Making a very brave decision to go long-term camping with a fella she’d only known for less than 2 months, Mindi and I set off for destinations west on April 29th. This was after a whirlwind of putting her house in order and packing for a trip whose extent neither of us know!
First stop was only a couple of hours up the coast in Hilton Head Island. We had a lovely luncheon meet-up with Mindi’s aunt Mary and her beau, John.
We turned left and headed west to the George L. Smith State Park in Georgia. It’s situated around a Cypress grove – my first experience with Cypress, and my second attempt at Kayaking! We saw eagles and ospreys enjoying the swamp.
The following night saw us at a Harvest Host in Warrior, AL ‘BigLittleHomestead’ – very nice stop. Goats, chickens, cows and cats and Happi (the brown pup) didn’t even chase after them.
A long day followed as we made our way to Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds Park where we dug up some dirt, washed it in a big tank and harvested half a dozen small pretty rocks that are definitely not diamonds. It is the only place in north America where you can diamond hunt. We later learned that someone dug up a 3 carat job just a few days later! Too bad it wasn’t us.
After digging our dirt, we went to Hot Springs which has a horse racing track. It was the next to the last day of racing. The track was muddy but the horses and jockeys didn’t seem to care. We even met some of the horse owners. The people and the racing were very entertaining. So we went and had fun betting on horses we knew nothing about! Wasn’t as bad as it might have been! To keep a full day even more full – we then went to a Hot Springs spa – had a hot mineral bath followed by a massage – what pampering! Finally we made camp at Ouachita Lake State Park.
Next we made ourselves at home in Mindi’s sister and brother-in-law’s townhouse in Bentonville, AK. This is the home of Walmart. The following day we stayed at her niece’s house on the outskirts and Mindi enjoyed playing with great nieces Capri and Pearl.
Mindi had been in control of our first week’s travel agenda, so now Bill got to take over… next stop Dodge City, KS – Cowboy land! 😊
We decided to camp in the parking lot of the Casino in Dodge City, Easy parking and no one on our side of the parking lot. Of course we went in to see what gives and both managed to lose $100 at the Black Jack table, followed by annihilating a $60 coupon at the slots in under 2 minutes!
The following day we went into Dodge’s great Boot Hill Museum. It was very informative and learned (among other things) the depressing statistic that since the civil way, the native American Indians were reduced in numbers from 75 Million to just 250 thousand in what must surely be one of the worlds largest genocides…
We continued our traipse towards Wyoming, boondocking everywhere – starting with Soldiers Memorial Campground – a County Park in Kansas. Campendium is quite a good app to find places to camp.
Then onto Pawnee Buttes on the Pawnee National Grasslands in Colorado
Tomorrow will see us head into Wyoming for the start of the real adventure!
Nice!