Driving gives me a lot of time to think, especially when we exclusively travel the backroads from A to B. We see things that we would have normally missed (just take a look at the destination posts from the blog). Sure, we still would have seen the National Parks, but we would have missed manyContinue reading “Route 66 and the death of Americana”
Tag Archives: vanlife
Central New Mexico
The land that I love—New Mexico. It just keeps giving. Miracle and I sit down with our road atlas—the perfect wedding gift from our dear friend, Raj—and simply pick a route. We go. Miracle googles stuff and we read road signs; we talk to locals and pick up brochures. We drive and we detour.
Truth or Consequences
True story: At one point in time, Truth or Consequences was named Hot Springs. But in the 50s, there was a radio gameshow by the name of Truth or Consequences. The host said the first town to rename itself for the show would get… an episode aired from that town. Guessing incorrectly that this wouldContinue reading “Truth or Consequences”
Season 5 is coming!
The bassist from the band Slaughter. A bona fide New Orleans chef who lost everything in Katrina. A Canadian whose bus shares the same name as our dog. The CEO of the Dollywood Foundation. The Itinerant Air-cooled guy and his friend who runs McIntyre’s Home for Wayward Buses and Wandering Souls. A pastor who ownsContinue reading “Season 5 is coming!”
Southern New Mexico
Ah, New Mexico—one of my favorite states. We trucked in from the south, which is almost as indistinguishable from the bleak Texas oil fields I mentioned previously. But once you push past that, you have all the kookiness of Roswell, the history of Billy the Kid and railroads and boom towns turned ghost towns. AddContinue reading “Southern New Mexico”
New Mexico
Thirty-one states and 20,000 miles under our belts. This has been our route since January 1st. That big northward spike? That was our now-infamous engine breakdown. We booked it southward and stayed in St. Louis with our now dear friends, then trotted east with the good weather, only to be waylaid by faulty brakes. WeContinue reading “New Mexico”
Podcast: Shawn & Emma
Before setting off on our 49 state bus tour in our VW, Adie, we made a post on a Facebook forum asking for interview recommendations. This guy, Shawn Sullivan, messages us to ask if we wanted to be on his radio program called The Happy Trucker Show. We were on the program and instantly likedContinue reading “Podcast: Shawn & Emma”
West Texas
West Texas is bleak, my friends. Driving the last 60 miles out of Texas is a barren, hollow, desolate, scouring of the inside of your soul experience. Nothing but oil horses and RV parks for their workers, flat parchment land. The only notable features are the wire skeletons with electric wires swooping between them andContinue reading “West Texas”
Terlingua, TX
Google Maps is my favorite invention. I’d sit at my desk at that last miserable job I had and take Maps vacations—find a locale and start clicking through the route I’d take to get there, look at people’s photos, and read their reviews. (For those of you clamoring to return to office culture, let’s notContinue reading “Terlingua, TX”
We went to Mexico!
We were right there on the border in Presidio and we figured, “How could we not?” So we went. Yes, every single Mexican person laughed at me for not knowing Spanish. Yes, I only had American dollars and, no, I did not notify my bank that I would be out of country so my cardContinue reading “We went to Mexico!”