Know What To Tow

by carriesilverhornTravelPosted on Comments are Disabled

I have seen lots of photos of RVs overturned on Facebook and almost immediately there is some know-it-all on there saying the truck wasn’t big enough for the rig. Doesn’t matter if the rig was a teardrop trailer going through 30mph wind…just need a bigger truck (said with a grunt) is always the “answer”. Well, it is not. It is, however, important to know your towing capacity.Towing capacity is a series of calculations and a lot of safety margin, not a single number expressed in pounds. Whether you’re looking for a full-size truck to tow your boat or horse trailer, or one of the best towing SUVs to carry your family on vacation and pull the camper you’ll stay in, there are a series of terms and concepts you’ll need to understand to make the right decision. What is Towing Capacity?Your vehicle’s towing capacity is the maximum amount of weight it can safely pull, which changes based on how it’s configured, how much weight it’s already carrying, and how you distribute and control the load you need to tow.There is a single number that automakers use to best estimate towing capacity. Still, it doesn’t give you a hard rule that works in every situation. Calculating it requires knowing several things about both your tow vehicle and the trailer you plan to tow.While manufacturers will publish a towing capacity for each vehicle they build, it’s important to note that calculations assume that the tow vehicle is carrying only a driver. If you plan to tow a travel trailer and bring along your family and all the associated gear they’ll need for a weekend away, the manufacturer’s calculations will not be accurate for your load. How to Calculate Towing CapacityTo calculate your vehicle’s towing capacity, you’ll need to know the full GCVWR — Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating — of the vehicle you plan to tow with and the trailer you plan to tow, together with all the cargo each will carry, from people to wiper fluid.Then you’ll need to know your tow vehicle’s curb weight – the weight of the tow vehicle itself when filled with gas and all the other fluids it consumes while driving.Subtracting the curb weight from the GCVWR gives you the vehicle’s towing capacity. Manufacturers will stress that you should never exceed your vehicle’s towing capacity. We would add that, for safety reasons, it’s best to never come within 10% of that total.Loads shift. People miscalculate. Then, cars brake suddenly. For many reasons, driving a vehicle that strains at the absolute limits of its capability isn’t a good thing. All the Terms You Need for TowingTowing comes with its own lingo, which can be intimidating at first. But all the terms boil down to simple measurements, and there’s no need to memorize them — you can always look them up again here. Towing Capacity Your vehicle’s towing capacity is the maximum amount of weight it can safely pull.GVWRGross Vehicle Weight Rating is the maximum amount of weight a vehicle can hold while sitting still. It takes into account the strength of the frame, suspension, axles, and wheels.Your tow vehicle and the trailer you are using it to tow will each have their own GVWR. It’s possible to overload each one separately.Your tow vehicle’s GVWR and its towing capacity are different numbers. The reason: The total weight the vehicle’s frame can support pushing down on it and the total weight it can withstand pulling horizontally on the frame through the tow hitch are different.GTWGross Trailer Weight is the total weight of your trailer and its cargo. If you were to place the fully loaded trailer on a scale, the resulting measurement would be the GTW. If your GTW exceeds your vehicle’s towing capacity, you will not be able to move it safely. It is crucial that you never even attempt to tow a GTW higher than your towing capacity. While it might be technically possible to carry the load, you’re likely to damage the tow vehicle, the trailer, or both and be unable to control the vehicle properly.GCVWRGross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating is the maximum weight of your tow vehicle and trailer combined, both loaded with all cargo. The tow vehicle and trailer each have their own separate GVWR numbers, which, combined, make up the GCWR.GAWRGross Axle Weight Rating is the maximum amount of weight one axle can support. This number will almost always show differences between the front and rear axles. The two can be different materials or diameters, and few cars have a perfect 50-50 weight balance between the two axles.Tongue WeightTongue Weight — sometimes referred to as TW — is the force pushing down on the trailer hitch by the load being hauled. Tongue weight can change based on how the load gets distributed within the trailer. Curb WeightCurb Weight is the total weight of a vehicle and all the fluids it requires to function (including a full tank of gas), but with no people or cargo inside it. Curb weight differs from GVWR, which is a measurement of how much a vehicle can carry.Dry WeightDry weight is a measurement of how much a vehicle weighs with no cargo and none of the fluids it requires to function. Your tow vehicle’s dry weight is its weight when empty, without gasoline, oil, wiper fluid, or any other consumable. You don’t need to know your vehicle’s dry weight in most towing calculations.PayloadPayload capacity is the maximum amount of weight a tow vehicle can carry in its cabin and bed. Payload capacity is the weight limit for a truck’s bed and cabin. In contrast, towing capacity is the weight limit for any trailer it can pull. Braked vs. Unbraked Towing CapacitySome trailers come equipped with their own brakes, connected electrically to the tow vehicle so that stepping on the vehicle’s brake pedal activates the tow vehicle’s brakes and the trailer’s brakes at the same time. A vehicle can tow a much heavier load under control if the …

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Got Gas?

by carriesilverhornTravelPosted on Comments are Disabled

Welcome Gypsy Souls…Let’s Talk GAS! 1. Find the best gas station near you by tracking local prices. Looking for the best gas prices in the U.S. and Canada? By using the apps GasBuddy and Waze, you can get the price of gasoline in your area. There are tens of thousands of gas station locations listed on these fuel-finding apps, with near-real-time prices. Moreover, both apps are available on the web or through mobile apps for Android and iOS. Those who drive a lot may want to roll with GasBuddy Premium. Even though it’s a $99 annual membership, it promises to save drivers up to $0.40 per gallon in fuel money. 2. Use a rewards credit card. You should apply for a rewards credit card if you do not already have one. But, what exactly are they? Well, they’re nothing more than a credit card that earns cash or points every time you fill up. For consumers with excellent or good credit, popular options include; The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express. You can earn between 1% to 5% cashback on all eligible U.S. gas station purchases The Citi Premier® Card. Another credit card offers a 3% return on gas purchases. Discover it® Cash Back. You can earn bonus cash back, usually 5%, in quarterly categories that you activate. The Wells Fargo Propel American Express® Card. 3% effective return rate is earned on purchases made at eligible gas stations. PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature® Card. It is one of the best cards for earning gas rewards since cardholders earn 5 points per $1 spent at a gas station. For Costco members, Citi offers the Costco Anywhere Visa card, a rewards card featuring a robust rewards program. The first $7,000 of eligible gasoline purchases earns 4% cashback (payable as Costco store credit), which is adequate for all but the most taxing drivers. Are you partial to a specific gas station family? If so, join its rewards program and apply for a store credit card. You’ll earn instant savings at the pump or redeemable rewards. Compared to regular credit card rewards, instant discounts from these rewards programs can provide a better rate of return as well. 3. Pay with cash. Even if you have a rewards credit card, you might want to proceed with caution. After all, it’s not uncommon for gas stations to charge you more if you pay with a credit card. “Depending on where you are, that may be 10 to 15 cents a gallon,” said Andrew Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates. However, there is the possibility of even greater savings. Some stations may even go as high as offering a 75-cent discount. Why do gas stations prefer cash? Fuel stations and other merchants pay a fee to credit card companies for processing their transactions. Generally, the fee is 2% to 3% of the purchase price, according to the Georgia Department of Consumer Affairs. Another reason? You can’t pay at the pump, unlike credit cards. That means you have to go inside. “To buy the snacks and the drinks and whatever they’re selling,” Lipow said. “Most of the profit for a convenience store is coming from the sale of food, beverages, and cigarettes. If you do use cash, just make sure that you resist the temptation of impulse buys. One trick I use is filling an exact dollar amount and only having that cash on me. So, I spend $50, then I only bring in a $50 bill when paying for gas. 4. Avoid premium. There was a time when premium gas made sense. This was because it contained additional detergents and additives to help prevent carbon deposits. As such, it could assist in cleaning a car’s engine. However, as Jason Kavanagh writes for Edmunds, “now, because of government regulations aimed at cutting emissions, most major brands of gasoline have plenty of additives in all grades to both protect engines and cut pollution.” In short, filling your tank with a premium is a waste of money. The exception? Vehicles that require premium fuel. 5. Fuel up on the right days. When should you fuel up? According to GasBuddy, Mondays. For the whole country, the cheapest day to buy gas in 2021 was Monday. Gas prices started the week at their lowest point in several previous years at the start of the week. Even though Friday has traditionally been one of the most expensive days to fill up with gas because of the weekend start, in 2021 it was the second least expensive day to do so. “Though there is variation in daily gas prices across different states, the consensus is that filling up at the beginning or end of the workweek, on Monday or Friday, is the best way to save money,” stated Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. How much can you really save by filling your tank on the right days? By filling up on the cheapest days of the week, GasBuddy estimates that drivers can save $50 to $100 per year. According to this calculation, gas costs roughly $3.35 per gallon, with four fill-ups per month of 12 gallons each, and on other days of the week, gas runs 7 cents to 12 cents more expensive. 6. Purchase discounted gas cards through a reseller. Discounts on gas are available to members of Costco, Sam’s Club, and Walmart Plus. Walmart Plus offers a 5-cent discount at its fueling centers and offers access to all Sam’s Club locations. The cost of a membership with Sam’s Club is $45, whereas memberships with BJ’s Wholesale Club are $55 and Costco are $60. “Gas prices at warehouse clubs are nearly always lower, ranging from 5 cents to 25 cents less per gallon,” says De Haan. “And when prices rise, they hold their prices down for longer.” What’s more, if you’re buying groceries in bulk then being a warehouse member is well worth the price. As if that weren’t enough, you can expect additional coupons and cashback rewards. 7. Use free or discounted gift cards. A gift card is …

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The Prince’s Cabin?

by carriesilverhornHistoric, TravelPosted on Comments are Disabled

Welcome Gypsy Souls! Let us travel back in time, to the days of early settlements, homesteads, and a race for religion and for the races. I visited the site of The Prince’s Cabin in Southeastern Washington on one of my trips. The Prince’s cabin is thought to be the oldest standing cabin in the state of Washington. It originally stood at a Cayuse wintering place just upstream of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman’s Presbyterian mission, two miles east of the Frenchtown Historic Site. Narcissa Whitman refers to its presence in a letter from January 1844, telling of the recent move by an immigrant family from the crowded mission building to “the Prince’s house up the river.” After the killing of the Whitmans in 1847, and during the ensuing war of 1855, the village site and the cabin were likely abandoned. In 1855, the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla Indian Tribes signed a treaty ceding more than 6.4 million acres of what is now northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington to the United States, including the Frenchtown area. Although the treaty was ratified by Congress in 1859, the last Cayuse were not forced off the land in this area until early 1861, when white settlers demanded their removal, threatening to hang hostages if they stayed. In the same year, Albert and Elizabeth Blanchard laid claim to the property where the cabin still stood. The Homestead Act of 1862 officially opened the land up for settlement, and the Blanchards filed their land patent in Vancouver, Washington in 1866. The land and cabin were acquired by the Smith family around 1888. While oral history indicates the cabin was moved from its original location “across water,” the first Government Land Office survey of the area in early 1860 notes a house on the precise spot where the cabin was located when Kriss and Robin Peterson purchased the property in 1990. It was Robin Peterson who recognized the cabin as a fur trade relic and began the process of researching its origins and construction. In 2013, his widow Kriss Peterson donated the cabin to the Frenchtown Historical Foundation, to be moved, restored, and interpreted at the historic site. The Cayuse name of the Prince was not recorded. “Prince” was often used in fur trade culture to refer to a headman or trading partner’s younger brother or son. The Prince was a younger brother of Hiyumtipin, headman at Pašx̣ápa (pronounced Pash-KA-pah), the Cayuse village just east of the Whitman Mission. It was Hiyumtipin who discovered the drowned body of young Alice Clarissa Whitman in the Walla Walla River in 1839. Hiyumtipin and the Prince were from the same extended family as Wilewmutkin (Old Joseph) and Wilewmutnin (Twisted Hair, who was Lewis and Clark’s Nez Perces Guide), as well as Young Chief (Tauitau), Looking Glass, Homlie, and others, all leaders in a regional indigenous political alliance. Around 1834, Looking Glass of the Nez Perces, Young Chief of the Cayuse, and the Prince became involved in a dispute with Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) over prices for furs and horses. They allegedly seized Pambrun and interpreter Jean Toupin, threw blankets over them and beat them severely. In response to this incident, the HBC cut off trade with those involved, blacklisting all three leaders and their families. When the three men returned to the HBC to seek reconciliation, Pambrun used “gift diplomacy” to resolve the conflict. Gift diplomacy was the common practice of offering gifts (typically European-style homes) in exchange for goods, horses, or promises of good behavior. It is documented that Pambrun built a cabin for Young Chief in or before 1840. In fact, and in part because of the Prince’s involvement in this conflict, we believe Pambrun built at least two cabins: one for Young Chief on the Umatilla River, and one for the Prince at Pášx̣apa. It is not known if Looking Glass received a cabin. Although there is no official record linking the Prince’s cabin to Pambrun, his connection to its construction is apparent through these and other pieces of evidence. The 1844 letter by Narcissa Whitman referencing “the Prince’s house up the river,” attests to the location and ownership of the Prince’s cabin. In addition, as discussed later, the cabin itself exhibits structural characteristics typical of the 1830s, and a level of construction skill specific to French-Canadian artisans of the time. The Prince’s notoriety as a Cayuse leader waned in the years following the attack. During a council with Indian Agent Elijah White in 1843, the Prince is reported to have said: “Perhaps you will say it is out of place for me to speak, because I am not a great chief. Once I had influence, but now I have but little…yet, I am from honorable stock. Promises which have been made to me and my fathers have not been fulfilled…But it will not answer for me to speak, for my people do not consider me their chief.” Unfortunately, the Prince did not long enjoy the shelter of his cabin – he was slain by members of another tribe in about 1845, while en route to the buffalo country. At the same site where The Prince’s Cabin now rests, was a burial marker and memorial garden for many pioneers and natives that had been in that area. The dates go as far back to the 1870’s.

My New Favorite Hidey Hole

by carriesilverhornTravelPosted on Comments are Disabled

Moqui Cave Right at the base of Kanab, UT sits a small, out-of-the-way cave tucked into the side of a hill. This cave has an interesting story and fascinating rock display, along with lots of dinosaur fossils and footprints.  For only $7 you can get access to this cave, the guided story, the fossil collection and the massive florescent rock collection.  I happened to find this on Google and stopped on a whim. The parking lot was small but could accommodate my camper and tow vehicle.  And it was well worth the stop. One of my favorite Hidey Holes along my journey! Gypsy Soul Travel is LIVE! Get all your travel needs from roadtrip destinations, flights, cruises and all inclusive foreign and domestic travel all from one place. Start Traveling The Story The cave itself has quite a unique history- The late Garth and Laura Chamberlain purchased the cave in 1951. As explained by my tour guide, this area was used to film some of the early westerns. Such as Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, and lots of John Wayne movies. The biggest complaint was that there was nowhere to get out of the heat and get a cold drink. The religious edict of Utah did not allow for alcohol usage…on land. So the Chamberlains did it INSIDE LAND. Getting around that stipulation in the law and providing the first bar and dance hall in southwest Utah.  During the week, one could grab a bite to eat and something cool to drink at their fully functional bar, and a live band would come to play on Friday and Saturday nights. Inside the bar, you can still see the carvings of names on the walls and bar top such as John Wayne, Elvis Presley, Ronald Regan, and more! A museum was always in their sights, as Garth studied Geology, Archaeology, and Paleontology. The exhibits on display are his personal findings after years of studies and collecting. They include more than 1,000 arrowheads, ceremonial points, jugs, pots, bowls, and working tools from the Puebloan Era. There is a sizeable collection of dinosaur tracks and fossils, most of which were found in the surrounding area. Their fluorescent mineral displays is one of the largest in the U.S.  Previous Next Definitely add this to your next trip to Utah Get more great travel ideas and places in my emag Delivered to your email every month. Clickable and interactive. Get travel ideas for hiking, camping, costs and GPS coordinates along with excellent inspirational stories from travelers like you. Get Your FREE Copy! Facebook Instagram Tiktok Facebook

Chasing Waterfalls

by carriesilverhornTravelPosted on Comments are Disabled

Last week I had the absolute pleasure of going to see the waterfalls in Oregon along the Historic Columbia Gorge Highway.

Travel on a dime…or tried

by carriesilverhornTravelPosted on Comments are Disabled

On April 1 I began my embarkment for NE Oregon. My plan was to head towards Carlsbad, NM, and then through Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and on up into Oregon. Seeing all the sites and National Parks Along the way. On this route I was able to experience and see: Carlsbad Caverns – NM Petrified Forest National Park – AZ Grand Canyon (South Rim) – AZ Moqui Cave – UT Zion National Park – UT Bryce Canyon National Park – UT Capital Reef National Park – UT Glen Canyon – UT Goblin Valley State Park – UT Arches National Park – UT Canyonlands National Park – UT Craters of the Moon – ID Bayhorse Ghost Town – ID Oregon Trail Head – OR On this route I planned to boondock (or park and stay for free on public lands) the entire way because I left with about 800 in my bank account. No savings. No backup for incidentals. No phone service either. So not only was I flying broke…I was flying blind. Money I had submitted an application for a small credit card that I was intending to use for gas. Of course, my mailing address still resides in Oklahoma so not much good it would do for me. And to get mail in my location in south Texas took an additional 3-4 weeks plus the time to track it down to all the possible random locations it could end up. Luckily, my Mom gave me the numbers and info and I was able to put it into my mobile wallet and use it that way. Pure lifesaver! Thanks Mom! Along the way, I did some commissions for art and sent those off and got paid. I also received my final check from my most recent employers so that assisted with the finances. As you can see by the pie chart…gas was the most costly factor as to be expected. The highest I paid for gas was $4.99/gal. There were not many on this route that was higher than that, and if there were I would go elsewhere. I am also really upset with my food cost. Lets me know where my areas are that I need to desperately work on. Speaking of fuel, I did experience some fuel trouble going through New Mexico. I grossly underestimated the fuel it would take to get through this National Forest I was driving through. The hills and steep grades combined with wind sucked my tank dry! I saw a sign for Pie Town only 3 miles ahead! SAVED! Except Pie Town does not have a gas station. The next station was 20 more miles away. I was not going to make it. I rolled into an RV park and knocked on the main cabin/house door. I asked them if they had any gas I could buy. The owners of the RV park were generous enough to give me about 3 gallons of gas out of a gas can. The gentleman would not let me pay for it. It was enough to get me to the next town and saved me some serious issues on the road. I emailed them and offered them an ad spot in my magazine next month. But either way…if you are in Pie Town, NM, go see Jay and Penny Carroll at Pie Town RV Park! Phone I had also decided that in my last (extremely remote) location, there was no need for a massive phone bill. So I disconnected it. I never used my phone for calling and the only people who called me were the car warranty people. So what was the point anyway? This proved difficult but obviously doable. I downloaded my trip on Google Maps, one destination at a time. Example: Start in Big Bend Texas to my first boondocking spot near Carlsbad Caverns. The map would download and used offline. Then once I got to Carlsbad NM area…find public wifi like at a gas station, Walmart, or restaurant and get the next step in my journey. And so on and so on I went like that all the way to Oregon. No cell phone. No active GPS. Not all areas have a cell signal anyway and luckily most places have public wifi. Here is some that have proven useful. Major restaurant chain locations such as: McDonalds Taco Bell Starbucks Arbys Wendys Burger King Chick-Fil-A Major retail outlets such as: Lowes Walmart Target Staples Kohl’s Office Depot Best Buy Public/Community places such as: Library Public Transportation areas (airport, bus station, train station) Courthouse Some large public parks Malls Hospitals All of these have large enough parking lots for an RV traveler to get into and out of. They also have a public bathroom and local assistance if needed. I cannot stress enough the VALUE of asking locals about roads and road conditions. They live there and they will absolutely tell you what roads not to go down and which is the best way for you! In total, I spent around $1650 and the trip took me a total of 18 days. I encountered some more severe weather in Utah and Idaho since winter was still gripping on by her fingernails. So that made me stay longer or go sooner to avoid storms. I learned some more things I need to work out for travel….like stay away from the fast-food restaurants for one. But to also keep my propane tanks full and my small 3 gal fuel can full as well. All lessons towards a better me, a better life and a better trip for next time!

What do you find…out there?

by carriesilverhornTravelPosted on Comments are Disabled

Have you ever been truly alone? A place where the sound of your blood rushing pulsates in your ears and echos against your pillow sounds like footsteps in the gravel outside your window. Where your cat jumps down off the couch and sounds like a mountain lion climbing on the roof. Where your breathing is deafening. Not a soul within screaming distance. Surrounded by darkness that you have never seen before. A darkness that my eyes couldn’t even adjust to. What would you find out there in such isolation? Peace? Freedom? Fear? For me, I found all three and more. Staying in locations where there is no cell reception, no electricity, and no people. In December 2021 I decided to discontinue my cell phone service. The location where I resided was a complete dead zone and there was no sense in paying for something I could not use. Since then, I have solely relied on public wifi services. In my recent excursion from Big Bend Texas to Eastern Oregon, I have driven and navigated with zero cell phone service. No GPS. No AAA call. No social media. No connection whatsoever. I would stop at public wifi locations and find my next spot and navigate that way. Piece by piece. Step by step. This came before I head a podcast on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, guest speaker Johann Hari was talking about his new book Stolen Focus. He speaks about how we have been manipulated to continue to engage relentlessly with our cell phones and electronic devices. Of course, as I sit in a Loves Truck Stop, on my laptop…typing this blog, I am just as guilty as anyone else. But in his book, Johann states that: “I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley interviewing some of the leading dissidents there, people who designed key aspects of the world in which we now live. So you open Facebook or any of the mainstream social media apps and those companies begin to make money immediately in two ways. The first way is obvious. You see ads and they make money from the ads. The second way is much more important. Everything you do on Facebook is scanned and sorted by Facebook to build a profile of you. So let’s say that you tell your mom you just bought some diapers. Facebook’s algorithms are scanning you. This is someone who is talking about diapers, they have a baby. They build up a profile of you to sell to advertisers. As people in Silicon Valley always say, you are not the customer of Facebook, you’re the product they sell to the advertisers. The whole machinery, this whole business model has an effect: Every time you pick up Facebook, Instagram, Tick Tok, and Twitter and scroll, they make money. And every time you put it down, their revenue streams disappear. So all of their algorithmic power, all of their engineering genius, and some of the cleverest people in the world are dedicated to one goal: How do I get you to pick up your phone more often and scroll as long as you possibly can?” The real question is, what kind of tech do we want and whose interests should it serve? Johann Hari With that disconnect in mind, I also decided to limit my electricity usage. Just out of curiosity. No humming of the generator or lights. Did you know that the lights above you hum? I didn’t until there was no hum. No refrigerator hum. No motors turning. Nothing. Absolute silence. In this small step, which now seems huge, I found that I have a lot of fear. It showed me that I am highly reliant on a connection to people and for emergency usage. Even though I did learn that with no cell service 911 will still work. Hell, I even learned how to read an actual paper map for the first time. Learned what direction I was going. Had to pay attention to the road sign for a change. But the fear ebbs and flows. It changes. In a parking lot at night surrounded by cameras, lights that never shut off, truck engines that constantly run… I felt way more anxiety than I did surround by nature and the 100 mountain lions lurking in my mind. To combat that fear in nature, I explored. Walked. Took pictures. My mind also imagined how my ancestors and pioneers lived and functioned. No cell phones. No electricity. No campers. Just what they made or found for usage. Listening for threats instead of relying on electronic alerts. It helped remind me of this by seeing remnants of each on my travels. Petroglyphs along cavern walls and tiny tiny rock houses speckled in the countryside. People were here before me. They did it scared too. But they did it. I sat outside in the absolute dark and looked into the abyss. That’s where I found sanctuary inside myself. I was complete, content, whole. I was not afraid per say… I was just in unfamiliar territory. I have become so reliant on devices and machinery to get me by. In places and situations such as this… I have to rely on myself. And frankly, THAT is what scares the shit out of me.

A $16 Lesson

by carriesilverhornTravelPosted on 2 Comments

I left Big Bend National Park on April 1st after 5 very long months there. I set out for New Mexico and Carlsbad Caverns. I was so excited to see the caves and get onto my new journey and see all these new places. So excited that I apparently rushed a ton. I literally pushed myself to walk the entire cave in less than 2 hours. I then quickly jumped in the car and hooked up my camper so that I could hurry and get to my next location. In doing so, wrenching my lower back out of place. The extreme fatigue from the severe inclines from Carlsbad Caverns, plus this back injury and the ever lingering tailbone injury….Mama was in pain. For what? To get someplace else 30 mins quicker? Who knows. My next location was the Crystal Forest rest stop next to the entrance of the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. There were two areas you could park an RV. The pull-thru sites that were FREE next to the museum, and the paid sites with electricity only, next to the gift shop. I knew this. I researched this. And for some unknown reason, I decided to pay for my site that night. Maybe because it was my birthday gift to myself. Maybe because I didn’t want to worry about Dobby smothering in the camper all day while I was gone out exploring. Either way, the site I found it on said it was only $10. Well, it was not. It was now $15.98!!! UGH. I could have turned and gone across the street. I could have said no thanks and found another BLM site. I could have gone through the Petrified forest and been on my way in an hour or so. But I handed her my money! Now, I was hell-bent on not spending one penny for RV sites this whole trip. Boondocking all the way. And here I am not paying the $10…but almost $16 for electricity only. It’s like I could not stop myself. Upset with myself a tad, I vowed not to unhook due to my back, and plus check out was at 10 am in the morning, so why bother. My neighbor was walking out to her camper while I was in the midst of perfecting my 32 point backing in skills. She assisted in guiding me into my site. She started talking to me about my camper and the mural. Come to find out she and her husband were from Missouri as well. So we talked quite a bit. She asked if I was going to unhook and I said no, my back was in a bind. She said no problem I can help and she jumped right in and started setting up my camper. Still under this feeling of pressure of time or like I was running late or had to hurry, I reluctantly gave in and helped unhook as well. The next moment I was invited to taco dinner with her, her husband, and two other fellow travelers they met along the way. This was way better than the planned trail mix and smoothie dinner I had in mind for my birthday dinner! I began to soften…relax. We talked about our travels, how we got started and where we have gone and places we have seen. They shared with me some awesome spots that were must-sees and places to stay that were super easy to get in and out of along my route. I also learned, in our conversations, that my neighbor was in stage 4 breast cancer that had moved to her bones. On my way back to the camper she told me that my load leveling system was set up wrong and that tomorrow when I hooked it up again, she would show me how to do it properly. Now I have pulled this camper with this setup for almost a year! WRONG! The next morning, true to her word, she helped me properly hook up my camper. Taking so much pressure off my back axels. The trailer pulled better and was easier to maneuver. There I was whining about my pinched nerve and my false sense of urgency, and here is a stranger, in a dire health condition herself, assisting another stranger, for nothing. She even gave me some canned meat she made from her own cows on her own farm. That lesson, she taught me, had nothing to do with load levelers. That was the bonus lesson. The lesson she taught me was to chill a bit. Enjoy the journey and not hurry to the destination. Relax and take my time. Time to do things right and time to have the proper experiences I need to have. I realized this lesson way after the fact, in true Carrie form, when I was at my next boondocking spot. Surrounded by trees, a small fire going, a slice of pizza, and listening to the wind blow through the treetops and sound like waves crashing. I sat still. I stared at the fire. I took pictures of my private Narnia. I looked up at the stars. I was at total and complete peace. Then is when I realized what my neighbor had taught me. Why I subconsciously choose the paid campground instead of the free one. To learn from her this lesson. Heck of a deal for $16!