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 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
Kansas City Chiefs. Is that a Kansas football team… or a Missouri team? I thought Nurse Karen was going to call a Code as a result of too much BBQ in Kansas City. Yes, we may have pushed the limits on BBQ in this town, but oh so good! Tomorrow it’s vegan for me. That’s a… Read More Kansas City – 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
In today’s environment, it is hard not to talk about the goings on in Washington, our nation’s capitol, without some snarky comment. But the fact is this is a magnificent city! You need a month or two to do any justice to this city, touring neoclassical monuments, endless historic sites, and world-class museums. We visited… Read More Washington, DC – May 2018
Life can be circumstantial. Fortunately, that is not the rule or we as a civilization would be doomed. We exult that we can live our lives beyond our circumstances, beyond our experiences, beyond our immediate conditions – we live for the hope, dream and reality that we can live better, be better, and do better. But… Read More Break the Cycle – May 2018
Holy Crap – Frank is 80! I won’t lie – it gets more than a little weird when you actually know someone who turns 80 years old. How can that be? Like my father before me, I am still only 39. Along the Airstream road, we have met many incredible people. Of course Frank isn’t one of… Read More Frank turns 80! – Apr 2018
I know – if you have to ask, you probably don’t deserve to know. And yet, with all the world’s troubles, I felt this a topic of high worthiness. I mean, we all know who is smarter, right? Or not. In order to answer this perplexing question, I went back over my past pictures –… Read More Cows or Horses Smarter? – Apr 2018
Not a big story here, just a few pictures from TCPC on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. Spring has sprung! Or maybe not so much. On Monday (happy belated Patriots Day for my peeps in and around Boston) we had just a beautiful dusting of snow on our wonderful (sorry, Airstream only) campground…
Yup – we just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary! Truth be told, more often than not we have forgotten our anniversary over the years. That is cool, but only if you both forget it. I have known Karen since 1stgrade, and we graduated high school together. But we traveled in different orbits. She would have you… Read More 30th Anniversary – Apr 2018
Plan B. My original plan (Plan A) after this past weekend was to report back to you my detailed and hugely successful and tasty recipe for smoking a ham. Not so much. You most likely do not recall my post from three years ago (2015) about the ham I prepared and smoked for Easter, but… Read More Easter Ham – Apr 2018
Happy birthday to this blog! Yes indeed, it has been 5 years! Technically I started this blog on Tumblr and then moved to its current WordPress platform, but it is 5 years old this month! The genesis of the blog was to find a vehicle to keep friends and family apprised of our photos, tales,… Read More Blog 5 Years Old! – Mar 2018
It didn’t take much more than a trip to Austin, TX to inspire me to recommit to the fine art of smoking – meat, that is. While I have greatly enjoyed my Grill Dome Kamado style smoker, it did not have the cooking surface size I wanted, and I was really looking for a wood-fueled… Read More Smokin!!!!! – Mar 2018
Some of my readers have been asking me, “Brad, when are you going to do a post on high tension electrical power lines?” Well, your wait is over! When I am towing our trailer over the open roads, my mind is busy. That is probably not a good thing because I contemplate some crazy shit.… Read More Power Lines – Mar 2018
If our stay in Palm Springs was sublime, then our very short stay in Austin was ridiculous. We LOVE Austin, although this time around we did not get to stay nearly long enough as we would like – practically an overnight. We traveled from Palm Springs and a campground (Outdoor Resort) that was very homogenous,… Read More Austin – Mar 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
One of the big deals in Palm Springs during February is Modernism Week, which is all about mid-century modern architecture and design, which I would highly recommend attending (see my previous posts from 2015 on Modernism: A, B, C and D). If you haven’t been to Palm Springs, there really is some fabulous 50’s era… Read More Palm Springs Trailer Trash – Feb 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
“Picture yourself in a boat on a river, With tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Someone calls you, you answer quite slowly, A girl with kaleidoscope eyes….” On our journey west, we stopped in Rodeo, NM, a place known (by astronomers) for its viewing potential into the deep, dark skies. Oddly enough, we showed up on… Read More Deep Skies – Feb 2018
I never should have been in sales. I didn’t fit the persona. I don’t have a competitive bone in my body; I am an introvert; and I like dogs more than people. Now if you are a former sales manager of mine who for some unlikely strange reason reads this, you may be saying, oh… Read More Admissions from a Sales Guy – Feb 2018
You may or may not recognize the name Ivy Green, but you likely know something about Helen Keller. While in Muscle Shoals, or more technically, Tuscumbia, AL, I visited the birthplace of Helen Keller – Ivy Green. Like probably most people, I knew walking in a little bit about Helen’s life, but I was ignorant. What… Read More Ivy Green – Jan 2018
Music meccas… New York, LA, Boston, Nashville, Memphis, Muscle Shoals… Wait, what? Do the names Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, the Black Keys, Etta James, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Boz Scaggs, Lynard Skynard, Duane Allman, or Wilson Pickett ring a bell? They (and many more) all recorded great music – in the Muscle Shoals… Read More Muscle Shoals – Jan 2018
I am going to tell you a story. Mind you, this is really not my story to tell, but I will share it nonetheless. Many of my stories are vicarious views through windows into others lives, served up through my somewhat twisted lens. Few would disagree that my perspective can be awry. Disclaimer: While I… Read More Going the Distance – Jan 2018