HMS Beangle

Welcome aboard! We're sailing across North America in our Bean Stalker teardrop trailer. Come share our journey.

Category: United States

  • After leaving Deadwood, we decided to head east instead of sticking around for the night. I saw that Badlands National Park had a free dry campground on the north portion of the park, so we decided to give a it go. It wasn’t quite boondocking as there were vault toilets, formal parking spots, and picnic…

  • Deadwood, SD

    Long a fan of Wild West history, Jeff has been wanting to go to Deadwood, South Dakota, for ages, so it only made sense that it be our first true destination. After leaving Wind Cave on Monday, we headed north and grabbed breakfast in the town of Custer after a brief moment of terror where…

  • Wind Cave National Park

    “It’s windy and there’s a cave,” as quipped by our tour guide, Ranger Franny. Wind Cave National Park’s claim to fame is the fact that the cave system ‘breathes’ in and out of a small helmet-sized hole in the ground, adjusting the internal barometric pressure of the cave throughout the days and seasons. Winds in…

  • I couldn’t remember the date today

    One of the things we decided to do early on when planning this adventure was to save the bulk of The Boy’s ashes so that we could release them at special places we find along the way. Cherish. Embrace. Let go. The past year and a half has been an exercise in living those words.…

  • Last weekend, the amazing Miss Carmen personalized the HMS Beangle and it turned out just as were hoping. She made us some cozies for the propane tanks, too. That will keep the tanks out of direct sunlight, which reduces the chance of hot, heat-expanded gas leaking out. They’re just so adorable. Let’s talk nuts and…

  • Think of Colorado. Let your mind rest there. Craggy mountains, lodgepole and ponderosa pines reaching skyward, alpine lakes glistening green and blue under a cool summer sun. From Denver, it’s also 200 miles of prairie on Highway 76 before you reach the Nebraska line. In fact, some variety of prairie makes up the entire eastern…

  • Murphy’s Law in the Mountains

    Our campsite last weekend had a lot less shade than most in the Blue Mountain Campground, but that’s okay, its eastern orientation was perfect for sucking up the solar rays. And we had an excellent reason to set up our 180° awning for the entire four days. It handled the light breezes and stronger wind…

  • Not quite according to plan

    Back before we even arrived at the National Forest Service’s fee station on our last camping trip, we stopped for breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants, The Shaggy Sheep. After helping us sop up the coffee that I carelessly slopped across the table, our waitress mentioned that her friend says she’s never failed to…

  • “Whatever, I do what I want.”

    “TIMAH!!!” Yes, South Park is a real place in Colorado. Technically, South Park is the larger high grass basin area (according to Wikipedia). The town the TV show is loosely based upon is actually named Fairplay, but you know how that goes. Although cute, Fairplay isn’t pristine and upscale like neighboring Breckenridge, and the locals…

  • 33rd is Trout?

    For our 33rd wedding anniversary, we decided to head out for a four day weekend. Our goal destination was Jefferson Lake, a high altitude reservoir lake about an hour and a half from our apartment. For the first time ever, we left for a popular area with nothing more than hope. There was a single…