The Pisgah National Forest occupies a huge amount of mountainous land above and below Ashville, North Carolina.  We chose to go there without doing our normal due diligence due to quick pandemic-based schedule adjustments.  We knew there was decent hiking and that it was far enough south to be warm, but we had no idea just how great it is.  The area we stayed in is known as the Ranger…

Our first stop on our Fall ’20 tour was Shenandoah National Park in Western Virginia.  Although we visited the park a few years ago, we didn’t see much due  Suzanne’s broken foot as well as some snow in the park when the roads were closed.  Not so this time around with both of us healthy and cooperation from the weather!  In mid October, we were joined by Robyn and Dave…

In mid-September, we returned to Acadia National Park for the first time since our first year on the road and it didn’t disappoint. In 2017, Suzanne was fresh off foot surgery and we were unable to do any real hiking. This time we had the chance to see a lot of the Park. Susie and Dean Hereford joined us while we were there to make a great trip even better….

In early September we spent a week in the north, central part of the state.  We stayed just off I-95 in Medway to visit both Baxter State Park and the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. The two parks are large, adjacent wilderness areas with no paved roads, electricity, or running water.  Although both areas have been logged over the past 100+ years they now represent untamed beauty. Baxter SP…

Just like the rest of the planet, February and March didn’t play out like we expected. It all started innocently enough.  We arrived in Yuma in late January and had a month of great weather while basking in the ignorance of the on-coming pandemic.  Unfortunately, by the early-March the world changed and we had to cancel nearly all of our spring schedule.  We did manage to spent a short week…

This is another a place we tried to visit previously, but were deterred by the two government shutdowns.  This was our final 2020 New Mexico stop and added another check mark to our bucket list.  The morning after catching a hike and dinner in Silver City, we headed to the National Monument.  We couldn’t understand how it could take 2 hours to travel less than 50 miles until we got…

The name “White Sands” really tells what the park is all about.  The park is a unique, large patch of white gypsum sand that collected all in one place due to the geography, winds, and mineral content of the area.  It is quite beautiful and we found ourselves walking though the dunes like we were in the Sahara.  It also reminded us of the snow-scapes we experienced in upstate New…

Like many people of our age, we first heard about Carlsbad Caverns when we were in elementary school via bad black and white pictures in our text books.  We were told it was one of the wonders of the world and they are underground right here in the US of A.  After all these years, it’s still true. It’s not the largest in the world or country.  It’s not even…

Big Bend is not an easy place to get to as it’s tucked in the southwest corner of Texas.  We were already deep in Texas on South Padre Island and it took us two days to get there.  Big Bend is a combination of desert, mountain, and river vistas that cover more land than Rhode Island.  Like many of the National Parks, it was established in the 1930’s and the…

South Padre Island was recommended to us by some RV friends and was our first stop on “winter tour”.  It’s at southern-most point of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico and bordered on the south by Mexico.  By my account, it looks and feels just like Florida.  SPI is a barrier island that is only a half mile or so wide, but about 40 miles long.  Most of it is…