In the last couple of days we’ve attended Charros Days (a celebration of international goodwill between Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico): plus a competitive rodeo distinctly celebrating the US of A, with much machoism. I’ve gotten quite the vision of people here in the Rio Grande Valley. Charro Days has just begun, but the first […]
Author: Shelly
Former nomad, currently adjusting.
Tiny Victorian House
Oh, this Tiny House confounded me! From the breakable thin pieces of wood to the cloth that wouldn’t cut straight to the anachronistic Victrola next to the TV set, it was a tough one to figure out. I Make Everything, Kind of Before I get to the difficult items and the cool stuff, here’s a […]
Oh So Brownsville
Tracy saw a stray dog in Lowe’s the other day, just trotting down the aisles like it lived there. Then he heard an announcement over the loudspeaker: “If anyone’s lost a tan dog, it’s in plumbing.” Well, that’s optimistic on several counts. Next, an employee tried to shoo it out the front doors, but it […]
When You’ve Done So Much You Forget It All
That image up top is from three years ago today, the first night we slept in our new home. Okay, it was in the dealer parking lot in New Jersey and our next-day destination was a storage lot in Maryland, but still. That feels like a lifetime ago. When someone asks me about a particular […]
Tracy the Cable Guy (aka: How He Installed Starlink)
Tracy’s been hard at work since we got here figuring out how our Starlink satellite system can be fitted for us. The whole thing is complicated, and, like with our solar and lithium battery set-up, I am not the person to explain it. I’m the one you’re stuck with, though, so here goes with a […]
I Am My Parents More Than Ever
This entry is part of my personal series on grief, called Wish You Were There, that’s unrelated to travel. It’s been 40 years since my mom and dad were together, but there’s a story about them that I’ve realized keeps getting bigger for me. The gist is that Dad was always out pushing boundaries, while […]
I Got More than Cheap Dental Work in Mexico
Last year we parked at the border with Mexico and walked into Los Algodones for dental work, and it was a bit of an eye-opener for me, not as much in how Mexicans live but in the discrepancy in cost of living for any humans. This winter we’re way southeast, maybe closer to an authentic […]
2022 in Photos
January: Mars (Southwest Arizona) February: Southern Arizona March: Western Arizona April: Southern California May: California Coast June: Oregon, Washington Coast July: British Columbia, Alberta August: Winnipeg, Ontario, Minnesota September: The Midwest October: Tennessee November: Arkansas & Louisiana December: Louisiana & Texas
Rocket Ranch
A big attraction near Brownsville is SpaceX, a half-hour from us near Boca Chica Beach. This huge facility—with the Starbase production site on one side of the road and the launch pad on the other—draws in gawkers of all types, some who want to be up close during launches. Rocket Ranch is a campground that […]
How to Juggle Mattresses
We’ve been sleeping on the mattress Airstream provides for almost three years now, which, in RV-mattress years, has to be waaaay too long. (The average person with an RV spends 35 days per year in theirs, and Finn tells me that means we’ve spent 30 years in ours in a direct comparison.) My point is: […]
