These are national monuments in western New Mexico: off the beaten path, managed by the National Park Service. There are 138 national monuments in the United States and 63 national parks. El Morro Roughly, this means “The Headland.” El Morro is a giant sandstone outcropping with a life-saving pool of water at its base (created […]
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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 […]
Hitch Quasi-Update and How Wild It Is that RVers Live in Different Ways
I’m always the wise-ass with my son when I give him my version of science-related advice: no matter how frustrating it feels to hit dead-ends in research, you are making progress when things fall apart in that you’re ruling out options. It feels like no progress at all, though, I know that. And it’s the […]
On Hearing the Palm Fronds Rustle
I ride my bike to the RV park’s fitness room each morning, and then I park it against the trunk of a palm tree. To get it situated just right so it won’t blow over in the wind while I’m in the gym, I have to duck under the fronds. Palm fronds rubbing together in […]
Dipping into a Different RV Lifestyle
We’re at a gorgeous Airstream-only campground (not the one we usually go to, although that’s up soon). This one’s near Roanoke, Virginia, up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, so the elevation has cured our heat-dome woes for a bit. What an abrupt change in lifestyle for us! It’s not like we’ve come here from months […]
Small Precious Things
We’re such the assholes when we pull into a campground. We leave the diesel truck running in the road while we scope out our site. Once in, we crank down jacks with a drill, set up the starlink antenna, put up the tent, add lights. It’s a lot of stuff we disgorge onto our campsite […]
Surprising Watkins Glen
I could tell before we pulled into the campground that I was going to hate this place. Tons of out-of-town traffic, signs and parking lots for shuttles, restaurants and gift shops, all for some bunch of waterfalls or something. But Tracy insisted I go on a certain short hike he’d been on years ago. He […]
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 […]
