After an extended month long winter and holiday stop in St. Louis visiting Chris’ family, it was time to head south for the remainder of the winter. Cherie previously lived in Florida for 12 years before we hit the road, and that’s where [...]]]> Time frame: January 20 – February 20, 2010
Miles Driven: 1776

After an extended month long winter and holiday stop in St. Louis visiting Chris’ family, it was time to head south for the remainder of the winter. Cherie previously lived in Florida for 12 years before we hit the road, and that’s where her parents and a lot of our friends live. We knew we’d be in for a hectic schedule of trying to fit seeing everyone in.  We started our adventure south on January 20, 2010.

Atlanta

Our first planned stop would be in Atlanta, a place we never seem to get enough time in as we’re alway just passing through. However we wanted to be sure to stop in and see Diane and Jill, who own a T@b clamshell twin to our former home on wheels. We used to be able to park at their place, but with our slightly larger Oliver Travel Trailer, we weren’t certain our trailer would still fit in their back lot.

And then serendipity happened.  We received a well timed e-mail from someone who almost camped with us at Camp Nomadia the very first year we brought the camp together. Dale was formerly a nomad, but he ended up camping elsewhere and we only got to meet briefly at Burning Man 2008.  Before he switched camps, he had made up some awesome caribineer/flashlight/bottle openers with ‘Camp Nomadia’ printed on them. He gifted us a handful, and they’ve been quite useful. Especially for lightpainting!

As it turns out, Dale has since settled in Atlanta, and invited us to stop in – citing he had plenty of parking space.  His directions ended with ‘park anywhere on the tennis court’ – which raised an eyebrow.  So thus we parked, intending to only stay a couple nights, on his tennis court in front of his airplane hanger converted loft.  It was awesome to get to know Dale and compare stories from the road, Burning Man and geekery. Our intended couple night stay turned into 5 nights (see what we mean about Nomadic Standard Time?) until we figured we really did need to be on our way.

While in Atlanta, we also got to meet up with Diane, however Jill was sick. We also got to make a new friend, who was introduced to us via a mutual friend in California. We went to an independent artists fundraiser and saw a cool afro-celt band play.

Tomoka State Park

After coming off of our intense month working at Amazon.com, holidays, cold weather in St. Louis and our unexpected social time in Atlanta – we were craving some alone time with just the three of us before heading into more social time. One thing we’ve found in our travels is that if we want time for ourselves, we have to carve it out.

So we selected one of our favorite campgrounds in Florida – Tomoka State Park in Ormond Beach. It was one of our destinations when we were first trying out nomadic life together back in early 2007. We love it for it’s authentic Florida hammocks and nicely wooded campsites along the waterway.

We got some relaxing and alone time in. However, one thing about state parks in the middle of the week, is that we’re not the only interesting people traveling through. We ended up meeting two other traveling couples.  They were closer to traditional retirement age than us – but what was interesting, is that in each couple, one of them was earning an income by being online professors. They were each using mobile technology to explore their wanderlust, visit their families and keep funded.  It’s so inspiring to encounter so many people exploring these mobile lifestyles before retirement.

Titusville

Next stop was Titusville, primarily to visit with Cherie’s ex and her former cat, Alma.  Cherie and Fritz dissolved as a couple primarily because they were simply on different life paths – Cherie wanting more mobility and adventure, and Fritz wanting to settle into one spot and focus on planning for retirement with a stable career.  Their solution was to seek what they both wanted in life and remain close friends.. instead of getting bitter and angry over it.  It was wonderful to see just how happy they were now that they were well into their chosen paths.

We did split our time down in Melbourne, staying with Cherie’s parents a few nights.  Unfortunately, they live in one of those neighborhoods where they don’t allow RVs, so we opted to stay in their guest room while we left our camper at Fritz’. It’s worth it to get quality time!

While in Titusville, we noticed that the last planned night shuttle launch was planned, and ended up being temporary neighbors with the delightfully awesome nomadic Louis and Sean of Our Oddyssey. We were part of ‘Camp STS-130′ – an amazing temporary RV city that forms around launch time.

James and his partner Maria came over from Tampa – he’s better known as @NomadRIP, to join the fun. We look forward to many future rendezvouses with all these like minded folks.

The launch was delayed an evening, but it was an amazing 4:14am launch of Shuttle Endevour.

Melbourne

We relocated down to Wickham Park, a county run park in Melbourne for a couple nights.  Chris’ parents are experimenting with being snowbirds on the west coast of Florida this winter, and came over for a fajita cookout at Cherie’s parents place.    Chris also took care of routine medical exams at our primary care physician in Melbourne, and we both had our routine eye exams.  While we have medical access all over the country via our individual health plans, we do prefer to establish providers in spots we consider ‘home bases’.

Orlando.. no.. now Miami!

At first we were planning to relocate to the Orlando area, where we have friends with several wooded acres who extend an open invite. However, we got hit with a Nautical Bug, and found our way to Miami instead to attend the Miami Internatational Boat Show.  Chris has written prolifically about this.

Following Nomadic Serendipity

The next week was an amazing ride of following the Ripples of Serendipity – which took us down to Marathon to check out an older catamaran we were intrigued by.

Then up to Jupiter Farms to meet with some awesome readers of our blog – Richard & Claire and Dave & Julie, and answer their questions about nomadism on wheels. Richard and Claire have a pig and backyard chickens, and we spent an evening combusting Christmas trees in their backyard firepit with their awesome sons, Glenn & Patrick.

Then serendipity decided we weren’t done yet, and handed us a connection to a similarly aged full time sailing couple, Gray and Cindy, who seemed happy to spend an afternoon sharing their lifestyle with us. It was great to be on the other side of the table, inquisiting someone else about a lifestyle we’re interested in embarking upon.

Orlando.. and beyond?

We finally found our way to the Orlando area, a full week after our original intentions.  We plan to stay here a week or so – get caught up on a bunch of projects, and just enjoy the solitude of our wooded nest camped next to great friends, Cec & Paula, who truly embrace our self sufficiency and temporary neighbor preference.

—–

Soon we’ll decide when we need to start heading to Texas. We’re still undecided about South by Southwest, mostly because we just can’t justify the high ticket cost.   If we make it to Austin by mid-March, we may just meet up with friends attending outside the event, and enjoy the ancillary festivals and events that apparently happen.  Perhaps next year we’ll submit a proposal for a Technomadic panel and try to get in as presenters.  At the very least, we need to make it to Central Texas by late April for the NuRVer‘s Gathering (or whatever they decide to call it) – a rally of other younger full time RVers.

Fake Fireplaces, Giant TV's, Mobile Man Caves, Central Vacuum Systems

Solar Panels, Energy Efficient Lighting, Composting Toilets, Camper Vans

The last segment of our Summer 2009 travels was wrapping up our cross country adventure and arriving for Burning Man. With a month ahead of us to get there, we looked for ways to optimize backroads and scenic routes. We aimed to visit a [...]]]> Time Period: July 29 – August 28
Miles Driven: 2764

The last segment of our Summer 2009 travels was wrapping up our cross country adventure and arriving for Burning Man. With a month ahead of us to get there, we looked for ways to optimize backroads and scenic routes. We aimed to visit a few more National Parks along the way, as well as friends.   We also put ourselves up to the challenge to try not to pay for camping and to stay entirely off grid by not needing hookups for the month ahead. Given the higher temperature month of August, this was an especially tall order.

Thus we conceived of the Technomad Trifecta: Scenic. Free. Connectivity.   And we aimed to find it wherever we went.

Missouri

When we left St. Louis we anticipated that we’d jet as quickly as possible through Missouri and Kansas – figuring there wouldn’t be many options for the Technomad Trifecta.  We were proven wrong.

To avoid heavy traffic along the interstate out of St. Louis, we quickly diverted to backroads and followed the Missouri River westward towards Jefferson City. Beautiful drive with rolling hills and lots of pulls offs for scenic views.   With the approaching setting sun, we started researching possible camping options.

Not actually expecting to find scenic free camping in the area, were thrilled to discover that the Pine Ridge campground within the Mark Twain National Forest was on a donation basis. The campground was not far off the road and only offered a few camp spots, only a couple of them suitable for RVs.  But we found one that was available and pulled in.

The next morning we received the crushing news that our Burning Man theme camp for Nomads, Camp Nomadia, was denied placement.  Too bummed to move on, we took advantage of the wooded camping for another night to sleep on the news another day. In the morning we headed on, and I remembered that a dear friend was now located in Kansas City. A quick call to touch base, and off we were for a lunch rendezvous of catching up.

Kansas

We were dreading Kansas. Our mental image was of flat land, endless roads, farms and sunflowers. Mostly we were right.  We eyed a free campground outside of Junction City, Kansas run by the Army Corp of Engineers called Rolling Hills.  It hit the Technomad Trifecta perfectly. All of the campspots were spread out along Millford Lake, each with private lake access. There was ample cellular sign. And it was free.

We stayed two nights, enjoying amazing sunsets, online catching up and relishing in the beauty that Kansas could offer. On the way out of Kansas, we went in search of Mt. Sunflower – the highest point in the state.

Colorado

We had aims to visit our friends Teresa and Andrew in Salida, Colorado. We also anticipated it would be a decent spot to put down the landing gear for a few days and enjoy a truly wonderful little mountain town.

We found perfect free boondocking just east of the city along the river with excellent cell phone coverage – again, the Trifecta manifested. We ended up staying a week – enjoying awesome microbrews, farmer’s markets, art shops, live music and hanging out with our friends. We also had a nomadic rendezvous with Cath & Andy Duncan, who were passing through town on their USA tour.

We considered the routing we would take out of Colorado to get new vistas and opted to head north up to I-70, fabled to be amazing hiway as art through the natural features. We were not disappointed – definitely some of the most beautiful interstate around.

Utah

Utah has more than its fair share of scenic driving and vistas. We’ve heard it said that you can drive an hour and visit new landscape that seems like an entirely different planet.  And it certainly seems true.

For this pass through Utah we decided to aim for Capitol Reef National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument.  We got into Capitol Reef to discover that their first come first serve campground was already completely full at mid afternoon on a weekday.  Initially disappointed, we decided to head westward to find some of the campgrounds in the neighboring national forest.

Just as we left the park and before we reached the town of Torrey – we saw a little dirt road. Curious, we stopped and checked it out. Definitely dispersed camping on National Forest land.  We backed into a spot with an amazing view of Capitol Reef and enjoyed free boondocking for a few nights – with cellular internet from the nearby town. Amazing. And definitely a Technomad Trifecta score.  And bonus, the Persiad Meteor Shower was starting up – so we enjoyed some of the most spectacular star gazing we could possibly imagine. We literally had dozens of shooting starts per minute at peak hours.

The heat was building each day, almost tempting us to hook up the generator for air conditioning. Instead, we experimented with evaporative cooling with a water mister – to much success.  We were able to keep in the temperature to a cool 88 while the outside temperature was peaking at 98.

Onwards from Capitol Reef we experienced a new planet every few dozen miles. From red rocks, to forests, to white cliffs, to the spectacular formations of the escalante.

Absolutely jaw dropping amazing driving.

We arrived to Bryce Canyon to lots of crowds.  We entered the park just to get a few pictures and take a short hike. We had a tip on Cedar Breaks that it was similar scenery but without the crowds that we were banking on for a better experience.  And we were not disappointed at all.

We were so impressed by Cedar Breaks – both in the formations, lack of crowds  and friendly rangers – that we decided to break our free camping streak and pay for a night in the park.  We were much rewarded for this choice, as soon after making camp we had the ranger stop by and invite us to the evening’s talk about the geology of the region. The talk was interesting and informative, however spending quite a while afterwards talking with the ranger about her motivations for switching out of nursing and into geology was even more fascinating.

Nevada

Nevada is beautiful in its own right. However its monotonous series of 600+ distinct mountain ranges and valleys have caused me to call it the Crumple  Zone of the west. After going over a few passes in Nevada, you pretty much get the point.  On previous traverses, we’ve taken the Loneliest Highway – this time we wanted something different.  So, we selected the Extraterrestrial Highway, in hopes of meeting some aliens or something.

Beautiful drive, but no aliens found. Not to give up hope, we followed our GPS’s advice to take a short cut via a 40 mile dirt road across the valley into Warm Springs.  It’s always an adventure to choose an overland road – you just don’t know what you’ll find.  Nearing sunset we had dashing antelope, fox, cows and wild mustangs.   Somewhere along the way we took a wrong turn, because we ended up at a back gate of Nellis Air Force Base Bombing range.  Whoops.

Around we turned and found our correct little dirt road.  And just as we reached the turn off our GPS was telling us to take – we discovered we still had many more miles of dirt road traversing to go.  Instead of missing a sunset by driving precarious roads, we opted to stop right there and stay the night at an old mine shaft.  It wasn’t a trifecta night – as there was no cellular signal to be found. However we’re quite sure we were the only humans in the valley, and there was not a single artificial light to be seen.  Another amazing star gazing night.

In the morning we went exploring around, and found a lot of old abandonded stuff – propane tanks, a VW Beetle, a stove and more. And the most amazing find?  A huge barrel being fed by a spring full of coy fish.   Fish.  In the middle of nowhere off the ET highway in the Nevada Desert.  That’ll count as being alien enough for us !

California

We came into the backside of Yosemite and stayed a night near Mono Lake, anticipating hitting Yosemite on a Sunday afternoon in hopes of less crowds.  We were wrong, Yosmite was insanely packed making the experience pretty miserable. Guess we should have timed our visit to not be on one of the National Park free weekends.  We’ll just have to check it out at a different time of year.

We made our way to our homebase in Sacramento with Lindsay & Sean, discovering that our trailer exactly fits in their side driveway allowing us to utilize the front porch too and get off the street.  Awesome.  Our time in Sacramento was mainly spent getting our Burning Man gear out of storage.

Burning Man

We ducked down to the San Francisco Bay Area to catch up with a few folks, and then started the journey back into Nevada for Burning Man, stopping a night in Reno to meet up with Kev & Ang of NuRVers.com. It was awesome to finally cross paths with them.

We then headed down to Fallon, which is where we had run a field office for the Obama campaign the year prior. Our host family there had offered to take care of Kiki while we were at the burn. It was great to catch up with them and provision for our time on the playa.

And then off we headed towards Black Rock City, where the adventures have already been documented:

Connected at Burning Man

Camp Nomadia at Burning Man 2009

Burning Man From Start to Finish

The City Museum is no ordinary [...]]]> We’re often asked what our favorite things are in our travels. The City Museum in downtown St. Louis, Missouri is without a doubt, on tops of that list.  And who would have thought that in the center of the midwest stands one of the most amazing creations around?

The City Museum is no ordinary museum, however.  Sure, it is full of found things that are preserved. And it gets the ‘City’ part of its name because the found things are entirely from within municipal St. Louis.  But that’s where the museum part ends.. because this is definitely a place where you don’t just look. You touch. You crawl. You slide. You climb.

This place is what you might imagine would happen if you gave Peter Pan a blow torch.

Let’s start with the roof.. which has a praying mantis, ferris wheel and bus lurching over the corner.

And then there’s the MontroCity outdoor playscape sized for kids and adults which has a network of wrought iron slinkies and slides connecting two airplane fuselages, a fire engine and a castle turret.

And inside, you’ll be dazzled by whales, tunnels, slides, a circus, a skateless skate park and inner caverns with a 10 story circular staircase.. and slide!

Here’s a video we put together after two trips to the City Museum in the past month. I think it at least starts to capture just how awesome this place is.

Have I mentioned the City Museum is awesome yet?

Many thanks to our traveling friend, Matt Bell, who rendezvoused with us for one of our visits to the City Museum and allowed us to film him for this piece!

[geo_mashup_map]

Time Period: June 30 – July 29
Miles Driven: 1904

We had no plans for how to spend the summer. We had toyed with the idea of finding [...]]]>

Indiania to St. Louis via Philadelphia & DC

Time Period: June 30 – July 29
Miles Driven: 1904

We had no plans for how to spend the summer. We had toyed with the idea of finding a nice campground in the Smokey Mountains and parking for several weeks to catch up on some work projects.  We had toyed with ducking into Canada and getting some international time under our wheels in a cooler climate.  But then one of Cherie’s clients called and asked if she could be in Washington DC in mid-July to teach a class. We looked at the calendar, and said yes!   So we booked time in Philadelphia with friends, and off we went.

Philadephia, Pennsylvania

On the day before we planned to leave Indiana, we got a call from Chris’s folks who were leaving Baltimore and headed back to St. Louis. We saw that there was an opportunity for a rendezvous, so we left a day early and met up with them outside of Dayton, OH for dinner. It’s wonderful to be able to take advantage of nomadic serendipity.

When then traversed across Ohio and Pennsylvania, stopping a couple of nights at Laurell Hill State Park, and then serendipitiously discovered the Flight 93 Memorial while driving around backroads.

We arrived in Philadelphia in time to attend a 4th of July party at a 300+ year old house that one of our followers invited us to attend. There was live music jamming and a hoppy local IPA beer on tap.  It was incredible to celebrate the 4th at a house that literally saw the birth of our nation.

We toured around Philadelphia, on actual assignment from TripFilms to produce a few video pieces on things to do and eat in the city. It was fun playing tourist and visiting the Philadelphia Art Museum, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, Waterworks, Comcast’s Largest Television and more.  We also were blessed to be able to spend a lot of time with dear friends.  We both had friends in the area that pre-dated our relationship together, which always makes for a wonderful time of getting to know each other better via our past connections.

Washington, DC

Next up was our visit to our nation’s Capital. We found Cherry Hill RV Park in College Park to stay at, our first experience with staying at a RV park that dubbed itself a resort. It was close enough to Bethesda, that it made Cherie’s classes easy enough to teach.

Still on assignment from TripFilms, we played tourist in on the Mall in DC. We even got to meet up with a friend who was also on business from Florida and spend the evening catching up and visiting museums.  We also had the pleasure to meet Jonathan and Dasy of WeGoFar, who are about to set off on a long term nomadic RVing adventure! We can’t wait to rendezvous with them out on the road!

After DC, we relocated out to Reston, Virginia where there’s a reputable Jeep dealer – as we were due for our regular maintenance on our tow vehicle.  We took care of that.. and off we continued.

Appalachians

The Transformus regional Burning Man event was about to happen in Asheville, NC, and we had hopes that perhaps tickets to it would manifest for us. Unfortunately their ticketing process is not very nomad friendly – and we couldn’t find last minute tickets to attend.

So, we started our eastward trek and decided to spend some time in the Appalachians. Off we headed to Shenendoah National Park for a couple nights.  We loved the scenic drive (sorry Lonely Planet, we don’t concur with your ‘scenic drive to end all scenic drives’ evaluation.. but it was pretty nice).

Next, we went into the Blueridge Parkway, which was even more scenic and less untouched.  We stayed a night there, and then started meandering through the mountains westward.

We stumbled upon the Breaks Interstate Park, run by both Virginia and Kentucky.  We ended up staying two nights, as we scored a nice secluded spot with excellent cellular broadband signal!

St. Louis

We explored our options for our westward trek, and decided to go ahead and route through St. Louis again to spend some more time with Chris’ folks. Afterall, they are awesome.

We spent a week at their place, and got to catch up with new friends we made recently at Gateway Burn.

We explored the City Museum, Hobo University and Chris ordered a new MacbookPro and got situated with it.

After St. Louis, we continued our trek westward following the Missouri River.

After a couple of weeks of our adventures being driven on visiting family in Texas and St. Louis, our attentions turned to social time with new and old friends. We had found some regional Burning Man events to attend, and even rendezvoused with another [...]]]> Time Period: June 12 – June 29
Miles Driven: 799

After a couple of weeks of our adventures being driven on visiting family in Texas and St. Louis, our attentions turned to social time with new and old friends. We had found some regional Burning Man events to attend, and even rendezvoused with another friend and took him road tripping with us.

Gateway Burn – Potosi, MO

We took a jaunt down to Potosi, MO to attend the St. Louis regional Burning Man style event called Gateway Burn. We figured it would be an excellent way to meet some awesome people in the St. Louis area, so that next time we’re visiting the area we have people other than family to visit.

It had been raining lots, and the land the event was held on was very primitive. A lot of vehicles where having difficulty getting in. When we arrived, they stationed a huge 4×4 truck with a tow rope at the top of the hill, in case we got stuck. But Chris mastered pulling our Oliver up a muddy slippery hill with ease with our 4×4 Jeep – and everyone watching was suitably impressed. We spent most of the event giving tours of our Oliver – which was a great way to meet folks.

And did we ever meet some great folks!  We’re looking forward to future visits to St. Louis to not only spend quality time with family, but further develop a community there.

Midwest Couchsurfing Roadtrip

Our good friend Matt Bell was just finishing up his 4.5 month sabbatical world trip, and decided to join us in the midwest before heading home to San Francisco. We promised him a midwest roadtrip so that he could also get a taste of what full time technomadic life is like for us.  It was also our first time taking on a passenger in our travels.  We picked Matt up at a local hostel upon our return from Gateway Burn, and then swept him away to Chris’ father’s Flag Day celebration at the local Elks. A fitting reintroduction to America, we think.

We also took Matt to explore to totally uber awesome City Museum in St. Louis. And then we packed up the Oliver and converted the space around for sleeping a third.

Is it still Couchsurfing if the couch is moving?

Matt booked his flight out of Chicago, so we took a 3 day meandering tour up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers – exploring riverside towns along the way.

Northern Indiana & Chicago

We dropped Matt off for his flight in Chicago, and then headed to our friends place in northern Indiana. She had ample trailer parking for us.  I knew Kele back when I lived in Florida, and it’s been a true pleasure to be able to stay close to her by rendezvousing in our travels.

We took a day and trained into Chicago to meet up with some other friends from Florida, Sterling and Melissa.  Melissa is now living in the Chicago area, and Sterling just happened to be up visiting. We also rendezvoused with them last year while they were vacationing in Las Vegas.   While in Chicago, Chris also upgraded his iPhone to the new 3G S.

Lakes of Fire – Lacota, Michigan

One of our purposes for our visit to this region was to attend the Lakes of Fire regional Burning Man event in western Michigan – and introduce Kele to the community. It would be her first Burning Man experience.

We had also met quite a number of folks at Gateway Burn who were heading up to Lakes of Fire, so we formed an impromptu theme camp with them. It was awesome to spend more time getting to know these folks!  Lakes of Fire was a much larger event – about 500 people, and extremely well run. We had a blast, and Kele really seemed to click with it all.

We headed back to Kele’s place for a couple of days to decompress and catch up.

Next up..  we headed to Philadelphia and Washington DC… but those stories will come later.

After weeks of no firm plans and trusting in nomadic serendipity to guide our journey through Arizona and New Mexico, after Carlsbad Caverns we were back on route to our next planned destination – Austin, Texas.

Austin is where Cherie grew up, and [...]]]>

Travelogue: Texas to St. Louis

Time period: April 24 – May 17, 2009
Miles Driven: 1593

After weeks of no firm plans and trusting in nomadic serendipity to guide our journey through Arizona and New Mexico, after Carlsbad Caverns we were back on route to our next planned destination – Austin, Texas.

Austin is where Cherie grew up, and her brother now lives – so it’s a frequent stop over point for us as we criss cross the country visiting friends and family.

Our specific timing for being in the area was to rendezvous with Cherie’s parents in nearby San Antonio for her father’s USS Robert E Lee SSBN-601 Submarine Reunion, which he organizes – and was finally stepping down as president.

Austin, Texas

Anxious to be stopped for a bit, we opted to violate our own intentions of only driving a few hours a day and made the drive from New Mexico into Austin in one day. It seemed the right thing to do after weeks of overwhelming beautiful and amazing views. The scenary in west Texas just can’t compare. So we got on I-10 and made good time getting into Austin in time for Tex-Mex food for dinner with Cherie’s brother, Ken and his wife, Kristina.

We stayed at McKinney Falls State Park in South Austin, which proved to be the perfect place to stay to be close by but on our own. It was beautiful, affordable and close to everywhere we needed to be. We spent the week catching up, meeting with other nearby Oliver Travel Trailer owners, socializing with Ken & Kristina in the evenings and Ken even took Chris rock climbing at the Barton Creek Greenbelt. Cherie’s parents arrived and came up to Austin for a family dinner, and they also got to meet Orion (our Oliver Travel Trailer) and Kiki for the first time.

New Braunsfels & San Antonio

And then we relocated down to New Braunsfels to Landa RV & Campground, where some of the NuRVer crowd was supposed to still be lingering, but they had all departed by the time we arrived. Oh well, we’ll catch up with them some time down the road. The advantage of staying here was that it was closer to San Antonio for attending and helping out at the reunion.

Cherie helped her father with organizing the troops for an Eternal Patrol Table Ceremony, as well as handing out awards. She even got to pin a ‘Submarine Angel’ on her mother – making mother and daughter the only submarine angels for the USS Robert E. Lee. Afterwards, Elvis hit on her mother during a performance.

East Texas Driving

From New Braunsfel, we started our northeastward trek towards spending time with Chris’ family up in St. Louis. We stopped in Round Rock for lunch with Digital Nomads moderator, Bill Bivins, and then overnighted near Lexington, TX at the property of another fellow Oliver Travel Trailer owner, Doug & Geneva. Awesome folks, and we have so appreciated the little community that the Oliver Forums have provided for us in our travels.

Eastward on, we decided to use our Texas State Park pass one more time, and overnighted at Martin Creek Lake State Park.

Louisiana and Arkansas

And then dipped into the northern corner of Louisana (just so we can mark it as a state visited this year, in case we don’t get back), and then decided to aim for making it into Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.

We found ourselves at the beautiful Gulpha Gorge campground, and in the morning indulged ourselves in traditional baths the Buckstaff Bathhouse. It’s quite surreal to have a bath, scrub down by your attendant and a massage at a national park, and definitely an experience to remember. It was a strange combination of being in a hospital setting and being processed through the various steps, and being at a spa. We both came out relaxed and refreshed.

From Hot Springs, we took scenic highway 7 through the Ouachita National Forest. As dark approached for the evening, we saw a sign for a national forest campground along the Buffalo River and made a spontaneous decision to search it out. Down a dirt path we went, and in the darkness of both light and knowledge of what was ahead, it seemed to go on forever until we reached Erbie Campground. It was a full moon night and misty out, and we were all alone – quite enchanting! Kiki and Chris went out for an early morning hike down to the river.

St. Louis

And then it was onward into St. Louis the next day, arriving at Chris’ parents house where Kiki got to meet her Aunt-Dog-Molly for the first time. We caught up on more projects, had a second rendezvous with fellow technomad Ben Willmore as he was passing through, had concretes at Ted Drewes, explored Forest Park and Grants Farm.

All before the next leg of our adventure – starting with a trip down to the Oliver Travel Trailer factory in Hohenwald, TN.