American icon
The bald eagle has been the national symbol of the United States since 1782, and a spiritual symbol of native people for much longer than that.…
Crepuscular light and prospects of wonder
Traveling north, the most noticeable change is the days slowly lengthening, but as often happens, its approach is remarkably fast.…
Fraser River on Highway 97 and points north by northwest
Our first week traveling north in British Columbia has been spent along the Fraser River, the longest river in the province. Driving north, we found ourselves in deep gorges created by the mighty flow of this river, a sinuous serpentine snake, narrowing and opening as geography permits.…
Canada Ho!
The farther away you travel from the gravity of the mass mind of the United States, the more you discover that as a whole, Canadians are a pretty personable lot.…
North with the spring
For those of you not familiar with Edwin Way Teale, he was a peripatetic naturalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who lived in the first half of the twentieth century, primarily known for his book series,…
Our new ebook is available!
Announcing our compilation of full time travel writing filled with adventure, history, and unique characters and destinations. Herein are captivating tales before, beside, and behind each bend in the road. Wanderlust is an emotion free…
Wheels to rails to the horizon
We are no strangers to train travel. Distant echoes of the great Pullman era have beckoned us in years past to explore diverse long-distance routes. Once again that shimmering seductress enticed us with her song…
Auto mottoes: America’s license plates
One of the ways we kill time on the road is to read (and ponder) the various license plates we see, and the state mottoes that they display. As it turns out, state license plates…
Muskeg, Moose, Muskrats—and Mosquitoes
What lies beneath? Muskeg, moose, muskrats & mosquitoes: as we journey north, the earth takes on a rich mufti of red, green & brown.…
North with the spring
Late April finds us at the foot of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Our drive shuttles us along exquisite explosive verdant green parkways representative of the East Coast region, over and around rolling hills on a ribbon of road that rocks and lulls us into tranquil contentment.…
White Sands Missile Range
Twenty-four years ago, we crossed over the mountains from Las Cruces into the White Sands Range, noted the existence of the Missile Range Museum on the south end of the vast off-limits government testing facility,…
Chaco
Hearing the echoes of tens of thousands of ancient trail trekkers and home seekers, we returned, after 20 years, to a point of light that became a supernova in the culture of the Southwest. The…
Scene Along the Road: 7
Dinner Theater In Kingman, Arizona, on the western edge of the Route 66 corridor in western Arizona, it’s not all about the confluence of historic road kitsch, railroad stops, native Americana, proximity to grand dams,…
**IT Happens…
Yep, freewheeling on the road is an antidote to constipation of the spirit. What strange synchronicity of events conjures a “good” or “bad” day? Do events in time create attractiveness like magnetic black holes? We…
Portland Spring: Consciousness Stream
Water-rich verdant loam, thick moss enveloping vertical and horizontal facades in spongy viridescense; rivers, streams, creeks, rivulets riffle through and around; sentinel snow-peaked mountains chaperone the horizons; roadways imitate the land’s regional cardinal directions yet…
Arizona Cataclysm Reprised: In the Matrix
One of our readers, Michael Luxem, wrote a fact-check comment in response to the blog post, Arizona Cataclysm, that stated, “It is difficult to imagine something only 160 feet in diameter—about the length of three semi-tractor…
Arizona Cataclysm!
You and fellow members of your tribe are foraging and hunting across cool, moist, partly-grass, partly-forested terrain. Your clan has successfully completed that rarest-of-rare hunts: a 12-foot tall, hairy, curved-tusked creature that will provide food…
How to Design a Campground Bathroom
by Ruth Welcome, campground designers! Whether you own an RV park or administer a state- or county-owned campground, this course is for you. Our curriculum includes all you need to know to design a bathroom…
Scene Along the Road 5: Serendipitous Encounters
One of the joys of being permanently on the road is knowing that you’ll never know who you’ll encounter—what wacky adventure, trial, or magic moment will reveal itself or where any of these will pop…
Campground Characters
When you nose into any campground you pass through a veil of probability. There are multiple layers of consideration: location; privacy; facilities; feng shui of view; positioning of solar if necessary; proximity to hiking, biking,…
Boxes
by Ruth I hate boxes. No, not the cardboard kind that Kitty plays in. I mean those boxes people put you in (and you put them in) the minute you put a label on something.…