This place, Ohio’s Shawnee State Park, is really growing on me. On the advice of a couple of friends (hi, Melissa M!), I’m reading Blue Highways by a fellow named Least Heat-Moon. He reminds me how travelers set themselves up for failure by assuming what a place will be like before they get there. Perhaps […]
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Living Between Two Worlds
I feel like I’m in a Star Trek episode where the transporter has malfunctioned (in the future no one says, “broken”), and I’m stuck between two planets. It’s not as bad as the time in The Next Generation when Geordie and Ro got stuck walking around the Enterprise like ghosts and had to figure out […]

Calm and Quiet
I’m still here at Savage River State Forest, sitting in a camp chair overlooking the rushing creek at the back of our site. I’m watching a water thrush hop from one moss-covered rock to another. He has a long, fluffy, white insect in his beak. I feel too lazy to pick up the binoculars to […]

Trip down the Super Highway
A big thank you to my cousins Lisa and Robin for inviting us out to a family farm nearby for a much-needed day in the woods. I know, we’re already in the woods—but here in the campground we’re surrounded by strangers, whereas out in the middle of several hundred acres of farmland and wilderness, the […]

Kayaking the Great Ruth Ann
Finally, we went kayaking. Frankly it was a bit of a disappointment! A Little Backstory You guys know that Tracy is a serious kayaker. He used to take a solo trip for a month each year down a different stretch of the Mississippi, with all his gear stowed in the tiny boat compartments, camping on […]

Wildlife Update
Big news in the pastime of Wildlife Spottting for us, although not as we would have expected it. We were driving home from an exciting trip having picked up groceries curbside at Walmart when Tracy perilously braked and pulled the truck as close to the edge as you can get on these curvy, shoulder-less country […]

Campground Wildlife
Those of you who live in the country will make fun of my enthusiasm here, but it’s been ages since I’ve lived in the middle of nature, and each time I spot an animal I haven’t seen in a while I get all excited and rub my hands together. Birds Tracy’s had his eyes to […]

Winter Hike and Indoor Yoga
I’m sitting here in the Airstream on this cold rainy day, writing because I have plenty of time, and I’m guessing some of you do, too. So maybe you’ll enjoy this now, whereas regularly you’d be like, “Shelly sure does post a lot!” I’m guessing I won’t post so often once we’re on the road […]