You know the background here: after two weeks in New York, we turned south to Virginia to wait on a couple of doctors—which’ll determine where we’re going next—and this change of plans meant we had no camping reservations for the summer. We were in a pickle. When my good friend Mary Margaret offered us her […]
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Two Bands, Four Styles, Several Surprises, One Happy Me
“Is this the The Other One?” I can’t believe I’m about to ask this of a guy who looks to be the dad of the band we’re watching at a park in Upstate New York. The kids in the band are blaring distorted guitar and screaming vocals; they’re metal in every way. There is no […]
Surprising Watkins Glen
I could tell before we pulled into the campground that I was going to hate this place. Tons of out-of-town traffic, signs and parking lots for shuttles, restaurants and gift shops, all for some bunch of waterfalls or something. But Tracy insisted I go on a certain short hike he’d been on years ago. He […]
The Absolute Freaking Weirdness of this Lifestyle
This hometown week on the Friends and Family Tour ‘24 has been a honking-big, tangled-up knot of red-hot emotions. It’s not just been about seeing people I haven’t seen in years. It’s been about being struck by aging (and in a flash of recognition that really should be hidden). It’s been about cramming what we’ve […]
Our Fav Happy Hour Lives on in Delaware
This story began with a coupon book full of a year’s worth of deals at a brewery. This was no ordinary coupon book, though. See, back in Bethesda, Maryland, Tracy and I used to meet friends Bob and Ben after work occasionally for a beer. One day, Bob and Tracy bought Ben and me special […]
Santa Had a Sleigh Wreck
I was riding my bike back from the mailroom here at the RV park in Brownsville, with a couple of Christmas packages strapped to my basket (and by “strapped” I mean teetering one on top of the other behind me, no actual strap involved). The boxes started to shift, I did an ill-considered twist to […]
For Itinerants, We Sure Settle Down Well
I’d forgotten that a friendly Canadian gave me her tiki bar sign right off her campsite post in Alberta a couple of summers ago. Here, in the Tip o’ Texas, we’ve been unpacking storage spots in the Airstream that I didn’t realize we had (which is saying something) and finding things like tiki bar signs […]
Overactive Stranger-Reader Alert
I’ve never sought out readers here; I even clicked a box to keep this website from popping up when anyone googles it. You know that I started writing it only as a way to keep friends in the loop with where we were. So, I don’t have a lot of readers. I dunno, maybe 50 […]
Things That Move Along the Shore
The land here on Padre Island National Seashore is like one long, flat sand dune. We watch northern harriers fly beside the shoreline hunting for rodents and we see crested caracaras perch on the few high spots to peer into the grasses. A healthy-sized coyote stared us down along the road, and (I mentioned this […]
Happy Funhouse of Light Thanksgiving
I was about to say that I should post on Thanksgiving if only to commemorate where we are, since I love looking back at anniversaries. There was our first Thanksgiving in the beautiful Everglades, the next one boondocking in windy Joshua Tree, then camping right in New Orleans (which feels like last week, not last […]
