August 2023. KOA is Starbucks, AmIRight?

Backtracking a bit, the editors will fill you in on the journey to Cody, WY which you read previously.   Upon departing KY, the next three nights were spent camping for free on three different total strangers’ properties.    Flynn and Ollie are not above a little squatting when necessary.    Nah, it’s called Harvest Host, and the property owners let you stay for one night for free if you buy a little something-something from their farm/winery/brewery.   Yeah, go ahead, twist our arm.  Now, sometimes it can be in a parking lot, but mostly it’s a bit above tolerable.  A lot of bit.

Night one: Insert Tarsha’s Homestead, IL – the view.

Our first stop after checking into Tarsha’s was a 30-minute drive to the St Louis Arch.  Oddly enough, prior to this Flynn did not have much interest in making a special trip to see a giant statue, but since it was so close, why not?   Turns out he was wrong (as usual), and this National Park is a very cool place to visit.   They wandered the museum, ogled the ginormouscity of the exterior, shopped at the gift store for postcards, and then rode to the top.  Frankly, the ride up was a little weird, as one is in a tiny ball of metal with 5 seats (if five adult humans were in one, they would have to be married to each other).  The ‘elevator pod’ had a window to the interior workings and made a lot of creaking and banging noises.  Now, not to be morbid, but seriously, this was about a month after the Titan tragedy, and while not underwater, the similarities of the environment were a tad disconcerting.   No worries though, the bird and otter made it to the top, and then back town unscathed.  If one were to be claustrophobic, however, this is not the elevator for you.

This (below) was the second night Harvest Host stop: Rush Acres Farms, MO – Alpacas and other farm animals! Nice place, nice people.  

This (below) was the third night Harvest Host:   Arcadian Moon Winery & Brewery – the setting was amazing, the restaurant was very nice.  However, it was neither a winery nor a brewery, which was just a tad disappointing.

As you can see by the photos above, our views from the Harvest Hosts were awesome, and other than visiting St Louis, F&O hung out enjoying their environment at each stop.   The only issue encountered while boondocking was battery consumption – as the power expired the second and third night at 2 am.  Not sure what is up with that, but fortunately Reno, NV will be a stop in the near future for the travelers, so they will contact the battery-maker factory and do some troubleshooting.  Meanwhile, they also have a kick-ass generator, because one must always have a plan B, C, and a credit card for D. Hear ye, of RV mishap skepticism, this problem is not in any way related to the quality of the new rig, which continues to function with NASA-like precision.

Next stop was Kearney, NE (pronounced “carney”) for several nights.  There are lots of historical places, parks, and monuments to visit in this area. Flynn and Ollie had happy hour and played cornhole with the neighbors.  Kearney is also the town where F&O discovered Nebraska corn.  Hands down, no other corn can compete. They found said corn at a farmer’s market, along with several other local yummy foodstuffs.  There will be an entire article dedicated to farmers’ markets in the near future.   After having moved the rig 3 nights in a row, with no services, it was a pleasure to rest for a few days and settle in with air conditioning. It was getting hot.

A fun daytrip was had at the Kearney Arch (aka, the Great Platt River Road Archway Monument) Yes, another arch. Okay, more like a bridge. A full huge museum spanning the highway.

Flynn and Ollie caught up on some routine vehicle maintenance, life-type stuff, took a hike or two (not photo worthy, but still healthy), and visited Fort Kearney (or what is left of it). This is a state park, very nicely done, but not a whole lot to see as all the buildings are gone. Kind of funny in a way. Of course they have the required cannon! (Gotta avoid those fines).

Roubideaux, NE was the next stop, for two nights.  F&O stayed in a city park, which was beautiful, with huge sites, lots of grass and a few trees.  They visited Scott’s Bluff National Monument, and some old fossil rock thing Nat Monument (The Agate Fossil Beds), the latter of which took an hour + to get there and was worth every minute.

Following Roubideaux, they were scheduled to stay at another Harvest Host in Casper, WY.  However, weather being what it was (hot!), they bit the bullet and made last minute reservations at the KOA instead so they could have power to run the AC.   F&O have a KOA membership, but in general try to avoid staying at them.  Why?  Think of KOA to camping as Starbucks is to coffee: Predictable, Pricey, and Pretentious.   Not to say that F&O have not had several good stays in KOAs, as some (many) are very nice. They just happen to be expensive when the critters just need the basics.   Just like Starbucks, sometimes a KOA is the only game in town.  Flynn, Ollie and the editors will take Hometown Roasters over Starbucks any day.  (Sorry, squirrel) F&O walked downtown Casper (meh) and then patronized the Harvest Host they had cancelled: Gruener Brewing.   They have a bang-up happy hour with legit great food specials, it is a real brewery, and has fabulous views from their deck.  

Casper was the last stop prior to arrival in Cody, which our readers have already perused.   So there we shall leave you until the next article: Post Cody to Reno, NV <- where this is being penned from.

Fin

Flynn