Tag: boondocking

Posted in: Car Ride Games, Exploring Wyoming, Rest Stop/Welcome Center/Visitor Center

Moving Day and Boondocking

Written by tepetravels 2 Comments on Moving Day and Boondocking

On the road again. Our app said it was 12 hours to our next stop, so we were going to break it into two days of driving. One of the first rest stops had a Rattlesnake Area sign. We didn’t stay there long. Wyoming was pretty desolate in terms of rest stops. I would say 3/4 of the rest stops were closed on our path. If you are driving through soon, stop when you see gas and bathrooms when you can, because there were incredibly long stretches between available stops.

We had bought a bag of Jelly Belly jelly beans on Friday and played “Name That Jelly Bean” a couple times during the car ride. Ben was the game show host and tossed a jelly bean to a person. They had to guess the flavor of the jelly bean. If you got the flavor right, you got to go again. As the game progressed, Ben became more strict with the names of the jelly beans.

We tried going through Cheyenne, WY for food and to stretch our legs before calling it a night. There were several neat looking spots, but no place really big enough for us to park while we were towing the RV. We had called several Walmarts, BassPro, Cabela’s, and even Mendard’s, but none of them near us offered overnight parking. Most cited city ordinances.

We finally found a Welcome Center/Rest stop outside of Cheyenne. It was located off of 25 (5611 High Plains Road, Cheyenne, WY). It was a really large welcome center. Although we arrived after the lobby closed, the bathrooms were still open. There is an RV dump station, a pet exercise area (with poop bags), WiFi in the lobby, and 20ish parking spots for trucks/RVs. There is also a car parking lot. There is a walking trail around the outside area, and a nice flat area by the RV/truck parking where we had a picnic dinner. The rest stop also maps available. To make it easier for guests after hours, they had envelopes made up by the doors that contained a Wyoming Travel Guide, Highway Map, and a Road Trip Guide.

Welcome Center/Rest Stop

Originally, it was going to be a boring peanut butter sandwich dinner since we were unable to stop in Cheyenne. However, Uber Eats delivered there! It was amazing to have hot food delivered to the rest stop.

The rest stop was brightly lit and felt safe. We all had pretty good night’s sleep for heading out for our next campground.

Settled In For The Night

Travel Day, First Time Out of Ohio (well, first time with the RV)

Written by tepetravels 2 Comments on Travel Day, First Time Out of Ohio (well, first time with the RV)

June 9th started our adventure. Although we had been living in the RV for a month now, it’s very different trying to pack it up, move it, and then unpack it all again.

We have watched countless YouTube videos. Seriously, we have been watching for about a year or so now. Trying to do this in real life is so much different (and harder) than watching all the videos would make you think it would be.

The night before we packed up all loose items. All loose items: coffee pot, radio, paper towel holder, baskets holding remotes, Nick’s plants, dehumidifier, all cords/games/etc.. Everything had to be moved out of the way of the slides. Anything that could move had to be packed away, shut away, etc. We even took out the microwave glass plate and wrapped it up after hearing about how the door could open in transit and the plate could fall out and break.

We also packed up the cooler and the snack bag for the truck and preloaded everything we might need. The slides were put in, and we thought we were good to go.

It still took us almost two hours in the morning.

After finally getting on the road, driving was ok. We hit a few spots of construction where there was heavy stop and go traffic. We had to slam on the brakes once when the person in front of us slammed on theirs. There was a semi behind us. Of course, the semi is larger and heavier than even us and stopping is even slower for them. He ended up pulling onto the shoulder to avoid rear ending us. Based on where he was sitting on the shoulder, we definitely would have been hit. We were very lucky. My heartbeat took awhile to get back to normal.

We ended up stopping every few hours for bathroom breaks and/or for fuel. Indiana had surprisingly nice rest stops with lots of larger parking spots for semi trucks and RVs.

Will took a turn in the front passenger seat when Ben had some work to do. (For some reason the back seat has more space than front passenger seat.) He took a few pictures, but quickly fell asleep!

Stopped traffic, Will’s reflection in mirror taking pictures, sound asleep minutes later

Iowa was very green. As we were driving through, we checked with the BassPro Shop that we were planning on stopping at for the night. They told us that the city had recently put out No Overnight Parking signs, so we could not stop there. As we were trying to find a new place to stay for the night (we were planning on boondocking), a big storm rolled in and with it a tornado warning. So much fun. The visibility was extremely low, even with headlights and wipers on full blast. It got extremely dark very quickly. It was a harrowing part of the drive. When it cleared up a little bit and the sun came back out, we decided to call it for the night and looked for another place to stay. With a little more research, we found Riverside Casino in Iowa. They did allow overnight parking.

We got the RV parked and went to find some dinner at their cafe. I’ve had casino food before and it’s normally not something to write home about (excluding Las Vegas). This place was delicious. We got several items to split between us: fish tacos, pizza, salad (with chicken), and an amazing poutine. It was a wonderful dinner. We also got a chocolate chunk cookie and a zephyr (glazed donut filled with mouse/cream puff filling, topped with sugar and glazed walnuts).

On our walk back to the RV, we were greeted with an amazing sunset. All in all, it was a decent day. But now I want more of that poutine and another zephyr!

~Sarah

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