In this informal travel vlog, the host (Speaker A) visits Aaron and Denise Scholes, a hobby‑farmer couple in Pueblo, Colorado. The segment opens with a quick check of the van’s battery and solar‑charging status after a night of off‑grid power use. The Scholes family prepares a farm‑fresh breakfast of zucchini hash, pancakes, sprouts, and Swiss chard, while discussing their self‑sufficiency goals, garden crops, goat‑related challenges, and guinea‑fowl care. After a brief interaction with the guinea fowl, the crew navigates the van out of a tight driveway, arrives at an RV park with natural hot springs, and comments on the campground amenities. The vlog then proceeds to the nearby sand dunes, describing the weather, wind, and the experience of driving over the dunes. Throughout, the host expresses enthusiasm for the lifestyle, gratitude to the hosts, and optimism about the upcoming climb to 11,000‑foot elevations.
Chapters
Hello Colorado! Mountains everywhere! Is this not beautiful? Uh-oh, what happened? Just cleaning up a little bit before we go. We're at some fan's house. They hosted us. It's been great since we're just here one night. We didn't plug in. We used a lot of our batteries last night. This is green when the batteries are fully charged. This is when the batteries are charging, I believe. This is an indicator light for charger. It's charging. I think once this comes all clear, there's a little bit of black there, that'll mean the batteries are fully charged and this will go to green. Let's hope so. Let's hope nothing's wrong. Right now though, they've graciously cooked us breakfast. Let's go do that. Full sun hitting those solar panels. I don't think it would take too long to completely charge them. Hey there, buddy. You holding the door for me? Thank you, guys. You want to be in the vlog? You're in the vlog.
My goal is when this depot is finally closed in 5 years, probably to be self-sufficient doing something.
And look at this breakfast. Tell us about this breakfast.
We are doing zucchini hash, which Becca told us about. And so I'm just figuring this out.
Did you tell them this morning?
No, I told them last night.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, okay, cool. You guys are quick learners.
Zucchini from our land. Pancakes. I'm having some with sprouts and some of our Swiss chard. You can try some. There you go. Do you like it?
Not sure about that.
No, it's good.
I mean, it's good for me.
Let's say that.
Aaron and Denise Scholes. We just bought a place to start hobby farming, work into homesteading. In Pueblo, Colorado. Right now we just have a family garden. We're growing pumpkins, watermelon, beans. Our goats destroyed our pea crop. We threw some wheat in the back field for the goats. We're trying to harvest that by hand.
Okay.
We're learning how to do that, but that's been kind of fun. That's where the sprouts came from.
Why do you do what you do?
Um, lots of reasons. Yeah, well, we really care about our health and doing research. We're concerned about some of the practices, you know, that may be mainstream. We're not trying to blame any specific individual, but we think the way the system's working isn't necessarily in our best interest. So we'd like to help other people and help ourselves live better lifestyles. Plus, there's something satisfying about doing it yourself too.
Cool. Thanks for doing what you're doing. Yeah, thank you. Done with breakfast. I just got word that he's got guinea clowns that come when you call them. Let's go do it, buddy.
Maybe.
And then I'm gonna keep cleaning up the bus. Okay, cool. Going to the sand dunes today. Colorado sand dunes.
Alright, I heard them over here, so let's see.
Hey, guinea guinea guinea guineas! Hey, guinea guinea guinea guineas! I hear them. Okay, your guineas aren't coming, buddy.
How'd you get them to come to you? Well, we didn't want them to leave.
Cause we heard that, you know, we've seen your blog and we've read from other people that guineas are kind of volatile. They might just leave and go. And we don't have 5 acres to keep them on. There's a busy road out there.
I don't know if you can hear a word I'm saying.
I can, you're right.
But, um, so we read someone said if you get them, you put them on your shoulder and you feed them like 15 minutes, 5 times a day. We're like, forget that. So we just had them in their little pen. We kind of sit there in a circle, and when they were keets, they'd come out and we'd just feed them by hand a few times a week.
Back in the bus. Look here, look here. We're doing good. We're in the green. Come on guys, let's say goodbye. All right, bye-bye.
Bye. Bye. Thank you for coming.
Thank you for coming.
Thank you for coming. Thank you.
You getting tired, Beck? What?
Sorry.
These are hard-working people.
You know what we're talking about, right? Thank you for having us. I so appreciate it.
Thank you for coming.
It's like when somebody says, have a safe trip, and you say, you too. Automatic. They're not going anywhere.
Try not to trip on the bottle. You guys have fun.
All right. Okay guys, thanks for hosting us.
Yes, thank you.
Keep on keeping on.
Thanks for all you do.
Yeah, wish us luck. We're climbing over 11,000 feet today.
I think we're going almost to 11,000.
So we're gonna get to try her out. Good luck, baby. Up and down.
I know. Thank you.
Thank you.
Come on, you can do it!
About ready to leave. I'm checking out this exit. Yeah, this is the post I accidentally ran into yesterday, broke off the gray water. I definitely can't go right with one shot. I'm a little nervous I can't go left. You can't back up with the car attached. I can make it if, you know, maybe I back up once or twice. I might be able to make it one shot, but I'm not 100% sure. So I think I feel better if we hook up the car out on the road. Here we go, we're gonna try to get out of this driveway. Can't go too wide, there's a ditch over there, that would be bad. Okay, here it goes. Coast is clear. Ah, look at that, I'm making it, no problem. Arriving at the, uh, the RV park.
That's a nice campground.
Hey, and here's a basketball court, guys, if you guys want to go play some b-ball.
I don't want to play no b-ball. Why not?
We're at the hot springs. You think I came in the right area?
I don't want to go play b-ball. I like b-ball.
RV park.
RV centers and heavy— You know where I want to go? I want to go swimming.
All right, so let me get her home.
We have arrived safe and sound. Beautiful campground. Natural hot springs here. The mountains were not nearly as bad as we thought. Well, one, they weren't 11,000 feet, and two, it was very gradual. And it's not nearly as stressful as you imagine it. Once we were in it, I was like, okay, we got this. But anyway, super fun day. Gonna go to the sand dunes, then I'm gonna come back to the natural hot springs. But first we gotta get the van off.
I need the business card.
That was easy. All done. Waiting for the folks, then we'll go. Got everything situated back at Maple, and now the Sand Dunes. Let's just hope that rain holds out for us, babe.
I know.
Oh boy, we're at the sand dunes. Guys, it's starting to sprinkle. Should we get moving, Mom?
Let's go do the sand dunes.
Come on, buddy.
Come on, you can keep up.
Come on, let's go. Come on, Mama. Come on, Mud Runners, where you at? So proud of these guys, they're killing it, and they're killing me. Oh, that was fun while it lasted. No amount of wind protection on the mic is gonna prevent wind noise here, man. This is crazy. The wind picked up out of nowhere. It's time to go anyway. No wind.
That wind got crazy there at the end.
Was Sand Dunes everything you expected it to be?
Oh, it was more.
Next clip, Artisan Hot Springs. That was a super fun day. I think that might have been one of the funnest days of the tour, and I can't really think of anything that went wrong. It seems like it was absolutely perfect. But if you're interested in some of the struggles that we face on this tour, be sure to check out yesterday's video.
