In today's video, we'll discuss my first 96 hours on the road as a full-time or
RVer driving from Missouri to where I'm at now
Colorado. What is going on YouTube. Obviously I am NOT in Missouri anymore,
I'm in the middle of Colorado on some BLM land but I'll talk about that more
later. It's really sunny this morning it's like 6:00 a.m. I just woke up and I
figured I'd talk about my first 96 hours and my rig most of that was me driving
from Missouri to Colorado if you watched any of my live streams about my trip
plans I was originally going to go to Acadia National Park in Maine and then
cross the Canadian border and explore a Nova Scotia a little bit however with
the covet outbreak being so bad in the East and my chances of getting across
the Canadian border slim to none I decided to change my plans because I
didn't make much sense I decided to head out west where there's lots of National
Forest and BLM land that I could camp on and some of the national parks are
beginning to open up out here so I thought it would just be easier for me
to explore beautiful scenery while practicing social distancing I also
wanted to escape the heat wave of Missouri in the Midwest during the night
it gets down to the low 50s so I get nice and snuggly in my RV it's been
great okay first let's talk about my route a friend of mine who happens to be
another van life youtuber amber from the channel story chasing you should go
check it out it's pretty awesome it's one of the first van life channels I
found well she invited me out to Salida this seemed like a good first trip
Amber's been our beam for over three years now and exploring the country
she's very familiar with boondocking on BLM land and I figured it was a great
way for me to ease into it and learn how to boondock on public lands when I
pulled up the route on Google Maps from Desoto Missouri to Salida Colorado
I noticed that three of my remote year travel buddies where within a hundred
miles or so of Salida so I decided to visit them as part of
trip my friend Lindsay was up in Loveland Colorado writing out kovat at
her parents house and they graciously offered to let me camp out in their
driveway for a night my friends Abby and John had rented an awesome house in
Breckenridge Colorado so after I visited Lindsay in Loveland Colorado I was going
to head down to Breckenridge Colorado and visit Abby and John if you're new to
my channel I had just spent 12 months traveling with remote year with Lindsay
Abby and John they're like family to me so it was gonna be great to visit and
reconnect with them okay so my trip was set I was gonna drive from DeSoto
Missouri to Salida Colorado stopping at Loveland Colorado and Breckenridge
Colorado when I pulled up the distance from DeSoto Missouri to Loveland
Colorado I realized it was 14 hours and I was gonna need to stop somewhere and
stay overnight on the way there I just signed up for Harvest toast a month ago
and if you haven't heard of it it's pretty cool I paid around $60 for an
annual membership and with that membership you get access to thousands
of wineries breweries golf courses and farms across the country that allow you
to camp on their land in exchange for buying something like at the wineries
going in and doing a wine tasting by and maybe a bottle of wine at the golf
courses maybe hitting a few balls or playing around a golf at the breweries
obviously drinking some beer and then at the farms buying some of the farm
products so I jumped on harvest host website it's really cool you can search
by route and you can also narrow it down to how far the harvest host location is
from your route so I narrowed that down to only a few miles and I found a farm
in Manhattan Kansas not Manhattan New York where you still have Manhattan
Kansas and so I decided to stay there I called up the owner and let them know I
was going to be passing through and if I could stay on their farm they said no
problem so I was set it was about a six hour drive from DeSoto to Manhattan
Kansas if you've never driven I 70 through Missouri and Kansas it's a
pretty boring ride but eventually I arrived at my harvest host location
a and H farms and a just down poured so the farmers really muddy but I found a
nice little grassy area and then I headed in to check in with the owner and
see what kind of products they offered they had some really awesome stuff and I
went a little bit overboard I got some pickled garlic some mango salsa and some
sweet butter pickles after that I headed out to my rig
settled in for the night watched a couple episodes a Seinfeld and Big Bang
Theory and then went to sleep I knew I had to get up early because I was gonna
have an eight-hour drive in front of me to Loveland Colorado the next morning I
got up at 4:30 a.m. got back on i-70 and headed towards my friend Lindsay's
parents house the drive on i-70 through western Kansas and eastern Colorado was
pretty similar to my previous day's Drive it's very flat not much to see
eventually as I got closer to Loveland Colorado you could see the mountains in
the background and that was pretty cool I pulled in Lindsey's driveway about
2:00 a.m. and hung out with her parents for the rest of the night they were
really gracious hosts they're originally from Nebraska Midwestern just like me
and they made me a traditional Midwestern meal which was pretty awesome
at about 10 p.m. I climbed in my rig and went to sleep for the night I woke up
the next morning had a cup of coffee with her family and some great
conversation again and then jumped in my rig and headed towards Breckenridge
Colorado and Abbie and John however before that shorter two and a half hour
trip I wanted to stop at a car wash and spray down my rig it was really muddy
from staying at the farm the other night unlike the Midwest where almost no car
wash will accommodate an RV RVing is so popular in Colorado every Car Wash can
accommodate a huge RV it was pretty awesome
my small rig fit in easily if you're enjoying this video please hit that
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after the van was clean I headed down to Breckenridge Colorado I say down but
most of the trip was up Loveland Colorado is at about 5,000 feet
elevation Breckenridge is at about 10,000 feet so I needed to go up in
elevation about a mile the drive to Breckenridge
is gorgeous but I'm not gonna lie I was pretty nervous going up and down the
mountain slopes I'd never done that kind of driving in this rig and I was pretty
uncomfortable on the mountainous roads especially when there was construction
that narrowed the road down to one lane eventually the road flattened out and I
just enjoyed the beautiful scenery on the way to Breckenridge after a few
hours I arrived at Abbey and John's house in Breckenridge there were
actually six people in the house that had completed a remote year program but
only John and Abbey were in my program it was pretty cool to meet some other
people that had done remote year we all kind of have a similar view on life and
travel I got there shortly after noon and a group of us decided to go on a
hike the hike was pretty amazing it was beautiful I hadn't hiked at that high of
an elevation since I hiked rainbow mountain back in Peru and so I was a
little winded during the hike however it was worth it
the views were stunning there was even snow at the altitude after the hike
Abbey John and I decided to go get a bite to eat and have a couple beers and
it was just great catching up with them after dinner I jumped in my rig and just
like every other night camped in their driveway I left pretty early the next
morning to head to Salida Colorado but not before Abbey and I fit in a quick
morning hike in her neighborhood okay now it was time to head to my final
destination Salida Colorado for some boondocking on BLM land the drive to
Salida just like the drive in the Breckenridge was a little treacherous in
the beginning the only thing that made it a little easier was the speed limit
was usually around 25 miles an hour eventually that drive leveled out a
little bit and I met amber in a parking lot in salaat
Colorado Salida is a really cool little town really popular with our viewers it
has a river that runs through the town and we stopped in a park and had lunch
after lunch we both jumped in our rigs and headed towards some BLM land about
10 miles away to join a group of escapers that had already been camped
there if you don't know there is a ton of land in the u.s. that's managed by
the Bureau of Land Management that's why it's called BLM land as a taxpayer
you're entitled to camp on that land for up to 14 days without having to pay
anything it's a pretty awesome thing we have here in the US and I was really
excited to be camping with a group of individuals who could teach me the do's
and don'ts of BLM camping so I picked my spot set up camp and I've been enjoying
it for the last five days okay so that was my first 96 hours traveling in my
rig if you enjoyed this video please hit that thumbs up button but if you're like
the worst person in the world and you like kick puppies you're the kind of
person that'll give a thumbs down thanks for watching