Name: Allison Padilla
Title: Day to day operations
Favorite Food: Cheese anything
Hometown: Phoenix Az
Involved with JMP: 2 years
Least Favorite Moment With JMP:
Mosquitoes! I loathe mosquitoes! Of course nobody likes them but in the two years traveling they have become one of the peskiest parts of living on the road. One instance comes to mind where the mosquitoes became unbearable. September 2010 Crater Lake National Park camp ground: With the snow melt taking place at the park, the mosquitoes were in full attack mode swarming from pond to pond latching upon their victims. After hours of swatting and cussing out in frustration it was time to retreat back to our campsite for the evening to relax. Or so we thought.
Our site was located right on top of a snowmelt pond infested with mosquitoes. The old Aristocrate Trailer we were traveling in at the time was hardly airproof. The decaying trailer had so many nooks and crannies the mosquitoes had no problem crawling their way in to our home. I can still hear the never ending buzz of those horrible insects as I tried to enclose myself in my sleeping bag for protection. Flailing around swatting and scratching forced us to finally retreat to our car for an uncomfortable sleep on the back seat. The next day we woke up with scars and bites all over as our bodies.
We still deal with mosquitoes all the time but never again in the same intensity we did during our Fall visit to Crater Lake in 2010. The site and sound of those horrible blood sucking creatures still makes my skin crawl.
Favorite Moment With JMP:
It is hard to say what my favorite time living on the road has been. We have a very gratifying life to limit it to one instance so I think I have to be a little broader in my answer so here is my list of my favorite parts to living on the road (in no particular order):
1. Visiting some where new
2. Free Camping
3. No park rangers or cops
4. Walmarts (overnight camping)
5. Day hikes
6. Beer and burgers – particularly at Deschutes Brewery
7. Pacific Northwest
8. Quartzite
9. Truck Stops
10. Diners
11. Mount Rainier National Park
12. Glacier National Park
13. Planning and executing our next destination road trip
14. Falling asleep under the stars
15. Taking a bath in a river/lake
16. Taking a bath in not freezing water
17. Taking a bath in general (two weeks with out one can get stinky)
18. RV Dump Sites (when we need to dump)
19. Bowling on the road
20. Bend, OR (and surrounding wilderness)
21. And of course beautiful sunrises and sunsets
