Another successful year for the Canopener! What is the Canopener you say? First and foremost, it is a rally of friends and strangers-soon-to-be-friends of (mostly) Airstream owners. It is a purely democratic event, lead and directed by ad hoc volunteers, with no rules – only, at most, a few guidelines. It is a wonderful event… Read More Canopener – Jan 2022
We don’t write a year-in-review post every year, but when we do, I always start by thinking, what the hell did we even do this past year? And after going through our pictures, I’m like – wow – we did a bunch! Of course, this is not an historical world view of 2021 – just… Read More 2021 in Review – Dec 2021
Let’s talk about Airstream products. Before we begin, we may want to set some parameters. If you are looking for facts, figures – you know, real, valuable information? Whoa. You have WAY overshot your mark by visiting this blog. Now if you’re interested in a half-assed story that is intellectually and factually lacking, well my… Read More Airstreaming Part 3: The Product – Dec 2021
Both my wife and I are card-carrying introverts. You wouldn’t know that from looking at these pictures, but it is true. We generally have a closer affinity to dogs than people. And yet we both feel the community of Airstreamers is one of the most significant attributes of the entire Airstream “thing”. We have created… Read More Airstreaming Part 2: The People – Dec 2021
If you are looking for a campground that is both chill and warm, this might be your ticket. We recently camped for a few days at Forth Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach (FL), on Amelia Island, and it is a hidden gem. This state park is like Fort DeSoto Regional Park (if you have… Read More Fort Clinch – Oct 2021
Good morning, class. Good morning, class. Class? Class!? SHUT UP! Thank you. Now Sister Rosetta has informed me that your assignment for the last two months has been to write an essay entitled How I Spent My Summer Vacation. Who would like to read theirs before the class? Young man in the front row, please… Read More Summer of ’21
RUN! Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… our kids found us! We have moved three times in the last few years, but they keep tracking us down! Next step… Witness Protection. We had Child Unit 1, Child Unit 2, and their significant others here at the cottage… Read More Invasion of the Child Units! – Aug 2021
For some reason, this weekend at TCPC (Tennessee Cumberland Plateau Campground) in Crossville, TN, made me think of Weekend at Bernie’s. No, there was no embezzlement, heroin overdoses, or mafia hitmen (that I know of!), although there were a few shady characters. But there was a lot of laughing. And the weather couldn’t have been… Read More Weekend at Bernie’s (TCPC) – May 2021
If you have come here for how-to tips, you are treading on thin ice. Our law firm, Weir, Gonnaugh, Gettum, Good advises us not to post advice of any kind. Nonetheless, this post is about converting to a single fuel source for our traveling purposes: propane. And more specifically, our last step – converting our… Read More Propane Generator Conversion – May 2021
If you are vegan, please stop reading now. You won’t find anything I say or do even slightly amusing or entertaining. You’ll just get the same feeling my wife feels about me. Many years back during a multi-city, multi-day marketing event, a colleague and good friend who shall remain nameless (Brian Giuffrida) nicknamed our marketing… Read More Carnivore Tour – Apr 2021
I’ll get to Goose Island in a second – bear with me. We are headed to see our kids, and we are jazzed! They moved away. Now we go to them. You can run, but you can’t hide from your parents. Our trip to see our son in Denver begins in Atlanta and heads towards… Read More Goose Island – Apr 2021
Crown jewel. That’s what Oscar Shearer is to the Florida State Park system. Located in Osprey, FL (near Venice on the west coast), this is a flat-out great state park, and it really is a beautiful cocoon away from the hustle and bustle. We may not be the only ones who think that – just… Read More Oscar Shearer State Park – Feb. 2021
The new year has started, and, yes, we are out on the road – albeit without any social plans, dinners out, friends, or family until things get better. We pulled the “Get Out of Cold Weather” card, and decided to head to Florida for a few weeks – warm up a bit. I know Georgia… Read More Head’n South – Jan 2021
Occasionally, one comes across some spectacular event or sighting that stops you in your tracks. This is not that. However, on our trip through the Midwest we came across a few sightings that made us glad we were off the interstate. These (and so many other sightings) make up the rich tapestry of this country… Read More Midwest Corn Musings – Oct 2020
I said to Karen, “Did you know that Sparta, Wisconsin is the bicycling capitol of America?” Duh. It was a layup, right? We all know that. She thinks to herself, what does he know? Less and less as I prove every day. However, there is a billboard on Interstate 90 in Wisconsin that tells you… Read More Bike 4 Trails – Sept 2020
I have posted several “heading west” blog posts over the years. But the truth of the matter is that if you live on the east coast, you inevitably need to, well, head west. I suppose you could go north or south, but really – who does that. Crazy talk. We headed west from New Hampshire… Read More Heading West – Sept 2020
You had to know I would be the one to point out there are meteorological and astronomical ends of summer. “How do you come up with this shit” should your first thought. The mind works in curious ways. So yes, this is the end of the meteorological summer – the 3 months of June, July… Read More End of the Meteorological Summer – Aug 2020
OK, we weren’t really in Atlanta and we didn’t really go to Boston. But you get the idea – we headed north. In our never-ending search for the perfect climate, we have departed the Atlanta area and have headed north to New England. Nothing says leave Atlanta better than 90+ degree temperatures. Our first stop… Read More ATL to BOS – June 2020
Since this is (arguably) a travel blog, I thought I might talk about… travel. You can be forgiven if you have already forgotten what “travel” is. Perhaps this is where you queue the Dave Matthews Band, The Space Between… or the Eagles, Taking it Easy. This post in particular is about tweens. No, not teens,… Read More Tweens – May 2020
You know your unhealthy interest in fireworks is excessive if it has caused you to make a 1,500-mile trip to attend the Western Winter Blast, an assemblage of like-minded individuals who have a slightly outsized and unnatural attraction to exploding cylinder shells. Combine Woodstock (add 40 years to the average attendee’s age), the tailgating of… Read More Lake Havasu City (AZ) – Feb 2020
This will be a short post, but it has been confirmed (photos don’t lie) – the pot of gold is located in the campground dump station! You can all breathe a sigh of relief. Or perhaps that’s not the best analogy. We camped again at Organ Pipe National Monument in southwest Arizona, literally on the… Read More Organ Pipe – Feb 2020
We are camped at an Airstream-only campground (NTAC – North Texas Airstream Community) in Hillsboro, TX as a home base for a few days. I think it is common knowledge that we Airstreamers are like lemmings. “Lemmings have periodic population booms and then disperse in all directions, seeking the food and shelter their natural habitats… Read More Waco – Jan 2020
OK, so it’s been awhile. I know. I thought I no longer needed the self-therapy of writing blog posts, but Karen has convinced me that my mental instability is in dire need of some serious assistance – she has informed me I am neither stable or a genius. WTF. We headed west (from Atlanta) to… Read More Winter Road Trip – Jan 2020
You know life has gone moderately well when you spend a week in Bardstown, KY (the bourbon capitol of the world) to attend the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival. What do you get when you mix good friends and bourbon? In my experience, typically an arrest warrant. Not this time. We were on our very best… Read More Kentucky Bourbon Festival – Sept 2019
This may be our swan song post from New England while living here. With our house for sale but under contract, we have a lot of moving parts in our lives at the moment. We have, though, been able to travel with friends from the Massachusetts coast in Salem, MA, into sea coastal NH, and along… Read More Coastal Maine – July 2019
We descended on Salem, Cape Ann and Boston (MA) for what we have alternately called Our Most Fabulous Trip, or our Northeast Trip. I think Our Most Fabulous Trip conjures up Wayne’s World. Party on, Garth. When I say “we”, I don’t mean the proverbial Brad and Karen. This time we are actually traveling with… Read More North Shore Boston – June 2019
It doesn’t seem possible, but at the end of this month (technically a month later for Karen) we will have been retired for 5 years! What the hell have we done? Retirement, for those uninitiated, is when you shovel your driveway down to bare pavement two hours after a major storm. Being anal retentive helps. Retirement is… Read More 5 Years Post Retirement – Mar 2019
More accurately, this post could have been labeled “Everything Within 5 Miles of our House”. OK, so we haven’t done a lot of traveling in the last few months. Well, except for moving 1,200 miles north. So this post is really more about our November. The Airstream is winterized and tucked away in our yard for… Read More November in New England – Nov 2018
Four years ago I posted about our stay in Hampton, NH, but this time we have a little more of a story to tell. If you remember, only a few weeks ago we were in Bend, OR where we got an invitation to a cookout on the bay in Dover, NH with friends, and decided,… Read More Big Move in Our Future – Aug 2018
Two institutions. Niagara Falls. And Duff’’s. You weren’t expecting me to say the Buffalo Bills I hope. In further testimony to the travails of US Government, US Customs made the mistake of letting us back in the country. We departed the US earlier in the day from Port Huron, Michigan, and made the trek across Canada… Read More Western New York – Aug 2018