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Ten years ago today, my dog Sipapu died quite unexpectedly. A rez dog, my ex and I had unwittingly rescued him near Monument Valley as we returned from a long road trip. He was emaciated, hobbled, and had a broken tail. Sipapu seemed like a good name for the new life he would now have. I miss him.
An afternoon at the market
We’re a bit behind this year in planning out travel for 2025, as so much of our energy went into planning our recent 100 Day Adventure. Of course, we couldn’t have planned many of these trips prior to leaving, as the reservation periods were not even open to do so. So one of our top priorities upon returning home was to get some trips on the books.
Here’s what we’ve committed to and have at least partially booked already.
A long weekend drive over to New Mexico, primarily so that Jen can visit Prehistoric Trackways National Monument and Fort Stanton-Snowy River National Conservation Area, two as-yet-unvisited objectives for her Treasured Places quest. We’ll be camping at a new-to-us state park, hitting the Fort Stanton Historic Site, checking out the Cloudcroft area, marking off a couple more breweries in the state, and possibly barreling out to Roswell so Jen can see the kitschy alien stuff.
This is a “drive-and-fly” trip, where I leave a few days early and drive our camping stuff up to San Francisco and Jen takes a cheap budget flight up there right after work. It’s one of our travel strategies to help extend Jen’s vacation time, while still allowing us to bring our camping gear and travel cheaply. It needs a better name though…maybe “wheels and wings” or “highways to flyways” or “road and runway” or…
Anyway, we’ll visit a number of family and friends in the Bay Area before meeting up with several friends from the old #ParkChat twitter chat (coming in from New York, Dallas, and LA). We’ll catch a minor league baseball game in Sacramento as a group, which gets one of those friends closer to finishing his own MiLB ballpark quest.
As folks head back, Jen and I will continue north to pick up the last remaining counties I need in the state on my US Counties quest before visiting the recent designated Sáttítla Highlands National Monument (USFS) for our Treasured Places quest. Then it’s up to Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (BLM/USFS), and over to Oregon Caves National Monument & Preserve, one of the few remaining National Park units Jen needs in the West. She’ll fly out of Medford, and I’ll make my way back to Phoenix.
Another long weekend drive-and-fly, this one via Salt Lake City. I’d drive up and grab Jen from the airport. The next day, we’d head west past the Bonneville Salt Flats to the Enola Gay hanger at the historic Wendover Airfield for our Manhattan Project quest, then through northeastern Nevada to pick up some stray counties, camping at a hot springs resort (and yes, we’ll book some time in the pools). Then it’s on to Hagerman Fossil Beds for Jen, then back along the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway to see all the waterfalls, before bouncing up to Craters of the Moon (Jen still needs the attached National Preserve). Then it’s on to see the EBR-1 Reactor before a stop at the Idaho Potato Museum (have you really visited Idaho if you haven’t been to a potato museum?). We’ll stop at Register Rock to see signatures from Oregon Trail emigrants on the drive south to Golden Spike National Historical Park and Spiral Jetty. Jen will fly home from SLC, and I’ll meander my way home via the canyons of central Utah.
While we were bouncing around rural Africa, we got word that two new national monuments had been designated—which meant that I’m no longer “complete” on my National Park Units quest. So my personal top priority this summer was to get to Pennsylvania (Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument) and Maine (Francis Perkins Homestead National Monument) to mark these two new ones off. The original idea was simply to fly into Pittsburgh and out of Boston, which would also allow Jen to grab some other national park units she needs.
Before the designations, we had planned on her working remotely for a week from her parents’ house in Michigan, to get in a family visit while not burning any vacation time. Unfortunately, that’s no longer a viable option. Unfortunately, one of her close family members recently got a tough health diagnosis. So we’ve decided to merge those trips together. But with a bit of a twist—I’m going to drive the whole thing.
So, yep, it’s another drive-and-fly trip. I’ll start a number of days early, filling in some blank spots on my county map in Kansas, visiting family and friends in St Louis and Louisville, and eventually picking up Jen from the airport in Indianapolis. That will give me an opportunity to remedy a longstanding issue I’ve had in my counties quest: I’ve been to Indianapolis before, but I can’t at all recall when or as part of which trip, so my counties map of the state is unreasonably barren.
We’ll drive up to Michigan to visit Jen’s family, and then I’ll leave again and make my way towards Pittsburgh (while marking off Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site, one of the last remaining objectives of my Affiliated Areas of the National Park System quest). A couple days later, Jen will fly over to Pittsburgh, where I will spent the day exploring one the few large cities I haven’t yet visited. From there, we’ll visit park units and friends in Pennsylvania and New York, mark off the one county we still need in Connecticut (we had previously completed it, but then they reorganized their counties and we were suddenly missing one), and get up to Frances Perkins in Maine.
Jen will fly home from Boston, and I’ll start making my way across the country towards home. My general goal is to head down towards North Carolina, where I have family and fiends to visit, and then over through the mountains into Tennessee, then down through a swath of western Alabama I haven’t been to, then follow a backroads route through Austin and home. It’ll be an adventure, and I imagine I’ll plan most of it as I go.
So, why would I drive all the way across the country? Good question. After checking relevant rental car and flight prices and doing some back-of-the-napkin math, it doesn’t look like the cost difference will be very much, at least if I’m able to camp as much as I’d like to. It’ll also allow me to see some folks I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to visit, and also possibly see some less important attractions that we wouldn’t spend Jen’s more limited vacation time to see.
But it’s also a bigger experiment aimed at giving some real world info to help us decide our next vehicle. Should we focus on something that can approximate vanlife? Or should we instead go for something more fuel efficient and resign ourselves to more frequent hotel stays when camping conditions are less ideal? We’ve struggled with this question—and spent lots of time considering all various options during our recent campervan trip around Australia—but a trip like this might give us some useful insights.
That said, it’s a bit of a doozy. And given my historical inclination to take every squiggly road and detour I can find, this one could easily find itself in 10,000-mile territory.
The newly designated Chuckwalla National Monument (BLM) has us plotting another weekend trip out to the Cal Desert. Since returning from our 100 Day Adventure, I’ve been furiously refreshing recreation.gov to find a campground cancellation in Joshua Tree we can take advantage of for this trip. Alas, none have quite worked, so I’ve found a relatively obscure county-run backup plan along the Colorado River. Since campsite availability isn’t an issue there, we’ll leave this unscheduled while we get some other things booked, then slot this in whenever it fits best in the next month or so. We’ll hit a few other random deserty things while we’re out there.
A weekend trip primarily to hang out and catch a Dodgers game with some friends (and to mark off that ballpark for Jen’s often neglected MLB quest). I’ll also finally get to complete the Nixon Presidential Library for my Presidents quest. I’m sure we’ll also mark off another brewery (or two) and another tourist destination that Jen hasn’t been to, like the La Brea Tar Pits or something.
Another long weekend drive-and-fly trip, this one in and out of Las Vegas. I’ll drive up early, and Jen will catch a budget flight right after work on Thursday; she’ll fly home Sunday evening while I camp nearby, then make my way home on Monday. In between, we’ll spend most of our time a few hours north of the city, checking out Cathedral Gorge and other nearby state parks and rock art sites. After a couple nights, we’ll dip into Utah and make our way down to the Virgin River Gorge for the night. The following day, we’ll either spend some time at Lake Mead and Valley of Fire State Park, or mark off Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area (which Jen needs).
We also pulled the trigger on some in-state camping weekends. Nothing fancy, just leaving after work on Friday and returning Sunday afternoon. We have two separate weekends booked at Dead Horse Ranch State Park, which will allow us to visit a couple breweries I’m missing in the Cottonwood/Jerome area; not sure if we’ll keep both reservations, but this gives us some optionality re: weather.
We’re still working out a number of other ideas, some which will come into existence and others that will get kicked to another year in favor of something not on this list. But here’s what we are currently plotting out:
Our (very tentative) plan was to do Costa Rica later this year, likely in our traditional early December travel window. However, there’s a good 12-day window in the fall that lines up three-day weekends and a holiday with a bye week and away game for ASU (as season ticket holders, the home football schedule often dictates our fall weekends)—which would be significantly cheaper and wouldn’t require more than a few days of vacation time. Definitely something to be investigated. If we stick to December, then this period would be open for another trip, though I’m not sure what would take its place, if anything.
Last year we did a drive-and-fly trip to Denver to camp in the Rockies and escape the Phoenix heat. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to make it an annual thing. Since then, we had some camping friends move to Denver, so we’re now plotting to do a camping weekend with them. We’re still deciding on which weekend would work best, as our weekend schedules are misaligned. We may shift to a northern Arizona trip with them instead, which would be easier to pull off schedule-wise. If that happens, I’m not sure if we’ll find our own way to Colorado this year or not.
Similar to the Coast Rica trip, there’s a chance to pull together a 10-day period during the summer, though we’re not yet sure if we want to spend the vacation time to do so. The idea here is a drive-and-fly trip into Boise, with a focus on exploring the Idaho panhandle (we’ve never been), and probably dipping into Montana. We would pick up some new counties along the way, but this trip is more “escape the heat and go relax in the Northern Rockies” than marking off a list of quest objectives. The deciding factor for taking this trip is how Jen’s vacation time shakes out once we account for everything on our plate.
We haven’t been out to San Diego in quite some time, so we’re considering a weekend out there (possibly a drive-and-fly if there’s a great deal to be had). The itinerary would include a visit to see my cousin and his winery, a stop at the San Diego Wild Animal Park (Jen hasn’t been, and now she has a camera to play with), and of course, some highly rated San Diego breweries. There are also a few social media friends out there that we may see.
We’ve been up to Page a number of times in the last couple years, primarily for two trips out to Rainbow Bridge, but we still need to tackle the overnight kayaking trip down the Colorado through Horseshoe Bend. I’d prefer to do this as a group trip in the fall, so we may punt on this if we can’t get everyone organized.
A few of my friends are backpacking-curious, so I have been thinking about putting together a beginner trip for them. My top target is my favorite place to bring first-timers, but it’s a harder permit to get and I can’t snag it until 13 weeks before what would be a fall trip. So that’s a wait and see.
We had a group camping trip booked for a remote campground in this borderlands national monument last November, but had to cancel as we needed that last weekend to prep for our 100 Day Adventure the following week. Hopefully we can get it rescheduled with everyone for later this year.
There’s been talk with two different sets of friends about doing a weekend trip up to the Canyon, and I imagine one or both of them will happen at some point this summer.
We’ll also try to get up to Prescott, Flagstaff, and maybe the Mogollon Rim this summer to escape the heat. I’d like to meet up with some friends at Chiricahua National Monument before it is nonsensically renamed a “National Park,” which will bring crowds of new tourists and overwhelm the sparse infrastructure there. We’ve also been meaning to spend a weekend in Bisbee, though that would probably only happen in the fall if some of our other trips fall through, as nearly all the weekends are already accounted for.
Unfortunately, we had a number of trips that we had wanted to take this year that just aren’t viable options anymore, for whatever reason. So these will get kicked to next year.
We had tentative plans for a short trip up to Vancouver and Vancouver Island, with a short jog north into the mountains. But I’m planning on sending my passport abroad for a dual citizenship claim, and so we’ll be unable to travel internationally until it’s returned, the timing of which is a bit unclear. So we’ll hold off on this until next year.
This was what I had hoped to be our big road trip for the year. Unfortunately, a few things got in the way of that. Most importantly, we didn’t have time other than reserve all the campsites that we needed in the popular parks we wanted to visit.
We have been holding off on this one so that we could join a friend who was planning on completing her “named” National Park quest there. Her plans have been delayed a bit due to some other travel opportunities, so we’ve delayed our visit too. Perhaps next year.
We’ve talked about getting up to Yellowstone, and visiting friends both there and in nearby Driggs, Idaho, for a few years now. And for whatever reason, the trip just doesn’t come together. This seems like yet another year in which that’s the case.
Similarly to Yellowstone, I’ve been talking to friends about organizing a trip for each of the last four or five years. And, sadly, it never quite seems to get scheduled.
15.3.2025 23:22Plotting out some road trips for the yearHow I save money on roadtrips.
14.3.2025 22:55How I save money on roadtrips.A midday stroll down the road
Sunset in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia (no edit, straight from the iphone)
Anyone have a ball of yarn?
Fitzroy Falls, Australia #WaterfallWednesday
A surefire way to waste some time today: 368 Chickens. I warned you 🐔
12.3.2025 21:41A surefire way to waste some time today: 368 Chickens. I warned you 🐔Today is the anniversary of the invention of the World Wide Web in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee.
It remains, by the widest of margins, the best social platform in the universe.
12.3.2025 18:54Today is the anniversary of the invention of the World Wide Web in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee. It remains, by the widest of margins, the best...It appears that we can no longer use our Nixplay photo frame without coughing up an annual subscription fee.
We bought it over other options primarily because it did not require a subscription fee.
I’m planning a visit up to the recently designated Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in northern California this summer. Any suggestions on where I should spend my time?
There’s a house in my extended neighborhood that has the most amazing creosote bush ever and I absolutely love it and have had it marked on my google map since first meeting it five years ago and I smile each time I open up google maps and see it tagged right there near the middle of the screen.
My buddy Bink recently finished a quest to visit all 63 “named” National Parks. Here’s a quick writeup in his van group newsletter:
The sense of adventure, the laughter and tears, the silliness from exhausted moments, the challenges we set for ourselves, the things we’ve learned from park rangers and the awe-inspiring wonder of nature - is what I’ll remember. I could not be more grateful to the National Park Service for preserving and protecting these special places.
Couldn’t agree more.
11.3.2025 18:11My buddy Bink recently finished a quest to visit all 63 “named” National Parks. Here’s a quick writeup in his van group...We’re contemplating an electric cooler for weekend camping trips and longer road trips.
Does anyone have a suggestion or a strong opinion they’d like to share on what we should look at, avoid, think about, etc? We don’t need dual zone or icemaker. The new Anker ones look interesting…
11.3.2025 16:16We’re contemplating an electric cooler for weekend camping trips and longer road trips. Does anyone have a suggestion or a strong opinion...Planning out some road trips, which could include routes within the highlighted areas.
If we haven’t met yet, you can use this form to add yourself to my list of folks to meet up with if my route and schedule allows (I try!). I’m always looking to turn virtual relationships into IRL friendships!
It’s still a dozen years away, but I bought my wife a retirement countdown clock for her office.
Plotting out a May road trip, and well…it’s escalated a bit. I think we’re in 10,000-miler territory at this point. 😬
7.3.2025 23:18Plotting out a May road trip, and well…it’s escalated a bit. I think we’re in 10,000-miler territory at this point. 😬Apparently we went to 776 places during our trip, as defined by a location we stopped for longer than 30 mins. (via Rond)
Not sure if I mentioned it, but I completed my 50 Before 50 quest during our big trip—that is, visiting 50 countries before I turn 50. My quest follows the official TCC list, which includes far flung territories “that are of significant interest, as distinct destinations, to serious travelers.”
One of the first things I do each new year is sign up for a California Campfire Permit, which is required to use a campfire or gas stove on all BLM and National Forest lands in the state. It’s free and takes less than five minutes of your time, so go get yours right now.
The easiest tell of a financial scam is when they ask for the money in bitcoin or gift cards. So what happens when the government actually starts holding or accepting crypto? These scams are increasingly sophisticated, and a whole lotta people are going to lose money paying fake fees & bills.
6.3.2025 21:12The easiest tell of a financial scam is when they ask for the money in bitcoin or gift cards. So what happens when the government actually...So, my first two out-of-state trips I’ve managed to plan since returning are…for baseball games? Who the hell am I? 🤯😱😂
6.3.2025 18:21So, my first two out-of-state trips I’ve managed to plan since returning are…for baseball games? Who the hell am I?...I’ve been participating in a recently launched forum and forgot how much different forums are from what became known as “social media.” Nearly every one of my responses there is essentially a blog post. Short posts or replies are fine, of course, but this format also allows for much deeper and better conversation.
6.3.2025 16:20I’ve been participating in a recently launched forum and forgot how much different forums are from what became known as “social...I bought a microphone back before the pandemic, with the idea that I wanted to publish a semi-regular audio update on my life for my friends (Ill write more about that soon). I also wanted to audio-ify select blog posts, mostly for the convenience of others.
Well, I finally gave the latter a (very quick) initial shot. Im out of town this week, and still need to find a suitable podcast recording app (send me suggestions!), but was able to record a single audio take on my last blog post, entitled I hate telling friends how I’m doing. I hooked up the mic for the first time, opened a voice recorder app, hit the record button and started reading. I didnt practice reading it aloud first (oh man, I havent done this in ages). Had I not been under time pressure, I would have made it better. But after seeing the mic sitting there for too long, I decided I had to post something before I left the house, no matter what it was like.
Anyway, it should be accessible via an audio player here on this post. If its not, Ill have to deal with that later, as Im off for some sightseeing. Im still deciding how this should all work, whether it should remain here at rsjon.es, or if I should put it alongside my main blog at rscottjones.com. More info soon.
29.8.2024 23:16An audio version of my blog