Our Recent Travels: Late 2023-2024

Our Travels of Late

I used to write a bit about each trip I took. A lot a lot a lot has changed in the last two years, and I seriously feel like I’ve lived two lifetimes.

I’ve moved four times, lastly into a house Valerie and I bought together, something I never really thought would happen. Crappy landlords over the last few years basically forced my hand. I also bought a small sailboat last winter, which I had long been anticipating, but whose refit is being stalled by all of the work involved in buying and maintaining a home, packing, moving the fourth time, not to mention playing in two bands (three for a moment), motorcycle rides as often as humanly possible, the 100+ degree heat of this 2024 summer, and some pretty great travel. This is a summary of those travels, which were healthy, fun, and much needed experiences.

Our First Short Trips Together

Valerie and I got together late May of 2023. Our first trip together was for her early July birthday to Del Rio, the town where she grew up on the Texas border. I got to meet her mother and nephew, one of her closest childhood friends, Xotchil, see the house where she grew up, the gorgeous little downtown creek park, and visit Lake Amistad, which is a huge reservoir on the Rio Grande, covered in rock, cacti, and small brush. It was a lovely first trip together, not too far, not too close, not too long, not too short, just right, and we definitely knew that we’d be easy travel companions from then on.

Later that July we took our first trip to the beach together at the Padre Island National Seashore and camped overnight on an air mattress that hilariously lost a bunch of air while we slept. All in all we had a lovely time, and we learned on this trip that jamming and reading were just kinda gonna be part of our travels and our time together in general, which is ideal. We went right back to the beach the next month for my birthday, but we got a hotel that time, which we’ve stayed in a few times now.

Houston/Galveston/Renaissance Festival

It’s actually pretty amazing how much Valerie and I have done in one single year and a few months. She came on several motorcycle rides, and she came to a few of my out-of-town shows with me during the fall of 2023, then we planned our first biggish trip together, Houston/Galveston/Renaissance Festival, November 2023.

That was definitely a reality check that worked out really well. Our first day there was spent checking out Galveston Island and its Naval Museum, which berths the USS Cavalla and the USS Stewart. This was probably the shoddiest of all the naval history museums I’ve visited, but they don’t seem to have the funding or volunteer base that a lot of the others do, and I still really appreciated seeing these historic ships, especially all of the engineering involved, dials and valves and pipe running everywhere, anchor chain links as big as my torso, all surrounded by Galveston Bay and all its cute lil seabirds. 

We spent that night in downtown Houston, where I decided to have a high fever and be a lazy bitch for that entire evening. Valerie took care of me, fetched us dinner, and watched cartoons all night, and I just slept and moaned and groaned while awake.

The next morning I was pretty much fine, miraculously, and Valerie was still in love with me, so we went out to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and saw so much natural history. I’ve been to many museums, but this one held a lot of stuff I’ve never seen before. The Cullen Hall of Minerals and Gems was really beautiful, really well lit, dimly, showcasing all the amazing colors of the natural spectrum, truly amazing. We saw a bunch of Fabergé works as well, some of which Valerie, the kindest person I’ve ever met, might even consider killing for. Another big highlight was the butterfly exhibit and Rainforest Conservatory, which was housed in a three story glass building full of amazing plants and butterflies I’d maybe only ever seen a few of at Balboa Park in San Diego or in our own San Antonio Botanical Gardens.

 

Later that afternoon, I found a GMS drum kit I still think about all time, sparkle green with gold hardware, at Rockin’ Robin, a somewhat famous Houstonian music establishment, since 1972. That kit is still there, and I still want it.

We also went out with a couple friends of Valerie’s for drinks and a bite at the Hobbit Cafe, which either has a license agreement with the Tolkien crew, or has been infringing on the trademark since 1972 as well. It was an extremely cute place, full of patrons in the middle of the afternoon, and it was a bit chilly as we sat outside and enjoyed some in-house brewed meads and hot foods. We then drove out to Lake Conroe north of Houston, where we’d stay for the next two nights.

The next morning, after getting a coffee at a cute little pink coffee shack whose surrounds were teaming with flying bugs of an unknown-to-me variety, we drove around the east side of the lake and hiked a short loop around the Cagle Recreation Area (a place we’d considered for camping), which is a part of the greater Sam Houston National Forest. That morning, I learned how to identify Post Oak, which I really hadn’t seen much of, but which apparently grows east of San Antonio in vast numbers, though how far east I have yet to learn. They’ve earned their name for sure, straight and tall, perfect for setting posts for anything, fences, cabins, whatever you need.

This lil recreation area is near part of the Lone Star Hiking Trail, a track of about ninety five miles, which is the longest hiking trail in Texas until they finish the Great Springs Trail from San Antonio to Austin, which should be about one hundred miles when it’s completed. The lake is beautiful and massive, though as it was a chilly autumnal morning, we didn’t see but one motor boat out on the water, which contained only warmly clad fishermen. 

After that we made our way to Todd Mission, the city incorporated just for the Texas Renaissance Festival, which has been going on since 1974. The traffic and parking were all very well organized, and as we made our way to the fairgrounds, we saw witches, warlocks, wizards, pirates, lords, ladies, knights, barbarians, elves, dwarves, and many other creatures fair and foul. This was like my third time at a Renaissance Festival, and I love it. I don’t dress up because I don’t allocate money for costuming, but Valerie looked lovely in her Green velvet dress with gold brocade.

There’s so much to see at the Texas Renaissance Festival, and honestly a lot of it can just be people watching, but there’s also entertainment of all kinds, including jousting and musical shows; never a dull moment.

Walking through the gates to the fairgrounds really does transport you to some incredible 16th century town. They’ve done such an amazing job these last fifty years of erecting and maintaining buildings that look the part so well, exposed stone, stucco, shingles, carvings of all kinds, murals, tile mosaics, fountains, myriad colors, all in the shade of Post Oaks and Pines, dirt roads throughout, and all surrounded by every type of character imaginable. 

We got a pair of rings there, matching and unmatching, an iridescent moonstone for her and a gold on silver pentacle for me, which we both still wear daily, and the next morning we made our way home again.

Then on December 9, 2023, I bought a sailboat, a little 1983 Vagabond 17, and alas, that will be a whole other blog. 

Washington DC

Winter passed slowly. I’m not the best at enduring it, but I do what I can during those months, entirely dependent on the weather, and I had surgery, from which the recovery seemed to take forever. But we had been planning all winter, analyzing, budgeting, booking, and we decided to take my two sons to Washington DC, to which neither had been before, nor had Valerie, and which I love very much. I’d been there twice before, and even counting this time, I’ve only scratched the surface, but maybe a lil more deeply this time.

We went in March during the boys’ miraculously aligned spring break, the elder, Antares, is in college, and the younger, Gareth, is in middle school currently. It was an intense vacation because of the way we planned it, and honestly, with our time restrictions because of the very little PTO time either of us were allowed, we did what we could.

We left Friday, March 8 after work in a rented Jeep Cherokee (not recommended for anything at all besides being a disposable, fuel-efficient vehicle for rent), and arrived in Washington DC at our Airbnb at 8pm or so the next day after driving twenty seven hours with very few breaks. It was way less expensive than flying the four of us out and back, and way less of a pollutant considering how much fuel we used compared to how much jet fuel is used in a round trip of flights. We had many snacks, pillows, and pairs of earbuds on this trip, that’s for sure.

We had some amazing okonomiyaki that first night, and then we were toast and ready for bed at the Airbnb, which was the entire basement of an old row house downtown. It was a great space, but unfortunately the homeowners were pretty lackadaisical about its decoration and furnishings, which were so drab in such a dark space, dark beige and millennial grey everywhere. However, the excellent location, kitchen, and heater definitely made it worthwhile.

The next morning, while the boys slept in a bit, Valerie and I took a walk and explored our surroundings. Our Airbnb was right smack in the middle of town, so we had every amenity available to us, and we decided to just use public transit the whole time we were there, which we’d decided the night before after looking for a parking spot when we went to dinner, returning to the airbnb to park because we never found a spot, then going back out on foot for dinner.

After a lil coffee and our brisk, windy walk (which would become thematic) among wind tossed cherry blossoms, we collected the boys and headed towards the National Mall and all of the Smithsonian Museums around it. We started with the Air and Space Museum, one of my personal favorites (of course) and had an excellent time exploring the evolution of manned flight, from the Wright brothers to current space exploration, and even the scifi that’s inspired so much of what has been built in the last hundred years or more, including the amazingly preserved TV model of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise from the original series.

There’s so overwhelmingly much to see at each of the museums that all you can do is try to take in as much as possible in as little time as possible, which is why I really feel it would be awesome to live there for a couple of years, be close to all the history of New England as well, not too far away.

We then walked around the Hirshhorn Museum, which we probably should’ve entered honestly, but Valerie was able to see and take pics with the works of one of her favorite artists, Yayoi Kusama, who has very large, colorful pumpkins there. We then entered the Enid A. Haupt Garden, basically the courtyard of the Smithsonian Castle, which is currently closed, and enjoyed all the beautiful cherry blossoms blowing along strong winds, along with colorful spring blooms of all kinds, all amidst beautiful and formal Victorian style gardens. 

The next bit was truly brutal. We got onto the main open space of the National Mall, with temperatures and winds both in the 40s, and walked straight into the wind on our way to walk the length of the thing to the Lincoln Memorial. I laugh as I sit here writing and thinking about it. It was bitterly COLD, and we were still having an excellent time. We stopped at the Washington Monument, the boys having been ridiculous the whole way, totally permissible and encouraged in such a beautiful, open space. The flags surrounding the monument blew wildly and loudly, all of their rope lines banging against their posts. We got out of the wind for a few minutes and then went on our merry way.

At this point, those of us who didn’t have hats to cover our ears were talking about how nice they’d be. I’ll let you guess who those people were, and they were all dudes.

We made our way through and past the World War II memorial, the reflecting pond mostly drained, the strong winds blowing ripples across what water was left, all of us with our heads down and hands in our pockets, smiling at the hilarity of it. We arrived at the Lincoln Memorial, where there had just been a rally that morning, and enjoyed our time there, out of the wind, in a warm, echoey place surrounded by history, art, and philosophy. The structure itself is beautiful, inside and out, marble columns, marble walls, and the massive statue of Lincoln on his chair. It’s really pretty awe inspiring if you’re into that sort of thing.

It was then time for another windy walk and some delicious pizza at &pizza, delicious and eaten in just a few minutes because we had all burned so many calories walking and trying to stay warm.

After lunch and a quick bus ride, we basically ran through the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where the standout for me was definitely the video art of Nam June Paik, of whom I’ve recently seen an interesting documentary. Then it was back to the Airbnb for relaxation and preparations for dinner. 

 
That night we ate at another Asian restaurant, whose name is lost in my memory, but I do remember the food being good, and that’s good enough for me. There are so many Asian restaurants in DC that you could probably eat at a new one every single night of the year and not go through all of them, which is great if you like Asian food, which we do.

The next day started out with a visit to Georgetown and some quality time spent in Crumbs & Whiskers Cat Cafe, during which Valerie took a photo of the boys and I, chilling on the floor, enjoying some cats, as one does, and which sits on my desk at home. Honestly I really enjoyed that experience. Highly decompressing.

We then visited a stationary store nearby, because how often does one come across a stationary store in San Antonio, besides the one in Olmos Park? Everyone got something but me, because my favorite pens, Pilot Precise V5s, are available at Walmart, 2 for $5.

We also visited the iconic Smash Records, where I got a nice first pressing of Scorpions “Love at First Sting.”

We then made our way to the National Gallery, which was immense and amazing. I have to admit, our busy bee schedule was probably getting to us by that point, and we were already dragging by the time we were finished there. We’d hoped to do two museums per day, but honestly there’s so much to see in each of them, that each one should have a whole day dedicated to it, which is one of the main reasons I’d really like to go back and visit for a prolonged stay or even life for a while. Valerie was able to see the original print of the design she was wearing on both her shirt and the bag she bought at the National Gallery to carry our stuff, and I was able to see the massive installation of Andy Goldsworthy’s installation there called Roof, “nine stacked-slate, low profile domes–each hollow and measuring, roughly 5.5 feet high and 27 feet in diameter, which centered oculi 2 feet in diameter.” If you haven’t seen the documentary about his art called Rivers and Tides, I highly recommend it.

I honestly regret not going to several of the museums, but we’ll be back there again soon.

That night we ate at Himalayan Heritage Restaurant. We had Lucky Buddha beer in cute lil buddha shaped green bottles, and Antares decided to be very brave despite our waitress’ protestations and have his dish “spicy.” He was definitely feeling it when he started sweating about halfway through. Overall it was delicious, and I’d go back any time.

We then stopped at a Himalayan import store, where Gareth got himself some sherpa pants and shirt, and Antares got himself a nicely striped cross-body bag, which he still uses daily.

The next morning, we gathered all our things, packed up the vehicle, and headed out for breakfast at Ellē, which I honestly don’t remember very well, but Valerie does, so that’s nice.

We then made our way to the National Zoo, bereft of its loaned Chinese pandas, but still overall a great experience. The boys split off from us for most of that day, just running around in the opposite direction from us, but we eventually met up in the middle and headed out to lunch. 

We went to Union Market for lunch, which was interesting and not at all what I expected. It’s basically a fancy flea market at this point, but we had some delicious fish and chips from a lil English place called the Underground. The boys decided to have their own lunches, and then it was time to hit the road again.

We then drove home in 27.5 hours, with stops only for gas and food. I’ve said it a million times, but I love driving, and driving through Tennessee in the middle of the night was so good that I want to see it during the day, so I’m hoping to plan a motorcycle trip up that way soon.

The Great North American Eclipse 2024

On April 8, I drove Valerie out to the Twisted Sisters, or Three Sisters depending on whom you ask, which is a set of county roads in Real County, 335, 336, and 337, that wind through the hills in some very tight switchbacks and long, beautiful vistas of the Western Hill Country, with sprawling panoramas of Cedar, Oak, Sycamore, Agarita, and all kinds of other plants and hidden animals. I’ve driven and ridden them on my motorcycle, including a few dirt roads between them, and I really enjoy the drive, plus it was right in the path of totality of the eclipse.

So we drove through a lot of 337 and eventually found a nice turn where we could pull the truck off to the side of the road on the outside of the turn, spread a blanket on the rocky Texas ground, and lay down to watch the eclipse. It was a cloudy day, so we didn’t see a clear view throughout, but we definitely saw a lot of the transition in, totality, and the transition out. Pretty amazingly dark out there in the middle of the sparsely populated hills for a little while, and so quiet.

MotoGP

A week later, I went up alone on my motorcycle to Austin to catch MotoGP at Circuit of the Americas. I went for the whole weekend and for all classes, catching the free practice sessions on Friday, qualifying and sprint race on Saturday, and the main races on Sunday. It’s a lot.

CoTA is a massive campus, and not only can you go almost everywhere around the outside of the track, the inside of the track is also completely full of vendors, including all the motorcycle manufacturers and accessories manufacturers and dealers. There were a ton of people spending a ton of money, and I walked around with my folding chair, a wide-brimmed hat, and a water bottle I bought there expressly for refilling since my metal bottle wasn’t allowed in at the gate.

I didn’t have a pedometer or app running, but I imagine I probably walked 30k steps a day. Friday and Saturday were spent checking out sessions from different turns all over the place, and one of them was so far out it took me almost an hour to get there, Turn 11, which is actually super cool because 1) hardly anyone else will dare to walk all the way out there, so you can have any spot on the hill, and 2) the riders are coming down a shortish straightaway after some sweeping turns, braking hard to get into turn 11 at a very acute angle, then blast full power up the long back straightaway out of the turn. Very loud fun. Awful food. Criminal price gouging, but still, overall I had a lot of fun and will probably do that every year if I can. 

The House

And then Valerie and I each played a bunch of shows over the summer and bought a house, which we never expected to do and is a whole other essay.

Aspen

At the end of June, I spent a bunch of time prepping the bed of my truck for Valerie’s birthday trip to Aspen, CO, somewhere I’ve never been and will return to ASAP. I essentially built a very lightweight bed frame to go over the wheel wells of the truck so we could throw a queen size futon on it for the trip. It worked out pretty well, and we could even fit a couple of medium sized Sterilite bins under the frame for our kitchen and bathroom supplies for the camping portion of the trip. 

We hit the road July 3 after work, driving up through Texas and finally stopping for the night to sleep at a rest stop just outside of Roswell, NM. I’ve never slept at a rest stop, but the bed was comfy, the temperature was just right for having the camper top’s windows open, and I rested well enough to be able to keep driving the next day.

The next morning, we had a lovely breakfast at a cute little coffee shop on the main drag in town, and Valerie took pictures of and with the aliens at the Roswell McDonald’s, then we hightailed it to the Target Tree Campground near Durango, CO. When we got to the campsite and got out of the truck, it was like stepping into a whole new world. The sound alone of the wind through the tall, thick stands of pine trees was pretty mesmerizing to me, and I’ll be recording it on a nice field recorder next time I go up that way.

We set up our simple camp in our little cathedral of trees, which is basically how the campsites were divided, walls of pines and tiny lil Scrub Oaks separating each campsite by about twenty feet in every direction, which made for a little privacy and a lot of relaxation.

Target Tree Campground sits at an elevation of 7,643 feet, which is 7,000 feet higher than San Antonio, and while we’d made our way up to that elevation over the course of two days, it was still pretty staggeringly devoid of oxygen compared to San Antonio, and we decided to take a hike anyways because we arrived with plenty of daylight to do so, and I really wanted to explore some Colorado wilderness for my first time. 

We climbed a trail leading north away from the campground, clearly marked and heading upward towards the top of the mountain. The light of the setting sun filtered through all the pines as we first started climbing, the shade providing a coolness we hadn’t been experiencing in San Antonio at all, with most of June’s days hovering around and above 100 degrees. We stopped several times to literally catch our breath as we climbed, and eventually found ourselves on a forest road, on which we headed west for a lil while. Then we decided to head back for the campsite, slowly, gradually, carefully downhill. Injuries during a trip would be soul crushing. Avoid at all costs.

That evening we had a quick and delicious dinner of fennel and garlic vegetarian sausages (which has become a staple for camping trips at this point) and a small fire to enjoy the evening hours. There were lil chipmunks about the campsite, which were cute as can be, and which we didn’t feed intentionally, apart from our mistakenly dropped crumbs. By the time the sun had set, we were already ready for bed, or at least for laying in bed reading, as is our wont, and which definitely didn’t last too long for either of us. It was perfect, the temperature, the sound of the wind through the trees, the firmness of the futon, Valerie’s warmth, cuteness, and kindness next to me. Badass.

The next morning, Valerie used some of the leftover bread and sausages to make breakfast. We had coffee in the quiet stillness of the forest, very few campers having risen yet, a beautiful graygreenness that reminded me somewhat of our Hill Country, but far grander and on a scale of height and depth so foreign to me, and I really had no idea the extent of that grandeur at all.

We drove into Durango and had a shower after buying a couple of day passes at the Durango Community Recreation Center, after having gone two whole days and nights without a shower, filthy campers that we were, and thanks to some punk rock tour wisdom from Valerie.

Unfortunately I can’t find or remember the name of the coffee shop where we had a small second breakfast and more coffee, but it was a really cute place inside of an old schoolhouse near downtown, excellent service, a nicely hand drawn menu board, and a delicious muffin and Americano.

Shortly thereafter, we went to find parking for our day on the Durango Silverton Railroad. Words can assuredly not express the grandeur and magnificence of what we saw that day.

The railroad winds its way along the Animas River to Cascade. It’s stunning geologically and botanically, with so many amazing and impossible rock formations at improbable angles, surrounded by diverse Ferns, Pines, Scrub Oaks, and other stuff I’m not familiar with at all, waterfalls and rapids in several different places along the route, winding its way along the mountainside, clinging to it really, an old, heavy, leaky, smokey steam engine train with dozens of touristy passengers hanging out the sides of it, taking pics for the ‘Gram. It’s gotta be an awful polluter, and it smells terrible, but man, the views this thing offered through the most amazing country I’ve ever seen in my whole life were a real treat. We dipped our feet in the river at the Cascade stop, and it was so cold from snow melt that it was actually painful to keep your feet in for longer than a few seconds. Later on this trip I saw people cold plunging in the river outside of Aspen. They are truly brave souls.

Basically it took me all of that to say that you should go and see it for yourself. It’s truly majestic. 

Later that afternoon, after a quick stop at Gandolf’s Smoke Shop, which was absolutely adorably filled with all kinds of paraphernalia, we started making our way north and east towards Aspen. The drive was intensely beautiful as well.

I took 550 through the San Juan National Forest, along the Million Dollar Highway, supposedly known as such because it cost a million dollars per mile to build, understandably so, passing through such rocky, unforgiving terrain, but man alive it was glorious. There are only so many underwhelming adjectives that can be used for the beauty of this area, but I’m trying.

We took 550 up to Montrose, where we had a nice, early pizza dinner at Colorado Boy. They were packed, but we try to never ever be in a hurry, because no one needs that stress. We already knew we’d be in Aspen after nightfall, and we needed a good dinner after a somewhat boring sandwich and chips lunch provided by the Railroad in Cascade.

After dinner, we continued on 50 north to Delta, where we then turned east on 92 across the Grand Mesa. This area is kinda strange for its altitude to me, but probably not to those who live there. Imagine a very wide, plains-like area stretching for miles in every direction, but surrounded by mountains. The Grand Mesa sits at 11,000 feet, almost two miles up, and it’s kinda devoid of the trees common to the rest of the mountainous region we were passing through.

We then took 133 north from Hotchkiss, and the mountains started building again. Honestly, while the Million Dollar Highway is truly badass, 133 was really amazing as well, twisting its way up northward between Huntsman’s Ridge in the west and Capitol Peak in the east, trees and geological oddities everywhere, all as the light started to dim. We took our time going slowly, not trying to die by beautiful vista.

We eventually turned onto 82 in Carbondale, heading now more south than east, passing through several towns in the dark, Basalt, Snowmass, and Woody Creek, coming into Aspen from the north, down into the valley, then up again to our friend Meghan’s house, where we stayed for the next few nights, quite luxuriously.

I love planning driving routes, whether for car or motorcycle, and there were definitely faster ways to get from Durango to Aspen, but no. I’m so glad that I’d taken the time to really get this route organized before the trip. Because Valerie and I are also both organizational freakazoids, we also had our camping sites coming and going booked months in advance of the trip. It was July 4th weekend, and we knew it had to be done. Every moment of it was enjoyable, easy, and stress-free.

Our stay in Aspen was wonderful for sure. The little Valley town is completely surrounded by the Rocky Mountains, and Aspen Mountain in particular, with a gondola system that takes you from downtown Aspen straight to the top of the mountain and the sundeck situated there in the summers, surrounding the Lodge Restaurant at the top. Meghan’s man, Jason, who had innovated the way the sundeck was modularly built and put together, was also a member of the local Fraternity of Eagles, so we hung out at the local Aerie in the evenings, watched him and his band jam there on our first full night there after enjoying the downtown market in the morning and a peaceful afternoon.

The thing about the Aerie is that its members and patrons are mostly the “working stiffs” of Aspen, so all those in the service industries that aren’t gazillionaires, and it’s the only place in Aspen where you can get a beer or a shot for less than $5. I definitely felt a really strong sense of community there; everyone knew everyone else. We were introduced to and had so many conversations with such interesting people, most of whom had moved there at some point in their lives and never left because they enjoyed the area so much, which I respect profoundly, though I’m unlikely to ever do so myself.

On our second full day in Aspen, Jason treated us to a breathtaking 4 wheel drive up Aspen Mountain, a real treat, which I’d like to do again on my motorcycle someday. Expansive, majestic vistas of red cone-tipped Pines and Lupine all around, delightful aromas of everything around us in bloom, and weather completely opposite of what we’d been having in Texas (100 degree days), all combined for a surreal experience.

This day only got better, after climbing to the very peak, getting out and Meghan throwing a snowball at me in July (amazing), we started to descend just a bit, got out of the Xterra again and went hiking and foraging.

So, we walked around the top of Aspen Mountain, looking for and through and in and around the forest, which is pretty much at the top of my list of favorite things to do, and we harvested the sweet female red cones from several trees which were later turned into a delicious syrup. The coolness in the actual dark shade of the forest was kind of surreal, the sunlight barely filtering through the thickness of the pines, the oxygen so thin that it was far more difficult for me to ascend even small slopes than it would be here in the worst heat. Weird, new, and fun. 

Jason then drove us to the sun deck, another 4x4 frolic on the mountain, super fun stuff. He engineered the deck itself, and it’s always in use during the summer, an interlocking puzzle of a structure that works well and looks great. We were getting ready to have lunch, we’d each ordered what we wanted from the extremely bougie kitchens (Valerie and I chose really pretty and delicious asian dishes), and then our whole meal was comped or made free, for all four of us. While I won’t go into details, it was essentially because both of our hosts are well-beloved among the working class in the community. Almost brings a tear to my eye remembering it.

Meghan, Valerie and I took the nice, clean, enclosed gondola down. You can even connect to it via bluetooth and kick out the proverbial jams during your ride if you like. Wow. The views are stunning, and while it definitely feels really steep in a lot of places to a newbie, it’s just an amazing experience to see the forest from above and so many mountains stretching out in the distance along the range. It lets you out right in the middle of downtown. How convenient.

We got some coffee at a cute and busy lil place and went for a walk. I checked out the D’Angelico store, which in Aspen is one of the flagship stores. It was brilliant with all their top models, a kaleidoscope of colors and wood tones with mother of pearl inlays and bindings, all surrounded by Supro amplifiers. I was intensely judging the salesman and the patron he was helping, who didn’t seem to want to learn how to operate an amplifier or figure out tone on his own, which is…a mean, old, rich guy thing? Plus the salesman had a line forming. So, I interrupted their ridiculous conversation so I could get a set of strings for Meghan’s acoustic guitar and let the poor, too-polite salesman catch a break from the old, lazy rich guy.

We headed back to the Aerie for a bit to have delicious and inexpensive beers, talked to a bunch of locals at length about a wide variety of topics, watched Jason’s groovy band play, including a surprise guest vocal spot by Meghan, then headed back to our gracious hosts’ house for a night of relaxed sleep.

The following day, July 8, was Valerie’s birthday!!! We headed towards Glenwood Springs and a hot spring first thing in the morning, South Canyon Hot Springs, where a tweaker hung out next to us the whole time we were there, occasionally butting into our conversation. Such is the modern world. However, the hot spring itself was amazingly warm and comfortable, plenty of room to stretch out and relax. The sun was rising over the mountains, and the cool air swirled around us as we soaked. Pretty majestic.

After that, we headed back into higher elevations towards Meghan’s mother’s place, which is on a ranch in the middle of the mountains, and where we were treated to a tour of the top of the mountain at the top of the valley, all by 4x4 Mule with a couple of luxuriously thick outdoor furniture cushions for our seats in the bed of the machine. We saw a massive beaver dam, and I mean these beavers had been at work for a very long time, Aspens and Pines sticking out in every direction, probably ten feet tall and forty feet long, maybe bigger. We also saw our first live-in-nature salamanders in the beaver pond created by the dam, quite a sight for a South Texan to see really. There was so much water there in the Rockies, just everywhere, flowing out of the rock bluffs in some places, totally amazing. 

 
Of course the view at the top was breathtakingly beautiful. We looked out across miles of mountains, Aspens, Pines, and all the other flora I don’t know well enough yet.

We descended from the mountain, went out for a lovely lunch in Steamboat (I think), then parted ways with Meghan’s family and headed back to Aspen for one more evening of relaxation and excellent food.

The next morning we started making our way south, snaking along the beautiful 82, waterfalls, snow, and stone bluffs all around, which quickly become another of my favorite roads I’ve ever driven, then on through the magnificent vastness of Independence Pass, part of the continental divide, and down, down, down, along the Lake Creek Valley, the mountains slowly tapering away, a few uplifts poking out of the valley floor awkwardly, then all the way down 285 to Brantley Lake State Park in New Mexico. 

 
The lake was incredibly low when we arrived, rock banks surrounded by sage brush, many types of very prickly cacti, both short and tall, and a few small, struggling trees, and the heat was again upon us, the coolness of Aspen hundreds of miles behind us, but we’d passed the Pecos River on our way in, so after figuring out the bathroom/shower/campsite situation, we headed over to where we’d seen a bunch of cars parked at the river, and it was basically a bunch of locals getting away from all the desert heat, riding the little rapids by the bridge on inner tubes, and drinking their fill of Bud Light. The water was cold and lovely, running pretty well, which was surprising considering the very desert environment. There was a lot more vegetation here than there was around the campsite, and we stayed until we saw the promise of a beautiful, red sunset. 

Back at our campsite, we strung up a clothesline for our wet bathing suits, grabbed a shower, then set to cooking our dinner and having a couple of muscle-relaxing beers. Sleep followed very quickly once I turned the truck around to take advantage of the breeze through the back window.

The next morning we had a lil breakfast and headed straight for Carlsbad Caverns. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it. Even just the road into the National Park is amazing for both its twisties and its views, so many cacti and beautiful rock formations all around.

We took the long hike in through the massive cave mouth and took several small breaks along the way. The enormity and majesty of the place are hard to describe, but so many different types of rock formations, stalactites, stalagmites, pools, domes, calcifications and minerals line the self-guided tour route, all the way down into the depths of the Earth and through different chambers great and small, where it’s always cool, and where giants slumber. Some of the rock/mineral formations look like gigantic majestic beings, gods of the Earth and its bones, slumbering while humanity does its best to destroy the planet, except for some of us. 

After that, we headed home and made it that evening to our beloved cat, Mochi, who was as thrilled to see us as we were to see him, even though he got bitey very quickly.

The trip to Colorado and back is actually one of the most memorable of my whole life, and I’m grateful to Valerie for conceiving it and for all she did to make it happen, which was A LOT.

My Birthday Trip to the Northern Hill Country

The rest of the summer we played a bunch of shows, worked on the house A LOT, had a house-warming party, then we went on my birthday trip at the very end of August to the Northern Hill Country of Texas, which is a bit west of Austin, focused around the Llano Uplift. Valerie was gracious enough to go on my bike with me, riding pillion with fully loaded panniers and with the threat of rain looming. 

 
We took the slow, winding way up to our final destination, an RV Airbnb in Kingsland, which lays along the Colorado River between Inks Lake and Horseshoe Bay (where Ministry and the Butthole Surfers purportedly hung out), and I took Valerie through the renowned and scenic Willow City Loop on the way, after hitting some of my favorite twisties on the way to the loop of course. Essentially I turned a two hour trip into about six hours worth of twisties, and I loved it.

I’ve written before about the geology of Texas and its Hill Country, so I won’t into too great of detail about the Balcones Escarpment here, but the Llano Uplift was our destination, so to get there, I twisted us up through Kendallia west of Blanco, then north across the Pedernales River, which was dry at the crossing (ask me about private dams in Texas Rivers and how they should be destroyed). Then we reached the Willow City Loop, which is where the beautiful and dramatic Llano Uplift becomes very evident, where all the colors change. 

 

Once you reach the Willow City Loop, you’re no longer riding surrounded by limestone, but by granite. This area of Texas is the center of its ancient volcanic activity, and according to Wikipedia “consists of an island-like exposure of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks surrounded by outcrops of Paleozoic and Cretaceous sedimentary strata.” So while much of the flora is the same, the land from which it grows is very different, in all its hard, angular shapes and pinkish hues. The whole uplift is about sixty miles wide, and it’s an amazing place to ride a motorcycle.

Valerie and I were exhausted by the end of the super fun and beautiful ride, and before the occasional breakthrough of the sun and all the humidity cooked us too much, we reached our adorable lil thirty foot RV airbnb near Kingsland, which sat about fifty meters away from the hosts’ house, and very near their lovely shed shop. A hundred meters in the other direction was a smallish retention pond of about three acres that was part of the property, surrounded by a lot of beautiful Hill Country flora, Cedar, Mesquite, a few smaller Live Oaks and Sycamores, peppered with hardy wildflowers, Prickly Pear and Spanish Dagger cacti, all of which we explored quite thoroughly later on.

That evening, after getting cleaned up, we had a nice, quiet birthday dinner at Mi Pueblo, a little Mexican restaurant in Kingsland that their cops seem to like, and which was decent, then to HEB for some groceries and back to the Airbnb for a relaxing beer and a movie before bed.

The next morning, we had a Valerie-made breakfast, always delightful, then she stayed to do homework and readings for her graduate degree (serious nerd), and I went off to explore the Northern Hill Country, of which I barely scratched the surface riding over 200 miles that day.

I use an excellent app called Rever to route my more unusual rides and record nearly all of them. I even have some really serious rides already planned in the app, which were constructed using the desktop site, and which seamlessly integrate with the app, like a ride I’ve been wanting to do for a while now, my version of the Great Mississippi River road, to Chicago from San Antonio via Baton Rouge. Some day.

I had built a route to explore the Northern Hill Country as well, and I deviated from it a lot, albeit intentionally. Wherever I saw a gravel road, I turned off my main route and ensured that I was at least going in the right direction. I stopped several times to rest and look at the map in more detail, and I spent several hours just riding around, seeing sights I’d never seen, riding roads I’d never ridden, a very fresh experience on a land I’d seldom traveled.

As I said before, the land up there is different, so much granite, so the gravel roads are pink crushed granite instead of white limestone, and the views are much different as well. In the Western Hill Country, there are a lot of limestone bluffs and sheer drop offs along the twisties, lots of tight spaces with lots of elevation changes. The Northern Hill Country by contrast is much more expansive, as it’s at the top of the escarpment, so the hills are gently rolling, and when you crest one you can see many more rolling into the distance, covered in Mesquite, Sage, and various plains grasses, but seemingly less mature Live Oaks. I was also lucky that it was not dusty whatsoever since it’d been raining recently and continued to threaten rain.

I honestly don’t remember where I stopped for lunch because it didn’t leave an impression whatsoever. So after I got home and relaxed and napped for a bit, we went off to explore the little pond on the property with the owners’ dog as our guide.

The stunning geology of the area was again plainly evident as we took the short little walk, quartz veins embedded in granite, which had several different types of grain itself as well, some very coarse, and some very fine. Huge boulders protruded from granite bedrock, and while it was pretty wet out, we had a lot of fun examining all the rocks, boulders and flora of the lil pond area, with its ducks and bugs flying all around us. The impending rain actually meant that the temperature had been muggy but not nearly as hot as it usually is in South or Central Texas during the end of August.

After our little exploration of the pond, we set out for Inks Lake State Park, but by the time I stopped for gas in Kingsland on our way up, the rain finally let loose, and it poured, and I mean really poured, horizontal rain and everything, for a good hour. We spent most of that time under the motorbank awning of a local bank, which was closed, just talking about stuff and watching the rain, then we headed back to the Airbnb for a little more relaxation. We went out later that evening after the rain quit for some ‘za, then returned to the Airbnb for another movie and sleep.

The next morning was wet as well, super muggy, so much so that the air felt like it took some effort to walk through, but we had to return home, so we cleaned up the Airbnb, did all the regular checks on the bike, said farewell to the owners’ adorable dog, and set off for home. Once we reached 281, we pulled over to put on some rain gear, which was great, because it rained the whole way home. 281 is a fast road (75 mph) with a lot of slowdowns in small towns, but those fast sections were so incredibly wet, rain coming down, rain coming off trucks and cars in thick, misty sheets, and us just cutting through all of it.

We made it home, and Mochi the Water Cat was very happy to see us and vice versa.

Last Beach Trip of ‘24

We thought it’d be a great idea to take one last trip to the beach while it was still hot, so on September 21, we drove down to Padre Island National Seashore, our favorite place to beach, and it was absolutely and completely full of jellyfish. I smile now to think about it, but it was a little disappointing to drive all the way down there (180 miles) to be unable to swim. However, PINS is awesome because of its absolute primitive nature, a wide beach with driftwood large and small, whole trunks in some cases, with dunes about thirty meters away from the water’s edge, which are covered in vines and grasses that the national park has tried so hard to preserve and conserve. So we walked along the water and found a couple of shells, took in all the graceful beauty of the seabirds, saw tons of jellyfish on the beach, and enjoyed the salt air. 

Last Trips of 2024

A few shows, life lessons, and home improvements later, and I took a solo trip in mid-October via East Texas to the lands around Lake Ouachita in Arkansas, including Hot Springs National Park, an area I’d been wanting to visit for a long time, and I wrote a poem about that experience, which is the blog right before this one, so I won’t go into it here.

Lastly, the day after Thanksgiving, we headed east again for the Texas Renaissance Festival, and this time we decided to camp, even after having watched a documentary about the owner and listening to a podcast about all the terrible stuff that has happened after hours in the “Revelers” campsites.

Upon our arrival we decided to stay as close to the camp entrance as possible, aka as far from the revelers as possible, but it was totally worth it. There was no one around us for at least fifty yards, and we got a nice, long walk in to get to the fairgrounds. We went in and enjoyed the fireworks the first night and returned to camp for dinner and drinks. We did not have a fire the first night, and when we went to sleep it was COLD, like 35’, but we slept in the camper of my truck, wrapped up in clothes and our sleeping bags. Valerie woke at one point because her feet were so cold, pobresita.

The next day we walked around the fairgrounds for hours, which I’ve already described previously. So much good food to be had, and so many sights to see. I feel like we were able to explore even more territory than the previous year, which was great, and we rested often so as not to be too bone weary.

That night we got everything we needed for a fire from the camp store, which was a metal feeding tub and a bundle of “premium” wood, then I got a ton of kindling from a few dead trees nearby, but holy gods did I ever struggle to get that fire really going. It took almost an hour and a half, and after that I swore I’d never buy firewood from another human being again. We slept much better that night, due to a combination of a low temp in the 40s, actually zipping up our sleeping bags, and an estimated 30,000 steps walked that day.

Our last morning there, we made another, smaller circuit of vendors we’d noted the day before (lesson learned on marking their locations) and found a few gifts for family members and a beautiful Moss Agate pendant for Valerie. We also caught a quick show at the Arena which we realized was part one of four, oops, then headed to the Greek area for a delicious lunch of gyros and falafel, then back to the truck to head home, where Mochi awaited us with many meows stored up in his lil cylindrical, fluffy body. 

Conclusion and the Future

We have one more trip planned for 2024, Christmas Day to Del Rio, then on Boxing Day we’ll part ways for a few days. Valerie will come home so she can work the next day, and I’ll stay in West Texas to explore the area around Big Bend and Fort Davis by motorcycle (most likely, weather permitting).

Valerie and I have learned a lot about each other and the ways in which we work well together, our individual strengths and weaknesses, and how to best weave all of that together into the beautiful and useful tapestry that we call our relationship. There’s no arguing, no yelling, just discussion, analysis, and execution. Relationships don’t have to be difficult, and they really can be idyllic, if you allow yourselves to be in tune with each other, like the instruments in a band. Work towards the goals you want to achieve together, once you’ve ensured that you have the same or similar goals.

We’re able to travel so much because we plan so well, down to minute details. Budgets for fuel, food, accommodations, and even a loose itinerary that includes budgeting for entertainment, help us save money over time so we can use little bits of each check to amass enough to do these things. Also, we’re pretty communist about it. Valerie paid for a majority of her own birthday trip because I was really house poor at the time, having used every penny I had in retirement and savings to buy the house, but I paid for a majority of other trips, both before deciding to buy the house and later in 2024. It doesn’t matter how it’s funded, as long as it is, and we account for everything and help balance the whole experience as well as possible. It’s pretty neat.

Of course we’re already talking about our travels for 2025, and how we’ll have to use our PTO very wisely since neither of us feels we get enough in this modern era, but that’s the subject of another blog as well.

Goals for 2025 destinations include but are not limited to the West Coast, New England, and at least one weekend in New Orleans before this winter is over. I will likely do a few days in the Northern Hill Country again, maybe even Arkansas/Tennessee as well, but the travel budget spreadsheets are currently blank, so we’ll see, and you’ll hear about it.