Advanced planning is the key to a successful trip. Campgrounds fill up quickly and many National Parks require timed-entry passes. Competition for limited campground resources continues to be intense as the number of North Americans who are camping continues surge. A recent KOA research report indicates… Read more: A Last-Minute Change of Plans

After a 3-week delay we are finally leaving town for a 10-week tour though Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. This week will be filled with travel days as we try to reach Fredericksburg, TX and continue our pre-scheduled trip. Upon leaving we drove though heavy… Read more: OnTour again

“Sometimes it’s less expensive to build a winery than to keep your wife supplied with wine.” David DelMonaco on how he became the owner of a winery. It was Sunday morning and our next stop was DelMonaco Winery in Baxter, TN. In order to arrive while… Read more: Another night of Libations

Sulphur Springs, in the northeast corner of Texas, was only planned to be a convenient overnight stay. However, as in this case, we have found that many small towns have one-of-a-kind features that provide a unique experience. The Sulphur Springs town motto is “Just Play. Have… Read more: Sulphur Springs, Texas

We made a brief detour to North Little Rock to receive treatment at a Baptist Health Urgent Care facility. Quick in and out for Sue to have three sutures removed from her leg (the reason our trip was delayed). We ended up at the Urgent Care… Read more: A Quick Snip in Little Rock, AR

After spending an enjoyable evening at BackStory Brewery (which included the loud horns of two passing freight trains in the middle of the night) Joe awoke at 5:30 and was surprised to find that we had not experienced any rain overnight. A quick check of the… Read more: Hightailing It Out of Sulphur Springs, Texas

We spent Easter and our 32nd anniversary 80 miles west of Austin, in Fredericksburg, Texas. Originally settled by German Immigrants, who named the town after the Prince Frederick of Prussia (they also nicknamed it Fritztown), it still bears a strong German influence. The featured image above… Read more: Spaetzle and Champagne in Fritztown

Located in Driftwood, Texas just 22 miles from Austin, is the largest BBQ restaurant we have ever visited. It is also our favorite. We have visited each time we were in the area. The Salt Lick was established in 1967 and serves thousands of people a… Read more: The Salt Lick

The Carlsbad Caverns is located 754 feet below the surface of the desert. Discovered by Jim White in 1882, the limestone cave was formed not by water erosion but by sulfuric acid corrosion. Deep below the limestone cavern are petroleum reserves. As hydrogen sulfide seeped up… Read more: Deep Under the Chihuahuan Desert

Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is a New Mexico state park located at the foot of the Sacramento Mountains. The park is 4,400 feet above sea level. The Sacramento Mountains, which border the park and show in the background of the photo below, reach an elevation… Read more: Great Views, Sand and Pistachios

Seventeen miles north of Tularosa, New Mexico is a large petroglyph site managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Petroglyphs, or rock-art carvings, were made by prehistoric Native Americans. Three Rivers boasts a collection of more than 21,000 petroglyphs. Three Rivers is one of the… Read more: Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

In 2013, we were driving from Tucson, AZ to Santa Fe, NM when we saw a large red chile on a sign. As we recall, the chile was approximately 30 feet tall. We didn’t have time to stop and investigate on that trip but we resolved… Read more: Chillin’ in Hatch, NM

On the way from Moab to Springdale, Utah (Arches to Zion) we took a detour to visit one of the world’s oldest and most massive living organisms: The Pando Aspen Clone. Located in the Fremont River Ranger District of the Fishlake National Forest, the Pando is… Read more: A Remarkable Aspen Grove

Established by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Mesa Verde National Park encompasses over 52,000 acres near the Four Corners region. Designated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site, it preserves more than 600 cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people. The first people settled in Mesa Verde in AD… Read more: Mesa Verde National Park

We arrived in Utah on the thirty-second day of our travels; a first visit to the state for us both. We had a five-night stay planned in Moab, because we wanted to visit both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. A visit to Arches requires some advanced… Read more: Arches and Canyons

I thought I would write a little about how we visually document the things we see as we travel. I will get to what happened in the feature image above shortly. In photography “the best camera you have is the one you have with you.” And… Read more: Oh, no…

First established in 1909 as Mukuntuweap National Monument, the Monument was renamed Zion in 1909 by the Acting Director of the newly established National Park Service due to concerns that the original Native American name would deter visitors who might have difficulty pronouncing its name. Zion… Read more: Zion Canyon

Traveling across the country, we occasionally stay in a town not for any particular reason, other than to crash for a night or two. Such was the case with the town of Kanab, Utah, named after the Paiute word meaning “place of the willows”. In addition… Read more: Kanab, Utah

It’s rare to find a town steeped in history AND iconic Americana kitsch. Winslow, Arizona has an active Amtrak railroad station, an historic Santa Fe Railroad hotel, a former trading post building, a Standin’ on the Corner Park—and Route 66 runs right through the center of… Read more: Takin’ It Easy in Winslow, AZ

After visiting Kanab we took the opportunity to visit two “big” attractions in Arizona. Just nine miles upstream from the start of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River had to made a wide sweep around a sandstone cliff forming this massive escarpment. The location is know… Read more: A Big Bend and Big Crater

On our way back east, we visited several sites that were thought provoking and inspired us to reflect on how far we’ve come as a country, and how far we still need to go. Very moving are a field of 168 empty chairs on the grounds… Read more: Lest We Forget…Oklahoma City, Fort Smith, and Little Rock

We visited the Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert almost four weeks ago. At the time of this posting we are heading east and visiting friends and family as we continue toward home. Hope the smoke from the fire in Canada was not as… Read more: The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

Part of the fun of traveling includes spontaneously stopping at cafes and diners along the way. Sometimes we try recommendations by Roadtrippers, Yelp, or Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, but mostly we pull over along our route when we are hungry. La Posada in Winslow, AZ was… Read more: Great Grub

Part of the fun of being retired is having the freedom to travel to new and different places together. What an absolute joy to be unmoored for 10 weeks, not being constrained by time, and free to stop and explore together. This year, we took our… Read more: 79 Nights, 16 States, 8,293 Miles

Do you still make New Year’s resolutions? We did this year and one of our resolutions was to finally write a post about our new Plateau XLTS. This post will be more interesting to those who are curious about the technical aspects of RV travel. You may want… Read more: Happy New Year!

We have mentioned Harvest Hosts many times in our travel blogs. As a reminder, Harvest Hosts is a membership organization that provides access to businesses that allow one overnight stay in their parking lots, so long as you frequent the business. We typically use Harvest Hosts for heavy… Read more: All Fun, Games and Peanuts™ Too!

Updated September 8, 2024. Not all our destinations are National Parks or Monuments. Some include interesting or local eateries, many are “roadside attractions” such as Meteor Crater, and some are beautiful local parks or arboretums. Here are a few interesting wayside stops that we enjoyed along… Read more: Roadside Attractions