When we started our journey, we were super lucky to be able to visit tons of friends and family members. We saw friends and/or family monthly at a minimum for the first 7 months of our trip! Unfortunately, the further we got from the southeast, the fewer friends we were visiting. We saw some in Austin, TX, but after that we didn’t really have plans to see anyone for a while. As a result, we started looking into RV groups and their meetups to get some social interaction.
First Xscapers Event
A lot of the RV’ers we follow on Instagram have posted about Xscapers events and one was going to be in Salida over the Fourth of July. As we mentioned before, Austin has spent a few summers in the Salida/Buena Vista area and it is an awesome area. We decided the Xscapers Convergence was worth a try so we registered. We had no idea what to expect, but were excited for the possibilities.
After a long day of travel from Golden, we got to the convergence. We settled in just before the welcome meet and greet. We had a good time meeting a few people that night and mingling with everyone. Upon realizing it was our first event, one girl gave us some good advice. She said we won’t mesh with everyone, but that there will be some we do mesh with. That advice was pretty spot on! We met a few other people that we feel like we really got along with so that was great.
The convergence was definitely fun – in some ways it reminded us both of the excitement of homecoming week in high school. There’s an event every day and it is a lot to take in! One of the big highlights of the week was walking in Salida’s Fourth of July parade. Walking in it didn’t appeal to either one of us, but we still watched the parade! Salida is a cute town and it was the perfect place to celebrate America’s birthday.
Love the river rafts – definitely a mountain town! 
Xscapers walking in the parade
Good Times in Buena Vista
A highlight of the week for us was getting to see some of Austin’s old friends from when he used to live here. We hung out with them a few times during the week – it was super fun! We met for dinner at a super casual place on the river and closed the place down two different nights catching up. Austin and his friends spent a lot of time on Twin Lakes when he lived out here. For old times sake, we all went out to the lake one afternoon and had a blast. We had a couple of rented paddleboards and our kayak. It was a great afternoon!!
The dog moved from front to back the whole time! 
AC Replacement
When we were in Terlingua a few months ago our main AC went out. We haven’t worried about it too much because the weather has been great and we haven’t really needed it. However, after Salida we are heading to Moab and it is going to be hot there! Therefore, we had the new AC shipped to us in Salida. Now – we have to get it installed. The installation is super easy – the trick is getting the new unit up to the roof and the old one down. We had the idea to call the local Ace Hardware and see if they would be willing to forklift it up to the roof for us – they were!! It was so nice of them and made the job SUPER easy. We can’t thank them enough! It’s great to have AC again!
It was a great week meeting new people and seeing old friends. We already have plans to meet up with some of our new friends when we get to Moab. Also, it is nice knowing that we know so many more people that are also full time RVing. Hopefully our paths cross with a lot of them again soon!
