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Trip Report | White Sunglasses: Russell Springs, KY
I’m walking Nola through Russell Springs KOA, a park reviewed on Google as “not bad for what it is.” We drove down from my cousin’s in Paris, Kentucky, attracted by the website description. “It's water, water everywhere when you stay at this campground right next to Lake Cumberland!” But the campsite map notes, “No access to lake from KOA.” However, the showers are clean and there's 24-hour laundry. Not bad for what it is.
Trip Report | Day 15: Springfield, Illinois
Trip Report Day 14: Florida, Missouri
Trip Report | Day 13: Topeka, Kansas
The connections at Shawnee Lake County Campground are oddly placed, so we had to nose in for electric and still couldn’t reach the water. Because of this, our front door faced another front door, which is strange when you’re RVing. Most front doors are on the passenger side, which gives everyone a little more privacy.
Trip Report | Day 12: Greensburg, Kansas
“Are you into green?” asked the lady working the museum store at the home of the largest hand-dug well in the world. Completed in 1888, the well was Greensburg’s biggest claim to fame until an EF5 tornado killed twelve people and wiped out almost all the buildings in 2007.
Trip Report | Day 11: Dodge City, Kansas
There’s a huge grain processing plant that hums like a well-tuned diesel truck someone forgot to turn off. You get used to it and then hear it like new again, over and over during your stay in Dodge City, which is in the midst of a revitalization initiative. There’s a petting zoo and a dog park right next to the new KOA campsite.
Trip Report Day 9: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Trip Report | Day 8: Grants, New Mexico
Newbie tip: Bibblets are little seeds and bits of undergrowth that can stick to a tiny dog’s muzzle. If your dog is taller than an iPhone, don’t worry about them.
Trip Report Day 7: Grand Canyon, Arizona
Trip Report | Day 6: Grand Canyon, Arizona
“We should invite them for a drink,” I said after we left to go shove their plastic levelers under more wheels of our rig.
“Maybe,” Dave said. “Did you see the bumper sticker?”
“No,” though I had noticed the model name on their trailer was Connect.
“Trump-Pence 2020,” Dave said.
Trip Report | Day 5: Monument Valley, Utah
Some national parks are dog-friendly; Arches is not one of them. Dogs are allowed in the parking lots only. So our plan to hike there and appreciate some arches devolved into Dave and Nola waiting in the parking lot while I went and looked at an arch, then came back to wait with Nola while Dave went to look at an arch. Except then he got a nosebleed so we just left.
Trip Report | Day 4: Grand Junction, Colorado
Not to make a metaphor out of everything, but my problem with this trip is my problem with this life: I want every possible future, so I distrust any choice that limits me to just one.
Trip Report | Day 1: Rock Island, Illinois
I don’t really know what I think of this yet. There’s plenty of room but not enough places to put things. I haven’t figured out a place for the dog treats, or a place for the water bowl so I don’t have to empty it every time we move, or a place for dirty clothes, or a place for wearable semi-dirty clothes. Also, we need a bar of soap and something else I’ve already forgotten. And do I walk to their showers or use ours? Also, I forgot the apples and the dates. Everything was so rushed and I was cross.
Gary Thompson, The Great American Drifter
I felt a kinship to this guy. I, too, had always felt that without the trappings of relationships — the weight of accountability to someone else — I could do much more. Yet, there I was, afraid to be by myself for two weeks on a chicken run to the fray of a new life unknown. Riding shotgun was a guy who also preferred solitude but would still be stuck on a Great Falls road if it weren’t for other people offering up a little bit of their company.
Life is a Highway...
I like to drive. I like the freedom that hopping in the car and just heading out somewhere allows. My parents are currently on a random road trip through the western United States and the trip is classic in that they have no clue where they’re headed until the date before. Driving for hours to land at a hastily booked motel and seeing America. I love that.
The Illinois-Missouri Derby
I could have made the drive inside of two days had I been alone. But I had the wife and the dog, and when you’re driving the 1,164 miles between Chicago and Austin, Texas with souls on board other than your own, it’s best to make pit stops along the way.
Springfield. Kate was unimpressed with Lincoln’s home. “It looks too nice for being that old,” she said.
“You would have been even more unimpressed if they’d just let nature take its course for these past 152 years,” I told her.