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Can’t Hold Us
With camping finally reopening, we tackle the Final Four in New Orleans, deep sea fishing in Corpus Cristi, and touring Big Bend, Guadalupe Mountains, White Sands, Petrified Forest, Great Basin and Gateway Arch National Parks with an overlanding intervention in Flagstaff.
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On the Road Again
Quest for Yes is a mindset. It’s a recipe of optimism, gratitude and naivety cooked up when events inspire neither. When Covid hit big in March 2020, we were 1000 miles away from home with no control over campground closures. One minute we were holding tickets for a tour of Mammoth caves, the next minute…
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The Great Migration
Birds fly south to escape the harsh winter. V-shaped formations and the cacophony of squawking is the sign. And when they arrive, they join the droves of Florida wildlife who bask, eat and recreate, causing the native species much dismay. And after the winter’s sun bath, when the scent of spring wafts in from the…
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Final Four Frenzy
March Madness brings April Badassness in the City of New Orleans, dominated by frats and alums, decked out in team colors, partaking in every debauchery the voodoo city can conjour. You’re more likely to find us hiking a coalwash or biking a causeway than gambling on the Vegas strip or in this case, doing a…
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Imagine Sitting
When are you too old to attend a concert? We’re not talking about a concert at a symphony hall where a patronly usher escorts you to your comfortable velvet seat and everyone around you sits and listens quietly when the musicians play, clapping at the end. We’re talking outdoor concert on the lawn, 10,000 people…
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Chasin’ Cajun
The ringing in our old ears lasted through the night but it was the Macklemore Imagine Dragons adrenaline that helped us pump out a blog before heading to the other side of the Pelican State for a shelter-in-place reunion with our Covid 19 BFFs. In April 2020 we were trapped in Shreveport, Louisiana on Barksdale…
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Fish On
Our first anniversary was an ablation-titration party at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, room 19 in the cardio clinic. Our seventh was sheltering in place at Barksdale Airforce Base in Shreveport Louisiana during the Covid outbreak, Sheri in a boot from a broken fibula. We had to look back into our photo library to…
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Blowing in the Wind
Once you set an itinerary, book reservations and start moving, it’s hard to mentally deviate from the plan. In the one week we’ve been gone we pressed 1500 miles west, pulling 10,000 pounds through half a dozen under-construction beltways, plus Final Four mania, 10 pounds of fried food and sport fishing in gale force winds.…
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Whipping Wind City
Corpus Christi’s tourism slogan is Sparkling City by the Sea. If that is true and the city is indeed sparkling, it might be because it has been sand blasted clean. After spending 4 days in constant high wind, we propose changing the name to Whipping Wind City that makes you want to Throw Yourself into…
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Nice dam view!
A wet, sandy wind chased us out of Corpus Christi early Tuesday morning. The night before we’d done our departure chores to make a pre-dawn escape, including wiping down every surface of the feel-it-but-can’t-see-it granular build-up that sifted its way through the screens. The thunderstorms rolled in while the sky was still dark, thick drops…
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Paint me a picture
The destination has always been Big Bend National Park. 13 days would be more than enough to get there. A night here, a weekend there, a concert, a reunion, a fishing anniversary … more than enough time. Until it wasn’t. When we pulled into Southwinds Marina at Amistad National Recreation Area it felt like stay.…
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Big Bend Aliens
Big Bend National Park is bigger than the state of Rhode Island, four times the size of New York City and 20 times Washington DC. The seventh largest National Park in the lower 48, it has five visitor centers, 53 marked hikes and 10 backcountry roads through the Rio Grande river, Chihuahuan desert and Chisos…
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Boquillas Crossing
We had 16 months to prepare, and yet we left in a hurry. Maybe it was because we secretly thought we would never actually leave. Maybe it was because we lost track of the departure date, or that the date was April Fool’s Day. In any case, our passports, our drone, lots of RV appropriate…
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Window to Your Soul
If eyes are the windows to the soul then legs are the transportation that get the eyes to where they need to be to see that soul. And after the 6 mile hike today, our legs are sore down to our soles. We had 5 hours to wax philosophical and ponder questions like Why do…
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Village People
It is Easter Sunday in the Chihuahuan desert. While cool, even cold temperatures blanket our mid-atlantic home, and pickelball-perfect mid-80’s surround the Florida place, we bake in the desert. We have been pushing hard exploring the region and in the effort have run out of things to wear, things to eat, and available morning hours…
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Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!
The last time we were at a hot springs, it was St. Patrick’s Day 2020 and COVID had just shut down Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. A ginger bearded leprechaun in a kilt poured us a Guiness and played us a sad bagpipes tune explaining that the tourist season was over before it had…
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The Ballad of Scurry and Plod
The last time we met up with Scurry and Plod, they were in Glacier National Park hiking Mt. Brown. They missed the summit, both banged up their bodies and they vowed to thoroughly evaluate vertical hike adventures before embarking on them in the future. If you don’t remember them, Eric is Scurry, the marmot that…
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Castolon Castaways
On the southeastern border of the park lies the last wilderness. There is no gas. No potable water. No border point of entry. No electricity. The facilities are vault toilets. The visitor center has burned down. This is Castolon. Chisos Basin is the crown jewel of the park. The lodge, high-altitude climate, 4 bars of…
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The Gambler (Lost)
A wise gambler once said, “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.” After two nights of holding an off-suit 2-7 in Big Bend’s Cottonwood campground, we mucked our hand and ran for our Iives to the western exit in search of cooler temps and plug in options. As much…
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Marfa Marfa Marfa
Four years ago, Marfa splashed across the New York Times as the Coolest Art Town in America. It was the story of Shangri-La in the middle of west Texas nowhere. A place where celebrities can disappear and artists can stay true. We swung through Marfa in November 2018. Now, we returned to see what all…
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Decoding Fort Davis
If we didn’t have reservations in New Mexico, we might still be lost in West Texas. Despite the tough conditions in Big Bend, it was worth some heatstroke to immerse in nature’s extremes on the borderlands. Wrapping up in Marfa and Ft. Davis, these dusty arts and cowboy towns felt settling, even without pickleball, lettuce…
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Boulderdash in Guadalupe National Park
Hiking in Guadalupe Mountains National Park is nonsense! There are 11 marked trails, all of them long and strenuous except the two overlooks at two different Visitor Centers. Spoiler alert – the one we chose didn’t end well. It was a bittersweet departure from Ft. Davis at dawn. We didn’t feel like we’d spent nearly…
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Busted in Carlsbad
It’s hard to wrap your head around southeastern New Mexico. It’s not artsy Taos or wealthy Santa Fe or scientific Albuquerque. It’s a product of millions of years of geology that left a system of massive, intricate and stunning caves known as Carlsbad Caverns National Park, hundreds and thousands of feet below ground. The same…
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Fan Camp
The young man with the automatic weapon stated more than asked, “Do you consent to a full inspection of the vehicle and all of its compartments?” Sounded okay to us as two security personnel poked their way through our camping gear in the bed of the truck. If you spent a large portion of your…
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Express Yourself in Alamogordo
Our current adventuring wardrobe is strictly function over fashion, a random conglomeration of mismatched gear, perfect for getting the job done but not looking great doing it. Duds. Thrifting our way through small southwestern towns, we’ve been acquiring one western essential at a time and in the process, trying on a new vibe. At first…
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Aloft in Cloudcroft
The most direct route from Carlsbad, NM to Alamogordo, NM is to climb straight up one side of the Sacramento Mountains and descend straight down the other. Scenic Highway 82 does just that, climbing over 4,000 feet out of the Permian Basin before falling the same amount to the White Sands. When you are pulling…
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Alamolocal
In the eight days we’ve been hanging out in Alamogordo, NM, we’ve been more active in this town than we’d been in the past 8 months in our Florida hometown. Why is that? Does the house have to be less than 200 square feet to force us out and about? We drove a freshly washed,…
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Cinco de Taco in Space
Sitting high above the town of Alamogordo in the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains is a cathedral to the genius of the men and women who designed and built the rockets that flew man into space. This cathedral is disguised as the New Mexico Museum of Space History. Five stories of sleek gold glass enshrines…
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White Sands 3 Ways
For 86 years, the sugar white gypsum sand dunes near Alamogordo, New Mexico were happy to be designated a National Monument. Sometime in 2019, language got inserted into the 2019 Defense Act and Boom! White Sands got its upgrade to National Park. That’s how congress works. With the right influence, you can get a new…
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Party like a Thunderbird
Birthday 2022 is 55/60 for Sheri and Eric and 75 for the United States Air Force. Unlike us, they seem excited about getting older, throwing themselves a blowout on the ramp this weekend with some serious American Airpower on display. It’s hard to believe the Air Force is 75, considering Army, Navy and Marines are…
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Hatching a Plan
Fire evacuation banners run on the bottom of every over-the-air TV station in New Mexico. Statewide burn bans have yellow caution tape covering every fire ring and charcoal grill at the campgrounds. Calf Canyon is epicenter of the burn, 300 miles northeast of us near Las Vegas, New Mexico. The closest we plan to get…
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Hello there! Truth or Consequences has been waiting for you.
There is a small town in New Mexico nestled alongside the Rio Grande river where hot mineral geothermal springs naturally flow up from the ground. North of the town, a damn holds back the river and forms a large lake for refreshing water recreation in the middle of the desert environment. Sounds a bit like…
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It’s the Flux Capacitor, Marty
How do you make camping in Elephant Butte, watching bad TV and lamenting a stopover in the town of Truth or Consequences worse? Here’s an idea. Have parts in your roof top air conditioner explode. It will delight your senses with a loud bang similar to a gunshot and a foul smell of burning electrical…
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Go with the Lava Flow
There’s a gravel road that cuts through El Malpais National Monument where searchers strap on backpacks and blow-up sleeping pads to hike 2700 miles from New Mexico to Canada on the Continental Divide. Barefoot and his wife who hasn’t picked a pass-thru name yet, sold their business in Seattle to figure out what was next…
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Petrified to Hike
Another day, another National Park sticker. That is a terrible attitude to have when exploring one of America’s Crown Jewels. It takes an Act of Congress to designate a NP, and everyone knows they rarely agree on anything. On our visit to Petrified Forest National Park, however, that was our attitude. Scurry and Plod were…
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Lucky Break?
Construction delay signs and Walnut Canyon National Monument signs appeared at the same time en route from Petrified Forest to Flagstaff. Since we have the National Park Pass ($80 for unlimited access to every installation in the NPS) and Google was estimating a two hour delay due to an LA-sized back-up on I-40, we took…
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Finding Flow in Flagstaff
If you say you’re going to Arizona, 9 out of 10 people gush, telling you that you HAVE to go to Sedona. It’s the darling of the state with a reputation for spiritual enrichment of the body and soul. We’re skipping it this time and heading up in elevation in search of enlightenment. When we…
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Overland: Envy or Overload?
Often the most rewarding camping experiences over the years have been unplanned and unplugged. Last week Roxie bumped her way down a dirt road at El Malpais, as far as her suspension (and Eric) would allow. If only we knew what was further down that road. Time to switch things up? The pandemic blew up…
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Flagstaff Farewell
The phone rang at 9 pm. It was the front desk at the campground. The night attendant explained that we were in the wrong camping spot. We would need to move immediately. We looked outside at the pitch blackness and informed him that whatever space issue we were having could wait until it was light.…
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Page(ing) Glen Canyon
Last month we were in a go fast, 12 miles off Corpus Christi, catching the limit. This month we’re paddling an extra long double kayak and jumping off a cliff that had been submerged for decades. About 150 miles north of Flagstaff is Page, Arizona, home to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the…
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Turn the Page
If you have a hankering for a fried chicken sandwich, drive directly to Page. The Birdland comes with spicy mayo and hand cut fries. The Grand Canyon (brewery) and view of Sunset is extra. Even though Page is not overly bike friendly, driving is a breeze as the town in basically three streets wide and…
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One in a Vermillion
Surrounded by Utah’s Mighty 5 National Parks, it’s easy for Vermillion Cliffs National Monument to be overlooked, skipped, even unheard of. What is a National Monument anyway? Sheri was sure that it meant that a battle was fought there. Eric put his money on an important statue or building, like Lady Liberty. After a 2021…
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Buckskin Bandits
At 14 miles, Buckskin Gulch is the longest continuous slot canyon in the world. Time to check “hike a slot canyon” off Sheri’s wish list, and you cannot pick “take a tour of Antelope.” Utah’s Mighty Five National Parks in 2019 was an epic adventure. We were new-ish to RV’ing and we did it in Betty (our…
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Views from the North Rim
We didn’t go to Grand Canyon’s North Rim to get the sticker. Technically there’s not a separate sticker for the South Rim and the North Rim and we did the kit and caboodle at South Rim a few years back. We went because it’s the Grand Canyon, duh, and all Americans basically have to go…
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Fifty Five – Sixty
The thing we like most about our birthdays is that they are back-to-back. In thinking about what to do for the big 55/60 we decided to be ourselves, come out of the woods and do things that were both enjoyable and essential to furthering our adventures. For Eric, that’s pickleball, clean truck and a cold…
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Straight and Narrows
International travel is back. In our two days at Zion National Park we were English speaking minorities. Surrounded by a cacophony of Asian, European and Latin tongue, had we not known we were in Utah, we could have been anywhere else in the world. Last time we were in Zion, one of the “10 Best hikes in…
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Great Basin
Feeling sore and annoyed from Zion madness, we pulled the proverbial plug and headed north on I-15 toward Salt Lake City to begin the journey home. Three NP stickers in 2 months plus slot canyons, lost canyons, Macklemore, Overland, trout, moths, birthdays, anniversary and 43 blogs – it felt like we’d done enough, experienced enough to…
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A Great Basin Life
Truth be told, we had no idea what Great Basin National Park was having done no research other than Apple-mapping directions from Zion. Since we arrived four days ago, we’ve come to learn that Great Basin National Park is not the Great Basin like Grand Canyon National Park is basically the Grand Canyon. Great Basin National Park…
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Alpine for Baker
Liz Woolsey wiped down the counter at her general store. She just re-opened in March from a long cold winter. Her husband James is the Superintendent of Great Basin National Park. Her store is a perfectly curated mix of food, wine and gear all reasonably priced and beautifully displayed and appears to be her passion project ; perhaps…
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Green Bakers
Not born in a small town. Never lived in a small town. Probably won’t die in a small town, but oh we love those small town communities. Well, they’re not exactly John Mellancamp’s Small Town lyrics but after living in Baker, NV for a week, we daydream about living in that small town, boring romantics…
Sheric Adventures
Escape Artists