Heaven is located about an hour from Panama City, FL (aka the Redneck Riviera). Heaven is the State Park on St. Joseph Peninsula, a tiny sandbar that juts into the Gulf of Mexico near the middle of nowhere. This area calls itself the forgotten coast. I can’t decide if they’re happy or unhappy that they seem to have been forgotten by the partiers that patronize Panama City or the oldsters [...]
Read more
We had been warned that Great Smoky Mountains National Park was the busiest park in the country. But it’s hard to imagine what 9,000,000 visitors per year means, or even what 60,000 visitors per busy weekend looks like. And then we got there and we got stuck in the Great Smoky Mountains National Traffic Jam. The good news is that the park is huge, and that most visitors stay on [...]
Read more
Crunch…crunch…crunch…snuffle snuffle. I really wanted to see a black bear in The Breaks Interstate Park, which straddles the border between Kentucky and Virginia, and this seemed like our chance. We were right next to the van, so we could jump in when it approached. Perfect. We waited, tense, for this stamping beast to appear. Finally it drew closer, and I realized that it could only have two legs. Was it [...]
Read more
We trust Google with most directions. I spend much of our driving days on the Google Maps Android app (while Lisa drives). Most days end up being uneventful — we just find where we want to go. Driving to Breaks Interstate Park … not so much. If you look at a map, you may think you can just take Highway 119 out of Charleston, WV to Highway 80 and, easy-peasy, [...]
Read more
Between Cleveland and Akron, OH lies one of the newest National Parks in the US, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (est. 2000). We meandered through it on our way south after leaving Cleveland. Honestly, the vibe is a bit odd. I grew up just outside Milwaukee, near the Menomonee River Parkway. A lot of this park feels like a nice, suburban parkway. Sure, it’s a bit bigger. There are a few [...]
Read more
Crystal Bridges Museum, Alice Walton’s (a Walmart heiress) attempt at ennobling Arkansas, is great. Its architecture is striking, its setting is beautiful, and its art is provocative. If it was just a park that you could wander through, it’d be amazing. The museum and reception venue put it over the top. But here’s the best part: it’s free. I hated the Hearst Castle because it felt like a money grab, like robbery. $25 [...]
Read more
The trip through the Mines of Moria was always my favorite part of the Lord of the Rings books. As a kid, I read Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth as if it were a factual account of a fantastical place I would visit someday. And now, standing 750 feet below the surface of the earth, I felt like I was in Moria or on my way [...]
Read more
I’d never heard of Guadalupe National Park, tucked in the corner of Texas in that spot where the big state slides in between New Mexico and Mexico. And while we spent about 24 hours there, I still don’t know much about the place. We rolled in in a wind/dust/sandstorm that obscured the high peaks and buffeted our van all night. In the morning we woke to a thin little blanket [...]
Read more
Some people come to Rockhound State Park to spend a few cheap, quiet weeks or nights in the desert. Most come for the rockhounding, aka amateur geologying, searching in various levels of seriousness for semi-precious stones like opals, minerals like quartz and jasper, and geodes. Some are hobbyists, some are undoubtedly rock shop owners, and some are looking for their rocky lottery ticket. The ground is visibly scratched and scuffed, and large [...]
Read more
This stuff is at nearly every park we visit … and I hate it. It just doesn’t work. I wrote it a poem: Waxie toilet paper, oh how I hate thee, At least I don’t have to use you when I pee, Because all you do is smear and smoosh. You don’t even act nicely when you flush! That’s why this University is suing you, You’re no better than a [...]
Read moreWe sold, donated, and stored our possessions; quit our jobs; bought a van; and are driving around North America. We'll wander around, see what's happening, and write about it here.
Keep track of us on Twitter and Facebook or subscribe to our blog via email or RSS:
