Category: Destinations
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Go east young woman ~ Central Texas awaits
San Antonio lies due east and a world away from Big Bend National Park. Driving towards the sunrise, the Chihuahuan Desert gradually gives way to farm country and the hill country of central Texas. Small towns turn into larger communities and eventually the urban centers of San Antonio and Austin sprawl outward with the ubiquitous…
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Big Bend and West Texas Weird
This week our Meander wandered into the Big Bend area of West Texas and one of the most uniquely weird small towns in America ~ Marfa Texas. Marfa is pretty heavy on the art galleries, nice restaurants, and relatively expensive hotel rooms for a place in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by scenic sagebrush,…
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New Mexico ~ as above so below
The natural beauty of New Mexico has been immortalized by more than one painter over the years. The small details of a flower, the flowing lines and contrasting colors of a mesa, the contrast of a woman’s woven blanket against an adobe wall all conjure up the feeling of New Mexico and Santa Fe in…
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Hoodoo the Voodoo that You do?
I’ve lived in Colorado since 1989. I’ve been to Canyonlands National Park, I’ve floated the Green River through Stillwater and Labyrinth Canyons more than once. I’ve been to Moab a number of times and would have been surprised if Utah canyon country had anything more to show me. My ignorance was corrected this week through…
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The Grand Canyon
The grandeur and scale of the Grand Canyon is unmatched by anything we’ve seen, which made it a fitting end to our “Red Rock Canyon National Parks Tour”. Two nights camping with temps in the upper 30s at night and low 60 during the day made the quest to take in every stunning view we…
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Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree Eating all the gumdrops he can see Stop, Kookaburra, stop, Kookaburra Leave some there for me! Australian nursery rhyme, lyrics by Marion Sinclair If you know this nursery rhyme, you’re welcome for the ear worm. Before I got to Australia, I assumed a Kookaburra was some sort of…
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#aussie-vanlife
Marla and I love camping. So much that we did it for 40 of the first days on this Big Meander in a tent as we worked our way across North America. We love campfires, grilling gourmet dinners in the wilderness, and gazing up at a sky full of stars. But…we’re also getting older. Getting…
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Sydney ~ 1st impressions from down under.
Sydney is cool. 4 nights and 3 full days were definitely not enough! Circular Quay, the Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the ferry to Manly, Manly beach, shopping, fun neighborhoods like Newtown, Darlinghurst, and the Rocks, Hyde Park, the Botanic Gardens, great food, great public transport….and that was just three days! Imagine what experiences…
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Saigon and the Mekong Delta
Which is it: Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City? Depends on who you ask, and according to our guide the names are interchangeable. Younger people seem to prefer Ho Chi Minh, our guide preferred Saigon, so that’s what we will use in this post as we go forward. Scattered through Saigon and the Mekong Delta…
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Flower Lanterns and Basket Boats in Hoi An
Something magical happens in the tropics after the sun goes down. The inky evening takes the edge off of reality and the lights of the shops radiate warmth. The sounds in the air are filled with people laughing and glasses clinking. In the case of Hoi An, there is also the added delight of the…