The Nonsense of W&J

2024 is our fourth year of Full-Time RVing in our 23′ travel trailer.  We have seen a lot of things, learned a lot of things, and missed a lot of things from living in a sticks and bricks home.

Living in a Camper Full-Time

When we sold our house to start RVing Full-Time, we had no idea what we were getting into to. We simply knew we were tired of working long hours without spending enough time together. While traveling we thought we would also look for a permanant home area while on the road. We would explore areas and see if any fit our needs.

Our travel trailer is a lot smaller than any house we have ever owned, including our first one-bedroom house in town. When we moved into the travel trailer, we didn’t know what to keep and what to get rid of. We spent a lot of money on a storage shed and tripped over a lot of stuff all over our camper. After the first year, we finally organized our travel trailer.  Now, most everything has its place; although we still have a few things sitting around the bed.  After the first year, we also sold everything in storage and got rid of the storage shed.

We still do not have the space for everything in our travel trailer. For some reason, the more adventures we try, the more toys we want to buy. So, the wetsuits, snorkeling gear and boogie boards are in the back of the truck. One of the reasons we do not have room in the travel trailer, though, is that we are carrying coats and old clothes for the Sugar Beet Harvest we work every year. When we decide to no longer work the harvest, we will have more room in a travel trailer for our toys.

After figuring out our organization, there are still many other considerations to full-time RVing that may differ from living in a house. Internet is a biggie. We have a Thousand Trails membership. Although we love our membership because it offers us campgrounds in a lot of areas, their campgrounds are notorious for not having the best cell service.

We have Verizon cell service for both our phones and our jetpacks.  Because we do not work from home, we have the luxury of not requiring internet service full-time.  However, we are addicted to Amazon Prime.  And, we like to make videos, post blogs, and study Spanish.  So, internet access is still a daily ritual with us.  Right now, we are both sitting in the truck with the jetpacks on the weBoost in a Thousand Trails campground.  Our goal is to buy an additional antenna for the travel trailer.  Hopefully we can sit in our recliners and have internet!

Originally we purchased NETGEAR Omnidirectional MIMO Antennas from Amazon.  These atennas connect directly to our jetpacks.  They have greatly improved our cell service for watching television in most campgrounds.  However, we still do not have enough service in some areas to make phone calls.  Because we were truck camping this year, we also added the weBoost Drive Reach OTR – Cell Phone Signal Booster for Trucks and SUVs.   This has really made a difference in cell service curing our travels.  Especially as we rely a lot on GPS and Campendium for locations and boondocking.  Our Signal Booster works very well, which is why we are currently sitting in the truck for internet.

We have not tried Starlink.  However, we see many full-time RVers with the notorious Starlink receiver sitting on their roof or in their yard at campgrounds.  Right now, with our budget and how we want to spend our money, Starlink is not on our purchasig radar.  We will continue to rub our bellies while patting our heads to try to receive cell service at some of our campgrounds rather than subscribe to Starlink.

However, we have experienced internet issues even when we lived in a house in the country.  We could not make or receive phone calls in our dead zone.  For internet, we signed up with a satellite service that cost nearly $100 per month.  We still have issues when we visit our friends in this location.  So, having cell service issues is not uncommon to us, but we still cuss a little.  If we did work online, it would be more stressful.  This is one of the reasons we decided to not to pursue online jobs.  We didn’t want to fall back into stressful jobs while full-time RVing.  Cleaning toilets and working the beet harvest temporarily are enough for us right now.

We don’t consider the repairs on our travel trailer being any more frequent than repairs on our houses.  We have owned homes where the roof leaked, water flooded into the carport, and cinder blocks held the house up.  In our opinion, houses require a lot of maintenance.  And, the more bathrooms you have, the more stories you have, and the more windows you have, the more maintenance you have.  Now that our travel trailer is approaching five years old, it seems to require more repairs.  However, when the repairs become too costly, we have decided to buy a new, larger travel trailer with more storage.  Then, we can put our toys inside.  Of course, with us, nothing is set in stone.

One constant in our Full-Time RVing is the planning.  We usually move more slowly than most of the RVers we know.  We sit at our Thousand Trails campgrounds for two to three weeks.  This did change a little while we were truck camping this year.  We usually only stayed at a boondocking site for a few days.  But usually we will sit in an area for at least a week.  We do a lot of planning.  We plan our trip, our campgrounds, and our activities.  This was something very new to us from living in a house.  When we planned a small getaway from our house, it was usually last minute and for a few days.  Now, we plan months in advance and have several plans saved at once.  Just in case we change our minds.

What We Miss While Full-Time RVing

There are some really important things we miss from living in our sticks and bricks.  It is not the space of the house or the internet.  We miss our hobbies.  Although we have added a lot more fun hobbies while traveling, there are some activities we really enjoyed while staying put that are difficult to continue on the road.

Gardening on the Road is Difficult

Jessica loves gardening and having chickens.  When she lived in the country, she had fresh veggies throughout the summer and fresh eggs throughout most of the year.  She built cold frames and a hoop house and kept honey bees.  Some of the things Jessica misses most is picking a watermelon and dividing it to share with the chickens.  She misses mulching the grapes and blueberries and pulling weeds from the herbs and flowers.  Watching a plant grow in the spring from a bulb you planted in the fall can be so exciting.

Windell misses hunting and fishing.  He loved planting crops, including turnips, for the deer.  Then, he would set up game cameras to watch the deer eat and see how well they grew in the Spring.  Although he really enjoyed bow hunting in the fall, his real passion was caring for the land and the deer.  Both of us miss feeding the fish in the pond together while sharing a beer.

It is very difficult to continue the same hobbies we had in our homes while traveling.  Jessica has tried.  She irritated Windell until one year he carried grow bags full of Salvia and alpine strawberries in the back of the truck.  He would unload them everytime they moved to another campground and reload them when we left.  She still owes him for this, and he still lets her know she owes him.

When we are sitting at a spot for several months, Jessica will probably still try to grow some flowers and vegetables to satisfy her gardening itch.  And, if we ever do find a spot that we want to sit at permanently, we have already decided to have some gardening space and maybe a couple of chickens, if we can.  Of course, it all depends on where we will eventually end up.  Who knows!

Quitting Full-Time RVing

Although we thought we might find a new location to settle down on, we are not yet there.  Everytime we think about settling down again, we cannot imagine ourselves waking up to the same view day in and day out.  Also, we would have to settle down somewhere near the ocean.  Snorkeling has become the number one hobby for the both of us, beating even gardening and hunting.  We want to continue playing in the ocean, no matter where we end up.

However, right now we are excited about traveling overseas.  There are so many adventures that we have yet to try and so many places we still want to see!  As much as we love snorkeling, we are considering trying scuba diving.  So, no, we have no desire to quit full-time RVing as yet.  But, we do understand why many people do quit.  The desire for a constant location, more living space, and a desire to return to our previous hobbies would be the reasons we would quit, if we wanted to.

Retiring Early – On a Budget

Our first two years of RVing Full-Time, we did not know anything about workamping.  We had both retired early from our jobs to take a break and spend some time together.  We created a tight budget for a lifestyle we thought we could afford.  Our budget did not include much expense for adventuring or campgrounds.

Our initial plan was to stay on Thousand Trails Campgrounds with our membership and see sights around these campgrounds.  We expected to stay on our tight budget by doing this.  But, of course, after the first six months, we wanted more!  More adventures, more toys, more fun.  With our tight budget, our adventuring was more limited than we wanted.

The second year was also a little scary for us.  The stock market was falling and we were traveling in the Northwest.  We experienced higher diesel prices for the truck, higher cost of food, and, of course, we had to do some cool boat rides in this area.  So, after that second year, we decided we needed to work.  For our first workamping experience, we stayed for seven months with a relative and worked as Professional Housekeepers over a winter.  We learned a lot on our first Workamping Job that we could apply to future positions.

Our Workamping Experiences

Working for family – Our First Workamping Experience

Our first boss was amazing.  She trained us well and then let us run amuck.  You might think that cleaning toilets does not sound like a good job.  But there are many positives to professional cleaning.  As mere employees, the boss handled all communications wih the clients.  We did attend meetings, work outside in the elements, or work full-time.

Our first workamping gig was a great experience and we learned a lot.  We did the best job we could and we left on excellent terms.  So, we added the experience and our reference to our Workamping resume on Workamper News.

The Beet Harvest – Our Second Workamping Job

Our second workamping gig was the Beet Harvest.  This workamping experience was a little more intense simply because of the long hours.  However, the job is pretty simple and it only lasts a couple of weeks.  We planned ahead by preparing and freezing meals so we would not have to cook while working the Beet Harvest.  We also kept old clothes that we no longer wore so we would not have to do laundry while working twelve hour shifts.  When the beet harvest was finished, we simply threw them away when we were done.  It sounds like waste.  But, after all the beet dirt, you do not want to wear those clothes again.  After every shift, Jessica would dump the beet dirt out of her sports bra before walking into the travel trailer.

The Beet Harvest was awesome for two reasons.  Everyone knows you make a lot of money in just a couple of weeks.  It really helps with the adventuring budgeting.  However, we also received an extra benefit at the beet harvest.  We worked on a fabulous team and met some amazing people. Because of our great experience, we signed up to work it again this year.  But now we will be on nights.  Jessica is not sure how well she will handle nights, and how much coffee she will require.  Windell has already promised to keep reminding her of next year’s planned adventures.  Hopefully, we will also be on the same awesome team as before.

Working at a Florida Resort

The same year we first worked the Beet Harvest, we signed up for Housekeeping in a beautiful resort in Florida for the winter.  We really did not know at first what to expect.  We had never worked at a campground/resort before, although, most of the other Workampers had lots of experience at campgrounds.  They would work half the year in Florida for the winter and the other half at a campground/resort up North.  We felt a little out of place with our limited experience.  But as we tell ourselves with every Workamper job, “if it doesn’t work out, we will simply leave.”

But it did work out!  The resort is gorgeous.  We only worked three full days a week.  That left us four days a week for adventuring and RV maintenance.  We were still Housekeeping, so we could keep to ourselves and simply do our job.  Our supervisor was laid back and had a great attitude.  Again, we were trained and then allowed to run amuck.  We loved the cleanliness of the resort and the great location for adventuring.  And, Jessica learned how to drive a golf cart!

Some of the owners at the resort were not sure about us either.  And we can understand why.  Sometimes the workampers and the employer work out great, as has been our experience with all our gigs.  However, we have also heard stories about workers and employers not being a good fit.  Also, we know we are not perfect workampers.  But we will try to remember to clean the vacuum filter next time before complaining about it!

After a few months of cleaning and doing our best, people at the resort became more friendly toward us.  We tried to learn names, and they already knew ours.  More “hellos” came our way, and we even added new subscribers.   When we started working the parties at the end of the year, we met even more awesome people.  We worked as food servers and had a chance to dance with the owners at the last parties for the season.  What a blast!

Our Future Workamping

Workamping has been an amazing experience for us.  We have loved learning new skills and meeting new people.  Sometimes there has been a little drama.  Jessica does get a little cranky when she is tired or not out adventuring enough.  Sometimes others try to throw drama on you.  But, overall, we would definitely recommend workamping to anyone wanting to earn a some extra cash flow.

Although we have met some amazing people, our favorite part of workamping has been the huge increase in our budget.  We love booking bigger adventures and buying more toys.  Now we are even looking at traveling more overseas in the upcoming years.  The increase in our wages and our budget have expanded our adventuring.

We have not explored all the opportunities of workamping.  There are many more skills to learn.  Jessica would like to workamp on a farm.  Although Windell says no.  These are temporary positions in different places.  You can apply for whatever position you want wherever you want to be.  If it does not work out, your career is not affected.  You do not get demoted or put on corrective action.  If you don’t want to, you do not have to work the same job for twenty years and hope you can retire while still physically healthy.  You can explore and adventure while you work.

So, if you are traveling full-time and you need some money, look into some Workamping opportunities.  It is a lot of fun.  We already plan to continue workamping for many more years to have bigger and more exciting adventures.

This year (2024) we decided to change up how we RV and try truck camping for the summer months.  We have already written one article on our truck camping experience at  https://thenonsenseofwj.com/truck-camping-for-a-summer/.  As we only had one Thousand Trail Campground in the state of Colorado and none in Utah, we believed, incorrectly as it turned out, that this was the best way to experience these states.  Even Passport America and RPI in these states are few and far between.  So, instead of paying for campgrounds throughout the summer, we chose to camp in our truck.

Boondocking

Now, we know many people boondock and leave their campers while they go exploring.  However, we are not yet comfortable with this.  Also, we do not want to feel obligated to put external cameras and security alarms on our camper.  We have many friends who boondock all the time and some who boondocked when they began RVing.  Although, a few did have a few items left outside stolen, they still recommend boondocking.  As everyone tells us, simply stay where you feel comfortable and introduce yourself to your neighbors.  However, let us face it, we are glampers.  We like campgrounds and full-hookups.  Yes, sewer please!

We have boondocked in some spots this year that we would be comfortable leaving the camper during the day to go adventuring.  Tom’s Best Spring Road near Bryce Canyon is one such spot.  These are designated dispersed camping in the Dixie National Forest.  There were many other campers around and we felt very comfortable here.  The couple in the Class A beside us even introduced themselves and were very friendly.

However, many times when we are boondocking in Colorado or Utah at a site we found with Campendium or IOverlander, we are by ourselves in the middle of nowhere.  We are definitely not comfortable leaving our travel trailer fby itself in these areas while we go off exploring.

Truck Camping

So, we camped in the back our truck for 46 days.  We explored mainly Utah, a little of Arizona and Wyoming, and some of Colorado.  When we first started, we had a futon in the back of the truck.  We could lay the futon down for sleeping.  And we could sit up on the futon during the day.  However, the futon was much too large for the space.  At our age, sleeping on a futon was very uncomfortable and our backs let us know it was not working.  So, we broke down the futon with a sledge hammer and strapped it to the top of the truck.  Luckily, we found a dumpster at a rest stop with plenty of room to throw in the futon.

We replaced the futon with a mattress topper three inches thick and another smaller topper with bumps.  The mattress topper was pretty comfortable for sleeping.  During the day, when we loaded the truck back up, we just rolled the toppers to the back of the truck bed.  Sitting in the truck bed on the mattress toppers was not as comfortable as the futon.  But we made it work.

During our 46 days, we also purchased a larger 55 quart cooler and a 5 gallon drinking cooler.  The smaller cooler that we carried was too small and the ice melted too quickly.  So, we bought some new ones in Utah.  Boy, did they come in handy.  While boondocking in Utah, the state had a sudden heat wave.  The new coolers made the heat wave almost bearable.  We had cold drinking water and our new 55 quart cooler kept ice much longer.  Luckily, most gas stations and grocery stores in Utah sell block ice.  We bought block ice for the food cooler and cubed ice to add to our drinks.  We bought a lot of ice crazy amout of ice in Utah!  However, the block ice and the new coolers lasted several days in the heat wave.

The Truck Camping Diet

Our food while camping in the truck mainly consisted of tuna fish, packaged noodles and rice, instant potatoes, and oatmeal.  We both lost a lot of weight.  If you are wanting to shed some pounds, try our new and improved truck camping diet for a couple of months!  Of course, we were also very active in Utah.  We did a lot of hiking!  Sometimes we would even find hikes while traveling before we ate breakfast.  When we hiked the Grand Wash Trail in Capital Reef National Park, we had planned on eating breakfast at the Visitor’s Center.  However, we found the hiking trail first.  So, we ate granola bars to sustain us while we hiked.

Unsurprisingly, we lost a lot of weight.  We usually eat red meat pretty frequently.  However, keeping hamburger in a cooler in a heat wave was not our idea of fun.  So, we ate a lot of canned meat.  Hence, the tuna fish.  Sometimes we would throw in some canned chicken and fajita strips.  FYI, canned meat is very expensive compared to buying raw hamburger and chicken.  Especially as we usually buy our groceries  at Aldi – our favorite grocery store.  Since we are back in our RV and have our awesome refrigerator, we can eat our normal again.  We will probably gain our weight back.

Right now, though, our clothes are a lot looser.  Windell must wear a belt for his pants.  Jessica has to tie her shorts and pants even tighter.  Maybe Jessica will even wear the bikini that Windell wants her to wear in her fifties, if she can keep the weight off.  Probably not though.

So Much Dirt

Dirt is the main constant while camping in the truck in the desert.  We purchased pump sprayers before we started this journey.  Although we usually do not shower every day normally, we do like to stay clean, shave, and wash our hair.  So, we purchased three pump sprayers and a gravity camping shower for us.

The cheap, gravity camping shower did not work well.  Maybe we are a little spoiled.  However, it did not have enough pressure to even remove shampoo.  We put it up as high as we could on the truck to no avail.  So, we mainly used our pump sprayers for showering.  The naked person would stand in the poop tent while the other person hosed them down.  It took two people to shower.   By yourself, you could not get the little head at the right angle to rinse your hair.

The pump sprayers did get us cleaner, for a little bit.  However, showering outside in the desert means you are showering in the dirt.  Everything is dirty.  We bought a cheap little rubber mat to stand on while we showered in the toilet tent.  But we were so dirty.  Dirt just ran off us onto the mat and then the ground.  Even though the mat was easy to spray off where you stood, the underneath was all muddy.  At the end of the truck camping, we were so tired of trying to get the dirt off that we just counted the number of days to the campground and our travel trailer.

While returning from Wyoming to Colorado, we treated ourselves and stayed at a nice hotel.  We felt so sorry for the hotel staff.  After we finished showering, the washcloths were so dirty and we could not rinse all the dirt out.  However, we felt awesome!  Our hair was clean and not greasy.  We put on clean clothes that were not covered in red dirt.  And, we even had a huge, free breakfast with cookies!

After several more days of traveling and adding dirt to ourselves and the truck, we finally returned to our travel trailer.  We were both so filthy.  When we each had a long shower, we were several shades lighter on our skin.  What we thought was tan was dirt!  Also, being able to really scrub our toes in a shower without standing on more dirt was the best feeling.

Truck camping in non-desert states may be completely different for keeping clean.  However, in Utah, the wind blows dirt everywhere.  The pump sprayers are not going to get you clean.  And, forget about the gravity shower!  While hiking, riding the shuttles, or even bumping along in the Jeep tour, we knew we were those people whom everyone shimmies away from.  We did try to stay clean, use deodorant and shave.  However, trying to keep clean while camping is a lot harder without a pressurized shower and clean floor.

Disorganization can be Fun – Not

It does not matter how organized you try to be while truck camping.  Things become very chaotic quickly.  We thought we were so smart.  All our clothes were labeled and we put all the items we thought we would use daily in the side compartment of the camper shell.  We tried to be organized!  However, because almost everything had to be pulled out of the back of the truck to sleep every day, things became disorganized instantly.  Bathroom and shower items got mixed in with kitchen items.  Forks were placed in our hiking backpacks instead of the silverware container.

Camping in the Truck was a whole different ballgame than living in our RV.  Everything was out of place.  Although it was hard to pull things out from underneath the futon, we did have more storage area.  When we removed the futon, many items had to put on the hitch or crammed in the back of the truck bed.  So, things were easily misplaced.  Windell could not wait to return to his trailer just so he could put his stuff in its place and it would stay there.

When we were considering purchasing a pop-up truck camper for future trips, we watched You-Tubers who lived in their truck campers full-time.  They added solar, indoor toilets, sinks, etc.  However, we have decided we are not those people.  We are the type of people who do not want to try to fit all our living into the back of our truck.  We want indoor showers, a refrigerator, a flush toilet, and toys for our hobbies.  The truck camper is not large enough for us to live in full-time.  It is okay for a few days for some amazing adventuring, but then we want to return to our travel trailer with all of its comforts.

So, we will not be buying a new pop-up camper shell or slide in truck camper.  We are going to enjoy coffee programmed in the morning and everything organized and always in its place.  Our amazing little travel trailer will travel across the U.S. with us.

We did it!

Wow, we actually camped in our truck for 46 days and didn’t get divorced.  Some of the YouTubers we watch truck camp a week or two.  They live in houses and travel and adventure part-time.  We do know that there are people who live in their vehicles full-time.  We say Kudos to you!  It is not for us. A truck camper does not provide all the comforts and benefits of the travel trailer.  Oh, sure, we will still vehicle camp every once in a great while……for a couple of days…..before we return to our refrigerator and shower.

Our first year of RVing and adventuring full-time, we did not have a GoPro for most of the year.  We simply had our Olympus camera to capture the Outer Banks in North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; and kayaking the Three Sisters Spring in Florida.  Because we were very private, we never thought of creating a YouTube Channel to record our adventures.

While sitting in Fort Myers, Florida, we decided we wanted a GoPro to capture our fun.  This is also when we decided to create our YouTube Channel to post videos of our adventures.  We created the YouTube Channel so we could look back later in life and relive our fun.  One of our first videos was us boogie boarding at Ormand Beach.  We were laughing and having a great time.  We still watch that video and laugh at ourselves.

Since that first year, we have always had a GoPro with us on our adventures.  It did take us some time to accustom ourselves to carrying the GoPro and we have had some mishaps.  We thought we were getting some great footage at the Badlands.  Jessica, who is scared of heights, climbed up the tall cable ladder on The Notch Trail in the Badlands.  When she reached the top, she started doing a happy dance and yelling “Yippee.”  It was hilarious.  People all around us were laughing with us.  However, the newbies that we were, we later discovered the GoPro was not filming.  Ooops!  That was a hilarious moment, that although we remember a little, we would have loved a video of it.

So, we have a blast recording our memories and posting them on YouTube for us.  But we also hope others enjoy our videos.  We get excited when people watch our videos and want to visit the place or do the adventure we are recording.  We believe we are not adrenaline junkies, as we have been called.  Our adventures are simply of two middle-aged persons in good health, with one person afraid of heights.

Surprise Benefits of Our Channel

Our idea of recording our adventures for our memories has paid off well.  Not financially, of course, with only a hundred subscribers.  Yet with our laughter and our fun.  We watch our own videos and recall that memory together.  Many times, we had forgotten something we had seen or done.  So, we watch the video to remember and have a good laugh at our own misadventures.

However, making videos and posting them on YouTube has brought some surprise benefits.  Windell loves making the videos.  He is always discovering new features on the software and playing around with the special effects.  He has a lot of fun combining the videos and pictures and adding music.  His joy is one of the surprise benefits we discovered with the GoPros.

Another surprise benefit is that sometimes we capture things on the camera that we missed while we were there.  We never would have seen the lobster at Phil Foster if Windell had not been filming inside some of the rocks.  We enjoy seeing in the video later something we may have missed at the time.  Sometimes, animals zip past us in a flash or we cannot remember all the details.  We can slow the video down or pause it to get a better view.  We enjoy recapturing the moment on video if we want to further research what exactly was that fish or did the Grizzly have a baby with it.

One of the best surprise benefits of making videos, however, is capturing us being in the moment.  We film ourselves a lot on our adventures.  Well, Windell films us a lot on our adventures!  He is always prodding Jessica to turn around to face his GoPro.  Looking back at the smiles on our faces and the joy of being in epic surroundings allows us to appreciate all the fun we have.  When we rewatch our videos and see our astonishment or exclamations of joy, we relive that adventure together.  That is an awesome feeling.

Some might say that you are not in the moment if you are filming your activity.  Yet, we are in the moment when we are recording.  In fact, many times we will be watching something amazing, and the GoPro will be facing the other way.  That occurred a lot with the Gray Whales in Oregon.  There were so many spouts of water.  When we rewatched our videos and looked at the pictures, we realized we weren’t even shooting the best encounters.  We were too busy watching the whales.  However, we are always reliving the moment over and over again as we watch our videos.  You would not believe how many times we watch our video and say to each other, “Wow, that was awesome!”.

Continuing Our Channel

We are not professional YouTubers.  We do not know if we will ever be.  YouTube has so many videos on how to improve your videos, add additional features, and increase your subscribers.  We are not going to lie; we love seeing our subscription number increase.  We hope our subscribers enjoy our adventures and want to see new ones.  Windell encourages friends and family to subscribe, but Jessica would rather have people who actually enjoy the videos subscribe.  We also love for others to share their adventures.  We always need new adventures to add to our Google Map!

If we ever reach enough subscribers to earn money, we will probably add advertising to the beginning of our videos.  After all, it never hurts to have a little extra gas money.  We would never want advertising all through our videos, though.  We do not like watching other YouTube videos with a lot of advertising and we sure do not want to watch our own.  However, we can handle some advertising at the front of videos.  Especially if you can skip it!

When we first started our current lifestyle, we watched many YouTube videos for information and activities.  We had no idea that some of these YouTubers have a patreon page. It never ocurred to us to pay a subscription fee to YouTubers to watch special videos or receive notices.  In fact, this is a subscription service we would never buy.  There is enough information on the web to find adventures and cool locations without becoming patrons.

So, with only a hundred subscribers, it is obviously premature of us to consider adding a patreon page.  But we would never have one anyway.  We like making and posting videos.  It is not a source of income for us, but instead, a source of joy.  If we influence someone to visit a place or try an adventure, amazing!   Share your experience with us, please.  But, from two people who know what it means to budget, we would never add a subscription page.  Ever.

We Never Want on Our YouTube

There are a few other things you will never see in our videos.  We will never eat in front of the camera.  Well, now, that is a lie.  We will never eat in front of the camera on purpose.  Windell sometimes captures Jessica on film right after she has shoved a granola bar in her mouth.  Like, when we were boating over to Manitou Island.  We do not like watching people eat on camera, so our videos will never include us eating.  Except when Windell decides to film Jessica, accidently he says.

We will rarely film driving the highway to an adventure.  We do not want to watch a highway, unless it is epic.  So, we did film driving through the tunnel exiting Zion National Park.  The scenery was gorgeous.  We were going to try to park the truck and hike for an overlook.  However, the road was a little busy and we are a little wide in the back.  So, we missed the trailhead.  We put the Zion Canyon Overlook Hike back on our list to do when we return.

Also, when we visit a spot, we do not research all the information on a place.  Some people love the history and features that make a place unique.  Unfortunately, we are those people who simply love being in the place at that moment.  So, we will never Wikipedia any information and read it in the video.  We would bore ourselves.  We assume that if someone watches a video and wants to know more about the place, they would rather research it themselves.  After all, we might get it wrong.  When we do research something, like an awesome fish we have never seen before, we try to post it in the descriptions or titles of our videos.

Sometimes, we do remember to capture the signs with information at some amazing places, such as the Painted Wall at the Black Canyons National Park.   We record these for our own memory and in case someone does want to know a little more information on the history.  But we miss a lot of these signs simply because we are oohing and awing at our view.

If you have watched any of our videos, you know that we are not professional YouTubers.  We create videos for the simple reason that we like watching our videos.  We love seeing our adventures and remembering our fun, sweat, breathlessness, and that epic lunch spot.  Reliving our adventures has added more joy to our lives that we could possibly imagine in the beginning.  If others find new adventures and places from our videos, even better.  It is an amazing feeling to be able to do something you love simply because you want to.

Using Campendium in Idaho

While traveling through the lower part of Idaho, we stopped for the night at the Bell Rapids Sportsman’s Access Dispersed Camping.  We posted a video of Bell Rapids at https://youtu.be/FZ6AESew9pY .  It is a paved boat ramp with access to Snake River.  The coordinates are 42.79093, -114.93602.  This location was awesome for visiting the Thousand Springs State Park https://parksandrecreation.idaho.gov/parks/thousand-springs/ .  We found this dispersed camping two years ago on our Campendium app on our phone.  Unfortunately, Campendium no longer shows the Bell Rapids Dispersed Camping https://www.campendium.com/ and the Idaho Power Webpage now states day use only https://idahopower.com/community-recreation/recreation/parks-and-campgrounds/bell-rapids-sportsman-access/ .

We use the Campendium app  a lot in our travels to find campgrounds and dump stations.   However, while visiting with a friend, they also recommended the iOverlander app for our phones.  The iOverlander app shows dispersed camping, water, showers, laundry, etc. depending on how you set up your filters.   We have found all of our dispersed camping sites on our apps.  They are very easy to use and show your current location.  We always read the comments to make sure we can fit when pulling our travel trailer and that we can find a quiet spot, whether we are in just the truck or the travel trailer.

The iOverlander App

When we first started traveling, we were worried about finding water.  However, while traveling through Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, we had no issues finding water.  We use both our iOverlander app and we also ask the locals.  Locals usually know where a clean water spigot is located.   We have found a few water spigots at gas stations.  However, all of the National Parks and State Parks that we visited in Utah have water spigots.  A few were smaller for filling water bottles, but most have larger spigots where we filled our pump sprayers and water coolers.  I am sure we raised a few eyebrows while people watched us both carry water coolers to fill at the spigot.

If you are traveling and need to find dispersed camping, we recommend using Campendium.  Campendium seems to be maintained and updated.  However, the iOverlander app that we have started using has been an awesome resource.  We have found a lot of dispersed camping, water spigots, and showers with this new app.  This app is updated by users while traveling https://ioverlander.com/ and you can also read the comments on this app.

Finding dispersed camping has been easier than we expected while traveling.  The hardest part for us has been not having a campground location to return to and flying by the seat of our pants to find camping for the night.  We usually arrive pretty early and like to set up camp late in the afternoon, not in the evening.  That way, if a place does not look safe or if it looks too noisy, we can leave and find another spot before dark.  We will be posting a lot of the dispersed camping we found this year (2024) on our YouTube channel.  So, you can watch a video of the campsites we found in Utah and Colorado!

Truck Camping 2024

So, we are always exploring new ways to adventure, even if we don’t try them all.  In 2024 we decided to change how we travel and try Truck Camping.  We usually book campgrounds in our desired area for our travel trailer.  Then, we go exploring and return to our travel trailer for relaxation.  We are accustomed to certain comforts.  Jessica likes her coffee programmed each morning and Windell likes to eat while watching TV.  We both love our bidet.  However, this year we decided to switch it up.  Because we only have one Thousand Trails campground in Colorado and none in Utah, we decided we could rough it and camp in the back of our truck for five months.  After all, we already have solar, a jackery, a generator, and some fire maples to make coffee.  All we had to do was buy a bucket toilet for our truck camping.  What could possibly go wrong?

We were so excited at first.  Just driving the truck by itself and not pulling the travel trailer is so much easier!  Wind, parking, and backing up is no problem. We don’t have to scope anything out first to see if we can pull in the travel trailer and turn around to get back out.  And, believe you me, sometimes it gets pretty tight in some parking lots with a travel trailer.  We don’t recommend pulling a travel trailer into the Manitou Cliff Dwellings in Colorado, although  we did do it.  Traveling with just a truck is easy, and we proved it this year.  We have been to over eight national parks!  When southern Utah had a heat wave, we changed our plans and headed to The Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks in Wyoming.  We have seen so many arches, waterfalls, hoodoos, epic views, moose, bison, and one grizzly.  It has been an amazing year so far with all of our adventures.

Should we buy a Pop-Up Truck Camper?

The ease of driving and just going anywhere made us at first consider purchasing a pop-up bed camper for our truck.  We hate having to take everything out of the back of the truck in order to sleep.  It takes us over an hour to make coffee and pack everything back into the bed.  In Yellowstone, we actually slept in the front of our single cab to wake up early.  Wow, Yellowstone is busy!  We know we carry more stuff than required for Truck Camping.  As we said, we like our comfort.  We have three coolers for cold food, water for drinking, and a small cooler just to keep ice for our drinks!  Ice has been a big budget item for us this year.  Our supplies include water, portable solar, and canned food.  When we wanted to sit for a couple of days and talk with a traveler from Switzerland, we had plenty of water for ourselves and our guest.  It was awesome just to sit and talk and not worry about leaving to find ice and water.

So, when we first started truck camping, we thought a pop-up truck camper with the bed at the top would be perfect.  To sleep, we simply pop-up the bed and crash.  No more pulling everything out just to make the bed.  We could buy a bigger jackery, put solar on top, and add a shower curtain to the side.  We watched YouTube videos of people who purchased a pop-up and redesigned their truck bed.   A new pop-up would cost us about $15,000 and the additional toys another $5,000.  We even emailed a company with all of our wants to get a bid on a pop-up.

Discovering We are Glampers

However, after a month and a half of traveling full-time in the truck, we have learned more about ourselves.  We really like our comforts!  No longer does a pop-up truck camper seem like a good idea.  We would still have to potty and shower outside.  Although we could possibly cook inside and not have to pull everything out to sleep, we would still not have the comforts (bidet, AC, refrigerator) of our travel trailer.  We have discovered that we are glampers.  We like electricity, water, and sewer hookups.  Showering outside is not at all fun.  You watch YouTube videos with girls in bikinis showering outside, and you think, yeah that looks pretty easy.  However, the reality is if you want water pressure you have to buy more toys and the water is never warm enough.  Also, if you are in the desert of Utah, you will be dirty again before you can dry off.  And, in her fifties, Jessica thinks showering in a bikini seems like a cruel joke to other boondockers.

So, we are finishing out this summer mainly in the back of our truck, with a few rest stops at the Colorado Thousand Trails in our travel trailer.  But, we will never again plan an entire summer of traveling simply in the back of our truck.  We want our comforts!  This experience has even made us change some of our future travel plans.  Instead of driving to some of our desired far off places in the truck alone, we are flying and renting!

USING OUR AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL PASS

Maybe we were naive when we first started traveling four years ago in our RV, but we didn’t know about the America the Beautiful Interagency Pass until we read up on RVing.  Now, we buy a pass every year because we love visiting National Parks while we travel.  However, the America Beautiful Pass has more to offer than just National Park entrance.  We have used it to enter National Monuments, including the Yaquina Head Lighthouse and Natural Area in Oregon and the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine, Florida.  We have also used our pass to hike in National Forests without paying day fees.  Because we are not yet old enough, we must purchase a new interagency pass for $80 every year.  However, when Jessica turns 62, we will buy a lifetime senior pass for $80.  This year alone (2024) we have visited eight National Parks to date.  We spent several days each in Zion, Yellowstone, Arches, and Canyonlands.  Without the America the Beautiful Pass, this would have cost us a lot of money.  However, the $80 pass covered all of our entry fees for these National Parks.  If we were pulling our RV, the pass would have also covered our recreational fee in the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway where we primitive camped for three days and saw lots of moose!

WHERE YOU CAN USE THE AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL PASS

We have only used our America the Beautiful Interagency Pass at National Parks, National Forests, National Monuments, and the Yaquina Head Lighthouse Natural Area.  However, there are so many places you can use this pass.  Some National Forests discount camping for half price with the pass.   You can also use it in Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Corp of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife, etc..  You can find links to more information with the Interagency Pass at https://store.usgs.gov/2024-annual-pass.  Also, don’t be afraid to ask if you can receive a discount, for example, on camping on federal land with the pass.  It never hurts to ask!

PURCHASING THE AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL PASS

You do not need to be an American citizen to purchase and use the America the Beautiful Interagency Pass.  We met a gentleman from Switzerland traveling through the U.S. and Mexico.  He used his pass to enter National Parks and to save on a cabin rental in a National Park.  Purchasing the America the Beautiful Pass is easy.  You can buy one at any regulated entrance to a National Park.  When you pull up to pay, simply ask to purchase the Interagency Pass.  It is a fantastic purchase if you will be traveling the U.S. and visiting National Parks.  You can learn more about the America the Beautiful and other National Park entrance passes at https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm#america-the-beautiful-passes.

DON’T FORGET ANNUAL STATE PARK PASSES

Also, if you will be traveling in a state and visiting several state parks, you might want to check out an annual state park pass for nonresidents.  It is a wonderful way to see cool places in states and it is a lot cheaper than paying the entrance fees every time.  We purchased annual state park passes for Washington, Oregon, Michigan, and Wisconsin because we knew we would be checking out a lot of these state parks.  These passes have also saved us a lot of money when traveling.

So, be safe and have fun while traveling.  And, if you are going to any of our gorgeous National Parks, visiting National Monuments, or hiking fees areas in our National Forests, check out the America the Beautiful Interagency Pass.

Changing It Up

After a heat wave in Utah and Arizona, we decided to change our plans and head north to Wyoming for somecooler temperatures.  We tend to change our plans a lot while traveling.  And, it is easier to switch it up this year (2024) while traveling in only a truck.  Originally on our way to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, we were going to disperse camp near Salt Lake, Utah.  However, we couldn’t find any good camping spots.  Campendium did show a couple in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest.  However, when we tried to find them, we ended up driving down a narrow, steep one lane road in our dually.  Let us just say some butt puckering occured.  So, we decided to spend a few days disperse camping on the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/uwcnf/recarea/?recid=9908 on Utah 150.

Mirror Lake Recreation Fee

We find our dispersed camping through a Campendium app on Jessica’s phone and an iOverlander app on Windell’s phone.  When we drove to the GPS coordinates on Campendium, we passed the Ranger Station to find camping.  However, we turned around to talk to the Ranger when we saw that a recreational pass was required.  We enjoy speaking to Rangers at National Forests and Parks.  They are some of the best resources to learn about an area.  Because we were tent camping, we did not have to pay the recreational fee.  However, our interagency America the Beautiful Pass would have covered the fee if we had been pulling our travel trailer.

So Many Moose!

The dirt roads to the camping in this area are rough, very rough, but the area is gorgeous.  We dispersed camped at Christmas Meadows in the US Forest right off Utah Highway 150.  We had our own personal, private campsite.  There was no cell service on our Verizon except with our antenna. However, the best part of staying here was all the moose we saw!  The Ranger let us know that there had been several sightings of moose.  She recommended driving along the highway next to the swampy areas during the morning and evening hours to see moose.  So, we went “moose hunting” early evening and in the morning.  We saw five moose total – three females and two males.  There is a lot of dispersed camping in this area and you can stay for up to 14 days. The drive on Utah 150 is breathtaking!  When we went through in early June, Mirror Lake still had ice and the Provo Waterfall was roaring. This is a fabulous place to visit and camp.   If you want to see moose, this is the place to be!

Changing it Up, Again…

When you travel, adventure, and fly by the sCeat of your pants, you sometimes have no idea what you are getting yourself into.  While staying near Kanab, Utah, a heat wave set in.  The temperatures were near 100 degrees. We decided to throw all our plans out the window and head north to cooler temperatures.  However, we had a few sights we wanted to see before we left Kanab, including the Sand Caves, Moqui Cave, Peek-a-boo Slot Canyon, and the Belly of the Dragon.  So, we hiked to the Sand Caves first thing,   Afterwards we stopped by Moqui Cave before heading to the Peek-a-boo Slot Canyon parking lot.

Peek-A-Boo Canyon Advice

The Moqui Cave was awesome.  However, after exploring the cave, we went into the gift shop and actually talked to the owner.  And, boy, are we glad we did!   He asked us where we were headed next and we told him Peek-a-boo Slot Canyon.  When he asked what type of vehicle we had and we told him a F350 Dually, he said, “you will never make it”.  When we asked him about hiking to it, he said that it would be a rough hike in the sand.  So, he informed us about the Jeep and UHV tours through ROAM https://www.roam-outdoor.com/. He had a couple seats available for a Jeep Tour in little over an hour.  So, we said yes and he booked us on the next Jeep Tour.  It was worth every penny!

Jeep Tour with ROAM

The Jeep was so much fun in the sand, bouncing and washboarding, and our guide was amazing.  On the way to the slot canyon, we passed several single wheel trucks (one being a diesel) stuck in the sand.  Our guide stopped and offered waters to all those stuck.  While touring the slot canyon, we ran into a few people who had hiked in, and, again, we were glad we had picked the Jeep Tour.  The hike looked rough, especially in 100 degree Celsius temperature.  Peek-a-Boo Slot Canyon near Kanab, Utah, is gorgeous!  If you plan to visit it, book a tour.  It is more fun that trying to drive or hike to it.  Our guide was awesome, and would take pictures for us at the most epic spots.  The guides for ROAM grew up in Kanab and know the canyon and area really well.  They will give you information on how the slot canyon has changed and ideas on other cool places to see in the area.  This was our first Jeep Tour ever, and we had such a blast.  We love talking to people who know an area we are visiting because we usually get some great information.  We believe asking a lot of stupid questions is a great way to learn new adventures.

We love adventuring and sometimes it takes a lot of research to find adventures when you move around a lot!  We like to gain inspiration for our adventures from many different sources including YouTube, advertisements, Google Searches and simply asking the locals.

Adventuring YouTubers

We like watching and subscribing to  YouTube channels of people with the same interest as us.  Wandering Washington, The Buckeye Drifters, and Kevin Eassa are just a few of the YouTubers we watch regularly.   As you search for YouTube videos, you will find adventurers who have the same interest as you.  We enjoy subscribing to these channels so we are updated when they post new adventures.  Also, we are always discovering new YouTube channels to increase our Adventuring.

When we know what area we are heading to, we do a lot of Google searches on the best hikes and activities in that area. This helps us narrow down what we really want to see.  After all, we cannot do every hike or activity available.  In addition, sometimes Facebook surprises us with all the ads we receive and gives us ideas on adventures to add to our Google Map.  Of course, for hikes, we can always look up an area in the Alltrails app to see the pictures, trail preview, length, and altitude of hikes before we add them to our map.  When you start searching for hiking, kayaking or specific adventures on the internet, you will begin getting more adventure ideas than you can complete in your lifetime.

Asking The Locals

And, of course, the best way to locate adventures is to ask the people who know.  We always make sure and talk to the Park Rangers at every National Park we visit.  This is a great way to get ideas and insights.  For example, we might have tried to hike the Narrows in Zion when the Virgin River was flowing 124 cubic feet per second if we had not stopped and talked to a Ranger.  If we stop in at a sight with a visitors center or entrance fee, we always talk to the people.   When we stopped in at Moqui Cave, we learnt our truck would not make it to Peekaboo Slot Canyon.  So we bought a Jeep Tour!  Talking to people is a fabulous way to find and enjoy adventuring.  So, research the internet, subscribe to YouTube channels with the same interests, and talk to people.  Add everything that interests you to your personal Google Map and start adventuring.  But, most importantly, be open to new adventures and ideas!  You will never see everything, but you will have a ton of fun seeking out those activities that you enjoy!