If you’re lucky enough to have been able to take a vacation, you know that the whole point is to be away from regular life. You want to be physically away, in a new place, where you can forget about your usual worries, where you get out of your routine, where normal life is suspended. If you’re lucky […]
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Beauty and the Stress
My friend Whit shared a NYT article with me yesterday about the contrast between the shiny social media portrayal of #VanLife and the sometimes-miserable day-to-day reality of constant life and travel in such a small space. You guys know this is a multi-layered theme for me here. It’s easy to make fun of the trendy […]
We Are All Caricatures of Ourselves
When we were in Texas, I mentioned this quote (by my sister’s friend), referring to Texans. The sentence in full—that I love so much—goes, “Texans are caricatures of themselves and they don’t even know it.” It turns out you can find people and places that exemplify caricatures all over the country. Texas is just an […]
Our Second-year Nomadiversary
Yep, two years ago today, we left Tracy’s house and took off in the Airstream. What a shocking and terrible and adventure-filled, wonderful year that was. On that anniversary, for my own amusement I compiled one photo per month in this post: first-year nomadiversary. The next year included a homecoming reunion with everyone we miss, […]
Blogging in Dark Times
As I write this, I’m thinking about the war in Ukraine. Yet, almost two years ago, I wrote about the weirdness of “living on vacation” and writing about it when the rest of the world seems like it’s on fire (George Floyd had just been killed). I’ve blogged about my nomadic life during the worst […]
Cave Troll Plots Escape from Mars
Okay, maybe I’m taking these metaphors too far. But a travel blogger who finds herself stationary in a near-lifeless desert and then gets stuck in her bedroom, thus reducing her world to a smaller sphere than her readers’, has to resort to colorful language. The good news behind all the flourish is that this cave […]
I’ve Become a Cave Troll
I am feeling better than the last time I posted, really I am. At five days after the onset of covid symptoms, my symptoms were mostly better, and I’m fever free. I was even a little optimistic. And then I took another at-home covid test. My sample showed positive so quickly and clearly that at […]
Isolating in 60 Square Feet
No one wants to hear details about someone being sick (eww), but you may be interested in how Tracy and I are trying to isolate from each other in the 200-sq-ft trailer, as I’ve caught the Omicron virus and, so far, Tracy’s not showing any symptoms and certainly doesn’t want to catch it from me. […]
Your Favorite Posts from 2021
As of January 2, 2022, I will have been maintaining this blog for two years. Over that time, we’ve camped at 111 locations, and I’ve written 352 posts in total. Dude. Here we go with the most clicked-on posts from Going Down the Road from 2021. (Note that these are not all my favorites, but […]
Why Do People Come Here?
I’m still mulling over possible reasons. They should be obvious, but I can’t wrap my head around it. Here’s a quick recap from my previous posts about Imperial Dam LTVA (long-term visitors’ area). Cons That pictures above is not of the LTVA, although I snapped it while I was taking the trash to the dumpsters […]
