy rotation where each couple took the main meal one night and then one other person provided a side of one kind to help. Lee and I love eating other people’s food and since Mario and Deb are such great cooks it was a really nice food week. Also it was great to reconnect with our Dreamers friends. Of the original group that got together at the RV-Dreams rally in 2014, Ellen and Mario were the last to go on the road, as she was waiting to retire. She’s a month in, and they are having a really good time, but still working through some of the mechanics of living in a rig. Even though they are long-time RVers it is very different living full-timing in an RV than taking long vacations and since we all learn from each other, it was great to share stories and advice. Ellen and Mario are headed to Yosemite while Deb, Steve, Lee, and I move on to more of Glacier, and I was so glad to spend time where our paths crossed and get to know them better. I learned how to use my timer on my camera for the shot below and thought the goofiness captured the spirit of the fun we all had together!

Ellen, Mario. Lee, me, Steve. and Deb being silly

Saturday, Steve and I were both off work, and since checkout time at the state park was at 1 pm we could really take our time. Lee and I actually prepped the night before, and went to a few stores in the morning. When it turns cold in the northern states, lots of products we used go on clearance, and since you can never have enough bug spray in this lifestyle we use this as a chance to stock up. So we bought lots of bug spray and new metal tiki torches at Target (on clearance) and then went to several stores looking for a new percolator. The boon docking overall has gone much better than I expected but we only have a small, cheapie camp style percolator for coffee in the mornings that I have to use a pot holder to pick up since the “handle” is just a ring that gets very hot. Since we love our morning coffee I really wanted to get this problem solved before tackling the next week. Unfortunately although they had them online we didn’t have much luck at Target, Walmart, or Bed Bath and Beyond so Lee finally recommended Cabela’s. Wow, was that ever a good choice. Not only did we find an awesome percolator I also finally found my perfect camp chair. The people who have hung out with me around a campfire know I have been in search of the perfect fold-up chair for over a year now. We started with the gravity chairs (which Lee loves and I hate) and have been limping along with canvas chairs we bought over 15 years ago. We spend quite a bit of time around campfires and for me, the chair matters. So I was $97 poorer, but richer in quality product when we left Cabela. Even though I am budget conscious, some things are just worth a little extra money, and I don’t regret these two purchases at all. On a side note, as I am linking these products I notice the online price was a little cheaper for the chair. I didn’t price match, because they were Cabela brand, but I bet I could have saved $10 if I would have used Red Tag. I really need to get into the habit of using that app!

Awesome rubber handle and large coffee holder capacity. (The image does not indicate proper usage of the percolator. Even a moron knows that’s not how you make coffee.-Lee)

Hard arms that flip up and a cool cup holder that swivels out on the bottom

When we came back, Steve and Deb were finishing their prep to leave, and we spent the last 30 minutes hitching up, etc. Coordinating with another couple on travel day could be stressful, and we have never actually followed another camper before to the next campsite, but Steve and Deb are very relaxed on travel day. I chalk it up to lots and lots of experience because they have moved quite a bit more than us over the last year on the road, and from the outside looking in, they have a very nice system. We are still working out the kinks in our routing, but we are definitely getting there, and we all stopped together at the local Cenex to dump and take on propane and fresh water. The campground we’re heading to has a dump station, and this is definitely dealer’s choice, but I like to dump prior to making the drive just in case you get to your destination and there is a problem. I just find it less stressful in general and Lee is fine either way so if possible we dump before leaving our current stay. The drive to Fish Creek Campground in Glacier was pretty short and we got there comfortably around 3pm. How different from Whitefish Lake!!

Lake McDonald next to campground

Lake McDonald

Cool rock circle someone made on the lakeshore

Huge downed tree we were fascinated by

Lee walked it, was around 75 feet long

Even though the park was very full, it was blessedly quiet, and the treed spaces give an illusion of privacy although you are very close to people. Plus 3 bars of AT&T and Verizon!! You wouldn’t believe the lengths Steve and I went to with our jobs to be totally disconnected for 10 days and it turns out wasn’t necessary. Crazy, and I have to say I am relieved, because we’re not crazy about the kids and our parents not having access to us for such a long period of time. We were in site B89 and Deb and Steve are in B92 across from us and although the pull through circular sites are a tight fit, we both got our 40 foot rigs in with minimal maneuvering. Unfortunately, we are still under a campfire ban, those poor tent campers are seriously hardy since night temps are down in the 50’s, but the solar is working very well. I should mention that Greg from RV Solar Solutions designed a solar solution for us that worked with our budget and our projected solar needs. So far it has worked out very well, and we have been doing a lot of experimenting on how long we can run certain items on solar. Yes, they are friends of ours, but believe me, I would have been mad if I was having major issues, but so far the system has been rock solid. All systems do require a learning curve though, who knew a toaster would suck up so much juice?, and we are using this time to learn. So far we have had excess capacity every night, except the one time we didn’t run our generator in the evening. Speaking of generators, our is propane and we used 3 tanks of propane in a 10 day boon docking period. That’s not awful, but Steve has the small gas-powered external generators and those seem to be more efficient. The major advantage to ours though is it can generate up to 50 amps whereas Steve’s can only do 15 (30 amp if he strings two together.) Anyway, it’s going pretty well, but this campground has very restricted generator hours. Essentially they are during meal times 8-10am, 12-2pm, and 5-7pm. The one time Steve didn’t turn his off on time he had a ranger knocking on his window at 7:02pm They take the generator hours very seriously here! I like it from a peace and quiet standpoint, but it can get a bit tricky if you are out all day, it kind of forces you to be back at the campsite from 5-7 and then really conserve for the evening hours.

We were all very happy though, and wanted to get out into the park right away. It was very smoky coming in, but Saturday night called for rain and we were all hoping that that would disperse some of the smoke. Months ago I saw a picture on Pinterest of “Pebble Lake” in Glacier and that was a must do for me. There actually isn’t a Pebble Lake here, but after some Google research Deb and I discovered the picture was taking at Kintla Lake. This lake is on the West side of the park and requires driving up a dirt road but we were all up for it. We took off at 9am, they were actually 2 minutes early gotta love that, and started the drive. The Inside North Fork Road was closed for a stretch so we were forced to the Outside North Fork Road but it was still beautiful. We had Glacier on one side and Flathead National Forest on the other. In any other place Flathead would have been amazing, but when you can look at Glacier by just turning your head it certainly came off as a poorer cousin. The houses that had both views though, one from the rear and the other from the front, were in an amazing spot.

Glacier Mountains

Flathead Mountains

Saw several of these signs along the way

The road less traveled

Lots of creeks and meadows, clouds were beautifully smoke free

It was a beautiful morning, with the best visibility we have had, so we took our time stopping whenever we wanted along the way. I loved that the views kept changing. Fire had come through here in the past and we saw the forest in varying stage of regrowth along with some beautiful prairies. This is how I always pictured Montana in my head and wow it was stunning.

Kintla Glacier close up

Kintla Peak and Kintla Glacier

The road by the way is variable. Some is paved, some is oiled dirt, and the closer you get to the Canadian border the rougher it gets. It was definitely manageable in our truck though and we saw several smaller cars going by. It is super bouncy towards the end though, which is kind of a good thing because it forces you to slow down and really look around. We were all on animal lookout of course, and Steve was dying to see a grizzly bear. We had made a joke that he tipped the ranger $15 to see a bear and kind of our running theme was “would we see bears?”. As we were driving along and looking at the beautiful views we came upon a really nice house, at a point in the trip where for a handful of miles it was private property as opposed to public land. There were some private residences on the edges of Glacier and as we were looking at one of the driveways I saw what I thought was two bear statues or plywood cutout silhouettes. After my brain registered what I was actually seeing, I told Lee to stop, and he backed up, and holy cow there were two huge grizzlies right in the driveway!!! They were looking straight at us from about 75 feet away and they stayed for a while until Steve got out of his truck upwind from them and they decided to wander off. It was truly truly an amazing moment, one I will cherish forever, and I definitely felt it was the universe’s way of saying, “yes this is tough but look at what you get to see…you are on the right path.”

My favorite pic

We think the little one smelled Steve 🙂 Only partially kidding here they have an amazing sense of smell and as soon as he got out of his truck it turned towards him.

Lifting it’s nose for a sniff. They moved off shortly thereafter

Closeup of the big one

You can clearly see the hump of the back which shows it's a grizzly

You can clearly see the hump on the back which shows it’s a grizzly.

A big clump of what I think was bear hair I saw much later in the day., I got out to check it and it feels like human hair

A big clump of what I think was bear hair I saw much later in the day. I got out to look and it felt like human hair.

The lodge that initially caught my attention. Nice view :)

The lodge that initially caught my attention. The bears were on the driveway

Since mating occurs between May and Mid-July (we think and) the mother’s and cubs stay together 2-3 years we think it was a mother and an older cub. This was a really great sighting because according to Western Wildlife.org “Grizzly bears have one of the slowest reproductive rates among terrestrial mammals, due to their late age of first reproduction, small average litter size, and the long interval between litters: it may take a single female 10 years to replace herself in a population.” All of us were incredibly excited and I was so happy that my hands stayed steady enough on super zoom to get the shot. In that moment, I felt really calm and very focused. And as Deb said, “That made our Glacier.” Not only did we get to experience it, but we got to do it with our really good friends. Plus Steve’s $15 tip really worked lol. That’s only $7.50 a bear…a bargain at any price! (I am kidding about the tip of course)

You might think the rest of the day was anticlimactic, but it was great in different ways. First we stopped at this little town called Polebridge (when I say town I mean 5 buildings and a street, and checked out their bakery and gift store. Steve and I are addicted to Huckleberry Bear Claws and these were amazing. Really cute store and we loved the little town in the middle of nowhere. Plus pastry yummy.

The one store

Working phone and mailbox

Little bit of everything and their prices were decent

Deb and Steve checking it out

I loved the individual bandaids for sale

Lee loved the lending library

Polebridge, definitely worth a stop

After leaving the town we also saw 6 deer at various stages along the road. The sixth was a cool buckling but I didn’t get a picture of it.

Lee’s picture, how awesome is that

In the meadow

Another pair in the woods

After another hour or so of we came to Kintla Lake. It was beautiful but unfortunately overcast by this time and I really wanted a picture with the sun out. We had a snack and watched the lake and Steve intentionally waited until we got a little break in the clouds and I got a few shots with the sun. Very sweet of him. We also saw what I think was an Osprey across the lake on the outer edges of my zoom limit. My favorite part of the lake and adjoining campground was it allowed no motorized boats and all the campers had tents. Even the camp host was in a tent, albeit a nice one. We were only 14 miles from the Canadian border and felt really remote, but it was nice to have a bathroom accessibly, lol. I took about a million rock pictures, I really do love rocks, and made another major check off my RV bucket list. If you come for Glacier I highly recommend staying at Fish Creek and making this drive. It’s long but so worth it, and if you have the chance do it with friends because it makes the experience so much more special.

Kintla Lake view to the right

The view to the left

Favorite rock shot

So much variety in the types of rocks

I could have taken pictures of rocks all day 🙂

With the occasional bird thrown in!!

So we headed back after a full day for some yummy steak dinner and a few games of Qwerkle. Next up: some hikes Deb has scheduled for us and hopefully some more animal sightings. So far this is a fantastic trip and I can’t wait to see what happens next!! And on a completely side note, our friends Bill and Kelly just completed their one year on the road. Here’s the link to an absolutely fantastic write up of their first year. She did a great job and congratulations you guys!!

Campground Reviews

Fish Creek Campground West side of Glacier National Park 4 out of 5 pine cones

Even though the park was very full, it was blessedly quiet and the treed spaces give an illusion of privacy although you are very close to people. We were in site B89 and Deb and Steve are in B92 across from us and although the pull through circular sites are a tight fit we both got our 40 foot rigs in with minimal maneuvering. Dump station and solid Verizon and AT&T coverage. restricted generator hours. Essentially they are during meal times 8-10am, 12-2pm, and 5-7pm. Well kept, well-managed, Showers available but only in Loop A which is a 5 minute walk for those in other loops. Keep in mind you need to by a $30 seven day parks pass (on top of your $23 a night fee), but we recommend the $80 America the Beautiful pass which is good for one year on all federal land.

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