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 …
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. …
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 …
Handy hints for wildlife viewing and the finer points of bear spray technique.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
“You haven’t written much since we got to Canada,” said Ben. He’s right. Our days have been filled with exploring the area in our limited time here. We are far enough north that the light lasts well into the evening, with sunset around 9:00 and darkness around 10:30 PM. That makes for long, busy days. …
We drove through the Great Plains states on our way west, through Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana on Route 2. The two most impressive things were flatness and windiness. The northern plains states aren’t table top flat; the land undulates ever so gently. Every once in a while there is a big rock outcropping plopped …
