Boondocking night #14...peace and quiet

Not a very long drive yesterday, our last full day before crossing the border into Mexico. We stopped in the town of Carrizo Springs at the H.E.B store to see if there were any other things we should pick up. H.E.B (not pronounced Heb!) is a major grocery chain in southern Texas and Northern Mexico.

Unfortunately, not much to be had. We bought a bottle of wine for tonight's dinner, and a couple of bags of dried split peas!

Boondocking night #13...if you don't ask, you don't know...

Enjoyable drive yesterday through Texas Hill Country. For our route, the nice part of the hill country drive started in Junction, Texas and lasted right though until just north of our destination, Uvalde.

We were headed through Uvalde mostly because it has a big Walmart SuperCenter and there were a couple of things we needed to stock up on. Items that are more difficult to source in Mexico.

We don't like overnight parking at Walmart...but we still like shopping there.

Boondocking night #12...Sherman is a happy camper!

Yesterday, we went to the outskirts of Abilene (pop 117,000) to a big RV dealership to look for some things for some friends of ours in Mexico. They were looking for four specific items, and based on the two summers I spend running the parts department at an RV dealership, I figured the odds were that they'd have three of them in stock.

But no such luck. Actually, they did have two of them, but there were three different varieties of the one item so I couldn't buy it without being sure. So I had to send an email and wait for an answer that may not come in time.

Boondocking night #11...nice spot, but...

From Guthrie, Texas we continued south yesterday morning. Heading towards Abilene to an RV dealership to pick up some parts for a friend in Mexico. But we never made it that far!

We had a hard time finding free internet yesterday. Stopped in two towns, but neither had a library. Finally made it to the town of Anson (pop 2,400)  where they have open Anson wifi in the "downtown" core.

Traveling Through Europe

Most people associate traveling through Europe with heavy expenses and often talk themselves out of going for this very reason. However, it does not have to be as costly as you have been led to believe, as you can use coupons for target.com to save money on a number of different expenses and take advantage of various other special occasions. For additional tips on traveling through Europe on a budget, read on to learn more!

Boondocking night #10...the plan didn't come together

Before we left Perryton, Texas yesterday morning, we stopped in at a nice new little laundromat and did a couple of loads. Then at the gas station for some cheap fuel. Almost all of the stations in town were charging $2.19 USD a gallon, but two of them were at $1.89 USD a gallon. Pretty easy choice for us!

At $1.89 USD a gallon, that's $0.66 CAD per litre. That's some pretty cheap gas! Sherman is a happy camper with a full tank of that stuff!

Boondocking night #9...better than Walmart

It must be the route that we are taking, but we haven't come across a whole lot of nice free boondocking spots the last couple of days. Unless you like parking beside corn fields!

Quite a few of the towns have free and cheap campgrounds, but that's not really what we're looking for. They tend to be not very well kept, and are usually close to busy roads or noisy railway tracks. Sure, they have hookups, but that usually means nothing to us. We only need somewhere to dump our tanks and refill our water once a week.

Boondocking night #8...Lake Scott State Park

We had some internet work to do yesterday morning, so we left the free city RV park at McCook, Nebraska and headed for their local library. They had a nice parking area there and even though the library was closed when we arrived, the wi-fi internet signal was on and unsecured.

Last year we bought the Bear Extender long range wi-fi antenna, and it works really well. It enables us to sit in the comfort of our motorhome and use our laptops while connecting to a sometimes distant wifi signal such as a library, coffee shop, hotel or McDonalds or many other fast food places. Also, most Home Depot locations have an unsecured signal available.

Boondocking night #7...not our style.

Many of the little towns in the mid west offer a municipal campground. Most are very inexpensive, and some are even free. It's a great way for the city or town to entice people to stay for a few days and spend some time exploring and contributing to the local economy.

And so we headed for McCook, Nebraska where we had read about a free campground that even had a washroom and shower building.

Boondocking night #6...does it get any better?

A bit of a longer drive yesterday, at 179 miles (286 kms). It was hot, in fact we saw thermometer signs in two different towns...one said 89F (32C) and one said 91F (33C). Definitely shorts and t-shirts weather!

We purposely planned a longer driving day in order to get ahead of ourselves a bit. Hopefully this afternoon (Sunday) we will make it to the town of McCook, Nebraska where we have read that they have a very nice free city RV park that has showers and all the amenities. Only 7 sites, so hopefully there's a vacant one for us! Anyhow, we're due for a day off so if everything works out, we'll take a break from driving on Monday and just explore the town and relax.

Boondocking night #5...Toadstool Geologic Park

After our internet stop at Custer, South Dakota yesterday, we headed for Wind Cave National Park. We like caves, and thought about doing one of their tours. But at $12 USD ($16 CAD) per person we decided instead to do a hike. For free. :-)

Wind Cave National Park has highway 385 running right through it. There are a lot of bison in the park, and so you have to watch for them!

Boondocking night #4...near Mt. Rushmore!

We know now why we usually take a full month to go from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. There is simply too much to see, and we feel a bit rushed doing it in two weeks.

For those of you new here, there are two reasons we're doing it quickly this time around. One, the current strength of the U.S. dollar means that anything we buy in the United States costs 35% more than it should. It will be much cheaper for us in Mexico.

Boondocking night #3...quiet as can be!

An overcast day yesterday, but warm enough and we never did see any rain. We did 133 miles (213 kms), which is still slightly lower than we need to be doing on average.

But...we made it into South Dakota, a new state for us! And, we're kind of excited that we're headed for Mount Rushmore this afternoon. Always wanted to see that.

Boondocking night #2...better!

We only did 94 miles (150 kms) yesterday. It was a beautiful day and we wanted to get out for a hike. Made it to the north section of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Really pretty area!

We actually thought about staying in the park since we have a National Parks pass that we had bought in the spring. We stopped in at the visitor's center which was right by our highway so we didn't have to go off route.

Boondocking night #1 complete...into the U.S....

We left Wendy and Phil in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada at around 1:00pm. We had a plan to get across the U.S. border and into North Dakota so we wanted to get going right away. We don't drive any faster than 55 mph (90 km/h) unless we're going downhill with a tailwind, so we needed to get some miles done or we wouldn't make it across the border that evening.

We stopped in the little town of Wilcox, SK (where the Canadian TV series Corner Gas was filmed) for a late lunch and that was pretty much the last time we would be on the internet for the day.