“Tuzigoot is the site of an ancient Native American apartment complex which was home to as many as 200 Sinagua people. It was excavated and partially rebuilt back in the 1930’s by two American archaeologists and a team of Apache laborers. It is believed to have been continuously used between 1,000 and 1,400 CE….”
Read MoreKat wanted to hike some trails so we set out to climb the Cliff Shelf Trail, rated Moderate by the Badlands NPS. Once I was an athlete (Kat still is), but age and injuries have worn out some of my key mobility joints. Moderate sounded Aggressive to me, but we set out to do it. […]
Read MoreSage Creek campground is only about 20 miles from one of our Must-Sees in South Dakota, Wall Drug. We figured to keep the truck and trailer hitched up, visit the little town with the big store, and maybe boondock Tuesday night somewhere on the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. Spring days are longer up north and […]
Read MoreMonday we figured it was time to go a step further in boondocking. We set out for the Sage Creek primitive campground. Primitive typically means there’s a road to it and nothing more. This was kind of true; the road was dirt and gravel, washboard with occasional patches of smooth. Otherwise it was pure primitive, […]
Read MoreSaturday we visited Niobrara National Wildlife Reserve. We were a quarter mile into the park when up there on the ridgeline loomed the silhouette of a buffalo bull: a big boy, for sure. Moments later we saw the whole herd behind him, maybe 100 of them. These bison are more tame than wild so they […]
Read MoreWe are South Dakotans. We got our drivers licenses in Vermillion, despite the best efforts of some circuit-riding DMV vets from Sioux City. They did their best impression of French government functionaries (Ah, thees receipt for your camping does not leest your Dakota address!” “Uh, I paid $5 cash; he had no reason to ask […]
Read MoreAround noon on May 7 the sun came out and we crossed the Big Sioux River leaving Iowa and entering South Dakota. Half an hour later we rolled into Vermillion, SD, home of both the U of South Dakota Coyotes and of the multiple state championship winning Vermillion High School Tanagers. How ‘bout that Tanager […]
Read MoreOn the way to Nebraska City we stopped at a Target to buy a Fuji S4850 camera. It’s more camera than a Point and Shoot but easier to use than a full DSLR. Like everything else, you should read the instructions before trying to do anything useful, hence the delay in this post. And then […]
Read MoreOn May 2 and 3 the weather broke records all over Kansas, including Lawrence. The new temperature record is 43 degrees, both days, and that’s not a Low, it’s a High. The old record predates me, going back to May 2 & 3, 1944. The old recorded lowest High for these days had been 44 […]
Read MoreAs you may or may not know, I sure love thunderstorms and neon signs….
Read More… known on big rigs as a Jake brake, this is a nice feature to have in mountains. It takes taking some of the load off your truck and trailer brakes. Jacobs brakes ™ restrict the outflow of exhaust gases, slowing the engine’s rpms,…
Read MoreTomorrow we will saddle up and move to Tenkiller Ferry Lake in Oklahoma. It’s a Corps of Engineers park, and we hope to prolong spring in our northbound wandering. I’ll miss Cossatot Reefs. Its forest of blooming dogwoods, all those just beginning to leaf hardwoods, and this beautiful noisy river make this by far the […]
Read MoreWednesday we scouted Gillham Lake’s other campsites, Little Coon Creek and Big Coon Creek. Big CC is on Gillham Lake. Little CC is in a wooded area without water frontage. Our campsite is better for us. All over the park the perfection of the redbud and dogwood blossoms says we have purchased another two weeks […]
Read MoreWe pulled out of Chicot State Park Sunday morning en route to Shreveport, old friends, and what’s left of my family. Today’s trip began with blue highways 1173, 106, 115 and ended on red I-49. Sometimes a smooth road’s lack of scenery is a fair price to pay for an easy ride. There was an […]
Read MoreYou know a bar’s gotta be good if it’s only open half of one day a week, right? Ville Platte radio station KVPI 1050 AM broadcasts a live Cajun music show from Fred’s Lounge every Saturday morning from 9:00 to 11:00. The lounge opens an hour before the show….
Read MoreFountainbleau State Park in Mandeville, Louisiana, off blue highway LA 22, is a fine place for birding. The lake has too many gulls to identify, lots of those wonderfully clumsy fishermen we call the brown pelican, all kinds of ducks, and assorted wading birds. On land you’ll see spectacular red-headed woodpeckers, nearly fluorescent bluebirds, mockingbirds, […]
Read MoreThe name is Jackson. And you best know: I’m a killer. We have been in our 28’ Airstream for seven weeks now. Before, we had always lived in apartments or houses. In stick and brick dwellings roaches were the more likely pest than mice. I haven’t had to poison or trap a mouse in twenty […]
Read MoreIt’s not easy to find simple food that is easy to cook, inexpensive, and tasty. But it’s out there. We discovered this simple egg dish on a cold rainy day last week. The Kat likes it so much she would eat it every other day. But for me, once a week is enough. Epicurious published […]
Read MoreFor the past five days Kat, Jackson, and Pink have camped at Bogue Chitto, a south Lousiana state park off blue highway LA 25. It’s ten miles north of Folsom (not the one with a famous prison) and six miles south of Franklinton. Bogue sounds like Bogart’s nickname, and Chitto rhymes with “ditto”, not “Cheeto”. […]
Read MorePink is special. Not athletic like most Springers, but more empathetic than any others I’ve known. She likes kittens and has tried to adopt them. Not a perfect soul, she has prejudices: Muscovy ducks and shelled creatures, especially tortoises and armadillos. She’s forever hungry, perhaps from her time of near starvation. To a dog, food is currency.
Read MoreThere were albums full of pictures of Norm, his buds, and some of the kids he had coached. Everybody loved this guy. I wish we had met him. He went out doing what he loved to do, living the RV life and enjoying the great outdoors
Read MoreBreaking news: William Least Heat-Moon just gave us his blessing to use his best-seller’s title in our blog’s name. That is a big deal. Imagine the literary pretentions one must have to name a blog on full-time RV life after Heat-Moon’s travelogue of self-discovery, a book which is required reading in many college English courses. […]
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Life on the Blue Highways 