Road to Nova Scotia

Our first stop after LA was the tiny town of Tecopa near Death Valley, it has a population of less than 200 people. The little town began in the late 1800’s as construction of a railroad through the town to nearby mines began. The hot spring bath houses were constructed after 1907 when the railroad was complete, and became a spot for the miners and railroad crew to clean up and soak sore muscles. It functioned in that manner until the Great Depression hit, mining slowed, and the railroad shut down, now it’s just the small town that remains, the mines permanately closed and the railroad was dismantled.

It turns out that the hot springs culture in the Tecopa area is predominantly a nude one. We were only staying one night and there was an option at our site to book a private pool, and for those that don’t know us well our ideal post Super Bowl party is typically going to bed and most certainly isn’t a pool full of naked strangers in the desert. We booked the private pool, watched the Seahawks win with the quarterback the Vikings let go last year and headed to the pool with a towel and birthday suits. One would think having a private area would make being buck ass naked in public space feel less strange and for some it might, I can confirm I am not that some. Despite that the hot spring water was lovely, and actually worked wonders on our skin. We called it a night and headed back to the RV to roll out the next morning toward Zion.

For those of you that have been reading along since the beginning of our journey you might remember there was quite a few learning lessons early on. Due to that we developed a check system before leaving anywhere, once we’re both in the front seats prior to putting it in drive we run through the list: all pets visualized, pump off, propane off, water heater off, unplugged, unhooked, storage locked, starlink in, stair in, awning in. It’s silly, it’s simple, and it’s now apparent it’s extremely necessary.

We did not go through our check list that morning, and the awning was in fact not in. This was quickly realized after turning on to the road and driving about 30 feet. It turns out that even our older model RV has an alarm system to alert you that the awning is out, it’s a terrify boom noise when it makes close personal contact with a street sign, simple but effective, you instantly know exactly what was forgotten. We brought the awning in on the spot, pulled off the road and assessed the damage. We got extremely lucky and it appeared nothing was bent or broken, only the canvas had been forced back about a foot and half, this however caused it to close improperly and contort in some horrifying ways. Unable to preform a quick fix we ended up booking another night and rolling back to our site to continue to work on the awning. Initially we could not get it to budge, my dad called and recommended using a silicone lube which I thankfully had a can of for the RV’s slide out, and that was just enough be able to slide it a centimeter at a time back into place.

Now sweaty, mild to moderately annoyed, staying an additional night, and the showers being in the public hot spring area we decided why not just commit to the experience. There were two pools and one was completely empty so we hopped in there.

The following morning emboldened by the lack of people the day prior we figured if we hit the hot spring right at opening there would likely be no one there. The saying assumptions make an ass out of you and me exists for a reason and in this case you’ll see em too. I managed to get myself stuck in a 30 minute conversation with an extremely friendly and equally kooky older woman. Meghan got too warm and deserted me about 2 minutes into the conversation to cool down and ended up taking a very convenient nap, while I learned this naked woman’s entire life story as she swam little laps around the tiny pool, during which a dozen or so more people filed in, and I decided it was time for me to file out.

A day delayed, and a new experience later we were on our way to Zion.

Based on the above story it shouldn’t surprise you that no other pictures were taken at this stop.