Camping Outside the Box | Unique RVing Experiences Through Harvest Hosts

This week we're hitting the road for a spontaneous RV camping trip, walk with the alpacas, time travel to the age of locomotives, and visit Stonehenge in North America? Just two hours from Louisville, Kentucky and barely an hour drive from Nashville, Tennessee is the alive and fuzzy alpaca farm in Bowling Green, Kentucky and this is the start of our spontaneous RV camping adventure. I am so excited. We just got checked in to our harvest host and met Elaine and she's going to go round up a alpaca or two for our alpaca walk. This has been on my list of to-do's for a very long time so I cannot wait. And this has not been on my list of to-do's so I will follow while they walk the alpacas and I'll do the filming today. Well so much for that plan. Elaine waved me over and introduced me to Lexus, a six-year-old alpaca. The one thing we had to remember stay on the left side of the alpacas during the walk. I mean how hard could that be? This is Cricket, my alpaca walking buddy. It only took a few circles for Kate and her three-year-old alpaca to find their walking rhythm. Okay maybe more than just a few. As for me and Lexus, let's just say it's not exactly easy to film a walking alpaca with a mind of its own. But eventually we found our groove too. The 20-minute nature walk was a fun way to learn more about the alpacas with a few stops along the way for obstacles and photo ops. We even got to meet some of the studs at the farm and they were very interested in Cricket. Hubba hubba. I think we should get some alpacas. I know that look and it's never good for me. Well my alpaca walking dreams have come true. Cricket was an absolute sweetheart and I loved watching her jump over the little obstacles. The farm store had a wide selection of alpaca products. Scarves, gloves, socks and more. Some of them were handmade by Elaine using fiber from the alpacas right here on the farm. Others were imported from South America. Well so far this harvest host has been great. She's very kind. It's a cool experience but we are going to pop out, head to the store and maybe walk around town a little bit. We wanted to get here before she closed and just check in and everything and we got to do our alpaca walk so that was a lot of fun. But now it's time to stock the fridge and maybe see a little bit of Bowling Green. Established in 1798, Bowling Green, Kentucky is home to Western Kentucky University and the National Corvette Museum and every Corvette has been manufactured here since 1981. And just 30 minutes away is Mammoth Cave National Park, home to the world's longest known cave system. Since we'd already explored those spots on our first visit, this time we kept it simple with a stroll around Fountain Square Park. Mother Nature put on quite a show for us during our drive back to the alpaca farm where we were joined by another camper van all the way from California. We're back at our harvest host for the evening and Kate and I have actually been harvest host members for 10 years now. We love this program because as we travel around the country we get to stay at places like this. We've stayed at farms, distilleries, wineries, museums, all sorts of places. The program has been getting better over the years especially now that we can book our stays online and get a confirmation back. A lot of times you're having to call and try to connect with people and now you just put in a request online and then you get approved or not if they don't have the room for you. Now harvest host has expanded all over the place. There are, I think in this area of Bowling Green alone, I think it's four or five maybe more harvest hosts and we decided to do this because Kate has always wanted to walk an alpaca so she got to live her alpaca dreams today so I'm very happy for her. For a majority of the harvest hosts they'll accept pretty much any size rig. We've camped at harvest host in our 30-foot Class A, multiple vans, truck campers and there's usually room for just about anything. Now to become a harvest host member there is a yearly fee and that gives you access to the online system and you can see all of the hosts that are available in the different areas. When you arrive at a host you're not paying to stay there but they do ask that you patronize the business. So for example if you go to a winery you might do a tasting, buy a bottle of wine or something like that. Here at the alpaca farm we chose to walk the alpacas and that was $40 for both of us. So there are different experiences and different things. Now if you're someone who doesn't drink but you go to a winery or distillery a lot of times there are things you can pick up for friends and family. So they might have a gift shop so you can find some fun t-shirts or something or you buy a bottle of wine or a bottle of booze for a friend who does drink. So there's all sorts of ways to experience these types of locations. The other type of harvest host we have on our list is a drive-in movie theater. So I think that is going to be one of the next things we go and experience. If you're interested in joining Harvest Hosts we'll put a link in the description below along with our discount code for you. For now we're going to enjoy the peace and quiet of the alpacas. They are sound asleep just hanging out. The only ones making a bit of a racket are the geese and they are currently brooding so they're making some noise. Outside of that it's all good and I think we'll get a great night's sleep tonight wake up to this gorgeous farm and then get on our way to the next adventure. We enjoyed the beautiful spring morning on the farm reading our books and listening to the sounds of nature all around us. Breakfast was a bowl of cottage cheese mixed with blueberries. Simple, easy, and oh so satisfying. It is time to pack up and go explore more of Bowling Green. Elaine recommended the train museum in town so we might roll over there and apparently they're also Harvest Hosts so who knows we might end up spending the night there too. It was a short drive to historic rail park and the train museum with plenty of parking options for campers of all sizes. Housed in the former Louisville and Nashville railroad station the museum features several vintage rail cars and offers daily tours through a handful of them. Kate and I arrived just in time to catch one of the morning tours. Our tickets included the guided tour plus access to the various exhibits throughout the museum. Model trains were running as we entered the first exhibit which highlighted the historical significance of the region and the impact of the railroad. Kate and I love visiting smaller regional museums during our travels. They give us a deeper connection to the area. There's always something new to learn and personal stories that bring history to life like the fact that a 36-hour stagecoach ride from Louisville to Nashville was cut down to just nine hours by train. Makes us appreciate being able to drive it in about three. Our 45-minute group tour started with the diesel electric locomotive and moved car by car through the post office car, dining car, and finally the L&N presidential office car. The interactive experience gave us a real sense of what it was like to travel by train and what it took to work on one. We even got to operate the mail hook which would grab mail bags hanging by the tracks as the train sped by at 50 miles per hour. One of our favorite parts of the post office car was learning about the dog Oni, the traveling mascot of the railway mail service. Next up was dining car renamed Duncan Hines to honor the Bowling Green native. The sleeper car gave us a look at the different sleeping arrangements and classes of service available back then. And of course the most luxurious setup was in the presidential office car. Built in 1911, it featured a steel frame, wood finishes, and two sleeping quarters that shared a bathtub. The whole tour reminded us of our overnight train ride to Tibet and reignited our desire to travel by train through some of the world's most scenic regions. Well that was quite an interesting afternoon when we walked in. I actually wasn't expecting too much but we decided to go on the tour and do the museum. The tour was fantastic. Nancy did a great job and just going through all the cars, explaining the different things, showing us the engine, the dining cars, all the different classes, the third, first, and second class passenger areas, and it was a great experience overall. So anyone who's in Bowling Green, definitely come here. It's a lot of fun. Also very educational. I learned so much today from Nancy but also going through the different exhibit areas at the museum. Now it's lunchtime. It is. Ham sandwiches. Let's do that and then coffee. I'll get out of your way. This beautiful cleaver was passed down from Mama Russo and she bought this in the early 70s so it's over 50 years old and it still works great. After sharing a delicious meal in the museum's parking lot, we decided to skip staying the night at this Harvest Hosts location and instead made a slow roll back home. So apparently there's a recreation of Stonehenge in Kentucky and this is on our way home so we figured why not stop and check it out. So this is on someone's private property but they allow you to drive up up until 5 p.m. There's a little donation box and then you can go out and check out Stonehenge. I don't know if I'm still in Kentucky. This is amazing. I thought walking a alpaca was going to be the most interesting part of this trip but I was sorely mistaken. I had no idea that Stonehenge was here in Kentucky but Kate found this on the interwebs while she was doing her little jazz figures. This is cool. This is not something you run into and the fact that the people allow you to come onto their property and walk around and check it out, take photos, and that I think is fantastic. So if this is your Stonehenge, thank you very much. If there are other cool things that we should see around the country, please let us know because we always love finding little gems like this. So that is it for this video. As always, if you enjoyed this, please give it a thumbs up. Subscribe if you haven't already and if you want to see some of our other journeys through the Midwest, Kentucky, and all the different places, check out our YouTube channel, We're the Russos. We'll see you all next time. Bye. This video is sponsored by Harvest Hosts.