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
We just spent the last month in (mostly) rural America, driven primarily on back roads. Upon our return home, for some unexplained reason, I logged into my LinkedIn account. Why, you ask? No clue – purely random. I hadn’t logged on in memory (my blog posts do automatically post on LinkedIn – but without my… Read More LinkedIn… and Rural America – Feb 2020
Want to know the most beautiful road in America? We’ll get to that shortly. Patience (Yoda). We finished up our stint at the fireworks show, and were now prepared to head east towards home. But we wanted to map a route that a) was not on interstate highways, b) was pretty and/or interesting, and c)… Read More Eastward Ho! – Feb 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
Spectacular. Simplest way I way can say to describe a short stay at Whitewater Draw. You likely have never heard of Whitewater Draw – I never had. But my bride had and scheduled it into our trip. Whitewater Draw is a wildlife preserve in southern Arizona, located on and around an ephemeral lake – a… Read More Whitewater Draw – Feb 2020
Admittedly our stop in Las Cruces was designed as a “utility” stop… do laundry, shop for food, really cool stuff like that. Awesome you say? Totally! Best. Laundromat. Ever! Kidding. We camped at Siesta RV Park, although “camped” would be better described as “parked”. But as said, our goal was utility and this campground (parking… Read More Las Cruces (NM) – Feb 2020
It’s been three years since our last visit to Big Bend National Park (TX), and we again realize why we love this place so much. It is not for the “epic” things you see (think Mount Rushmore, Half Dome, El Capitan…), but instead the myriad “little” things of beauty here. The fact is, you can… Read More Big Bend NP – Feb 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
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
And so castles made of sand fall in the sea eventually Jimi Hendrix Technically, they will be removed by a bulldozer. But not just yet. And I guess technically they are not sandcastles. Alright, have your way. Check out these sculptures from this year’s Hampton Beach (NH) Master Sand Sculpting Classic! We continue our Northeast… Read More Castles Made of Sand – 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
What comes to mind when you hear Hampton Beach (New Hampshire)? If you are familiar with Hampton Beach, you’ll probably say the beach, the boardwalk, casinos, bars, night clubs, food stands, miniature golf, water slides, concerts, and maybe a roller coaster. If you don’t know Hampton Beach, then maybe you think… ahhh… I don’t know, a beach,… Read More Hampton Beach – Jan 2019
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
Imagine if you will – crossing the state of Nebraska (you know, the corn husker state). This will not be a photo expose; rather, you’re going to have to use your imagination. Imagine driving for hours (days really) and seeing rolling corn fields, train tracks running parallel to the road, and massive farm cooperative… Read More Nebraska – July 2018
Sometimes, the little things are the big things. Originally, we were going to continue heading north from Oregon into Washington State, but we got a better offer, and as a result are heading a bit east, and quickly found ourselves in southwest Wyoming. But not before first stopping in Garden City, UT just a hop,… Read More Rock Springs, WY – July 2018
We have just wrapped up a few days in the Deschutes National Forest in western Oregon, perhaps an hour drive west and south of Bend. I know I sound like a broken record, but two words describe this place: pretty freaking cool. Freaking is not a word, I think we all know that. Deschutes National… Read More Deschutes National Forest – July 2018
Once again keeping our (my) priorities in order, we arrived in Bend for the purpose of tasting some local craft beers. Or bust. Well, we got a little bit of each. But before I get into that, you need (“need” might be an exaggeration) to know about our trip heading into Bend, OR. As a side… Read More Beer or Bust in Bend – July 2018
Continuing in our all-volcano, all-the-time channel, this installment is Crater Lake National Park. What a stunning area – holy crap! Now remember, even though this is a lake, it is really a volcano, caused from the collapse of a volcano that then filled with water. The volcanoes here are over 400,000 years old. Don’t lie to me… Read More Crater Lake NP – July 2018
We visited hell, devastation, chaos, and boiling mud. No, not the nightly news – Lassen Volcanic National Park, in northern California at the southern tip of the Cascade Range. We seem to be entering our “volcanic” period. I guess like volcanoes themselves, you don’t plan for this period. They just happen. Volcanoes happen, as the saying… Read More Lassen Volcanic NP – July 2018
We visited Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa, CA for the July 4th week. Nice!! Santa Cruz. In Santa Cruz we visited with my niece and her family – always great to see them! We camped in a marina – there is a “campground” (about a dozen paved parking spaces with full hookup) in the Santa… Read More 4th of July Week – 2018
As the preeminent surfer dude (not), I think I can report to you on Pismo Beach on the California coast. Gnarly, dude. That’s my report. Clutched in a sliver of land between US 101 and the Pacific Ocean, and about 2 hours north of Santa Barbara, Pismo Beach is kind of a cool little town. Granted… Read More Pismo Beach (CA) – June 2018
I may have found my favorite shiny new object… the town of Lee Vining, CA! We camped here for about a week for a variety of reasons, but one the weather was so cool, as was the town (population 395 on the sign entering the town). The town just had a cool vibe – what… Read More Lee Vining (CA) – June 2018
Sequoia and King’s Canyon (SEKI) NP is a paradise of contradiction. Or maybe there is no contradiction; maybe it is just balance. One thing for which there is no dispute: this place is beautiful. We spent four nights camped at the Lodgepole campground in the park. There are no hookups in the campground, although water is… Read More Sequoia & Kings Canyon NP – June 2018
We continued our trek west. How shameless is it that we are heading to the west coast for a free meal at a wedding? I’ll have the chicken, please. We left Kansas and made the transit across eastern Colorado to Denver and stayed at Cherry Creek SP (highly recommend). Here is where the story goes a… Read More Westward Ho! – June 2018
We have made our way across Kansas and we have come to appreciate Kansas. Often considered a “fly-over” state, this is a really pretty state – we enjoyed it as a “drive-over” state! We have avoided interstates as much as possible, and have held largely to secondary state and county roads. Most of our roads… Read More Kansas – June 2018
As mentioned previously, we are headed west, the first meaningful stop being to visit our son (the poor thing) in Denver. From there we will head further west to Santa Barbara to torment the daughter of one of my best friends at her wedding. We headed west from our highly regarded (by me only) escapade… Read More Heading West – May 2018
Bang a gong, smoke a bong – let’s get this party started! Tell me I didn’t just write that! Jeez. I was recently re-reading some of my prior posts and was thinking – who writes this stuff? Some of my comments go careening off the guardrails, while others feel like an errant missile with a blindfold… Read More Summer Kickoff – May 2018