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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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