Makin' Trax

As I’ve written about, and many readers know, in early 2007 I lost my beloved husband Charly to suicide. They were dark days, both before and after his death. To help deal with the myriad of emotions that came with losing my best friend and soulmate in such a horrific manner, I filled my little world with books on grief, affirmations of hope,[…]

I love these Oregonians. They are serious about their craft beer, their environment, and their lighthouses. In the past couple weeks, we have seen a few more of the latter. One area has two lighthouses, and a third was open for tours.  A fourth was the subject of a painting controversy, and the fifth is the picture perfect stereotype of a lighthouse[…]

I’ve always been taken with “road trip” songs and movies. On top of the list of favorites, especially once I began seriously planning this extended road trip adventure, is Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream”. I would turn it up, belt out the lyrics (with emphasis on those in bold below), and dream that this adventure that I’m now on would[…]

During our almost-three-month adventure, we have stayed primarily in state and national parks. Compared to private RV parks, they tend to be more rustic, are often located in more beautiful natural locations, don’t tend to cram campers on top of one another, and cater to a wider variety of people. Central to the enjoyment of the national and state parks are[…]

I can think of no other edifice… as altruistic as a lighthouse. They were built only to serve.   ~George Bernard Shaw There are 11 lighthouses along the Oregon coast, most of them accessible to the public. We’ve seen two so far.   The first, named “Tilamook Rock” and nicknamed “Terrible Tilly” sits atop a pile of rocks more than[…]

If you see the blog headline and assume that I’m referring to last week’s Equifax breach, you are W.R.O.N.G. Granted, I am on the list of those impacted. But read on for this nearly equally serious issue. One of our recent campgrounds, Cape Perpetua, was in a fairly dense forested area. Until you walked the mile or so to the beach, you’d[…]

We arrived on the Oregon coast on September 8th, and for much of that time have been out of internet range. And yeah, yeah, while we were out of range, I DID deploy the special GPS communicator message system talked about here… http://makintrax.com/you-dont-write-you-dont-call/ But now here we are in a state park near Newport, Oregon with a few days of rainy[…]

  With the exception of seeing two groups of friends for one day each in late July, we’ve been on our own since we left Phoenix. So I rolled into the Portland area about 10 days ago with gobs of anticipation at the prospect of spending time with friends.         We ate well, drank some nice wine,[…]

Oregon is home to so much.  Dense forests, a northern boundary along the mighty Columbia River, a plethora of craft beers, wineries, and miles of Pacific Ocean coast. We’ll explore some of that later, but for now, there are a couple places that we found interesting.   When I started the planning for this trip, one of the ways I decided[…]

Two weeks ago today, we were leaving Farragut State Park (the one with the giant sailor head statue). We had been in northern Idaho for almost two weeks and were ready to move on. However, we were in a little pickle about where to go next. There were lots of forest fires in the states of Washington and Montana, to[…]

In mid-May, I was in a Passport office in Phoenix, making sure I would get my renewal passport before I left town on this trip. I got to chatting with a couple who were going to travel to Alaska via RV. I blabbed on about my plans for this trip, and mentioned that I wanted to spend some time in Idaho.[…]

Some time ago, an out-of-state friend visited my home in Phoenix. We were chatting about this plan of mine to travel in the camper van with the dogs. Our conversation went something like this: Friend: “So, Eileen, how will you keep in touch with people so we know you’re safe”? Me: “When I travel, I check in via text with[…]

As part of our hopscotching around the Idaho parks, we spent a couple nights at Farragut State Park, just south of Coeur d’Alene. Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead. We’ve all heard that phrase. I’ve heard it used in business more times than I can imagine, but thankfully not recently.   The park was named after David Farragut, to whom[…]

We stopped for a few days at Heyburn State Park in Idaho, just a few miles south Coeur d’Alene. It’s the oldest state park in the Pacific Northwest (created in 1908), and once was under consideration to receive National Park status. Much of the area was cleared and built up by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930’s. The CCC[…]

Last week when I wrote about motivation, I referenced a book, Blue Highways, that I read in the mid-1980’s.  Does that mean that I’ve had this burning desire to walk away and live in a van down by the river since then? Nope. Not even remotely. This whole thing has evolved. As a young adult, I camped here and there over the[…]

  Our time in Montana was short. We spent just four nights there, then headed back to Idaho. But Montana was beautiful and we will be back.       We spent a couple nights in a lakefront Montana state park (Salmon Falls), and our neighbors recommended Priest Lake, Idaho as a place to check out. I was able to get a[…]

I don’t consider myself an unconventional person. On the contrary, I’m kind of a rule follower. Ho hum. So it probably seems unusual for someone like me to chuck it all and head out into the wind in a van with my dogs. But it doesn’t seem at all odd to me. It seems perfectly natural. I think the wanderlust[…]

Glacier National Park was not originally on my radar for this trip. However, on the very first night of my adventure, my late husband’s best friend called me out of the blue for our “about once a year catch-up call”. Serendipitously, he and his wife would be visiting Glacier around the same time I would be in northern Idaho. And[…]

For those of you who have seen the 90’s movie “Tombstone”, you’ll  know that Doc Holliday, played (brilliantly in my opinion) by Val Kilmer, repeats the phrase “I’m Your Huckleberry”, several times throughout the movie. “Tombstone” is a great shoot ’em up. Lots of fun. I’ve researched the phrase “I’m Your Huckleberry” and it’s reputed to mean something like, “I’m the[…]

I have lived in the Desert Southwest for the last 30 years of my life, and I love it there. I expect that I’ll return — perhaps not to Phoenix proper, but certainly to Arizona. There are several adjectives that can describe the Southwest’s landscape — “rugged”, “breathtaking” (especially when applied to our monsoon skies/sunsets), and “expansive” are three that[…]