Accidental World Tour – The Camping Trip That Wasn’t™

June 23-27, 2026

After stopping for the night in Dodge City, KS, I made my way on to the Jemez Mountains just outside of Albuquerque for what was supposed to be a nearly week-long camping trip.

Supposed to be.

I’d drawn out all my camping equipment which hadn’t been touched since Alan’s and my Cold Weather Camping Trip in January of 2022. I aired out the tent in my backyard, made sure my stove still lit, bought fuel for it and loaded everything into Clyde.

Yeah, I severely overpacked.

After the overnight in Dodge City and a detour in Santa Fe, I made it to the Redondo Campground in the Jemez Mountains, the same campground where Alan and I had our first camping trip, and my first solo camping trip, both of which were at the same exact spot.

So of course, in the name of tradition, I booked the same spot again.

I pulled in, set up my tent, unpacked and relaxed for a bit. There was a fire ban due to the interminable drought that has plagued the Southwest for years and increasing winds. I set up the Blackstone that I took (in addition to the camp stove) and made some burgers for a quick dinner and relaxed, swung in the hammock, read, played a solo TTRPG, and battled with chipmunks, one of whom found its way into my food tote and ate one of my hot dog buns.

Bastard!

I moved the tote into the truck and started writing a story based on that experience.

Before it got too terribly late, I hit the sack in preparation for an early morning hike before Alan was slated to show up.

And So It Begins

I made my way to the Jemez Falls Trailhead and immediately encountered a handful of firefighters.

“Hey, fellas,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“There’s a fire up at Battleship Rock. We’re evacuating the campground now.”

“No kidding.” Dumb question incoming. “So, I’m not hiking here, huh?”

A chuckle. “No, there are more trails if you go this way or that way up highway 4.”

“Alright, well, thanks guys, and good luck!”

I headed back to the campsite just in case things got out of hand and I would be asked to evacuate. I packed up the non-essentials, just in case, and sat and wrote, lounged in the hammock and just waited.

I heard sirens moving up and down the highway and it wasn’t long before planes and helicopters came in for fire suppression. It felt like the possibility of an evacuation was becoming more real, but I held steady.

Then some Forest Rangers pulled up and told me more about the fire.

“You should be safe here, the highway is acting as a barrier so you should be good. Just be ready, in case we come back.”

“Duly noted,” I said, and off they went.

As time went by, the sirens quieted, the planes and helicopters became less frequent, and I never saw any smoke in the sky, so my assumption was that things were getting under control. I decided to head out to get a bag of ice from a store just down the highway.

As I got to the intersection where that store was, a sheriff’s car was stopping traffic from coming up the hill, turning people away. I asked, “I’m at Redondo Campground, can I go back?”

“Nope,” he said. “Now that you’re here, you have to keep going. There’s a staging area at a church down the road, you can go there.”

So I went there. All my stuff was still at the campground, including my meds, my CPAP, everything.

I kept in contact with Brandy and Alan and it was made clear that I wasn’t getting back to my stuff, at least not that day. I argued that I had medical necessities, at minimum, that I needed.

As the sun started going down, the Sandoval County fire chief finally came up and said I could go back to get JUST THAT, then I had to turn right back around and come back. I agreed and booked it up the mountain.

My plan was to pull in and pack up EVERYTHING, even if I just had to unstake my tent, toss it into the bed of the truck, forget about nicely arranging or packing anything, and just boogie out.

But, when I got to the campground, the gate was closed and locked. I had to hoof it in from the highway, and my campsite wasn’t anywhere near the front.

Oh well, so much for that idea. I parked right in front of the gate, nearly ran to the campsite, gathered up my hygiene stuff, my CPAP and my backpack, headed back to Clyde waiting for me on the highway, and headed out.

To Alan’s

Alan invited me to stay with him until this whole thing blew over, so I headed down to his house.

I spent that night there. The next morning, after some back and forth with Brandy, she was able to convince a Forest Ranger to get my stuff out of the campground and we made arrangements to meet at the Jemez Ranger Station where, just as it started pouring on us, Alan and I threw it all in the back of his truck (in hindsight, we should have gone in my truck as when we got back to his place, we had to transfer it all into my truck anyway… oh well.)

I spent one more night at his house, then left early, just after 7:00 am, that Friday morning.

The Long Drive Home

I’d only slept a few hours the night before and woke up with a wicked hangover but I was bound and determined to get as far as I could the first day to minimize the drive I had to make that Saturday.

In an effort to stay awake, I struck up a voice chat with Chas, my GPT on ChatGPT, and we workshopped a handful of story ideas, some inspired by the sights I saw on the long, solitary drive.

After around 11 hours of driving, I’d had enough and pulled into our frequent haunt, the Motel 6 in Kearney, NE. From the parking lot, I tried booking a room on Hotels.com, but they didn’t offer me any availability. I tried booking directly on the Motel 6 website, but it said they were sold out. The parking lot looked pretty empty considering it was almost 7:30 pm so I walked in and said, “Do you have any rooms available?”

“We sure do,” she replied.

“Oh, I got worried, Hotels.com and your website both said you were booked up.”

“Oh, we turned off online reservations.”

😶

uhm.

OK…

Anyway, I got a room, headed up and immediately crashed.

Another shitty night’s sleep and I was back on the road before 3:00 am.

The plan was to drive to Des Moines to meet Brandy and Sue, who were there for a thrifting adventure. Three and a half hours later, I pulled up to the AirBnB they were staying in.

I was there for about two hours before we headed out on our thrifting adventure. I only made it to a couple of stops before I asked to go back to the AirBnB for a nap. They dropped me off and left again, and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Upon their return, I checked out their bounty, we had dinner, and the next morning, we all piled into our respective cars and drove back to Ottumwa, Brandy stopping to drop Sue at home before coming home herself.

Conclusion

This was not the first time I’d faced adversity on an adventure—rain, cold weather and snow on camping trips, almost dying of heat stroke on a hike—but this was a new one.

But, I made it out in one piece, with all my stuff. For that, I am grateful.

Brandy has a new rule in place now that I shall not tent camp alone without her at least nearby. She will never tent camp but if I do want to, I have to either find a place close to home, or leave her at a hotel close to my campsite.

And for good reason, I say.

And I can’t wait to try it again.

As I wasn’t there very long, I didn’t get a lot of pictures, but the ones I did manage to get aren’t worth posting, so this will be a rare post without pics.

Up next, after an unprecedented month at home, my next post will see our triumphant return to the Southwest. Be sure to check that out.

Until then!

-Phil