When I travel to areas that I want to explore, dispersed campsites may not be as plentiful as other areas, just a factor of the nomad life. So when I’m in these areas I look for free places to stay overnight, even if it’s just a parking lot, a rest area, or a truck stop. When I overnight in one of these places, I don’t have an actual campsite, so I have to manage being totally inside the van. I have to move all of my stuff that normally goes outside, up to the front seat of the van and other stash points, so I can function, cook meals, make coffee, change clothes, and sleep...
It’s not a huge deal, you do what you need to do, but it’s nice to find a location where you can actually set up your camp, and that’s why I migrated to a tract of BLM land just outside of Bend Oregon...
Just the evening before, I had spent the night in the parking lot of the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville Oregon. It’s also known as the home of the ‘Spruce Goose’. According to the free campsites app the museum allowed RVs to stay for two days at the back of the parking lot whether you visited the museum or not, and it had some rave reviews. The place is quite large with several huge structures that house historical air and space craft such as Howard Hughes’ famous ‘Spruce Goose’. They also have a variety of aircraft on display around the perimeter of the parking lot that you can browse through as well as a path in a grassy area in the back where you can talk a walk to get a little exercise, it’s a really nice area. The entrance fee for the museum was about $30, which seems like a fair price, but I really had little interest in much of what was there, plus I was tired and I needed a shower, so I didn’t go in, but I did manage to get a glimpse of the ‘Spruce Goose’ it was taking up most of the inside of one of the buildings. I have to give the owners credit, it’s a very nice place, and I appreciate that they allow RVs to camp on their property...
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| pic from the internet... |
The BLM campsite south of Bend was a forested area with lots of space for camping of all size vehicles. The ground squirrels ruled the area they were everywhere and so much fun to watch. I only captured a few pictures of them, they would immediately scatter, if they saw that I had something in my hands, even if it was just a camera. I suspect they get shot at a lot...
There were also quite a few birds in the area. Some of their songs I recognized, some I did not, but it was nice to know they were there and to hear their songs and chatter especially in the morning...
I gathered firewood and dug a fire pit, I had a campfire most every night and most mornings too. At night I would put on music and position the speakers aiming out the side doors of the van so I could sit by the fire and listen to some restful music. The first night I popped a couple of medium potatoes into the bed of coals under the fire, no aluminum foil, I just dig out a little trench, pushed them into the coals, and covered them completely with more coals. About 40 minutes later I pulled them out, wiped away any ash and coals, topped them with butter and salt, and that ended up being my supper for the night. The skins didn’t burn, there was only one small spot on each potato about the size of a quarter that was burnt, otherwise it was golden brown and very tasty...
One morning after the wood had mostly burned down to just coals, I grabbed my wok and set it directly on the hot coals to cook breakfast. I added oil, sliced mushrooms, green onions, sautéed them lightly, then I dropped in two eggs and fried them up. It turned out really well and everything was delicious, you know food always tastes better when cooked on an open fire...
I’ve made a lot of campfires in my time, but one thing I learned during this experience was how easily fire can spread. I dug a large diameter fire pit and it was also about 16 to 18 inches deep. I piled the earth I removed from the pit up around the perimeter. The fire was a good 6 to 8 inches from the pit walls, but the ground in this area contained so much humus that even the earth would start to smolder and burn around the sides of the fire. I kept a constant vigil whenever I had a fire and I would snuff any smoldering areas in the pit, but sometimes the fire had traveled back several inches into the earth it was really kind of amazing how this rich and fertile ground would actually burn. The day I left I spread out any of the coals that were left, poured several gallons of gray water over them and then covered it back up with the soil from around the perimeter...
A short video of the campsite...
And I couldn't resist taking a short video of the campfire...
A lot of the pictures I took while I was here were of trees, stumps, and other things that I found interesting, but probably not too interesting for other to look at, but here some of the pics…
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