Date: Thu, 19 May 94 10:21:49 PDT
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: macklow@sybase.com (Jim Macklow)
Subject: Re: my western trip
<I thought about just emailing to Scott, but am hoping that maybe others
would share their camping stories...>
Scott,
One place you might want to hit is Thermopolis, WY. Lots of hot springs.
The best part is that when the Indians sold the rights to develop the
hotsprings to The White Man, they put in a stipulation that part of
the springs must be maintained so that anyone could use them for no
fee.
As a result, you can drive up to the _free_ hotsprings, which is next to
the ones with water$lide$ and other high-cost amenities, and soak in
the pool containing the healing waters at no cost. You'll be sharing the
pool with other cost-conscious customers, mainly the elderly. Bring
your bathing suit. Also, be forwarned that you can't use soap or shampoo
in the showers at the free hotspring, since they put the rinse water
right into the creek without treatment. If you want to get clean, you'll
have to go somewhere else. However, the non-soap shower and hotspring
treatment worked just fine for me and my girlfriend.
Bathing on the road with no money:
Here's how we took showers on our road trips (usually about 10 days long,
4-5000 miles). We didn't have a tent, and were traveling in my '81 Diesel
Jetta. We slept in the back seat, although some nights we split up and one
would sleep in front, and the other in back. However, in March the Badlands
were cold enough to make us cuddle up together in the rear...
Anyway, back to showers. Most of the Rocky Mountain states have _hot_ water
in their rest areas. We would usually stop at the rest area an hour or
so before sunset, and pull the Smokey Joe from the trunk, light it up, and
begin to cook dinner. By the time dinner was eaten, it would be dark, and
the rest area deserted. Then we'd grab towel, soap, shampoo, and washcloth,
go into the bathroom, and take a nice sponge bath. We brought our own plug
to cover the sink drain, which really helps. Some of the rest areas even
have those hot-air dryers, which was a nice touch. The best rest areas were
in Idaho, although Wyoming's were pretty nice, too.
Another cheap shower is at truck stops. A lot of the ones we stopped at
would only let you have a free shower if you bought 100 gal of diesel,
which wouldn't quite fit into the Jetta, so we often resorted to rest
areas. One particularly nice truck stop was in Rapid City, SD. Not only
was the shower free, but they also gave us towels, and let us use the
women's shower together!
I bet there are other frugal lurkers who have other solutions.
My vote for the nicest campground would be at Mesa Verde in Colorado.
Send email for more opinions.
-Jim
macklow@sybase.com
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