It is fitting that after celebrating this blog’s 100th post, we close the curtain on an era. No, the blog isn’t ending. Yes, we sold our beloved RV. Our trusty Thor Freedom Elite 23H was the third in a line of vans and campers that served as our home on the road for weeks and … More Going once, going twice… SOLD
If you follow this blog closely (and who doesn’t?) you were left long ago with a cliff-hanger. We were in the Catskills and I had COVID. We made a retreat back to Florida with high hopes of trying to get back on the road and salvage the rest of our summer. How have I fallen … More Celebrating 100 Posts
For the second year in a row we’ve decided not to print one of those ubiquitous Christmas card collages and mail it out to the 100 or so dear friends and family whose correct addresses we still have. No one in our family really likes writing addresses, keeping the list, and licking envelopes. Yeah, I … More Merry Christmas from Don’t Make Me Turn This Van Around
The first time we visited Boston was last summer when we spent a week in the idyllic woods of Hingham, MA, camping at the decommissioned munitions depot of Wompatuck State Park. The mornings were crisp as we took the ferry into Beantown. But once our children set foot on the Freedom Trail’s fabled cobblestones, they … More Boston. For real this time.
Over the past several weeks, our legions of fans have said to me, “Where’s the blog? Did you get lost in Maine?” Okay, it was actually three—three readers who have mentioned it. So it’s mid-December and at the rate I’m posting here, I’ll finish blogging about our summer trip sometime in 2023. So I won’t … More Spontaneous
Maine has been high on our list of places to go since we bought our first van in 2017. To a Floridian, Maine is the yin to our yang. The north to our south. The cold to our hot. The cliffs to our sand. The whoopie pie to our Cuban sandwich. The moose to our … More Maine, the opposite of Florida
Four months before Monica’s first Boston Marathon, we arrived on a reconnaissance mission to check out Bean Town. Surely we’d find Boston as agreeable as other old and fabled favorites. But when you’re on the road for two months, it can’t all be sunshine and roses. I could encapsulate our stay in one brief scene … More Not gonna lie. Boston was a bit of a disaster.
You might recall back in May some evil Russian hackers shut down the supply of gasoline to the southeastern portion of the United States. Suddenly gas was gone overnight like toilet paper. (Who knew that the flow was controlled by one spigot with an open wifi signal?) A lot of people wanted to know how … More Hitting our stride: The battlefields of Virginia to the streets of New York
If you follow this blog, it would be easy to think that we disappeared somewhere after our visit to Oxford, Mississippi. We sort of did vanish. Our next destination took us out of cell reception and sent some members of our family into a frenzied search for our whereabouts. Now, another six weeks have passed … More Apparently, this blog doesn’t write itself. Fear not, we’re alive.
I’m writing this more than two weeks into our summer journey and we’ve already seen too much to recount. We’re currently staying at what I’m certain will be the most expensive “campsite” of our trip. Some campsites boast private decks, stone fireplaces and clubhouses with all the comforts of a fine hotel. Alas, this patch … More Seaside to Selma to Oxford: Contrasts in the Deep South
Don't make me turn this van around! RV Edition 