Monthly Archives: June 2018
The Everglades: A fragile river of grass
Sunset in Everglades National Park.
The Florida Everglades, the River of Grass, feels fragile, like any moment a hurricane will wipe it off the map, or humans, after decades of abuse, will finally kill it, or invasive species will forever alter it.
The longer you’re there, the more fragile it feels.
Fun in Grand Mesa National Forest, western Colorado’s land of lakes and magnificent overlooks
The view from our campground spot on Cabbott Lake.
By Tom Nichols
I never heard any of my outdoor-loving friends in Arizona mention Grand Mesa National Forest. There are so many wonderfully eroded canyons and expansive mesas in Utah and Arizona, so many famous peaks and alpine parks in Colorado’s Front Range, it’s little wonder that Grand Mesa National Forest, the nation’s biggest tabletop mountain, is never mentioned.
Unstuffed bell peppers
Ingredients include a mixture of bell peppers, garlic and serrano pepper.
By Tom Nichols
With the Nichols family, stuffed bell peppers were one of the Big 10 recipes on our meal rotation.
Summer freedom: Warning lights and a stunning Colorado road
A tin-roofed barn nestled in a valley along Colorado 145.
By Tom Nichols
There’s nothing more liberating than returning to The Epic Van and setting course for Glacier National Park, the next leg of our Year Four adventure. I feel like a first-grader on the first day of summer vacation.
Don’t call my awesome ride an RV
Sitting on the steps of The Epic Van in Texas's Palo Duro Canyon with our folding bikes and Pippi, our 16-year-old cat, who traveled with us until she went to the road trip in the sky.
This may be totally stupid, but I have a hostile reaction when people say, “Oh, you’re driving around in an RV. Cool. My grandmother does that.”
This usually happens after I’ve told them of our totally awesome, unconventional, fearless life on the road. After I’ve specifically told them that I live in a big camper van. (Which, OK, technically is an RV but, in my world, is my free-spirit house on wheels.)