Hungry for Adventurez

IOverlander is a free, crowd-sourced app designed for roadtrippers, RVers and Car campers. I have recently started to use it to plan out my weekend adventures in Iowa, and find free places to stay overnight. Lately I have been camping solo almost every weekend. While campgrounds are much cheaper than hotels, I have been starting to wonder if I can illuminate the cost and hassle of staying at the more popular campgrounds. (If you want to learn more about ultra low budget travel, read this !) Plus, in the busy summer season, sometimes the popular campgrounds, like Makokita cave and Backbone State Parks are completely booked. iOverlander helps provide some great options to explore a little differently.  How the iOverlander app works  iOverlander is a crowd-sourced app. That means that anybody can log a pin in the app and leave notes on the quality and type of location. People who visit a place later can also add check-ins with pictures and notes to help future travelers. If you are follow

Aldi is my absolute favorite grocery store, especially for cheap and lazy camping food. It’s easy to put together shelf stable meals that are actually pretty healthy and require almost no prep work. As an added bonus, Aldi also has decent outdoors equipment in the “Aldi Finds” aisle, but we will save that for a different post. For this post I will be assuming you have a camp stove , such as a jet boil, available.  Lazy Camping Food #1: Favorite Cheese, Fruit, and Crackers No cooking necessary, yet somehow super luxurious. I like to get a wheel of Cammebert or Brie, which I slice up and eat cold with strawberries, peaches or apples, and a sleeve of crackers. It's perfect for a mid hike meal or snack. It's the ultimate lazy food, but also kind of feels luxurious. Plus, rich cheeses are a great food for when you are are on longer, active trips. This is because cheese contains calorie-dense fats.  Camembert cheese, 7 oz: $4.19 Strawberries, 1 lb: $2.19 Crackers, 7 oz: $2.55 (larger

 I recently visited Yellow River State Forest and stayed at Little Paint Campground. This park is expansive, more so than any Iowa State Park or forest I have visited so far. Let's talk about what activities are available here, and who should pay Yellow River State Forest a visit.  The view from the lookout point near the fire tower The Layout of Yellow River State Forest By Iowa standards, Yellow River State Forest is a massive park. It is north of Marquette and south of Harper’s Ferry. Combined with neighboring Effigy Mounds National Monument, Pikes Peak State Park, and Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, the area is an unofficial national park (in my opinion).  Yellow River State Forest is not one contiguous park. It is made of several smaller units. The largest one is called the Paint Creek Unit, which has multiple campgrounds.  The main road of Paint Creek is State Forest Road. It offers some fantastic views as you drive through the park. It is also the

Due to price hikes the last few years, even the cheapest Disney resort vacation is now out of reach for a lot of households. Depending on what kind of deals and hotel you get, a family of 4 could fly to Europe for the same price as staying at an on property Disney world resort. Disney has also removed discounts in the last 3 years. As a theme park lover myself, I understand why people go anyway. Disney provides a special, uncompilable experience. However, it isn’t really a realistic destination for me to plan for anymore. Let's take a serious look at what makes Disney so appealing, so that few can find the best alternatives at an even better price. For the purposes of this article, I will specifically be using Disney World, Florida to give examples of prices and amenities.  Why Does Even the Cheapest Disney Resort Vacation Have “Disney Magic”?  Attention to Detail and Exceptional service It seems that no matter how expensive hotels and tickets get, some people are still willing to