Kat and I love Gulf seafood. What we have found from the Pacific has been nearly as good – those big Pacific oysters (the most common variety, and the species canned for refrigerator cases in most of the USA) are too metallic for my taste, fried or raw. Baked with a sauce they are acceptable, […]
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Redwoods National Park casts a mood along the lines of Mirkwood, the dark forest of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Hobbit trilogy, inhabited by giant spiders, overseen by the Eye of Sauron, home of Gollum, a land terrorized by the occasional raid of marauding Orcs. It is damp, mossy, cool when not cold, and packed with […]
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As famed as this park is, we did not know it has a valley section open most of the year, and a higher section that’s closed most of the year. Our visit took place April 13 and 14 and they hadn’t even run snowplows through the mountain passes. So we missed Tuolumne Meadows at […]
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It seems spring has finally overtaken us on our trek north. Outside Sequoia National Park the redbuds are in full bloom, the lupines (which look just like tall bluebonnets) are out in force, and the hills are covered with dark golden flowers the locals know as California poppies. But the ever vigilant Park Service is […]
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Over the years I have enjoyed the company of several black cats. The first was Jinx who mysteriously appeared at our backdoor in Mooringsport. My mom liked cats and Dad tolerated them, outside. He hated the idea of something that buried its poop jumping onto countertops or tables. That’s understandable, but in my dotage I […]
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If you are thinking of visiting Grand Canyon National Park this year it may be too late. Kat and I camped at our favorite boondocking site on FR 302 just south of Tusayan the first week of April. We built a campfire, poured the wine, and prepared dinner. The next morning we savored coffee and […]
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You get two parks here for the price of one. The desert is the northern half of the park; the stone forest is the southern. Neither is exactly a national treasure, but both are interesting as well as auto accessible. Right on the border between north and south stands a ’32 Studebaker marking the site […]
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