Last year when we left TCPC to head to Texas for the winter, we stopped in Nashville and Memphis, which I’d actually like to do again, Memphis because I learned so much about its role in the civil rights movement, and Nashville because I need a do-over with better intel. Still, there’s a lot of […]
Nature Bathing, Social Bathing, Water Bathing at TCPC
There is just no way we would have headed south from Ohio this year without making a repeat stop at the Cumberland Valley Plateau Campground in central Tennessee (TCPC). I wrote about this place something like four separate times during our one-week stay last year, so I’ll try to keep this one short. It’s hard […]
Back to the Mothership, Again
We are once more in Ohio at the Airstream factory and service center for repairs. Yep. We’re here for the fourth or fifth time, not because we keep breaking things (well, there’s that, too), but because this is the only factory and national service center, which means the mechanics here are excellent. And when they […]
Come Along for a Fall Foliage Hike
I’m going walking around Sessions Lake, a reservoir in central Michigan. Want to come? It’s four miles long and winds through the woods and along the shore. And look! Finn’s going to join us. While we’re walking, let’s talk about Finn’s work in physics, in a very basic way. Particle physics is the study of […]
Earthquake Tiny House
This Tiny House is the loveliest kit I’ve tried, and it’s the most screwed-up job I’ve done. I call it the “Earthquake House” because it looks like an earthquake hit it. (Madison Doug suggested I try for other disaster houses, like flood or fire. I’m considering it.) What’s so lovely to me is the simplicity […]
Traditions in Madison
We’ve enjoyed the pleasures of friends here in Madison in so many ways over the last three years. But, I almost boiled this post down by calling it, “Like Kramer Sliding through Jerry’s Door.” That iconic TV scene keeps popping up for me. Hospitality Both Ways Tracy shared an office in grad school with Guy; […]
Coming Down from Alaska
I’m a real sap when it comes to that Kris Kristofferson song, “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” The chorus goes: On the Sunday morning sidewalk Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned. ‘Cause there’s something in a Sunday Makes a body feel alone. There ain’t nothing short of dying Half as lonesome as the sound On the […]
Catching Up through Iowa
Even Banjo is impressed with how the Airstream looks now that we’ve washed it! Since Alaska, I’d despaired it would never come clean, but our favorite campground (because our friend Dave runs it) came through for us. We were able to wash it with clean water (no toting buckets of river water one by one […]
Camping on the Wall
“The Wall” is what campers call a dirt/gravel stretch of road near Badlands National Park in South Dakota, officially in Buffalo Gap National Grassland. The road runs along the rim of a stretch of steep canyon, with grasslands up to the rim and then far below. I don’t know what my problem was, but I […]
Home, Home on the Range
I’m backtracking a bit, because the prairies of Western Alberta and the grasslands of Montana and Wyoming, and even those of the western edge of South Dakota, have all blended into one big range the last few days. A gorgeous range. Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam. Where the deer and the antelope […]
