Tag: camping

Kansas – Here We Come

What’s the Matter with Kansas?

I really didn’t know much about Kansas – other than the Wizard of Oz farm, that my cousins and aunt and uncle once lived there, and that there was a book published in the early 2000s called What’s the Matter with Kansas?. Oh! And Kansas was also featured on the HBO series Somebody Somewhere, which I highly recommend.

I did know that I had a co-worker who lived in Topeka and who recently got married, and I thought it was a perfect stop for our first overnight on the way to our first destination after MN.

So, we set off on Tuesday, December 12, to find out if there was anything the matter with Kansas after all – at least in Topeka. It was a relatively uneventful trip with our new tires and heading south into warmer temperatures. By the time we made it to Topeka, it was almost 60 degrees, which felt amazing after MN’s teen temps.

One of the things that I was very conscious of was being safe when staying overnight as I travel. I had read numerous posts in online groups of solo travelers, sharing about uncomfortable situations when overnighting at big gas stations like Love’s or Walmart parking lots or outside of Cracker Barrels. While it’s generous of these establishments to offer the space, the idea of them was not super comfortable, so I sought alternative options and came across Boondockers Welcome / Harvest Hosts. One of the great things about Boondockers Welcome is that some of the places offer hook-ups, and since the night’s were chilly, it also felt comforting to know that we could have electricity.

So, outside of Topeka, we went to our first Boondockers Welcome host’s home. It was off the beaten path, and we were hosted by a lovely couple who greeted us and made sure we were all connected to power and safe. It was the perfect first experience. Because every host is different, it’s hard to know what to expect, but we couldn’t have asked for a better first place.

The view from my Boondockers Welcome host's home.

Once we were all settled in, my co-worker and his lovely bride stopped by and picked me up. We headed into downtown Topeka for dinner and ended up at a Mediterranean restaurant called Olive Cafe on Kansas Avenue. Dinner was tasty – especially the baklava. We also went for chocolates at Hazel Hill Chocolate – this place was divine. We each got our own boxes of chocolates, and the young man who was helping us told me he made the toffee I picked himself. They also had a huge selection of chocolate- and caramel-covered apples that would’ve been a meal within itself, but I didn’t indulge this time.

Because my co-worker and his wife know that I’m on a search for my unicorn, forever city, they made a solid pitch for Topeka. We drove through some neighborhoods and went to the Topeka Public Library, which was amazing. While we walked around the library, we talked about Kansas and the different political climates, the housing prices, the beautiful sunsets, and the general feel of the state. Because they had both lived in other places, they had great perspectives on the area in contrast to other places they’d lived. It definitely rates a trip back and a longer stay.

A Hallmark of My Journey

Over time, the idea of this journey seemed like it could be more than just finding our forever home / city / state. I thought it could be a chance to reconnect with family and friends. So, when I posted about our blog on Facebook and Instagram, my intention was to try to connect with as many people that I could – face-to-face – wherever I went. I think, as a someone who works remotely, I feel connection with my co-workers, but I do recognize that it’s different than being in an office space where you might walk to lunch together or go out for a happy hour.

On the way to Kansas, I stopped in Worthington to have a quick visit with a high school friend who I haven’t seen in years. She’s one of those friends with whom you can just pick up from where you are today because you’ve endured so much together that nothing is harder than where you’ve been. That sunny, cold Tuesday was no different. She took time out of her day, and we talked for an hour about as much as we could and as fast as we could. It was rejuvenating just to be the two of us again, but now as adults – no longer the kids we were when we were trying to navigate adult things back in the day.

I was lucky enough to have a similar experience when I was in MN in May of 2023 with another high school friend. The three of us used to run cross country and track together, and there’s something about running with people, especially long distances that changes you over runs, seasons, injuries, successes, and failures. I don’t know if I can explain it, but you can go to deep places quickly and recover just as quickly. It’s an honor to know these women in adulthood, and I keep them close to my heart even if we’re always hundreds or thousands of miles apart.

Mishaps

Despite the ominous title of that book, we didn’t find anything the matter with Kansas, and I avoided any major injuries as well. It’s nice to have a leg of the trip where we were just enjoying the open road. But don’t worry, I’m writing about the past, and I can promise there will be mishaps in future blog posts.

Day Two on the Road

456 miles. Who wouldn’t start at 5am?

My intention had been to get some solid rest since our first day had been so draining – emotionally and physically. I thought if we left around 8AM, we’d have plenty of time to make it to the Chicagoland area to meet friends for dinner. Arthur had other plans.

At 4am, Arthur determined that he had recovered from the previous day’s trauma enough to wake me with a combination of scratching on the side panel of the RV’s slide out and pouncing on my pillow and face. Message received, King Arthur. I’m not entirely sure what he wanted because he didn’t eat the wet food that I LOVINGLY prepared for him at 4:05AM.

Our stay was pretty uneventful. There was a dog in a camper about 300 yards from us who must’ve sensed that something had changed in The Force and barked non-stop for hours. Maybe that’s why Arthur woke me up? He might’ve been like, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

So, we did.

I would like to visit this campground again, but perhaps when the weather is warmer and the bathrooms are open. Did I mention that I’ve been dry camping? Since our test trip to Pinchot, I winterized the RV, which includes dumping all the water and pumping a bunch of pink antifreeze through all your hoses (and leaking some on the ground when you open the wrong valve). Basically, this renders the water and water lines unusable until you “de”winterize it.

So, how do you go to the bathroom when the bathrooms are closed?

Excellent question. The first step is planning. Also, I fully recognize that I’ve become much more comfort with discussing waste systems and waste in general, so feel free to skip this part if you’re not quite there yet in your waste journey or you’d rather not know that much about mine.

I bought a collapsible toilet because I don’t have a lot of space for a 5-gallon bucket; the collapsing is key. As you can imagine, you need to put something in the collapsible toilet, so I also bought some Double Doodie waste bags. These are very fancy, but I am cheap, so I’ll blog about the cheaper, acceptable option I found after I was nearing the end of these luxury poop bags.

The next part of the planning was to use a real restroom before getting to the camp site, so you don’t have to use the “tools” as often. I also probably drank less liquid than usual on these travel days – not recommended, but when in Rome…or when you must use a collapsible toilet….

The crystals that come in these luxury poop bags solidifies the waste you “deposit” in them. I do not poo in these bags. I think you can, but I do not. If I have to, I wait. I’m sure this is also bad for me, but I just cannot.

Come back here if you skipped the waste section!! (Yes, I made it yellow on purpose.)

Mishaps to Chicagoland

A reminder of the Mishap Scale >>> (🍫 = minor; 🍫🍫 = ordinary; 🍫🍫🍫 = embarrassing; 🍫🍫🍫🍫 = terrible; 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫 = not enough chocolate in the RV to recover)

  • Remember how I said Arthur found a different place to curl up while I drove in my last post? All of this went well until I tried to use the cruise control somewhere in Indiana. Noticing that there was space near the “danger zone”, Arthur proceeded to straddle the accelerator in a way that I could not move him, nor could I actually use the accelerator. I’m grateful that there wasn’t a lot of traffic, that we could pull over to the side of the road, and that Arthur finally listened when I told him that was unacceptable. 🍫🍫🍫🍫
  • Starting early was fine. It wasn’t fine when we got to our site outside of Chicago. I was exhausted. I tried to take a nap before dinner, but I was unsuccessful. 🍫🍫
  • My friend and her family having a standing Friday tradition – Sushi at a lovely spot that wasn’t super close to where I was camping. No big deal – let’s try something new. Other than being by the HQ for the Russian mafia and not having a bathroom (theme!), it looked perfectly fine. We ended up going to their regular haunt. 🍫

Not everything is shitty.

See what I did there?

Considering what I’ve experienced thus far, today’s mishaps were pretty minor on the grand scale of things. In fact, this leg of the trip had some really bright moments. The first one happened at a gas station. I don’t remember where I was, but I had just finished doing the dance of “where are the diesel pumps” and was going to go in to use the bathroom when a gal walked by and said, “Are you traveling by yourself?” She was heading to her semi-truck, and since I am a nice Midwestern lady who talks to strangers, I said “Yea. With my cat.” She said, “Good for you.”

She didn’t know me or my cat or my RV. She was driving a much more impressive rig than me – one of those UPS semis with double trailers – but she made me tear up with that. So kind. So unexpected. #ICanDoThis

The next bright spot was where I camped. It was this lovely, small camping site in Cook County – like in a somewhat populated area. I’m used to seeing campgrounds / RV parks outside of town, so this was a pleasant surprise, and their bathrooms were open!! I got a shower. It was glorious. I highly recommend Camp Reinberg, but not so highly that you all camp there, and I can’t get a spot. If the weather had been nicer, I would’ve ventured out on the trails. The sunrise was beautiful, too.

The best part of this second travel day was dinner with a friend and her family. When you work remotely, you’re not always conscious of how much you’re missing when you’re not in an office environment. Because I have so many meetings every day, it’s almost like you’re with these folks. But having dinner with a friend and just enjoying each other’s company was beyond delightful and reminded me of how much I miss being in an office from time to time.

Tomorrow’s a new day and another 400+ miles to go!

Our First Travel Day

I set the bar pretty low for our first travel day. There were about a million little things I still needed to do be full-time in an RV that is smaller than the smallest bedroom of my house.

But we still missed the mark. On November 15, the day before Arthur, Estella, and I were supposed to leave, I made a list of what I needed to get into the POD to move to a storage facility in MN, what I needed to get into the RV, and the other logistics I needed in place to leave our home of over five years. Mr Haps was a huge help in all of this, but I had to get it across the finish line, so we could get to our first camp site.

My plan was to leave by 10AM on the 16th. 10 turned to 10:30, then 11, then Noon, and finally we left at 12:30. Arthur is a very smart kitty, a trait that he tends to hide most of the time, but he knew we were getting into Estella again, and he was hiding in the most unlikely of places – under the couch cover.

One of Arthur’s last glamour shots before we hit the road.

For those of you who read my first post, Arthur and I did solve the issue of him climbing under the brake pedal while I am driving. I stuffed pillows under there, so there wasn’t enough room for him and the pillows. Problem solved…for now.

Our destination was 344 miles away in Zanesville, Ohio. I subscribed to RV Life Pro – an app and a website to fine recommendations from fellow campers and plan out your route, and I found National Road Campground – our first camp site. It was on our route, it looked safe, and when I called to reserve a spot, they were so friendly and informative. Perfect first spot for us.

I don’t know if you can really appreciate topography and wind speed fully until you’re on a highway, going 70 mph in a van that’s longer than any car you’ve ever owned and twice your own height. Estella’s a looker, but she’s no Honda CRV. I am grateful that she does a little shimmy when she thinks I’m going too fast because Arthur always thinks I’m going too fast. #NotHelping

Mishaps to Ohio

A reminder of the Mishap Scale >>> (🍫 = minor; 🍫🍫 = ordinary; 🍫🍫🍫 = embarrassing; 🍫🍫🍫🍫 = terrible; 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫 = not enough chocolate in the RV to recover)

  • Where do I put the fuel? I have rented so many cars in my life, and I have never had this issue. Up until this point, I had never fueled the RV. Mr Haps said that it was by the driver’s door, but what he didn’t say was how close to the driver’s side door. It’s not somewhere along that side of the RV. You have to open the driver’s door to find and open the flap the covers where you put the fuel in. Let’s not discuss the number of times I walked back and forth on that side of the RV…🍫🍫🍫
  • Beware: The diesel is bubbly. Why is it bubbly??? I don’t know, but it’s foamy and spills over if you’re not paying attention. Ask me how I know. 😐 🍫🍫🍫
  • Every. Single. RV person will tell you that you should arrive before dark because of course you should. This only makes sense because you’ll be less tired, you can clearly see your surroundings, and – in the fall / winter – it isn’t as cold for set-up. We did not arrive before dark. 🍫🍫
  • By the time we made it to National Road Campground, it was so dark. I was so tired. I couldn’t remember any of the reservation information, and I walked back and forth from the after hours check-in station three times before I had everything I needed to complete the check-in. Thankfully, the campground was pretty empty, so no one observed my walks of shame – unless you count the security camera footage. 🍫🍫

Good news: I got my steps in. Even with six idle hours, I still achieved over 8,000 steps. Even better news? Tomorrow’s drive will be longer….

The Adventure Begins

It’s Christmas, and I’m in a van with my cat on the adventure of a lifetime, and my gift to the world (or at least to whoever’s tuning in) is a blog about our travels, discoveries, and mishaps along the way.

We started in Pennsylvania with an experimental trip at Gifford Pinchot State Park in early October. I was just getting back from a work trip, so I rushed to get what I thought would be the essentials for us to live, work, and sleep from the RV for a few days. The fall colors were beautiful, and the temperatures were perfect – high 60s to low 40s.

Estella was a champ. She drove great and backed herself right into our relatively level spot – one try! She even got a compliment from our neighbor; he said she looked “sharp”.

Arthur struggled. This was his first drive that didn’t involve a vet appointment, so he was anxious, “vocal”, and a pile of drool. He expressed his unhappiness by peeing in his carrier, a carrier has not continued the journey with us. Once we were parked, and I shut off the engine, he did better.

I did ok. I had watched all the videos, read the Facebook posts from other new campers like me, and I bought almost all the things. Even the best prepared run into things, here’s my list from this trip. I’m using a chocolate bar (🍫) rating scale (🍫 = minor; 🍫🍫 = ordinary; 🍫🍫🍫 = embarrassing; 🍫🍫🍫🍫 = terrible; 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫 = not enough chocolate in the RV to recover).

Mishaps from Pinchot

  • I forgot chocolate. I learned very quickly that my coping mechanism for stress is chocolate. 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫
  • I didn’t think to bring any of that tape stuff you put on hose threads, so the hoses slowly leaked at the connections the whole time. Wasting water = 😩 🍫🍫
  • I also didn’t think I’d need a support for my sewer hose, so that it would more easily drain. The resolution to this mishap involved me using whatever I could find to create a slope to empty the grey and black tanks, which was – of course – observed by some other campers slowly walking by and talking loudly about how they liked to see how other campers set-up their rigs. 🍫🍫🍫
  • Taking Arthur outside the RV. In short, he didn’t like it. I think, because he lived in the woods as a kitten, it was just too scary to be back out there even on a leash and with me. So, we went back inside and didn’t try that again. 🍫
    • I underestimated how small Arthur could make himself when he got scared. When we left, the carrier smelled like pee, so I didn’t want to put him back in there. I let him just sit by my feet, which was fine until this happened:

Yes. He sat there for all 40 minutes it took us to get home. 🍫🍫

Our Best Story from Pinchot

So, there I was, following the directions from RV Blogger on how to set-up your water at your camp site…. (I wish I had taken a picture, but I was in a slight panic even after it was over.)

Step one: Let the water run out of the spigot to run out any rust or sediment that may have accumulated since the last camper used it. The water spigot was pretty tall; the handle came up to about my shoulder but lifted pretty easily. It had a c-shaped lever to turn the water on. So far, no issues with step one.

After about a minute, I went to shut it off, so I could hook up the pressure reducing valve, hose, filter, etc., but I could not get the handle to go back down. I was hanging from it, and it wouldn’t budge. Water everywhere because the pressure was intensely high. I didn’t have a hammer. I tried to use a strap to give myself more leverage – no movement. I think another minute had elapsed before I remembered I brought a hatchet. I used the flat end to pound the lever back down. 🍫🍫🍫 Crisis averted.

Thankfully, we did the experimental trip. I made some mistakes, but I gained a lot of confidence as well. #ICanDoThis