When we travel in Turtle, our motorhome, we seldom stay in RV parks. Nothing personal. Yes, we are frugal, but that’s about ten percent of the reason. RV parks are in business to make a profit by providing electrical hookups, sewage, water, sometimes cable television, and usually weak wi fi. They squeeze you in with other RVs, remember their purpose is not your pleasure, but their profit; perfectly reasonable. This is not a problem for most RVers; they want to know they are safe, won’t run out of water, electricity, or miss their favorite television program. For us however, those things are not the reason we travel. We travel in Turtle for many reasons, none of them have anything to do with maintaining a normal “home” environment; for that we would stay home, which by the way is an RV park we call home in Tucson for several months in winter.
Our first boondock, bush camp, on this trip was a favorite hidden spot in the White Mountains of Arizona. It’s high, over 8,000 feet, and cool, just far enough from the highway so we are hidden from easy view. We have it to ourselves; the squirrels and birds share it with us. We could easily spend a month there, and may someday.
In New Mexico, we returned to a former bush camp near Soccoro, but drove a few hundred meters further completely out of sight of the road. It was quiet and a bit warm until sunset, but the dry air cooled quickly and we had a great sleep.
Sometimes we can’t get out of sight of the highway. In the Oklahoma panhandle, the sun rapidly setting, getting tired and hungry, we found a roadside rest/highway equipment storage spot, beside a busy truck route and railroad. Despite the noisy location, we slept well and actually came to enjoy the regular sweep of light and rumble from the trains and trucks. Something about low frequency sounds can facilitate sleep. Our next site is of a type we particularly enjoy in the Great Plains and Midwest: town park sponsored RV parking.
In Greensburg, Kansas the city park, pool and ball fields, has several grass sites, with electricity. We enjoyed watching young baseball hopefuls practice, until darkness, thunder and lightning sent them home. They pay attention to the skies here: Greensburg was destroyed by a tornado a year after we had visited on a Zippy (our world traveling tandem) on a short soda fountain tour in 2006, another story, coming to this site soon!
After two days of exploring the rebuilding of Greensburg, and enjoying a great bike ride across the windy prairies, we moved on for a half day drive toward Missouri. Claire found a wonderful Kansas fishing lake and we got the best spot possible, just a foot or so above the lake level, close to the hopeful fishers in their little aluminum punts. The birds serenaded us as we sweltered in the increasing humidity. Finally our little exhaust fan pulled in enough cool wet air to allow us to sleep; we awoke at nearly 9am! The cool of the morning and busy birdsong made breakfast special.
So, just a taste of why we travel as we do. We’ll have more such spots to share as our travels continue throughout the summer.