Continuing what is now a yearly tradition, we looked for a way to get outdoors and away from DFW around the Fourth of July holiday. While this has generally involved herding various cats (read: children, adult and otherwise) towards Arkansas and the Buffalo River, we increasingly find that scheduling is complicated. Given schedules, we gave up on trying to include family members. We had both blocked the week off from work but with teenager work schedule, we decided to break up travel into two quick trips instead of spending the whole week out of town. This would allow for a few days in between to check on a teenager at home, keeping one of our party from fearing the worst depredations of unsupervised high-schoolers.
Continue reading Oklahoma Adventures and Redneck FireworksCategory Archives: Holidays
A Masked Tour of Southwest Texas
The summer of 2020 was a chaotic time. The pandemic was still in full force, coming back with another wave after declining in cases for a month or so. Business were open to varying degrees, with varying restrictions, tending on the more lenient side in our part of the country. We had settled into a comfortable routine of working from home, cooking from home, exercising from home, entertaining adult and teenage children at home … the list goes on. July was the perfect time for a break from all that. Yes, travel would still present challenges, given the lack of available dining opportunities, but it was also an excellent time for exploring the world on a socially distanced agenda, which is our preference anyway.
Continue reading A Masked Tour of Southwest Texas
We’re Going to California …
Having been up and down the East Coast, over the Mississippi, and into the mountains, it was finally time to organize a joint trip to the West Coast. One of our party had been out several times around work trips and conferences, but schedules being what they are, a long weekend hadn’t worked out as of yet. VMworld 2014 turned out to be a perfect intersection – conference in downtown San Francisco wrapping up the Thursday before Labor Day weekend. Juggling VRBO and airline miles, a late late late night arrival into SFO and a winding drive up to the Point Reyes area looked like a great way to see some of California with slightly less people than Times Square on New Years …
Continue reading We’re Going to California …
The Locals Just Don’t Understand
Having started a slow cadence of travel when we could arrange child care and time off from work, we approached the end of 2011 and started checking calendars. Schedules being what they were, it turned out that children would be cared for during the New Year’s holiday., and we considered the possibility to get out of town for a few days. So, where to? The West Coast would involve a lengthy flights, the Midwest at the time didn’t seem particularly interesting (at least the parts within driving distance), and we’d already been to Arkansas, New Mexico and chunks of east Texas. Scanning the maps of the east coast, we spotted Savannah, tucked into the tall pines trees and coastal swamps and fields of southeast Georgia. The city itself is not directly on the coast, but its proximity to the Atlantic would allow for some time on the beach, the city history looked interesting, and neither of us had ever been there. Savannah it was.
Continue reading The Locals Just Don’t Understand
The First (Accidental) Tripping on a River
Arkansas was more of an accident than an organized adventure. Mid-2011, we found ourselves with an unexpectedly obligation-free holiday weekend (this is normally how the trips start) and debated our options. We had taken a few short road trips, mainly in Texas, and one quick trip to Santa Fe, NM, which involved air travel. Up until now, free time was limited with two school-aged kids in one house, full-time, chaotic work, school and sports schedules, and life.
The goal was to do something different, go somewhere new but within driving distance. A cabin in the woods sounded appealing, but … Texas. “Cabin in the woods” options are limited. We considered Oklahoma again, but since we had some extra time, one state further out seemed manageable. Neither one of us had ever explored Arkansas (or even been there), so the Ozarks it was. Searching the ever-expanding Internet, we found a tiny cabin on VRBO (exciting newness in the ancient year of 2011) which fit the requirements. Located in a town called Snowball, smack in the middle of the rolling hills of Arkansas, it looked like a promising fit for a weekend escape.
Continue reading The First (Accidental) Tripping on a River
graveyardsandghosttowns 