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

Winter/Spring Round Up and Summer Travel Plans

Like many RV travel bloggers who are no longer traveling full-time, I’ve struggled with the question of whether to continue blogging. House construction provided interesting post subjects for a while — at least for people who like reading about electrical outlets and bathroom fixtures — but now we are pretty well settled into a routine … Read more

We Brake for Brown Signs: Hitting 100 in West Virginia

Our stop in West Virginia included a fun milestone: we visited our 100th National Park Service unit! NPS units include more than just parks — they include historic sites, monuments, battlefields, and more — but in this case our 100th was also America’s newest national park: the New River Gorge. But first, let’s review how … Read more

Lakefront Adventures at Sleeping Bear Dunes

One of the best decisions we made in planning our 2022 summer travels was booking a full week at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on the northwestern shore of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Our campsite was fabulous and the park offers more than enough activities to keep us entertained. Normally I mention our campsite at the … Read more

Mining and Lake-Looking in Remote Copper Harbor

Before the California Gold Rush, there was the Lake Superior Copper Rush. Elemental copper was so bountiful in places along the southern shores of Lake Superior, especially the Keweenaw Peninsula, that it was widely harvested by the native inhabitants and became part of the trade networks in pre-Columbian North America. Even in prehistoric times, Lake … Read more