June – July 2023 Crater Lake We visited Crater Lake on June 20th, one day before the offical start of summer. Surprise! We arrived to find a fresh dusting of snow and frosty temperatures to match. A clear, bright blue sky made the water look dark navy blue. Crater is the deepest and purest lake in the U.S. This mountaintop lake was once a volcano. An eruption 7,700 years ago created the crater and set the stage for this 2,000…
June 2023 We spent our last night in Colorado at Williams Fork Reservoir near Parshall. This first-come, first-served campsite was a great find and a good place to relax before beginning our swing through several National Parks. The next day, we continued west and stopped at the Dinosaur National Monument near Jensen, Utah. This park has a rich and interesting history. To make a very long story short, millions of years ago there was a drought in this river valley…
Virginia to Colorado May 2023 Our route for this year’s westward journey began in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Our first night out we stayed in Harrisonburg at Shenandoah Heritage Market, and then continued south on Interstate 81. Near Knoxville, we picked up Interstate 40 and followed it through Tennessee, Arkansas, and the Texas panhandle, to Albuquerque, New Mexico. From there, we went north into Colorado. Although this route was almost beeline direct, and mostly interstate, we tried to sample…
Mid-March through April 2023 “The Cove” in Dade City, Florida, is the name given to a street of ten homes being constucted by Habitat for Humanity. We signed on as Care-A-Vanners for a two-week build commitment in March. You never know exactly what you’ll be doing on one of these builds. It could be trim details, siding, painting, cleaning, yard work, or working your way through the task punchlist to ready these homes for their new owners. We’d worked on…
February into March 2023 Cancelling our February AIRbnb reservation left us with an open six-week stretch on our calendar. We had scheduled a Care-A-Vanner commitment in Florida for the last two weeks of March, but we needed a travel plan to bridge the time between then and now. We chose a route out to Rockport, Texas, and a return one that would bring us back to the New Orleans area for Mardi Gras on February 21st, and our Florida commitment…
FLORIDA to TEXAS Late December to early February Northerners imagine that Florida is always sunny and warm. In reality, Florida can have some damp, bone-chilling weather. We spent some very cold days before Christmas at Fort De Soto County Park and Hillsborough River State Park. Wind, rain, cold, and unheated shower houses – not a good combo. Woodsy campsites turn muddy, potholes appear in dirt roads, and hiking trails become a hop-scotch around puddles. All you can do is layer…
Late October into December 2022 We followed our routine of returning to the Philadelphia suburbs for about a month in the fall. This time off the road gives us an opportunity to reconnect with family and friends. No matter how carefully we plan, we always run out of time for visiting before we run out of folks we’d like to see. We feel lucky to still have so many wonderful friends from our life in Delaware County. On the more…
Our plans to travel the outer coast of Virginia stalled under the remnants of Hurricane Ian. During the last week of September 2022, we were camping at Kiptopeke State Park in Cape Charles, Virginia. We rode our bikes on the nature trail, had wonderful oysters at The Oyster Farm, and then the edge of the storm caught up with us. Rain, rain, and more rain. Our campsite flooded, so we moved to another site that was better situated. Rain and…
September 2022 Presque Isle, Lake Erie We traveled along the shoreline of Lake Erie, working our way back to the east coast. In Erie, PA, we stayed at Lampe Campground and Marina, a private campground close to Presque Isle State Park. The state park is the home of Perry’s Victory and International Peace Monument, commemorating the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. In September of 1813, this major battle was fought between the Americans, led by Master…
Mid August 2022 Downtown Chicago has very limited options for camping, so we chose to stay at a Harvest Host location just west of town. The VFW in Wheaton turned out to be a great place to stay. I’d never been inside a VFW post; in fact didn’t know much about them. Post #2164 is one of America’s oldest posts. It was started by WWI veterans in the 1930s. We were greeted by John, who handled our registration and helped…