I know when it’s time to “get outta Dodge.” This uniquely American phrase refers to a need to leave a place in an urgent manner. It is a reference to the real Dodge City, Kansas, which in the late 19th century was a bustling and infamous cattle town on the edge of the frontier. Dodge City often involved a lot of danger, such as saloons, gambling, and shoot-outs. The phrase was further promoted by the popular radio and television series Gunsmoke, which was set in a fictionalized version of Dodge City. The show’s characters often told bad guys to “get out of Dodge” and leave the city. While rooted in the Old West, the phrase is still used today, sometimes with stronger language like “get the hell out of Dodge,” often to express a need to leave a boring situation, such as a retiree’s house and home.
Don’t get me completely wrong, I like my house and home. Having been retired from my active professional life for over thirteen years now, these have been the best years of my life. No more long work commutes or having to quietly endure the antics of difficult colleagues. I certainly have no need to work for a living anymore. There’s no need to travel anywhere at all if I prefer. I am also free to affiliate only with people this senior citizen genuinely likes and enjoys being around. More importantly, I like spending time at home in the same suburban house outside Boulder, Colorado I have lived for over 39 years. What more can one ask?
Well…despite being quite content most of the time at home it still isn’t the be all and end all. There are endless chores to take care of and, to be quite honest, things can just get pretty darn plain mundane. Of course, this could be a good thing. But in my case, I consider myself rather dynamic. I like engaging in new activities, being on the move, and especially living in the great outdoors. I started hiking and camping as a child when I became a Cub Scout at eight years old. My original attraction was the opportunity to wear a quasi-military navy-blue uniform with a matching cap and yellow kerchief held in place around my neck with a cool neck slide. I soon discovered that I liked hiking and camping outdoors, activities I continued through high school and college. I first became acquainted with my wife when I was in my early 20s on a university Outdoors Club trip to Canada’s Algonquin Provincial Park north of Toronto. She and I continued to backpack and car camp before and after we were married. Later we took camping trips with our three sons throughout the Rocky Mountain West from our home base in central Colorado. As young boys they initially balked at hiking long distances, but we learned how to accommodate their needs with lots of tasty snack treats and always a planned destination, like a beautiful mountain lake. They live on the U.S. West Coast and remain avid hikers, backpackers, and campers today.
Now in my early 70s, I too still love hiking, backpacking, and camping. Colorado is home to the highest mountain peaks in the U.S. It boasts 58 of the 96 “Fourteeners,” i.e., peaks over 14,000 feet, in the country and I summitted 30 of them. Unlike most people who have no interest in experiencing any discomfort associated with life outside their house or car, I quite enjoy everything about the great outdoors and what it has to offer, including fantastic vistas one simply cannot experience from the comfort of an automobile. As a senior citizen I still crave cooking outside on a relaxing evening, enjoying a campfire as the sun begins to set, listening to the sound of creatures in the wild, and staring up to marvel at the Milky Way at night. But several years ago, I realized that there was one obstacle to sleeping continuously on the ground in a tent: my wife. For several reasons, including some lower back issues, this was no longer a fun activity for her. She wanted more sleeping comfort, although not necessarily a hotel room. There appeared a simple solution to this dilemma: purchase a recreational vehicle (RV) or camper van of some kind. I for one have always had a distaste for RVs for several reasons, including being caught driving behind the slow unwieldy vehicles, their large carbon footprint, the need to store them somewhere, and the fact that people are taking a home on wheels to campgrounds. RVs typically include a toilet, shower, beds, kitchen, flat screen TV, and the other comfort amenities of modern life, hence missing the whole point of camping outside. Sorry, not an option for me…
My wife and I decided to find a relatively small camper van for our purposes. The truth is, I had been searching for a smaller scale vehicle specifically designed for camping for many years. I was getting very serious about buying one several years ago and then the COVID pandemic hit. Then everybody and their brother was looking to “get outta Dodge” and scatter to the Four Winds in a small RV or camper van. This was obviously not the time to buy one. We decided to wait until the pandemic blew over and everybody and their brother would now be selling their camper vehicles. Wise decision. One of my high school friends living in California told me about his new camper van. A custom van conversion company, Recon, took a Nissan NV200 model minivan, the kind of vehicle used by plumbers and electricians. The NV200 was empty on the inside except for two front seats, which was perfect to store tools of their trade. Recon adopted the NV200 as their “Envy” (no joke) base model and installed a bench seat in the back that converts to a bed, a sink, refrigerator, and a water system equipped with a hose and showerhead that could be used to take a shower behind the vehicle. A lithium battery charged by the car battery powers everything and more, including interior lights and even mood lighting for romantics(!). Finally, they cut through the roof to install a pop-up space for sleeping…AND it gets 30 miles to a gallon of gas. Okay, maybe not the amenities you would find in most RVs and many camper vans, but surely enough for my wife and me. I could not ask for more. Recon ended up buying 200 NV200s and produced the same number of conversions before Nissan announced that they would no longer be manufacturing gasoline powered versions of the van because they were going all electric. Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future electric camper vans are simply not practical, so Recon is still in search of a new base vehicle for their conversions.
Anyway, I was able to find a slightly used 2020 Recon Envy in late 2023 with only 135 miles on it (a long story for another day, sorry). We took it on its first shakedown trip to a state park campground in northern Colorado and it performed marvelously. But the real maiden voyage was to the Pacific Northwest, then down the California coast, and east through Nevada and Utah on Highway 50, “The Loneliest Road in America,” to Arches National Park and back home a year ago. We have since taken shorter trips to campgrounds in the mountains west of where we live, which have close access to wonderful hiking trails. We have also been to Antelope Canyon in north central Arizona, Rocky Mountain National Park, and recently to Twin Lakes outside Leadville, Colorado, which is the highest incorporated city in the U.S. at 10,200 feet in elevation. Our next trip with the Recon is to north central Colorado for a tour of the Wild Horse Refuge, is a private, non-profit sanctuary that was created entirely for rescued Mustangs.
So now getting “outta Dodge” has been simplified for us. How easy is it for you to get outta Dodge when you need or want to? Maybe something for you to consider for extra peace of mind. It may not be as difficult or challenging as you think!