so. the story goes, that anna and i had a trip booked to camp on anacapa islands in the channel islands national park. but, just before we were set to go, we chickened out. an earthquake. no shelter from sun. aggressive birds. no internet. no escape until our ferry came back. winds. low temps at […]
food
soledad canyon happenings.

after our two weeks at california state beaches with no hookups, we headed inland for a break at soldedad canyon thousand trails rv park, to clean, do laundry, recover, do some rv upgrades, and so on. as always, when we find ourselves in less exciting places, we try to have a bit of routine with […]
leo carrillo state beach.

beach number two on our california state beach tour was leo carrillo in malibu (which meant we got to do a bit of l.a. traffic driving on our way north). we got in pretty late, and got set up, and then derek had to pack for a morning flight back to north carolina for the […]
random stuff from cottonwood, az.

we kept really busy during our cottonwood, az stay. when we weren’t exploring local monuments or at the grand canyon, we were driving back and forth to the dentist. we had gone probably a little too long without some proper professional dental care, so derek found us a spot and we got all the lidbom […]
ajo, arizona.

after our camping trip to organ pipe cactus national monument, i was super excited to stop and visit the tiny little town of ajo, arizona, on our way to the next campground. i had read a bit about the politics and economy of the area, but i was most looking forward to all of the […]
valley vista rv resortbenson, arizona.

after our stay in an unofficial 55+ community in mesa and hearing about how arizona is just chock full of snowbirds in the winter, i wasn’t super excited to head to benson, arizona. i was expected all the retirees to be grumpy about kids being in “their” park, and benson isn’t near a whole lot […]
tombstone tourists.

our current campground in benson is only about a half hour away from the iconic, old western town of tombstone, arizona. we figured it was worth a trip, so off we went…. our first stop was to watch a gunfight reenactment, complete with historical details. here we are, the full posse, waiting for the show […]
mesa miscellany. (plus some yuma).

when we parted ways with the grandlidboms, they headed back to nc, and we made our way to arizona. our first stop was in yuma, just across the border. we had a quick little stay in the front yard of a random strangers house, who we found via boondockerswelcome.com. (basically, it’s a subscription service that […]
san diego christmas day.
(with grandlidboms!)

after three days of activities and being on the gogogo, we really slowed down for christmas eve. there were a couple of shopping trips. and some cooking. and mostly just hanging out. derek brought my little walmart christmas tree over to the hotel, so it would feel more christmassy because i was mildly depressed about […]
grandlidbom san diego christmas, days 2 & 3.

after our action packed first day with the grandlidboms, the lidkids spent the night with them, and since we didn’t have anything planned until lunchtime on day two, our morning at the camper was lazy and glorious. i savored a delicious cup of coffee outside by the lake, with no bickering, whining or cartoon sounds […]