Gypsy Bath House

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Travel blog 1/23/2010
Report from the Gypsy BATH-house!

We’ve been a little out of touch because we’ve been traveling unplugged for a while, also traveling flexible! The nice thing about traveling flexible is you can change your plans at the drop of a hat, if the spirit (or the weather) moves you. That’s what happened. After we left New Orleans we made a B-line down to Big Bend National Park in way-south Texas where the weather looked warmer. And sure enough, it was!!!

Ever since my mother raved about Big Bend, after going there with her friend Pinky, I have wanted to go too. Really, for years I have been trying to get there. I was giddy when we finally reached the town of Marathon (just outside the park) and camped for our first night in the Gypsy Outhouse. It was amazing, like a different world (saw my first roadrunner!).

We hadn’t completely outrun winter however, there was frost on the picnic table that first morning, but we did have a glorious few warm days in Big Bend. Eighty-one degrees is our trip’s record high. Ahhh, warm! In Big Bend we hiked and biked every day, one hike was the best ever - the Lost Mine Trail. We hiked through tall canyons where the waters of the Rio Grand had carried rocks over the millennia to grind their way through solid rock.

This has to be where mother’s Earth Series pots were born! The orange clay colors were there, and so were the lichens. The cliff-lichen colors are the same as the dots of color she spayed over her Earth Series surfaces - the orange, yellows, greens, and reds were all there... It made me wish I could read her journal entries from Big Bend.

A Big Bend highlight: We spent a couple of days in the primitive Cottonwood campground. We road bikes 16 miles to and from the Santa Elena Canyon, as well as hiked the 2-mile canyon trail. We had left our solar shower bags (thanks Tom & Sandy) on top of the van all day. When we got back, ahhh, a hot shower while standing in the privacy of our own Gypsy BATHhouse! It was glorious.

The vastness and grandness of the landscape at Big Bend was hard to capture in camera picts!

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Comments

[gia]

??
What is a "Gypsy out house" ...I'm so intrested! I saw your pictures and I love it! I think our family could use one, we love to travel and we live in TX. Where did you find it to purchase? Thank you!!

[Steve55]

mini van
Hi Gia, We got the 2008 Dodge mini van from Robert Morehouse in Asheville, NC. He took a van and outfitted it with a bed, freezer/fidge, sink, water, inverter with an extra battery, a tent that comes off the back end, an awning and screens all around. We also have a small fold up Coleman table and seats and a coleman stove for cooking. It has been a great vehicle for travel. The bed is a bit tight, but we are fairly small people, so it works. Head room is limited and I can barely sit up when on the bed. If you google Robert Morehouse, Asheville, NC, his website should pop up. He outfits vans for a living. Take care, Steve