Erik and I choose to travel outdoors and to spend our vacations camping, hiking, and exploring new environments.  We also make sure to experience local culture as well, but most of our time is spent in the outdoors.  If you find a pattern in the places we visit (mostly within driving distance) it is because budget restrictions do not enable us to go abroad or even hop on an airplane.  We do dream of traveling to foreign, remote areas all around the world and to introduce our daughters to new countries, cultures and landscapes but that is not part of our immediate future. We left for a ten day road trip with a budget of 400 dollars (saved over six months) over our regular cost of living.   Camping has the wonderful advantage of being simple, beautiful and cost-effective when all goes well.

We drove following the same route we followed last year to get to Kino Bay Mexico, but our destination was Gilbert Ray Campground in Tucson, Arizona (Pima County).  When we got to the campsite it was 6:00 p.m. and we were expecting a quick camp set up, with a nice meal of sausage, quinoa, and green beans.  Unfortunately, the campsite was closed to new campers because of a problem with their water supply (which comes from a well).  The friendly women at the desk informed us that we could camp on some BLM land for free. It was close to the campground and was located near an urban development (this was a positive point according to her).  You can understand our disappointment at having to find another place to stay and to not be able to stay at the campsite that we had been planning for and saving to stay at for months.  I was tired and feeling very pregnant and Cora was tired of being in the car.  On top of it we noticed that most of the Gilbert Ray Campground was populated by RV campers and since they were already checked in, they were allowed to stay.  That evening Erik and I talked about how some campground culture has changed from accommodating mostly tent campers to mostly RVers.  How can a beautiful campground suddenly be taken over by RV vehicles (when I first visited fifteen years ago, the campground was only used by campers with tents), where tenters are now excluded?  We did not even need water and are quite knowledgeable about Leave No Trace and minimal impact camping so would probably do less damage than the current RV occupants.

We  drove  to  the BLM land and  this is what we experienced:  A whole bunch of RVs scattered around an abandoned lot of very dry, depressing looking desert landscape.  One of our neighbors, the one with the portable, handmade solar panel of different sizes seemed to be a long term resident, along with the only other tenter who had covered his tent with old palm leaves. There was also a very large shirtless man with a very long matted beard who had a “shaggin’ wagon” that pulled a large handmade trailer.  The trailer was full of trinkets and things and he was playing with his trinkets.  The rejected RV’ers from the original campsite were there but we never saw them walk out of their protective plastic shells.  They were all rejects from the campground and were probably not too thrilled.  The area was straddled by a highway and country road.  I walked out of the car, looking for a tent spot, looked around and started to cry.  I was frustrated, slightly afraid and pissed off at our situation.  I was scared because of my experience camping with Hell’s Angels when I was a teenager (read story), pissed off because the only sane solution for a tired pregnant women, with a 2 ½ year old and a exhausted husband would be to get a hotel room for the night and then pick another safe campground in the morning but this was not possible because of our budget. I was frustrated because things were not going according to the plan and we would not be able to stay where we wanted to and because the world was not making rules that I liked.

Cora got out of her seat and told me it would be o.k. and to not be sad.  She held my pregnant belly saying hello to her unborn sister.  I had no choice but to get myself together and start unpacking. I was surprised by a a rattlesnake that toured our camp until nightfall.  While I cooked dinner and watched Cora play amongst rubble and beer bottles I tried to stay positive so that Cora wouldn’t pick up too much on my negative feelings towards our campsite.

During the evening the RV’ers ran their generators, ATVs rolled by our tent on joyrides and the highway was our background music.  On top of it, at different intervals one of us would get up to support Cora while she had diarrhea all around the campground.  In all fairness I must note that all our neighbors were quiet during the night and that the site did end up being safe.

As the sun rose I forgot about the large breakfast that we had planned and that I had been looking forward to. We ate a quick breakfast of cereal.  Just before we left I pulled my pants down to pee and this is the  only time that our neighbors step out of their RV staring at me.

To read the following installment of this trip, please visit us next week. You will be happy to know that our trip did take a turn for the positive...

Heidi

This week our giveaway is a pair of Bridgedale Socks.