Luxagraf | Travel Writing from North America

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Muffins

- - November 16, 2014 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - When you're two years old everything in the world is new every day. Even things you saw yesterday look different, feel different, *are*, inexplicably, different today. - -

Memorial Park

- - November 9, 2014 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - Loons, Maine, Memorial Park. *What that sound is?* - -

Halloween

- - November 1, 2014 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - Halloween with three owls, a Theremin-wielding ghost band and a zoo full of ghouls. - -

King of Birds

- - May 30, 2013 -

- - St. George Island, Florida, U.S. - - – - - Watching birds teaches you to see the world a bit differently. You're always alert to flittering movements in your peripheral vision. After a while you start to scan the tree line, the edges of the marsh, the place where the buildings meet the sky, the borderlands where movement begins. You quite literally see the world differently. - -

Oysterman Wanted

- - May 29, 2013 -

- - St. George Island, Florida, U.S. - - – - - The world of oystermen and local fishing industry is doomed. Even the people resisting the transition know they’re no longer fighting for their way of life. They’re just fighting to keep the thinnest resemblance of what they’ve always known around until they leave this world. They’re fighting to keep from having to watch the death of everything they know. - -

All the Pretty Beaches

- - May 26, 2013 -

- - St. George Island, Florida, U.S. - - – - - St. George is just off the Gulf Coast of northwest Florida, only about 7 hours from where I live. There are better places if you're looking to dive or snorkel. Ditto if it's nightlife you're after. But if you're looking for a seemingly endless amount of gorgeous white sand beaches you'll share with only a few migratory birds, St. George is the place to be. - -

Consider the Apalachicola Oyster

- - May 22, 2013 -

- - Apalachicola, Florida, U.S. - - – - - If you know the name Apalachicola at all it’s likely because of its eponymous oysters. Very few things, let alone culinary things, are as attached to place as oysters. In fact, once you get beyond the Rockefeller, ordering “oysters” is akin to walking in a bar and ordering “a beer.” But unlike beer, oysters don’t have brands, they have places — Pemaquid, Wellfleet, Blue Point, Apalachicola. - -

Things Behind the Sun

- - May 20, 2012 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - My grandparents left the home they lived in for 60 years today. I don't know how much of my life was spent in that house, probably well over a year if you added up all the holidays and family gatherings. And now I'm thousands of miles away and someone is clearing out the house. - -

Street Food in Athens Georgia

- - March 31, 2012 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - Cheap food, made fresh, in front of you. Served hot, wrapped in newspaper. Street food is the people's food, it removes the mystery of the kitchen, lays the process bare. It's also the staple diet of people around the world. - -

We Used to Wait For It

- - March 28, 2011 -

- - Los Angeles, California, U.S. - - – - - When we first came here, there was nothing. Downtown Los Angeles was an empty husk of a place fifteen years ago. Now it's reborn, alive and kicking. Yet there is something in the older buildings, something in the old walls, something lost in the bricks, something in the concrete, the marble. Something you don’t find anymore. Something we need to find again. - -

The World Outside

- - January 26, 2011 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - The world outside the house is blanketed in snow, a monochrome of white interrupted only by the dark, wet trunks of trees, the red brick of chimneys, the occasional green of shrubs poking through. The roads are unbroken expanses of smooth white, no one is out yet, no footprints track their way through the snowy sidewalk. The world outside is the same as it was last night, before the snow began, and yet, it feels totally different. - -

Charleston A-Z

- - January 18, 2011 -

- - Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. - - – - - Charleston alphabetically. For example, Q is for quiet, Charleston has a lot of it. Just head down to the Battery area, walk through the park and starting walking down the side streets. Take one of the many alleys and walkways that weave between the massive, stately houses. Get lost. It doesn't take much to find a quiet place of your own. - -

Dinosaur National Monument, Part Two: Down the River

- - August 2, 2010 -

- - Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado, U.S. - - – - - This is the only real way to see Dinosaur National Monument — you must journey down the river. There are two major rivers running through Dinosaur, the Yampa, which carves through Yampa Canyon, and the Green, which cuts through Lodore. Adventure Bound Rafting runs some of the best whitewater rafting trips in Colorado and I was lucky enough to go down the Green River with them, through the majestic Lodore Canyon. - -

Dinosaur National Monument, Part One: Echo Park

- - July 28, 2010 -

- - Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado, U.S. - - – - - Dinosaur National Monument was poorly named. The best parts of it are not the fossils in the quarry (which is closed for 2010 anyway) but the canyon country — some of the best, most remote canyon country you'll find in this part of the world. - -

The Endless Crowds of Yellowstone

- - July 25, 2010 -

- - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, U.S. - - – - - There is wilderness in Yellowstone, even if it's just inches from the boardwalks that transport thousands around the geothermal pools. It may not be wilderness on a grand scale — the sweeping mountain peaks or wild rivers of other parks — but in some ways that makes it more enticing. As one Ranger told me, Yellowstone isn't about the big picture, the grand scenery, it's about the tiny details within each pool. To really see Yellowstone, he said, you have to take your time, move slowly and look closely. - -

Backpacking in the Grand Tetons

- - July 22, 2010 -

- - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, U.S. - - – - - Hiking into the wilderness empties your mind. You fall into the silence of the mountains and you can relax in a way that's very difficult to do in the midst of civilization. The white noise that surrounds us in our everyday lives, that noise we don't even notice as it adds thin layers of stress that build up over days, weeks, years, does not seem capable of following us into the mountains. - -

Great Sand Dunes National Park

- - July 17, 2010 -

- - Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, U.S. - - – - - Something about the desert inspires me to get up early and watch the sunrise. The cool mornings seem worth getting up for out here in the high plains of Colorado, especially when there's the chance to watch the sunrise from the largest sand dunes in North America, here in Great Sand Dune National Park. - -

Comanche National Grasslands

- - July 16, 2010 -

- - Comanche National Grasslands, Colorado, U.S. - - – - - To say the Comanche National Grasslands is off the grid would be an understatement. With the exception of Highway 50 in Nevada, I've never driven through such isolation and vast openness anywhere in the world. And it's easy to get lost. There are no signs, no road names even, just dirt paths crisscrossing a wide, perfectly flat expanses of grass. - -

Why National Parks Are Better Than State Parks

- - July 15, 2010 -

- - Amarillo, Texas, U.S. - - – - - There are many reasons, but here's the one I currently consider most important: National Parks never close. Take Palo Dura State park outside of Amarillo, Texas. Were it a National Park, I would be there right now. But it's not, it's a state park and so I'm sitting in a hotel room in Amarillo because everyone knows nature closes at 10PM. - -

The Legend of Billy the Kid

- - July 11, 2010 -

- - Hico, Texas, U.S. - - – - - History rarely offers neat, tidy stories. But the messier, more confusing and more controversial the story becomes, the more it works its way into our imaginations. The legend of Billy the Kid is like that of Amelia Earhart or D.B. Cooper — the less we know for sure, the more compelling the story becomes. - -

The Dixie Drug Store

- - July 8, 2010 -

- - New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. - - – - - New Orleans is it's own world. So much so that's it's impossible to put your finger on what it is that makes it different. New Orleans is a place where the line between consensus reality and private dream seems to have never fully developed. And a wonderful world it is. - -

Begin the Begin

- - July 5, 2010 -

- - Gulf Port, Mississippi, U.S. - - – - - It's travel time again. This time I'm driving my 1969 Ford truck out west, to Texas, Colorado, Utah and more — a road trip around the western United States. The first stop is Gulf Port, Mississippi. It's hard to believe, sitting here on the deserted beaches of Gulf Shore, watching the sun break through the ominous clouds, but soon this beauty will be gone. The BP oil spill is somewhere out there, blown slowly ashore by the storm hovering over us, waiting to drown the beaches in crude. - -

Los Angeles, I’m Yours

- - May 17, 2010 -

- - Los Angeles, California, U.S. - - – - - Los Angeles is all about the car. Shiny, air-conditioned comfort, gliding you soundlessly from one place to another without the need to interact with anything in between. But I have discovered that if you abandon the car for the subway and your own two feet, the illusion that L.A. is just a model train set world — tiny, plastic and devoid of any ground beneath the ground — fades and you find yourself, for a time, in a real city. - -

(There’ll Be) Peace in the Valley

- - April 24, 2010 -

- - Death Valley, California, U.S. - - – - - Sometimes you ignore the places close to home because, well, there's always next weekend. Which is why I never made it Death Valley in the twenty-five years I lived in California. It took being all the way across the country to get me out to Death Valley. Which might explain why I actually got up before dawn just to watch the sunrise at Zabriskie Point. - -

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Nothing is Finished, Nothing is Perfect

- - November 20, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - A dozen years ago this week I was at an Iraqi restaurant in Paris. It was a tiny place near the cross roads of two very forgettable avenues, an unassuming door, a small menu board of the kind you see dozens of on nearly every block. I have no recollection of what drew us in, maybe just hunger. The only other people in it were the owner and his wife. To this day I would call it the best meal of my life. - -

Halloween

- - November 14, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - Every Halloween I complain about how hot it is. I'm not sure where I got the idea that it was cold in Georgia come Halloween, but reviewing some pictures from the last half decade or so very clearly shows me wrong. It's often quite hot on Halloween and probably always will be from here on out. - -

Useless Stuff

- - October 16, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - Normally when you move you just shove all that stuff you don't really acknowledge that you've been dragging around for years without using into a box and truck it on to the next place you'll live where you can happily shove it in the back of a new closet. When you're moving into a 1969 Dodge Travco with four other people and less than 100 square feet of usable space that's not an option. - -

Equinox

- - September 22, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - I have a thing for solar cycles. I was born a few hours before the winter solstice. My wife and I were married on the summer solstice. My son was born a few hours before the winter solstice. None of that was planned. It's all synchronicity. Coincidence some would say, though I don't believe that synchronicities like that are coincidence. - -

Cloudland Canyon

- - September 19, 2016 -

- - Cloudland Canyon, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - I have a terrible habit of never going to obvious places that are right around me. For example I lived within 100 miles or so of Death Valley for 26 years and never once went. Then I moved thousands of miles across the country and finally arranged a trip to Death Valley. Except that it appears I'm getting better about these things. Maybe. - -

Autumn Bus Update

- - September 15, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - The bare walls are gone, the ceiling is in, but still there is still much to do -- even if we do plan to leave before it's completely finished. We need a floor and couch at the bare minimum, though I'd like to have the propane and sewage system working as well. Oh and then there's a cab area, which I really haven't touched. Miles to go before I sleep. - -

Change of Ideas (The Worst)

- - July 14, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - I want the bus to be The Best. But. as an article I'm fond of says, "the best means waiting, planning, researching, and saving until one can acquire the perfect equipment for a given task." On the other side of the coin there is The Worst. if you have to have everything perfect you're never going to go. The Worst just goes. Now. The Worst figures things out from experience rather than hopes and fears. - -

What Are You Going to Do?

- - July 12, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - We've started telling people about our plans to live full time in the blue bus. After the eyebrows come down and the puzzled frowns flatten out, the questions come. Most of them revolve around some form of, but, but but... *what will you do without a house? What will you do when that thing breaks down? What will you do when...* Rather than answer everyone individually I thought I'd answer all those questions here, as best I can: ***I don't know***. - -

Engine

- - June 5, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - The Travco is not starting. I can see the problem in my head, but I cannot make it work. It has to be the fuel pump. I have spark. I have compression. The missing ingredient in the basic trifecta of the internal combustion engines is fuel. But seeing it and understanding it are different than actually making it work. - -

Back From Somewhere

- - May 22, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - Neither the intense afternoon sun beating down on the concrete slab of parking lot, nor the humidity left over from morning rains convinced my kids to abandon the Jittery Joe's skate contest. We were there all afternoon, over four hours of skating, pulled pork and the occasional train rolling by. They never stopped loving it. - -

Root Down

- - May 15, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - The longer you've been in one location the more stuff that's accumulated. As far as I can tell there is no real way to combat the detritus of the world seeping into your space, save cutting off all contact with the outside world. I imagine monasteries are generally immaculate; the rest of us get out the pick axes and clear the rubble. - -

Another Spring

- - March 20, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - This becomes a day like any other that is somehow different. Then another and another. Little things. The air feels brighter. The river is lower. Less practical footwear appears on the feet around you. The mornings are crisp and the pollen hasn't started yet. The trees still bare though the smaller shrubs turn purple and white. Everything feels fragile but possible again. - -

Up in the Air

- - March 8, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - I tore the rear air conditioning unit off the back of the bus today. Afterward I stood back and looked at the Travco. All the clean lines and curves joined together again, no more air conditioning warts to interrupt the sliding smooth and unbroken swoop of white and blue. The big blue bus looked sleek and whole again. - -

Bring on the Change

- - January 1, 2016 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - I've been thinking about this little mantra ever since I saw it six or seven years ago. I don't think I've ever seen what I consider the secret to happiness so succinctly and completely captured. - -

Tools

- - December 18, 2015 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - We are not things, Alan Watts was fond of saying, we are happenings. But we are happenings with things. Specifically with tools, many of which help us happen in one way or another. What to make of these tools then? - -

8-Track Gorilla

- - October 15, 2015 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - I just sold an antiquated music player that takes a format no one has manufactured in over three decades for $86. It was an old Oldsmobile 8-track cassette player I pulled out of the bus. I have no idea how it came to be in a 1969 Dodge Travco. What I do have an idea about is why I just sold it, as-is, could-be-working, could not be working, for $86 more than you would think it was worth. - -

Progress

- - September 22, 2015 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - I'm not crazy anti-tech, I just think the good, sustainable technologies are rare. I'm not a delusional lunatic who thinks I'm living in the Victorian era or anything. I just don't really like air conditioning. Or heaters. Or generators. And I prefer a good fire to electric light. - -

Elvis Has Left the Building

- - July 2, 2015 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - It's not that I have anything against the king, it's that I don't have anything at all, no feelings one way or the other on Elvis, so he came out and won't be going back in. The walls, ceiling and floor of the Travco are also coming out. - -

The Big Blue Bus

- - June 10, 2015 -

- - Asheville Area, North Carolina, U.S. - - – - - Change of plans, sold the trailer, bought a 1969 Dodge Travco, the coolest vehicle ever made. The first few corners were nerve-wracking, the kind of white knuckled terror-inducing driving I haven't done since the very first time I sat down behind a wheel. Or the time I claimed I could ride a motorcycle when I actually had no clue. It all works out in the end. - - -

Ode to the Outdoor Shower

- - May 20, 2015 -

- - St. George Island, Florida, U.S. - - – - - The outdoor shower may be one of life's greatest joys. Certainly it makes for memorable showers. I have fond memories of sunshowers hung from the mast of a sailboat, the slick mossy wood of an outdoor shower in Laos, the cold marble of bucket showers in India, the sandy tile of the beach showers where I grew up. - - -

A Big Long Week

- - May 18, 2015 -

- - St. George Island, Florida, U.S. - - – - - Whenever Lilah and Olivia want to convey long lengths of time they use the phrase "in a big long week". As in, "we have not had any cookies in a big long week." A big long week could be anywhere from two days to over a year. In this case we had two big long weeks on the island. - -

Tate’s Hell

- - May 15, 2015 -

- - Tate’s Hell, Florida, U.S. - - – - - Tate supposedly wandered out of his eponymous hell swamp and managed to say "my name is Cebe Tate, and I just came from Hell!" before promptly dropping dead. If you're like me you're not going to take this legend very seriously. You're going to think, pshaw, swamps are fun, how bad can this one be? As it happens, if you're not prepared, it can be pretty bad. Especially in Yellow Fly season. - -

We’re Here

- - May 7, 2015 -

- - Thomasville, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - Right now the girls call everywhere "here". This greatly simplifies the whole "are we there yet" dilemma of driving with children. That's not the question. On the drive down here to St. George Island they would ask "are we here yet?" To which Corrinne and I would answer, "yes, we are here." They're young enough that they let us get away with that. - -

Coming Home

- - April 19, 2015 -

- - Athens, Georgia, U.S. - - – - - I am happy to report that, despite a sketchy tow hookup that doesn't lock to the ball, some last-minute wiring snafus, a considerable amount of dry rot on one tire and of course the fact that it still isn't registered, I did nevertheless succeed in getting our 1969 Yellowstone back to our house. - -

Journal entries from North America

Journal entries from North America

Journal entries from North America

Journal entries from North America

Journal entries from North America

Journal entries from North America