We’re in the El Malpais National Conservation Area, a little north of the National Monument. Tracy’s walked on some of the lava flows that made people long ago name this the bad land, but I haven’t yet, so I’ll save those photos for another post. I can catch up to this point, though. We had […]
Camping and Hiking along the Gila River
We’ve spent a week boondocking in a horse corral between the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument visitor’s center and the trailhead to the cliff dwellings hike; in short, along the Gila River in western New Mexico. The Gila is one of the longest rivers in the West, with a gigantic watershed. People have lived along […]
“Cliff” Being the Operative Word in Gila Cliff Dwellings
I’ve never had a problem with heights, so all I was thinking about as we climbed the 180-foot ascent to see this archaeological find was my knee when it was time to go back down. Jeez Louise though, the second we approached the caves in the side of the cliff and I saw that there […]
Life Deep in the Desert
Between national parks, we stopped to visit friends Doug and Melanie as they prep their new homebase (an rv, of course) deep in the northern Chihuahua Desert. We drove seven miles down a dirt road with no development in sight to get to this park outside Deming, New Mexico, where Doug and Melanie have bought […]
Moving Sunlight and Changing Focus at White Sands National Park
How do I tell you about White Sands National Park in New Mexico? We spent only a day there (a short record for us), but my impressions are hard to pin down. Words aren’t enough, and photos are hard to take. I could tell you about the unique geographic features that come together to make […]
Exhausted and Exhilarated
We’re out of the doldrums into the current, and I’m wanting to put all my photos and impressions here in a hurry before I gather more. Gah, remember when I posted every single day from Death Valley? I’ll try not to do that to you now. West Texas Tracy fixed the hitch, he replaced the […]
The Hitch Is Now the Toilet
I can’t believe that makes sense right now. Bear with me. Tracy’s been working like crazy on the hitch: he shipped a big part back to Michigan, they serviced it and shipped it back to us, then they shipped new parts to us. He’s been machine-sanding old parts, painting them, assessing them. Finally, he spent […]
Lifestyles of the Rebellious and Unattached
I think about this a lot. What traits do we full-timers share? I think I’ve finally nailed it: we share a lack of strong ties. Call it non-attachment, if you’d like. Either willingly or unwillingly, we no longer have connections to nearby family, to a special home, to long-standing family traditions, strong friendship circles, a […]
Singer-Songwriter Smackdown While in Limbo
We have semi-progress with the hitch, which is better than pseudo-progress and definitely better than a hitch in the hitch. The hitch company in Michigan is servicing the crucial bearing part of the old hitch, and Tracy has ordered new parts from them, so with the old parts and the new parts, he’s going to […]
Exactly Five Years on the Road!
I’m working hard here to figure out how to say something about myself in the midst of the crisis our country and our world is in. I’ve written two complete posts this week and then deleted them for being petty compared to what I’m reading in the news and hearing from friends and family. So, […]
