Category Archives: Travelog

Long Key, short stay

February 2, 2015 Meg 2 Comments

Long Key State Park is unique in that all sites are beachfront

It’s just one long strip of oceanfront property with a road on one side and campsites on the other. We pulled into site 29 for our 1-night stay, while also eying neighboring site 30 where we’ll stay for 3 days later this week.

The drive over to Long Key from Key Largo took about an hour. It was hot, both outside and inside the van and Rubi did her best to stay cool in her resting place below the dinette.

We decided to stop into the Dollar General in Islamorada hopes of finding some cheap snorkel gear. We also learned it’s pronounced “eye-la-more-a-da”, just like all the other basterdized Spanish around here.

Instead, we found a busy store. Liz popped over to the Winn Dixie and found a madhouse. With so few stores on the islands, all of them are overpriced and overused. Luckily, there was a CVS in the center as well and we scored a couple sets of masks and snorkels to aid in our ocean adventures.

The Overseas Highway, also known as Highway 1 and A1A, runs straight through each and every key in the chain of keys heading to Key West.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=V-FOWxrcZ1w

Since each key is at the most 1 mile wide, and often much narrower, directions to any location are given with the mile marker and the side of the highway, such as mile 73 oceanside or mile 54 bayside.

Mile 0 is Key West. Along the highway, we saw miles and miles of turquoise waters, some sand dunes, a few different fishing bridges, which parallel the highway, and various water sports including a set of kiteboarders.

We have yet to see surfers out here, but kiteboarding seems quite popular and very fun.

There are also some ridiculous roadside attraction stores, including this one with a giant shrimp in the parking lot.

Liz did a great job driving, while occasionally getting a chance to take in the view herself when traffic backed up.

We arrived at Long Key at 2pm.

While windy, the view was gorgeous.

We watched the pelicans hover just above the water, searching for their catch of the day. We walked to the day use area and admired the kite surfers, vowing to take lessons a couple time while we’re here. And we hiked the 1-mile nature trail, which starts hugging the water, then moves inland to a heavily-shaded stretch of forest, and finally bends to an exposed desert-like area. All 3 of us thoroughly enjoyed it, though Rubi probably had the best time of all.

We then enjoyed a modest dinner with some pineapple-rum drinks before settling in to listen to the Super Bowl on the radio. The moon shone peacefully over the water and our van.

Neither Liz nor I follow football much, but we still had some Seattle Seahawks pride strong from last year’s win. What an exciting, and ultimately disappointing, game!

This next morning, we caught the end of the sunrise over the water.

We went for another walk and then Rubi and I attempted to stay cool in the van while I blogged and Liz went for an exhilarating rollerblading run.

The high is supposed 80 today, so we’ll finally get to use our air conditioner. We’re headed out for now, but are grateful we’ll be back very, very soon.

Florida, Travelog, Well-educated idiots

We are in the Florida Keys!

February 1, 2015 Meg Leave a comment

I’m officially giving up even attempting to complete daily blog entries. The scenery is just too beautiful and the pressure of daily writing just doesn’t seem to fit with the lifestyle down here. At the same time, I do want to get more of these posts—and pics—up more frequently. And so it goes. Now these will officially be “travelog” posts.

What to say about the turquoise water, salty air, and constant display of marine birdlife? The palms bearing coconuts nestled next to Florida grape trees sitting atop sandy soil? The sea breeze, at times refreshing and at times violent? The yachts, sailboats, and cruise ships floating on the distant horizon? It’s all just lovely and truly does change how you feel about nature and makes you attempt even harder to be in tune with it.

On Saturday, we embarked for the Keys.

The drive to Key Largo was easy and gorgeous. We traveled over the first bit of water on the Overseas Highway.

Liz loved that they painted the barrier separating the lanes the same greenish blue of the water.

As soon as we touched down in Key Largo, the vibe was different.

Every business on the side of the road was geared around water. From the boat sales to the dry moorage to the marine repair shops, we were definitely in a land where water rules.

John Pennekamp State Park was full of life. They have a kayak and canoe rental shop, offer glass-bottom boat tours, and also provide temporary moorage. We passed 2 huge catamaran sailboats, one in the water and one on land. Rubi enjoyed the mile-long nature trail and walking up and down the beach areas. No dogs allowed on the beaches, but the parking lots came close to the water and provided lots of dog-friendly places to sniff.

Liz and I are grateful for our good fortune (and persistence) in getting a campsite in the Keys. There are 4 state parks and they rent out sites for half the price—if not more than half—of what the commercial parks charge. They book up 11 months to the day. Since we were painfully naïve about the snowbird culture and how competitive it all was, we still didn’t have a reservation when we left PA at the beginning of January, despite the plan always including a couple weeks in the Keys. Thank goodness the state of Florida uses the Reserveamerica website and provides the ability to both book and cancel online. I can only imagine how annoying the job was for the poor ranger who used to have to answer the phone, informing everyone who called multiple times a day that there were no cancelations and that the campground was full.

So far, we’ve cobbled together a 10-day stay from 1/31 through 2/8, visiting all 4 parks. We even got 3 days in a row at 2 different parks! John Pennekamp was only for 1 night, but we attempted to make full use of the facilities. After a shower, we attended the Birds of Prey presentation and learned all about the various raptors in the Keys.

We have often felt blessed by being guided by hawks at various times during this trip and on other long-distance drives. We now find out that all those birds were probably just vultures, which are huge and actually look quite pretty when they fly.

Being in nature, learning from the excellent educational placards in the various parks, listening to rangers, and talking to our fellow campers has shown us how little Liz and I actually know. At times like these, I now affectionately call us “well-educated idiots.”

On Sunday morning, we woke up in time for a quick kayak tour of the waterways surrounded by mangroves.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=g3zk10_gaVM

We mostly saw trees and a few fish, but it was a peaceful paddle nonetheless.

We have yet to see an alligator or crocodile (which, for that matter, are only present in the US in this part of Florida), though Rubi did wake up at 3am quite disturbed by something near the swampy area behind our site. We still don’t think she’d jump out the back windows, but sleeping with them open was a bit worrisome as she jumped up at the noise outside. Despite a rather bright moon, we couldn’t figure out what was wandering around back there.

We checked out at 1pm to make our way further down the Overseas highway to Long Key State Park, on Long Key. We are there for just for one night, but then return in a few days for a 3-day stay.

Florida, Travelog, Unexpected twists

Misadventures again

January 12, 2015 Meg Leave a comment

[On the road to Lake Talquin State Forest]

Meg: [driving] Turn here?

Liz: [looking at map on phone with GPS] Yes…No…Yes…No

Meg: This one?

Liz: No…Yes…No…Yes…No. Yes.

[Meg turns]

Liz: No, that wasn’t it.

[They drive past a dilapidated church, two dirty mobile homes that were missing windows or had peeling siding, and a clean mobile home with 3 kids playing outside next to a minivan sitting in the yard with a completely flat tire. A stray dog ran in front of the car.]

Thank goodness we only had a 22-foot van to turn around.

We planned to spend the night at Lake Talquin State Forest midway between Ocean Pond in Osceola State Forest and Santa Rosa Beach near Pensacola. We planned a lot of nice things for the day.

After a foggy night, we awoke to everything slightly damp in the van from the humidity. Not deterred, Liz prepared a lovely breakfast spread.

We decided that Ocean Pond, while full of lovely friendly people with a private campsite for only $8/night, was a bit too depressing in the rain and mist. Since we’re headed to Santa Rosa Beach for the 30a Songwriter’s Festival for the weekend, we planned to drive 2 hours and make it halfway there. We found another cheap campground in a different state forest for $10/night. All seemed well.

Things started going off the rails when we decided to do some laundry. We pulled into the Love’s Truck Stop only to find out they didn’t have laundry. What truck stop doesn’t have laundry? The place across the street did, though both the washer and dryer were overpriced for being outside and next to the smokers’ bench. We did our wash as a downpour blew through, dumping buckets multiple times. Luckily, we were off the road and dry.

We continued on to Lake Talquin. Liz called to verify that the road to the campground was paved. After a strained conversation and a consultation with another phone agent, Liz was assured that the road leading to the campground was the only paved road in the place. All seemed well.

We exited the highway and tried to find our way to the campground. Which is when the above dialog occurred. After turning around, the drive just got weirder.

We passed nice-looking, rather spacious homes that were just off somehow. A smidge too close together. Oddly-designed drainage ditches. A little like the community in Edward Scissorhands, but on a thoroughfare. It seemed like a HUD project of single-family homes. It tried to be nice, but just couldn’t quite get there.

As we continued toward the birding trail and campground, there was the oddest mixture of larger, well-kept homes next to abandoned trailers with broken windows. Then a set of 4 homes with one for rent while the end unit was burned out and should have been condemned. There were also a few too many houses with 3-5 people mulling outside on an ugly day. Or with 6 cars in the driveway of a single trailer.

We continued onward and there was a man at the end of his driveway wearing earbuds. Liz waved, as we are accustomed to do in campgrounds. He didn’t acknowledge her and Liz noticed he was drinking a 40 of beer. And then the road turned to dirt.

We turned around at a slightly-less rundown church with an unpaved driveway. As we passed our friend on the street again, he smile and waved enthusiastically. I increased our speed slightly. Two more stray dogs crossed our path.

We decided to get a bit closer to Santa Rosa Beach by heading to the trusty Walmart in Panama City Beach. It looked on the map to be surrounded by golf courses. We hoped we’d be able to take Rubi for a walk on the manicured grounds.

We pulled in at night and found this instead of the golf course:

The pond was a nice surprise and we had a pleasant walk, but the fog combined with Ripley’s Believe It or Not bizarre architecture and the rundown beach vibe similar to Virginia Beach was not what we expected.

On the bright side, Rubi met her first tiny frog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQQrg1YNXWE

The Walmart parking lot had a few other RVs, which was comforting. The hippy kids who decided to continue painting their RV with flowers and rainbows while standing in a shopping cart until midnight were not.

I guess at least it was free and we did sleep through the night without incident. In the future, we’ll be sure to do a bit more research about the towns in coastal Florida before pulling in for the night.

Florida, Travelog

St. Augustine living

January 10, 2015 Meg Leave a comment

http://instagram.com/p/xr_60BQeqL/

We’ve been enjoying Florida, though we currently are experiencing a cold front with temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Still it’s much better in the van than the negative wind chill in Pittsburgh.

We left the campground and got out into town the past couple days.

Downtown yesterday:

http://instagram.com/p/xr4MPzwenr/

http://instagram.com/p/xr4qRxQeos/

Today at the beach:

http://instagram.com/p/xr437xwepP/

http://instagram.com/p/xr6SjFwesg/

http://instagram.com/p/xr6aTDwes1/

http://instagram.com/p/xr7myvQev5/

The campground is even more full this weekend, with kids playing into the night. We’re enjoying civilization but also figuring out where we’ll be staying tomorrow night. I think it’ll be a bit more remote and a bit quieter.

Travelog

And we’re back!

January 5, 2015 Meg Leave a comment

Wow, is it really 1 / 5 / 15 today? Where did the time go?

We truly enjoyed our time with family and being warm in houses on both coasts. The departure from van life came a little sooner than we thought as we outran Storm Nuri and the cold. It also lasted longer than expected, when Liz took a two-week trip to California to see her mom, the Nimans planned a family get together over January 3^rd weekend, and we squeezed in a couple trips to see the New Jersey relatives. All the holidays were thoroughly enjoyed as was reconnecting with loved ones without the typical time pressures of work and “home” beckoning.

But it’s been great to be back on the road!

We stayed at a hotel last night in Maryland as we were tired and out of propane. Today brought a good 6-hour drive, fill ups at truck stops, and finally rendezvousing with snowbirds.

We’ve never stayed at a truck stop with more than 2 other RVs.

Today, in North Carolina, the lot is completely full!

We also caught a glimpse of our twin at the North Carolina Welcome Center. By the time we registered that it was our exact vehicle, pop-outs and all, it was too late to pull over. We are still hopefully that we’ll catch them again, either on I-95 or perhaps hugging the coastline on A1A.

Here at the Flying J, a beautiful yacht towed by a pickup truck pulled into the last big rig spot at 9:30pm, right after a Coachman van tucked itself away with RViejo in the short parking spots.

Rubi may miss her familiar surroundings and all the doting from loving family members, but Liz and I are practically giddy with the prospect of sun, new friends, and really living the RV lifestyle with the other fair-weather travelers. We hope to beat the sun and watch a beautiful sunrise tomorrow morning to complement the moon rise we caught after we pulled in to our home for the night.

Let the adventure begin again!

Badlands, Bison, South Dakota, Travelog

Pre-paving the adventure

November 5, 2014 Meg Leave a comment

Wind warning! Should we stay or should we go?

Many different philosophical and spiritual teachers discuss the notion of pre-paving, be it through deeds, thoughts, affirmations, visualization, or praying. Today, Liz and I appreciated the pre-paving of our adventure through experience from just the past few days.

The switch from Daylight Savings Time has really affected our travels in that it has gotten dark before 5pm. Having to be navigated, situated, and camped before sunset has proven difficult. Luckily, the moon is almost full right now and the pre-paving already happened.

We have heard great things about Badlands and were eager to get there. But, today began with yet another wind advisory, cautioning light and “high-profile” (aka RViejo) vehicles against traveling in the 20-30 mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph. The advisory was from 8am to 4pm, prime travel time, across the entire region from Custer State Park where we were staying to Badlands. We debated all morning whether to attempt the drive and ultimately decided at noon to give it a shot. This was not our first wind advisory nor our first drive in heavy winds. Thank you pre-paving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABrQkea1Iys

We traveled slowly, took a 2-hour break to do laundry and for Liz to have a really good burger at a truck stop in Hermosa, and arrived at the ghost town of Scenic at 4:15pm.

The purveyor of the sole open business confirmed that the 15 miles to our intended camp site on Sage Creek Road was indeed all dirt and gravel.

Luckily, we had tackled just a road on the way to Devil’s Tower 2 days prior. Pre-paving at work. Undeterred, we set out on our course.

As we weaved our way across moon, rocks, grassland, and farms, the moon rose majestically over the horizon. The sun set beautifully, as the guides we read claimed it would.

Bad moon on the rise? Approaching Badlands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMC4aitde1E

We then encountered the bison, which the purveyor also spoke about. Had we not run across all the bison in Yellowstone, these sunset encounters would have almost certainly sent us back. However, this time we took the beasts’ presence in stride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyBLfhOSDt4

They were a welcome and enjoyable addition. Pre-paving again.

Their excrement was another story. Rubi found it particularly important to investigate.

Tonight’s camping is free, but is boondocking in the backcountry. We even got to sign the register!

The bathrooms are clean and pleasant, but beyond those vault toilets we’re on our own. Water and heat are for us to provide. Luckily, boondocking is becoming old hat. We may even be getting good at it. 🙂

The evening has not been without novelty. After being in bear country, we were happy to feed Rubi outside the van. Just after bringing her in from the cold, we heard a coyote braying a bit too close to our door. Since the door was not shut properly, we quickly addressed the issue, sending a haunting slam through the valley. We haven’t heard from him or her again. Here’s to a peaceful night’s sleep and an enjoyable tomorrow.

Travelog

Peaceful hikes, peaceful nights

November 4, 2014 Meg Leave a comment

The day began peacefully with some warm coffee, a little tetherball, a clothed visit with the ranger, and some cereal. Then we were off for our first real hike on this adventure..

After wandering through the campground looking for the trailhead sign we saw the previous night on the way in, we arrived at the edge of the campground. Confused and a little defeated, we let Rubi wader through the tent camping sites as we doubled back to the host station. Finally finding the sign, we continued up the campground road on our way to Centennial trailhead.

Forty minutes later, we still hadn’t reached the trailhead. Instead, we found brief cell tower reception, a boat dock, more deserted (or, more accurately, closed) campsites, and a well-worn unofficial trail leading around Sheridan Lake. Rubi thoroughly enjoyed being off leash, sniffing the grassland and trees, investigating more deer poop pellets, and romping along the lake’s edge.

We packed up camp as 3 new campers arrived. Happy at our luck of having the campground to ourselves for the night, we ventured off to the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Everyone we spoke to raved about Crazy Horse and enjoyed it more than Mount Rushmore. Liz and I would agree.

The memorial’s scale is huge as is the mission to promote better understanding and appreciation of native people.

Crazy Horse scale model (foreground) and construction of full monument (background)

Currently, only the face and part of the arm are completed. They have removed 6 million tons of stone, but still have 1.5 million left. It’s unclear how long the project will actually take to finish. Since the project refuses to take any state or federal money, it relies entirely on private donation, visitor’s fees, and sales at the gift shop and restaurant for funding. If you’re in the area, head over and support the project.

The story of Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor, and his life’s dedication to the project is quite moving. The fact that his wife, until her death this year, and 7 of his 10 children continue to work on the memorial after Korczak’s death in 1982 speaks to the family’s commitment and dedication.

After Crazy Horse, we took a short drive to Custer State Park. It was relatively quiet, with a few other RVers on the property. We plugged in, took hot showers, and enjoyed a bowl of matzo ball soup to warm up before turning in for the night.

Another Van-cooked meal (matzo ball soup) over route and camp planning

Travelog

Crossing into the Dakotas

November 3, 2014 Meg Leave a comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr8QDAan0pQ

We are spending the night in the Black Hill Mountains of South Dakota, like Rocky Raccoon. The day started with our thinking we had the entire Keyhole State Park campground of Pat’s Point in eastern Wyoming to ourselves. While getting dressed with the windows open, the ranger approached us. I guess people actually go to work on Monday morning. Since there was literally no one else at campground, he looked past Rubi playing tetherball off leash.

We decided to go the most direct way to Devil’s Tower, on a road that turned to gravel at the park’s edge and turned to very well-maintained dirt and gravel about two miles later.

12 miles of this on the "direct" route — 12 miles of this on the direct route

A mile or so after that, I realized that our driving 12 miles per hour on the direct road would result in a 15 minute longer driving time than if we’d just stuck to the regular roads and driven around the park. But by then we were on an adventure and happy to drive off the beaten path. RViejo got a little dusty, but handled very well.

Devil’s Tower involved a nice visit with the prairie dogs and an hour-long hike sans Rubi since it was again a national park.

Two hours later, we arrived in Deadwood, SD.

We drove through the cute, historic town quickly as we were attempting to make the Mt. Rushmore light show, which everyone said was the best part of the national monument. We arrived at Mt. Rushmore at 4:45pm, but it was already mostly dark and there were literally about a dozen people at the entire site. As far as we could tell, there is no light show in the fall. 🙁

Just lights...no show — Just lights…no show

We later realized that Deadwood is where Liz’s paternal grandmother Hazel was raised. Maybe we’ll go back. We also looked for the Horse Thief Inn, but only saw the Horse Creek Inn. The Horse Thief Inn is where Liz’s grandmother worked and there are early pictures of Jim Moore, barefoot, on its grounds. We couldn’t find the Horse Thief Inn on a map either, so we assume it closed.

The moon is mostly full so the stars are out, but not as plentiful with the moon’s bright light. It did make for a pleasant evening stroll with Rubi, without the need for headlamps. The pines swooshed in the gently breeze and we heard a few ducks settling in for the evening as well.

Leaving Seattle, Travelog

Day 1: Finally on the road!

October 24, 2014 Meg Leave a comment

When we finally picked the van up on Friday afternoon, Victor at the auto shop told us that there was a bad connection on the cable that connected the battery to the chassis ground. There was corrosion all over the connection. He claimed, multiple times, that all of this had NOT been our fault. If any of you believe otherwise, we don’t want to hear it. It’s much easier to blame someone else! We were also thrilled to hear that our house battery was also in good shape, holding a charge well.

We bid Seattle farewell and headed to trusty Issaquah, about 10 miles east of Seattle, for the night.

We were finally (finally!) on the road!

Leaving Seattle, Lessons learned, Travelog, Unexpected twists

Day 0.75: Almost on the road

October 23, 2014 Meg 1 Comment

Comfy hotel outside Seattle as we're waylaid again — Comfy hotel outside Seattle as we’re waylaid again

The day before…

Day 2 of our unexpected delay brought some good news. While the alternator is fried, the shop can build a new cable and get us on the road (fingers and toes crossed) tomorrow. In the meantime, we’re staying at a lovely hotel enjoying a king-sized bed, a truly hot shower, and regular electricity.

Many blame Mercury in retrograde for our mishap. Liz and I blame ourselves. Today, we both finally understand why power management of our house battery is so important. And why we were crazy not to immediately find shore power once our system started failing. The liquid propane detector beeping because it has low power is not just annoying–it’s the canary in the coal mine. Get more power to that battery, quick!, or your battery will reach the point of no return.

I had already come to the conclusion that boondocking, living without additional power sources, was difficult. But I couldn’t articulate exactly why until now. Yes, it’s weird to wear a headlamp and use camping lanterns inside a vehicle equipped with LEDs. Sure, it’s a little funny to wash your face with water from a water bottle since the rig’s water pump won’t work. It really would be nice if the generator would start to power up the battery, but I guess we can do without it. What the fuck were we thinking!?!

Thank goodness we learned this lesson in Seattle, where we know the area, still have our second car (which is very Rubi friendly), have plenty of hotels, and know how to deal with the rainy weather. Let’s hope and pray we never get into this situation again!

The day after…

Rubi on the Road

Category Archives: Travelog

Long Key, short stay

We are in the Florida Keys!

Misadventures again

St. Augustine living

And we’re back!

Pre-paving the adventure

Peaceful hikes, peaceful nights

Crossing into the Dakotas

Day 1: Finally on the road!

Day 0.75: Almost on the road

2 mamas and a bulldog traveling the US