Now officially on the wrong side of the Sierras—and a few days too early to deliver Marcel to his winter resting place—we called an audible and dropped in on family friends down in Placerville. A little moochdocking in a quiet, comfortable driveway followed. The days passed easily: eating, chatting, and...
We aimed Marcel toward Mono Lake on what might be the most aggressively side-to-side rolling dirt road we’ve ever driven. Not the gentle up-and-down kind — this was full-body sway, the kind that makes a tall van question its life choices. Marcel was not a fan. Neither were our cabinets....
We were on the final push now. Mojave behind us, the plan was simple enough: head north, cross the Sierras, and get Marcel settled in for a long 6–8 month hibernation while we disappeared halfway around the world to go sailing. Simple plans, of course, are rarely executed simply. Originally,...
After striking out at Castle Mountain National Monument, we found ourselves wandering a web of dirt roads inside the Mojave National Preserve, passing the still-operational Hart Mine along the way. Not long into the wandering, we were stopped cold by a fallen Joshua Tree sprawled across the road. This was...
Immediately we were traveling by the worst way; by a schedule. In just a few short days we needed to be at a predetermined destination to link up with my brother & wife to visit my eldest brother near Clearlake, California. This, at least, allowed us to drop in at...
LTVA stands for Long Term Visitor Area (I think… sounds good enough). These are areas within BLM lands in which someone can pay a one time fee to be able to stay for an entire season, as opposed to having to move every two weeks. As you can imagine, they...
I feel like it has been ages since we last got to boondock in the van, and it has. With our route slightly changing, thanks to snow in Interstate 80 the morning we left Kerri’s parents, so did our first week’s location. Instead of spending it off the 395, we...
Within the hour of getting Big Blue back from the shop we were on the road, heading East. The fact that it was rush hour traffic in the Bay Area and we had two bridges to cross didn’t matter. We wanted out of San Rafael. Oddly enough, the traffic didn’t...
We had a few scheduled stops once we got into California; friends and family that are not seen as often as one might like. The first was an overnight moochdock in the driveway of Kerri’s Aunt Claudia, barely a half mile off our route. Claudia came to our rescue with...
