If you follow this blog, you know I’m a bit of a nerd, so I read about things like Google Fiber. The big news lately has been about its expansion to Austin, TX, a city we didn’t exactly fall in love with. Now the news is that it’s expanding to Provo, UT as well. We were even less fond of Provo. There’s a pattern here and I can read it [...]
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After surviving our epic trip across Texas, we finally arrived in the dark of night at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, escorted by swarms of bats that we imagined were from nearby Carlsbad Cavern. The last time we were here, we got snowed out. We’ve been looking forward to returning ever since. So what does the perfect day involve? Well, first you wake up early, before the campground construction workers get started [...]
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When you drive in Texas, you get the impression that Texas is ready for you to leave. Road signs proclaim “Drive Clean Across Texas,” “Don’t Mess With Texas,” and “Speed Limit: 80.” Texas is the only place I’ve been driving 75 mph on a side road — not a divided highway — and been passed by every car that came up behind me. There’s something about seeing a car, head [...]
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I think I’ve said this before — I’m not fond of Texas. I don’t like the ranchers that have sweetheart grazing deals on government land, that feed their cattle government-subsidized food, railing against social services. I don’t like oil men that hire teams of geologists and scientists thanking god for their good fortune, greedily trying to exploit every drop of crude beneath our feet, denying global warming, fighting the government’s investment [...]
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We needed a break from travel. We needed to sit still and listen to the trees and pause. If we had a porch, we would have set on it. We didn’t have a porch, we weren’t in Charleston, and so we did the next best thing: we found the closest campground to Beaumont, Texas and went there and didn’t do anything else. Instead of driving someplace to explore, we’d explore [...]
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The trip into Texas was rough. We’d just left paradise, Florida’s Forgotten Coast, and had a great time in New Orleans (minus a little snafu in Alabama). The road through Louisiana’s bayou was fun. We even got to ride a ferry. We passed through the “Cajun Riviera” of Holly Beach, a place destroyed and abandoned in 2005 thanks to Hurricane Rita, and then we were destroyed by Texas. Man, I really don’t [...]
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I’m sitting on a bed in a disgusting motel room — the most disgusting motel room I’ve ever been in in my life, and I’ve been in my fair share of cheap motels. I’m crying. I feel a little better when I realize that I can’t remember the last time I’ve cried, but then I look back at the stains on the carpet, the destroyed furniture, the knife slash in [...]
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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 [...]
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Big Bend National Park is one of the least-visited national parks. All the more reason to visit. And for views like these: photo credit: sean_mcgee photo credit: sean_mcgee photo credit: AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker photo credit: Tycho Moon
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