Heading West!

I have always loved the west.

Not the far west of California and the Pacific Coast, although those places are wonderful.

No, I love the arid, wide open, big sky west. The west-west.

Ever since my grumpy, awkward preteen self set foot in Wyoming on a family vacation, I’ve had it bad.

In my freshman year of college, I went back to work outside of Grand Teton National Park. Um… didn’t go well. (But that’s a story for another time.)

A year later I headed west again, making the questionable decision to leave school to do it. That didn’t go well either.

Once I got my teaching degree, I spent every summer vacation rambling the west. I roamed from Colorado to Montana to Idaho, living out of my truck. One year, I volunteered for the National Forest Service in Nevada. Another year, Dan and I motorcycled out to Colorado and lived there a spell.

But for one reason or another, I could never make a go of it out west. Something (family, work, money) always pulled me back to the east.

And, now — even though we are nomads — Dan and I are still pulled back to the east coast every year. Our family’s there, after all. And the call to be with them is even stronger than the call of west.

A Different Direction

In our first two years on the road, springtime found us heading to our old stomping grounds in Western Massachusetts. But this year, we decided to skip New England altogether and head west right away.

Not an easy decision.

We sometimes miss the feeling of being “back home”. And it’s always lovely to see old friends and family. But there are many other “feels” associated with returning to a town where you used to belong…. “uncomfortable” and “out of sync” being a two of the less pleasant ones.

Besides all that, heading east didn’t make much sense. We plan to be in the Pacific Northwest in late May and (hopefully) will be traveling up to Alaska (woohoo!) after that.

Also: the pull of the west. Really. I feel it in my bones.

So, when we packed up and headed out a few weeks back, we were hellbent on a westerly direction… which meant driving around the Gulf Coast of Florida, through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and then (ugh!) another long drive across Texas.

Finding Free and Cheap Camping in Florida

We zipped along Florida’s Nature Coast, stopping in some familiar spots and a few new ones. Cedar Key a low key island in the Gulf of Mexico is an old favorite of ours. Since our last visit, the island was hit by two hurricanes, and we were saddened to see the damage there. But our favorite tiki bar was still standing, as was a great little county park we love. We even tried out our new bikes on the nice flat Florida back roads.

Apalachicola was another familiar spot. But this time around, we made some new friends: Julia and Patrice, a couple from Quebec. We saw their rig and did something daring (for us): We introduced ourselves. We hope to see them again along the way.

Also in Florida, we caught a beautiful sunrise while boondocking at a boat ramp, near Panacea. And we got lost on a rough, unmarked road in the Point Washington State Forest. We made a video of our Florida trip here.

Loving Louisiana

We have an abiding fondness for Louisiana. We love the muddy bayous, the gators, the French influence and (especially) the food. Some of Louisiana’s state parks are great, too! And they’re a bargain, as they accept our national parks pass for 1/2 price camping.

We spent two nights at Lake Fausse Point State Park, biking and hiking and watching gators. And we made a few new friends there too! Dana, a woman who has been on the road in her truck camper for 12 years (very impressive!) and a French speaking family from Reunion Island, Madagascar. We are social butterflies suddenly!

After Lake Fausse, we boondocked on a remote Louisiana beach, which was a great way to say goodbye to the Gulf of Mexico. There’s a video about that leg of our journey too.

Tricky Texas

As you may know from past posts, I have a few gripes with Texas. But this time around, the main issue was that it is BIG. Huge, in fact. And (mostly) boring.

Also, there aren’t many public lands. In Texas, nomads have to choose between parking lot options (rest areas, Walmart, and truck stops) or the more expensive state parks.

We don’t ever travel fast; no late night drives in this vanlife! But that meant many days in the Lone Star state.

In our past Texas travels, we mostly chose the cheaper options. Texas state parks have a nasty price structure. You pay an entrance fee per person per day in addition to the cost of your campsite. For frugal travelers, this nonsense can add up pretty quickly.

But this time around, we bought a yearly Texas Parks pass ($70), which waives the entry fees and gives us a second night of camping for half price. Once we opted for the pass, we stayed exclusively in Texas state parks as we crossed the state.

We’ve already recouped the cost of our yearly pass. But was it worth it? The jury is still out on that one.

For sure, it made our cross country, head-for-the-west drive a little easier to manage…. and a little more fun. We’d “park up” (literally!) and go for a bike ride or walk on the park trails. It was awesome to explore a new spot and get some badly needed exercise too. Ya just can’t do that in a Walmart parking lot. And on cloudy/rainy days, we hooked up to electricity.

So, yeah, we did that.

And each Texas park has been a little better (i.e. “western”) than the last.

Our first, Lake Livingston State Park, was an hour or two north of Houston and set in piney, southern woods. Not too remarkable. But it had bike paths and a comfy bathrooms with hot showers (another state park perk).

It poured while we were at Livingston Lake. But we just huddled up and worked, no worries about solar power or muddy roads.

Our next park, Lake Whitney was a little more wide open. It felt a bit Midwestern to me, more Iowa than Texas. But it did have some awesome fossils, and the lake was big and beautiful. It only cost $14 a night with our pass.

Then on to Copper Breaks State Park, which was just about “west” enough to feel like it. The red dirt, rocks, and roadrunners, made my heart happy. And we got a chance to try our wheels on some bumpier, rockier bike trails too.

Our last Texas Park was Palo Duro Canyon, near Amarillo. Definitely west. Definitely beautiful.

This is a park we’ve heard about for years. It’s the 2nd biggest canyon in the US, and the red rock walls are spectacular. Also, so many hiking and biking trails! We took a few days in Palo Duro and really enjoyed our time among the red rocks. There’s a video of our travels through Texas too.

After all those cushy, crowded state parks, we were ready to get back to the wild.

Really ready.

So we drove 45 minutes north and parked up in the lovely, empty, Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. We have been here for a few days now, enjoying a bit of solitude.

No one around for miles… and lots of cool rocks too!

Back at it… with a Few Changes

It feels great to be back on the road again! But with a few changes.

For one, we have these awesome BIKES! They aren’t the fancy e-bikes we’ve been eyeing. We are way too cheap to splurge on those.

These bikes are Facebook Marketplace specials… and an experiment of sorts. The two of them together, plus the bike rack and gear, cost less than $200. And so far, we’ve used them almost every day. We love having another exercise option. Definitely worth the inconvenience of the bike rack in back.

Also, Dan’s upgraded power systems are working great! We haven’t dipped below 60% in our Jackery since we started this new round of travel. What luxury, to work online without worrying about running out of power!

Also, now that we are power-full, I’ve started to make those videos I mentioned in the last post. I’m maybe getting the hang of it? Our first video took two days of (miserable) struggle. The second, about a day and a half of slightly less-miserable struggle. The third was only frustrating at the end. And the fourth took only an afternoon… and was not much struggle at all.

Now I’ll work on making them better 🙂

We would love you’re feedback on our videos. What works? What doesn’t? What aspects of our travels would you like to see? What questions do you have about this (crazy brave) lifestyle — or anything else? We are trying to get over our camera-shyness and just be ourselves. Let us know if it’s working.

New Mexico Next!

New Mexico is next on our itinerary. Not sure where in New Mexico. Yet.

We do know there’s a cold front coming, and we may have to scoot in a southerly direction. Which is the way you gotta roll when you live in a van.

Wherever we end up, we hope to slow down even more. And enjoy the big, wide-open west that we love.