This weekend’s campsite was new to us, although we had scouted it several weeks before. We selected it because we appreciated its seclusion, with heavy forestation that reminded us of Loyd Park. We arrived at the site around 4 p.m., but it took nearly a half-hour and three attempts before we were able to get…
We started our July Fourth weekend a day early, arriving at camp on Thursday after work. With temperatures in the mid-90s, it took a couple of hours to cool Cloud 9 to a comfortable 80 degrees, and then it wasn’t long before Chef Cliff served an indoor picnic of grilled chicken, macaroni and cheese, and…
As much of the Pacific Northwest sweltered in a dangerous and historic heatwave, we headed back to Cedar Hill State Park amid triple-digit “feels like” temperatures. We arrived around 4:30 on Friday afternoon and stayed with the dogs in the air-conditioned cab of our tow vehicle for about 45 minutes while we waited for the…
On Thursday, President Biden signed legislation making June 19, a.k.a. Juneteenth, the 11th American federal holiday and the first to obtain legal observance as a federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was designated in 1983. Texas was the first state to recognize Juneteenth, in 1980, and the first state to adopt it as…
Two words we hate to hear: heat index. As soon as we start talking about the “feels like” temperature, we know we’re close to sizzling. The heat index is a measure of air temperature and relative humidity in shaded areas, indicating how hot it feels to the average person. This weekend’s heat index was in…
Cedar Hill State Park is only 11 miles from our storage unit, but it could well be a world away. It provides not only an escape from work but quick, easy access to Joe Pool Lake and nearly 300 campsites. Throughout the park, we find local people like ourselves taking an afternoon off, or camping…
The weekend found us planning this year’s big road trip, a sojourn through the Southwest to White Sands, Saguaro and Joshua Tree national parks. White Sands National Park, located in New Mexico’s Tularosa Basin, was originally designated a national monument by President Herbert Hoover in 1933. It was redesignated a national park by President Donald…
Our typical weekend activities served as “bookends” to our Saturday spotlight event: a visit from our friend John for cocktails, dinner, campfire conversation, and a celebration of Armed Forces Day, an observance established in 1949 by President Harry S. Truman as a single-day celebration for all five branches of the U.S. military. Because John served…
When we cancelled our annual Thanksgiving trip to visit Jon’s family in Illinois, we promised his mom that if we all were vaccinated, we would visit instead on Mother’s Day weekend. We kept our promise. We started our trip to the St. Louis area on Thursday morning, arriving at Joplin, Missouri, our overnight destination, after…
An article by Catherine Zuckerman in The New York Times got it right. “Raise your hand if you’re completely burned out,” it began. “Your inbox is an overflowing bucket of urgent requests. You are consistently asked to do more with less. Your mind is constantly reshuffling priorities, perpetually calculating the number of minutes left in…
