Hello Fellow Adventurers!
Gourmet Girl Gail here. If you missed our post last week, it’s because the lights went out in France’s Loire Valley where Denise is setting up camp these days. Her internet, which runs through the phone lines over there, was down due to high winds. With any luck, we’ll be hearing from her next week about the misadventures of tech support in the Loire. LOL!
In the meantime, I had my first experience with Hipcamp a week or so ago. What a delight to spend time at Folly Foot Farm Frolic in Carmel Valley run by super hostess Livia Peterson. A truly unique experience. I drove up and over from Big Sur where I’d spent three days with Gourmet Girl Wendy and her husband, Larry. We had a great time, and I enjoyed showing them a few of my fave spots on the coast, including the Henry Miller Library, Nepenthe, and Deetjen’s.
Kathy Moran, my RV pal, who tends to the Gourmet Girls on Fire website, drove her Winnie up to Carmel Valley to join me in this new Hipcamp adventure.
I don’t know if there’s any connection, but FollyFoot was a TV series based on the novel “Cobbler’s Dream” by Monica Dickens. In this book, the farm was not named. The name “Follyfoot Farm” was devised by Tamara Essex, daughter of the program’s producer and writer Tony Essex, based on the village of Follifoot (note the slightly different spelling) in North Yorkshire, which was a few miles from Hollin Farm, the location used for the farm in the series. Monica Dickens wrote several more books in the early 1970s to coincide with the TV series, and referred to the previously unnamed farm as “Follyfoot Farm” in those books.
According to Hipcamp’s description of Folly Foot Farm Frolic, the site is equal parts working farm, renovation in progress, and Youth Hostel. FollyFoot’s mission is to create a fun, relaxed environment where diversity and community are celebrated! I found this to be true.
Other campers included a husband and wife with a tiny baby, a couple from the Netherlands with their teenage daughter, and a biker couple, among others. It was fun to be with all the humans plus the animals, and stargazing was at its best!
If you’re a camper and looking to get away from the usual camping in a campground experience, I highly recommend checking out Hipcamp! Personally, I’m looking forward to exploring more of these unique spots.
Until next time, keep on adventuring!
Gail, Denise, and Lindsey
#gourmetgirlsonfire
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!! I’m so touched!! Wow!! Just read this a second time. Thinking you maybe didn’t get my response from the first time but the sentiment is essentially the same. BIG XOXO to you!!