United States
Death Valley, California
Death Valley, California. Hotter than Hades. Sans reservation, we arrived at Furnace Creek Campground, 268 feet below sea level. The park ranger informed us unequivocally that the campground was FULL. ‘You’ll have to turn around.’ Feigning a U-turn, I drove in - and immediately found a vacant, primo spot. I sauntered back to the entrance booth and slapped down my…
The Long Road to Texas
You would not want to travel with me. Plans are inevitably last minute and unpredictable. An innocuous road sign may result in a U-turn - and a two-day detour to places unknown. Last fall we packed our Unity IB motor home and slowly, circuitously ambled southward, toward Texas. While impatient snowbirds zoomed by on the interstate en route to a…
Eastern Seaboard, USA
The guard at the Maine border was obviously having a slow day. He decided to grill me at length. “How do you intend to support yourself during your stay in the U.S.?” I assured him we had sufficient means to see us through a six-week camping trip. Then, scrutinizing our passports, he asked disapprovingly, “What were you all doing in…
The Oregon Coast
“It might rain a little,” cautioned a friend familiar with travelling the Oregon coast in November. That prophecy shall rank high in the annals of understatement. It poured every day – and most days, most of the day. We arrived in Astoria, Oregon from Washington State via the enormous cantilever bridge that spans the Columbia River. Earlier that day we…
Friday Harbor
I didn’t know what a necropsy was until we visited Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. It might have been better had my vocabulary been left unimproved - a necropsy is not for the faint of stomach. San Juan is in the United States but is actually much closer to Victoria, B.C. than it is to the U.S. mainland.…
Olympic Peninsula
I love America. The weather is great, the scenery fantastic and the people hospitable. But the US has a problem: guns. We hadn’t been in the country twenty-four hours before we found ourselves staring down the barrel of a sheriff’s assault rifle – at a campground. After a lovely morning hike overlooking the San Juan Islands we were skipping happily…
Cougars at Night
Sunday Van Horn, Texas. We are bunked at the “recently upgraded” Mountain View RV Park which is now, as the sign hopefully proclaims, "Under" New Management. Tomorrow we depart for Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas, where the Rio Grande separates Mexico from the Excited States. We optimistically await a view of the great river… if we can see…
Padre Island
Padre Island is a long spit of sand dunes guarding mainland Texas from the destructive tornadoes and winter storms that pound in from the Gulf of Mexico. Between this narrow barrier island and the mainland lies Laguna Madre, a shallow hyper-saline sea renowned for sensitive sea grass and world-class fishing. On some Padre Island beaches, camping is free. South of…
Boston – and a New England Wedding
We had not intended to visit Boston. Granted, the Massachusetts capital is a crucible of American history, rife with the lore of independence: Paul Revere’s midnight ride, the Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill. Plus there are the shrines for sports fans: Boston Garden and the iconic Green Monster at Fenway Park. Beantown simply hadn’t made it onto our bucket list.…
Cajun Hospitality
The news from Louisiana is often hurricanes, burst levees and the dangerous streets of New Orleans. What we’ve discovered down South has been unreserved hospitality. A few years ago on our first trip through the Bayou State the weather turned cold. We became stranded in the town of Natchitoches, blind-sided by a gale of sleet. Thrilled locals informed us there…
Who’d mug a Canuck in a USA snowstorm?
Froze to a grinding halt in Ironwood, Michigan. Never felt safer (esp. with security cameras tracing intruder footprints). More snow in a single spring storm here than offered in a full Alberta winter.
Big Bend Bob
When I first spied Bob he was hunched over a computer in the dark outside a bathhouse on the Rio Grande River. We were camped in Big Bend National Park, Texas. I nodded hello as I passed. Bob looked up, grunting inaudibly. What an ornery old geezer, I thought. Later that evening I watched as he folded up his laptop,…
Welcome to 2013
Greetings one and all from Key West, Florida where milking Jimmy Buffet's name is the "key" local enterprise, thousands gather on Duval Street at midnight New Year's eve to watch a drag queen descend (via a giant red satin shoe) into the arms of underwear-clad underlings… and the dimensions of your RV spot (at just $80/night!) require you to park…
On the prowl – deep in the heart of Texas
Sunday It's late November, Van Horn, Texas. We are bunked at the “recently upgraded” Mountain View RV Park that is now, as the sign hopefully proclaims, "Under" New Management. Our RV comes equipped with a modern, state-of-the-art, cable input hook-up. We can enjoy Mountain View’s full 13 channels of viewing pleasure without leaving the comfort of our own coach. Gone…
Kapu in Kauai
The Nene is an endangered goose, found only in the Hawaiian Islands. Just 800 of these elusive webfoot waddlers survive, mostly on Kauai, the “Garden Isle”. Personally I don’t care for the rare Nene. Cooked that way the meat has a gamy flavour. Just joshing. Eating a nene might subject you to Kapu, the ancient Hawaiian code of conduct. In…
Hana, Hawaii
The village of Hana is located on the quiet “windward” side of Maui. Windward is a euphemism for rainy. Precipitation here averages three hundred inches a year. No person of sound judgment would live in a place where an inch of rain in an afternoon is considered a light drizzle. Most tourists endure the grueling drive to Hana as a…
Failing To Stop (Completely)
We all succumb to rash impulses. The sort later regretted. My faux pas began following happy-hour on a sun-drenched Ka’anapali beach in Maui. Perhaps the second Bikini Blonde pale ale (“large draft please”) was ill-advised and affected my sense of road decorum. Maybe watching humpback whales frame a tropical sunset induced my giddy driving pattern. I felt okay behind the…
Camp California
More people live in California than in all of Canada. For good reason. It is be-eautiful. We were RVing our way home after spending two months in the Sonoran desert, which extends for two thousand kilometers from America’s southwest deep into Mexico. We had seen it all: in Arizona, target golf through stands of saguaro cactuses and rugged mountain hikes…
California – Glock Country
My brother is a big-shot in the LA music industry. After winning a Juno in the ‘80s he moved to California to work with the likes of David Foster and Chicago. His wife is an even bigger-shot in the internet advertising biz. They say “dawling” a lot and rarely return my calls. They live in a big shack with their…
A Most UnFortuna Event
I’m jumping ahead a bit here. I admit it. Most of you likely think we are still struggling with Mexican intestinal issues. In reality we have now made it to northern California. More on Mexico and border crossings later. Last evening, after a peaceful day gallivanting through a forest of giant 2200 year-old California redwoods, I had a meltdown. I…
Hawaii Five-0s
For a video/slide show please go to youtube and search gnfeehan. Our "Feehan Hawaii 2011" video will appear. Or copy and paste http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nll12vfAYUA Posing on an active lava flow is an ill-advised practice. But our guide Steve demonstrated the art with a careful, brief clamber onto the quickly cooling pahoehoe. Ten of us, five couples in our fifties (the Five…
November 18, 2010 – Caught in a Vortex
A vortex site is a place where earth’s energy is channeled to enhance spirituality and human experience. Sedona, often described as Arizona’s Banff, is renowned as one of the world’s premier vortex venues. We tracked down one of the site maps sponsored by a local realtor who promised he was in “touch” with the vortex “market” and showed it to…
November 4, 2010 – Almost Cut My Hair
Almost cut my hair. It happened just the other day. But for fourteen bucks I decided to let the Wal-Mart hair-salon lady do it. We had left Zion with the Japanese tour bus on our tail on the downhill run into St. George, Utah. We pulled into the parking lot with the bus. I watched the Asian horde de-bus and…
November 1, 2010 Highway 93 Part II
Side roads reap travel rewards. On humble Hwy 93 we stumbled upon Craters of the Moon National Monument in southern Idaho and Great Basin National Park in northeast Nevada. These out-of-the-way gems supply days of interesting hiking and biking, plus free ranger-guided tours -- a bonus for those on a fixed income. Travelers fortunate enough to have purchased a car…
October 28, 2010 – Highway 93
I reluctantly admit to the unintentional killing of two large mammals in the last month. A raccoon met its maker on the grill of our Dodge Charger rental car in Halifax in September and a Montana deer succumbed while vainly attempting to broadside our Great West van moments after we entered America on October 10, 2010. We slipped quietly past…
June 11, 2010 – Anaconda, Montana
Idaho became the twenty-fifth and final State in our US visit when we said goodbye to Wyoming, Yogi and Boo-Boo following our grizzly Yellowstone experience. We crisscrossed back into Montana, where our American exploration began last October, and coasted into the Bozeman Wal-Mart parking lot. Wal-Mart Supercentres are now ubiquitous throughout the US. In addition to selling the vast majority…
June 10, 2010 – Out of Montana and Back to Work – Part I
For a country that prides itself on being the world’s smartest and most technologically advanced, America can be surprisingly backward. 85 octane at the pump is standard throughout the States -- as is the engine knock that naturally accompanies such rotten gasoline. And Americans everywhere still write cheques! At grocery checkouts throughout the nation we waited patiently, nostalgically watching the…
May 20, 2010 – An Aging Geyzer – Yellowstone
We spent mother’s day at the lovely but quiet Flaming Gorge Recreation Area on the Utah/Wyoming border. Florence treated herself to three uninterrupted hours knitting peacefully in the sun on the bank of the Green River while I reluctantly occupied myself casting flies at trout hungry for the spring blue-winged olive hatch. The clear waters of the gorgeous Green are…
May 17, 2010 – A Feehan Thing – Moab, Utah
We pulled into Moab, Utah expecting the same dull empty campgrounds we have experienced all spring throughout Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Moab hops. Our neighbors to the left were jumping onto the river for a four-day float down the narrow and treacherous Colorado Cataract to Lake Powell. To the right were a bunch of guys whose modified jeep rock-crawlers…
May 11, 2010 – Navel of the Earth, Mesa Verde, Colorado
Camping has re-affirmed some of life’s simple pleasures: a hot shower and a private cubicle with two-ply. There is a vast disparity in the quality of America’s campgrounds and since we are flying by the seat of our pants never knowing where the wind will blow us -- except away from Gallup NM, that’s a goddam guarantee -- every night…
May 9, 2010 – Navajo Wisdom – Gallup, NM
During the great depression, in an effort to stimulate the economy and put people to work, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corp. In the dirty ‘30s the CCC built trails, roads, lodges and buildings on public land throughout the U.S. Most of these iconic structures survive today, often in or near State campgrounds, as stone marvels and…
May 2, 2010 – Of Aliens and Trinitite, New Mexico – Part II
free speech to the maxIn the mountains an hour west of Roswell the lovely city of Ruidoso (elev. 6900 ft) lies nestled between golf courses open year-round and the ski hill of Sierra Blanca (elev. 11,023 ft). It was a beautiful, sunny day and we were looking for a golf fix but were told that the resort course at the…
May 1, 2010 – Of Aliens and Trinitite, New Mexico – Part I
When we are home -- which has become more and more occasional of late -- people ask is there any place in America we have visited that “we could totally live in?” This is of course a subjective question. But if you think about it for a second you arrive at the conclusion that if Red Deer, in our remote…
April 27, 2010 – The Hummingbird Moth, San Antonio, TX
San Antonio is a very large city but creates a homey atmosphere as a result of its famed River Walk, which gives it an almost Venetian feel. San Antone, as it is pronounced locally, is home to the Alamo. “Remember the Alamo!?” John Wayne exhorted in the ‘60s movie, portraying Davy Crockett, one of 189 men who were besieged for…
April 25, 2010 – Interracial Avian Love, Austin, TX
Americans are constantly inquiring about our Canadian health care system. Their inquiries are honest. They seem genuinely earnest to learn -- during the Obama era -- how a bunch of foreigners from north of the 49th can organize prostate examinations and pap smears, gratis. But after a few campground round-picnic-table discussions the subject becomes a little stale. We try to…
April 20, 2010 – The Dozy Docent – Grapevine, Texas
At most every American museum the guides are labeled “docent”. This word comes from the Latin docere, which means to teach. Look it up. Stan Greeble is an elderly docent at the tourist information bureau and archives of Grapevine, Texas a suburb of Dallas. Stan has worked for the city of Grapevine for 47 years, the past 32 as docent…
April 18, 2010 – Peggy’s Bounty – en route to Dallas
We just can't wait to get on the road again. Down to Texas and Waylon and Willie and the boys. But as if on cue the rotten weather we experienced throughout our trip last fall re-emerged. 10 cm of snow and wind gusts to 100km/hr pummeled Red Deer on the evening before our departure to Dallas. Though Hwy 2 to…
December 7, 2009 – Pawking de Caw, Louisiana-style
We have been blessed and plagued throughout this journey by “low season”. Empty campgrounds without need for reservations have prevailed but so have “closed for the season” signs and – have I mentioned this before – unseasonably poor weather. The Natchez, Mississippi tourist brochure spoke glowingly about civil war mansions, slave-sale markets and the jaded history of this barge-transport town,…
December 7, 2009 – Bicycling to Graceland
We often remark when travelling, “Wow, this place is beautiful. I could live here.” But we spend our week; get back on the plane, fly home to the frozen north and soon forget our palm-tree passion place. Travelling through this big, beautiful country has given rise to many such moments and with no real agenda – other than getting to…
November 29, 2009 – Georgia – A Police State
Britain’s Sir James Oglethorpe - founder of the City of Savannah and the man responsible for its modern grid-like plan, with tree-shaded open squares - was granted authority over the Colony of Georgia in 1732. He agreed to this pre-State commission on three conditions: no Papists, no lawyers and no alcohol. The Feehans would have had a tough go in…
November 22, 2009 – An evening with the Rockyford, Georgia po-lice
Hilton Head Island is paradise. Sugar sand beaches. Bike pedaling at low tide on hard packed sand for mile after mile admiring the brown pelicans and dolphins diving for lunch al pesca. Onshore, mansion after antebellum mansion peaks grandly from behind the dunes safe from the wrath of fall hurricane season. Then there’s our trailer park. Our dear neighbors across…
November 15, 2009 – Tropical Depression in South Carolina
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a narrow ribbon of pavement winding southwesterly for 469 miles along the crest of the Appalachians. From its starting point near Washington, DC, to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina every sharp corner and s-turn provides a stunning new vista, in various hues of – you guessed it - blue. And when you’re…
November 8, 2009 – Crossing the Mason-Dixon Line into Washington, DC
Are you a neophyte camper? Never owned your own trailer? Never thrown caution to the wind and simply headed south for the nearest campground, unconcerned about whether dusk will settle into dark before you bunk down? Oh, what you are missing. Late afternoons of heated discussion over the veracity of a GPS’s directions before turning uncertainly into the “World's Famous”…
November 1, 2009 – Chicago to D.C.
Just kidding about Chicago. There are plenty of things to see and do in the amazing Windy City. Parking just isn’t one of them. America is truly a polarized nation. At Miller’s Bar, a famous pub on Wabash Street in downtown Chicago, we had drinks with Paul Cigan, a clarinetist with the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington D.C.) who was almost…
October 24, 2009 – Channel Catfish, Sioux City, Iowa
We have moved on through a completely new landscape. The flat, Antelope-carcass-strewn highways of Nebraska have given way to the flat, raccoon-carcass-strewn highways of Iowa. We have reached the Missouri River. Fishing is known as a much more relaxing and fulfilling endeavor than golf. I’m not so sure. We were parked at a great campsite on the Missouri in Sioux…
October 10, 2009 – Runnin’ from the snow … in a cramped camper van.
If you've never driven for four days across Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska in an effort to outrun a horrendous winter storm - in early fall - then you've missed out on plenty buster! You've missed endless, Saskatchewan-like landscapes, dead antelope in the ditch by the bucket-full and the opportunity to enjoy a unique FM radio experience. The first seven…