Find…

Little Red Vardo Gypsy Wagon Road Trip

Published October 13, 2021

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

This week, my wife Julia and I hitched our little red vardo gypsy wagon to the Subaru and headed west. It’s the same wagon my mule Polly pulled across most of Newfoundland and then through Pamlico County in eastern North Carolina. It featured in the “Our State” / UNC-TV’s episode “Mule Rider” which won a regional Emmy Award for director Morgan Potts.

Loading up the little red gypsy wagon that mule Polly pulled across Newfoundland — Loading up L’il Red. I also call it the Newfie Wagon because my mule Polly pulled it across most of Newfoundland. I built it in the barn you can see behind the wagon. Pictured are the spare tire, tire iron, wash basin, stove pipe, and skillet. I designed the wagon myself. It takes influences from vardos, gypsy wagons, and sheepherder wagons.

“Mule Rider”: just click on the arrow between mule Polly and me to watch the video. She’s pulling the same wagon Julia and I are taking on our road trip. (Directed by Morgan Potts)

Why We’re Heading West in our Little Wagon

Julia and I hope to travel the West with our horses and mules next year. The plan is to trailer our critters to our starting point somewhere between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean and tour our nation’s public lands by saddle. While we’re out West, we hope to do a Friday night podcast in addition to posting on my website RiverEarth.com and Julia’s site ConsideringAnimals.com.

The goal of our current trip west with our little red wagon is to find out where we might start our saddle trip. Montana? Colorado? Wyoming? We’re still not sure exactly which state we’ll start riding in, but we have a sense of what we’re looking for.

The biggest challenge of long-distance saddle travel is finding grass, water, and shelter for our horses and mules. We won’t have a support vehicle following us on our trip so we won’t be able to rely on someone bringing us provisions as we travel. That means we’ll need to travel during spring and summer in areas where grass grows and water flows. That can be hard to find out West.

In addition, we’ll need to think of wildfires. In the last few years, much of the West has burned. If you’re traveling in a car, you can avoid the parts that are on fire. If you’re traveling with a horse or mule, it’s harder to get out of the way of a fast-moving fire.

Right now, we have three areas in mind. They are:

Oregon
Along the Rocky Mountains from Montana toward New Mexico
New Mexico and Colorado

Bernie Harberts' cart rigged for pony Maggie to carry water outside Gila Bend, Arizona — In 2004/5 I traveled from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean with my mule Woody and pony Maggie. Some of the land I traveled through was so dry I rigged a cart for Maggie to pull so we could carry water with us. (outside Gila Bend, Arizona)

A Few Photos From our Current Road Trip

I thought you’d enjoy seeing some of the land and meeting some of the people Julia and I are meeting on our exploratory road trip. Here, in no particular order, are some photos from our first few days on the road. We started in Caldwell County in western North Carolina and are heading to Oregon. I’ll post a few photos every few days and let you know what we’re finding. Enjoy!

Welcome to Bernie and Julia's gypsy camper wagon — Welcome to our camper wagon.

Interior of the gypsy wagon set up for sleeping with wood stove and shelves — The interior set up for sleeping. There’s also a small wood stove, a desk and shelves for cooking and writing gear. The ceiling is made of plywood strips bent over red oak frames. The covering is a blanket covered in a white tarp and a painter’s drop cloth painted with roof paint. No, we’re not traveling with a dog. That’s a pillow.

Gypsy wagon hooked up to the Subaru Crosstrek and ready to travel — Hooked and ready to go: we’re pulling the trailer with a Subaru Crosstrek.

We rarely know where we’re going to sleep. Some nights, we end up in beautiful spots like the Bixby Public Access campsite outside Douglas, Wyoming.

Overnight stop at a Cracker Barrel parking lot on the road trip — Other nights, we end up sleeping wherever night catches us, like Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel always struck me as the place to go for iced tea, rocking chairs, boring white food like chicken and dumplings and beans cooked so long they turn gray. Cracker Barrel became my new favorite restaurant on this trip when we discovered they offer beer and parking spots for RVs.

Small gypsy wagon rig looking tiny next to large trucks on the highway — Our rig looking ridiculously small compared to the trucks we share the road with.

Windmill display in Mullen, Nebraska — Visiting a windmill display in Mullen, Nebraska.

Bernie Harberts boiling water for coffee on a BioLite wood-fired stove — Home cookin’ on the road. Julia and I enjoy camp cooking. We use a BioLite stove that uses wood instead of propane or gasoline for fuel. Here, I’m boiling water for coffee. I have reviewed the BioLite stove after a month of use here.

Wood box packed with favorite foods for the road trip — Our food chest. Before we headed out, we packed a wood box with our favorite foods so we didn’t have to eat too much junk on the road. The box is stored in the back of the car and is easy to get to.

More on the L’il Red Wagon

I built the wagon in my barn a few years ago. It’s based on a trailer frame I bought from Northern Tool. Here are some photos and links of how I built it.

Trailer kit used to build the gypsy wagon — The trailer kit

Gypsy wagon frame covered with a blanket during construction — The trailer kit

Mule Polly pulling the gypsy wagon outside Maberly, Newfoundland — Mule Polly pulls the wagon outside Maberly, Newfoundland. The wagon attached to the two-wheeled cart that Polly pulled. It can also be towed behind a pickup or small car.

Here are some links to posts of my wagon voyage across Newfoundland with my mule Polly

More adventures by horse and mule: Travel by Horse and Mule.

Let's Keep in Touch

Sign up for The River, the RiverEarth newsletter, for occasional doses of rambling and homestead life. Plus you'll get a free copy of my 155-page illustrated ebook 19 Million Mule Steps.

Just enter your email below and hit Subscribe.

Explore More of RiverEarth

6 Responses to Little Red Vardo Gypsy Wagon Road Trip

Pingback: BioLite Stove Review: Now We're Cooking With Wood - RiverEarth.com
Pingback: Dealing With Lesbians and Fur Beings in the Sandhills of Nebraska - RiverEarth.com
Christian Harberts on October 13, 2022 at 3:36 am

Man, so happy to see the “Newphie Wagon” back on the road! As you may recall, I wrote all kinds of content in the cozy confines of the little arch-backed ark. I guess not enough room for two concurrent artists working in the same space, but you’ve already spelled out the solution – Cracker Barrel. Since when can you buy beer at Cracker Barrel? My productivity would plummet, under those circumstances… Plan B could be the RV nomad’s oasis, aka Walmart. But, that’s not got quite the nice friendly aura of your current choice.

Regardless of your choice of venues, hope you’ll meet some RV folks and do your usual magic showing the best of “ordinary” people – we all need regular doses of that!

C

Reply
- Bernie on October 19, 2022 at 12:16 am
  
  The Newfie wagon is a content-churning machine! We’re making up for the last six months it spent in the barn with plenty of updates from the hinterlands – okay, with a few posts from Cracker Barrel along the way. I’ll have to commission you for a pen sketch of the wagon in exchange for a night aboard. We sure look forward to seeing you soon! Bernie
  
  Reply
  - Christian on October 24, 2022 at 9:12 am
    
    Pen sketch? NOW we’re talking!
    
    (You do know that it won’t be red, right?)
    
    C
    
    Reply
    - Bernie on October 26, 2022 at 1:24 pm
      
      Yes. The 24-foot-long 2021 SuperDuty SuperCab 6.9 liter SuperStroke towing the eight-foot long Newfie Wagon!
      
      Reply