This is a (very!) belated posting from the end of our month-long van trip through the Southwest and up the California Coast. Coming out of Las Vegas, we beelined for the southern tip of Big Sur, making our first stop in the cute little seaside town of Cambria. Our readings suggested the locals wouldn’t be […]
Visiting Vegas
Part of the reason that we were able to take a month long van trip is that my company has a purely remote office, which means I can flip open my laptop wherever I am and “go to work”. Assuming, of course, I have a decent data connection through my cell phone. Which, despite the […]
A Grand Detour
The Grand Canyon has a rep. Other national parks and tourist destinations have their allure, but there’s something about the Grand Canyon, something profoundly archetypal, that sets expectations high: it’s not just big, it’s grand. It’s always been a wonder to me how these standard beliefs find their way into Zevin’s mind. I’ve always thought of […]
Skipping Zion
They say that the journey is the more important than the destination, and that was never more true than with our trip to Zion. We bolted out of Bryce late in the afternoon, wanting to make sure we could find and settle in to the free, BLM-land camping spot just east of Zion that we’d picked […]
Bryce
A visit to Bryce was one of the main drivers for our four week Southwest adventure. Twenty odd years ago, I came through this way with some friends, and walking through this unremarkable pine forest to the rim of Bryce Canyon Amphitheater dropped my jaw. As I’ve said before, it came as close to making […]
Goblin Valley
Leaving Moab, our plan was to drive through the heat of the day and make it to Capitol Reef State Park in time for sleep, but a few people had suggested we keep an eye out for Goblin Valley, so when we spied a sign for it on a long stretch of empty Utah highway, […]
Arches
Arches was HOT. With temperatures in the low 100’s, the park rangers were advising that all park exploration start at dawn and wrap up by 11 am. No joke. We turned the mid-day furnace to our advantage and spent it in Moab, doing laundry, taking care of errands, chatting with other travelers (hey Modern Tarzan), […]
Jinxed
Don’t say that, please,” Michelle excoriated Zevin. “But this trip is jinxed, Mom!” No, it’s not, it’s been a great trip thus far and promises to continue so, but we’ve certainly had (more than) our fair share of challenges. For one: the 14-year-old fridge in our van has decided that fighting 100ºF heat each day […]
Travel with Only Child
“Gimme five!” The toughest part of long term traveling with an only child has to be lack of playmates. We’re a close family, and Zevin still enjoys his time with both Michelle and I. Zevin and I will take long walks, making up stories with each other, and as I write this, Michelle and Zevin […]
Hot Tubbin’ the Rio Grande
We bolted north towards Taos, hoping to get a peek at Earthship Biotecture before it closed, but missed it by minutes. But, like the old story goes, good luck, bad luck, who knows? We consulted with freecampsites.net, a crowd-sourced database of, well, free campsites, and found this little cherry of a spot overlooking the Rio […]