Dear Pacific Northwest Rainforest: Why do you have to be so wet and cold? I understand the wet part, and I hear the cold part is actually “mild” during the winter. But man oh man have we been cold and wet. It’s worth repeating. Don’t get me wrong. The forest has been lush and otherworldly, and I’m glad […]
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Hoh Rainforest
We’re in Washington State, in Hoh Rainforest within Olympic National Park. I don’t have cell service here, just what I can squeeze from the jetpack on Tracy’s plan very early in the morning, so I’ll be quick. National Park Camping I’d forgotten that, in popular national parks, you have to hike popular hikes before 10 […]
Banjo Goes Cracker Dog at the Beach
In my last entry, I wrote about the diverse—and crowded—campground we’re in at Nahalem Bay State Park, on the coast west of Portland, Oregon. Yeah, I bitch about campgrounds and am amazed by the people in them, and it’s true that this is the largest one we’ve been on on this Pacific Coast leg that’s […]
Buzz the Elk, Land Your Plane, Pitch Your Tent
Most of the campgrounds we’ve stayed in across the country are designed with the usual drive-around loops, with sites along each side for RVs or tents. Sometimes the sites are in a grid, sometimes set around a reservoir or lake. But they’re all about driving in and where you park your vehicle. Hike in & […]
“She Gets Excited Easily”
That’s how Tracy excused me when I suddenly jumped up and left our weekly Zoom trivia game. Go Team Donner Party! Just without me for a bit. There was a whale within sight, and I had to grab the binoculars to watch it surface. This was the third majorly wonderful wild animal spotting in a […]
Am I on Vacation?
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 […]
Peering at the Ocean, Peering under Rocks
Damn this cold and wind. I feel like I haven’t been truly warm since this past fall in Death Valley, and even then the temps dropped as soon as the sun lowered. I know we’ve had warm—even hot—days intermittently, but we seem to carry the cold with us, and the ever-present wind. Here at Sonoma […]
Naked River Nymphs & a Shoe Hoard
I like to base my posts on a theme, or a story, or even just an explanation about an aspect of life on the road. Anything to avoid the “We’re here, and we did this” pattern, which becomes mighty monotonous after >400 posts. Sometimes life is simply random, however, and I can’t knit a pattern out […]
Unexpected Perks of Visiting Friends on the Road
You know how we love to meet up with old friends who live near our route. Sometimes they come to the campsite, or we go to their house and hang out on their deck, or we meet them in town; once we even stayed in a friend’s driveway. Just seeing familiar faces is a pleasure. […]
Mystery Neighbor at the 21% Lake
We’re about an hour north of Fresno, CA, at a Corps of Engineers campground built around a reservoir called Hensley Lake. Hidden View Campround As with nearly all USACE campgrounds we’ve stayed at so far, this one’s been designed beautifully and outfitted to the max. When they plan building a dam to create a reservoir, […]
