Any excuse to go see your kids is a great excuse. We didn’t need an excuse, so off to Denver we went, since it was right on our way to… well, Denver. Queue whisper-like Nat Geo voice: “Here you see the Child Unit in its’ native habitat.” We camped at our go-to campground, Cherry Creek… Read More Denver – Oct 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
Well, another year in the books at Steamboat Springs, CO! Damn, what a great place, great skiing, beautiful area – and the opportunity to spend time with Child Unit 2 and friends! It does not get better. You know it has to be a worthy place to go if it gets me up before the… Read More Steamboat – Mar 2020
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
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
Long post – settle in with a cup of coffee or a cold beer (or two) – a lot of ground to cover. Anyone who has ever had the good fortune to visit or live in Santa Barbara, CA knows how beautiful and how much character this town has. We are here in Santa Barbara… Read More Santa Barbara – June 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
We have been camped in Lee Vining (CA) for a little bit, affording us time to visit Yosemite National Park. More on Lee Vining later, but in or close to Lee Vining on the eastern slope of the Eastern Sierra’s is Mono Lake and the Mono Lake Basin. Mono Lake has a really interesting story,… Read More Mono Lake – June 2018
Yosemite is one of the most popular national parks in the system, and there are two predictable outcomes: the views are extraordinary, and there are a lot of people. We camped in Lee Vining in a pretty cool private RV campground (more on Lee Vining later), and the town is practically adjacent to Yosemite NP. … Read More Yosemite NP – 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 did two things in February we have never done before: 1) stay in one place for more than two weeks, and 2) stay at an RV resort. OK, technically we did stay at an RV resort before (once), but never for this length of time. We essentially spent the month of February in Palm… Read More Palm Springs – Mar 2018
Self-awareness, and its sinister sister self-esteem, had no place on the ski slopes for me this past weekend. I flew into Steamboat Springs, CO for a long weekend skiing tryst of sorts with old North Adams State College friends, one who moved out to Steamboat after college and never left, and one who I traveled… Read More Steamboat – Feb 2018
Marco! Thankfully Karen does not openly voice all her thoughts, but you know this is what she wanted to call out at our first polo event. And people call me the crazy one. Ever been to a polo event? Pretty cool! And you won’t see this game on the Olympics. We have been to a… Read More Polo Anyone? – Feb 2018
Denali Highway. This will be a short post, but important just the same. Important you say? To whom? Well, not to you or me, but maybe someone with a lower threshold. Some of the questions I have received about our trip have been about about camping by the side of the road. My bride tells… Read More Alaska (6) Denali Highway – July 2017
Strap in. Denali. It has taken us 45 days and over 7,300 miles to get from TCPC in Crossville, TN to Denali. How can anyone come away from visiting Denali National Park and not feel… changed? Denali is just one of those special places that you could never appreciate without visiting. This post is intended… Read More Alaska (5) Denali NP – July 2017
Chitina-to-Valdez-to-Anchorage-and beyond. This post is going to be all over the map. Emotionally, metaphorically, geographically… you pick. If your choice was emotionally or metaphorically, you probably found my blog in error. Spellcheck incorrectly sent you to this blog when what you tried to type in was travelwithinterestingpeople.com. Spellcheck: preferred by 9 out of 10 sociopaths.… Read More Alaska (4) Iditarod etc. – June 2017
British Columbia. You are now entering the world famous Alaska Highway! Yes indeed, we have crossed out of Alberta (which was unbelievable), and entered northern British Columbia (BC) just south of Dawson Creek. Now keep in mind that while I title this post British Columbia, that is inherently unfair to British Columbia because we have… Read More British Columbia – May 2017
Almost to the day for me, it has been 3 years since I (we) retired. Oh, how I miss those days of quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly forecasts… And who doesn’t love a well-placed flaming email distributed to the world. After retirement, one is forced to forego the joys and luxury of business travel: cramped… Read More 3 Years Post Retirement – Mar 2017
Just days shy of 10 years ago, my bride and I flew to Maui (Hawaii) for ProClub (a sales rewards trip) with Progress Software. To be honest, I had never been to Hawaii and I was not really that interested, but decided to go nonetheless (this is an all-expense paid first class trip for two,… Read More Time Warp/Maui – 2007
I fully realize looking at someone else’s photos might be close to torture, but none-the-less I put together some of my favorites from our travels in 2016. For me the criteria for choosing these photos was simple: does the photo stir an emotion, trigger a cool memory, or just put a smile on my face.… Read More Favorite 2016 Photos
One of the most common questions I am asked (second only to how exactly did you get Karen to marry you) is what is my favorite place visited this year? Since we have finished our travels for the year, I thought it would be timely to put this list together. I struggle with this question,… Read More Top 10 Places – 2016
The National Park Service was created this month in 1916, one hundred years ago, “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”, and… Read More National Park Service 100th Anniversary – Aug 2016
We are working our way back east after 3 ½ months on the road. We stopped our northwestward journey at the redwoods in California. While we have had a most awesome trip, one-night stands will be the theme of this post. Keep your expectations exceedingly low and you will love this post! While heading east… Read More Heading East – Apr 2016
Here’s the thing about redwoods. There is almost nothing more spectacular, and perhaps nothing so hard to capture in pictures. From Santa Cruz we drove up the coast on CA 1, which by the way is a twisty curvy road with zero cell/internet access. There are spectacular views for the passenger, but for the driver… Read More Humboldt Redwoods – Mar 2016
Santa Cruz is an extra special stop for me, because I got to see my (long since last seen) niece and her family, and had the opportunity to spend some great time with her and her family! Yeah! We camped out at the Santa Cruz Harbor RV Park, which is essentially a marina that has… Read More Santa Cruz – Mar 2016
We are camped in Big Sur on the California coastline, but getting here is half the fun! You won’t find a more beautiful road than California Route 1, particularly from Morro Bay to Carmel. If you haven’t driven it, you need to add it to your list. Pictures don’t do it justice. The coastline and… Read More Big Sur – Mar 2016
Story has it that the Red October was scuttled on a river off the coast of Maine. I beg to differ. We are working our way up the coast of the California Republic, and made it to Morro Bay. For you Dodgers and 49ers fans, Morro Bay sits somewhere between Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara.… Read More Hunt for Red October – Mar 2016