Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Tag: road trip

Introduction to the New Year and the Colombian Mountains — Historic Barichara, Guane, Guadalupe & Las Gachas

On New Year’s Eve, after exploring a few lesser-known towns and sights, Mark, Maya, and I arrived at campground Guiamaro to spend the New Year period with our friends Sheri and Jeff from Canada. But first, we had to navigate the narrow streets of historic Barichara, another one of Colombia’s 17 pueblos partrimonios, which stand out for their cultural heritage.

Driving into Barichara

While small for the US, Thirsty Bella is gigantic for Colombia’s town centers!

The area around Barichara, in the department of Santander, offers different places to camp in a peaceful environment, but we picked this official camping for its location – away from any settlement and along hiking trails to the center of town and another village called Guane – and its facilities; hot outdoor showers, a communal kitchen, and a washing machine. Of course, our ulterior motive was to escape any NYE fireworks for our stressed-out dog.

(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read their captions.)

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Self-isolation X2

A lot has been said – and written – about this recent pandemic and its affects. I shared a few posts about it myself, here (how it influenced our lifestyle in mid-March), here (what we still managed to squeeze in, sightseeing-wise), here (in relation to our expenses), and here is where I left off on April 1st.

(Click on photos to enlarge or hover over them for captions.)

Self-isolation Take One

After a few hits and misses at several parks and boondocking spots and a failed week-long hotel splurge in Hilton Head, we checked out our “last resort” in decent weather: the free campground at Santee Coastal Reserve in South Carolina. The entrance road was serene and welcoming, but we didn’t settle – mentally or physically – until we arrived without any “No camping due to COVID-19” signs blocking our progress.

The campground was quiet and peaceful. No amenities, which means no restrooms, water, electricity, sewer, or trash. Pack it in, pack it out. That might have been the reason why this place was still open – the workers weren’t at risk cleaning facilities. We found a roomy, relatively private campsite with sun for the solar panels and shade for the camper, a picnic table, and a fire ring.

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Journey East (Part Three) – Canadian City Tour & Lots of Sweat

You can read part one (about sights and boondocking in Colorado) here and part two (about the Midwest and meeting a TV celebrity in Iowa) here. The last stretch of our trip east from Kanab, Utah to Newburyport, Massachusetts started in Ontario, Canada.

Niagara Falls

Lake Erie, Ontario

Part of choosing this route, was to check out some of the Great Lakes, which I’d never been to. We found a nice-sounding boondocking spot along Lake Erie, before our real city tripping started. If it wasn’t for the hordes of biting flies chomping on our flesh, we would have stayed an extra day to relax. (Click on or hover over photos to enlarge and read the captions.)

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Truth or Consequences – A 5-Day Road Trip

No Plans

Up until our last week of house and pet sitting in San Diego, Mark and I had no concrete idea of what was next. Because the unpredictable condition of my mother-in-law in New England earlier this year, we had not booked another sit, in case we’d have to fly back. Flexibility has been an important part of our lifestyle. Luckily, the situation back east was stable, mid-February, so we could remain “out west”. Since we had no house sit to get to, and we own this amazing little camper van, our plan was to bridge the seven-week gap between sits in the desert, being warm. Baja California in Mexico was dismissed, after we discovered our favorite beach spot there has no cell service, so we mentally aimed for four different boondocking areas in Arizona to split our time and work from the van. It would be tricky.

Free camping in the Sonoran Desert

A New Plan

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Driving across the USA – East to West via I-80

View near Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Utah

After four days of attending the Annapolis Boat Show as vendors, Mark and I left the East Coast on Columbus Day (Monday, October 10th) in an attempt to cross the country at a fast pace. We were pretty exhausted when we started our trip at 7am, but were assured that sitting on our bum would be the main activity for the week to come. Fortunately, the owners of our new house sit in Northern California managed to postpone their departure with a day, which gave us five days to cover 2800 miles/4500 km. Google Maps predicted that that would take about 40 hours in perfect conditions, but with road work, accidents and some traffic congestion, it took much longer. By the time the Annapolis Sailboat Show came to an end that Monday, we had already reached Chicago! We were very happy with our bonus day on the road, which made it possible to reach Rocklin, CA late afternoon on Friday.

Day 1: Annapolis, MD – Joliet, IL (730 miles/1175 km) Continue reading

From South to North Again

A couple of days ago, Mark and I finished our three-day, 1300 mile (2100 km) road trip from Florida back to New England. We mostly reversed the route we followed towards the sun mid-December. This time, however, the temperature dropped consistently with every state we passed, and the days grew shorter.

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Hitting the Road to… Florida!

It all came about rather quickly. I saw an appealing house sitting job in Florida. It was only for two weeks. Mark and I had seen more of these before and “ignored” them, because moving all our belongings and electronics for a time period of only two weeks is not ideal for us. Especially if the house sit is 1500+ miles away… But, we had not found any other attractive sitting opportunities for December yet, we could use some sunshine before our next (three month) house sit in cold Connecticut, and we needed a change of scenery. Still, it was a long drive to enjoy our favorite weather…

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