Got Oil?

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We left the watery lake behind and headed for a dry one instead. The Black Rock Desert is where 50,000 people descend each year for Burning Man. But right now it’s completely empty. Until our friends pull up doing 50 miles an hour in reverse. Because that’s the sort of … Read More

Pyramid Lake

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After a couple of days in the city we went off in search of some nature. Not far from Reno is Pyramid Lake. It’s sort of like boondocking on the beach, with the difference being the $15 a day fee for non-tribe members attached. But like a gift, we found … Read More

Biggest Little City

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The weather wasn’t looking very pretty for a few days, so we decided to head for a city to find some things to do. We’d never been to Reno before, so we looked it up, found some fun activities, and pointed the bus that way. We rolled into town and … Read More

Bishop to Walker Lake

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Bishop. This is a nice little town. Just about the size we like these days—big enough to have a few choices of places to eat, small enough to not have a Walmart. Late April is not late enough. It’s cold every night—in the thirties cold. Anything at elevation much beyond … Read More

Old School Pool

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It felt good to wake up to this after the previous day’s trials. Mount Whitney loomed over us from a short distance. Such fresh air and crisp vistas. The greatest joy of being a boy. See if you can guess what it is. After a couple days we needed to empty … Read More

Overheating in Death Valley

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After the lake bed we headed down the highway to Baker, California. There we knew of a place we had boondocked back in our VW bus days, right out in the Mojave Desert. When we made the turn off the highway we found orange cones across the road—this is literally … Read More

Jean Dry Lake

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From Vegas it was just a short drive down to the Jean dry lake. People talk about how much garbage there is in Mexico, or whatever country we happen to be in, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a place so filthy as the first twenty miles of desert … Read More

The Strip

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We thought it would be fun to have a Las Vegas Strip day. Starting at the far south end of town with a sign that would have welcomed all the riffraff driving up from LA since the early days. I thought this line was kind of amusing. Only in America … Read More

Vegas, Baby

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We came to Vegas because we remember it from our trips here twenty years ago as a fun place, perfect for a family with young kids. There’s entertainment. Hiking. Cozy little out of the way restaurants. And lots of beautiful places to rest your weary feet. Yes, Vegas has it … Read More

Clark County Fair

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We were making our way to Vegas when we stumbled across a flyer for the Clark County Fair. We had just passed the town a few minutes earlier, so we doubled back, and were happy to have come across this on its last day. We love ourselves a good county fair. … Read More

Bum Friends

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With bad weather on the way we decided to tuck in to a campground in Kanab, UT for a night. An hour after getting there a Bum friend we hadn’t seen since a lunch in Portland many years ago drove up. We talked and made plans for the next day. … Read More

Lone Rock Beach

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Prepare yourself for a whole bunch of pictures of a lone rock. We knew it was supposed to be windy, but when we got out to Lone Rock Beach, just a few miles outside of Page, on the banks of Lake Powell, we found ourselves in the midst of a … Read More