Cyndy and I are practicing flexibility. We had hoped to be in Bryce Canyon National Park this past week and Memorial Day weekend, but the weather forecast predicted cold temps, rain, and snow.
I won't call that "bad" weather because all weather is good in some way, but it was simply weather that we would probably find uncomfortable.
So we went to Death Valley instead, a place where we expected to be uncomfortably hot at this time of year, but the temps were well below normal with highs mostly in the 70s to low 90s and some nights in the low 60s.
This is now our seventh week on the road, having moved out of our apartment in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Sunday, April 7.
Our rig consists of a 21-foot Jayco Flight travel trailer -- our 168-square foot "tiny house" on wheels -- that we pull with a deep red GMC half-ton pickup truck that we call "Ruby Rambler."
We visited Cyndy's mom in Port Huron, Michigan, then headed quickly south to Montgomery, Alabama, where I conducted some business with an African American archive at Alabama State University.
After listening to some blues at Gip's Place, a divey juke joint near Birmingham, we then headed west across Mississippi and Louisiana.
We invested 17 days in Texas. Yes, it's a big state, but a week of that time was in the awesomely beautiful Big Bend National Park where we hiked through desert and mountains and, on one sunny day, paddled a canoe on the Rio Grande. We even stopped for a break on the Mexican shore and helped a few skipping stones emigrate to the American side.
In Fort Davis, we visited the MacDonald Observatory and, on a clear, clear night, received a refresher of some of the more notable constellations.
Oh, and in Austin, we learned the Texas two-step at the famous Broken Spoke honky-tonk bar.
The highlight in New Mexico was White Sands National Monument, a fantastically beautiful place where we walked for five miles over gorgeous, pure white dunes.
Arizona featured a clearing ceremony at Bell Rock, a vortex site near Sedona. Then we camped and hiked near the Grand Canyon's North Rim for five days.
Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park were to be the highlights in Utah, but we settled for an oil change on our tow vehicle in St. George and then proceeded westward to Death Valley.
Along the way, we invested two days at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. What an awesome place of red sandstone formations! I have never said "wow" so many times in so few hours. Go there; it's just a little bit northeast of Las Vegas.
Death Valley is also an awesome place. This beautiful natural resource, the largest national park in the nation, is not just a valley with an elevation below sea level. It features towering mountains, great hiking trails, and lots of history, including a salt flat where, over a century ago, borax was mined and hauled to market in wagons pulled by 20-mule teams.
Definitely put Death Valley on your list of places to visit ... in the cooler months.
Throughout this trip, I have noticed the "little miracles" of traveling spontaneously and not being on a schedule. For example, last March, in Kalamazoo, Cyndy and I purchased from Harbor Freight two sets of solar panels with which we intended to charge the batteries on our travel trailer. After a month, we decided that we needed only one set (four panels) and that the second set was taking up valuable storage space.
But where to find a Harbor Freight store? Our angels knew the answer. In Carlsbad, New Mexico, we had a hard time finding a gas station with enough pump space and a few enough number of cars for our truck and trailer to maneuver in and out. When we found an adequate-sized station, the pump I used didn't work (probably operator error); starting out on the road again, I saw that the gas gauge still read in the "fill me" range. So we drove on and found another station ... practically next door to a Harbor Freight store where the manager willingly let us return the extra solar panels.
We are generally staying put in one campground for several days, walking two to five miles a day and enjoying our daily connection with nature. We have not eaten fast food or any chain restaurant meals in over a month, and we've both lost ten pounds.
On most days, I'm still finding time to write. Two weeks ago, I finished up my Civil Rights Movement blog series, which you can find on
my web site, and am now working on my next book ... with a few blogs like this one for good measure.
I'm not going to bother posting my pics of the places we've been because you can find better images and videos online.
Take care and all the best!
