Seeking Early Spring Wildflowers in the Anza-Borrego Desert

Early Spring Flowers in the Anza-Borrego Desert

It has been a wet winter in California and when that happens the desert in eastern San Diego County changes. We went seeking early spring flowers in the Anza-Borrego desert. In the summer, in the desert, I look past the small patches of dry vegetation surrounded by sand and instead focus on the dramatic views. …

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RV Air Conditioning on Batteries and Solar without extra electricity

Sunset at Placid Lake

My goal is to be (electric) energy independent, this includes air conditioning on batteries and solar. I have not yet installed solar. I can now run air conditioning from my lithium batteries. Someday soon I hope to run my air conditioning on batteries and solar with solar replacing the electricity the air conditioning consumes. The …

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Food Desert? Not in Tucson!

Food Desert?

Food Desert — Not in Tucson! As we travel we often encounter both outstanding food choices and food deserts. Tucson is not a food desert. In fact, our anniversary dinner uncovered a great downtown restaurant. Great downtown restaurants alone would not create a blog post. We have been to lots of great downtown restaurants. However, …

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Can one lithium battery replace four lead-acid batteries?

Can One Lithium Battery Replace Four Lead-Acid Batteries?

Can one lithium battery replace four lead-acid batteries? In my case, yes, I did exactly that. My one lithium battery does everything that the lead batteries did. My one twenty-two-pound lithium battery replaced my previous four hundred and sixty pounds of lead-acid batteries. I didn’t start out with the intent to replace my lead-acid batteries …

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Classic Rotors, a One-of-a-Kind helicopter (rescue) museum

Classic rotors arrival of a newly restored aircraft

Classic Rotors is a special aircraft museum in Ramona California. One-of-a-kind refers both to the museum and the helicopters. The museum is dedicated to rescuing one-of-a-kind and unique historically significant helicopters. The all-volunteer museum staff is bringing these historical aircraft back to flying condition and then flying them. They have several one-of-a-kind helicopters and some …

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Southbound in the Willamette Valley

Willamette Valley

We have now traveled the entire Willamette Valley southbound going through Oregon. Our previous visits to Oregon included crossing and visiting the Willamette Valley each time with the objective of going somewhere else. This time going to the Willamette Valley was the objective. Tacked onto this journey was also visiting the mountains south of the …

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Snippet: Who can stay at military campgrounds?

Who can stay at military campgrounds?

Who can stay at military campgrounds? Generally, the answer is all personnel on active duty, most military retirees, some other veterans, and some DOD employees. Who can stay at military campgrounds? Roughly the groups are outlined as follows: Usually, there is a preference for active duty, but the other categories don’t usually establish a pecking …

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RV Water Treatment System

RV water filter system

You need an RV water treatment system. Unless of course, your RV doesn’t have water. Nearly every RV, straight from the factory has an inadequate RV water treatment system. This article is an update to our 2018 article by the same name. Since then we installed an even better and more robust RV water treatment …

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Snippet: Oregon State Parks Special Access Pass

Oregon state parks Special Access Pass

Snippet: Oregon State Parks Special Access Pass is available to any disabled veteran, from any state. This is a great program. Active duty military is also included for this benefit — but in a different way. Thank you, Oregon. This updated article was first published in July 2020. The biggest part of the program update …

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Quinault Rainforest and Kestner Homestead

Quinault Kestner Homestead

The Quinault rainforest and Kestner Homestead are at the southwest corner of Olympic National Park. It is the newest part of the park. Positioned northeast of Lake Quinault, the Kestners tried to carve a farm out of the rainforest and eventually failed. It wasn’t for the lack of effort or associated with lack of water. …

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The End of the Road

Scott and Tami at the end of the road.

We made it to the end of the road. Starting in Key West in January our goal was to cross the country from corner to corner. We made it all the way. Perhaps in a couple of years, we will repeat the adventure of crossing from San Diego to the far northeast corner of Maine. …

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Lake Crescent Olympic National Park

Lake Crescent Washington

Lake Crescent is amazing. Its crystal clear water sparkles with colors that range from the deepest sapphire blue to turquoise. It is the largest lake in Olympic National Park and the second-deepest lake in Washington. Even though the size doesn’t match Lake Tahoe or Crater Lake it is just as, or for me, more beautiful. Location …

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Amazing Fort Worden

Fort Worden

Fort Worden shouldn’t be mentioned without mentioning its sister forts. Fort Worden, Fort Casey, and Fort Flagler were linked together as if they were one fort. This was because they all had one task. They created a crossfire that defended Puget Sound from a Naval attack. These forts, all acted as one, even though miles …

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Across the Cascade Mountains

Across the Cascade Mountains

Working our way west across the Cascade Mountains. During our full-time travel journey, we have done this several times. We might go across the Cascade Mountains again next year. Our route next year is not quite certain yet but firming up. This year’s journey started on January 1st in Key West and crossed the entire …

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RVing in a Heat Dome

July 2022 heat dome

RVing in a Heat Dome isn’t fun. There I go again, complaining about the weather. Yes, the problem was all self-induced. Our goal for the year was to travel and have fun while crossing the lower 48 states from the tip of Florida in Key West all the way to Puget Sound in the far …

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Going the old way across the Bitterroot Mountains

Across the Bitterroot Mountains

We went across the Bitterroot Mountains and enjoyed every minute of it. The Bitterroot Mountains connect Montana and Idaho. U.S. Highway 12 starting in Lolo Montana follows the same path across the mountains as did Louis and Clark. We liked the Lolo Pass area (explanation below) so much that we visited it three times. They …

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The Big Fire

The big fire valley in the Bitterroot mountains seen from the Route of the Hiawatha.

In the “big fire”, as they call it, it all burned. Everything of value was gone. The big fire was actually 3000 smaller fires, yes the number is correct three thousand fires. The fire destroyed three million acres of prime, old-growth forest. The big fire Three million acres is three times the area of the …

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Kayak Adventures

Kayak Adventures sunset at Clear Lake Washington.

Our Hurricane Kayaks are very responsible for making our kayak adventures more fun. By following our journey, you already know that we really love kayaking. We promised to and are taking our kayaks to places that Hurricane Kayaks have never been before. I can say this with confidence because some of our next stops are …

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Across Idaho

Across Idaho

While going across Idaho we rejoined the Oregon trail in Burley Idaho. The Oregon trail splits from the Mormon Trail at Fort Bridger. Instead of staying on the Oregon Trail, we followed the Mormon trail to visit Salt Lake City. You might see some similarities in the title of this post. Last month I described …

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Salt Lake City

Looking at the Wasatch Range south of Salt Lake City.

We stopped in Salt Lake City on our way west. Starting in Fort Bridger, we (almost) followed the Mormon trail to Salt Lake City. I say almost because starting in Echo Canyon, the Mormon pioneers took a different route. From Echo Canyon, we followed the Weber (Wee-ber) River, through Weber Canyon, and then to Ogden. …

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Across Wyoming

Across Wyoming Photo taken in Colorado.

Before the road was built, all the locals (all second and third-generation pioneers) agreed that this route across Wyoming was a big mistake. Since we are not pioneers and have a motorhome rather than a wagon, we have to follow the roads. We went anyway but timed it carefully. So going across Wyoming, for us, …

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