Vanabout 2019 Day 2: Albuquerque

Vanabouts, and Walkabouts before them, are all about relearning the lessons of the past. 

Most of today I was working at the nice little RV park in Childress.  This place is a delight. For a mere $15 you get water and power and a beautiful little park to stay in. So beautiful is this park, for “lunch” I took Zoe for a walk around the little lake in the little park. Many many pictures were taken.

“But Steve”, you’re wondering, “where are these pictures?”

Well, I found out the next day, I had failed to put a memory card in my camera. So some great pictures of this delightful little park and, more importantly, some nice arty pictures taken at Cadillac Ranch will never see the light of day since the light of those pictures were not saved.  So this is the extent of my Cadillac Ranch pictures.

Firsts

• Use of my big ass battery to power the microwave to warm up my dinner.
• Oh, and this:

Vanabout 2019 Day 1: Childress

Well that didn’t go well.
I woke up at 5am. 5 motherforking AM!! To start my 6 week Vanabout that just about circumnavigates the US of A. Sorry Florida.
But as I was rolling into a rest area 30 minutes outside Wichita Falls to call into a couple of meetings, I made a terrible revelation. I left my new big honking battery back at the house.
This guy:

This is a vital element of this Vanabout, so after my meetings I had to turn around and go back home. After four hours of driving, I was back were I started, on my couch.
I left shortly after my workday was over and got to experience both morning and evening Dallas rush hour traffic. Bur for my efforts I got this at Opa’s Schnitzel Haus:



And this

Firsts!
This Vanabout will mark a number of firsts. So, I will try to acknowledge each time a first occurs every day.

• The first day of the Vanabout (Duh)
• The first time I took a conference call at a rest area.

NYC and Vermont Beer Fest 2018

Seriously, moment for moment, one of the best trips I’ve ever taken.  I got to eat at not one but two iconic NYC eateries; Katz’s Deli and Peter Luger’s.  And I got to bask in the beauty of Vermont while drinking some of the best beer the world has to offer.

California Wine Trip Part 2: Carmel

California Wine Trip 2018: Pismo, Paso and Pinnacles

I took literally a trillion pictures in California, so it’s been a daunting task to go through them.  The first set is of Pismo Beach, Paso Robles and Pinnacles National Park (Thanks Obama).

Big Bend 2017

Vermont 2017

Vanabout 2017 Days 11 and Beyond

Not a whole lot of pictures taken after Leavenworth since I was going to places I’ve been many times before. So here are a handful of phone pix taken.

Vanabout 2017 Day 10: Leavenworth

Whoa!?!?  What happened to day 9?

Well, that was spent driving from West Glacier to Leavenworth.  Not wanting to stop, I didn’t take any pictures.

I heard there was a tasty schweinehaxe here, so I had to stop.

Vanabout 2017 Day 8: Many Glaciers to West Glacier

That was a terrible day. It rained almost the whole day, so not many pictures. I did finally get to use my weBoost that turned no 4gLTE into just enough to be reconnected with society, but not enough to post these last three galleries.

Maybe tomorrow.

Vanabout 2017 Day 7: More Many Glaciers

Well, that may have been the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.

Five years ago I hike the Grinnell Glacier trail ( a 6 mile trail each way with a 1200ft elevation climb) with no water, no food and no bear spray.  Well I wasn’t going to be that stupid again this year.  I brought water. I brought bison bars.  And I brought bear spray.

So I thought I was all prepared to hike the equally long and difficult Iceberg Lake trail. Except it didn’t occur to me that, although all the snow had melted at camp, 1200 feet up, there will still be substantial snow.  And so, the last half mile of the trial was covered in snow.  I couldn’t turn back. I was almost there. Actual experienced winter hikers kept passing me with their hiking sticks and snow chains on their shoes.

Somehow I didn’t slip off the mountain or break a leg/arm/skull/other wrist. 34,000 steps later I am able to share the amazing pictures I took.