Our Roadtrek Life

Here's a little rundown of our life in a van....

Our 2006 Roadtrek was a complete home for the mobile-minded-vagabond lifestyle.  We had a wonderful purchase experience with VantasticVans.com in Albuquerque; great customer support with lots of laughs too (ask for Wilson).  He called us every few days for the first month, just like Dad would, checking up on his kids out in the new world.

DaVon (our nickname for our 19ft Roadtrek van) has kept us warm on those 32°F Rocky Mt nights and cool on those sultry 102°F Midwest nights. She got 15mpg for a Class B motorhome (that's really great), and we could squeeze her into regular parking places.  With a low clearance, we couldn't get too off-road, but we managed some really great views.  We wanted small and as incognito as possible, without the hippy-van look. She's classy, and we love her.

Stylin' hippy van

While in the Denver area, someone asked Malia where her parents were staying; she replied, "on the streets of Denver."  Our Roadtrek was self-contained with a toilet, shower, galley/kitchen with microwave-fridge-stove, short king bed, TV, salon with two captain chairs and a removable table.

Front view--chairs swivel around for salon seating

Bed makes into a short king--toilet on left--galley on right

We can pull over into any parking lot (churches are pretty good) or off a quiet residential side street----as level as we can get it---pull the curtains and sleep like a rock. We call it "renegade parking", and we've actually done more street renegade sleeping than nights in any campground or state parks or friends' driveways.  We've only had one security guard try to kick us out of an I-40 casino parking lot at 2am (he left us alone after we didn't answer).  Since we hit the hot, muggy Midwest, we have to plug in electrically for the AC, so most state parks provide what we need.


But our biggest problem with parking was next to grassy-lined streets when the water sprinklers come on in the middle of the night, which would send us scrambling to close windows and move her away from the line of fire.

Cari & Ray   Stangebyrds in Boulder

One night in Boulder, we met up with friends Steve and Dee at a brewpub listening to our fav musician friends Cari Minor & Ray Smith, aka Strangebyrds--see Tim's video:

Strangebyrds In This World

While we were happily drinking away, unbeknownst to us, the parking lot sprinklers turned on and soaked our bed through the open back windows.

It was actually pretty funny, as we slept a little soggy that night until we got to a laundromat the next morning.






The next night we slept in a city park (with a disc golf course), and double-checked for those lil ninja-sprinkling-buggers hiding in the grass; we do eventually learn.

Hello and goodbye Kansas!

Hello Kansas!!

Oh so stereo-typical, don't ya think?  We had to pull over three different times with other truckers and cars looking for funnels and to wait out the turbulent clouds, which always had great potential for houses falling out of the sky .

Kansas sunflowers....heaven :)

Lake Wilson camping in van (on left by tree)

After that Kansas storm...

What you can't see or feel here was the heat: 98°F, with

80% humidity and the loud screeching locusts.

We're plugged in & the AC worked well, thank god. 

Videographer at work---Kansas cornfields


                                                                                  

Goodbye, Kansas; it was fun!!

1000 gentle giants of the Kansas Plains

Rusty's Road

Rusty Reeves

Traveling with Rusty was a trip all on its own, seeing the world through his eyes.  Back in Taos, he would spend hours staring down and often chasing the P-dogs (prairie dogs) and occasionally catching one (hash mark on his hunting plaque).  But his new obsession had turned to other furry critters out here on the road, like the squirrel...what the heck was it?  It sorta looked like a P-dog, but it climbed trees and bounced along wires.  We didn't have but an occasional road-flat squirrel back in Taos. And then there was the rabbits...those wascally wabbits, that defied him to chase and catch. That usually stopped at the end of the long leash....." Eh, what's up, doc?" 

Shhh.....be vewy, vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits

Wusty Weeves

Rusty was quite happy in a car/van.  It usually meant a snoot full of fresh air and an adventure of some sort.  It also meant a safe place to hide when the thunderstorms came crashing in. Wait, where's our fearless hunter now?

Grand Canyon

Crested Butte, CO

Aspen Gondola

Campground heaven

Two things that had been a drastic change for Rusty (and us) were:
1) the leash---a free-range dog all his life--he's now 10 years old
2) lil blue poop bags....geez, no privacy anymore
But it was all ok for both of us. The trade-off for the freedom road was worth it.  One thing we loved about Rusty was his adaptability. His go-with-the-flow (except during thunderstorms) attitude was a grand lesson for us with life on the road.

Squirrel!

And now, another big change for all of us when Malia came back from her summer in Alaska and will continue Rusty's adventure in the Rockies as his best friend. The best friend thing is a 2-way road, ya know. We will begin our trek across the great hot plains towards the East Coast without our four-legged... bittersweet.

But Toto had nothing over Rusty :)


                                                                                                           
                                                                                   
                                                                                  

Uncle Kit's world (or Denver Part 2)

Meet crazy Uncle Kit, one of our fav guest-turned-friends; a talented multi-instrument musician and owner of the Olde Town Pickin' Parlor in historic downtown Arvada (a suburb of Denver) for 23 years; he's well known around these here parts.

Attention-starved Toby Wan Kenobi

Arvada's 18 piece big band rehearsing @ the Pickin' Parlor

Subdudes

We pulled into the Pickin' Parlor during a thunderstorm on a Friday afternoon and that night was a free street concert in Louisville (another suburb) with one of our fav New Orleans bands, the Subdudes.  

Howlin' dogs

We parked and plugged into Kit's driveway for a couple of nights with beers and music on the front porch till midnight.

Rebecca Folsom

The next morning, we were off to the Peach Festival in Lafayette (another suburb) to see our friend, the dynamic & talented Rebecca Folsom. She used to have backyard shows with us at the BnB. She was happy and surprised to see us there!  Listen to one of her incredible songs, Paint the Sky, on TimReevesVideos channel on youtube.com, featuring our daughter Malia: "A Taos Skier and Her Paintbrush". That afternoon, Kit played a gig in a Hawaiian band, and so that evening found us up in Niwot, CO, for a free outdoor JAZZ festival. Never a dull second with Uncle Kit!

  

Three music fests in 24 hours and lots of laughs in between. We luv ya, Uncle K!

(and Toby Wan Kenobi :)

 

Denver Part 1

After so many miles on the road north to Idaho and Wyoming, we took refuge in the mountains outside of Vail, CO, for four nights, and except for the 32F nights, it was the perfect remote (read: no cell or wifi) campground. I did a little metal detecting and came up with a 1943 S nickel ....woohoo! (detectorista's delight!)  Our campground host was a Tolkien character named Boogie who hobbled around with a tall wooden staff and personally greeted all campers.

Then the time had come to venture towards the crazy big city of Denver to meet up with several friends, but on our way there, we stopped in the historic mining town of Georgetown.

                                                                                                                

Skeeter Beaters screen window coverings---they work!

Georgetown

Our first stop in Denver was with a Navy SEAL friend of Tim's, Mike Seidler, who invited us (luck would have it) to a very large and very exclusive Navy SEAL Foundation fundraiser that night.  The venue was out in X-Jet's private hangar at Centennial, CO airport. Some of the donor$ were arriving in their private Learjets for $10K per plate.   So our first stop was a mall to shop. Our life-on-the-road-camping attire was way less than perfect (like only worth about $10 per plate).
Feeling like Cinderella (and fella), we were totally overwhelmed and emotionally moved by the generous attention given to Gold Star (family of deceased soldiers), SEAL families, and team members. 

50+ tables dedicated to each state

Mike Gotchey, Mike Seidler & Tim

7 days....5 states......2230 miles....whew!

After 2 evenings of soaking in the oversized hot mineral pool of Glenwood Springs, CO, we left our little home-on-wheels in a parking lot and took off in a rented Prius to visit far-off relatives in northern Idaho, over 1000 miles away, or 18 hours by speedy little car getting 50mpg (our van gets 15mpg, which is not bad for a 9000 lb camper-van).  

No, Tim, we're taking a Prius

We found Bev and Norb, Tim's sister & hubby, high up on a hillside overlooking the incredibly large and beautiful Coeur d'Alene Lake, living a peaceful and happy life, a dream come true for them. 

Norb & Bev

Norb is a volunteer fire dept boat guru, and Bev wields her confidence and passion defending the lake's beauty against greedy environmental idiots; both heroes in this lake community. (thanks for the huckleberry pie---yum!)

And then, it was onward southeast for nine hours to another sister & husband, Jenny and Sid, on a spectacular pristine ranch in Wyoming off the northeast corner of Yellowstone Park, but not before we made peace with the Great Yellowstone Buffalos. 

Tim and Jenny

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Hello beastie

Two cozy nights in an old log cabin below the graces of the jagged, prominent Pilot Peak. A reminder just how small but lucky we are.
 

Thank you, Reeves sisters & hubbies, for your gracious hospitality and laughs; we love ya.  A quick stop in Lander, WY, to hug our cute lil' niece Jessi and her five, yes, 5! super weenie dogs.  One of them is training for search and rescue; I kid you not. Huckleberry outperforms much larger dogs on cadaver search!

Then before our day ended, we shared a beer and taco with Malia's wild friend, Sara J., an oil field engineer in the rough-neck wilds of Rock Springs, WY. She can hold her own, needless to say.

Ok, now, what's next?

Ode to John Denver

As a young girl growing up on the flat plains of Roswell, NM, I used to sit in the backyard and stare west to the far-off outline of the Lincoln National Forest near Ruidoso, NM, wishing to be there instead of the dusty cotton fields around our house.  In my high school & college years in Texas, I couldn't see those mountains on the horizon, but I had John Denver playing on the turntable instead. He was a formidable presence in those deeply philosophical teen years of the 70s. 

 I am so grateful for his shared expressions.  I'm also grateful to the community of Aspen, CO, for creating a deeply moving & stunning memorial garden park on the creek in his name.  Once again, John Denver brings me home to that warm creative space inside us all.  

"You fill up my senses, like a night in the forest...."  and though he's gone from this physical reality, his spirit continues to reach and teach us all. I am grateful and happy.