9 months solo

mickietucs · February 2017

I haven't posted for a while but since seeing new members on the forum and their thoughts about camping solo, I thought I'd add my 2 cents. I just returned from 9 months on the road. 8 western states, 53 campsites, 4,000+ T@B miles and somewhere around 276 days. Some friends said I was "brave" and they worried something would happen traveling solo. In my experience, 99.9% of campers and hikers are awesome, helpful people and if one takes the typical precautions as one should even in their own town, all goes well. I found out what made me comfortable and what style of camping works for me. Money-wise I had hoped to do a lot of BLM sites, and although I did a few, I prefer a campground with a host (some BLM have them) and designated hiking trails but I don't like rv parks. My campsites were a mix of state, county, national and forest service parks. To save $$ I opted for the non-hookup sites sometimes. There was only one park I left --- a county park that would have been okay except for the person who pulled in next to me. I wasn't threatened but it didn't feel right so I left. Trust your instincts. I traveled and hiked with a hiking stick, have pepper spray and even a taser but never once felt scared. I have made numerous friends and am staying in contact with several---it was great to see how many women are now traveling solo. My advice is figure out what style of camping that is yours, be aware of your surroundings, and take whatever precautions that you need. Hoping your travels, like mine, bring you complete joy.

Nomad · February 2017

Michelle has the cutest, personalized interior of any T@B I've been inside of :-)

IrishCamper74 · February 2017

Oh to be able to do this; I'd hit the road in a heartbeat! Can you post some pictures?

mickietucs · February 2017

PXLated said:

Michelle has the cutest, personalized interior of any T@B I've been inside of :-)

Ahhhh...what a nice comment PXL. I've thoroughly enjoyed it and may need to do a long "eastern tour" next!

mickietucs · February 2017

IrishCamper74 said:

Oh to be able to do this; I'd hit the road in a heartbeat! Can you post some pictures?

Sure - will do in the next couple of days. But my pics don't come anywhere close to the beauties that PXL and Jenn post - ha!

AldebaranJill · February 2017

Could you talk about the details of your daily selection process on where to camp if you are driving? I found it very difficult to navigate, check road conditions, and research potential overnight locations while driving. Do you make your selections before you depart? If so, how do you know where you be when you are ready to stop for the day? I found on my recent trip that I could drive 200-400 miles per day but it was extremely weather dependent (I drove in winter) so it was impossible to predict where I would be by the time I got tired. I wound up stopping around 2pm to research possible targets with a 4pm arrival time goal, giving me an hour before sunset to see if I felt comfortable and if not move to plan B. Am curious about the details and logistics of your overnight camping choices.

AldebaranJill · February 2017

And please include how you determined if a particular campround had a host - did you call?

LauraRey · February 2017

PXLated said:

Michelle has the cutest, personalized interior of any T@B I've been inside of :-)

We need pics.

Homebodyatheart · February 2017

Great post! I agree that pics would be icing on the cake, so to speak. You know, if you had taken one more month you could have explored the great State of Washington (it's still white on your map...). :-)

jkjenn · February 2017

mickietucs said:

Trust your instincts. I traveled and hiked with a hiking stick, have pepper spray and even a taser but never once felt scared. I have made numerous friends and am staying in contact with several---it was great to see how many women are now traveling solo. My advice is figure out what style of camping that is yours, be aware of your surroundings, and take whatever precautions that you need. Hoping your travels, like mine, bring you complete joy.

Good advice here. It's hard to know what you preferences and comfort levels will be until you are out there doing it.

LauraRey · February 2017

@mickietucs Thanks for your original posting. Its good to know you've had a positive experience camping solo. I'm glad to hear that you made friends. I'm hopeful to do the same this summer. Sorry, I got distracted by the cute interior comment.

Smullis7 · February 2017

Great post! I'm not in a position that will allow me to take off for months, but plan to spend the majority of my weekends in the mountains solo camping...well, including at least one dog. I'll be mostly boondocking in BLM, but like AldebaranJill, would like to know how your selected your overnight locations.

Me_and_My_Dog · February 2017

This is inspiring. Were you planning on staying out longer?

In my situation (working remotely by Internet and phone, and getting paid direct deposit) I could theoretically be out on the road indefinitely. There are so many people all over the U.S. and Canada that I want to visit.

But I have such an awesome house that I've rented for 9 years and I would hate to lose it. Maybe I should see if my landlady would let me sublet for a year and see what happens?

Ratkity · February 2017

LauraRey said:

@mickietucs Thanks for your original posting. Its good to know you've had a positive experience camping solo. I'm glad to hear that you made friends. I'm hopeful to do the same this summer. Sorry, I got distracted by the cute interior comment.

Bahahahahha! At least I wasn't the only one distracted by the "cute interior" comment. *double take*

mickietucs · March 2017

Thanks for all you comments and questions!

AldebaranJill - A part of me wishes I "flew by the seat of my pants" (like many of you do and have had good luck with that) but my nature is of a planner. This goes from months of research on what trailer I wanted, the truck I bought, and yes, the campgrounds I chose. That's not to say I didn't sway from plans. A few weather-related issues, one medical issue, and a few strike outs on obtaining a campsite without a reservation, did get me to change plans. However what I found that worked for me was map out my general route first. Then I chose what places were a must-see for me. I already knew I didn't want to drive more than a few hours each day and looked into various campgrounds along the way. I did this in "chunks" (example - while spending many weeks in Portland visiting my family, I would look from there what might interest me when I left. I'd then choose an area, looked at the campgrounds and made reservations). Oh, and I chose the western states partly because the weather (to me) is a bit more even compared to the east. In the 9 months I was gone, I didn't have any rain except when I got back to AZ! The weather stuff I encountered was wind (I stayed 2 extra days at Lee's Ferry due to wind advisories). Other than that I sure had the weather gods looking out for me. The app "Ultimate Campgrounds" lists BLM spots and then details (like if they have a host).

Homebodyatheart - Yes, I need to fill in both WA and MT. Since my family is in Portland, I stayed put this past summer but next summer when I go see them again, I plan on getting into WA!

Smullis7 - Many on this forum can give you lots of help in boondocking. I know PXL uses the UC app and he seems to always get a premo spot!

Me_and_My_Dog - I knew I was going to be on the road about that long. I wanted to get back to the Tucson area for some of the winter and definitely planned on leaving OR before it started getting cold. That's why when I left May 1st, I went counter-clockwise first, going north as the weather was warming up (AZ, NV, UT, CO, WY, ID and then into OR. Then I headed south along the coast, then into CA and finally back to AZ). My duplex was rented for a year and next summer I want to be gone abt 2 months at least - think I can sublet it as well.

I may have to resize the pics (moderators - "yell" at me if these come out too large!), here area a couple of pics of my "Island Girl" plus a few others from some of the locations!

cbarnhill · March 2017

Micky: I love the pics and your story.

Me_and_My_Dog · March 2017

Fabulous! Love, love, love!

AldebaranJill · March 2017

@mickietucs -- Ah, I met you at T@BAzona, didn't realize you were the same person. I appreciate the details of your planning. I imagine it's much less stressful when you have an actual reservation ahead and only drive a few hours a day. I suppose I'd have to balance my desire to maximize road trip daily distance with the stress and effort of trying to find places to stay ad hoc. I need to find a happy medium clearly, because the drive to T@BAzona had one too many stressful days. Then again I had a finite time to get there. Perhaps shorter distance trips with more pre-planned stops at places with hosts would be better for me. It takes time to figure out what works for each of us.

Did you run into any places that you wanted to stay at that you were already inside the no-reservation time area? I know some places have 3 days, some even 10 days. In those cases did you try for a walk-in, or select a different location?

mickietucs · March 2017

AldebaranJill - yes, it does take time to see what each of likes on the road. If you're in a time crunch to get to a destination, another option is to join Harvest Hosts where you can stay for one night (for free). I used them as well and had good experience. With those, you can call the day before or even the same day to see if they have a spot. I stayed at a few wineries, a dinosaur museum (!) and a brewery.

I didn't fare so well when I tried to get into a few spots as a walk-in, except for Lee's Ferry (near Page), Fruita SP in CO, and a county park in Blythe. I hadn't planned going to Fruita, but after surviving a kidney stone incident in Arches I decided to go a different way to my next destination in CO (wanted to be near a larger town/hospital if I had issues) so I went that way to be close to Grand Junction. And in Blythe I thought I was going to go to a campground that sounded ok online on their site, but when I drove in, I said "no way". Really mis-represented and pretty much was a dump (in my opinion). My backup was the county park just 1/4 mile from there. That turned out to be great and since I was in a no-hookup site, pretty much had that area to myself - and ended up meeting two gals with a T@B and we've become friends --- they came to T@Bazona too!

Didn't have any problems with making reservations for any of the other places I stayed. I use Campendium.com, campsitephotos.com, a state park website and the apps Allstays and Ultimate CG.

Nomad · March 2017

And she surprised me with a note on my windsheild in Blyth - we finally got to meet in Quartzsite :-)

mickietucs · March 2017

That was funny. I didn't know whose T@B it was in the grocery store parking lot (it crossed my mind it was PXL only because of the jeep but it wasn't definite). Then while several of us standing in the BLM Quartzsite campground, I had JUST said something to the gals about "wouldn't it be funny to run into PXL" (he's very stealthy) and in drives a jeep. I still didn't know who it was and he made some smart comment like "how do you live in that little thing?"...meanwhile PitPat (who knew it was him) was laughing on the inside...he had me fooled for a minute or two!

Donnab · April 2017

Enjoyed the blog! I too will be a solo traveler with one of my Two dogs! 10 days to picking up my outback!

CarefreeZen · April 2017

@mickietucs

Thanks for all the helpful info! I'm super curious what it costs to live own the road. I'm thinking about selling my house and wonder what kind of budget I need to travel with a T@b...? I've traveled solo before but just in my car with tent and also stayed at friends and inexpensive hotels... spent about $1700/month over a 4 month period on gas/lodging/food/entertainment/etc. Any help would be much appreciated!

Ratkity · April 2017

@CarefreeZen, Gone with the Wins are full-timers with a vlog. They have some GREAT information about full-timing it and try to frankly answer costs, insurance, etc. They work from the road. They don't have a tiny trailer (restored bus camper), but their info can point you in the right direction for costs, how to deal with taxes, ordered items and mail, insurance, etc. They are on YouTube (I hope I spelled their name right!).

jgram2 · April 2017

@CarefreeZen, Happycamperwives are also full timers with a blog and cover the costs of full timing versus costs of living in a stationary dwelling. Perhaps they'll chime in or you can check out their blog with videos.

CarefreeZen · April 2017

@Ratkity and @Twojgrams ...thanks so much for the tips! I can see this is going to be quite a process!!

How long does it take to get comfortable with how to do the whole having-a-trailer-thing... and knowing how everything works? I'm a bit of a researcher, but I also will need to "learn by doing". I just don't want to make any serious mistakes! It can all seem so overwhelming!

Ratkity · April 2017

@CarefreeZen, mistakes are part of the fun. Everyone makes them - even seasoned campers. Just consider them "Life Experiences" and move on - embellish them a bit and you have a great campfire story! "There Ah wuz, minding mah own bizness when suddenly I saw it... the water hose spraying all over and one of them black kitties with white stripes just have a blast taken a bath....."

ericnliz · April 2017

@CarefreeZen, Yup, if you're not makin' mistakes, you're doing better than the rest of us, that's for sure.
@Ratkity, Dog gone you! Right in the middle of a coffee sip....AGAIN...clean-up, isle 3!

jkjenn · April 2017

You can know something works and still make mistakes.

Ratkity · April 2017

ericnliz said:

@CarefreeZen, Yup, if you're not makin' mistakes, you're doing better than the rest of us, that's for sure.
@Ratkity, Dog gone you! Right in the middle of a coffee sip....AGAIN...clean-up, isle 3!

Twice in one day! I'm on a roll (better get off of it.. the butter will stain mah undies).

Restless_Native · April 2017

Great post! Very inspiring. I plan to spend a full year in my T@B when I retire, so like others, I am gathering as much information and trying things out as possible. One of the best things I did when I got my T@B last summer was to attend Tearstock. Now that we know NuCamp is organizing a rally, I strongly recommend folks going if geographically possible. I live in the southern section of Florida, but learned so much from other T@B owners, it was worth the time to go. I am hoping to go again this year since I have had the T@B long enough to ask better questions.

9 months solo

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