Grayton Beach State Park, Santa Rosa Beach, FLA

A woodsy pull thru spot will full hookups just a few bike pedals away from gleaming white sand and turquoise waters. Campedium says 5 stars and how can I argue? The DW is pleased at my selection, case closed. Lighting came in like a panzer attack in the afternoon, scattering the beach frolickers. Jill foresaw it early so we crawled into the RV just as the deluge introduced itself. Another night here and then more East.

Walmart Parking Lot - Miramar Beach, FL

Free boon docking not far from the ocean. Donut Hut across the road.

New Orleans - Pontchartrain Landing RV Park

Packed in between smokers, but a short drive into the French Quarter, overstuffed Po Boys and the Garden District. City life likes to bleed our cash, but after several days in the buggy forest with a weak signal, a couple of days of city culture is good for balance. We'll dry camp tonight at some Walmart or Casino in Biloxi for financial balance however.

Palmetto Island State Park, Abbeville, LA

6 Months in Sayulita

Arrived Nov 1 to launch the Sayulita Pack. Turns out not too many cared about discounts and coupons, but they like the app.

Celestino RV Park, Sinaloa, Mexico

150 pesos a night. All hookups, 30 seconds to the ocean and a long left point break. Just overnighting on our way to the border.

Leaving Sayulita

After 134 days, give or take, with a few side trips here and there, time to head north for the border.

A clear Sunday on the Yuba River

Coming west on Hwy 80, on our way to Auburn, the common, most rapid path is to climb 80 over the Sierras, a frantic, tense drive somehow, always too fast and steep. Instead we went north up 395 to Hallelujah Junction, turned west on 70 and then down Hwy 49 to a forest service campground near Sierraville, spent the night, and then continued up and down 49 until we came to this little swimming hole on the side of the road, where we floated, fished and got some sun.

Henry's Lake, Idaho

Drove through Yellowstone, but all the wildlife was elsewhere, so we went out the west gate, turned south, entered Idaho, headed for a few days at Henry's Lake State Park, right on the lake where they apparently pull in huge lake trout. I didn't fish though, mostly worked, walked, rode bikes, ate, like that.

Brooks Lake, Wyoming

Climbed a 5 mile dirt road to discover this little gem, campground right on the lake, fed by a beautiful trout stream that winds through green meadows. But it was a tad cool, and we were on some kind of imaginary schedule, so we moved on, but we'll be back, and soon.

Lander, Wyoming - Dallas Dome

A couple bought this foreclosed RV park, brought in some goats, some pigs, some cows, grandma to run the front desk, even some original old west buildings with a thought toward offering a kind of ghost town experience, but not much in the way of organization. Still, the electric, water and sewer hookups work, it borders a nice little trout stream for a good price, and we had it nearly to ourselves, so who's to complain, despite the winds?

Deer Haven, Saratoga, Wy

Along the banks of the North Platte River, you can fish outside your door. Free hot springs pool in town, open 24/7.

$30/night, full hookups with cable

Free camping on East Delany Lake, Walden CO

Pick a spot along the shore, anywhere you want, just watch out for the mosquitoes.

Free/no hookups

View from the NYC hotel

Staying at the Roger Smith Hotel in east Midtown, attending the BEA show and visiting with Seb. Nice room, good deal, street maket setting up this morning, looking forward to pizza.

Denver for a while

For a week or so at Mary's place, in Broomfield, with a view of the snow dipped mountains, in the dry air, blue sky, a little mist when we arrived, temperatures up and down as usual. We'll be meeting with advisors to sort out what to do about our business, planning the trip to New York, moving our stuff around (found a new, closer self storage who offered us free RV storage as well - recession lemonade) taking a road breather, eat some pizza and watch basketball.

Top of the Rockies RV Park, outside Salida

Camping in May and September in the Rockies, before schools is out, before all the car campers are let loose, is ideal. We had this place nearly to ourselves, grilled a couple of rib eyes and some corn, surrounded by quiet mountains, though the owner wondered how we survived the Mexican drug cartels without proximity to our own guns.

25/night, full hookups.

The Million Dollar Highway

From Durango the road goes up alot, to the little town of Silverton, and then over the "Million Dollar Highway" to Ouray. Spectacular snow-capped peaks and steep waterfalls all along the way, slow going in the View but happily so.

Durango

Only made it to Durango last night, stayed at the United Campground just north of town, Spring bursting out everywhere, the Animas river nearby, and the Durango-Silverton steam train passes right through the park. A woman on her condo balcony next door did loud battle over her cell phone while looking down on me emtpying our tanks.

$25/night off season. Full hookups.

Today's road to Silverton

Jim Harrison, a favorite novelist and travel writer, preaches the virtue of staying off the interstates and wandering backroads, and though the View pulling the tow car does not always like the steep hills and bumpy roads we encounter (Navajo roads often long for a fresh layer of pavement), we try to follow that road philosophy when life and work allow.

After some work we have to make progress north into Colorado, so here's the plan - from Homolovi we'll go down 40 a bit, then up 191 to Chinle in Navajo country, past the Canyon de Chelly National Monument, through the 4 Corners, over to Durango and north to Silverton, where we'll camp somewhere with a cable connnection so I can indulge my wish to watch the Lakers fight with Houston.

Homolovi Ruins State Park, AZ

After the suburban Beaudry it is a pleasure to camp at a state park like Homolovi, with big wide spaces, long vistas, breezy big sky, 900 year old ruins to wander but just a couple of miles off the highway. Arizona does these kinds of parks well.

$10-19/night, electric, water, dump station

Beaudry RV Resort, Tucson

Checked into the nearly empty, so clean, quiet and manicured Beaudry's RV Resort (being part of the Monaco dealership, which is bankrupt, they have apparently filed for bankruptcy as well) to settle our minds and bodies after the long drive, swim in the pool, soak in the hot tub, do some laundry, catch a nap and catch up with work, and a big risky deal brewing.

And there appeared Evan and Tracey out of the hot sun, hanging around trying to decide whether to go back south again in to Mexico or North to national parks, cooking us burgers (our 2nd of the day) and musing over destinations.

$29 a night, full hookups and cable TV, so saw a little of the Lakers

Desert Diamond Casino boondocking, Tucson

Crossed the eerily quiet Nogales border easily, with little traffic due to the holiday and the flu scare, and showed up late to boondock at the Desert Diamond Casino just off Hwy 19. Ate soup and salad, watched the Lakers lose, then got up early in the hot, dry air, a long walk around the lot for Holly, picking prickly thorns out of our paws but followed with a rich t-bone steak and eggs breakfast, but not tempted by the slots.

No charge
Steak and Eggs - 6.95

Nogales border

Monday, a holiday, swine flu fever keeping things quieter still, and so we drove up nearly to the crossing without wait while last year the line took 2 hours. US customs boarded the RV, asked about rabies shots, asked about plants, had a look in the fridge, asked about dog food and instructed me carefully to reply "we only have enough for today", so I did.

Pemex Truck Stop, Los Mochis

From San Blas, 9 hours and a lot of tolls later down the newly paved toll road, we're boondocking among the truckers, who have lugubrious call girls visit in the night.

Though across the street is El Gordos, a favorite Carne Asada restaurant, we lazily opted for in-house microwave lasagna from CostCo and a vodka tonic.

No charge.

Paraiso Miramar Hotel/RV Park, San Blas

Drove a few hours, thought about Mazatlan but moving made us tired, so found a few spots on the grass behind a pool cabana and wide trees, green grass, sunsets, cliffside restaurant, but too many boom-booms in the night for Holly's taste,

We have a "Gray Rule", which goes, "If you are in a place where you can dump, then dump" particularly on a long unpredictable journey, so we did, but just a few feet from a breakfasting group of nationals, so sorry.

247 pesos/electric, water, sewer, wifi

Going to New York

Masochistically so, we are choosing to drive to the national book show in NYC at the end of May, after we drive to Colorado next week, and maybe we will see a bit of Nebraska along the way.

We have a need to stir up some business, put some pressure on us and them, visit with Seb the Younger, eat some pizza, maybe then go up the coast to Westport, MA to see the Pickles, enjoy some shell fish, and then I'll likely want to hustle way over to Montana for some big sky horizon, a relief after all the crowds and trees of the East.

Jelly-like fish whipped

Yesterday afternoon I began my swim out to the buey and stroked right into a Portuguese Man-of-War, all long turquoise thread-like tendrils stinging me whip-like, long welts across my torso, not pleasant, and as I waded back in to shore several friends and the internet suggested treatments like amonia and alcohol and baking soda and even urine.

After rinsing and wincing, Jill applied rubbing alcohol, some cortizone cream, a couple of hours later the welts had faded, and this morning the welts have mostly fade, it seems almost just a memory.

Sayulita Trailer Park

About 6 months since we set up shop (we arrived Thanksgiving Day) an emptying trailer park before small, glassed waves makes a quiet beach morning, yet some worry over the threat of flu.

As she washes a pile of yesterdays dishes Jill requests I not offer to cook breakfast for whoever remains.

Pricing varies. Full hookups

To Panama and back

Jed and his familly, from Ukiah, California, bought some land on an island in Bocas Del Toro, Panama, packed up the kids and drove from Ukiah via Sayulita, where we saw them in November, then drove off for Bocas. We wondered whether they would make it, seemed a long way and a lot of borders to cross, but in April they returned with nearly all happy reports of their journey.

Reading eBooks on the iPod Touch

During the process of building an ebook store I carried a lingering concern,
would I learn to enjoy reading ebooks myself, a lifelong book lover, piles of paperbacks attached to us always, forever a crate of them to lift and move and trade and trip over in our RV?

It is still an odd sensation to find I now prefer reading novels on the
small, agile and well lit iPod Touch, and already paperbacks begin to seem unecessary fat I may finally lose, unexpectedly, though Jill is not there yet.

Working while we travel

Building this ebook store for the last 2 years, soon we'll start the beta, and then we'll open. Watching Sony and Amazon and Barnes & Noble and many others, the shoestring road office must soon compete, quietly at first, with just a bookstore, then we'll see.

Patzcuaro food

Breakfast downtown on the square was as all you wanted it to be, particularly when all you wanted was a Grand Slam at a sidewalk cafe...



and a few times we sampled this Tarascan tortilla soup.



But trailer park cuisine was bearable as well - Jill put together this brunch of local papaya, mango, tuna, slied tomatoes and cucumber, hard boiled eggs and almonds.

Posing in color