Travel Plans!!!

I haven’t disappeared off the face of the internet, I just haven’t been traveling since my last 4,000-mile trip. Well, that’s not exactly right either. I did take a trip at Christmas but (insert whisper tone) but I didn’t take the Casita. It was just a short trip from El Paso to Fort Collins and back and since I might run into snow, taking only the truck sans trailer made sense and I wanted to actually travel the speed limit. The decision was a great one: 1 - I received the best, warmest hugs when I arrived, and 2 - I did run into blizzard, white-out conditions on my way home once I hit Raton, NM all the way to Sante Fe. I wasn’t worried or scared because throughout my years, I have driven in all kinds of weather and terrain either pulling or carrying large loads--but that is for another day and another post.

I am excited right now because I’m about to take off WITH my Casita to the Fiberglass Rally in Quartzsite, Arizona! I have been sitting in one place, albeit home, for too long and I want to feel my wheels spin.

I love the way I winterize the Casita. I empty the fresh water tank and hot water heater. This is a great time to replace the anode. I shut the hot-water water bypass valve then blow out the water pipes. This lets me travel spontaneously because all I have to do (which I’m doing at the end of this week) is add some water to the fresh water tank. If you do it this way, always remember to make sure your hot water heater is filled so that you don’t burn up the electrical heating element.

So stay tuned because I’ll be posting about my travel experiences for the next couple of weeks. By the way, if you like the way I write, you can support my travels and blog by buying from Amazon through my blog by clicking on the Amazon link on the right column. Amazon gives me a small commission for all sales that are made through my link.

To help my audience grow, please feel free to share my blog with your friends and/or Facebook, Twitter, Casita Owners on Facebook, and any Casita or Fiberglass forums you may belong. Thanks for reading! I gotta get packing! I'm so excited!

Paranoia and mudflaps

A story of rumors and quandary

This is a blurb about mud flaps, well fear too. Yeah, mud flaps and fear, but first let me preface my tale by telling you that we're a couple of weeks away from lift off to Alaska and points north. Because, we're going to share this little excursion of Northern

Perception, Such a Narrow View of Life

See the Elk?There's actually more than one. It's all about perception.

Sunshine streaming in the window, jump out of bed, fling open the window and I'm treated to colors of a beautiful sunrise, so full, so magnificent and to complete the perception, a cool breeze and a cacophony of birds, dogs, and morning sounds. So big, so filling, so complete...well not quite, but, damn, it sure seems like it from a perceptual point of view. And, for the most part, we walk around

Birds of a Feather

I find it very curious the almost instant bond created by commonness. 

I can remember very clearly my first few hours of hours after arriving at Marine Corps boot camp. We had our heads shaved, we were relieved of our "civilian" clothing and handed boots, olive green pants and a yellow sweatshirt. In other words we had been stripped of our old identity (they were going to build us a brand new one, yeah sure!).  But standing there, everyone having the same dorky bald canary look, we talked and the first groups that

10 Reasons why I don't like my Casita Travel Trailer

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How did we get to our Tara, our Casita travel trailer?

Our travel journey has been long. Our first trip together was back in 1975 to Telluride, Colorado, when it was a still a little sleepy mining town that hippies were rejuvenating. While it was just a trip back then, it has since been referred to as our 'honeymoon.' We took it in a VW converted bug known as a Baja. Charley made it so we could actually sleep in it. We took pride that the little trip only cost $100.

Then we have the 'antique' years. Years we traveled to Mexico to buy rustic, handmade, primitive furniture from the homes of the inhabitants, brought them back, stripped the paint from the tables, benches, trunks, wardrobes, kitchen cabinets, etc., then traveled Stateside to sell these jewels to antique stores. We have never been the travelers who travel

Ontological Research

On the side of our little fiberglass bubble we light heartedly placed this little tag to guide is in our travels. It has some noticeable side effects. First, like all little meditations, it brings our attention back to why we are roaming around in this reality. Second, it gets a lot of questions at gas stations and parking lots about "Just what the hell does that mean?" Apparently, 'Ontology' is not in a lot of people's vocabulary and I can find no fault in that.  But it makes

Coffee for light travel and packable

When packing for a bicycle trip, weight and size matters. When packing for a tandem, two people on one bicycle, weight and size becomes even more important. One of the main questions people would ask us is, "How much gear weight do you pack?" We weighed everything one year and our gear turned out to be 100 pounds. That's really not bad considering that single cyclists (people traveling on a regular bicycle (not tandem)) carry 50 - 75 pounds of gear. 

Now we travel in, what some people would call, a tiny travel trailer. We call it a luxurious mansion on wheels, our 17-foot Casita Spirit Deluxe travel trailer (all things are relative). While we can pack a lot more, space still plays an important part. I've seen all sorts of inside trailer modifications just to accommodate a conventional coffee brewer. One of the items we've taken from those bicycle

Wagon Spokes

Can you believe that our last bicycle tour was the fall of 2011? Wow! Over 12 years of bicycle touring. The pain, the joy, the conquest of miles over landscapes forever etched into my soul. During our current motorized trips (more on that in just a minute) we constantly drive along or crisscross places we previously cycled. Did I say etched? We remember the moment clearly, as if it were yesterday. We remember the weather, the shade (or lack of), the road surface, the thrill of the downhill, the work of the uphill, and oh, don't forget that nasty headwind or the joy of the tailwind, plus the sighting of something that would have been lost traveling at a greater speed. Yes, it is etched.

We saw a lot. But then there were times we lost out on moments. We missed a play in a town, a carnival, a festival, or a boat ride, to

Enchanted bicycle tour

Kamala: Guilt trip or the road calling? Call it what you will, but one of those finally got to us. Yes, we know, we haven't taken a bicycle tour this year, until tomorrow. We take off north on our two-seated, two-wheeled chomoly steed heavily laden with cold gear. It's late fall and on top of that we're headed north into the Land of Enchantment. Are we nuts? A distinct possibility. But hey, it's a guilt trip or the call of the road and we are enchanted either way. Stay tuned for updates. Hey and now, you or your friends can sign up for an email notifications of new entries. Just look on the left-hand column of the blog--Kamala

Green Lake "Mystery Loves Company"

This is turning out to be a year that is a bit out of step with our usual. Usually, by this time, June, we are either spinning the pedals around, making our way across the country on a bike journey or have already gotten our yearly cycling tour under our belts. But this June finds us in Wisconsin attending a 'sit-down" Road Scholar program on the writing of mysteries and then a week in Eagle River canoeing.

By "sit-down" I mean that there were no outside activities like paddling, cycling, or hiking. While we brought the bicycle and we did get some rides in, it was outside the program. So during our first week in Wisconsin we found ourselves deeply involved with murder.

First I've got to tell you that while Kamala and I watch a few mystery programs on TV and have read a couple of Grisham novels, listened on Audible as Kinsey Millhone kicked some ass, and a few others over the years, we are definitely not experts on the subject and, God forbid, I cannot even tell you the name of Charlie Chan's number one son (oh the shame, because many of the other participants could).

Now Green Lake, is first of all a beautiful lake, the deepest in Wisconsin. And secondly, it is a conference center on the shores of.....you guessed it--Green Lake. The Conference Center at which we stayed is run by the Baptists, but open to all faiths (although I didn't see a lot of Muslims or Hare Krishna devotees hanging around). Actually, it was mainly aimed, if I'm reading this right, at fundamentalist Christians, especially ministers, who kind of needed to "rejuice" the joy in their spiritual life. At any rate it was a spiritual retreat of sorts and all the people I ran into were just as pleased as punch that we were there and treated us really nice. I couldn't get over the sense of irony that while everyone in the whole setting was there to find a "closer walk with God", there were thirty of us in a conference room spending our

time exploring all the myriad of ways to kill someone.

While there were some good points about the program there was way too much sitting and I think that, as much as we like the Road Scholar programs, that this will be our last "sit-down" type of program. Although there were a few times I felt I was sitting at an in-service meeting back at ol' Irvin High School (insert high pitched scream here), I'm still going to rate it a C+ because, the people were friendly, the presenters were really trying, the area was beautiful, the food was good and best of all I got to experience it with Kamala.

The art of travel

As our master canoe instructor deftly explained the art of canoeing with the use of a small canoe that he had borrowed from a local garden gnome, I was suddenly struck with a realization that was, at once enlightening and joyous, and yet stirred up an extreme sense of sadness of opportunities lost. As he held the little paddles in his fingers, moving them around in tiny circles as if stirring coffee, I flashed back to my days as a football coach and realized that I had really missed the boat by not using Barbie dolls to demonstrate blocking techniques to those freshmen.

Mastering the Canoe 101

Here we learn how to paddle a wooden dock. OMG, it was soooooo realistic! I mean after a few minutes we were expert canoeists, capable of paddling any canoe that sat 2 and 1/2 feet out of the water and anchored deep in the lake bottom. Bring on the whitewater! And on top of the wonderful life changing instruction I was nostaligically transported back to Miss Higbothom's 5th grade dance class with footprints on the floor and everything.

Okay, okay, so the start was a little slow. Maybe he hadn't quite realized that we were all old enough to be his parents and that he could have actually tried to pass on information in a bit more sophisticated manner (8th or even 9th grade level would have sufficed). Anyway the program was all uphill from there and in the end I give the week an A.

Eagle River turned out to be as beautiful an area as Green Lake was and the week was filled with paddling pristine lakes and rivers, sloshing across floating jelly-like bogs, calling owls, watching bald eagles soar, and meeting interesting people. Our guides were knowledgeable and friendly. Troy and Jill injected humor into the outings. The weather cooperated with pleasant cool days (I'm not really sure yet if they have summer up here).

The original plan was to find a place to leave the truck and trailer for a couple of weeks and cycle-tour Michigan's Upper Peninsula. After a long and serious discussion and reading the entrails of sheep (for clarity of mind), we have decided upon deviation.

"The art of travel is to be able to deviate from one’s plans."

This quote comes from a class B movie (plot quite forgettable) but the message has stayed with us. The Northwoods of Wisconsin have wonderful roads to cycle and plenty, I mean plenty, of water to paddle. Plus, someone has to feed these darn mosquitoes.

Tandem float in a hidden paradise

We arrive at Lake Roberts, nestled deep in the Gila Wilderness, early mid-week as laid-back campers wave a greeting hand to our entrance. We pay for four weekday nights planning for our departure on Saturday morning in anticipation to this mountain campground’s cool allure to weekenders escaping their daily grind. We pass the mornings floating on this little mountain lake, watch families of ducks escort their young, frogs yelp and leap from the path of our tandem kayak, and listen to the breeze rustle through the trees and the conversation of birds. We are fugitives of the desert heat as we rejoice at the night’s refreshing chill and watch as the sun’s rays retreat and leave a sight of a seemingly endless starscape.  Oh, how we forget how many stars there are! We retire to our little trailer as the crickets and frogs serenade us to sleep. We soon realize that we are in paradise. Days pass with afternoon excursions of hikes, local explorations, and naps as afternoon thundershowers roll into our alpine abode.

Friday arrives. Our set departure date is Saturday. Early weekenders begin their take over. We bed down early hoping for another float on Saturday morning. Campground sounds filter into our world mixed with conversation and children's laughter. Air filters the good out of distant music and only the bad tones and beat seem to reach our ears. The quiet time rule is ignored until sometime past midnight. Overall, everyone is content and happy; we drift to sleep.

The campers awake with lively conversation and we feel a need to stay another night. Saturday night, we are treated to a night of amateur karaoke blasted through disco speakers for the campground to either appreciate or, if you were trying to sleep, tolerate. Sunday morning is cast in overcast clouds which keep the lake even cooler. We, again, decide to stay another day. We watch the magical timer wind down for those folks, who still toil and keep society running for the rest of us, pack up all their camping gear and leave. The lazy weekday camper again listens to the crickets and bull frogs sing their own brand of karaoke.