Heat was on the agenda. Graham wanted to get to the heat, and Trish was terrified. But it needed to be done. Death Valley in July. Staying the night on the outskirts of the desert in Olancha was hot enough. We had to post up at an RV resort (random tidbit – every single patron there was French except for us. No one could tell me why. Just …

We left the splendor of Yosemite to head down to two adjoining national parks, Kings Canyon and Sequoia. We ween’t quite sure what to expect from either park, other than big trees and royal canyons. We headed towards a campsite in between the two parks where we felt we could leave our trailer for the day and visit both parks safely. It was an informal campsite in Sequoia National Forest,

Our route from Yellowstone National Park to California was pretty bland. It took three days to go from Pocatello to Sacramento, via northern Nevada and its tiny towns populated with an unreasonably large number of casinos. I had made arrangements to stay in Sacramento for a few days with an old YWAM friend of mine, Caleb, and his wife and young ‘un. We just chilled for two days around town

Yellowstone, in our minds, was the national park to visit. As such, expectations were high. Trish had dreamt of visiting Yellowstone for years. She wanted to see the herds of colossal bison meandering through the grasslands. She wanted to see Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic Spring glistening in the sun. I, of course, wanted to see all of that as well, plus whatever other animals we could spot. I just wanted to

We are finally in our blessed Shangri-La, the West. We drove 9 1/2 hours in one day to just bloody get to Colorado already. We had had enough of 3.5-hour days in the car, just driving as far as we could while we endured our kids’ backlash against the torment we were putting them through. They were all so sick of being in the car. We woke up in Oklahoma and

Our stay in the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas last night was brilliant. Everybody enjoyed it for a wealth of reasons, and we got to put our trailer through its paces again. We left a rather relaxing, somber campsite at Village Creek State Park, on the eastern side of Arkansas, and drove clean across the state in a day, arriving in Ozark National Forest to try and find a free

We were at the family beach house two days ago. Now we are in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Tonight will be our third night of real camping in the Conqueror, and what a tale of contrasts these three nights have been. Night one: Uwharrie National Forest, central NC This was our first destination from the beach, and we chose it for two reasons: 1) it sat right at our arbitrarily-chosen daily driving

Here’s what the last few weeks have looked like for us. We have been: Packing the house to move across the country Packing our trailer to live in for the next two months Buying a house Selling a house Starting a business All at the same time. All while managing three borderline un-manageable kids with no off switches. It has all been … hectic. There are many adjectives I could

This past weekend, our now five-piece ensemble family took advantage of one of the last days of pleasant weather of the year, and headed down to have a day of family fun in Wilson, NC, at their Whirligig Festival, probably one of the biggest shindigs the town sees all year. It was a great display of local color, framed around a curious bit of local history. Named for a local artist

If there was an award for debatably successful trips, we would be the winners every year. The smart money’s on us. I have long been a science nerd, and what better outlet for a nerd than getting to experience a once-in-a-lifetime event like a full solar eclipse. We decided to go see it on a near whim, once I realized that we would be nearby the day before, in Statesville,