Traversing the Florida Panhandle got me to thinking about time travel. The area of the panhandle where we are straddles Eastern and Central Time zones. We’re in Port St. Joe, which is Eastern Time. Drive a few minutes west to Mexico Beach and you find yourself in the Central Time zone. The line that divides time …
Tag: Travel

Call Your Mother
Over the years when I traveled the one person I always checked in with was my mother. I’d let other family and friends slide for a while, but never my mother. I’ll bet that 99.99% of travelers do that. Moms rule. Our conversation always began like this: Me: “Hi Mommy Dearest, how are you?” Her: …

Birthday Bash
When you get to a certain age the last thing you really need in life is more stuff. I like to keep things simple. So it was that when Ben asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told him I wanted to go away in the RV for the weekend—to Hocking Hills State …

Gumbo
It happens all the time. Someone will ask “what’s your dog’s name?” I make sure to enunciate clearly. “Gumbo,” I say. I know in seconds if I have been misunderstood. Their eyebrows peak. “Oh, that’s an interesting name,” they say. I sigh. “GUM-BO. Like the stew, not Dumbo the elephant.” Gumbo is our second red dog. …

Portland Times Two
We got a later than usual start on on our annual escape from winter. If the weather broadcasters were to be believed, after several days of really cold weather we were going to find ourselves trapped in a “Day After Tomorrow” type polar vortex. (I am a huge fan of cheesey disaster/action films. DAT is …

It’s a Wild Wild Life
Handy hints for wildlife viewing and the finer points of bear spray technique.

The Flying Bathtub
We are presently heading for Vermont, driving along I-90. Ordinarily interstate drives aren’t interesting, but in Pensylvania Lake Erie sparkles on the left and rolling vineyards pass on the right, making this leg of the trip quite pleasant. We crossed the border into New York and turned away from the lakeshore, and went back to …

We Be Jamming!
The Red Busses of Glacier National Park. Have you heard of them? I hadn’t but it turns out they are the way to take in a massive amount of the park in a few hours. The Red Bus is an iconic fixture of Glacier National Park, and have been since 1936 when they were first …

Ice Roller
The first leg of what I’m now calling “Parkapalooza 2018” Started in Hinton, Alberta at Jasper National Park. Like most planners, I read lots of guidebooks and checked out the usual travel blogs and websites. I even talked to a few human beings about where to go and what to do. Jasper National Park is …

Bridges
When you’re in a place for only a few days you want to get the most bang for your hiking buck. After poring over several trail maps and books of Jasper National Park, one of the trails we chose to hike was the Maligne (pronounced Mah-leen) Canyon. The trail follows the river bank and upper …