The long Christmas holiday weekend took us south to Matagorda Bay, a large estuary on the Texas coast about halfway between Galveston and Corpus Christi. We stayed at the Matagorda Bay Nature Park, located at the mouth of the Colorado River on the Matagorda Peninsula. (FYI, the 862-mile-long Texas river was named by Spanish explorers…
Once again, our Thanksgiving break took us to the St. Louis area, where we visited Jon’s family. Although his mom lives in Alton, Illinois, our destination for the duration was about 40 miles away at Symond’s Dutch Hollow Village, described by Google as a “manufactured home community.” Jon’s nephew, Adam, lives there in a single-wide,…
We began our journey home with a change in plans. Fellow Airstreamers at Zion River RV Resort advised us against overnighting in Albuquerque because of an uptick in gang-related crime at RV parks, so we opted instead to make Gallup our destination. Doing so allowed us to have a long, leisurely morning at the park…
When we first arrived at Arches National Park, we asked a ranger at the entrance about a park pass that would give us access to all of the Mighty 5. She asked how much time we had set aside to visit the five parks, and we said five days. She responded, “Well, that’s going to…
After a leisurely morning, we departed for our fourth national park: Bryce Canyon. The trip took about two hours, and brought us through a large agricultural area adjacent to the Fish Lake Plateau. All was going well until we came upon an area of Utah State Route 62 where road signs declared an end to…
At this point in our trip, we’ve completely run out of superlatives to describe the wonders we’ve seen. We’re unsure what we’ll say about the wonders that await, but we may need to try another language. Interestingly, when we planned this trip, we didn’t consult any of the guidebooks or websites for the “ideal” itinerary.…
Canyonlands National Park was the second destination in our national park quintet. Established by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Canyonlands is known for its dramatic desert landscape carved by the Colorado River. The park features towering rock pinnacles, remote canyons, whitewater rapids, and Native American rock paintings. The first formations we encountered were the Monitor…
The trip from Grand Junction to Moab took about two hours, allowing us to arrive at the Moab KOA, get checked in and completely set up by early afternoon. We then made our way to the first of our Mighty 5: Arches National Park, home to the densest concentration of natural stone arches on Earth.…
The longest leg of our trip started an hour late and extended another hour because of delays, turning a nine-hour drive into an 11-hour marathon. But we enjoyed spectacular views along the way, as well as long periods of silence thanks to spotty cell service (which affected our Amazon Music stream) and losing ourselves in…
We began our Mighty 5 adventure with an overnight stay at Amarillo Ranch RV Park, a stone’s throw from The Big Texan Steak Ranch and Brewery, a kitschy Route 66 landmark saloon-style steakhouse that offers patrons a 72-ounce steak challenge. If you consume an entire meal in one hour, the $72 meal is on the…
Garinns on the Go 