Escaping Forest Fires, Poo Water, and More [Podcast Ep. 9]

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Forest Fire, Escaping Forest Fires, Poo Water, and More [Podcast Ep. 9]

In this Episode…

Exploring Buena Vista and Cripple Creek, Colorado
Evacuating forest fires while in an RV
Silly mistakes that were make after we were exausted
The realities of full-time RV chaos

Important Parts in the Show

1:02 – Debate on How to Pronounce “Buena Vista”
1:43 – Our Day Before and Saint Elmo
5:12 – Coming Back to a Fire
9:11 – Packing Up and Evacuating
10:17 – No AC in the Car
11:14 – The Poo Water Incident
13:03 – Running Cars in Cripple Creek
14:19 – Hot Pot Explosion
17:01 – Wrapping it Up

Overview of the 24 RV Mayhem Talked about in this Episode

Ever wondered what it’s like to live life on the road, chasing adventures and escaping wildfires? In the latest podcast episode, “Escaping Forest Fires, Poo Water, and More” we share our whirlwind journey through the mesmerizing landscapes of Colorado.

Read More – Colorado Bucket List From a Local

From spontaneous road trips to the ghost town of St Elmo to the unexpected chaos of wildfire evacuations, this episode is packed with raw, real moments of resilience and humor.

Saint Elmo

We kick off our adventure with a spontaneous decision to visit St Elmo, a well-preserved ghost town in Colorado. Alexandra and her mother, Pam, recount their recent adventures living in an RV, highlighting both the glamorous and challenging aspects of this lifestyle.

They share their experience of visiting St Elmo, which they reached after a scenic drive filled with laughter and breathtaking views of the Arkansas River. The duo also debates the correct pronunciation of “Buena Vista,” a topic that has sparked lively discussions with locals.

Buena Vista wasn’t just about exploring historical sites. Alexandra shares her whimsical mermaid-themed photoshoot at Midland Hill, where she filmed a yoga session amidst stunning views of the Arkansas River.

Forest Fires While In an RV

The scenic drive through Aspen and along a raging river, with stops at Cascade Falls to witness the high water runoff and feed chipmunks, quickly shifts to a harrowing off-road experience up Tin Cup Pass in their trusty RAV4, humorously nicknamed “the ravioli.”

The thrill of the drive is abruptly interrupted by the sight of a nearby forest fire, which grows from a small blaze to a significant threat, causing them to question their safety and consider evacuation.

Despite the looming danger, the RV park community’s calm demeanor provides some comfort, allowing Alexandra and Pam to conclude their eventful day with a mix of awe and anxiety. The camaraderie and support within the RV community shine through, highlighting the resilience needed to cope with such unpredictable situations.

Preventable Mistakes

The chaos continues as they recount the stressful experience of evacuating from their beloved campsite due to the forest fires. The rapid departure, exhaustion, and sadness lead to a series of preventable mistakes, including driving without AC and a messy sewer line incident.

These humorous yet frustrating moments, such as accidentally leaving the car running while enjoying dinner in the quirky town of Cripple Creek, add a touch of levity to the otherwise tense situation.

Reflection

Throughout the episode, Alexandra and Pam reflect on the impact of forest fires on local communities and the resilience needed to cope with sudden changes.

Their stories paint a vivid picture of the unpredictable yet fulfilling life on the road, showcasing both the highs of discovering quirky towns like Cripple Creek and the lows of unexpected mishaps.

The episode is a rollercoaster of emotions, blending moments of beauty and serenity with those of chaos and panic. It captures the essence of RV living, where every day is an adventure filled with new challenges and unexpected joys.

As the episode draws to a close, they reflect on their experiences and the lessons learned from their Colorado adventure. From the importance of community and support to the need for adaptability and resilience, their journey offers valuable insights for anyone considering the RV lifestyle. I

t’s a reminder that while life on the road can be unpredictable and challenging, it is also incredibly rewarding and filled with unforgettable moments.

Full Podcast Transcript (Episode )

*Please keep in mind that this is a transcript of imperfect adventurers talking. Although I try my best to make sense of my ramblings, I apologize if some of the grammar is off.

Intro to the Wild RV Story

Alexandra: Hey guys, this is Alexandra. Welcome to Tick It Before You Kick It, and this is an adventure podcast that talks about everything that you need to do on your bucket list and also some hilarious travel stories.

Today, I have with me – Pam – this is my mother who travels full time with me in an RV, and we have some hilarious travel stories.

Well, okay, maybe they’re not so hilarious this time, but they deserve to be talked about nonetheless.

Let’s just get started with the crazy 24 hours that we just had living in an RV. It’s really funny, because when you see RV living, you know it’s very glamorized.

It’s very, “Oh my gosh, look, we’re surrounded by mountains!” and that’s 100% what it is for sure. However, there are some times, like the last 24 hours, which it was just a constant struggle from start to finish.

How The Heck do you pronounce Buena Vista?

So, let’s get started talking about it and what happened. Starting off, we got a recommendation to go to St Elmo, which is about – what? 45 minutes outside of um, Buena Vista – No, Buena Vista, buena Vista, and we were Bueni, wait, no.

Pam: BUeni Vista!

Alexandra: Bueni Vista? I think you’re wrong. That doesn’t sound right to me. I know the locals are like, “Oh, it’s Bueni,” but how in the world?

I’m a Colorado local and that sounds weird to me. So I guess, yeah, according to the store owner, I’ve heard Buena, I’ve heard Buena and we’ve heard Beuni?

Anyway, we were staying right in between Twin Lakes and I’m just going to say Buena Vista, that’s how I would say it.

Exploring Buena Vista and Saint Elmo

We were right outside of there and we decided to go to Saint Elmo, just very spontaneously. I did a little mermaid shoot. I filmed a yoga class up at these amazing hikes called the (I think it was the) Midland Hill.

It [had] amazing views of the Arkansas River, and so we went a little hiking, we did some yoga, we mermaided around for a bit – she was my photographer – and then we got back to the RV.

We’re like, “Oh yeah, let’s go to St Elmo!”. [This] is a historical ghost town, and it is one of the most preserved ghost towns in the West. Yeah, there was what –

Pam: – 43 preserved buildings, buildings that have changed very little from their birth.

Alexandra: Yeah, and it was beautiful there, the drive was amazing.

Yeah, talk about your experience with St Elmo. Oh, was beautiful there. The drive was amazing. Yeah, talk about your experience with St Elmo.

Pam: Oh, my gosh! I loved it! It was kind of a surprise recommendation from my mom and sister and they said they just loved it.

They like historical towns anyway. We liked the ghost part, um, but the drive up was mountains and Aspen, and you’ve got this raging river next to you! The drive was fantastic, [and would] be really great in the fall.

So we past the Cascade Falls, which we had to stop and just experience.

Alexandra: Well, that was crazy too, because it was late June. So, because it was late June, all the water runoff was there.

Pam: [There were] some really high! It was really high!

Alexandra: Those were some crazy rapids for sure.

Pam: You need to go check out the video, because they’re amazing!

Feeding Chipmunks in Saint Elmo

Alexandra: It was amazing, and there was also chipmunks that you could feed.

Pam: Yes, I’m going to say maybe 30?

Alexandra: And they were running all over us. I’ve never seen anything like it. Normally, I don’t condone the feeding of animals and I’m not sure how I truly feel about it. And there was this, uh, this mother and this little boy, and they gave us some bird seed.

Seriously, there was like five chipmunks on me at the same time – just running all over us looking for food, and it was adorable! It’s crazy. There were like deer three feet from us and blue jays.

Pam: It was just fun and I guess they feed them year round. They actually sell the bird seed in the general store yeah, so worth the trip. Bring your own bird seed.

Tin Cup Pass

Alexandra: Also, little tiny tip. We got a recommendation to go up Tin Cup Pass and we were pooping our pants the entire time. I don’t want to sugar coat it.

It was like four wheeling to the max. I’m pretty sure we hit a rock in the back of the car. We hit rocks on the underneath of the car. She’s sitting there cussing in the car. We’re just like, “Oh my gosh, we’re going to die. Or like who’s going to die first, us or the car?”

Pam: Well, and we would have been fine in the truck, but we were in the RAV4. And you know, I thought the RAV4 could do it, but the little ravioli just could not.

Meet our Vehicles

Alexandra: Yeah, if you don’t know, our RAV4 is named “The Ravioli” and our massive Ford F350 truck that pulls the fifth wheel is called “Tinky Winky”, named after the Teletubbies.

Pam: Yes, and our fifth wheel is named “Dipsy” because we were trying to figure out the weirdest names and we just got on the Teletubbies and just started laughing and just said we had to do it.

Alexandra: So, we started coming back and again. This drive is just stunning we had all the windows down, we were playing some music, we were just watching all these waterfalls, we were taking pictures.

It was absolutely gorgeous. And then, on the way back, she, she said, “Oh, I want a pizza!”

Pam: So, we stopped at Godfather’s Pizza, which I haven’t had Godfather’s since I was a kid, so I don’t know if any of y’all have had it, but it was wonderful. Very nostalgic.

Alexandra: Very nostalgic. And we were just chilling, eating pizza, Just not a care in the world. It was great. And then we got out of the you know the little pizza place and we saw this massive plume of smoke.

Is that a fire?!

Pam: Originally I thought it was rain, and because we’re at sunset, so everything was just a really pretty hue of pink, and so at first I thought it was rain, but alas, yeah.

Alexandra: And we just looked at it and we’re like, “Oh, my gosh, I think there’s a fire!”

So, we went back in and we’re like, “Oh, do you know what’s the fire?” And she was like, “Yeah, I think it’s pretty close to here. We’re just kind of hoping that it gets put out really fast.”

And then we started going back to where we were. Again, we were in between Twin Lakes and Buena Vista, taking pictures of it because my grandpa loves pictures of the smoke.

Pam: He loves fire, yeah.

Alexandra: So we were just leisurely going back and as we started getting closer, we just thought to ourselves, “Uh, it’s a fire, there’s a fire!”

Pam: And then it became, “Oh, it’s a fire, oh, wait, it’s a fire!”

Alexandra: And then it became, “OH MY GOSH, it’s a fire! Yeah, it’s a fire.” And so we got back there and I’m going to put some of the pictures in the show notes. It was devastating and I think by the time we got back it was around 5 pm. I think, at that point, they don’t know what caused it at this point, but it had consumed 160 acres by this time.

What Do You Do when There is a Fire Coming Towards Your RV?

As of the time of us recording this podcast, I think it’s up to over 400 [acres] and it’s called the Interlaken Fire. But at the time it was just a little baby forest fire, but still just devastating.

We were like, “Should we leave? Should we not leave?” So, then we started going around the RV park and asking, “what, what, what, what, what do we do?”

And they didn’t seem too nervous. It was funny, we were watching it and they’re just talking to me about random things. You know, like, “oh, cool, fifth wheel, awesome, how do you drive it? Blah, blah, blah, blah.”

And I’m just sitting there sweating. I’m like, “Should we be running and evacuating?” You know cause I it’s pretty close. I mean, I can see the red hues of the flames. So. it was kind of a funny, weird thing. And then the, the city – what like 15 minutes away from us – was on pre-evacuation and then it got lifted right as we went to sleep.

Waking Up The Next Morning

So we were like, “Okay, we’re fine, I think we’ll be okay.” I cut a deal with the other RVers and I said [that] if you decide to abandon ship in the middle of the night, come pound on our door and we will abandon ship with you, and go sleep in a Walmart parking lot.

Because I’m not taking any chances and we were actually going rafting the next day. So, we were just sitting there going, “Well, we really want to go rafting on the Arkansas.”

So, we went to bed and then I woke up a couple times in the middle of the night, just checked just to make sure – nothing, it was fine.

And then we woke up the next morning and neither of us could talk.

Pam: Just smoky eyes watering – my throat felt terrible, it was pretty hazy.

Alexandra: Yeah, there was smoke everywhere. And then the evacuation started coming back and we started talking to the other guys and they’re like “Does that mean it’s shifting?”

And we’re like, “We’re supposed to go rafting!”

So then we just decided [that] we just weren’t comfortable rafting and leaving the animals. Because we’ve got two little kitties and a dog that live with us in this adventure.

You know, we couldn’t like leave them, because what if we were gonna get evacuated? It was just too much.

Let’s Leave

So panic, calling people, you know, calling the rafting company. We don’t know where to go. Luckily we were leaving the next day, so you called the, the campsite that we were going to, and just yes, and she was wonderful.

Pam: She said, “I don’t care if we leave a spot or not, just come, just get out of there!”

Alexandra: So, we were kind of just leisurely, you know, packing up and then all of a sudden our phones start blaring. It’s like, “Get out of there!”

Pam: We evacuated, packed up, really fast! And [we] made some very preventable mistakes, because we are owning all of this. We’re tired and we’re stressed and we’re bummed about not being able to go rafting and we loved the place we were staying.

Alexandra: Yeah, we didn’t want to leave. And also, you know, we loved the place we were staying. We didn’t want to leave. And also it’s hard to see forest fires. I mean, forest fires are just devastating.

Yeah, I don’t think the historical district is at risk now, um, so hopefully that continues, but it’s just so many lives of people and firefighters and the US forest service.

So, it was [a lot]. It was just a lot. It was a lot packing up. There I was very grateful that we could just roll out, but my hearts go out to anybody who is permanently living there.

Pam: Yeah, I guess Twins Lake is beautiful. So, a lot of locals were just very, very sad about that.

Forgetting to Put on the AIr Conditioning

Alexandra: Yeah, it’s just, it’s devastating. We started making some very silly mistakes. As I said, we’re very exhausted. We’re, you know, devastated about this, and the first mistake that we made was I started driving.

It is the joke that she goes forwards, I go backwards, so she always drives it and then I back it into the things.

So, I’m sitting there with all the pets in the ravioli and I’m baking. Our AC has been wonky and it’s June in the mountains. I’m going to pass out I was considering talking to her and being like, “I feel lightheaded, like, I just feel like I’m baking at a convection [bake] oven and then all of a sudden, right when we got to our destination…

Pam: An hour and a half later!

Alexandra: …an hour and a half later I realized that I just didn’t push the AC button. Oh yeah, you’re smart and I can’t even blame anyone else! That was completely and totally my fault.

A Very Stinky Mistake

Pam: Oh yeah, and so my big mistake was we drained before we left…

Alexandra: …and then for those of you who you know aren’t active, RVers, one of the less glamorized versions of it is you have to drain your own sewer, which you can just use your imagination on how fun that is….

Pam: …and smelly! So, we drained, we’re ready to go. We have two sets, because we have two sewer lines, and so I had closed the one sewer line but I’d left the other one open. I don’t know why, but I left it open and then drove for an hour and a half

Alexandra: Because we were escaping a forest fire! That’s why you left it open.

Pam: Well, we think there’s a clog in there from soap, but that’s another story. And so it just kept draining and draining and draining into that pipe while we’re driving, and so when I go to unhook the sewer line and hook it back up to where we are staying now, it was just a poo explosion.

I just stood there, I had no words and nobody to blame. Yes, it was awesome, so happy.

Alexandra: And we did figure it out, but it was a lot of cleanup and we get, you know, cleaned up from that. There’s no showers here at the campsite that we’re at and we don’t really like using the shower in our RV. But I mean, we definitely gave it a go, oh yeah, but we were absolutely disgusting by the time that was over.

Pam: Oh yeah, smelly girls.

Exploring Cripple Creek

Alexandra: So, we decided that we needed to go into town, which was Cripple Creek which is fantastic, it’s is so quirky.

Can we just talk about Cripple Creek for a second? Oh, Cripple Creek is great. I was not prepared for Cripple Creek. I it was like Vegas had like a really weird looking baby with a Colorado mountain town.

Read the full Cripple Creek Bucket List.

Learn More

Pam: …from the old west.

Alexandra: And the old west just sprinkled in there. Seriously, it looks like an old west town. It looks like something that should be again – St Elmo, that ghost town. It looks like St Elmo, except there’s just casinos everywhere and cheap drinks.

It’s so funny. It’s just it’s crazy to me. So, we went to dinner. We got like some Long Island Iced Teas for, like, $2 a piece, we were loving life and spent a grand total of $8 at a slots machine because we hate gambling, but we just had to do it for just for the experience.

Pam: And we came back and uh, and I realized that during the entire time that we were having dinner I had left the car running! Just running, doors open, running.

Alexandra: I don’t know it might have been locked.

Pam: I don’t think it was, because the car doesn’t lock if it’s running.

Alexandra: I think it does. Maybe it does.

Pam: We have to check. But yeah, I left it running because I’m a dork.

Alexandra: We went home and went to bed.

Spilling Sauce Everywhere

Pam: No, we went home and I opened the fridge and while traveling – another travel tip – do not leave any hot pot fondue liquid.

Alexandra: We just had, like, some sauce that we would dip things. We’re really big fans of hot pot. Ever since I traveled to Mongolia and China, I’ve just been obsessed with hot pot and I have this little sauce concoction that I make.

So, we started doing it ourselves because it’s like this really healthy Chinese fondue and I just set it in the fridge. It was fine when we left until we drove an hour and a half and then I opened the fridge, top came off.

Pam: Oh, it was cling wrap. Of course it’s going to come off, but there was hot pot everywhere.

Alexandra: Everywhere. How many times did we change clothes because we were dirty?

Pam: Oh, like four times that day.

Alexandra: And again, we had showered that day and we can’t shower technically again for another 10 days.

Pam: Oh yes, we’re going to have to break out the brand new showers. Anyway, so that was fun. So, we decided that we are not really on our game when we get frazzled trying to evacuate.

I Would Love To Be Able to Pack up in 10 Minutes

Alexandra: I don’t think it was that – it was just so much. And for those of you who are like, “Oh, I can pack up my RV in like 10 minutes,”

Okay, that is not us. You are not talking to people who can pack up within 10 minutes. We live full-time in this thing and we like our decorations, we like, and –

Pam: We like to clean too!

Alexandra: We will clean this whole thing and pack up at the same time. So, it takes so long for us to get packed.

And this is a massive rig, Dipsy is a massive home and, again, we are not roughing it, we are RVing in luxury here. So, it was stressful and it was, you know, just getting evacuated is our first time ever dealing with something like that.

It was just hot and there was just a lot to do and trying to figure out where we were going to go and we were just tired and I was also up multiple times during the night previously just making sure that we weren’t going to get evacuated.

Yeah, it was just, it was just a very interesting RV experience.

Pam: Yeah, and so right after this, I am going to take down 50 refrigerator magnets and wash the hot pot off of them.

Alexandra: We’re just living in the lap of luxury. As I’m filming this podcast, I’m looking at a stunning mountain view, so we really can’t complain about this lifestyle.

Pam: I’m just saying we’re idiots.

Alexandra: Just saying we’re idiots. And forest fires are dumb.

Pam: Yes, so there you go, there you go. We have spoken.

Closing Remarks on our Wild 24 Hours In an RV

Alexandra: What do you think of our stories? Do we have any full-time RVers out there? Would you want a full-time RV with stuff like this Maybe put you on edge. Or would you just like to come to Cripple Creek or Bunie Vista? Buena Vista, Punie Bunie.

Punie Bunie is what they say?! I think you’re crazy, I think you nuts.

Anyway, you guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode of Tick It Before you Kick It, where we share hilarious travel stories and bucket list adventures.

If you did like this episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and also check out the show notes on thebucketlistmermaid.com. If you do have any of your own adventures, you can reach out to me on social media @thebucketlistmermaid, and we will see you next time. Keep adventuring!