As usual, Tracy picked out this stop on his own during his many quiet planning afternoons, and when I looked it up on the map, basically as we pulled in, I thought for sure it would suck. It’s on Lake Michigan, yeah, but at the southern tip, close to Chicago and surrounded by cities. […]
Categories
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 […]
1 Beach, 2 Beach, 3 Beach, Parking Lot
Goal: Spend November working our way down to the Tip o’ Texas via the Gulf Coast, camping right on the beach wherever we can. Reality: Spend November sitting in our tiny trailer listening to a space drama podcast, when not driving around wondering where the heck we’re going to park for the night. I would […]
Attitude Adjustment on the Old Trace
I apologize for my grumpiness back at Muscle Shoals. Seems like everywhere I go lately all I see is misery that privileged white people (me) have inflicted. I needed a reset, and a forest in Mississippi did the trick. The Difference a Campsite Vibe Makes When we left Alabama, we got back on the Natchez […]
Natchez Trace, aka Scary Acorn Trail
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 […]
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 […]
Alaska Trip Retrospective
After our summer-long trip to Alaska, we’re traveling south through British Columbia, Canada, and the climate, sunlight, ecosystems—really everything—is all changing rapidly. No more alpine or subalpine terrain, and it’s kind of shocking. I shouted out to Tracy when I saw a cow. We both said, “Hey, look at this!” when we had to use the flashlight […]
Along Kluane Lake
I am beat after a morning of hiking, an afternoon of online trivia (go team Donner Party!), and the heaviness of clouds after one sunny day. So, below are disjointed captions to my photos for this lovely area near Kluane National Park in Yukon. Congden Creek Campground We’re at a Yukon government campground that’s in […]
Kenia Fjords Critters and Views
Here’s more about that boat tour we took from Seward, Alaska, along the Kenai Fjords National Park. It was such a highlight of our summer in Alaska that I want to document as much of it as I can. Previous posts about this one danged day are about the orcas and glaciers we saw. Port […]
The Glaciers of Kenai Fjords
I had never been on a boat tour before, so you’ll have to skip over all this detail if you’re a pro or if you know all about glaciers, or if my low level of research here is annoying. I want to set this stuff down here while I can still remember a bit of […]
