Soul Camp 2016 -- Day 334

BUMP BUMP BADUMP BUMP

BUMP BUMP BADUMP BUMP

BUMP BUMP BADUMP BUMP

I remember a time when electronic music used to drive me batty. Repetitive, and lyrically lacking, I just didn't get the appeal. Combined with the social stigma of the illicit activities and the illegal nature of the underground rave scene, I stayed a good distance away for most of my life. Now, I'm not here to discuss the culture, the community, or the history of electronica, because I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough on the subject, but what I am here to do is share my experience.

As I have grown older, and wiser (though some would like to debate that point) I have learned much about love and acceptance. Everyone has their own path to walk, and what might be right for me is not going to be right for you. One fun part of my life has been finding people that want me to be who I am while enjoying who they are. I like to meet people where they are. I do not want to change them, I want to understand them. I want to accept them, and love them. I believe that if we could all learn compassion, the world would be a much better place.

While we were here in the redwoods this summer, there have been six major weekend events. Three of them were holidays, with all of the family celebrations and camp-style activities included. Two of them were biker events, with deep-throated Harleys, and lots of bearded old guys. The last one was Soul Camp, with the promise of all night parties and very pervasive, thumping bass lines.

The holiday weekends reminded me of the summer camp movies that I enjoyed when I was a kid. This was a little different since whole families were here, but there were lots of campfires and s'mores, volleyball and pool games, and wholesome fun! The biker events were a bit rougher around the edges, with a LOT more beer drinking and very loud, fiddle-laced, deep-fried rock and roll. Walking through the campground at night felt much like being in the bad part of town, and you kinda got the feeling like you would not really want to upset anyone.

Soul Camp was very different. The whole feeling of the place was like a huge egalitarian society from the future. There were no strangers to be found, because every person that you saw greeted you with a smile, a wave, or even a hug. This was the first time that I have felt this accepted and welcomed in any large gathering, and it was amazing. I worked a lot of shifts in the Pub, and got to meet a bunch of the coolest people. After work, walking home in the dark didn't feel the least bit uncomfortable. The bumping of the bass was better than a compass, since the main stage was about twenty yards from my home.  Dancing lights, dancing people, and dancing music were EVERYWHERE.

And so, we danced. A lot. We got as close to the stage as we could, so that the pumping sounds could be felt in our bones, vibrating our hearts and minds. We danced with people that had glow sticks, fuzzy hats, men in broom skirts, people with backpacks, skinny jeans, silk scarves, sunglasses (at night), and no shame. There was something very special about being able to do this among the ancient trees with the stars looking down on us. I think the universe was smiling.

I know I was.

This was the perfect way to wrap up this summer. This was our first workamping experience, and I love that it was so amazing. The relationships that we have built here are so genuine and deep, it is amazing to realize how quickly they were formed. And while I'm by no means a Club Kid, I will forever remember my first Soul Camp.

My life is AWESOME -- Day 304

"The rarest treasure in life is a true friend." ~ Sensei of Truth

When I was a dorky teenager trying to figure out how the world worked, I met another dorkier teenager that was equally lost. It was a strange time in both of our lives, being the sons of Bible school students, trying to learn about life and girls and sports and balance. Mostly sports and girls. Screw balance when you're fifteen, you know?

Over the years, my friend and I got into all kinds of situations, our parents would probably call "trouble" but when measured against other teenagers from the same era, I seriously question the comparison. (Like the time we VERY SNEAKILY watched "White Men Can't Jump" -- a rated "R" movie, sure to corrupt us to the core!) I won't even mention the fact that this was the summer after we graduated high school, because that would make us sound even less controversial.

Through the years, our friendship has grown and deepened. In the late 90's and early 2000's we worked together at a couple of different places. The most famous was probably Planet Hollywood in Dallas. The stories and adventures continued, even through marriages and kids. Spanning three decades and multiple cross-country moves, we always managed to keep in touch.

Now that we're living in the RV, the idea to visit friends that have moved away is always in the conversation, if the logistics would only cooperate. Sometimes the planets do align, and that happened last week! My friend lives a scant 12-hour drive north of where we're staying for the summer. The timing worked out and the reunion was nothing less than epic.

In celebration, and in line with our history of doing stupid things at the encouragement of one another, we decided to tackle the insurmountable Redwoods River Resort Giant Redwood Ice Cream Challenge.

I have personally built two of these ridiculous monstrosities, and watched 10 people fail at finishing during my time here. Whatever fantasies I may have entertained when first hearing about it were destroyed by watching other "more worthy" contestants get humbled by this mountain of sweets and dairy.

Until my friend came.

Let me be clear: I am an adult. I am a grown man. I have a wife and two children. I have a job and I use that money to pay bills.

"Dude," says my friend, "we should totally do this!"
"Dude," says adult me, "we TOTALLY SHOULD!"

Donning our server shirts from Planet Hollwood, circa 1999, we entered into the contest. We had plans and strategies that we had worked out over the course of the entire preceding day. We had read articles about food contests, and took notes. We weren't just going to beat the challenge, we were going to beat the challenge TOGETHER!

And then they built the sundae.

The distressed look on this child is for my health and safety

The judge (who also happened to be my boss) read us the rules, had us sign the disclaimers, and then set the clock for 45 minutes.

This is the last picture I took

The atmosphere of the gathering crowd was a mixture of excitement and disbelief. The tension was palpable as we prepared for this adventure of a lifetime. And then the the judge said, "Go!"

All strategies and plans flew out the window. I started shoveling this frozen mess into my mouth as quickly as possible. I was making a HUGE mess, with sundae all over my face, in my beard, on my shirt, dripping to the ground. I furiously scooped and swallowed until the warnings of a brain freeze started, and then I remembered the sage tip from Randy Santel at Foodchallenges.com: drink warm water. Refreshed, and saved from a pain worse than death, I plunged back into the morass.  I ate, and ate, and ate.

And ate...

and ATE.

I swear they used some magical portal bowl or somesuch, because I had steadily eaten more than I thought I could and barely made a noticeable dent in the damn lake of frozen dessert in front of me. I knew that I had to hurry because we only had a limited time. Glancing at the clock revealed: I had been eating for 7 minutes.

I thought I was going to die.

My friend was not doing much better. The frantic spoonfuls had been reduced to more thoughtful scooping, trying to dig out the frozen bricks that were once brownies, or candy bars. What once passed as ice cream now looked like a pool of Pepto Bismol past its prime. There was enough ice cream in my beard to make a nice sundae for a small child. And we still had more than 37 minutes left.

The mood of the crowd had shifted from morbid curiosity and excitement, to disappointment bordering on disgust. Parents were whispering explanations to their children: the cautionary tale of the overzealous old guys whose eyes were much bigger than their stomachs. Random strangers were taking pictures to immortalize this gross display of hubris and folly.

"Dude, this isn't going to work," my friend confessed.

"How much longer do you want to keep up the facade?" I asked.

We suffered through another 15 minutes of petulant toying with the spoons before finally declaring the challenge to be over. We rose from the table, the still-full bowls mocking my bleeding tongue. A collective groan from the crowd did nothing to boost our injured egos. Limping home, I swore I'd never want to eat ice cream ever again. Or at least not for a couple of days.

My friend and I now have another story to add to the growing library of Remember That One Time. And I love him deeply for it.

How is it already JUNE? -- Day 217

It's June 1st, which means that we have officially been here a month. They say that time flies when you're having fun, so we must be having a LOT of fun. Either that or we're experiencing relative velocity time-dilation, but I think that we would have noticed that.

This job has afforded me lots of time to think, and there have been some really wonderful ideas that have come up while I'm working. Sadly, by the time I get to my computer, most of those ideas are gone. I need to have a stenographer follow me around, or maybe a guy like Kal Penn's character in Van Wilder. Plus, it would be Kal Penn, ya know? How cool that would be!

Kal Penn (from Biography.com)

The biggest lesson from the month of May was ADJUSTMENT. You would think that after so much time, and so many things happening not-exactly-according-to-plan that we would have the whole "roll with the punches" thing down to a science. Well, friends, I'm here to tell you that adjustment is not a science, but more like an art. A martial art. If you aren't learning to "flow like water" you are likely to get your ass kicked by life. It's not malicious; the pounding surf doesn't hate the rocks that it's turning into sand, but pulverize is the name of the game.

Life is really good right now, because we are learning to flow better. Each new challenge is no longer a crisis, just another opportunity to adjust and grow. Being here in the forest is a different kind of living than any we've ever done, and it is an amazing experience. Figuring out the grocery situation has shown us that there are some really wonderful people in the world that love to help out others. Our jobs, while maybe not the most mentally stimulating, are still filled with lots of opportunities to serve others with love.

As Anya and I clean rooms, we are trying to fill each space with love and blessings, both on the people that departed and the people that are coming in. It helps to dispel any negative feelings that may crop up from having to clean up after people that are not your own children, contrary to the evidence left behind. (And to those of you that may travel this summer and stay in a hotel/motel/cabin/resort: your housekeeper will be going through the room with a fine toothed comb. Be courteous with your trash, and leave them a tip. You never know what a huge difference a little appreciation can make in someone's day.)

My favorite part of this job is my co-workers. A group of people from all different backgrounds and ages getting to know each other by hanging out at campfires every night. There are six couples, two that are retirement-age, two that are are our age, and two that are younger than us. The dynamics of the conversations are super interesting to follow, if you can keep up, since there are usually at least three separate conversations going on simultaneously. This is going to be a really fun summer.

Zoe with Dell and Sophia at the campfire

Random fun fact: I met an amazing young lady at the pub on Monday night. She is bicycling down the Pacific coast (Anacortes, Washington to Los Angeles, California.) I was so inspired that I bought her a beer, and then she played Jenga with Zoe. If you get the chance, check out her blog: Bikewridings

Zoe with Michelle of Bikewridings

We're off today, so I will be enjoying some of the fruits of my labors. Since I cleaned and treated the pool yesterday, I figured it would be awesome to actually get in it today. It will be my first, and hopefully not last trip to the pool here, and I'm really looking forward to it. 

Lessons in flowing like water from the water itself?

Last thought: 
"The most profound statements,
 be they political, religious, or philosophical,
 are not spoken,
 but lived. "
~Sensei of Truth~

The Adventure Awakens -- Day 189

Today is my third day working, and it's my day off. I mean, I'm not working today, but I'm officially back to work, as of this week.

We arrived Sunday afternoon and got settled into our site. We met a few people from the staff, as well as some long-term campers. Most of the staff has only been here a couple of weeks, and there is a small group of folks that have been here about a year. We really vibe with the crew, and I think we're going to have a marvelous time here for the summer.

All of our preparation, and learning how to RV over the past six months (which really has felt like a year), has brought us to this point. This was a goal line, of sorts. The finish line. Time to relax and enjoy our accomplishment!

Except that we are now working full-time, five days a week, off on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

"Out of the flying van into the campfire." ~ Sensei of Truth

This place is truly gorgeous. The sheer enormity of these wooden giants is difficult to capture with pen or lens. Words like "vast" and "giant" get bandied about as to lose all significance. To stand beneath these gentle souls and tilt your head back until your spine protests is like a tiny child looking up at a parent. But the parent is actually 400 feet tall and 1200 years old. Zoe and Anya walked THROUGH the base of one of the trees. Not the commercially hollowed out desecrations, but a genuine giant that had survived many forest fires, one of which opened up a passage at the base of the trunk. I'm pretty sure if Gandalf had THESE Ents on his side, that battle would have gone a bit differently.

Another teacher of great wisdom nearby is the Eel River. Deep enough to enjoy a swim in, but cold enough to make you regret that decision immediately. Lord Eel has deposited a treasure trove of round river rocks, some of which defy classification.

To reach the river from the campground, one must descend the River Trail. A winding 350-yard path that ensures you will carefully consider a return visit, and you will also appreciate the resting benches that are strategically placed along the way.

The walk down persuades you to spend a bit of time with the river, if only because you're dreading the walk back up. Ascending the hill didn't quite take me 127 hours, and I do have all my limbs intact, but I'm pretty sure there is plenty of fodder for an Oscar-worthy film of the man-vs-nature variety. My single-minded plodding was motivated by the realization that there was no food down by the river, and I'll be damned if I'm going to die of starvation because I can't climb a planned hiking trail.

Found out from the staff the next day that there is actually a paved river access road a few feet farther down the river, and they usually drive the 4-wheeler down there. Lazy.

Now that I've survived that ordeal, I'm fairly certain that we can make it through anything, including this summer long hiatus from LTE service (thanks for the memories, Sprint) and the fact that the nearest shopping district is 80 miles away. And it's not that we're getting rid of our phones, we just can't use our unlimited Sprint internet because the nearest coverage is something like 200 miles away. And when I say shopping district, it's where CostCo, Walmart, Winco is. There are grocery stores closer, but they are significantly more expensive. Also worth noting, we have been encouraged to leave our rig here, parked, for the entirety of our stay. There will not be a weekly Fezzik trip to the grocery store. We're relying on our new-found friends and Amazon for our grocery needs. Having said that, if you want to send us a block of cheese, our address is:

Cheo Jackson
75000 Highway 101
Leggett, CA 95585-8910

"Live life as though everything is rigged in your favor." ~ Rumi

Facing these odds, we know that we are going to be ok. Every change requires adjustment, and flexibility is what allows you to bend and not break. Flexibility can be increased by stretching. Stretching is most effective on warm muscles, after exercise. Looks like we're going to be in really great shape!

April Wrap Up -- Day 185

So here we are on the doorstep of another chapter of our adventure. We're making the transition from constantly moving, to being mostly stationary for the next five months.

And it's nerve wracking.

Before I get into the new adventure, let me first wrap up April.

Viking RV Park in Kingsburg was a welcome oasis of green after so much southern California desert. It's a tiny little park, filled with mostly permanent residents. I don't think we would have found the place, had it not been for Passport America (did I mention the awesome 50% discount? Because if you don't have PA, and you're in a motorhome, you're doing it wrong.) The funny thing about PA parks is that some of them seem to have doubled their rates to account for the discount, but the discounted rates fit our budget and are generally acceptable. This place was very no-frills, and even had pay showers (!) but being surrounded by old green trees put a smile on Anya's face, and that is priceless, my friends.

After Kingsburg, we had some bigger city needs, so we stopped in Fresno. The turtles, Luke and Leia, needed some companionship and exercise, so we picked up minnows and ghost shrimp. We added 20 new creatures to the turtlearium (that's the scientific word for their habitat. Don't bother looking it up, it's way too technical to be on the internet.) Out of the 20, almost half were consumed in the first day, because Nature is a violent place sometimes. Fresno is a rough town, if you're a ghost shrimp.

One of the things that you have to do from time to time is splurge to maintain sanity. I was craving Snuffer's (famous Dallas burger joint) and thought that Fresno might be able to offer something of a local equivalent. There was a Farmerboys® in the parking lot of the PetSmart in Clovis, and Yelp said that it was good. And while it was good, it was no Snuffer's.

The next day we drove to Arena RV Park in Chowchilla, because I really dug the name of the town. It was a quaint little place, and the site we were in was super narrow, I couldn't even get Fezzik's whole body in the lines. But they had wifi, and nice bathrooms, so it was worth the overnight.

This is from Fahrens Park in Merced

While I love to disc golf, the parks are not often designed to accommodate a vehicle as impressive in stature as our dear Fezzik. The fair citizens of Merced, being no different, had a very cool natural boulder barrier to set off the parking lot from the disc golf course. I noticed that there was plenty of room when we arrived, and didn't think that lots of people would be coming out to disc golf in the middle of the day on a Wednesday. When am I going to learn that disc golfers don't adhere to a typical 9 to 5 schedule? Trying to leave the full lot was not fun, and I wish I could say that I pulled it off without incident. Sadly, Fezzik now has a not-so-straight bumper and the roof access ladder is a little broken.

Undeterred, we ventured forth to Fisherman's Bend in Newman, CA. If you ever want to be off the beaten path, this is the place to go. It was a little run down (Anya didn't feel safe leaving the rig) and it totally seemed like the perfect place for a meth lab, so if you're looking for secluded and out of the way living with chickens and goats, I have found the place for you! I didn't take any pictures (for fear that at some point my phone may get taken into evidence), but trust me when I say the place was really green.

Ready to return to civilization, we hit up the Flag City RV park in Lodi. The sad thing about civilization is that it often resembles a parking lot. This place had ALL the amenities: nice bathrooms, laundry, swimming pool, clubhouse, flat paved sites with full hookups. But it was ugly, and the pool was freezing! Also, even with the Passport America discount, it was really expensive.

Would you like to know the remedy for a parking lot camping experience? Disc golf. For us, it was the beautiful and grueling Taylor Mountain course in Santa Rosa. 

"Before disc golfing, we spent the night at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. After getting our butts kicked by the Mountain, we headed off to Alexander Valley," Anya reminded me. It was a really physical course, with lots of elevation changes, and some spectacular vistas.

Alexander Valley RV park was right on the banks of the Russian River.

For me, being in the Alexander Valley was a dream come true. Back when I was first learning to appreciate wine, Alexander Valley Vineyards was my first favorite Cabernet. After three glorious days, we drove up to Ukiah to the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds. 

This picture just doesn't do it justice

The energy up in Northern California is so awesome. It just really feels like we belong here. While I do miss the ocean, I am loving being up in the mountains amongst the trees.

Our final week of this stage of the journey was spent at the quaint little Sleepy Hollow RV park in Willits. It is a very cool, if tiny, place with not much by way of amenities. We also got to spend time with some of our new best RV friends that we had met back in December in south Texas. It's one thing to make friends when you stay in one place. It's a bit of a different experience making friends on the road because you never know when your paths will cross again. It was really great to get to spend time with friends that we met 4 months and 2000 miles ago. 

 Some of the local residents came to see us off

And now we're here at the Redwoods River Resort, just off Hwy 101 between Leggett and Piercy, CA. New jobs, new friends, and a new way of life.

Tomorrow starts the new adventure.

This week: New Mexico! -- Day 143

Whew! This trip is turning into quite the whirlwind tour!

Currently, we're trekking westward towards summer jobs in the Redwoods of Northern California. The job starts on May 1st, and since we have a limited daily travel radius, we aren't staying too long in one spot anymore. Don't worry, we're all stocked up on chi from our last couple of months traipsing through the Texas State Park system.

Over the last few weeks, we figured out that we don't actually like the driving part of this road trip. Being in new places is great, it's the getting there that is such a hassle. When we started, we had a 150 mile travel radius that worked for us, and it would take us about 6 hours to complete (with the inevitable stops for groceries, lunch, etc.) Travel Day was an ordeal that nobody looked forward to, especially when we had to do it on consecutive days. To alleviate some of the pressure, break up the monotony, and add in a little fun, we started planning a round of disc golf on Travel Day. We would drive 30-40 miles, play a round of golf, and then drive another 30-40 miles to our next spot. This served us well through the panhandle, and made the traveling pleasant. It still took us all day, but at least it was FUN!

Hello, New Mexico!
Posted by Anya Phenix on Monday, March 14, 2016

Leaving Texas meant giving up that cushy travel schedule, as there are far fewer disc golf courses in New Mexico. Driving through the sparse badlands, fighting the wind on the highway, I could see why disc golfers aren't flocking to the area. The countryside was beautiful in a sere, spartan kind of way. We were very thankful to end up at Ute Lake State Park. The State Parks in Texas were all very different, but that didn't prepare me for the Ute Lake experience. Imagine a giant gravel parking lot, with tumbleweeds (that were actually still growing out of the ground) and trees that look heat blasted. It was like being on alien planet, but not the jungle kind, the evil desert kind with Sarlaac pits.

If you squint, you can see Zoe at the water's edge.
Posted by Anya Phenix on Tuesday, March 15, 2016

We mostly hid inside during the day, since the heat was threatening to incinerate us on contact. It wasn't actually that hot, but it was really warm, so we stayed inside and just tried to enjoy each other's company (since we were out of Sprint's coverage, there were few indoor entertainment options.) I had to dig deep to keep Zoe distracted.

Family Music Time is important
Posted by Anya Phenix on Tuesday, March 15, 2016

See the rapture on her face? She can't even tell that I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO PLAY!

Sundown was beautiful, and restored my faith in New Mexico's power to enchant. Anya and I took loads of pictures, most of which are still stuck on my camera. (I have a wonderful DSLR that is incompatible with my netbook, so I'm treating it like a time capsule. One day I'll be able to open it up and look at all the amazing photos that I took while on this trip.)

Sunset
Posted by Anya Phenix on Tuesday, March 15, 2016

New Mexico is just so very different. I wish we could have had more time to stay and explore. The badlands were not really so bad, although I wouldn't want to spend a whole lot of time there. We got to drive on Route 66 for a little while, which reminded me a lot of the movie Cars. The one thing that impacted me the most was the people. Every single person that I met in New Mexico was really friendly, and that's saying something coming from Texas. We Texans like to pride ourselves on our hospitality, and it's a real thing. But this was ... different.

The coolest stop on our trip was Red Rock Park in Church Rock, NM. There was a sense of elemental power reflected in the wind carved cliffs. Seeing something that took longer to create than your entire culture's existence can make you feel comparatively inconsequential. To know that people have stood in wonder of these same rocks for millenia can give you an interesting perspective on your mortality. To connect with the sense of awe that others must have felt ages ago is a powerful thing.

Or you can just play in the sand.

This place was wonderful and we spent a couple of days here, just soaking in the vitality of nature. It was the perfect conclusion to our trip across New Mexico, and the preparation for the new adventure that would be Arizona.

"Hold on to your butts." ~ Ray Arnold (Samuel Jackson, Jurassic Park)

The Best Laid Plans -- Day 138

I had this entire entry written, but couldn't post it because we were not in a service area -- and then it got deleted. Which is particularly funny to me, since the title becomes more significant.

When we started this journey, there was no end destination in sight. The road was the goal, and we had accomplished it. The new plan was to figure out how to keep the vision going. I figured that with careful planning and budgeting, I could probably make our money last for a year.

Things that I didn't account for in our budget (that maybe I should have):

• Dad's birthday
• RV Bootcamp
• Losing a sideview mirror
• My birthday
• The brakes failing
• Christmas
• The Great Data Crisis
• Jason's 21st birthday

 Unexpected experiences are a part of life, and the lessons that we learn along the way make us who we are. I don't regret any of the things that we spent the money on, or the life lessons that we picked up along the way. But now, faced with depleted resources, we had a decision to make: was it time to draw this chapter of our life to a close?

"Flow like water" ~ Bruce Lee

When you are flowing like water, your path changes many times. This lesson applies so broadly in my life, from our financial situation to our travel itinerary.

Anya took on the task of finding us jobs, while I tried to rework the budget to stretch our dollars "until the eagle screams" (credit to my wise father for that turn of phrase.) Online searches for opportunities yielded lots of results, but not many that would work for us. We have some needs beyond the financial, and we believe that the perfect job will meet all of them. Encouraged by this initial foray, we planned to continue our westward trek, still chasing that warmer weather.

Hiking the trail through Bull Canyon.
Posted by Anya Phenix on Monday, March 7, 2016

We left Lake Arrowhead in high spirits, spent a couple of amazing nights at Copper Breaks State Park, and got refreshed by nature and rejuvenated during our time of being unplugged. We had planned to hit up Caprock Canyon and then stay at Palo Duro Canyon for a week, where we were going to really delve deep into nature, and commune with the buffalo. However, having disconnected so completely from society, I was unaware that we were running into Texas Spring Break crowds, and both of the campgrounds that we were going to visit were full. So much for my careful planning!

I love the silhouettes of the branches against the sunset sky.
Posted by Anya Phenix on Monday, February 29, 2016

My hours of meticulously planning out the trip, mileage, driving conditions, and budget all went out the window. When am I going to learn that on this journey, when you wake up you may not know where you are going to sleep that night? Gazing into my crystal ball (Samsung Galaxy S6) I sought the answer to our dilemma.

For anyone that is going to take a trip in an RV, or anyone that likes to go camping, I highly recommend the AllStays app. Using it, we traced a new route, still westerly (albeit more northerly than before) and found a few places that would offset the extra gas by actually being cheaper (a couple were even FREE.) The silver lining in this cloud and the confirmation that we were on the right path: three of the four new stops featured 18-hole disc golf courses!

Gone were the canyons, but say hello to small town Texas!

We spent three nights in Childress, which had a beautiful city park with a great disc golf course, a playground, and great LTE coverage. This facilitated the job search, and we actually got to do a phone interview while we were there.

Posted by Anya Phenix on Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Our next stop was the McClellan National Grassland, balancing our nature needs after three days in town. Serene in the extreme. Also had just enough cell service to get a job offer email, which we accepted. We now had an actual destination!

Posted by Anya Phenix on Thursday, March 10, 2016

Disc golf stop in Pampa, on our way to camp out in Borger. Free camping in Borger, with water and electric hookups, is a deal that can't be beaten. They also had one of the most exciting disc golf courses that I have ever played. This is a picture of me walking along hole #9, what you can't see is the canyon drop off just to the right.

Disc golfing in Borger, TX. Some of the terrain was rough, but it was also beautiful.
Posted by Anya Phenix on Saturday, March 12, 2016

After Borger, we stopped in Dumas for a night, and then Dalhart for disc golf and our final night in Texas. Having a deadline and a destination is a bit foreign to our style, but we are flowing with it. Figuring out the budget for the rest of this chapter of the trip was an interesting endeavor, trying again to balance what we had with what we need. But, as always, we know that we will always have enough, because that is the Way of Things.

Of course, this is still just more of the Best Laid Plans that are subject to change. :)

Further ... Farther? -- Day 128

I last wrote about being Unplugged while we were at Lake Mineral Wells, the outskirts of our cell reception area. Last week we were at Lake Arrowhead, near Wichita Falls, where the cell reception was intermittent at best. It’s in these times that you get the chance to rediscover the simpler things in life, like taking a sunrise walk with your daughter, or reading a good book.

We arrived at Lake Arrowhead well after sundown, the rangers in the park office had long since gone home, and I wasn’t looking forward to hiking back up from our campsite to register in the morning. The map that we picked up from the late check-in station showed a quaint little park with all of the RV sites arranged in circles of six just off the campsite driveway. Looking at the map, I instinctively picked out site 21 for it’s proximity to the bathrooms, the lake, and it’s distance from the road.

Sometimes I’m a genius, sometimes I’m just really lucky.

Zoe was up before dawn, excited to see what this park had to offer. I had already watched a promotional video (preview trailer?) of the park, so I was equally excited. Since we had to get to the office before 9am to check-in, I thought that a little walk around would be the perfect way to start the day.

Opening our front door at sunup felt like stepping through the wardrobe into Narnia. The silvery dew glinting off the soft grass looked like a velvet carpet up to the gnarled Mesquite trees hunched around the ring of campsites. Our particular site was blessed with its own path cut through the wooden sentries, leading to the road that separated the campsites from the lakeside picnic areas. The still rising sun gave a soft light that bathed Fezzik in a gentle glow, promising more warmth once its had its morning coffee. The previous campers were gracious enough to leave us with four stout logs for the fire ring, and we had the entire circle to ourselves. Just over the tops of the naked branches, you could make out the expanse of Lake Mineral Wells, and the faint calls of the gulls and coots greeting each other. What a perfect place for Anya’s birthday week!

An old pumpjack kept time as we marched down our secluded path toward the lake. The chitter of the morning birds greeted us like we were Disney princesses while we searched for our true prize -- Prairie Dog Town. Now, I’ve seen a lot of promotional videos that hype up the attractions of a state park and many will list the animals that live there. The odds of seeing these elusive creatures are usually not very good, so I was skeptical of Prairie Dog Town and its ability to impress me. What I wasn’t prepared for was the overwhleming number of praire dogs that we saw prior to reaching the actual Town. From skittish little ones to great lumbering fat ones, all barking at one another what I could only assume was the warning that THE GIANTS ARE COMING. I had hoped to catch sight of one, would have felt lucky to see two. I was completely unprepared to see twenty.

Prairie Dog Town is located toward the end of a peninsula, so we looped around the tip and walked along the shore back toward the camping area. There were about a dozen hardy fisher types out on the docks, braving the chill breeze. There were priarie dogs all along this side of the peninsula as well - in the playground, the picnic areas, and along the roadside. Zoe dashed at the flock of mixed waterfowl, laughing at their indignant squawking as they relocated themselves farther out in the water. “I really love this place,” she breathlessly confessed upon return. And I wholeheartedly agreed.

Afraid to break the magic, I reminded her that we still had to hike to the office to pay for this glorious experience, but she happily acquiesced. The walk from the shore to the park station was almost a mile along the paved road that split the dry, grassy fields dotted with more mesquite trees. We arrived at the office minutes after they had opened, and were greeted cheerfully by one of the rangers. While I took care of the reservation, Zoe gushed about how awesome the park was. She even donated her last birthday dollar to the collection box that was on the counter. The effusive ranger gratefully listed off more of the offerings of the park, including the Junior Explorer Backpack and rental fishing quipment. All of which was free. Zoe giddily clapped her hands and asked if we could go fishing. I hate fishing, but I am not a monster.

The ranger also loaded us down with stickers, jelly bracelets, temporary tattoos, an iron-on patch, a keychain, a flint arrowhead, and a magazine about the attractions of Wichita Falls. We thanked her and loaded everything into the Junior Explorer Backpack, picked up the fishing rod and tackle box, and made our way back toward our campsite. All of this after discovering that we got a discount for staying for the whole week (pay for five nights, get two nights free.)

There is even a disc golf course at the park.

Everyone agreed that this is now the best place that we have ever stayed, meeting all of our needs in all of the categories, with bonuses. Anya had a wonderful birthday that was mostly just relaxing all week, going on nature walks, communing with the prairie dogs and not fishing. Zoe and I tried a little fishing and built an awesome campfire, cooked a bunch of meat and found an LTE signal out on the fishing dock.

Life just keeps getting better and better.

Unplugged -- Day 121

I’m a pretty smart guy. I have managed to survive on this planet for over four decades and have created a couple miniature versions of myself (one male, one female -- just to see what that would be like), but I will still never understand the wizardry that is cellphones. Between the science and the economics, it is a mystery that just makes me want to move to a cabin in the woods on the edge of a lake and talk to the trees. (If you haven’t noticed, I’m halfway there already.)

We like to stay connected as much as anyone else. Maybe a little more. Okay, truth be told, my daughter and I are constantly online. It is one of our basic needs and it is her key to happiness. I have disc golf as my happy place, Anya recharges with the energy of the trees, but Zoe needs her virtual friends to find her center. When we were living in our last apartment, I paid a premium for super fast internet, opening up the entire world with a few mouse clicks. No questions went unanswered, no topic went undiscussed. We felt superior to our TV watching friends, because we didn’t have to sit through commercials -- we were the commanders of our own entertainment. Movies, TV shows, and music, all in glorious High Definition. Researching how to take this experience with us on the road led to frustration.

There are people out there that are full-time RVers that make thier living via the internet. Not just because they publish a travel blog that has advertising on it (although there are dozens of those -- you probably can’t live on those residuals alone.) They run a business of some kind, and always have a good connection. The secret? They have unlimited internet on a “grandfathered” Verizon plan. That is not helpful! What we needed was something that was going to be attainable NOW, not something that we should have done three years ago. Through trial and error, we did finally come to a solution. Remember the Great Data Crisis? Now we are online as much as we need to be. As long as we stay in the coverage area.

Trip planning has become an interesting project, as we now are trying to follow the Sprint data coverage map with stops along the way for disc golf. Online coverage maps are notoriously inaccurate, as illustrated by our experience here at Lake Mineral Wells State Park. The map says that we’re within a good coverage zone, but it doesn’t reach our actual campsite. We’re about a half mile outside the range of the tower, making for an excellent example of a First World Problem. I like to imagine Zoe telling her kids in the future about the days back when she had to hike up a mountain to get cell service.

Our backyard

Posted by Anya Phenix on Friday, February 26, 2016

We have now been here for four days, and I have learned to accept the separation. Letting questions go unaswered, trusting in my prior trip planning for the route to our next stop. I have discovered that my constant connection is a crutch that has been preventing me from finding the inner peace that I have been seeking. I have to let go of the worries of the outside world, and accept that what I have is all I need.

Learn to be content in your present situation. Where you are right now is exactly where you are supposed to be. Savor each moment as perfect. Live in the right now. When you can do that, you will find eternal peace and happiness.

I am not yet there, but I’m working on it.

Mother Neff State Park -- Day 103

It isn’t very often that I sit down to write about one particular place in which we’ve stayed, and this place will never overcome the awesomeness that is Live Oak park in Ingleside, Texas. However, the serene beauty of this hidden gem deserves a highlight, and after our short nature walk yesterday, I feel compelled to share.

We’ve stayed in quite a few State Parks here in Texas, it’s actually quite an impressive collection of properties. Many of them seem to be around one of the 6,000+ lakes that Texas boasts, and being a person that loves a good sunset over water, I find this to be quite pleasing. Mother Neff is one of the exceptions to that general rule, being situated just outside the sleepy little town of Moody (population: 1377.) Looking at it on the map, it’s just a rectangular patch of green paralleling state highway 236 just after it turns north from the Iron Bridge Wildlife Management Area.

If you had put the state parks in a lineup, or compared them by amenities, Mother Neff probably wouldn’t rate very highly. We just happened upon it because of my 150 Mile Radius Travel Card. (If you have read Day 44 you know what I’m talking about.) I swear it’s the greatest invention that I’ve had since The Technology Box (more on that later.) We had actually discovered this park earlier in our journey (check out Day 62, if you haven’t already) and we had said that we would love to come back. With our new method of deciding our intinerary, we were excited to see that Mother Neff was going to be back on the destinations list.

It’s a quaint little park, with really level concrete pads for your RV, as well as full electric, water, and sewer hookups. There are just enough trees to provide a little privacy, but they are mostly young live oaks and cedars, so there is lots of unobstructed sky to enjoy. Being so far from any major city means the stars are particularly impressive. (I’m humming “Deep in the Heart of Texas" right now.) Yesterday, we explored one of the walking trails through the dense cedar forest and just enjoyed being ALIVE and away from the constant barrage of brick-and-mortar civilization. But then we had to come back, because I couldn’t get a really good LTE signal to send out Snapchats. But it was really pretty!

Mother Neff is a beautiful place. It’s small, compared to other sprawling parks that we’ve experienced, but they make great use of the space. You don’t feel like your neighbors are too close, but you don’t feel like you’re going to get murdered without any witnesses. (I see you, Campsite 7!) The crushed pink granite makes for an interesting ground cover, and clearly delineates the safe zone, so the wild coyotes can’t eat you. At least, that’s what I’m assuming it means, your mileage may vary. Add to all of this the clean, tiled, warm bathrooms with latching shower stall doors (no more accidental shower shows for the fellow campers) and I am really impressed with this place.

Posted by Anya Phenix on Friday, February 5, 2016

I expect a good showing for this place on the next Places We’ve Stayed list, which is due to come out around Day 144, or 123 depending on which formula you’re using to predict. Personally I like rolling the dice.

Before I go, I said I would explain the Technology Box. It’s really a simple invention from the mind of my lovely travel companion. What if there was a way to keep all of the chargers, cables, and devices organized and portable? One thing that living in the RV has taught us is to be more compact and efficient with our things, and since we are heavily reliant on our technology (remember the Data Crisis?) we have lots of chargers, devices and cables to manage. The Technology Box is a modified plastic storage container with an external hard drive and a power strip with all of the chargers plugged in. It also functions as a stand for the Chromebook when it’s plugged into the TV, since the HDMI cable has to be shared with the Playstation. Looking for the controllers for the Playstation? Also in the Technology Box. Simple, genius.

Travel update: We’ll be leaving this majestic place for a little disc golf up in Waco, after which we are heading to Lake Whitney State Park. Our new travel plan is to try to fit a round of disc golf into travel day, so that we don’t have to take the rig out of the campsite after we’ve hooked up. We’ve only done it once so far, but I think I’m going to like this new itinerary. Makes our travel range a little shorter, but increases the frequency of the disc golfing.

It’s all about priorities.

I'm very lucky -- Day 86

I’m very lucky.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that, in the face of some challenges that we have, but then I sit back and think about all of the people that have told me that they wish they could be doing what we’re doing. And you know what? They’re not wrong!

We’ve had a marvelous last two weeks, punctuated by two interesting events, The Grey Water Flood and The Data Crisis.

First, I want to emphasize how wonderful this experience has been, generally speaking. We have had lots of family time, made some interesting road friends, and gotten to feel a level of freedom that a lot of people can’t imagine. We found a really cool campsite at Riverside Park in Victoria that was both inexpensive and had a wonderfully tree-filled disc golf course, meeting the needs of just about everybody. Zoe made friends with some carnival vendors that were staying there prior to their tour, and she helped out around their campsite so much that they gave her two turtles!

“There is nothing more expensive than a free pet” ~ Sensei

Luke and Leia are red-eared sliders, and despite their steep odds of survival, they are now part of the family. I have to admit that I was not initially excited about the idea of adding two more sets of needs to our already interesting list. These turtles, particularly at their young and vulnerable age, were not going to be making much of a contribution, from my perspective. But then, when you see your child’s face light up in that special way that you know means you have done the right thing, there is no better reward. As to their odds of survival, I quote Leia’s film husband, “Never tell me the odds!”

Our second week we spent in Live Oak Park in Ingleside, TX, and it’s the most awesome place EVER. If and when I do make another list of our favorite places, this one will definitely be at the top. First, they have TWO 18 hold disc golf courses, one of which is Championship rated. Secondly, they have two playgrounds, and lighted tennis courts. But the best thing of all: it was FREE. For five days a month, you can stay in a campsite with electricty and water hookups while spending absolutely zero dollars. For some perspective, the average Texas State Park will charge you $20 per night, and the private park that we stayed at just down the road from Live Oak was $38! On the meeting needs scale, this place hit homeruns. Aptly named, Live Oak Park was filled with trees. There were hooting owls at night, and soaring vultures during the day. I played so much disc golf that I got tired of it. Literally. I think I quit after 132 holes.

The only downside to this magical place was the lack of a dumping station, which led to The Grey Water Flood.

For those of you that don’t know anything about RV systems, all of the water that you use is captured into holding tanks. The “black” tank is toilet water, while the “grey” tank is everything else. We typically don’t stay in a place longer than a week, and often will dump our tanks after just three or four days, if the facilities are available. We thought that we were going to have the opportunity to dump at Live Oak (these are things that I typically scope out on the way in) but what we thought was a dump station turned out to be something else. Since we were planning on leaving after 5 days, we figured we would be ok. But my math was bad …

I’ll spare you the nasty details, but we did lose a couple of storage boxes that were in the shower stall where the grey water had overflowed. The realization that we were flooded prompted a swift exit from Live Oak and a late night run back to Victoria, where we knew there was 24-hour access to dumping facilities. Day saved!

Two days later we hit The Data Crisis.

For a little background: we are very heavy data users. When we were living in an apartment, we didn’t have cable TV, opting instead for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and YouTube. When we moved out, it was a challenge to try to stay connected. There didn’t seem to be any mobile plans available that weren't prohibitively expensive. But Needs Must Be Met. So we supplemented our 10Gb mobile data plan with trips to parks that had WiFi. One of the things that we discovered was that it is really difficult to find a park that actually has WiFi that is fast enough to watch streaming videos. It would seem that they are figuring on an audience that is more reliant on cable television and sattelite for their entertainment needs.

Then from the darkness came a light, and it was called KarmaGo. A fairly new company, offering an unlimited data plan, capped at 5Mbps for $50 per month. Seeing the awesome potential, we opted in for an entire year, paying up front for a 20% discount. It arrived just in time for Christmas, and Zoe could not have been happier. It actually freed us from having to stay in expensive WiFi enabled parks, which completely justified the $600 cost. We blew through 100 Gigabytes of data in the two weeks (which, if calculated against based on our phone plan, would have cost us $1350!) There were some minor inconveniences, such as only being able to log three devices in at a time, and no compatibility for the PlayStation, but in the big picture: we had good, fast internet.

The bait. The switch.

After those glorious weeks of amazing internet, we received an email from KarmaGo informing us that too many people were using the device for “unintended purposes.” They didn’t realize that offering unlimited data meant that people were going to be streaming Netflix, or backing up hard drives to the cloud. What planet do these people actually live on? So their solution was to throttle the speed down to 1.5Mbps, which actually still worked for us, albeit more frustratingly. About two weeks after that, we received ANOTHER email from them informing us of the NEW structure of the “unlimited” plan which was going to be 15Gb of high speed data, followed by an unlimited of data at 128kbps. Which basically means that we would have two days of normal use before the speed was too slow to do much of anything.

Cue the panic.

I know that we are lucky to live in a place that even HAS mobile internet, and there are whole regions of the country where you can’t get a cell signal, much less have google at your fingertips. But I purposely don’t go to those places, because I love my phone. I’m always on my phone. I’ve gotten in trouble at work for being on my phone too much. And if we had never had the KarmaGo, it probably would have been better than this four week tease. The worst feeling is the powerlessness, because you know the multi-billion dollar telecom corporations really don’t care about the little guy, and are trying to maximize profits instead of service. They know that we will pay lots of money for these phone plans, so they charge us lots of money for these phone plans. I’m disgusted, but an active participant.

Exercising my priveledge, I took out my frustrations on Twitter. KarmaGo, AT&T and Sprint all responded to my situation, with apologies, investigations, and temptation respectively. Essentially, KarmaGo said, “Sucks to be you, but you can have your money back, if you want.” AT&T promised to look into my “situation” which they then followed up with a retention call, offering steep discounts on their published plans. (Because they can afford to charge you less, but they don’t.) Sprint offered to make me happy with promises of unlimited data, and money to pay off our old plans.

We needed at least to get Zoe up and running immediately, so we went to the closest Sprint store to see what they were actually talking about. As it turns out, they were ready to give us a plan that worked out to unlimited data for all of us, plus new phones (!) for the cost of what we were paying AT&T and KarmaGo. We had only planned to do the one line, to sort of test the waters before giving up the AT&T yoke that I had born for over a decade, but Sprint offered even MORE money if we switched all three lines. I’m a sucker for a good upsell, so we took the plunge.

And now, I’m so happy! We all played with our new phones late into the night, personalizing, streaming, and enjoying the new freedom of not worrying about data consumption. Crisis averted!

Back to enjoying this very lucky life that we have.