Summer Adventures: Phish, Colorado, Overnight Parking at Rest Areas, etc

Summer rushed by at an unrelentingly rapid pace. Since my last post, we camped for 4 nights at Swan Lake, the lake of my childhood, where all my family reunions have been held for my entire life. It's a beautiful lake and excellent for swimming. (Babs, once afraid of the water, now wants to do nothing else than swim.)

I was particularly proud to have beaten Mr. Go's smallmouth bass record with not only a 19" bass, but a 20" bass the very next day.

George, WA

We followed that up with a 9-day trip to George, WA. Babs and Flotsam were left with Grandparents while Mr. Go and I took the Subaru across the country.

I've told you about this before in this post, and while the core crew was smaller this year, we enfolded two of our camping neighbors into our group to round out the craziness and now our network has grown.

On the way out, Mr. Go and I spent some quality time in the car listening to Into the Wild by John Krakauer and camped in State Parks and campgrounds along the way. Since the Subaru was so packed full, sleeping in it was not an option, and we had to pitch a tent every night, which quickly became tiresome. But I did get this sweet shot of Mr. Go being zen by a waterfall in Minnesota:

RV Parks and campgrounds are seldom as nice as they sound, and State Parks (many of which require a vehicle day pass to enter) are more expensive than they're worth. The app RV Parky helped in finding campgrounds along the way.

More Camping

Three days after we got home, we were packing up the van for another week-long camping trip with one half of my family, during which we picked a prodigious amount of blueberries.

The next week we made an impromptu camping reservation at the most primitive site yet. Surprise, surprise: there wasn't even a toilet, a discovery which led to us digging cat-holes with Babs' plastic shovel. Good times were had by all.

Curveball? More like Blueball

The week after THAT, we dumped Babs and Flotsam again, for another trip in good ole Subey, this time bound for Watkins Glen, NY, for the famed Phish Festival weekend, a bi-yearly event, this time called Curveball. We met up with two sets of friends, and as soon as all our camping gear was set up, we got a nasty surprise.

The entire week before, the Finger Lakes area had received monsoon-level amounts of rain, which led to the rising of the water table, which led to concerns regarding water potability, which led to the CANCELLING of the festival, not 10 minutes after the last tent stake was pounded into the soggy ground.

After making it through all stages of grief, all 20,000 of us campers consoled each other by getting drunk and running around the campground until the wee hours.

Colorado

A week (and a friends-with-kid visit) later, we packed up and left for Colorado, this time with the whole fam damily in tow.

The first leg of the adventure was to take Babs to her first (and second) Phish show! More on this in a later post...

Wedding

We travelled from Thornton, CO down to Colorado Springs so Mr. Go and GuideBook (remember him from our adventures in Mexico?) could reclaim some branches from trees around his house and make an arbor for he and Ms. GuideBook to get married under.

After this we spent a night with friends in Golden, then headed on up to the mountains to stake out the claim at Boreas Pass, where the Guidebooks would be wed three nights hence.

Sleeping at 11,300 feet elevation is no joke. After one night, I was done and Babs seconded that emotion. Luckily, our other friends (also of the Mexico & Spain adventures) had a house in the town of Breckenridge, where we were gratified to shower, nap and wash our clothes.

Wedding festivities abounded, culminating in a morning ceremony atop a mountain with a breathtaking skyline background.

Yes, Babs acted as Co-Flower Girl, with her "sister" C

After the fake paella lunch that followed, the Go family split. Babs' school had been in session for a week without her and Breckenridge, though closer to sea level than Boreas Pass, still sits at a pretty 9,600 feet elevation, and none of us were acclimated.

Life in The Van

We made tracks on the way home, stopping off at rest areas for two nights of sleep. Note: The rest area at Adair, Iowa is stellar. Did you know Iowa's rest areas offer WiFi? And they allow overnight parking.

Also, in the town proper of Adair, Iowa, there is a great little park not far off the highway where we stopped off to let Babs let out some energy.

I typically consult this list to determine whether overnight parking will be allowed. Wisconsin says it's a No, but we've parked overnight at the rest area in Dubuque twice now with no issues. If there aren't signs posted that specifically say "No overnight parking," I'd do it.

Next Up...

Between pickling and canning our home-grown veg (more on that in a later post), house projects (including but not limited to replacing one nasty window and the asbestos tile in the attic), and keeping up with personal hygiene, Fall promises to click by at an unrelenting pace as well.

And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.


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Camping in a Van

The omnipresent permeating smell of wood smoke, bug spray and sunscreen....the smell of summer!

We just concluded our second camping trip of the summer, at a tiny lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In case you were wondering, the van makes an excellent camper.

On our first trip, we slept in our 3-man tent, but this time we slept in the van, which, with the foam topper on the bed, is infinitely more comfortable than being shoved off the Thermarest by a wiggly child and a blanket-hog of a terrier in the tent.

As I may have mentioned, totes are the savior of van-living. Keeping grocery items in bags on the floor is the pits. Items I reached for a lot (salt, oil, sunscreen, bugspray) I now keep in two little totes for easy access. The duffel bag stayed crammed under the bed as usual, keeping our living space open for changing clothes and other activities.

We camped at Mowe lake for three nights in late May and caught a break in the warm weather so we spent most of the time in sweaters. But it was great, the wind kept the bugs away and we spent a lot of time out fishing.

Speaking of which, Mr. Go bought a 14' john boat with an 8hp motor and a trolling motor and, after stocking up on all the accoutrements, spent literally more time in that boat than he did at the campsite. He brought me back an 18" largemouth bass and a mes of bluegill though.

Last week we camped at Steuben Lake for three nights and had gorgeous weather. Halfway through, the heavenly breeze quit, and the black flies tore us up. Poor Babs got the worst of it. She's covered in red itchy, swollen bumps.

Actually, I take that back. Finley got the worst of it. Let me tell you about Finley. Many years ago, Finley was bit in the hindquarters by a horsefly and ever since he has been paranoid about bugs. He spent the entire trip whipping around to check that there wasn't anything getting after his butt. He was in a chair (yes, we brought a chair just for Finley), under the van, trying desperately to get in my lap until finally I just let him in the van where he spent the last two days getting our pillows filthy, but at least his butt was safe.

Mr. Go, as with any skill he sets his mind to, has become quite the angler. He hauled up 5 pounds of fish fillets from Steuben. Pike, walleye, sunfish and Babs snagged a 15" bass. She's come a long way from not wanting to get near a worm. She's touched worms and petted fish and absolutely loves fishing.

My camp cooking has been stellar, no surprise there. I used the round cast iron dutch oven for everything, I don't even know why I bothered to bring any other pans. It has a lid, which is key for softening veggies and fluffing rice. (Fresh off the Grid has some amazing campfire recipes--cornbread chili and campfire paella are now staples.) I love cooking over the fire; I'd love to do more of it and rely less on the propane campstove. Sizzling bacon with a little bit of ash and smoke, like the cowboys used to do, is satisfying in a deep, primal sort of way.

We purchased an RTIC 45qt cooler for camping purposes, hoping it will also solve our road trip food-cooling issues (See Last Post). It's pretty big, so it has its pros and cons for road tripping but for camping it's been stellar. It holds an ice block like a monster and is sturdy enough to double as a seat/table.

We go out camping again this week, then it's a 10-day trip for Mr. Go and I to Washington state. It's already mid July...where has this year gone??

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