We love trains, I especially love being around them. My folks first introduced me to trains in the little town of Guadalupe, Calif. while we lived in Santa Maria in the early 1950’s. Since then whenever I am near railroad tracks or hear the distant rumble of a train my pulse quickens. In the last […]
Read more "Trainspotting Along Sidewinder Road"It has been many full moons since Denise and I last visited Joshua Tree National Park. Recently we returned. Having lived in Southern California in the 1960’s and 70’s, my brother Sam and I have a long history of visiting this high desert mecca. My family has considered this park their weekend playground since […]
Read more "Return To Joshua Tree"We are camped in the middle of nowhere and are very happy about it. As we stare out over the vast Arizona desert we can see nothing but open space and open sky. Our camp is situated just east of Vicksburg, AZ near the massive Bouse dry wash along the slopes of the Harcuvar mountains. We have […]
Read more "camped within sight of nowhere"Over the years we have spent many a winter wandering the deserts of the American Southwest and Baja. When it comes to stimulating and visually stunning desert topography there is nothing quite like sighting a distant pile of large vibrant red boulders sticking up out of the sand. Canyonlands National Park has majestic tall red cliffs, […]
Read more "In Search Of Red Earth"Driving south out of Salt lake City we find ourselves stopping for the evening in the little town of Green River. At first it was just a place to sleep but then….. we find an oasis. You would never guess as you drive into town from the hot dry surrounding desert that you are driving […]
Read more "Erosion In Its’ Finest Form"After losing ourselves in Waterton-Glacier National Park for a while we eventually followed our noses and the moderate weather into southern Montana. But we did have a worthy goal in mind…visit our friends the Habeckers near Bozeman. Tom and Donna spent their careers working for the National Park Service in many different parks and are now […]
Read more "Bears, Bison And Boiling Water"Wandering Around Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park After many hours of driving south across Alberta’s beautiful prairies we finally arrive just north of the US/Canadian Border and enter a stunning region of blue lakes and jagged peaks know as Waterton Lakes National Park. A Brief History Of The Area Waterton Lakes National Park is located in the […]
Read more "All The Time In The World"Traveling through the Canadian Rockies by car has to be one of the most awe inspiring drives in North America. From the front seat of your Mercedes you can view spectacular peaks, glaciers and rivers up close and personal. The Icefields Parkway begins in Jasper and ends in Banff and is 144 miles of mind blowing scenery. […]
Read more "A Drive Through The Canadian Rockies"It is Thanksgiving and we are in the Rockies! That’s the Canadian Thanksgiving and we are in the Canadian Rockies In Case You Were Wondering: Thanksgiving (French: Action de grâce), or Thanksgiving Day (Jour de l’action de grâce) is also an annual Canadian holiday, occurring on the second Monday in October, which celebrates the harvest […]
Read more "Thanksgiving In The Rockies"We are parked in front of a Fairbanks grocery store and it is snowing hard!! Thus begins our travels south for the winter. We are in Fairbanks stocking up on supplies and having the Caboose’s front end aligned before we start down the Alaska Hwy. We have now winterized our home, kissed the cat goodbye, […]
Read more "DRIVE SOUTH"Yes summer has come and gone in the Alaska Range. Our summers are typically filled with a combination of sunshine and rain, warm but not too hot temperatures Generally we spend our time BBQing, eating out, visiting with friends, wrenching on the fleet, hiking with big dogs and then in a quick 3 months it is all over. […]
Read more "Summers End"The old saying “time flies when your having fun” certainly has been a truism this month. Recently my 93 year old mother traveled to Alaska to visit her children. This visit was probably her 35th trip since my brother Sam and I first migrated to this state in the early 70’s. Mom’s love of the north […]
Read more "Friends, Family And Feast"Above Is The Fabulous Quilt Depicting Mt. McKinley Designed and Constructed by Denali Artist Ree Nancarrow. It Is On Permanent Display In The Eielson Visitor Center Within Denali National Park Taylor Basecamp is situated at about 1700 ft. elevation and located in the middle of the Alaska Range about 80 air miles from the summit of Mt. McKinley. […]
Read more "Mid Summer Delights"June has come and gone and we had a blast. This post is late due to the fact that we have been very busy having way to much fun. Below are just some of the highlights of this months activities. June means the vegetation has now greened up and the wild flowers are beautiful. The […]
Read more "Summer In Denali"The month of May typically is one of our seasonal transition months, the Alaska Range slowly turns from brown to green and summer begins. The rivers are now open and free of ice, the eagles are back and fishing the rivers, the cow moose are having their babies and the bears are lurking around looking for the […]
Read more "The Alaska Range Turns Green"WOW! We can’t believe we have been stationary at Taylor Base Camp for about a month now! Its has been great to be home but we also really miss being on the road. The dogs were confused for first couple of weeks and would run to get into the ZEFYR everytime we went somewhere. April’s […]
Read more "April In Denali"On Our Way Home part 2 Since our last post we departed the Sierra Nevada’s and headed back to the coast. After making a brief stop in Sacramento to replace the bug’s distributor which failed while driving in Yosemite valley, we spent the night at Standish Hicky State Park situated along Hwy. 101. This beautifully lush campground along the South Fork of […]
Read more "On Our Way Home 2"On Our Way Home part 1 The time has come…….we must slowly head north to be home in time for our favorite time of year in Alaska… SPRING!! After leaving family and friends in Thousand Oaks we headed straight for our favorite beach campsite along the Rincon Parkway just 20 miles away. As […]
Read more "On Our Way Home"After wandering the deserts of Calif and Arizona for almost 2 months we have just spent 2 weeks in Thousand Oaks California visiting family. Below is a short video of my mom’s home during a family get together this last weekend. A lot has happened since we left the southland, it has rained several inches! As we descended from the […]
Read more "California Green"Our desert sojourn is unfortunately coming to an end and soon we must begin our northbound migration back to Alaska in time for summer. It is hard to believe we have been on the road for almost 5 months now, it has gone by so fast. We have just spent the last 2 months wandering […]
Read more "Dog Days In The Desert"This last week we have traveled south of Ajo AZ about 40 miles and have been camped in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Its a wonderful desert park with many out of the way places where you can get lost and just wander the arid landscape. Twin Peaks is the only RV campground and it […]
Read more "Into the Sonoran Desert"There are places in this world that have that certain charm or ambiance, they are different for a reason. Ajo Arizona is one of those places. Ajo meaning garlic in Spanish or red paint in the native language, is situated about 40 miles north of the Mexico border and about 115 south of Phoenix in the Northern […]
Read more "It Was Always Ajo"Recently we have come to the conclusion that living in the open desert is something that makes us very happy. In our younger years we traveled extensively on the Baja Peninsula and have camped the full length of Mexico and deep into Central America passing through some rather intense desert environments. On those trips our goals, […]
Read more "Alaskan Desert Nomads"Living in remote Alaska for the last 40 years did not help when it came time to camp surrounded by the largest RV show on earth. After attending the “Buses by the Bridge” VW event at Lake Havasu we drove due south to Quartzsite Arizona to experience this event first hand. Miles before we reached […]
Read more "Lost in a Sea Of Saguaros"After spending the holidays with family and friends on the west coast we have once again moved east into the desert. Recently we attended the 19th annual “Buses at the Bridge” event held in Lake Havasu City Arizona. This event originally began with owners of old VW camper vans getting together to camp and hang […]
Read more "Old Buses and Big Balloons"Today we are in Ventura California to celebrate Lois Taylor’s (Mom) life of 99 years. Lois led an exceptional life full of travel and adventure, witnessed and experienced unimaginable change in this world during her life. She was a California girl that traveled through Europe, driven the Alaska Hwy 3 times and visited that state more than 30 […]
Read more "99 Years Of Fun And Adventure"If you happen to live anywhere near Los Angeles you are very fortunate to have the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area at your doorstep. Its 153,000 acres offer access to some very wild mountain and canyon areas, beautiful beaches, historic film locations, extensive trail system and great wildlife viewing. Having been raised in SoCal in the 60’s […]
Read more "The Worlds Largest Urban National Park"This will be the first Christmas away from our home in Denali since the late 90’s. For many years we have hosted Christmas dinner at our house and today we are missing our friends. Christmas time in Alaska means very short daylight hours, temperatures that range around 0 degrees and snow on the ground. A […]
Read more "A Southern California Christmas"Its Dec 21, 2014. This date is very important to us for many reasons. We are about half way through our 6 month winter sojourn, we have successfully missed the darkest day of the year in Alaska and 41 years ago we were married in Anchorage! Its hard to believe all the things we have […]
Read more "Winter Solstice in The Desert"After waiting out 2″ of heavy rain on the west coast we took the opportunity to escape to the low desert as soon as it let up. The trip from Ventura County into the desert involved traveling on some of the busiest interstates in the country. But we missed most of the typical stop and […]
Read more "Finally… The Desert"After spending two weeks at mom’s house visiting, restocking and taking care of a small list of maintenance items on both our rigs we had decided to spend some time before Christmas in the California desert. As usual we have been closely monitoring the forecast to determine the optimum weather opportunities for the pups and us. The […]
Read more "The Art Of Remaining Flexible"After enjoying a great Thanksgiving with our family I now wait in a dark corner of Southern California for the black friday shopping blitz to end. So to pass the time I have decided to write a short post about our current home on wheels, the Zefyr (short for Zephyr) First lets start off with […]
Read more "The ZEFYR"There is a very small campground located at the remote tip of Point Conception along California’s southern coast where life happens at a different pace. Santa Barbara County’s Jalama beach is set apart by its remoteness, its steep windy and narrow access road, lack of cell coverage and a very relaxed atmosphere, its like camping […]
Read more "Jalama"We are very lucky people indeed…. During our trip south from Alaska in the last 8 weeks we have been tracking and continually moving towards warmer weather and have generally been very successful. Some of the highlights of our quest have been Canada’s Liard River Provincial Park, the Okanagan wine country, the Swiss like Kettle Valley, central Washington’s wonderful wooded […]
Read more "From The Mountains To The Sea"We have been living in and around the Bishop CA area for the last 10 days or so and I believe we have finally found what every Alaskan snow bird is looking for. The Buttermilk Hills are just a few miles west of Bishop in Inyo National Forest and provide the perfect blend of weather […]
Read more "The Best of the Buttermilks"The eastern side of the Sierra Nevada’s has always held a strong magical power over me. In the late 60’s while on climbing trips with the Sierra Club, meeting Norman Clyde in 1969 in Independence and reading John Muir’s “The Mountains of California” has helped form my respect and appreciation for this wonderful range of […]
Read more "Return To The Range of Light"Nestled into the foot hills of the gorgeous Powell Butte area of central Oregon is the beautiful home of Phyllis and Mark Motsko otherwise know as “Fort Motsko” They have done a fantastic job of landscaping and maintaining the property. The views of the Cascades from their dinning room windows are spectacular. We spent hours […]
Read more "A Visit to the Fabulous Fort Motsko"Over the last 40 years most of our travels between Alaska and Southern Calif have generally been centered along the fastest route, the I-5 corridor. When there were schedules to meet and family to visit it was the shortest distance between two points. Now that most of our timelines and deadlines are gone our new […]
Read more "Central Washington Surprises"After cruising the back roads of BC for almost three weeks the weather is beginning to cool and so to stay true to our mantra we must turn south and cross the border into the lower 48 ……as we Alaskans call it. Driving east from Osoyoos just north along the US border on Hwy 3 […]
Read more "Goodbye Beautiful British Columbia Hello Washington State"Our family has had a longstanding love affair with VW cars for the last 45 years. When we decided to take a tow vehicle with us on our current adventure it was an easy decision on what vehicle type to drag behind us….. an air cooled VW bug. Recently we found a vintage 1969 bug […]
Read more "Meet the CABOSE"