Some Good Vibe Places from 10 Years of Travels

Location: Frank Russell Campground (COE); Monroe City, Missouri about 100 miles northwest of St. Louis

The tow to this campground is one of the shortest in my history. It was only 5 miles. I'm still camped on Mark Twain Lake although I don't have a lake view. I had a lot of those at the beginning of my trip and I miss them. Maybe I'll get lucky again soon. It's a nice quiet campground and I used it for just hunkering down for the fourth of July. In the past, it has been a wild time in the campgrounds during holidays, but this one was quiet and calm. Not many kids running around and fireworks are banned in the COE's. I'm sure the dogs of campers like that a lot.

The driveway slopes a little bit but if you plan ahead you have enough tongue jack to level up.

Most people that know me, know I'm a believer in vibes and signs. That may sound a little counter-intuitive and go against someone with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. I have definitely relied on logic and science all of my personal and professional life and I've paid a price for that a few times in my personal life, hence some of my memory demons. The way I've resolved the conflict is I've sorted things out like, God is the bedrock with science taking a predominate role followed closely with "vibes and signs". Since I retired, science began taking more of a back seat since I didn't need it every day and I found myself relying more and more on my feelings, vibes and signs. Fortunately, I can turn my science side on,,,,wait a minute, that doesn't sound right, let me re-word that. Fortunately, I can use my science side whenever I need it. 

I have always recognized good/bad vibes but since I started traveling solo 10 years ago, I've become more in tune with it. Most of the time, I can get a read on the vibe of a place immediately. That place can be a campground, campsite, whole town, cafe, gas station or an entire state. I'm beginning to sound like a hippie, but I've also began to believe they were about 80% right back then instead of my believing they were 80% wrong. 

I guess I need to try to define what a "good vibe" is all about. Usually, it is an immediate sense of "peace and good will". A feeling that everything is alright. I was just reminded of the biggest good vibe feeling I ever had. It was when I almost rode a motorcycle off a mountain road. I was absolutely sure I was about to die and suddenly I had a complete sense of peace which I have ever since called a "good vibe". A "bad vibe" is the exact opposite. A sense of foreboding (wow, I've never used that word before, but it works here). It can sometimes be a sense of danger or extreme sadness. 

OK, now that I've put in writing my near craziness, I guess I should call out some of the good vibe places I've found in my 10 years of traveling around this great country of ours. By the way, Washington D.C. is a good vibe place for me.

I thought about putting them in order but I decided I couldn't do that. As much as I rank things ie, Reuben sandwiches, states, women, sunsets, etc., I couldn't find a way to rank a feeling. Maybe it's impossible to do so. 

Some may surprise you, I know some surprised me:

Duluth, Minnesota: 

You go down a long hill to reach Duluth and as soon as I started down the hill, I immediately got a good vibe about the whole place. In this case, the good vibe covers the entire area from Duluth to Superior, Wisconsin and up the coast of Lake Superior.

Looking down on Duluth and Lake Superior

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The Columbia River Gorge:

This good vibe area covers the entire length of the river from the Pacific Ocean to the Bonneville Dam. It also includes most of the Oregon coast or at least the northern half. While we're talking about Oregon, I was surprised that I did not get a good vibe while at Crater Lake. It was an absolutely beautiful place and I can fully understand why someone I knew once cried when she first saw it, but it didn't light my vibe meter up one way or the other.

Looking up the Columbia River from the Vista House

One of the best sunsets I've seen. The thing on the beach is what's left of the Peter Iredale, a shipwreck from 1906.

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Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park:

When I explored Sedona, Arizona, I was expecting to be bombarded with good vibes from all of their supposed vortexes, but I wasn't. However, when I explored the Stupa in Sedona, I was immediately surrounded by good vibes and a sudden sense of peace. This is also one of the few places where I could feel the good vibe leaving me as I left the Stupa area. I have personally known other people who have felt the same way, so it may be crazy, but maybe not. It definitely is a little spooky though.

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My first sight of Lake Huron:

I couldn't figure it out at first. The campground I was staying at was Lakeport State Park which is just a little north of where Lake Huron empties into the St. Clair River on its way to Lake Erie. The campground emitted a good vibe but I couldn't put my finger on why. The campsite wasn't easy to back into and there were lots of people around so I expected it to be bad. I found out the reason for the good vibe while walking on the path from the campground to the lake. The lake was the brightest blue I had seen in a very long time. It was a fantastic sight. I thought maybe that was what was giving off the good vibe but it wasn't. On the way back to Liberty, I noticed the pile of small hand-painted stones that I had missed on my way to the lake. I was standing there looking at them when a child walked up to the pile and placed a stone down. He turned to look at his mother for approval and she nodded her head as if to say "good job". I couldn't hold it in any longer and asked about the pile. She said, the campground is a favorite place for the locals and they all come there during the summer. She didn't know when it all started, but during a person's last stay at the campground for the season (fall), they would find a nice stone, which are everywhere around there, and take it home for the winter. During the off season, the family would paint it with personal things then bring it back to the campground on their first camping trip the next year. They would place the stones in a pile and I was looking at the beginning of that pile. The woman said she could recognize the stones of several people she knew. I was there in July and she said by the end of the season, the pile may be 10 times the size that it was. I figured the good vibes for the area were coming from all of those stones. They had absorbed the good vibes of the families as they painted them and placed them in the pile. It was one of my biggest "wow" moments. I've thought about going back to the campground to check it out again, but am worried about tainting a good memory.

Just a pile of stones? or a pile of "good vibes"?

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Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula

I usually go through High Island to get to Galveston. As you leave High Island, you suddenly see the Gulf of Mexico and then turn right. The good vibes begins there on arrival and ends there when you're leaving. You drive next to the Gulf for the entire length of the Bolivar Peninsula. At the end of the peninsula, you catch the free ferry to cross the Houston Ship Chanel to go onto Galveston Island. My family has had several trips/vacations to the island over the last 45 years. All of those good memories add up to good vibes. I thought I might get afflicted by bad vibes on my last visit because I learned something new about the island. I had known for years about the tragedy and thousands of deaths caused by the Hurricane of 1900, but that, surprisingly, never caused me a bad vibe. I've been to other places of mass death and gotten uneasy feelings but not here at Galveston. On my last visit, I learned about the orphans, from the orphanage, that died during the storm after they were tied to each other by a clothesline that was also tied to a nun. This was an attempt to save the children. It didn't work. But as with most things, the silver lining was it helped with finding the bodies after the storm. It seems for weeks after the storm, bodies were being found where the clothesline had snagged on fences, trees or other obstructions. The other twist to the story I learned on my last visit is that Walmart is built on the site of the old Orphanage. Stories are told of toys being mysteriously found on the floor of the toy aisles and children's voices can sometimes be heard. I don't know about that, but I know my Galveston Good Vibe continues even when visiting the Walmart.          

A statue along the seawall for the people who died during the storm. Even with all the tragedy, good vibes are always here for me.

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This is only a few of the good vibe places I've experienced. I may add more in future posts.

Moving day is tomorrow and it is on some two lane roads without any shoulders. Freedom has been acting up a little so I hope she doesn't freak out again.

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.