Welcome to Big Sandy Mush

Our home away from home for the month of July is the Big Sandy Mush, a secluded valley located about 15 miles northwest of Asheville. European settlement of the valley dates back to around 1800, but the mountains ringing the valley kept it fairly isolated. Generations of residents raised all their own food, kept cows … Read more

Wrapping Up Our Tour of Michigan in Ann Arbor

We finished our five-week exploration of Michigan with a stay in southeast Michigan near Ann Arbor, where we rode out the always-busy Labor Day weekend. Southeast Michigan, which includes both Detroit and Ann Arbor, is the most populous area of the state and has both the amenities and the traffic to prove it. University of … Read more

The Artsy Community of Sheboygan

One of the persistent truths about our travels is that so many places around the USA are surprisingly great. We visited Sheboygan on this trip for two principal reasons: 1) there is a highly-rated lakefront state park close to town, and 2) saying “Sheboygan” is very fun indeed. So our expectations for sightseeing in town … Read more

Slowing Our Roll in Madison, Wisconsin

After relatively brief stays on our route north, we are starting a pattern of longer visits as we explore our primary summer destinations, Wisconsin and Michigan. We began with eight days in Madison, Wisconsin that included the Independence Day holiday weekend. Having a longer stay (and holiday closures) meant we had time for errands, reading, … Read more

Hot Nashville (and I Don’t Mean the Chicken)

When we planned our transit through Nashville months ago, we didn’t expect it to coincide with a heat wave bringing record-breaking high temperatures. We know from spending a miserable summer in Florida living in our Airstream that RVs are just not made for extreme temperatures. So we were a little nervous when we saw forecasts … Read more