OUR HAPPY PLACE

Not to live necessarily, but we sure do love stopping in here each year.

If you remember from last January, we spent one week boondocking east of Study Butte. We were at the laundromat and found this location from another traveller. 

When we reached it we were hooked. So we returned this year for a few days - Monday to Thursday.

Nice to get a way to silence, hiking and a big sky. We park along a public road but it only sees a few cars a day. 

I always take a ton of photos - it's a very photogenic area. 

Here's just a few!

Last year we had two parking spots - this year we chose a new one in the middle of them. We like to hike in either direction. Here we are all set up Monday night - enjoying the sunset.

Cassia was nice enough to set up a fire for us. It was great but short since she only found twigs. 

Tuesday morning off for a hike. It was hot! 28C that day so we hiked in the morning and then again just before sunset.

A soak for Rufus along the way.

We have great fun with all the holes in the rocks.

FINALLY - after months of being tied up or on his leash Rufus is free!

Here starts the photos from our sunset walk. We went back to what we know call 'Cassia mountain'. Last year she headed up this mound by herself - there was a little bit of trepidation on our part but she is quite the little climber and handled it just fine. 

Our little traveller. Cas has been on the road since she was 18 months old. One of my favourite pictures so far.

Walking behind I noticed that Derek's tanned back matched the colour of the rocks.

 Howdy from the Wood Clan!

Wednesday morning we headed back to the Cassia mountain area.

Wednesday night we stuck close to the van for our sunset shots.

The sky here at Study Butte is often cloudless when we are here, however they rolled in Wednesday evening.

Last photo.

We were planning on leaving Thursday because we knew that rain was on the way. Our boondocking spot is NOT the place to get stuck in the rain. The road in is dirt. 

Unfortunately, at exactly 3:30 am we heard pitter patter. Good thing we were smart enough to heed the warning and head into town. Just a few hours later it poured - we would have been trapped. 

We pulled into the parking lot by the laundromat and were early birds in there by seven after a few more hours of sleep.

What an adventure!

If you want to see more pictures of this area you can find them here, our posts from last January:

Terlingua, Texas

Desert Wandering

A Few Pics of Heaven

It is now Friday morning. We spent Thursday here at the RV Park nice an cozy with the cool and wet weather. A bit of a luxury for the Wood Clan.

Today we head north again - not far - up to Alpine and Marfa.

From there on to New Mexico Saturday…..

See you there!

Teresa

Simply free

Well our blog on traveling and living simple (read frugal) just wouldn't be complete with 'a life made simple's' weigh in on 'free camping' AKA boondocking, stealth camping, dry camping, independent parking and on. There are rules attached that we travelers all learn (well most of us) in order to preserve this mode of travel. We make use of these overnight stops as much as possible - actually last year on our 2010 tour we only stayed in 1 State Park for 1 night - the rest was on dispersed or BLM land - not totally free since we paid the $180 - but over the 4 1/2 months - pretty close to free.

In order to stay on budget we will need to be creative and resourceful on this trip. Texas and states east are not known for boondocking as are Arizona and California. As mentioned on the last post we make use of the internet for our research - both freecampgrounds.com and freecampsites.net are great sites - there are others plus we visit other travelers blogs for overnight stop ideas. A lot of RVers boondock and a lot talk about it on their blogs - thankfully! Here is one of the best descriptions of boondocking I have read.

Coleman Park, here in Brownfield TX, is one of the best we have found - water and electric hookups, sani dump and free wifi - plus a nice big park to walk around - this is free camping at it's finest. I am now working hard to find more city parks around Texas and further for us to stop in. The next one on the list is only 40 miles down the road in Lamesa - as long as the warm weather holds we will take our time moving across Texas and making use of these free or near free city parks.

We do make use of Walmarts, rest areas, roadside pullouts, and travel centers - as long as they look safe and are not too busy we will stay. We have used a few Casino's in the past but not our first choice. Baker City Oregon was also one of the better overnight stops this trip also - it was a truck stop but with the visitor's center and hotels across the street with pretty tree lights it made for a nice stop.

Tonight I was excited to find Magnolia Beach - a free place to camp just south of Port Lavaca - we will probably head there once we have visited the Hill Country on our way east along the Gulf Coast. Operation Explorations reviewed this beach here - and Kevin and Ruth described the beach here - actually Kevin and Ruth have become my inspiration for finding free overnight places - they seem to have it fine tuned!

I can't wait to have our toes in the sand at Magnolia Beach and the Gulf Coast on from there - it will be a first for Cassia - we sure hope the weather holds.

the travelin' life is the only one I know

I almost always have Alison Krauss and Union Station in our work truck cd player and listen to it on my way from one park to another. One song has the line 'the travelin' life is the only one I know' or something close. The song is - I think - talking about being a musician on the road but I was thinking how it fits us also. Traveling has become a part of us - it is who we are now.

AND - we are not alone! Once we started traveling to the southern USA for the winter we realized how many others are traveling as well - snow birds and non snow birds a like. We have met so many people on the road and keep in touch with some of them - they have become friends. As being part of this group we also follow many rving blogs - it is always fun to hear about others adventures and to learn from their experiences - particularly about places to visit or boondock. We have been following the Bayfield Bunch for a while - Al has great pictures, interesting things to say and groaners corner. We agree with their philosophy about traveling and wanting to find our own little place rather than camp with a bunch of others.

We have also followed live.work.dream, life on the open road, and living in my car. Although Jennifer of living in my car is at the end of her blog which is too bad I enjoyed following her. Check to the right as I am constantly finding new blogs and adding them to our list under the rving life. The most recent addition is a family full timing it in Australia - New Life on the Road - Lisa and David Wood and their 5 boys.

Now that we are thinking of heading to the Yucatan - yes Mexico - this winter we are doing our research and so far have found two great sites - Living and Boondocking in Mexico and Mexico 2011 -12 RV Trip - I am sure we will find plenty more in the next few months.

We also check in periodically to Full time Families - once you start to travel and start to do research you realize that there are others out there that feel the way you do. Full Time Families has a lot of information and a list of blogs under Family Members. They have a new site up and it looks great. Lots of people look at us strangely when we tell them about our lifestyle - we may be strange amongst our friends and family but we are happy to note that there are a whole lot of people like us!

There is definitely something about traveling that gets in your blood. The open road - the possibilities - experiencing new things every day or almost every day - there is oh so much to see! We are hooked.