Any long term traveler knows that if you have been on the road for any length of time, standards shift. Standards in hotel rooms, safety concerns and, well, it has to be said, personal hygiene. While we have never been particularly fussy regarding our accommodations, by the time we arrived in Goa, India, we were simply thrilled to have a beachfront room, even if it was of questionable design.
As I stepped out of the camper, I saw Jim already had a warming fire roaring. Porter, luxuriating in the warmth of his new coat, lay curled up on his camp pad asleep. Aspen inched closer to my chair, ever the lap Lab, wanting to be as close as possible.
Two young kids, longing for adventure, meet up in an abandoned house, the lone members of the “Spirit of Adventure” club. They grow up, marry, and dream of traveling to Paradise Falls in South America. But, reality intervenes, and each time their savings jar is filling, a problem occurs, a broken down car, a hospital visit, you know, adult stuff.
Snow days. A rarity in Portland. Having grown up in small town Minnesota, I am familiar with bad winter weather. It’s a big part of the reason I no longer live there. Here in Oregon, where we are quite famous for our dreary, rainy winters, and any real accumulation of snow is a bit of excitement.
The doors of the world are varied and exotic. I could fill calendar after calendar of photos of them I have taken from all over the world, but many of my favorites belong to India. The one is particularly interesting in that it is both a very large door and a very small one! A predecessor of our modern dog door, perhaps?
Australia, that enchanting land down under, where everyone has a great accent, looks like Hugh Jackman, and life is a beach. Or is it? I only recently realized in the 190-plus blogs I have posted on Next Big Adventure, only one has been about Australia, and that was simply a foto-Friday of Whitehaven Beach. Why, after spending over six weeks driving the East Coast of the country, did I feel compelled to write nothing???~
While all of Vietnam is filled with magic around every corner, but Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Town, had more photo ops than most. Here, one of the many shops offering up their colorful wares.
We are not shy about proclaiming our great love for off-season camping. Nearly empty campgrounds and open beaches bring a smile to our face and joy to our heart. Add in a full moon, mid-50’s temps and no rain (in Oregon in January!) and we were in. For the first time in nearly two years we were joined by Jim’s sister Wendy, her husband and Jim’s best friend, Ken, and their two furbabies, Jenny and Lexi. Ken had recently returned from his second deployment in two years and also included a few of people in his unit, who joined in with their families.
Although I had heard how utterly massive the temples and ruins of Egypt’s ancient society were, until you are truly standing next to the carvings and pillars, it is impossible to appreciate their magnitude.
Now, in mid-winter, I am feeling housebound and contained, wanting to be out hiking in the wilderness, sitting around a campfire, and sleeping that deep sleep that comes after a day in nature. Here, an inspiring memory of hiking Mt. Cook, New Zealand, surely one of the most beautiful places in the world. I can’t wait for that next “first steps” on the trail feeling.
