We designed the week after the big Airstream rally as decompression time by a Corps of Engineers lake in Oklahoma. We’ve gotten some down time in, but it’s been a whopper of a week, overall. On our way, we had a first: we abandoned a Harvest Host reservation after not being satisfied with the sloped […]
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What Rallies Are Really About
It took me ten days at the International Airstream Rally (then a long travel day) until finally, as I was walking Banjo this morning here along the reservoir at our next campsite, did I figure out what that rally was all about. It’s true I was dazzled by the Airstreams, especially the old ones remade […]
Doing All the -ings on the Turkey River
Yep, that’s me, the tiny pink dot in the middle of that wide, shallow river. I’m paddling my heart out there, but I’m also doing the other -ings these days in northeast Iowa. Camping Of course we’re always camping, but this spot feels like real camping, the kind we choose when we can. Normally we’d […]
Deer Butts, Meet-ups, Hard up in Madison
Talk about pressure. I just walked away from lunch with my blogging mentor, Mark (Mark My Words), who A) told me he’d be blogging about our meet-up in the next few days, which means I’d better get a decent post up in case any of his million followers check me out, and B) showed me […]
How Do You Go to the ER at 3am When the Campground Gate Is Locked?
We did not have to figure that one out, thankfully, but the topic was pertinent. The morning we left East Lansing, we stopped to get the updated Covid vaccine, hopefully in time for the crowded Airstream rally in October. Now, Tracy sometimes gets like a vaccine hangover, and I always get downright sick, so we planned […]
Choosing a Campsite When You Anticipate Neighbors
We’re at a small county campground in SW Michigan that’s unusual: instead of being part of a popular county park with a playground or whatnot, it’s on land leased from the state wildlife and game preserve (I believe; the brochure we picked up is complicated). What I do know is it’s out in the woods, […]
Indiana Dunes National Park
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. […]
I Can Breathe in a Small Town
We’re only a few miles from John Mellencamp’s hometown in southern Indiana, and man does this area feel small-townish. This is a view from Skyline Drive through the Jackson-Washington State Forest, into Starve Hollow. Lots of family farms down there. Here in the state forest campground, lots of dudes pulling in to get high over […]
Rocket Barges and Giant Cypress at a River Confluence
I meant this to be a short photo essay from our one-night stay at Fort Defiance State Park in Cairo (pronounced like Kayro Syrup), Illinois. I got carried away. Such an impressive place. This river confluence is one of the largest in North America. The Ohio River is actually wider than the Mississippi where it becomes […]
A Proper Update
I feel guilty that so many friends opened that last post looking for an update on my medical questions, only for me to say, “I don’t want to talk about it.” I really was overwhelmed with, shall we say, unproductive feelings. Even now as I try to draft a better response, I find myself rambling […]