Moonracer Farm OTRA

06/10/2024

I try not to get political because I’d rather keep Facebook happy, and because pretty much everybody who knows me, even casually, knows how I feel about things. But when I find myself out for a hike on a beautiful day in a beautiful place, and realize I’m walking and fuming, I need to get it off my chest.

Tom and I have been camping and hiking on BLM and National Forest Lands in southern Colorado for the past week or so. We’re currently in the San Juan National Forest, where I took these photos. You can’t hear it in the photo, but that rig is running. And that’s just one of dozens of rigs we’ve seen on federal lands over the past week.

So, for everyone who is pi***ng and moaning and believing Trump about how President Biden and VP Harris are infringing on their God-given right to use drilled-in-America fossil fuels, put your Bud Lites in your EZ-Boy cupholders, get your butt out of the recliner, turn off Fox News, and get yourself out to some federal lands to see that fossil fuels are being pumped out of the ground, right here, right now, in a National Forest, under the Biden administration. And maybe, when you realize Trump is lying to you about that, you can start to think about the veracity of the other things he’s telling you.

20/08/2024

For those of you who don’t know, the 40th Anniversary is the TRUCK ANNIVERSARY. And, FWIW, gold in ten years is going to pale compared to this.

The truck under our camper was having serious difficulties, so on our way to the Mexican border to turn in the 10-year permit (just in case it died), we stopped in Albuquerque to visit our good friends and Belize neighbors Todd Klippenstein and Tatiana Canning-Klippenstein, and somehow ended up with a new truck, an F550 that is much more suited to carrying the camper. We ended up spending more than two weeks enjoying the Klippensteins’ company and hospitality, and just took off this morning after getting the camper moved to the new truck, and getting everything cleaned and loaded and ready to go.

Besides having a truck that is much more suited to carrying the load of the camper, we have a back seat where all four dogs and the cat can ride in comfort, and we’re not worried about some sort of breakdown. We think we may have to do our whole trip over again. Or maybe we need to head south through South America. Or…who knows? But first we have to get to Georgia to get it registered, where will enjoy the company of our NY besties Ruffian Farms and take advantage of their hospitality. Then we’re planning to meet up with our other NY bestie Karin Alexander in KY before heading north. Before we go west again. And eventually south, towards Belize…

18/03/2024

We’ve added a dog to the expedition. Some of you might remember Lizzie, our foster with the eight puppies who lived with us for six months before finding the perfect home with a friend. Our friend’s circumstances changed, and he could no longer be the perfect home, so we drove home to Belize to collect Lizzie and make her part of the Moonracer crew. We’re delighted to have her back since she definitely has heart dog status, and she seems to feel that she is where she belongs. However, she’s had some minor separation anxiety about riding in the camper with Kismet while Tom and I are in the front with the floofs. One of our seat cushions has been taking a bit of a beating every day as she tries to dig her way into the cab, so today we stopped and got her a crate. She can now ride more safely in the crate, and she can’t destroy anything. She seems to like the crate, and she really likes the hugs when we stop. And, when we’re stopped and the stairs are out, the folded crate fits perfectly on the stair rack. One more meant to be…

31/12/2023

Who needs a Solo stove?

In Belize, an old washer basin is how we roll. Who can tell the difference?

26/12/2023

How cool is this? Chiapas has monkey bridges over the highway every few kilometers.

03/11/2023

Today is a momentous day. 432 days after viewing Austin, TX, our first capitol, we visited Cheyenne, WY, which is our 49th capital and the last of the continental US capitol buildings. Someday we might fly to Hawaii, but it was never on our list because we couldn’t drive there, so we consider half of our travel quest complete. Besides visiting the 49 capitals, we also want to visit as many national parks as possible, but since we’ve had winter biting at our heels since reentering the US from Canada, we decided to make a dash and finish the capitals, and then take our time to visit the national parks we haven’t visited next spring and summer.

So, for friends and family in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, who we promised and planned to visit, don’t feel slighted. We’re covering these three states in four nights, and we will be back in the spring to see the parks, and you.

FWIW, we’ve visiting 93 national parks sites. The National Park Service lists 470 sites, so we have a ways to go, and we’ve missed a lot of the heavy hitters, especially in this part of the country.

29/10/2023

We’ve had a fly in the camper since Idaho. It’s been in here long enough that we’ve even named it …Idaho. If Feetz has her way, Idaho may not be long for this world.

29/10/2023

We left Carson City later than planned, and were a little worried that we’d be driving in the dark. But, with this view of the full moon rising over the mountains in Nevada, we didn’t much care. And, we made it to a campground and got the last spot before it was completely dark. Who knew Nevada Days in Carson City was such a big deal that all campgrounds in the vicinity would be full?

20/10/2023

Driving through southeastern Washington, we stopped at the Whitman Mission National Historical Site. The park video mentions that the Whitmans were from upstate NY, so we googled them and found that he was from Rushville, and she from Prattsburgh. We then had an “oh doh” moment when we realized he was the Marcus Whitman for whom a school near where we lived in NY was named. It’s interesting to think about how it’s unlikely a school would be named after him now, because as the National Park Service presents the story, his actions as a missionary in Washington weren’t entirely admirable. Marcus and Narcissa traveled to Washington to start a mission to “save” the Cayuse, but when they realized the Cayuse weren’t totally interested in being saved, and they were more appreciated hosting and helping other white people as they traveled west on the Oregon Trail, they changed their mission. The Cayuse didn’t appreciate the diseases and cultural changes, as well as loss of ancestral lands, which were all enabled by the Whitmans. The Whitmans were eventually massacred by the Cayuse, and the Cayuse paid big time by having the white people see their actions as justification for taking their land. And, the Whitmans became martyrs, at least for a while. History is complicated.

13/10/2023

This is a view of the mountains through the window from inside the Cunningham Cabin ruin in Grand Teton NP. For me, it’s one of my more memorable photos because I tried for too long to square the frame of the view, until I realized that the window wasn’t square because the whole cabin is listing to the left.

10/10/2023

We experienced a few minor frustrations on our dash from Vancouver to Yellowstone, but watching Old Faithful on a beautiful fall day definitely made it worth it.

Old Faithful

25/09/2023

The stretch of the Alaska Highway between Whitehorse and Watson Lake was our longest backtrack so far on this trip. But we didn’t mind seeing things again, and from the other direction.

We drove the 20 miles or so through the pass from Skagway to the Yukon border, and had the most extensive grilling yet at the Canadian border. We aren’t sure if the immigration agent was just...