My first first today was something other than these. This morning I was standing where I always stand to get two bars of reception on my phone—near the pickle ball courts (I still don’t know what that is)—talking with my friend Lucy. I was also watching a small group of women learn how to line […]
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How I’m *Really* Doing
I get asked this question sometimes. Just like you guys who are valiantly social distancing, still, I’m missing face-to-face conversations with friends. Yet I’m creating this depiction of myself through the blog—that’s neither a dynamic conversation with friends nor a personal, true revealing of my mental state. So here’s how I’m really doing. Pretty good, […]
This Old World Keeps Spinning Round
That line’s from the Neil Young song, Comes a Time, that I’m trying to learn on the ukulele. The chorus goes: This old world keeps spinnin’ ’round. It’s a wonder, tall trees ain’t layin’ down. It’s Neil’s version of Turn, Turn, Turn, kind of. I can sing the chorus pretty well, but the first verse […]
Seven Months: What I’ve Learned about Living in a Small Space
Yep, we’ve been in the Airstream for seven months now. We’ve been stuck in one campground for two of those, and for the rest we’ve traveled up and down the Midwest. I’ve learned so much about how to enjoy daily life outside, how to help hitch the trailer more efficiently, how to dump tanks, all kinds […]
A Break from Prose
Finally, U.S. news items have broken my spirit—as well as being surrounded by Trump yard signs and photoshopped flags and stand-up dolls and his name in sidewalk chalk on campground drives. When I’ve been writing cheerfully I haven’t been disingenuous—I am enjoying this adventure. But the news cannot be ignored, and my silly little travel […]
Why I Do This
This is where we live this week. It’s just a site by a lake, in the woods, on the upper peninsula of Michigan. Nothing exotic: it’s not the Keys or the Utah Arches, just a lake. But reflecting on this spot this morning once again confirmed why I’m living this challenging lifestyle. Travel days are […]
Happy Birthday to a Dangerous Man
When I first met Tracy, he had a beer coaster thumbtacked to his closet wall. If you know him, you know that’s not like him. He hates doodads almost as much as he hates sayings. But it’s an important beer coaster, and he still has it. It says, All men dream: but not equally. Those […]
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 […]
While We Wait
The country is opening state by state, which—terrible for the health of the people—in our little world is a mixed bag. Opening Consequences Lifting of restrictions is great for the owners of this campground: they’d just bought it in October and have been investing in fixing it since then, but with the influx of spring […]
One-month Anniversary
As of today it’s been one month exactly since: I retired from the magazine. We left our house in Maryland. We started our dream of living in the Airstream. We parked here at this campground in Virginia, not realizing we’d be here much longer than a weekend (kind of like a three-hour tour). There’s a […]
