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.

Roswell to Brownfield, Texas

We arrived in Brownfield Texas yesterday afternoon just after lunch. We didn't have far to go from Roswell - around 130 miles straight east through the plains. It was a fairly quick ride of about 2 1/2 hours - it was a bit windy with a storm brewing to the west. The landscape was very prairie like - flat. As we traveled closer to Brownfield we understood why the name for the town - lots of red/brown soil to the east - a cotton growing area. Brownfield is about 30 miles in from the state line - HELLO TEXAS!

Today we are enjoying Coleman County Park on the south side of Brownfield. I found this campsite when I checked our handy Texas tourist book - a free campground! I then confirmed it online at FreeCampgrounds.com - a free campground with water, electric, sani and wifi. Freecampgrounds is a great resource for places to park $10 and less. I am always checking it to find places to stop -- after all we don't like paying to camp - well I should say we would be all for it if it fit in the budget - but paying to camp every night is beyond us.

Coleman Park is full of Pecan Trees!

There are 12 sites here - the van in front of us is from Ontario.

We are now parked here and enjoying a bit of luxury - 24 hr wifi and all the electricity we need. This gives us a chance to catch up on things and watch some movies. When we left Nampa our friend K. sent us off with a whole bag of DVDs.

Cassia finally got a chance to take her baby for a ride this morning.

It is a beautiful warm day here today - we can stay here for up to 5 days. After that we will continue our trip south - the Hill Country is our next destination.

Roswell, New Mexico

Well, we had a very busy day here in Roswell. Once we finished stocking up at Walmart we headed over to the gas station - there seems to be a price war going on - we paid $2.929/gallon - the cheapest so far - not sure of the exact conversion but must be around 80 cents a litre!

Our first stop was the Roswell Visitor Center towards downtown. Two nice ladies assisted us with where to find the UFO Museum and other attractions. After taking our picture with their resident alien they pointed us in the direction of the arts center and museum.

Roswell Visitor's Center

The RMAC - Roswell Museum and Art Center is right beside the Visitor's Center - and admission is free. We enjoyed looking around at the artwook, Robert Goddard exhibit, Western and Native artifacts and my favourite the Natural Beauty exhibit.

The largest piece of the Natural Beauty exhibit.

Next, we traveled to downtown Roswell for the UFO Museum and Research Center. This I guess you can say is what we came here for.....isn't it what everyone comes to Roswell for!!?? A very interesting place and a lot of information - lots to read. Cassia and I ended up doing laps while Derek studied the material - not exactly interesting for a 2 1/2 yr old. I can't say it was what I was expecting - not real flashy - but lots of info. You can see a lot more pictures then we took at a fellow Canadians blog from when they were here last summer - Operation Explorations.

Derek fits right in - doesn't he - ha ha!

We finished off our day with a trip to the Spring River Zoo & Park - as suggested to us by the ladies at the VC. This is a free park with animals and small pond with ducks and a playground. We have to admit that it was a pretty sad place. I am sure the animals are well fed etc. but their accommodations are very minimal. The black bear and cougar beside him have fairly small pens with just fake rock - not a blade of grass, shrub or tree in sight. We watched as the cougar just paced back and forth.

 The zoo was a very lack luster place in desperate need of funding - I wish they would charge a fee in order to make improvements. The animals here today combined with yesterday's visit to Smokey Bear's grave have left us with a real sad feeling for animals in our world. "For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now." Romans 8:22.

We are spending our second night in Roswell once again at the Walmart/Sam's Club amongst a new group of Snowbirds. Tomorrow we head to Texas! yaaa - we had such a good time in Texas on our 2008 tour we are really looking forward to it. 

Night ya'll!

Today's Interesting Link: Well since we are in Roswell I will post the UFO Museum and Research Center's link here.

Grants to Roswell, NM

Well it has been quite a day! Another big travel day but we also had quite a few stops along the way. We headed out this morning east on I40 towards Albuquerque - thankfully we could head south just before this big city on route 6 to Los Lunas. At Los Lunas we got back on the interstate this time I25 which took us to Socorro where we headed east on route 380.

Highway 380 is actually a really great road - particularly from Carrizozo to Picacho. We had many stops along the way.

Valley of Fires: There is a BLM campground here that we could have camped at for $12 no hook ups or $18 with water and electric. Because this area is still so cold we decided to continue on. Plus we are pretty cheap and don't want to pay to camp just yet. We did pull in however to look at the view of the lava flow from 5,000 years ago. There were quite a few RVs there.

Smokey the Bear Historical Site: Well we had to stop in and see where Smokey the Bear got his start. Not sure if you all know that there was a real Smokey the Bear - he was found just after a fire in the area when he was 2 1/2 months old. He went on to live until 25 at the Washington DC Zoo. Here in Capitan New Mexico where he was found is where he is buried. We enjoyed the look around the displays and a walk through the garden to the grave site. Smokey the Bear and the time that he was big is a sentimental moment for Derek and so he was happy to visit.

Smokey the Bear's grave site.

Lincoln County Site Monument: We almost drove right through the town of Lincoln until we realized all the old buildings it had along the main drive through and the many placards. We decided to pull over and have a look. We were glad we did - so many of the old buildings survive from the late 1800's. If you know your Billy the Kid history this is where he was and where the Lincoln County War shootout took place. We even met a couple from New Brunswick strolling the street as well.

Bradley's Fruit Stand: We actually had to turn around for this stop. Derek just couldn't let a fruit stand go by that was all nicely decorated with apples and pumpkins. Run by a nice couple we purchased some Buttered Pecan Syrup, Fatman's Beef Jerky (from Roswell), and a few tomatoes. They don't have a website but here is the link - we recommend stopping in if you are going by.

So, we came a long way today, the temperature is warmer and we are at Sam's Club right now in Roswell in a quite place in the parking lot with a big rig in front of us and free wifi. Tomorrow we take on Roswell --------- stay tuned.

Canyon de Chelly to Grants, New Mexico

Wednesday morning we headed to the White House Ruins along the South Rim Drive. This is the only location that you can walk down to the ruins unsupervised. We knew it was a bit of a walk but headed out anyway - 3 mile round trip. It was a nice walk down into the canyon - albeit a very cool day. The sun was shining but the wind was cold.

View of the White House Ruins from the Parking lot.

View down into the Canyon from the pathway.

You can walk up fairly close to the ruins but there is a fence keeping you from going right up to them. Much different from the Gila Cliff Dwelling we visited back in 2006 where you can walk right up to the ruins. We spoke with one of the jewelry sellers - bought a necklace and bracelet and headed back up. A bit of a struggle back up but we finally made and very happy to see our tailer. 

After a quick lunch we headed back out on the road with New Mexico our destination - not sure how far we would make it.

We headed south on 191 to Ganado and then east along 264 to Window Rock. We listen to a great Navajo Station out of WR - KTNN am 660. We were hoping to stop in and get a sticker or something - but we couldn't see it on the main strip and with all the traffic decided not to hunt around for it.

Instead we continued east on the 264 towards Gallup. Just outside of Gallup we filled our tank with the cheapest gas price to date $3.079/gallon. Once in Gallup we got on I40 continuing east. By dinner time we were in Grants and so decided to stay at the Walmart there.

It was a very cold night - down to 18F = -7C - and wouldn't you know it our propane ran out in the middle of the night. We were warm enough sleeping but it was a cool -5C when we woke up. Thankfully Derek went to Walmart and bought a tank. When we left home we realized both of our tanks were outdated and needed replacing. We bought one in Canada for $60 - holding off buying the second until south. We had been procrastinating about buying the second one thinking we still had sometime - guess not. Oh well we survived the night - hopefully the coldest we will see for a few months. The tank - filled - cost $20. What a difference!

Goosenecks to Canyon de Chelly, Arizona

On Tuesday morning we headed out from Goosenecks west on 163 towards Monument Valley. Initially we were going to forgo MV and head back to 191 south and the over to Shiprock and Farmington. However, once we got in we decided jut to keep going. The Monument Valley area is a beautiful drive. You have to drive into the Visitor Center to see MV up close but we didn't go in. Instead we carried on into Arizona and Kayenta.

Once in Kayenta we stopped for gas. You wouldn't believe what Derek found when he stopped. One of us forgot to close the front window cover and it was sticking up and all bent up. Some more tense moments. Turns out that Derek let it down the night before but didn't fasten it - so - thankfully it wasn't my fault!

From Kayenta we took route 59 which was a bit dodgy since it goes through the Navajo Reservation and is a yellow road on our map - which at least means it is paved. We took it because it was a good short cut over to Chinle. Well - it was a great and very quite road - very scenic. Once in Chinle we headed into the town to the Canyon de Chelly.

We learned in the Visitor Center that the Cottonwood Camground right next door had space and was free. So, we headed down to find a spot deciding to go see the ruins the next day.

Instead we walked around and treated ourselves to a Navajo Taco at the Lodge next door. We have loved Navajo tacos since our first in 2006 in Cameron by the Grand Canyon. We try to have a least on NT each trip.

It was yummy.......

Moab to Goosenecks State Park, Utah

Well it was a few days ago now - we are very behind on the blog right now. A lot of traveling - a lot of touring around but not a lot of computer time.

We left Moab late Sunday afternoon spending the night along highway 191. We just pulled up a side road to the looking glass rock - there was a no camping sign but we parked down the road a bit. It was a very dark and quite night.

The next morning we headed south on 191 stopping briefly at the Blanding Visitor Center. It was then off to Goosenecks State Park.

A view of our trailer from our walk along the rim.

Roofous enjoying some freedom to run.

Goosenecks SP is a great place to stay it is just along and looks down to the San Juan River - 1000 ft below. We got in early - just after lunch. There is primitive camping for free - when we got there there was already a large rig from where? yes B.C. - from Victoria. We had a nice afternoon looking at the view, going for a walk, and talking with the tourists that came by. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset!