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Rocky Mountain High

by Brian on December 9, 2011 in Colorado, Travel, United States

Rocky Mountain National Park left us feeling breathless. Not because of the scenery, which is stunning, but because of the altitude.

For a couple of east-coasters whose home state averages an elevation of 246 feet above sea level, the heights of the park required some adjustment. Even a week in the “mile high city” didn’t acclimatize us enough for the Rockies’ 8,000 foot valleys and 14,000 foot peaks.

Our drive to the park took us through some of the most unbelievable scenery of our trip; winding through narrow granite canyons so tall they rose completely out of view. So mesmerized were we by the landscape that we barely noticed the relentless climb or the resulting lightheadedness that indicates altitude sickness. It wasn’t until after we stopped for a while that it really hit us.

Photo of the Day: Scotts Bluff National Monument

by Brian on December 7, 2011 in Nebraska, Photo of the Day, United States

View from the Saddle Rock Trail atop Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska

How to say goodbye to your things

by Brian on December 5, 2011 in How To, Planning and Prep

There is no avoiding it. If you want to hit the road fulltime you have to learn to travel light. If you dream of backpacking around the globe, plan on carrying no more than 40 liters (1.4 cubic feet) of gear; basically just enough to hold a couple changes of clothes. Even with a large RV, space is limited.

Prior to moving in to a 300-square-foot motor home, we made do with a 1,000-square-foot apartment. For over a decade we lived without the benefit of a basement or an attic. Our total storage space amounted to three small closets. We always considered our lifestyle pretty minimalist. Somehow we still managed to accumulate four times more stuff than we could take with us.

Nearly everything we owned had to go.

Denver Art Musueum

by Brian on December 2, 2011 in Colorado, Travel, United States

We definitely felt rushed. It simply wasn’t possible for us to adequately cover the entire 356,000-square foot Denver Art Museum in the scant two hours allowed by our parking meter. In the time we had, we did manage to cover enough ground to appreciate DAM’s high quality collection and fabulously arranged display areas.

Here are just a few of the things that caught my fancy as we whizzed past:

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Extended Travel and Pets

by Brian on November 30, 2011 in How To, Planning and Prep

: Tabitha curls up with a good book at an Econo Lodge

You want to travel the world. You love your pets. What do you do?

Reconciling your dream life with the real-world constraints of your existing life is no small challenge. Few of those challenges are harder than incorporating the needs of pets into your travel plans.

It’s probably because of how much we struggled with this issue that reading the blog post Letting Go: What about the Pets? made me so sad. In fairness to the good folks at Meet, Plan, Go, I think they simply buried the lead. The article really does have good, useful, information, which is typical of their work. To get to the best stuff, though, you need to read past the title and the first three testimonials of people who gave away their pets to pursue a life on the road.