Category: Travel

  • Raton – Clayton Volcano Field

    Raton – Clayton Volcano Field

    Came east on US-64. Saw a sign for Capulin Volcano National Monument. Conquered the rim trail. The Capulin Volcano is a relatively recent volcano in a large volcanic field that stretches across northeast New Mexico from near Raton to Clayton. Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field covers about 7500 sq. miles of New Mexico and smidgens of Colorado…

  • Bandelier National Monument

    Bandelier National Monument

    We’re in N. New Mexico, having spent a few days camping at Bandelier National Monument. The Monument preserves the remains of an ancient Pueblo civilization that lived, farmed, and hunted in the area of the Pajarito Plateau. The Pueblo people lived in dwellings carved into the soft volcanic rock (tuff) and built from blocks of tuff.…

  • “The men are to be slain whenever and wherever they can be found…

    “The men are to be slain whenever and wherever they can be found…

    Today’s quote: “The men are to be slain whenever and wherever they can be found; if they beg for peace, their chiefs and twenty of their principal men must come to Santa Fe to have a talk here…” Brigadier General James H. Carleton, 1862 We spent a few hours at Fort Union National Monument, which…

  • ..where the wind comes sweeping down the plain…

    ..where the wind comes sweeping down the plain…

    That would be Oklahoma, for those of you who are not familiar with the Rogers and Hammerstein musical. There’s nothing down here to slow the wind from the south (yesterday, 30+mph) or the north (today, 30+mph), or any other direction for that matter. I tried eating out on a picnic table last evening. Tough to…

  • A Tuskegee Airmen Memorial

    A Tuskegee Airmen Memorial

    While wandering around in South Carolina we ran across a small memorial to WWII’s Tuskegee Airmen, the first black Americans to be trained and deployed as fighter pilots. This is significant because at the time, in spite of prior demonstration of their ability to fight like white men in the Revolutionary, Civil and Indian wars,…

  • … to the Sea

    … to the Sea

    It would be a shame to cross half the country, camp within an hour-and-a-half of the ocean and not get our feet wet. So we did. Edisto Beach State Park, on the Atlantic south of Charleston, is  on an ‘island’ of sorts, surrounded by salt marshes. It’s somewhat quiet in winter and out of the…