Navarre Beach, January – February After six years of full-time travel, we decided to experiment with a longer winter break. Northern Florida has its cold, windy days, but retreating to a warm, cozy condo beats scampering to find warm places to camp this time of year. For our break, we chose to return to a familiar condo in Navarre Beach, FL. Santa Rosa Island is a narrow 40-mile barrier island along Florida’s Panhandle. The south side of the island borders…
Canada geese have the right idea. Shorter days and dropping temperatures say the time’s right for snowbirds to head south. We packed our van and started south right after Thanksgiving. In Charlotte, NC, we enjoyed a good, albeit quick, visit with family. As a bonus, we were treated to the drive through holiday light show at the Charlotte Speedway. Blinking, racing lights coordinated with jazzy Christmas music. Almost psychedelic! A good kick-off for the holiday season. Thanks, Diane and Ric!…
Portugal 2024 was such a great adventure that we decided to give it another whirl. There were places we had missed on our first trip and some that we wanted to revisit, so off we went. Our overnight flight landed in Lisbon early on October 16. A bonus of having been here before, we knew how to navigate the metro system, and easily found our way to central Lisbon. The Hotel Nicola Rossio faces Rossio Square, a major downtown hub….
Heading east from Whitefish, our first overnight was in Cut Bank, Montana. The small Sunset RV Park is situated on a plateau above Cut Bank Creek. Remnants of the creek’s clay banks stand like hoodoos around the campground. The meandering river cut through the soft sandstone banks, creating these mushroom shaped sculptures. Meriwether Lewis stopped near here on the return portion of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The explorers had hoped, but were unable, to confirm the headwaters of the…
Canada is vast. There are so many areas of interest and types of terrain that one could easily spend years exploring it all. In this return visit, we drove in roughly a large triangle that started in Vancouver, BC, went north to Prince George, crossed into Alberta, and circled back to end up in the Okanagan Valley. We stayed in Provincial Parks, National Parks, and a few private campgrounds. We prefer to make reservations ahead of time. Having a campsite…
The trek up the Pacific coast from California to northern Washington never gets old. And to our delight, it continues to hold new finds. Here are some of 2025’s highlights: Making our way to the coastWe left Donner Memorial Park and drove south along Lake Tahoe, which is stunningly beautiful. We landed at a regional park called Rancho Seco, outside of Sacramento. Well, this was kind of so-so as a camp spot. The advertised “lake view” features power plant cooling…
Well almost. Our starting point for this summer’s journey was North Carolina. We had a great time catching up with relatives in Sparta and Charlotte. Sparta is nestled in the mountains near the Blue Ridge Parkway. Several family members have moved here, attracted by its small town, artsy vibe. We enjoyed an evening of music at the Muddy Creek Cafe. Niece Laura’s partner Patrick is in the Muddy Creek Band, which made it more fun for us. He’s the ultra…
We decided to try camphosting in Virginia. The application process took longer than we expected, but after a few months of jumping through all the hoops of the process, we were finally approved as camphosts. We checked out the opportunities and signed up for the month of April at Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield, VA. Pocahontas is Virginia’s largest state park with more than 3,000 acres of forest, lakes, and recreational areas. During the summer months, the park has a…
A series of serendipities brought us to Camden, AL. We’d barely set up camp in the Fort Pickens campground, near Pensacola Beach, Florida, when the camp host advised us that the campground was to be evacuated the next morning. An advancing storm with high winds was threatening to flood the narrow barrier island’s only road. In the interest of safety, we’d all have to leave. A quick scramble to find an available campground for a few days led us to…
January has been a tricky travel month for us. The weather can be mild, like an early spring day, or it can turn on a dime, bringing van-shaking winds, flurries, and shivering temperatures. Like a Forest Gump box of chocolates. This year, we decided to hug the Gulf coast and work our way west into south Texas. Our last stop in Louisiana was Sam Houston Jones State Park, near Lake Charles. This park has seen a lot of renovation post-hurricanes….