Anderson Valley Community Farm, Boonville, CA

December is upon us and while one would think there’s not much to do on a farm in the winter….well, turns out there’s plenty! I only spent a 3-4 weeks on AVCF before needing to move on to San Francisco to pick up some paying work [I’m broke!], but aside from pulling salad greens and root vegetables to sell at the farmer’s market and the usual collecting of eggs and feeding goats, pigs, chickens, cows, etc., we also helped birth some piglets and lambs! There was a lot of pig wrangling in mud [as they are quite the escape artists] and herding goats/sheep/cows to different pastures as the tasty grass comes back to life in the rainy season. My water froze most nights in my van while Millie and I hunkered down under wool blankets and extra sweaters. But during the day, as the sun came out and the swiss chard shed their ice jackets like it was nothing, we stayed busy preserving end-of-summer loot using the dehydrator for dried tomatoes [NOM!] and sugary dried figs, cranking up the apple press to make cider, and fermenting cabbage for sauerkraut, coleslaw, etc.

A farmer’s library.

Chestnut Ridge Farm, Boonville, CA

After a nice visit in San Diego with the family to celebrate my parents’ 50th Anniversary, I kicked around a month or so before scoring a job as Farm Manager for Chestnut Ridge Farm. The 160-acre farm is located up in Anderson Valley, an area known for exquisite pinot noirs coddled by the cool marine air, apple orchards, and the delicious, happy hoppy Boont Ale from Anderson Valley Brewery. In Anderson Valley’s much earlier years, meandering sheep and lumber mills harvesting [now treasured] redwood trees were the chief economy drivers. Chestnut Ridge Farm is next door neighbors with John Scharffenberger, who had a well known winery and later started Scharffen Berger Chocolates after he was diagnosed with cancer with a prognosis of 10 years to live. I can literally sit on a hill at lunchtime, snacking on an apple, and look down at the rolling hills belonging to a maker of small-batch chocolate and wine. California is pure magic!

Farmer Tom and his wife Pam were lovely hosts. The land nutures 250 chestnut trees, a small family vineyard (Chardonnay, Syrah. Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel), over 50 varieties of fruit and nut trees including apples, grapes, lemons, pears, figs, plums, pluots, peaches, pomegranates, cherries, almonds, hazelnuts, and hickories… and tons of flowers to keep the bees busy! It’s a beautiful homestead! The entire property is offgrid and water is provided by a deep well drilled into the property in the late 90s.

As a farm manager, I worked with a couple different teams of farmhands [some migrant workers who supplement their income from the off season of grape picking, some younger and enthusiastic WWOOFers passing through town] to rake chestnuts down the steep hillsides [this helps keep trees’ feet from getting too wet] and collect them into 55-gallon buckets. We load these large garbage-sized buckets into the back of trucks and drive up to the barn to run through a contraption that Farmer Tom [an engineer in a past life] created to split and pull the prickly hulls off the chestnuts. **Side note: by far, this has been the hardest farm job….chestnut hulls are painful AF! And the needles embed into your boot linings and wool socks for a lifetime, I swear. One thing I learned in this particular job is how differently people handle stress and hard work. You think you can gauge a person by their personality upfront, or even after a couple of days of work, but they often express different temperaments under ongoing hot conditions or stress. I find it fascinating to watch how folks choose to persevere–or do not– under such challenging conditions. This is where you realize how important comraderie becomes to push through those tough moments and balance the need to complete a task without surrendering your love and passion for farm life.

Most of our haul was sold at the BiRite in San Francisco, along with the farmer’s market in Boonville. I made some chestnut pie crusts, pomegranate smoothies, and lemon-fig bread to also sell at the farmer’s market. I love the challenge of creating new recipes in order to use up food before it can go to waste and it’s just so satisfying to cook and bake with the things you pluck from just outside your door. I can’t underscore how truly decadent that feels! I ended up staying for a month after the chestnut season ended to do various odd jobs on the farm and work on some photography and design projects, and learn some woodworking in Tom’s barn.

Big Sur

I was sad to leave Sara's farm...she was such an amazing host....we had many great conversations about politics and social agendas and she taught me quite a bit about tea in our short time together. I hope to make it back up to her farm for a lengthier stay. On to Big Sur for the night, then Morro Bay, Ventura, Long Beach and finally, San Diego. Big Sur is another place I wish to stay longer at, but it's gonna go on my growing list of "Places To Come Back To." Took a couple of short hikes and pics...

San Benito Tea Farm, Hollister, CA

The San Benito Tea Company is a magical little place. Settled in nicely between a walnut grove and a goat farm, amongst many vineyards, are lots and lots and LOTS of herbs: chamomile, lavender, rosemary, mint, and SO MUCH more. Sara Steiner, the head of the operation, grows the herbs, dries them and packages each blended tisane.

Sara [left], the herbal tea extraordinaire!

We worked the Monterey Farmer's Market. We ended up trading with some fellow farmers at the end. So many tasty goodies! Colorado's temps are at least a month out for fruits, so this was my first taste of this year's tomatoes and peaches. NOM! Rosemary sourdough bread, basil, lettuce, peaches, Brandywine heirloom maters, artichoke, cantaloupe, avocado, garlic hummus and cheese!

Harvesting chamomile flowers for tea.

Bags used for drying out the herbs in the sun.

Screens used for drying out herbs.

Measuring the weight of each tea bag to be sealed, boxed, and labeled.

Peach and plum trees!

Gathering some flowers and herbs for tonight’s dinner bouquet.

Sampling tea blends...

Chickens are hard to photograph.

Small Japanese garden...lots of Bonsai varieties and a koi pond!

Ginger!

Frittata! Goodies all came from either the farmer's market in Monterey or from Sara's garden.

Many ceramic treasures handmade by Sara's mother can be found tucked away here and there.

SF

Ahhhh, I've never had a less than awesome time in SF. Minus blowing out my elbow on Halloween night [but I edit that memory out]. I knew it would be difficult to find parking...especially with my big van, and hopefully on a flat area for sleeping purposes. I squeed when I found this in Outer Richmond:

No better place than the beach for sleep! And just around the corner from Safeway, an awesome cafe, and plenty of restaurants!

NorCal

Next destination off Hwy 101: camping at Fort Bragg on Hwy 1. I started down Hwy 1 from Garberville…which was a very steep and windy drive for 22 miles. Switchbacks every 30 seconds it seemed. 10 miles in, I smelled something ominous. I pulled over into a tight shoulder meant only for cars to pull over to let faster traffic by. I was on a pretty steep incline with smoking brakes. D'oh. Afraid they'd start a fire as they did in Wyoming [the driver's side was not fixed and that was the one smoking], I reluctantly decided to sleep there the night and turn around first thing in the morning. The woods felt extra creepy...lots of trash remnants, definitely feeling not-alone… I kept imagining meth heads wandering around and stumbling across my very isolated van. I laid down, smelling the melted brakes and listening to my van groan every time I or Millie shifted our weight in the bed. A minivan stuffed with camping gear pulled up [which I found curious since there was barely any room to park and there were many turnarounds on the road....why did they pick THIS one?]. It turned out to be a mom with 2 kids...one who was vomiting from all the switchbacks and hills. He barfed into a wastebasket [standard equipment in a van with kids?]. While he puked, I came out and let the lady know I wasn't a creeper. My van looked extra sketchy given its surroundings. Dark-ish woods as the sun was starting to set, random garbage scattered around [I wasn't the first person to sleep here], and a tight turnout–not exactly an ideal place to enjoy an evening. She seemed to be relieved. I explained my situation and we ended up chatting about starting an organic farm and traveling with no real destination for about a half hour. We exchanged phone numbers and she left me her extra can of mace. I think she would have stayed the night if she had no kids. At 5am...as soon as it was light enough to see, I got up, peed, and thankful the traffic died down to virtually nothing, got on the road. This way, I could coast the turns slowly without using the brakes and without impatient drivers getting on my ass as if I had no clue I was going so slow. I just gotta make it to a town to google how serious my smoking brakes might be...just got to get to Ukiah.

The brakes still smelled bad, but the weren't smoking and didn't seem to act any different. I got to Ukiah, had a breakfast, and started researching what kind of damage I may be looking at. After finding suitable information, I figured I could make it to SF to have them looked at. It was Saturday, so nothing would be open until Monday. I stayed in Ukiah for the day - went to the farmer's market, got breakfast, did the laundry and grabbed some dog treats/toys. We got to the Redwood Forest and found a place to sleep outside the campground [which was full]. Next morning, we went on a hike, my mind still on the brakes and dreading the traffic and hills in SF, I wanted to get closer to our destination.

Tonight's meal with some pita bread, tomato and an avocado.

Portland>Pacific Coast

I couldn't wait to get to Portland. It's been years since I'd been there last and wanted to take a bike ride for the afternoon, looking at potential neighborhoods I may want to live it. I'm not sure where I'll eventually live, but as far as cities go, I've always had Portland, Seattle, SoCal and NYC in the back of my mind. We rolled into town and it was 94 degrees already. Ugh. No dog ditching. We walked around the Hoyt Arboretum and International Rose Garden until 7pm.

After the sun went down, we walked around downtown and I grabbed a bite of Italian and went to bed. The van didn't cool off much that night, so rather than spend another day hot and frustrated, I'll come back to Portland another time. We headed off to Hwy 101. The next place we discovered was along the coast and was so magical, I won't even say where it is. I was able to pull my van right up to the coast and sleep with no worries of illegally camping. Beautiful view of the coast. These moments are so much more fleeting than I had imagined which makes them that much more important and appreciated. I must say Oregon's coast might be my favorite place in the whole US.

Rainier cherries!

Fog rolling in late morning.

Last night.

Stub Stewart State Park

Just before getting to Portland, I decided to grab a campsite. I ended up in Stub Stewart State Park. It's a pretty swanky place...the only drawback is that all sites have hookups which means you must pay for the luxury of electricity/water whether you use it or not. Being on a tight budget, I view campsites as a luxury in itself and always go for the cheapest option available to cars. I can't lie....electricity and water right outside your door is really, really nice....I could sit in my van and watch Netflix...and blog....and have a real lamp on for writing letters...and then shower later. Such decadence!

Astoria, OR

Astoria was the next stop. I had no particular reason for going there other than for the Goonies movie. Crossing a bridge seemed easy enough. But it was July 6 and apparently there were more campers tucked away than I thought. The traffic was bumper to bumper and took a good 45 minutes to get over the bridge. Argh. At least the scenery was gorgeous!  We arrived just as the weather started turning hot. Too hot for me to leave Millie in the car while I biked around the downtown area. So, we went for a walk and took pictures. We were almost back to the car when a lady called from behind me to come back. She said she had a dog that looked identical to mine and wanted them to meet. She invited us in after a few moments of chatting [we were grateful to be out of the sun and drink a glass of water]. Millie, as usual, was way more excited than the other dog and started running laps to get her playmate excited. The lady, Darlene, didn't seem to mind as this insane dog ran all over her quiet, tidy house, investigating, and occasionally eating a bone that was her dog's [named Molly, funny enough]. Millie and Molly played for awhile, quite happily.

After about an hour, Darlene asked if I'd like to go to the dog park, located on the coast. After the pups played there a bit, we went on a nice walk, where she pointing out the various piers and nesting birds and suggested some great dining options.

Molly scrambling.

The Goonies house.

Ilwaco, WA

I don't know what I was thinking...it's July 4th weekend...where exactly DID I expect to stay? I drove up and down a small road at the tip of Southern Washington [just across the bridge from Astoria, OR]. There was no secret place to pull into. This part of van life is the part I need to work on. I've planned this trip to be impromptu, thus, I have not made reservations at any campgrounds and have no real time frame for anything, other than arriving in San Diego on 7/26 for my parent's 50th anniversary party. The beauty of this trip is taking things as they come...PRO: staying as long as I want in any one place....CON: not always getting what I want. It can be rather annoying when you are tired and hungry and JUST WANT TO STOP DRIVING. I passed a grassy field that had one lone pop-up camper van. I WILL NOT be the jerk who crashes that lovely, isolated party. It's probably some honeymooning couple. I drove another 20 miles, getting grumpier and grumpier as the sun dropped lower and lower. I found a side road that had an empty grassy field and a gate open. I had my reservations, but decided to chance it. I parked and poked around in the van, putting up my windshield visor and side curtain, making myself as non-existent as possible. Only 5 minutes had passed when I heard a voice, "Excuse me? Hello, anybody in there?" Argh. This surely can't be good. I opened my door with the biggest smile I could muster in some sorry effort to persuade this man, most likely the land owner, to allow me to sleep on his property. He and [I assume] his daughter stood there. "Um, are you with the party up there?" He pointed to a larger grassier area that was around the bend. "No, I'm just pulling over to grab some sleep for the night before continuing my road trip." I was hoping to insinuate that I'm not a partier who will be shooting off fireworks and setting his grassy utopia ablaze. He kind of balked as if to say, "oh, well in THAT case..." but his crabby daughter or young bride clearly felt no sympathy. "Well, this is a private farm and only our family can camp here," she spat. Allllright. I apologized, the old man suggested I try the at-capacity KOA or the at-capacity state campground. I thanked him and folded up my windshield visor.

I passed the solo pop-up camper van again. This time, I decided to at least scope out the situation. I pulled into the pothole ridden drive, my rumbling van engine scaring birds in the treetops away. I drove through a field of yellow, white and purple flowers. There the van sat, quietly, almost as if abandoned. I pulled up as far away from their home as possible, practically in the weeds. I turned off my engine. Still, no noise or sign of life. I got my dog out and tied her up to the bumper [I always think of Chevy Chase when I do this] and set out her water dish. I went back into the van to grab a lawn chair when someone came up, "Hello? Is it okay if my dog is off leash?" Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Larry.

After a brief chat, Larry told me it was just he and his dog, Buffy, and invited me over for a glass of wine after I get settled in. I obliged.

We had a good night of chatting....I learned that he had just lost his wife to cancer and had two beautiful and amazing grown children. He told me of his traveling adventures overseas, growing up in Detroit in the 50/60s, and his career teaching troubled youth in a juvenile facility. The conversation never stalled out, but never got too deep–as you would expect, given a single woman encountering a single man in an isolated location. We made plans to have coffee together the next morning. I locked my doors and set out my knife–you can never be too safe–and promptly went into a peaceful sleep, one of the soundest sleeps I had had on this journey so far.

The next morning, I brought coffee over to Larry's van, since he had a nice little freestanding table. He had collected some flowers from the field for the table, and put out cream and rum. We had another lengthy conversation for most of the morning and then went our separate ways for the day. Later in the afternoon, he came back to report the roads were all bumper-to-bumper with tourists on their July 4th vacation and decided to listen to the soccer game and hang in his van. I was reading my book and cleaning up the van after the Seattle visit. One thing I've learned is that you are constantly cleaning your van. Playing Tetris with all of your belongings each day can easily spell disaster if you are in a hurry and don't put things back or if you are in a city where you cannot spill out of the van with your garbage, dirty dishes and melted ice].

For dinner, we ate salmon, a salad and some crab salad. We had another great night of conversation and watched the stars as they arrived one by one.

The next morning, we were both leaving. We were both on a similar route, heading to Southern California, to meet our family. We said our goodbyes and exchanged email addresses. Larry left first, and I immediately felt lonely. He was the first stranger I encountered where I had a long conversation, not just since being on the van voyage, but maybe in years. My purposeful reclusive life in Denver came with drawbacks: human connection.

After he left, I went over to grab my chair and found one last bouquet of flowers.

Seattle, WA

Made it to Seattle! Sunny and a near perfect 65 degrees. The first night I settle on staying in Georgetown, a artsy/grungy hood. It sucks for finding a place to pee, though.  I also felt a little extra vigilant through the night. However, it was nice to sit in a bar in the afternoon [the first bar I had been into since starting the trip---one of my rules for safety is to not hang out in any drinking establishments at night].

The next day, I hung out in All City Cafe, looking for dog parks, museums and restaurants. I relocated to Alki Beach that night for sleeping. What a great area! Plenty of parking, plenty of shops within walking distance of the van and oh-so-much beach time for the pupperoni. I found a Starbucks, which I'd normally avoid based on principals, but it's turned into my best friend for working on my laptop [whose battery never lasts more than 5 minutes at this point] and charging my phone. I also washed my hair in their sink [sorry, Starbucks patrons, I was getting desperate].

I met a lot of friendly folks in Seattle....it seems to be a very dog-friendly place. I spent a week there, mostly on the beach watching people and eating. I only went into town once...and that was to the vet. Millie ended up getting worms. Bleck. Props to the awesome staff at Urban Animal! After driving in that mess, I had no interest in going back.

There are definitely some drawbacks to traveling with a dog. Before adopting Millie, I sat on the pros and cons for a long, long, LONG time. Concerns include temperatures in the car [whether too hot or too cold], you can't take dogs on buses or trains [which limits what you can do in a city], a lot of parks and beaches do not allow dogs, a lot of motels do not, either  [should your van need to go into the shop overnight], your dog getting stolen if you do go into a restaurant/laundromat/grocery store/etc, exposure to sick or aggressive dogs that might require a trip to the vet [bites, worms, fleas]. Not to mention you can't be MIA all day or night. And with a pointer, you also need to make sure they get their exercise before they explode with pent-up energy. Despite all this, I so very happy to have Millie in my life. Her companionship has made this trip more satisfying than it could have been otherwise. She helps make me feel safe and makes me laugh pretty much every day.

On that note, I would have stayed longer except it was July 4th and I didn't want Millie to endure a frightening hour of explosions. And so we headed to Cape Disappointment on the southern most tip of Washington. NOTE: next time, we will go to San Juan Islands.

Skykomish, WA

Campsite! We came upon the town of Skykomish. Very damp and mossy...giant slugs galore! Met a nice couple who was around my age. They were traveling in a cute little orange VW bus. They stopped by to say hi and we had a cocktail by the fire while it rained on us. The hubby was from Colorado and they suggested some great things to do [and where to covertly park] while in Seattle and Portland. I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo of them, but I feel a little awkward asking strangers if it's okay for me to take a portrait of them. This is a fear I need to get over.

It rained all day and night and I can't tell you how much I love listening to rain drops on the roof of my van. It's a simple pleasure and I relish it. The next morning, I stopped at a tiny little cafe/post office, sat at the bar and ordered the best eggs and hashbrowns of my life.

Dry Falls, WA

I had originally planned on stopping in Spokane to walk around, but it was one of those days where I wanted to just find a place to sleep and enjoy the rest of the day. I found a secluded road, Hwy 2, that led me to Dry Falls. A bizarre little area....it reminded me of Utah...I was surrounded by a deep canyon, virtually no trees in sight. Not what you imagine when you think of Washington state. It was a glorious spot....I was all alone–exactly how I envisioned my entire trip to be!

Missoula, MT

Heading out of Yellowstone, I noticed a rather disturbing engine 'pinging' on steep climbs, a herky-jerky motion every once in awhile, and a vibration at certain speeds. I made it to the next big town which was Missoula. I've been worried about this van since Day 1....with its age and mileage...anxious about every little burp and fart it makes. I can't believe it hasn't blown up yet! If I had to place a bet on anything, I'm guessing the transmission will be the first to go. It shifts pretty hard from 1st to 2nd gear. Anyway, I took the first exit that looked promising from the interstate and pulled into the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel, which was adjacent to a nice-looking hotel. Starving, I decided to splurge on a restaurant meal rather than eat one.more.drab.sammie from the cooler. I found that I couldn't eat–my appetite dissolved for fear that my van was on the verge of dying and/or would cost me $500+ to fix. While I have some money set aside for mechanical or emergency vet issues, it's the kind of money I'd rather use for, say, a trip to the hot springs or a fancy dinner on the coast. On the plus side, Missoula is the perfect town for running my mounting errands. I essentially have been in the boonies since beginning the trip, and am finding I need to tweak my van-living ways a bit. Everything is basically on one road, all within a few blocks and so I managed to hit up REI, Ulta, Target, Walmart, Sports Authority and the gas station. I spent almost a week in this town reorganizing/revamping my van [I bought a cooler, a plastic console to hold my drinks, and some storage containers for clothes...donated a few books and other things I no longer needed and vacuumed it of the mounting dog hair].

As far as the pinging goes, I checked my oil and learned that the guys who messed up my brakes in Denver also forgot to change my oil. The oil stick was bone dry. Yargh. I added 3 quarts which got it to almost full. Before leaving town, I went to a transmission shop and learned that my U-joints were giving out, so I had them replaced and went ahead and had them put in a new oil filter and flush the system [I have no idea how long I was driving with low oil since I have not warning lights on the dash and naively assumed it was fine since I hadn't been on the road that long.]

After 3 quarts was added.  :/

Missoula has a pretty awesome dog park right next to their campus, so we ended up staying a few days so Millie could romp in the river and sand with other 4-legged creatures and I could eat some fun food amongst students. I rather miss college life....the crappy sofas on the porch flanked with plastic red cups. It's like a drug, college towns. Learning and being lazy. What better combo?

Yellowstone

I pretty much loathe tourist traps. In fact, I loathe most things where people tend to excessively congregate and create inefficiency: sport games, rock shows, happy hours, festivals, water parks, etc. This did not come with age. I've been a grumpy misanthrope since the tender age of 14. So, having never been to Yellowstone, I could not NOT actually experience it, being so close to the area anyway. The area is beautiful. The traffic wasn't too bad...until I made my way to Old Faithful. Literally...could NOT find a parking space. And it was full of hogging RVs and travel buses and assholes with kids. By the time I found a spot and ate a quick lunch next to a port a potty, I ended up aborting my mission. On to Montana. I did get some cool photos of geysers near Norris. Good enough.

A quiet little campground just inside of Montana! Yay!

Grand Teton Natl Forest

Left Rock Springs [GOOD RIDDANCE!!!!] this afternoon....and on to Jackson, WY! What a lovely place! It's snowing today, which I love little towns like this when the weather is crappy. I had a hot Bhakti chai [holy crap, they are expensive up here - compared to Colorado!], and read the local paper for awhile. This is one of my favorite things to do while traveling...reading the local papers. You can get a better sense of what a town is like, and small town journalism is always amusing. I imagine this is what it would be like to be a high school English teacher. Police blotters are the best part.

Anyway, I bumbled around town looking at a bunch of shops full of bronze buffaloes and mountain photography and found one upcycle store full of cute goodies, most of which are exactly the same products that Denver offers. I ate at a hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant and found a thrift store. All in all, a good day. I didn't feel so bad spending money after the drought of Rock Springs, and was willing to pay a steep $20 to stay at a campsite in Grand Teton....mainly for the view and for the luxury of a campfire. Bonus: moose sighting about 50 feet from my camp! I made friends with a girl around my age who was a teacher in Denver. Everything is starting to fall into place. Heck, I may stay here another night.

Rock Springs, pt. 3

Having the whole weekend to dwell on how much this van problem will cost, and how long it will take to fix, my spirits are fairly low. Although, for some reason, I'm not freaking out the way I should be. The mechanics are looking at it now.

Here's the coolest thing I came across in Rock Springs, WY. Millie apparently is not a fan of monkeys wearing hats.

....

Update: the fire was caused by the mechanics in Denver who put on my new brakes. They didn't lube the bearings [at all or as well as they should have], so they seized up and caught on fire. Awesome. I called Tilden's in Denver, prepared to fight them on paying for the damage [nevermind they are costing me 5 days of vacation and I'm sleeping in a rock pit all the while], but they immediately took responsibility and paid the bill. I should be on the road by tomorrow. Barb and Al have been texting me to check on the progress quite a bit, God bless 'em.

Rock Springs, pt. 2

So, the van was towed into Rock Springs on a Friday afternoon. The mechanics can't look at it today and are closed on the weekend. They are kind enough to let me sleep in the van til Monday. I can pee and poo and McDonalds about a half mile away, while charging up my phone [no phone/internet reception in RS]. I can walk around town which is not exactly interesting to say the least or hang out at the truck stop. This is my view for the weekend in the van:

I did, however, discover a secret little place where apparently the used ATV lot across the street uses for potential buyers to test out their products....

A much better place to pee than McDonalds.

Rock Springs, WY

FreakinFantastic. The van is being towed into town. En route to Grand Teton, on Highway 191, the tire caught fire. No phone service. I flagged down a car. A nice, newly retired couple was able to call AAA. Triple A seems to hire people who do not look at maps to determine your location despite your very specific instructions ["approximately 25 miles south of Rock Springs, WY on Highway 191...NO, for the third time, I did not see any mile markers!!"] complete with Longitude and Latitude coordinates. After a second phone call and multiple transfers, someone finally figured out that I wasn't anywhere near Laramie and it wouldn't take 4 hours for someone to get to me. Said nice couple, Barb and Al from Northern California, shared their Wyoming chardonnay with me in plastic cups while we waited out the rain in their car for the tow truck [30 minutes away]. They refused to leave before the tow truck came, and while I felt sure I'd be fine had they been on their way, I was secretly relieved they insisted on staying. It made the small catastrophe so much more manageable.

Another plus: I learned how to use a fire extinguisher.

Riding shot gun in the tow truck!

A few hours prior to the van fire, I had stopped in Flaming Gorge Reservoir....here's some pretty pics to end on a better note:

Happy Friday the 13th!!

Steamboat Springs, CO

I've officially launched my trip! The first stop in Steamboat Springs. When I first moved to Colorado 8 years ago, the first hot springs I ever experienced was in this town. Strawberry Park is a wonderful place to soak...and in all the places I've been to in Colorado, it's still at the top of the list. It seemed only fitting to leave Colorado with one last visit. This time I was alone, which I thought would feel sad and wistful. Turns out, I was more than content. Blissful. I soaked early in the morning, and lounged in the sun. Temps were around 60-65. PERFECT.

I left by the afternoon to find my first place to camp out. I was determined not to pay at a campsite. My budget is damn tight. I ended up on a long, winding road with no public roads to pull off to. With light dwindling and a rainstorm coming in, I finally gave up and slept on the side of a road. Not the way I was hoping to start the trip, especially being a little skittish about being bothered by strangers. I woke up early and found a campsite to hang out in that appeared to be open, though not technically opened. No campground host in sight, I pulled in and set up for the evening. Mosquito-heaven. Poor Millie the Pooch was covered. The smoky fire, nor the spray repellant, seemed to be working. I scarfed my meal and we took cover for the night.

So far, this camping adventure is lackluster. On to Yellowstone!