Violet and I took our first working roadtrip this past week! I’ve really wanted to travel the states with her and see the scenery our country has to offer, and I have been encouraged to just do it rather than wait for the perfect time. I bought a laptop tray that connects to my steering wheel, so I’d have a place to set my computer for work, and I upgraded my Sprint plan to the Unlimited Premium, which gave me a 100gb hotspot for $20/month. That also includes Amazon Prime, so win-win for me. I already had Prime, so I don’t get any additional benefit, but that basically makes the hotspot like $8/month or something. Anyway, I do need service to use it and that was a challenge for me since I wanted to stay on public lands. Not a lot of coverage out there! But I made it work by first stopping in a Walmart parking lot and doing some work on Thursday morning, then stopping at a rest area to do some work on Friday morning, then at a Target parking lot to do some work that afternoon. I also did a conference call in my car, which went well considering one of the participants knew I was on the road and one did not. So, how did it go?
We started the drive up on Wednesday night and stayed at a rest stop a little past Lubbock for about 2 hours, then drove on to a picnic area past Amarillo for about 2 hours. We made it to Trinidad for a quick stop at a Walmart, then took a scenic route on US 64 through Taos (beautiful little town, but spectacular drive through the mountains!!) and on to the Tres Piedras Ranger Station. There I talked with a gentleman who gave me directions to the camping area for my first night – it was in a meadow and it was being used by a bunch of cattle. We made it work but had to spend a lot of time in the car because of the cows and because of the wind – super windy in this state right now! We ate cheese roll-ups in the wind, then went inside because the cows were getting super close; the next morning, I knew I had to get some work done and we weren’t staying at that spot again, so we packed up and headed back to the rest area next to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. I wanted to get pictures and knew I had service in that area as it was close to Taos, but the restrooms were locked so that was a bummer. I did walk to the bridge, saw some bighorn sheep (?) on the way, then almost had a panic attack when I took the first step onto the bridge. Turns out, I’m scared of bridges! The height wasn’t the scary part, I just kept expecting the bridge to fall out from underneath me. So, I made it to the center of the bridge, snapped some pictures, hopped over to the other side and snapped some more pictures, and then got off the bridge as quickly as possible. I did a little work at the rest area, then drove on to Santa Fe.
I wanted to get Violet some snacks because she wasn’t eating her food on the trip (she does this routinely, no biggie), so I looked up a PetSmart in Santa Fe and stopped in for a toy and some freeze-dried chicken bites. I couldn’t find an easy place to grab a bite to eat with her in the car, so I just pulled over to a Target across the street and ran in for a few snacks. We sat in the car and ate snacks while waiting for a conference call to start; after the call, I looked up a campsite on the iOverlander app and found one not too far away and tucked into a canyon. It had one other person at the site, but they were far away from where we parked. They weren’t even there much while we were out there. We set up camp, I just laid the mattress out without even blowing it up, and we ate dinner watching the sunset over the mountains. I did some paintings while the sun was setting, too! It was so lovely, and one of the many reasons I wanted to do this. Violet did great, with only a few barking incidences when people started filling up the parking area and walking by and such. I just put her in the car to settle down for a bit, then she was good again! I got a little work done that didn’t require an Internet connection, then we cleaned up for the night and got in bed. The next morning, after a couple of cups of Copper Cow Coffee, we drove about a mile down the road to a primitive toilet, then stopped in a (closed) Dairy Queen’s parking lot to get directions to Carlsbad.
The drive to Carlsbad was slow going; I felt like we would never get to our destination, which was the Lincoln National Forest. I knew we wanted to stop at the ranger station, but they closed early for the day as they were not there when we arrived at 3PM. No matter, my iOverlander app got me to a camp spot in the “forest” and it was BEAUTIFUL! There were no other campsites directly around us and we were far enough off the road that you had to be looking for car to see us. There was a fire pit already built, but we didn’t use it. It was still too windy for all that. We sat outside and watched the sunset for a bit, then it got windy enough that I wanted to sit in the car to paint. I painted the sunset over the mountains, then we ate dinner and got ready for bed. I watched the sunset and the moonrise from the back of the Subie with Violet laying right next to me – it was literally what dreams are made of.
The whole experience was wonderful, but I’ve figured out a few things I am going to need to change. First, we need a better sleeping situation. I have an SUV mattress that only works if you don’t move around a lot, and when the weather is bad, we need a place to spread out, so the mattress may not work for us in the long run. I want to build a platform that goes across the trunk and the 2/3 seat side (where it would be laying down.) That would give us space to spread out. I’m also going to take a tent with us next time, so we have a “storage shed” while we sleep. The only thing that will stay in the car is the food and stuff we need for nighttime. I need a sun shelter so Violet can stay outside some during the day, and I need to get a few things for shading the car during the day, too. I also want to get a camp table – I picked up a $10 Ozark Trail chair on my way out of town, and now I need somewhere to set my food and camp stove, another thing I need to pick up. We need to get our morning and bedtime routines down, and we need to both get used to being outside at night! So, more lights are going to be necessary! Otherwise, we are definitely going to enjoy this style of living. We had so much fun and came home happy and tired. 😊
Miranda Writes 