Category: Philosophizing

  • That Peculiar Institution

    Memorial Day, as it often does, has had me thinking. Although Jeff and I live out West now, we were both raised, educated, and lived nearly all our lives in the Midwest. That makes us Northerners. (Yankees, some might say.) And our understanding of American life, history, and culture is framed by that fact. It…

  • Appomattox Court House, Shenandoah & Washington, D.C.

    Hi, I’m Jamie, he’s Jeff, and we’re traveling full time in a small teardrop trailer we call The HMS Beangle. Ok, it hasn’t been that long since my last post, but it’s definitely been a minute. The last few weeks have involved much reading, much relaxing, and some very wonderful days spent camping with Bob…

  • Southwest Virginia — Lots of photos, a bit of chat, some local history

    Beginning six weeks ago, we met a new nemesis, a very demon from hell sent to test our patience. We fought it valiantly, and I believe we finally have the upper hand. For this spring, at least. Remnants remain, though, in nooks and crannies of the trailer, the truck, and our lungs, eyes, and souls. Both Fairy…

  • Bennett Place

    Our time in Raleigh while interesting enough in its own way was fairly quiet overall. But of all that we did and saw, the biggest draw for me was Bennett Place. For some time now, it had been in my top five list of places to see. In the front room of the Bennett family…

  • Fancy Pants Florida – Part 1

    Grab a snack, this is a long one. The company that Jeff used to work for has an office in West Palm Beach so he wanted to make sure that we stopped there long enough for him to say hello to some of his former colleagues. Now that coastal community is rather $$$Fancy$$$ so we…

  • The Casual Coast

    After a few days at a rather lackluster north Florida RV park that had weekend availability, our free and easy lack of reservations travel style was beginning to become an issue. Heading down the western coast, we were very lucky to grab two nights at Little Manatee River State Park outside of Bradenton. Considering its…

  • Hotels are odd things. Strangers packed into too small a space each morning, huddling over a meagre spread in a kitchenette. Pardon me and Excuse me and May I and Oh, I’m sorry around a warming dish with watery powdered eggs and mass produced sausage patties, a platter of single serve bowls of artificially colored,…

  • Chattanooga, Chickamauga, and Chance

    Grab a cup of something, this is a long one. We fairly raced south from Kentucky. The weather projections were looking quite bad across KY, with heavy rain and extreme cold in the forecast, even the possibility of tornadoes in northern Tennessee. Waking early, we slid well south to Chattanooga and set up camp for…

  • Think of Colorado. Let your mind rest there. Craggy mountains, lodgepole and ponderosa pines reaching skyward, alpine lakes glistening green and blue under a cool summer sun. From Denver, it’s also 200 miles of prairie on Highway 76 before you reach the Nebraska line. In fact, some variety of prairie makes up the entire eastern…