I've received great news that the new owners of my first travel trailer, an RTTC Polar Bear--aka the Green Goddess--are enjoying camping with the tiny "standy" trailer and are traveling much more than my wife and I did. As the Rustic Trails Teardrop Campers company and owners have their fourth Gathering this weekend, it is supremely appropriate that I provide an update on the travels of the Green Goddess. <more>
"Farewell to the Green Goddess" as I Sell Our First Travel Trailer
"Good Evening! It looks like your Airstream Basecamp could arrive within the next week or two!" Michael Farland, from the RV One Airstream dealership in Des Moines, emailed my wife and me a week ago, informing us that our January delivery date had been moved up. <more>
Dances with Lightning Bugs: a Tiny Trailer Excursion
Somehow, lightning bugs are getting into my camper at night, just lightning bugs, so for the last two nights I’ve woken up to a beautiful, flickering display of wonder. I don’t know how they’re getting in, but since it’s only lightning bugs, I’m counting my blessings rather than worrying. I catch them and gently shoo them outside. <more>
The Green Goddess Camps Again!
"We're just going to head out and deal with the weather!" Famous last words--because there was a lot of weather to deal with. <more>
First Day of Winter, and I'm Camping!
The roads to the park had been clear of snow with just patches remaining where the low-lying winter sun had trouble reaching. When I entered the campground, however, all the roads were still snow-covered, the main, outer perimeter road lined with tired tracks. <more>
Cold Weather Camping at Indian Lake
The quiet of forest, river, and lake creates a special mood for this two-part series on camping four nights in the late fall. Long nights and short hours of sunlight changes the camp routine, increasing the time of quiet amid nature.
--Part 1: Setting Up and Settling In
--Part 2: Out and About
A Walk on the Quiet Side
Even with high temperatures near 60 degrees and lows above freezing, it was my wife who convinced me to hook up and take off for camping for a couple of nights. It was a great idea, but it was Sunday, and we'd gone for an hour-long hike in our local county park, and then we'd gone out for lunch at a local Indian restaurant . . . and a couple of nights of solo camping sounded good but I was well exercised and fed and coasting into the afternoon. <more>
Our Solitary, Tiny Trailer Camping Weekend
It's Friday afternoon at Lake Darling State Park in southeast Iowa, and my wife and I are the sole campers in the entire park. We are not alone, though, abut are visited by deer, geese, swans, squirrels, and a lone eagle. And, of course, we have each other, as we have arranged for this late fall weekend of camping for ourselves, a chance to be together, to walk together, and to even enjoy an experience more rare nowadays in this modern world--to be out of cellphone receptivity. <more>
2019 Gathering of the Bears: RTTC 2nd Annual Tiny Trailer Gathering
My first inkling that attending the RTTC 2019 Gathering would be different than most of my camping trips was when I was sitting in my camp chair underneath the Green Goddess's awning, reading and relaxing after the long road trip. It was Thursday afternoon, October 10, the first day of the Rustic Trail Teardrop Campers "Gathering of the Bears." I had arrived early on Tuesday and was all set up in Site 2 of the North Campground at South Carolina's Huntington Beach State Park.<more>
Three Posts About GPS and Travel
On my way home from the Carolinas back to Iowa, I experience the highs and lows of gps navigation systems.
1. Tiny Trailer Halloween Freeway Horror Movie
2. The Green Goddess Meanders Toward Home
3. If GPS Routing Were Music, It Would Be the Blues
Walking the Beach, Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina
I was raised in California, and who can mention California without the Pacific Ocean coming to mind? California, though, is a diverse state geographically with many climatic zones. Growing up, camping was not heading to the ocean. No, going camping was heading into the Sierra Nevada, trout fishing and shooting the rapids on inner tubes. <more>
Unknowingly, I Tiny-Trailer Camp-Crash Woodstock
Not literally Woodstock, of course, since I'm in North Carolina, not New York--and since it's not 1969. The party I've crashed is the Jomeokee 2019 Gathering, an informal music festival get-together that's been happening in one form or another and in one place or another for the last forty years. They've chosen Jomeokee Park Amphitheater and Campground for the last few years. <more>
Pilgrimage to Pilot Mountain: A New Roof for My Tiny Trailer, Part 2
Towing the Green Goddess into the Rustic Trail Teardrop Campers facility, I felt like ET returning to the mothership. I felt like clicking my heels and saying, "There's no place like home." Feeling a faint sense of deja vu because I've seen photos of the RTTC headquarters storefront so many times, I introduced myself to Levi Seachrist, and the Goddess was wheeled into the shop. <more>
Pilgrimage to Pilot Mountain: A New Roof for My Tiny Trailer, Part 1
A trip to Canada's Maritime Islands, a tour of the Pacific Northwest, the national park crown jewels of natural beauty--these are subjects worthy of writing travelogues about. But what about a four-day journey on interstate highways, stopping at roadside campgrounds, the music of the highway a constant background song? <more>
A Tree Limb Bashes My Tiny Trailer, the Green Goddess
I began my two-week tour of northeast Iowa's state parks with rain, steady rain, at times the rain so heavy that the radar on the cruise control shut off the system. The hour and a half trip was a good one, though, and I showed up at Palisades-Kepler State Park with the downpour ratcheting up again. <more>
Tiny Trailer 10-Day Basecamp: Keosauqua
My wife and I are camping for 10 days at Lacey-Keosauqua State Park, the longest we've ever been out with the camper, and the longest we've ever stayed at one place. We arrived at about four o'clock in the afternoon on Labor Day Monday and set up camp: trailer, utilitent and portable toilet, and the screen room. We saved the trailer awning and our signal booster antenna for the next morning. Now we have no more setting up or breaking down for over a week. <more>
Bend in the River Tiny Trailer Basecamp
Have you ever had one of those camping excursions where everything went well? No matter which aspect of camping you considered, the final analysis was, "Yes, couldn't ask for more!" Camping at Lacey Keosauqua State Park in SE Iowa was that experience for my wife and me. Early morning walks around the lake, new equipment, great food, mild summer weather--everything went well. We could have stayed there comfortably for a very long time. <more>
Old Is Gold: Camping at Iowa's 2nd Oldest State Park
My latest camping trip could be considered a comedy of errors or the weird humor of the powers that be. What began as a 6-night camping trip with my wife--a reserved site and everything--ended up a 3-nighter by myself. What caused this shift in plans? How about a dangerous heat wave, our daughter and grandson's bad cold, a maybe-early/maybe-delayed Fed Ex shipment that needed a signature, and 12,000 bicyclists showing up in town for RAGBRAI? You know, the usual. <more>
Howell Station Tiny Trailer Bicycle Basecamp
The Volksweg Trail at is about a ten-mile ride on Lake Red Rock, the largest lake in Iowa, and also a less less than four-mile ride to the city of Pella. I'm at Howell Station Campground below the dam, a beautiful campground with spacious sites, mature shade trees, and clipped lawn. The bike trail skirts the Des Moines River, and both trail and river form one boundary of the campground, which is maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. <more>
First Spring Camping Trip: Flowers, Showers, and Everything Else
The pounding of hammers and the buzz of saws outside our house were the busy sounds of home maintenance--new siding replacement. The solution for escaping the hubbub was a week-long camping trip to Lake Sugema Campground, about thirty miles from home. Soon we were rolling down the highway, sun shining, field birds singing, trees a glowing green in that first blush growth, the sun warm upon our faces. <more>
Fall Snow at Indian Lake
On November 3, I was at Bentonsport, November 7 at Indian Lake. In between, I came home to caulk a leak in the trailer and to take my wife to the airport for a trip to the West Coast. By 3:30 in the afternoon, I was sitting by the campfire, dodging smoke blown by a west wind and enjoying the warmth of the fire as the day slowly slipped to dusk. Sitting by the campfire and enjoying the warmth was a regular activity during my stay that extended to four nights. <more>
Two Fall Nights on the Des Moines River
Bentonsport is an old town in southeast Iowa, an old river town that was once a hub of river commerce and that is now a hamlet where folks live quietly and tourists--and campers--visit. Bentonsport Campground is right on the river, flowing water on one side and now, in early November, the campground is a yellow, umber, and scarlet carpet of fall leaves. The rich smell of leaf mulch is a fragrance that permeates the environment, just wonderful, the lush river and forest smells. <more>
Fall Leaves and Camping, Please
It's late October, just past the harvest moon, fifty-five degrees, and the trees are in full reds and yellows, the sky blues and grays, and the fire is a quiet companion as I sit and write at my camp at Jefferson County Park, a campground just four miles from my house. In the first half of the month, my wife and I spent five nights at this park; now we are spending four nights, enjoying the mild fall weather with our new tiny trailer. <more>
A Camping Trip as Sweet as Honey
It is windy today at Lake Rathbun and Honey Creek Campground. After two nights of camping among the trees, I've moved today to the end of the South Campground loop onto the peninsula that provides a beautiful view of the lake. Spectacular . . . but windy without the shelter of the trees. Honey Creek Campground has all the elements that my wife and I have been looking for in campgrounds--a beautiful view, lake or river, modern facilities, and a strong cellphone signal. <more>
A Darling Overnighter at Lake Darling
In my quest to locate campgrounds that will work both as campsites and mobile office, I teardropped to Lake Darling State Park here in SE Iowa, seventeen miles from home. I had camped there before on overnight bicycle trips and visited for day trips, but I really wanted to scout the park to see if there was a pocket of cellphone receptivity somewhere. <more>
What's Glamping Without Cellphone Receptivity?
Let's see how this goes. . . . We camp to get back to nature. A cellphone is human-produced, so it is not a part of the natural world, like a trout or a stream-polished stone. Therefore, when we camp, we all turn off our cellphones, right? Not exactly, especially for folks who want a slice of nature but still have to work--and can work--online, such as my wife. <more>
(Note: As the content for Green Goddess Glamping evolves, sometimes content focus will dictate that articles will be posted on some Facebook groups and not others. Articles on Dutch oven cooking, portable toilets, or bicycle day rides, for instance, could find posts in different groups. The best way to ensure that you are receiving all articles is to subscribe to follow this blog by email notifications.)
Somehow, lightning bugs are getting into my camper at night, just lightning bugs, so for the last two nights I’ve woken up to a beautiful, flickering display of wonder. I don’t know how they’re getting in, but since it’s only lightning bugs, I’m counting my blessings rather than worrying. I catch them and gently shoo them outside. <more>
"We're just going to head out and deal with the weather!" Famous last words--because there was a lot of weather to deal with. <more>
The roads to the park had been clear of snow with just patches remaining where the low-lying winter sun had trouble reaching. When I entered the campground, however, all the roads were still snow-covered, the main, outer perimeter road lined with tired tracks. <more>
The quiet of forest, river, and lake creates a special mood for this two-part series on camping four nights in the late fall. Long nights and short hours of sunlight changes the camp routine, increasing the time of quiet amid nature.
--Part 1: Setting Up and Settling In
--Part 2: Out and About
Even with high temperatures near 60 degrees and lows above freezing, it was my wife who convinced me to hook up and take off for camping for a couple of nights. It was a great idea, but it was Sunday, and we'd gone for an hour-long hike in our local county park, and then we'd gone out for lunch at a local Indian restaurant . . . and a couple of nights of solo camping sounded good but I was well exercised and fed and coasting into the afternoon. <more>
It's Friday afternoon at Lake Darling State Park in southeast Iowa, and my wife and I are the sole campers in the entire park. We are not alone, though, abut are visited by deer, geese, swans, squirrels, and a lone eagle. And, of course, we have each other, as we have arranged for this late fall weekend of camping for ourselves, a chance to be together, to walk together, and to even enjoy an experience more rare nowadays in this modern world--to be out of cellphone receptivity. <more>
My first inkling that attending the RTTC 2019 Gathering would be different than most of my camping trips was when I was sitting in my camp chair underneath the Green Goddess's awning, reading and relaxing after the long road trip. It was Thursday afternoon, October 10, the first day of the Rustic Trail Teardrop Campers "Gathering of the Bears." I had arrived early on Tuesday and was all set up in Site 2 of the North Campground at South Carolina's Huntington Beach State Park.<more>
On my way home from the Carolinas back to Iowa, I experience the highs and lows of gps navigation systems.
1. Tiny Trailer Halloween Freeway Horror Movie
2. The Green Goddess Meanders Toward Home
3. If GPS Routing Were Music, It Would Be the Blues
I was raised in California, and who can mention California without the Pacific Ocean coming to mind? California, though, is a diverse state geographically with many climatic zones. Growing up, camping was not heading to the ocean. No, going camping was heading into the Sierra Nevada, trout fishing and shooting the rapids on inner tubes. <more>
Not literally Woodstock, of course, since I'm in North Carolina, not New York--and since it's not 1969. The party I've crashed is the Jomeokee 2019 Gathering, an informal music festival get-together that's been happening in one form or another and in one place or another for the last forty years. They've chosen Jomeokee Park Amphitheater and Campground for the last few years. <more>
Towing the Green Goddess into the Rustic Trail Teardrop Campers facility, I felt like ET returning to the mothership. I felt like clicking my heels and saying, "There's no place like home." Feeling a faint sense of deja vu because I've seen photos of the RTTC headquarters storefront so many times, I introduced myself to Levi Seachrist, and the Goddess was wheeled into the shop. <more>
A trip to Canada's Maritime Islands, a tour of the Pacific Northwest, the national park crown jewels of natural beauty--these are subjects worthy of writing travelogues about. But what about a four-day journey on interstate highways, stopping at roadside campgrounds, the music of the highway a constant background song? <more>
I began my two-week tour of northeast Iowa's state parks with rain, steady rain, at times the rain so heavy that the radar on the cruise control shut off the system. The hour and a half trip was a good one, though, and I showed up at Palisades-Kepler State Park with the downpour ratcheting up again. <more>
My wife and I are camping for 10 days at Lacey-Keosauqua State Park, the longest we've ever been out with the camper, and the longest we've ever stayed at one place. We arrived at about four o'clock in the afternoon on Labor Day Monday and set up camp: trailer, utilitent and portable toilet, and the screen room. We saved the trailer awning and our signal booster antenna for the next morning. Now we have no more setting up or breaking down for over a week. <more>
Have you ever had one of those camping excursions where everything went well? No matter which aspect of camping you considered, the final analysis was, "Yes, couldn't ask for more!" Camping at Lacey Keosauqua State Park in SE Iowa was that experience for my wife and me. Early morning walks around the lake, new equipment, great food, mild summer weather--everything went well. We could have stayed there comfortably for a very long time. <more>
My latest camping trip could be considered a comedy of errors or the weird humor of the powers that be. What began as a 6-night camping trip with my wife--a reserved site and everything--ended up a 3-nighter by myself. What caused this shift in plans? How about a dangerous heat wave, our daughter and grandson's bad cold, a maybe-early/maybe-delayed Fed Ex shipment that needed a signature, and 12,000 bicyclists showing up in town for RAGBRAI? You know, the usual. <more>
The Volksweg Trail at is about a ten-mile ride on Lake Red Rock, the largest lake in Iowa, and also a less less than four-mile ride to the city of Pella. I'm at Howell Station Campground below the dam, a beautiful campground with spacious sites, mature shade trees, and clipped lawn. The bike trail skirts the Des Moines River, and both trail and river form one boundary of the campground, which is maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. <more>
The pounding of hammers and the buzz of saws outside our house were the busy sounds of home maintenance--new siding replacement. The solution for escaping the hubbub was a week-long camping trip to Lake Sugema Campground, about thirty miles from home. Soon we were rolling down the highway, sun shining, field birds singing, trees a glowing green in that first blush growth, the sun warm upon our faces. <more>
On November 3, I was at Bentonsport, November 7 at Indian Lake. In between, I came home to caulk a leak in the trailer and to take my wife to the airport for a trip to the West Coast. By 3:30 in the afternoon, I was sitting by the campfire, dodging smoke blown by a west wind and enjoying the warmth of the fire as the day slowly slipped to dusk. Sitting by the campfire and enjoying the warmth was a regular activity during my stay that extended to four nights. <more>
Bentonsport is an old town in southeast Iowa, an old river town that was once a hub of river commerce and that is now a hamlet where folks live quietly and tourists--and campers--visit. Bentonsport Campground is right on the river, flowing water on one side and now, in early November, the campground is a yellow, umber, and scarlet carpet of fall leaves. The rich smell of leaf mulch is a fragrance that permeates the environment, just wonderful, the lush river and forest smells. <more>
It's late October, just past the harvest moon, fifty-five degrees, and the trees are in full reds and yellows, the sky blues and grays, and the fire is a quiet companion as I sit and write at my camp at Jefferson County Park, a campground just four miles from my house. In the first half of the month, my wife and I spent five nights at this park; now we are spending four nights, enjoying the mild fall weather with our new tiny trailer. <more>
It is windy today at Lake Rathbun and Honey Creek Campground. After two nights of camping among the trees, I've moved today to the end of the South Campground loop onto the peninsula that provides a beautiful view of the lake. Spectacular . . . but windy without the shelter of the trees. Honey Creek Campground has all the elements that my wife and I have been looking for in campgrounds--a beautiful view, lake or river, modern facilities, and a strong cellphone signal. <more>
In my quest to locate campgrounds that will work both as campsites and mobile office, I teardropped to Lake Darling State Park here in SE Iowa, seventeen miles from home. I had camped there before on overnight bicycle trips and visited for day trips, but I really wanted to scout the park to see if there was a pocket of cellphone receptivity somewhere. <more>
Let's see how this goes. . . . We camp to get back to nature. A cellphone is human-produced, so it is not a part of the natural world, like a trout or a stream-polished stone. Therefore, when we camp, we all turn off our cellphones, right? Not exactly, especially for folks who want a slice of nature but still have to work--and can work--online, such as my wife. <more>
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(Note: As the content for Green Goddess Glamping evolves, sometimes content focus will dictate that articles will be posted on some Facebook groups and not others. Articles on Dutch oven cooking, portable toilets, or bicycle day rides, for instance, could find posts in different groups. The best way to ensure that you are receiving all articles is to subscribe to follow this blog by email notifications.)
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