March 13-16, 2018 Alamogordo, NM We stayed in the town of Alamogordo to visit White Sands National Park – a part of New Mexico that we weren’t able to explore last year. At first we thought we might stay 2 or 3 weeks, but our plans changed based on a chance to see friends in […]
Tombstone
March 12, 2018 Tombstone, Arizona We hadn’t really planned to make a trip through Tombstone, but our drive from Yuma to our next stop in New Mexico was about 8 hours, and that’s just more than we like to do in one day. We found an RV Coop at almost exactly the half-way point on […]
A Weekend Exploring the San Diego Zoo & Joshua Tree NP
February 28-March 3, 2018 San Diego, CA & Joshua Tree National Park During our winter stay in Yuma, we took the time one weekend to drive the 3 hours west to San Diego. I have wanted to visit the San Diego Zoo ever since the Disney Channel taught me at age 4 that it’s the […]
Stumbo Gets a Makeover
January/February 2018 Yuma, AZ I’m calling it a makeover – not a renovation – because we didn’t move any walls or change the structure of our home in any way. I feel like that’s required in order to qualify a change as a “renovation”. What we did was a makeover – new furniture, paint, and […]
Howlin’ at the Moon
Yuma, Arizona January 31, 2018 During the winter months, Stumbo has been parked in a neighborhood at the very far southeast corner of the Yuma metro area, on the very southeast edge of the neighborhood. So just across the street from where we’ve been staying is the desert, parts of it privately owned, but largely […]
Our Season in Yuma
Yuma December 22, 2017-March 12, 2018 Our stay in Yuma would best be described as our “season” in Yuma. Coming in at 80 days, this is the longest continuous stay at any one place by far. We settled into a routine, enjoying the luxuries of being parked in Brad’s parents’ driveway, including but not limited […]
Our Week in Pahrump that Lasted a Month
Pahrump, Nevada Noveber 22 – December 22, 2017 Once Uncle Clay left, we planned to only spend a few more days in Southwest NV and then continue on. But when our original reservation neared it’s end, we were just so comfortable that we decided to stay a few more days. And then a few more. […]
500 days later
Raton, New Mexico April 12, 2018 In November of 2016 we were waylaid in Albuqueque, NM waiting on a trailer part to arrive to repair a leaking tank. While we waited, we ended up having a fantastic 3+ weeks exploring the interesting city, and made ourselves at home at one of our favorite campgrounds, […]
Thanksgiving Party with Uncle Clay
Pahrump, Nevada November 22-28, 2017 For the Thanksgiving holiday we had the great joy of welcoming my brother Clay into the Fitzgerald Family insanity for almost a week. We met up at one of our favorite campgrounds – Preferred RV Resort in Pahrump, Nevada. He rented one of the cabins right next to our campsite […]
Alabama Hills
Alabama Hills Recreation Area Lone Pine, California November 20-22, 2017 The online reviews of boon docking sites in the Alabama Hills Recreation Area were beckoning us to this spot, but the real draw for me was seeing Mount Whitney. I’d never realized until last year that the highest point in the contiguous 48 (Mt. […]
A Day Trip to Mono Lake
Hawthorne, Nevada & Mono Lake Tufa National Reserve, California November 18-20, 2017 Yesterday we drove over 500 miles from the cool, wet, dark forests of the California Coast redwood groves, over the snow covered Sierra Nevadas through Donner’s Pass, and into the rugged, stark, vastness of western Nevada. We paid $6 to sleep next to […]
Another Week Underneath the Giants
Richardson Grove State Park, California November 11-18, 2017 I can’t really explain the feeling of walking through the redwood forests. It makes me feel like my body is humming with life, but also like I need to be very still. The trees make me feel so tiny, but also like my actions have enormous consequences. […]
Free Parking with the Sea Lions
Crescent City, California November 10, 2017 On our way south from the Oregon coast down to the California Redwoods, we planned to find a boon docking site for 1 night to split up the long trip. We were tentatively aiming for a casino parking lot in Crescent City, but as we got closer Brad noticed […]
Oregon Coast
Florence, Oregon November 2-10, 2017 We spent one rainy week camped on the Oregon Coast at a mostly-empty county RV park right outside of Florence, Oregon. It felt good to be back on the road again after our month in Wenatchee, but it was also jarring to go from the busy, logistically-complicated month of happy […]
Making Friends in Low Places
French Prairie Rest Area, I-5 Southbound November 1-2, 2017 I could see why this one had been flagged by other RV’ers as a great overnight location. I’d never seen a highway rest area as large as the one where we spent our first night of “year 2” on the road. This bizarre, outdoor, concrete motel […]
Sad Faces in Beautiful Places
All of the Places August 2016 – January 2018 For the most part I have tried to share the happy, positive parts of our adventures over the past year and a half. There are several reasons that I’m motivated to focus mainly on the good stuff. The good stuff is what I want to focus […]
Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig
Wenatchee, Washington October 1-November 1 It’s hard to know how to capture the story of our time in Wenatchee completely enough to summarize it. As expected, it was a whirlwind of happy, fun activity. We spent great quality time with close friends and bumped into acquaintances at the grocery store. We had meals around tables […]
Homelessness is a Gray Area
Chehalis, WA September 20-27 As we were driving around Washington in September, a “wiring fault on trailer” message kept appearing on our dash. It had occasionally come on at earlier points in our trip, but all of the lights and blinkers still continued to work when the warning appeared, so we had more or less […]