October 9, 2023 • 31 mins
RVing from DEVIL'S TOWER KOA in Wyoming: Oh my gosh, it's RIGHT THERE!!! Sherri & Russ share the challenge of getting the work done... while discovering the mystery, adventure and fun of a truly iconic location.
(Enjoy more episodes of RV Work Life Balance –> here! <– or on your favorite podcast app!)
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- 10-09-2023 - EPISODE 6 - (00:31:53)
- Title: Nomadic Work & Adventure at Devil's Tower
“Well, it ain’t no Albertson’s…”
(And yet, somehow, we survived an epic fail at Devil’s Tower! 😳)
In episode 6 of the RV Work Life Balance PODCAST, Sherri & Russ work to achieve RV Work Life Balance in a particularly distracting location...
Living full time on the road doesn’t mean we’ve compromised on our work OR the fun of exploration. With the KOA Journey at the foot of the iconic Devil’s Tower National Monument as our home base for 10 days, we found the balance between nomadic work and the bucket list adventure of a lifetime.
With the awe-inspiring sight of Devil’s Tower greeting us every morning -- RIGHT THERE!!! -- we got the work done, and still found time for incredible Sunset Adventures: hiking the Devil's Tower trails; off-roading to unexpected views; exploring the local area (finding food & provisions to survive!); enjoying events at the campground; and fully embracing this extraordinary lifestyle as temporary residents, instead of just passing through.
We’ll admit to an epic fail and a most surprising realization: How two years full time on the road has undeniably resulted in a healthier lifestyle – as long as we take care of ourselves, and each other. Click to listen and we’ll reveal all our secrets!
Join us on our Nomadic Work Adventure in this episode!
Our mission is to share what we learn about RV Work Life Balance and introduce you to new opportunities, people, places, and ideas to spark your interest and imagination…
Let’s hit the road together for this unique journey!
- - - - - HIGHLIGHTS - - - - -
- (00:00:45) - Devil’s Tower KOA, Wyoming
- (00:01:43) - RV Bucket List Destination!
- (00:02:47) - Close Encounters - The Movie & MORE
- (00:03:20) - SECRETS of Devil’s Tower 👽✨…
- (00:10:57) - Balancing Nomadic Work & Adventure
- (00:22:14) - Embracing a Healthier Lifestyle
- (00:29:04) - Wrap Up: RV Work Life Balance
- (00:30:25) - P.S. SUBSCRIBE! 😘
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→ Be sure to LIKE - SHARE - Follow & Subscribe - on your favorite podcast platform! Thank you! 😉
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FEATURED LINKS & RESOURCES:- Better RV Cooking: Griddle Me This, Batman! (Article)
- RV Road Trip: How We Survived Our First Epic 21-Day Adventure (NIRVC.com)
- GyPSy Guide: For your next road trip or national park adventure (Article)
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SPONSORS & AFFILIATESSome of the links below are affiliate links, which means we will earn a commission on the products or services you purchase using the links. There is no additional cost to you and the earnings help keep this program running. Thank You!!! Read our Affiliate Disclaimer for more information.
>> FEATURED FOR NOMADIC WORK:Product Links:
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind - If you've never experienced Close Encounters, or if it's been a while, you're missing out! Before you
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, you've reached the Caldwells.
Please leave a message and we will get back with you to Sisu.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to the RV Work Life Balance podcast with your traveling nomadic hosts, Sherri and Russ Caldwell.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey, that's us.
We're living the dream, working from home.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
baby no matter where home is.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And you can too.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey, thanks for joining us again on this wild RV adventure.
Woohoo, woohoo.
I'm just going to start with cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Cheers, everybody Cheers.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
All right, so where are we today?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Today we are at the KOA Journey at Devil's Tower in Wyoming.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Devil's Tower.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It's the Devil's Tower.
Black Hills, koa, journey.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's nice.
Yeah, it's extremely nice.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
You know, and we're literally at the foot of Devil's Tower, and it wasn't until we watched we've seen it twice now while we're here the movie the Ghost Encounters of the Third Kind to realize that where the Army base that was set up, that is the KOA, which is so cool.
(01:27):
It's just amazing.
And we're here for how long.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
We are here for 10 days baby.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
It's just so incredible to be waking up every day here at this place.
Like you, open the blinds and look out and there it is.
It's just stunning.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And it's an incredible view.
Yeah, it's right there, right there, it's incredible.
Now, this has been on your bucket list, russ, for a long time.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, I complained about it on a previous podcast where we had gone out in our first season and we were hitting a lot of places and in fact it was on our inaugural vision.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, so we didn't have a toad.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That's right.
We didn't have a car toad in our very first time and that's nerve-wracking if something goes wrong, but normally you'd park the rig somewhere and then take your toad somewhere, and we didn't have that at the time and so we pulled off at an exit that said this way to Devil's Tower.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And we were brand new to everything we were.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
And I'd never been there before and it was like oh, I'm so excited to go there.
And that was two or three years ago.
And here we are and it has not disappointed at all.
It is delivered in every dimension.
It's been amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
So it's working out for you.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
It's OK.
It's just OK.
Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Is it everything you'd hoped for?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, and then when we got here, they play close encounters every single night at the club.
Yeah, it's a campground and they play it on a screen where the tower is behind the screen.
So you're sitting there watching the movie with the tower in the background.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
It's just really cool and a little meadow behind the camp store and the cafe and I couldn't get enough.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
And we watched it again.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
What is it?
Two times Last night?
Yeah, last night.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So it's a lot of fun because you're actually in the movie at that point, because where some of the movie takes place is right here where the campground is now.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So cool, it's been great.
What else do you like?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
So because it's so beautiful here, it has been fun.
I'm not really a huge hiker kind of thing.
I like to say I'm a hiker, but when it gets down to it I'm not really a big hiker.
But we go out in the hikings.
Really cool here because there's like two levels, there's like my level and then there's like more advanced, and there's not even neither one of us complicated.
But what's cool is there's the plain hiking thing which they should just say walk.
(03:51):
It's not even a hike.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, around the tower.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
It's the fact that it's paved With benches and little signs that tell you about stuff.
But you go all the way around the tower, which is so cool, yeah, and you get to see the the boulder fields and you watch people climbing on the mountains and that was our first time up there.
And then we actually found a really cool way to get great shots of the tower Right.
(04:20):
There was a dirt road that we just caught.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Right, one of those hidden surprises.
Yeah yeah, it was the, the unpaved road to the Joyner Ridge Trailhead, which is on the left side while you're going to tower and it's very nondescript.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, there's a little sign there, yeah, and most people wouldn't go there, but we're saying go there.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It looks like a single lane dirt road, yep.
So make sure you're prepared, but you get the best photography from there.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
The best views.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
It was beautiful and there's a there's a camp or something up there, the lodge, the lodge.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's kind of cool, but go there if you want some fantastic shots.
The tower looks great everywhere, but the shots that look amazing are up that dirt road, looking backwards.
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, there's two dead end little roads up there, one to that lodge and one to that just ends in a chain.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, a little spooky, but yeah, great shots.
Definitely worth going up to that.
Take that turn, it's worth it.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, and so we've been able to explore and have a great time, and there's been some other Activities and things.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, that was yeah, the part we didn't know about Was until we talked to our next-door neighbors that are here.
We've actually had a lot of neighbors, because we're here for 10 days.
Everyone here is like one or two days.
But our current neighbors told us about the car show that was here on the weekend, yeah, which is so cool.
So we wandered over to the car show today in this.
Classic car show is really cool, so we didn't have to go far.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
It was nice.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And then the other thing that's really cool is the night sky here is amazing, and when you have the tower and the night sky.
It is amazing, so seeing the stars yeah, they have special.
You said they have special Events to teach you how to do star photography.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And yeah, actually we were gonna go up after dark tonight.
They do have astrophotography classes Up at the campground with the view, and then they have telescopes set up.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Well, that work with my iPhone, because I don't really have a real camera.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I don't know you'll have to give it a shot.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Okay, we'll see if I can do that.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Ah, so anyway, Devil's Tower, if you all don't know, was the very first designated national monument in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt using the Antiquities Act.
So Before that, long before that, devil's Tower, it was known as Bears Lodge and many versions of that.
(07:03):
But it has been a sacred place for thousands of years for Native Americans and they still, to this day, celebrate in this area.
They have, you know, myths and ceremonies and when you go up and walk through and around the tower, around the tower you don't really walk through it, but when you walk around the tower there's these Rags and fabric and bundles and things tied into the trees and it turns out they're prayer bundles and, like I said, it's a sacred space and there's signs explaining the prayer bundles.
(07:46):
They're all over the place and you don't touch them.
You're not supposed to photograph them either.
I Did not.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
And you know what's?
What's really interesting is, it's how different this is to say, the last park we just visited, and actually that was a National park.
This is a national monument right, and that's a difference.
Yeah, and that makes it and wasn't Yellowstone the first national park?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
it was, and this is the first.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
National monument.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, very yeah and they are different, different classifications.
So that explains why the Devil's Tower Monument in the surrounding area it's actually very small it is there's one entrance in and out, very limited parking and and I discovered this, usually that's not an issue because we tend to go later in the afternoons and in the evenings Are our Sunset Adventures.
(08:45):
Yeah and all that, but I went up during the day for a ranger program about the history.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
They didn't have a trolley for her to hit this time, so it was the ranger program this time.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I went to the nature ranger program 130 in the afternoon so Went up and it was interesting because there was traffic and a long line and a wait to get up to that parking area.
It's very busy between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm and you know we're not really morning people, so we are for work, we're not really for.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Oh right, right.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, because we get up during the week so early.
But yeah, 130 in the afternoon it's very hot, it was crowded.
There's lots of people and kids, which is great.
Interesting too, there's no, although there is some good hiking up on Devil's Tower, there are no dogs allowed, which is a good thing, because the path is skinny and lots going on up there.
(09:52):
So when I came back out there was a long line at the exit, because this is one of the Unusual places where you pay as you exit.
So None of that was a problem.
We can go in and out as many times as we want, it's?
I mean?
The entrance to the National Park is just right there.
We could walk and we have the America, the beautiful pass, which is the National Park's pass.
(10:21):
So we just go in and out as often as we want.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah, so and it is amazing that you're right the, the KOA we're at is literally right at the gate, like that is where it's at, and so when we watch the movie, we're like that's the gate.
Oh my goodness, they're standing there with helicopters.
That's where our camper is right now.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
So, yeah, it's really cool, yeah, so yeah, movie was 1977, so we were trying to do the math last night.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
You know you gotta rub your mouth of your mouth or your hand of your mouth.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
That many days.
You know that many years, a long time.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
But the movie's held up and it's an exciting thing.
And to the fact that they play the movie every night, meaning people want to see that because classic it's really cool, especially when you're right every day you walk out, you look at it like, wow, we're still here waiting for the aliens.
Yeah, so.
So this is a good setup where we're at Thank you for for tea in that up, but yeah what's the?
(11:19):
Topic for today.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Well, it kind of brings up one of those frequently asked questions of how you balance full-time work and Play at a place like this.
Oh, is there's so much to do?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, that is the difficult thing, because it's hard to not get excited when it run out of the RV every day and go do something.
But what's cool is part of the thing we do is we're here.
It's almost like a curse and an advantage where, because we're working, we have to stay for a certain amount of time.
So we see a lot of rigs come and go.
(11:56):
People come in for one night, one day they go do other stuff and then they leave.
We're here for at least a week typically and this time you've got to set up.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Good job on that, you've got to set up for 10 days.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
And so it's great.
So the secret is this work and balancing work in life is nice because we can do the work and if the weather is not great we had one night where it was rainy, that's OK.
We got to do work that night and the next day was gorgeous so we're able to balance it that way where it doesn't feel like we have to pack in everything into one day.
We're actually enjoying the whole experience.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
As you said, we're living here, not just visiting.
We don't have to pack it all in.
It was funny when we met the neighbors next door and that's unusual.
They're actually staying for a few days as well all week, and usually where we are it's people coming in and going out the next day.
But we went over and met them.
(12:51):
They have this adorable puppy.
So we were talking to them and we said, oh yeah, we work from the rig and we don't come out much during the day.
And they said, oh yeah, those people next to us, they don't come out at all.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And we went wait, that's us.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
We're those people, we just came walking up from the other direction.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
So they didn't realize we were those people.
So it was funny and we had to explain our situation, that we work.
But yeah, and you're right, that was the part that hit me Like I remember it was the second or third day when I said we're actually living here, not visiting, and when you're here for a long enough time, people come and go, but we're still here every day and it feels like this is your yard and this is your view and everything, because you become the stable vehicle here.
(13:41):
And then a week, later.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
But we're living here and we still have to take care of laundry on the weekend, because I can't do it when you're working and we talked about that and you know cleanup and your regular workday things.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Well, everybody else is here on vacation, so they're out cooking shmores and doing the things we don't have to fire every night and all that kind of stuff, because we're living here and we are not complaining.
No, no, no.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
At all.
This is cool.
We could be downtown Seattle.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
maybe it's a neat experience that when you live next to Devil's Tower or near Yellowstone or something it's just finally sometimes hits me like why is this feel different than what I think everyone else is having going on around them?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
So it's been really cool.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
What's another way that we balance all of this work and oh, there's so many, but I guess it would really get down to a flexible schedule, right Would?
it be where we have the morning work and the kind of calls and the Zoom stuff we have to do.
We do a really good job of breaking up lunch.
Lunch is kind of a key thing.
One of us ends up making lunch depending on what we're doing.
(14:53):
If my schedule is light, I like to make lunch anyways and I get creative.
Let's just say with what's in the fridge.
And then we sit in our cafe and enjoy that.
If we can get out, that's really good.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I'm like a dog.
You got to take me out occasionally, get a short walk at lunchtime.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
And then you've mentioned it many times the sunset adventures is a big thing for being flexible, of like, hey, this is the night we're going to go do this.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, we start early in the day so that generally we can end in the late afternoon and have time to go enjoy a sunset adventure and then, yeah, enjoying the night sky as well, because, as I said, we're not really morning people.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
All about the sunset versus the sunrise, yeah, and the sunset in the last few days, we're planning for that to be one of these things.
The night sky is the sunset adventure, right yeah, tonight, trying to take cool shots of the stars with Devil's Tower is just one of my goals.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
And I've taken, and the aliens, oh Moe, if we can get an alien, that'd be awesome, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
So what else do we do to kind of make this work?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well, I think a big factor in our balance is most of the time we cook at home versus dining out.
I mean, yeah, there are times when we are in a place where we go out quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, it depends on the location.
You're right.
We've mentioned this before too.
We think we actually cook pretty good.
We do.
It's really difficult, we go out and occasionally we're like man, we could have done better than that.
But you're right, when we were in Vegas it was some great meals in Vegas and that was fun.
Lots going on when we were with family in Walla Walla.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
In Washington, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Got some great chefs in the family, so great meals there and then going out as fun as well, so that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So my brother's an awesome chef, so love to have him cook, as opposed to us cook Thanks, Scott and when we're out at events with the FMCA or the AIM club.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
We're doing both next week.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah.
We've mentioned that a lot.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yeah, camping with the AIM club at the FMCA convention.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I always think it's funny when we say camping yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Well, it's not really camping.
It's like Living Living next door when they're providing awesome food and entertainment and you're in your rig.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
It's like You're up a level in a big caravan.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
It's a big group.
It's so fun.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, it really is yeah, and then occasionally we get to actually connect up with friends, depending on where we are in the country, and so we've had, you know, met up with friends in Arizona, our good friends Jason and Dylan, from our not so perfect life.
They have a great YouTube channel, so they've reached out to us a couple of times when we happened to be near them and we've had dinner a couple of times, two times, yeah, and then over.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Here it was.
We were in Williams and met them, and no, they came up to Williams, the Roadkill Cafe on Road 66.
That's right, oh right, right, seligman, yeah, which is the town?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Seligman is the town that was the basis for the Pixar movie Cars, and so there's a lot of Cars memorabilia.
It's a cute little town with like one stoplight, but it's got a restaurant called Roadkill Cafe.
Yeah, it's pretty famous apparently.
We went there at least twice.
It was so fun, fun place.
(18:22):
And Jason and Dylan came with their son and we had a great time there.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah.
And then this last time we came through Arizona in the midst of our breakdown adventure, we met up with them in Jerome, arizona.
That's a neat town.
Oh, that's a ghost town.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah, it's a town hanging on the side of a mountain.
Yeah, an old mining town, and there was a ghost burgers place or something.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Haunted hamburgers.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Haunted hamburgers.
It took us two and it was really good, really good.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
So much fun yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
And so like that's the kind of stuff we do when we meet up with friends.
They take us great places or we take them out or whatever.
But it's always fun, but what else?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well, normally, normally in our schedule, we are cooking at home versus dining out, and it works out really well, because it gives us time to do everything and balance, and we're not spending money, we're not waiting in line, we're not waiting for service, all that, but that does bring us to provisions and preparation, and like cooking in versus dining out.
(19:36):
Well, I'd have to admit that this experience here for 10 days at Devil's Tower in Wyoming, it's been a total fail on my part, that I was not really prepared, we didn't have any food, and then when we got here, it's like the closest Walmart is 45 miles either direction, which is more than an hour.
(19:59):
Not that I love shopping at Walmart, but if there's no Walmart, there's not going to be anything else either, however, and what we have here is the campground cafe, hamburgers and hot dogs Right.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And I got to give you credit though, because it feels like this is the first fail, and even the fail isn't bad.
We always have.
We always jokingly say we always get soup in the things we do have soup.
We don't starve or anything, and we always have tons of coffee and cream, so we would survive on coffee.
No worries there.
But the fail wasn't too bad.
But it was strange because normally we're near something.
(20:38):
If you're coming to Devil's Tower, bring provisions.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
But I did ask at the office about a grocery store and the lady tells me about.
Well, there's a corner market in Hewlett, which is about 15 minutes up the road.
It ain't no Albertsons, so we're like great.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
So we did go up there.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
We did and it was a.
So when the bar is set with it, ain't no Albertsons, we're like oh no, this is like basically a gas station with like some candy and stuff in it.
But it was a surprise because it was a cute little store and had great choices For every area.
It had good choices of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Great food.
Yeah, they've leveled up for their clientele, I guess in this area visitors.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
We had fantastic steak choices, hamburger choices.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Fresh fruit and veg.
Yeah, well, veg.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
We didn't get too much fruit.
There was fruit we didn't get, but it was.
Everything was in top notch shape.
It was a small little shop, but it was good stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
We were able to find enough to survive on for 10 days.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Both kind of shocked and surprised and so happy leaving there, because we thought we were going to just get some leftover dry goods that we're going to have to put water in and mix it into a gruel, some deep frozen hot dogs.
But no, it was good stuff, because the alternative is they have a little store here where you can get some hot dogs and a hamburger and that's about it.
(22:11):
So we did great at that little store though.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, and we just find when we're cooking at home or grilling out on the Blackstone it's a healthier lifestyle and it saves time for exploring.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, and that's a big thing for us because, like one we do, like the food we make, we do a great job on that.
But it does provide more time because we're basically going to just close up shop here and just head out to something if we want to like hiking or exploring or just walking around the campground sometimes.
So that's really nice.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And we've said before how important it is to get out and walk, hike, do something.
In fact, we came from Cody Wyoming with some back issues.
Russell's worried me this week a bit.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yeah, I didn't take good care of my back recently, but it was partly because there was a lot of work going on and I couldn't get out as much.
But the bigger problem was the last park we were at in Cody didn't have a great walking area.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Usually we're in a very big park and you can just walk for miles, even if you're going back and forth.
But this one was not.
It was near a busy freeway, so you didn't want to go near that, so that caused me to not spend a lot of time walking.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Even when we went up to Yellowstone on the Sunday, which was our anniversary, we didn't really have a chance to get out and walk or hike too much because it was really quite rainy and wet, so it ended up being more of a driving tour with Gypsy Guide or the Guide Along app that we've talked about before, and we'll put the link in the show notes, right.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So we just didn't have a lot of chances to walk around in while we were in Cody Exactly.
Plus we had the big dinner and the rodeo.
It was fun exploring.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Cody, but it wasn't hiking.
We sat for dinner, we sat for rodeo.
We weren't walking, but it was amazing, but it didn't help my back.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Followed by a six hour travel day on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, ok, that was an awesome trip.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I don't think we even plan to talk about this, but the travel day for six hours.
Six hours is six hours, but when it's six hours, over what was it?
10,000 feet, we went up to 9,665 feet, yeah.
So we had to go up.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
I don't remember the name of the pass Cloud Peak Skyway.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
That's why you're so good at this.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
From Cody Wyoming to Buffalo Wyoming yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
That was Pucker Factor.
10 on the drive.
An adventure, so that six hours was a little more exhausting because the focus was.
It was difficult on the way up because it was lots of straight up with the rig and being behind slow people, which is difficult.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
You talk and then you get to the top.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
You get to the top and then there was huge road construction where they stopped us and had one lane and it was all dirt.
They had edged up all the road.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Like a mile or two on an unpaved highway.
Yeah, so we're at the top of the mountain.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
There's no road and then you have to go down and it was high grade and that was difficult.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
It was a trip.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
It was interesting, yeah.
So by the time we got to the end of it, I was like OK, that was difficult.
The second time is probably not as bad, because we didn't know what we were going to do.
Every corner was super tight and it was like watch out for this and watch out for this.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
So it was beautiful, though, and it was a good day.
Luckily, I've never seen so many dangerous curves ahead in this and that, yeah, but yeah, we don't have to go back that way.
We're just going back on on 90 to Gillette.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
But when we got here it was cool because there is good hiking here.
One the campground's big, so it's lots of room to walking.
But then we were able to do.
We've mentioned one of the hikes we did.
The easy one around the tower is like a mile, mile and a half paved.
It's really easy, beautiful.
If you just do that one you'll be stunned and you'll have great photos.
It's awesome.
But then we decided to go back and my wife loves to level up, so it took us to the Red Beds Trail, which is double that it was like three miles.
(26:27):
So it's even further out and worse than that.
It's all just a dirt path and you have to wander through rocks and grass and I kept expecting snakes, but we didn't have any snakes.
That was good, no snakes, and it was good.
And we made it and there was a lot of elevation.
So when you do the top one you just stay at the same elevation.
It's not too hard.
You do the Red Beds for three miles.
(26:48):
It goes way down to the bottom, all the way down to the road in fact, and then all the way back up.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
So you get a lot more work out.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
No, to the top, but to the visitor's center area.
It was good, it was real good yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
We could level up and go climb the tower, that's not climbing.
That's like serious rock.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
We were watching people climb that thing, rebelling and all that stuff.
It's scary looking.
I don't know how they did.
And then, while we were here, we read the article that some six-year-old girl just did it.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I'm like now, I feel really bad.
I'm like, how is?
Everyone on the planet able to climb this thing, I can't even look up at it.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
That three-mile hike was good, there's some talented people climbing these things, so it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
And it does look cool.
I do Not for me, yeah, you have to have the equipment for that type of technical climb.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah, like a helicopter, there you go, that'll work.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Uh, it is interesting that our lifestyle is so much healthier, and we've heard this from other people.
Well, for example, when we started this journey three years ago, two years ago, full time I was on two prescription medications.
Now, zero prescription medication.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Which is good, because you said we're not near at Walmart, so that's good.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
No, or CVS.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Or CVS.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
And that was approved by my doctor at the medical exams in June.
So, no back problems until recently when we got a little lazy Cody.
Yeah, and you're right, and we've heard that from other people.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
when we started and it didn't click until it happened to us.
People said I used to be on all these medications and your stress level is different how you eat and what you do changes everything about it, and we are seeing the same thing, which is really incredible.
So we can confirm from our side we are seeing that same thing, although we realize when we get lazy like when I get lazy and I don't do the walk my back definitely reminds me you need to keep walking.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And, of course, you would always check with your doctor before discontinuing any medication we are not telling you to change anything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
So if we're trying to wrap up this episode, because it's a really cool place we're at I could talk for hours about Devil's Tower, but the three things that kind of pull it together for work-life balance, I guess I would put them into these kind of categories.
Number one, flexibility and embracing all things about being flexible, and we've talked about some of those things Get the work done.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Make little escapes during the day, it's okay, just get the work done, right.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, because especially here it's hard when you look out the window at the amazing, I'm like I want to go out and play.
So you got to work that in and in fact we kind of sometimes, if you pointed this out, I'll have schedule that's really busy.
In the morning, we'll have a relaxing lunch, we'll walk out that's being flexible and then I'll do some more after that.
So, whatever works for you and your schedule.
(29:50):
The second thing is gonna be like eating healthy, and we have mentioned before dining at home.
For us, we feel healthier, we love the food we make.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
And doing your proper planning and provisioning for that.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah, make sure you've got what you need, as we've learned here.
And then the last thing is kind of related to what we're just talking about.
Right, the exercise, anything dealing with any kind of concerns of your medical issues, and for us that turns out to be walking, hiking, and you do a lot of working out in the rig, but I just do the walking and the hiking.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
My small space workouts yeah.
So our goal with the RV Work Life Podcast is to share what we're learning about living, working and traveling full time and finding that balance.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, and we really wanna thank everyone that's been listening to the podcast.
If you've enjoyed this and you are interested in more about it, please check out the show notes, where we've included any kind of links related to where we're at or the products.
And if you're new here, please take us, please subscribe, and whatever podcast app you listen to us on, subscribe there.
We wanna make sure that we get a chance to share with what we're doing and we definitely wanna hear from you.
(31:02):
So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
And to our existing subscribers we love you guys.
Thank you so much for following our journey and being along the on the road with us.
And yeah, like Russ was saying, please be in touch.
We'll put it in the show notes.
A great way to be in touch is through email or on the Facebook page.
(31:24):
And well, I guess the most important thing is make your escape and get out here.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yeah, so are you ready?
Speaker 1 (31:35):
I'm ready, let's go, let's get out there.
Bye, bye.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Thanks everyone, thanks everyone.
Hi, you've reached the Caldwells.
Please leave a message and we will get back with you to Sisu.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to the RV Work Life Balance podcast with your traveling nomadic hosts, Sherri and Russ Caldwell.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey, that's us.
We're living the dream, working from home.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
baby no matter where home is.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And you can too.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey, thanks for joining us again on this wild RV adventure.
Woohoo, woohoo.
I'm just going to start with cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Cheers, everybody Cheers.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
All right, so where are we today?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Today we are at the KOA Journey at Devil's Tower in Wyoming.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Devil's Tower.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It's the Devil's Tower.
Black Hills, koa, journey.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's nice.
Yeah, it's extremely nice.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
You know, and we're literally at the foot of Devil's Tower, and it wasn't until we watched we've seen it twice now while we're here the movie the Ghost Encounters of the Third Kind to realize that where the Army base that was set up, that is the KOA, which is so cool.
(01:27):
It's just amazing.
And we're here for how long.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
We are here for 10 days baby.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
It's just so incredible to be waking up every day here at this place.
Like you, open the blinds and look out and there it is.
It's just stunning.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And it's an incredible view.
Yeah, it's right there, right there, it's incredible.
Now, this has been on your bucket list, russ, for a long time.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, I complained about it on a previous podcast where we had gone out in our first season and we were hitting a lot of places and in fact it was on our inaugural vision.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, so we didn't have a toad.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That's right.
We didn't have a car toad in our very first time and that's nerve-wracking if something goes wrong, but normally you'd park the rig somewhere and then take your toad somewhere, and we didn't have that at the time and so we pulled off at an exit that said this way to Devil's Tower.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And we were brand new to everything we were.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
And I'd never been there before and it was like oh, I'm so excited to go there.
And that was two or three years ago.
And here we are and it has not disappointed at all.
It is delivered in every dimension.
It's been amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
So it's working out for you.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
It's OK.
It's just OK.
Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Is it everything you'd hoped for?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, and then when we got here, they play close encounters every single night at the club.
Yeah, it's a campground and they play it on a screen where the tower is behind the screen.
So you're sitting there watching the movie with the tower in the background.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
It's just really cool and a little meadow behind the camp store and the cafe and I couldn't get enough.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
And we watched it again.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
What is it?
Two times Last night?
Yeah, last night.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So it's a lot of fun because you're actually in the movie at that point, because where some of the movie takes place is right here where the campground is now.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So cool, it's been great.
What else do you like?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
So because it's so beautiful here, it has been fun.
I'm not really a huge hiker kind of thing.
I like to say I'm a hiker, but when it gets down to it I'm not really a big hiker.
But we go out in the hikings.
Really cool here because there's like two levels, there's like my level and then there's like more advanced, and there's not even neither one of us complicated.
But what's cool is there's the plain hiking thing which they should just say walk.
(03:51):
It's not even a hike.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, around the tower.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
It's the fact that it's paved With benches and little signs that tell you about stuff.
But you go all the way around the tower, which is so cool, yeah, and you get to see the the boulder fields and you watch people climbing on the mountains and that was our first time up there.
And then we actually found a really cool way to get great shots of the tower Right.
(04:20):
There was a dirt road that we just caught.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Right, one of those hidden surprises.
Yeah yeah, it was the, the unpaved road to the Joyner Ridge Trailhead, which is on the left side while you're going to tower and it's very nondescript.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, there's a little sign there, yeah, and most people wouldn't go there, but we're saying go there.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It looks like a single lane dirt road, yep.
So make sure you're prepared, but you get the best photography from there.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
The best views.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
It was beautiful and there's a there's a camp or something up there, the lodge, the lodge.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's kind of cool, but go there if you want some fantastic shots.
The tower looks great everywhere, but the shots that look amazing are up that dirt road, looking backwards.
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, there's two dead end little roads up there, one to that lodge and one to that just ends in a chain.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, a little spooky, but yeah, great shots.
Definitely worth going up to that.
Take that turn, it's worth it.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, and so we've been able to explore and have a great time, and there's been some other Activities and things.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, that was yeah, the part we didn't know about Was until we talked to our next-door neighbors that are here.
We've actually had a lot of neighbors, because we're here for 10 days.
Everyone here is like one or two days.
But our current neighbors told us about the car show that was here on the weekend, yeah, which is so cool.
So we wandered over to the car show today in this.
Classic car show is really cool, so we didn't have to go far.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
It was nice.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And then the other thing that's really cool is the night sky here is amazing, and when you have the tower and the night sky.
It is amazing, so seeing the stars yeah, they have special.
You said they have special Events to teach you how to do star photography.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And yeah, actually we were gonna go up after dark tonight.
They do have astrophotography classes Up at the campground with the view, and then they have telescopes set up.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Well, that work with my iPhone, because I don't really have a real camera.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I don't know you'll have to give it a shot.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Okay, we'll see if I can do that.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Ah, so anyway, Devil's Tower, if you all don't know, was the very first designated national monument in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt using the Antiquities Act.
So Before that, long before that, devil's Tower, it was known as Bears Lodge and many versions of that.
(07:03):
But it has been a sacred place for thousands of years for Native Americans and they still, to this day, celebrate in this area.
They have, you know, myths and ceremonies and when you go up and walk through and around the tower, around the tower you don't really walk through it, but when you walk around the tower there's these Rags and fabric and bundles and things tied into the trees and it turns out they're prayer bundles and, like I said, it's a sacred space and there's signs explaining the prayer bundles.
(07:46):
They're all over the place and you don't touch them.
You're not supposed to photograph them either.
I Did not.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
And you know what's?
What's really interesting is, it's how different this is to say, the last park we just visited, and actually that was a National park.
This is a national monument right, and that's a difference.
Yeah, and that makes it and wasn't Yellowstone the first national park?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
it was, and this is the first.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
National monument.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, very yeah and they are different, different classifications.
So that explains why the Devil's Tower Monument in the surrounding area it's actually very small it is there's one entrance in and out, very limited parking and and I discovered this, usually that's not an issue because we tend to go later in the afternoons and in the evenings Are our Sunset Adventures.
(08:45):
Yeah and all that, but I went up during the day for a ranger program about the history.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
They didn't have a trolley for her to hit this time, so it was the ranger program this time.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I went to the nature ranger program 130 in the afternoon so Went up and it was interesting because there was traffic and a long line and a wait to get up to that parking area.
It's very busy between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm and you know we're not really morning people, so we are for work, we're not really for.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Oh right, right.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, because we get up during the week so early.
But yeah, 130 in the afternoon it's very hot, it was crowded.
There's lots of people and kids, which is great.
Interesting too, there's no, although there is some good hiking up on Devil's Tower, there are no dogs allowed, which is a good thing, because the path is skinny and lots going on up there.
(09:52):
So when I came back out there was a long line at the exit, because this is one of the Unusual places where you pay as you exit.
So None of that was a problem.
We can go in and out as many times as we want, it's?
I mean?
The entrance to the National Park is just right there.
We could walk and we have the America, the beautiful pass, which is the National Park's pass.
(10:21):
So we just go in and out as often as we want.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah, so and it is amazing that you're right the, the KOA we're at is literally right at the gate, like that is where it's at, and so when we watch the movie, we're like that's the gate.
Oh my goodness, they're standing there with helicopters.
That's where our camper is right now.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
So, yeah, it's really cool, yeah, so yeah, movie was 1977, so we were trying to do the math last night.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
You know you gotta rub your mouth of your mouth or your hand of your mouth.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
That many days.
You know that many years, a long time.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
But the movie's held up and it's an exciting thing.
And to the fact that they play the movie every night, meaning people want to see that because classic it's really cool, especially when you're right every day you walk out, you look at it like, wow, we're still here waiting for the aliens.
Yeah, so.
So this is a good setup where we're at Thank you for for tea in that up, but yeah what's the?
(11:19):
Topic for today.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Well, it kind of brings up one of those frequently asked questions of how you balance full-time work and Play at a place like this.
Oh, is there's so much to do?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, that is the difficult thing, because it's hard to not get excited when it run out of the RV every day and go do something.
But what's cool is part of the thing we do is we're here.
It's almost like a curse and an advantage where, because we're working, we have to stay for a certain amount of time.
So we see a lot of rigs come and go.
(11:56):
People come in for one night, one day they go do other stuff and then they leave.
We're here for at least a week typically and this time you've got to set up.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Good job on that, you've got to set up for 10 days.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
And so it's great.
So the secret is this work and balancing work in life is nice because we can do the work and if the weather is not great we had one night where it was rainy, that's OK.
We got to do work that night and the next day was gorgeous so we're able to balance it that way where it doesn't feel like we have to pack in everything into one day.
We're actually enjoying the whole experience.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
As you said, we're living here, not just visiting.
We don't have to pack it all in.
It was funny when we met the neighbors next door and that's unusual.
They're actually staying for a few days as well all week, and usually where we are it's people coming in and going out the next day.
But we went over and met them.
(12:51):
They have this adorable puppy.
So we were talking to them and we said, oh yeah, we work from the rig and we don't come out much during the day.
And they said, oh yeah, those people next to us, they don't come out at all.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And we went wait, that's us.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
We're those people, we just came walking up from the other direction.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
So they didn't realize we were those people.
So it was funny and we had to explain our situation, that we work.
But yeah, and you're right, that was the part that hit me Like I remember it was the second or third day when I said we're actually living here, not visiting, and when you're here for a long enough time, people come and go, but we're still here every day and it feels like this is your yard and this is your view and everything, because you become the stable vehicle here.
(13:41):
And then a week, later.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
But we're living here and we still have to take care of laundry on the weekend, because I can't do it when you're working and we talked about that and you know cleanup and your regular workday things.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Well, everybody else is here on vacation, so they're out cooking shmores and doing the things we don't have to fire every night and all that kind of stuff, because we're living here and we are not complaining.
No, no, no.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
At all.
This is cool.
We could be downtown Seattle.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
maybe it's a neat experience that when you live next to Devil's Tower or near Yellowstone or something it's just finally sometimes hits me like why is this feel different than what I think everyone else is having going on around them?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
So it's been really cool.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
What's another way that we balance all of this work and oh, there's so many, but I guess it would really get down to a flexible schedule, right Would?
it be where we have the morning work and the kind of calls and the Zoom stuff we have to do.
We do a really good job of breaking up lunch.
Lunch is kind of a key thing.
One of us ends up making lunch depending on what we're doing.
(14:53):
If my schedule is light, I like to make lunch anyways and I get creative.
Let's just say with what's in the fridge.
And then we sit in our cafe and enjoy that.
If we can get out, that's really good.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I'm like a dog.
You got to take me out occasionally, get a short walk at lunchtime.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
And then you've mentioned it many times the sunset adventures is a big thing for being flexible, of like, hey, this is the night we're going to go do this.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, we start early in the day so that generally we can end in the late afternoon and have time to go enjoy a sunset adventure and then, yeah, enjoying the night sky as well, because, as I said, we're not really morning people.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
All about the sunset versus the sunrise, yeah, and the sunset in the last few days, we're planning for that to be one of these things.
The night sky is the sunset adventure, right yeah, tonight, trying to take cool shots of the stars with Devil's Tower is just one of my goals.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
And I've taken, and the aliens, oh Moe, if we can get an alien, that'd be awesome, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
So what else do we do to kind of make this work?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well, I think a big factor in our balance is most of the time we cook at home versus dining out.
I mean, yeah, there are times when we are in a place where we go out quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, it depends on the location.
You're right.
We've mentioned this before too.
We think we actually cook pretty good.
We do.
It's really difficult, we go out and occasionally we're like man, we could have done better than that.
But you're right, when we were in Vegas it was some great meals in Vegas and that was fun.
Lots going on when we were with family in Walla Walla.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
In Washington, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Got some great chefs in the family, so great meals there and then going out as fun as well, so that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So my brother's an awesome chef, so love to have him cook, as opposed to us cook Thanks, Scott and when we're out at events with the FMCA or the AIM club.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
We're doing both next week.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah.
We've mentioned that a lot.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yeah, camping with the AIM club at the FMCA convention.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I always think it's funny when we say camping yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Well, it's not really camping.
It's like Living Living next door when they're providing awesome food and entertainment and you're in your rig.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
It's like You're up a level in a big caravan.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
It's a big group.
It's so fun.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, it really is yeah, and then occasionally we get to actually connect up with friends, depending on where we are in the country, and so we've had, you know, met up with friends in Arizona, our good friends Jason and Dylan, from our not so perfect life.
They have a great YouTube channel, so they've reached out to us a couple of times when we happened to be near them and we've had dinner a couple of times, two times, yeah, and then over.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Here it was.
We were in Williams and met them, and no, they came up to Williams, the Roadkill Cafe on Road 66.
That's right, oh right, right, seligman, yeah, which is the town?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Seligman is the town that was the basis for the Pixar movie Cars, and so there's a lot of Cars memorabilia.
It's a cute little town with like one stoplight, but it's got a restaurant called Roadkill Cafe.
Yeah, it's pretty famous apparently.
We went there at least twice.
It was so fun, fun place.
(18:22):
And Jason and Dylan came with their son and we had a great time there.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah.
And then this last time we came through Arizona in the midst of our breakdown adventure, we met up with them in Jerome, arizona.
That's a neat town.
Oh, that's a ghost town.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah, it's a town hanging on the side of a mountain.
Yeah, an old mining town, and there was a ghost burgers place or something.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Haunted hamburgers.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Haunted hamburgers.
It took us two and it was really good, really good.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
So much fun yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
And so like that's the kind of stuff we do when we meet up with friends.
They take us great places or we take them out or whatever.
But it's always fun, but what else?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well, normally, normally in our schedule, we are cooking at home versus dining out, and it works out really well, because it gives us time to do everything and balance, and we're not spending money, we're not waiting in line, we're not waiting for service, all that, but that does bring us to provisions and preparation, and like cooking in versus dining out.
(19:36):
Well, I'd have to admit that this experience here for 10 days at Devil's Tower in Wyoming, it's been a total fail on my part, that I was not really prepared, we didn't have any food, and then when we got here, it's like the closest Walmart is 45 miles either direction, which is more than an hour.
(19:59):
Not that I love shopping at Walmart, but if there's no Walmart, there's not going to be anything else either, however, and what we have here is the campground cafe, hamburgers and hot dogs Right.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And I got to give you credit though, because it feels like this is the first fail, and even the fail isn't bad.
We always have.
We always jokingly say we always get soup in the things we do have soup.
We don't starve or anything, and we always have tons of coffee and cream, so we would survive on coffee.
No worries there.
But the fail wasn't too bad.
But it was strange because normally we're near something.
(20:38):
If you're coming to Devil's Tower, bring provisions.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
But I did ask at the office about a grocery store and the lady tells me about.
Well, there's a corner market in Hewlett, which is about 15 minutes up the road.
It ain't no Albertsons, so we're like great.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
So we did go up there.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
We did and it was a.
So when the bar is set with it, ain't no Albertsons, we're like oh no, this is like basically a gas station with like some candy and stuff in it.
But it was a surprise because it was a cute little store and had great choices For every area.
It had good choices of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Great food.
Yeah, they've leveled up for their clientele, I guess in this area visitors.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
We had fantastic steak choices, hamburger choices.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Fresh fruit and veg.
Yeah, well, veg.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
We didn't get too much fruit.
There was fruit we didn't get, but it was.
Everything was in top notch shape.
It was a small little shop, but it was good stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
We were able to find enough to survive on for 10 days.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Both kind of shocked and surprised and so happy leaving there, because we thought we were going to just get some leftover dry goods that we're going to have to put water in and mix it into a gruel, some deep frozen hot dogs.
But no, it was good stuff, because the alternative is they have a little store here where you can get some hot dogs and a hamburger and that's about it.
(22:11):
So we did great at that little store though.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, and we just find when we're cooking at home or grilling out on the Blackstone it's a healthier lifestyle and it saves time for exploring.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, and that's a big thing for us because, like one we do, like the food we make, we do a great job on that.
But it does provide more time because we're basically going to just close up shop here and just head out to something if we want to like hiking or exploring or just walking around the campground sometimes.
So that's really nice.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And we've said before how important it is to get out and walk, hike, do something.
In fact, we came from Cody Wyoming with some back issues.
Russell's worried me this week a bit.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yeah, I didn't take good care of my back recently, but it was partly because there was a lot of work going on and I couldn't get out as much.
But the bigger problem was the last park we were at in Cody didn't have a great walking area.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Usually we're in a very big park and you can just walk for miles, even if you're going back and forth.
But this one was not.
It was near a busy freeway, so you didn't want to go near that, so that caused me to not spend a lot of time walking.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Even when we went up to Yellowstone on the Sunday, which was our anniversary, we didn't really have a chance to get out and walk or hike too much because it was really quite rainy and wet, so it ended up being more of a driving tour with Gypsy Guide or the Guide Along app that we've talked about before, and we'll put the link in the show notes, right.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So we just didn't have a lot of chances to walk around in while we were in Cody Exactly.
Plus we had the big dinner and the rodeo.
It was fun exploring.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Cody, but it wasn't hiking.
We sat for dinner, we sat for rodeo.
We weren't walking, but it was amazing, but it didn't help my back.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Followed by a six hour travel day on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, ok, that was an awesome trip.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I don't think we even plan to talk about this, but the travel day for six hours.
Six hours is six hours, but when it's six hours, over what was it?
10,000 feet, we went up to 9,665 feet, yeah.
So we had to go up.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
I don't remember the name of the pass Cloud Peak Skyway.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
That's why you're so good at this.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
From Cody Wyoming to Buffalo Wyoming yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
That was Pucker Factor.
10 on the drive.
An adventure, so that six hours was a little more exhausting because the focus was.
It was difficult on the way up because it was lots of straight up with the rig and being behind slow people, which is difficult.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
You talk and then you get to the top.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
You get to the top and then there was huge road construction where they stopped us and had one lane and it was all dirt.
They had edged up all the road.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Like a mile or two on an unpaved highway.
Yeah, so we're at the top of the mountain.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
There's no road and then you have to go down and it was high grade and that was difficult.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
It was a trip.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
It was interesting, yeah.
So by the time we got to the end of it, I was like OK, that was difficult.
The second time is probably not as bad, because we didn't know what we were going to do.
Every corner was super tight and it was like watch out for this and watch out for this.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
So it was beautiful, though, and it was a good day.
Luckily, I've never seen so many dangerous curves ahead in this and that, yeah, but yeah, we don't have to go back that way.
We're just going back on on 90 to Gillette.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
But when we got here it was cool because there is good hiking here.
One the campground's big, so it's lots of room to walking.
But then we were able to do.
We've mentioned one of the hikes we did.
The easy one around the tower is like a mile, mile and a half paved.
It's really easy, beautiful.
If you just do that one you'll be stunned and you'll have great photos.
It's awesome.
But then we decided to go back and my wife loves to level up, so it took us to the Red Beds Trail, which is double that it was like three miles.
(26:27):
So it's even further out and worse than that.
It's all just a dirt path and you have to wander through rocks and grass and I kept expecting snakes, but we didn't have any snakes.
That was good, no snakes, and it was good.
And we made it and there was a lot of elevation.
So when you do the top one you just stay at the same elevation.
It's not too hard.
You do the Red Beds for three miles.
(26:48):
It goes way down to the bottom, all the way down to the road in fact, and then all the way back up.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
So you get a lot more work out.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
No, to the top, but to the visitor's center area.
It was good, it was real good yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
We could level up and go climb the tower, that's not climbing.
That's like serious rock.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
We were watching people climb that thing, rebelling and all that stuff.
It's scary looking.
I don't know how they did.
And then, while we were here, we read the article that some six-year-old girl just did it.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I'm like now, I feel really bad.
I'm like, how is?
Everyone on the planet able to climb this thing, I can't even look up at it.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
That three-mile hike was good, there's some talented people climbing these things, so it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
And it does look cool.
I do Not for me, yeah, you have to have the equipment for that type of technical climb.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah, like a helicopter, there you go, that'll work.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Uh, it is interesting that our lifestyle is so much healthier, and we've heard this from other people.
Well, for example, when we started this journey three years ago, two years ago, full time I was on two prescription medications.
Now, zero prescription medication.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Which is good, because you said we're not near at Walmart, so that's good.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
No, or CVS.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Or CVS.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
And that was approved by my doctor at the medical exams in June.
So, no back problems until recently when we got a little lazy Cody.
Yeah, and you're right, and we've heard that from other people.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
when we started and it didn't click until it happened to us.
People said I used to be on all these medications and your stress level is different how you eat and what you do changes everything about it, and we are seeing the same thing, which is really incredible.
So we can confirm from our side we are seeing that same thing, although we realize when we get lazy like when I get lazy and I don't do the walk my back definitely reminds me you need to keep walking.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And, of course, you would always check with your doctor before discontinuing any medication we are not telling you to change anything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
So if we're trying to wrap up this episode, because it's a really cool place we're at I could talk for hours about Devil's Tower, but the three things that kind of pull it together for work-life balance, I guess I would put them into these kind of categories.
Number one, flexibility and embracing all things about being flexible, and we've talked about some of those things Get the work done.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Make little escapes during the day, it's okay, just get the work done, right.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, because especially here it's hard when you look out the window at the amazing, I'm like I want to go out and play.
So you got to work that in and in fact we kind of sometimes, if you pointed this out, I'll have schedule that's really busy.
In the morning, we'll have a relaxing lunch, we'll walk out that's being flexible and then I'll do some more after that.
So, whatever works for you and your schedule.
(29:50):
The second thing is gonna be like eating healthy, and we have mentioned before dining at home.
For us, we feel healthier, we love the food we make.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
And doing your proper planning and provisioning for that.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah, make sure you've got what you need, as we've learned here.
And then the last thing is kind of related to what we're just talking about.
Right, the exercise, anything dealing with any kind of concerns of your medical issues, and for us that turns out to be walking, hiking, and you do a lot of working out in the rig, but I just do the walking and the hiking.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
My small space workouts yeah.
So our goal with the RV Work Life Podcast is to share what we're learning about living, working and traveling full time and finding that balance.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, and we really wanna thank everyone that's been listening to the podcast.
If you've enjoyed this and you are interested in more about it, please check out the show notes, where we've included any kind of links related to where we're at or the products.
And if you're new here, please take us, please subscribe, and whatever podcast app you listen to us on, subscribe there.
We wanna make sure that we get a chance to share with what we're doing and we definitely wanna hear from you.
(31:02):
So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
And to our existing subscribers we love you guys.
Thank you so much for following our journey and being along the on the road with us.
And yeah, like Russ was saying, please be in touch.
We'll put it in the show notes.
A great way to be in touch is through email or on the Facebook page.
(31:24):
And well, I guess the most important thing is make your escape and get out here.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yeah, so are you ready?
Speaker 1 (31:35):
I'm ready, let's go, let's get out there.
Bye, bye.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Thanks everyone, thanks everyone.
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