Unstuffed bell peppers

On June 14, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 0 Comments - Blog, Food

Ingredients include a mixture of bell peppers, garlic and serrano pepper.
Cooking the peppers.
A mix of wild and brown rice.

By Tom Nichols

With the Nichols family, stuffed bell peppers were one of the Big 10 recipes on our meal rotation.

Peppers

Summer freedom: Warning lights and a stunning Colorado road

On June 9, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 0 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

A tin-roofed barn nestled in a valley along Colorado 145.
The beautiful variety of green in the trees of the San Juan National Forest.
The San Juan Mountains provide stunning views along Colorado 145.
A view from Colorado 145 near Lizard Head Pass.
A view of Mount Wilson from Colorado 145.
Alpine meadows near Lizard Head Pass on Colorado 145.
Granite towers and snow along Colorado 145.
A lakeside view on the way to Telluride on Colorado 145.

By Tom Nichols

There’s nothing more liberating than returning to The Epic Van and setting course for Glacier National Park, the next leg of our Year Four adventure. I feel like a first-grader on the first day of summer vacation.

Colorado

Don’t call my awesome ride an RV

On June 6, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 0 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings, The Epic Van

Sitting on the steps of The Epic Van in Texas's Palo Duro Canyon with our folding bikes and Pippi, our 16-year-old cat, who traveled with us until she went to the road trip in the sky.
The Epic Van driving through a tiny waterfall in Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains.
The Epic Van at Capitol Reef National Park.
Deserted foggy campground on Pacific Coast in northern California.
The Epic Van squeezing through a rock tunnel in the Black Hills on South Dakota's 16A.
The Epic Van got to do some stream crossing on the beach road.
Sunset on The Epic Van
The Epic Van at a free campsite in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. Seeing the United States makes it all worth it.
The Epic Van parked at the City of Rocks, a New Mexico state park that charges less than $15 a night.
The Epic Van at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.
The Epic Van

This may be totally stupid, but I have a hostile reaction when people say, “Oh, you’re driving around in an RV. Cool. My grandmother does that.”

This usually happens after I’ve told them of our totally awesome, unconventional, fearless life on the road. After I’ve specifically told them that I live in a big camper van. (Which, OK, technically is an RV but, in my world, is my free-spirit house on wheels.)

Roadtrek, The Epic Van

La Manzanilla, Mexico: Baby needs new shoes

On May 9, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 0 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

Jackie rings the bell.
Faces instantly appear once the bell is rung.
Campbell is part of the unloading crew.
Lucero, with her ever-present companion, Nico, survey the happy madness.
Carson hauling bags of shoes as Lucero looks on.
Nate unloads boxes.
Happiness is a new pair of shoes.
Shoes for everyone.
A big smile for new shoes.
Yea! A fit.
Mom is happy, too.
Admiring the newness.
Brian helps fit a little boy.
Polka dots suit her.
Old and new, next to each other.
Patiently waiting.
White sandals were her match.
Shiny blue and white sandals for a new friend.
He offered his kitten as thanks. We politely declined.
In La Manzanilla, Campbell keeps an eagle eye for new customers.
Carson dives in the back of Lucero's van, loaded down like Santa's sled, to find the perfect size.
Brian helps fit shoes for a baby as his mother watches.

In La Manzanilla, Mexico, and its surrounding villages, shoes can be hard to come by.

Especially if you’re poor. And you’re a kid.

So Lucero Castelazo, who now runs her late mother’s place, Casa Maria en La Manzanilla, also carries on Maria’s charitable spirit, collecting and distributing shoes for kids who need them. She gets money from friends and buys discounted shoes from companies in her hometown of Leon, a shoe-manufacturing mecca. Then she hauls them in her white van to La Manzanilla.

When we visited for Christmas, we were lucky enough to be included in a couple of the distribution runs.

La Manzanilla, Mexico

La Manzanilla: Crocs, cameras and cormorants

On April 26, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 2 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

Primi piloting the boat while Tom spots birds.
A Great Egret takes flight.
A Great Egret.
A Snowy Egret unfurls its wings.
A crocodile eyes us as we float by.
An iguana sunning on a tree branch.
A green heron walking on a branch.
A juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron.
A Yelllow-crowned Night Heron.
Thomas sent his camera on a drone out to capture the mangrove preserve from above.
The whirring blades of the drone.
A Black-crowned Night Heron.
A Groove-billed Ani.
A Ringed Kingfisher.
A Ringed Kingfisher.
A Ringed Kingfisher.
A Common Black Hawk perched on a dead trunk.
An Anhinga in flight.
A Neotropic Cormorant drying its wings.
A juvenile Green Heron.
A Yellow-crowned Night Heron walking on a branch.
Another Yellow-crowned Night Heron.
A juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron.
A juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron in flight.
A Snowy Egret in the sun.
A group of White Ibis on branches.

At the end of the main road in La Manzanilla, after the farmacia and the paleta shop and the sidewalk stand of charcoal-roasted chicken and the stacks of beach toys and the tiny bodegas and the place with the coldest cerveza, you come to a chain link fence marking the edge of the crocodile preserve.

La Manzanilla, Mexico

La Manzanilla, Mexico: The warmth of sun and friends

On April 5, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 8 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

The view toward the ocean at Casa Maria en La Manzanilla.
Meals with the Castelazo cousins under the palapa at Casa Maria en La Manzanilla.
Frank Castelazo, Jackie's brother, shares a story at dinner.
One of the silly gifts in the Christmas exchange: coasters you can hang on your nose.
Mending fishing nets on the streets of La Manzanilla, Mexico.
Tortilla makers in La Manzanilla.
The beach in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
Carson, Luci, me and Tom at the beach.
Julia shows Campbell a starfish she found on the beach.
Lucero relaxes in a hammock at the palapa on the beach.
A fisherman throws out his net on the beach in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
Nate with rescued kitten Coco (Killer Mike) and Mateo in a hammock at the beach.
Lucero's favorite drink stop on the road to the airport.
A man and his parrot in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
A boy and his rooster in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
A nativity scene, complete with rabbit in front of one of the houses in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
A flute player at the Friday market in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
Fresh fruit at the market in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
Squeezing lime juice over shredded zucchini, carrots, beets and jicama at the market in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
Jackie enjoying some fresh veggies at the market in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
A delivery bike on the street in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
Tiny Coco (Killer Mike) playing with the wastebasket.
Coco (Killer Mike) sleeping on the window sill.
Tom reading in the hammock at Casa Maria en La Manzanilla.
Tacos on the street in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
Food vendors at night around the town square in La Manzanilla.
Industrial churro making at the street fair in La Manzanilla, Mexico.
Sunset view from Casa Maria en La Manzanilla.

I love Mexico. LOVE IT. The sun, heat and white-sand beaches take me back to Hawaii, where I grew up. The art is amazing, and the food makes me swoon in delight. I go whenever I get the chance.

I hadn’t been since we started our full-time adventure in The Epic Van more than three years ago and was in dire need of a fix. So, we decided to get out of The Epic Van, take a vacation from our endless vacation, and spend last Christmas with the Castelazo family in La Manzanilla, Mexico, a small fishing village on the Pacific coast south of Puerto Vallarta. We celebrated the holidays early with family and friends in Scottsdale, left The Epic Van in mom’s driveway, and jumped on a plane.

Mexico

Speed tourism in Austin

On March 6, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 14 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

Barbecue at Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew in Austin, Texas.
Beers at The White Horse in Austin..
Ebaugh & the Tender Things performing at The White Horse in Austin.
Roman numerals on a recovered timber from the 1684 shipwreck of the La Belle, on display at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin. The number showed that it was a kit ship, the number a guide to which timber goes where.
A thin gold Sun King medallion found with the shipwreck was a symbol of King Louis XIV of France, who commissioned the expedition. Many of the muskets were embedded with a medallion.
Hawk bells, found by the thousands on the shipwrecked La Belle, brought to trade with Native Americans.
Allens Boots on South Congress, SOCO, in Austin.
Austin's clouds reflected in the Fairmont Hotel Austin.
Austin's Museum of the Weird.
The Frost Bank Tower in Austin, known as the "owl building."
The Paramount Theater in Austin.
The Texas Capitol, bigger than the U.S. Capitol, nach.
A moon tower in Austin. Amazing.
The home of the Texas Longhorns.
The Tipsy Chick and the Democrat at Torchy's Tacos in Austin.
The Alabama Shake and a breakfast taco at Torchy's.

There’s a lot to love in Austin, Texas, and we only had 24 hours. So, we went for it. Here’s our visit hour by hour.

Austin, Bullock Texas State History Museum, Stiles Switch BBQ, The White Horse, Torchy's Tacos

Bravado and simple charm at LBJ’s Hill Country ranch

On March 2, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 6 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

The reconstructed birthplace of Lyndon Baines Johnson on LBJ's Ranch.
LBJ at six months.
A barn on the Sauer-Beckmann Farm, neighbors of the Johnson family when LBJ was a child and now a living-history museum on the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site.
Descendants of LBJ's herd of registered Hereford cattle still graze on the ranch today.
The wide Texas skies above the LBJ Ranch.
LBJ with one of his prized registered Herefords.
LBJ on horseback, wrangling cattle.
The Johnson's home on the ranch, dubbed the Texas White House, becasue LBJ worked nearly a quarter of his time in office from the residence.
Air Force One and a Half, the small aircraft that Johnson took to the Ranch after landing Air Force One in Bergstrom Air Force Base near Austin.
The baby blue convertible amphibious car that LBJ used to scare the daylights out of guests.
A photo of LBJ motoring in the amphibious car.
My favorite photo of LBJ, howling with his dog as his grandson looks on in amazement.
A portrait of LBJ at the Ranch.
Lady Bird's name on a placard on the outside of the home.
The Johnson family cemetery under the spreading live oaks. The two taller headstones are for LBJ and Lady Bird.

I remember seeing a photo of Lyndon Baines Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One after President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, LBJ’s wife Lady Bird and JFK’s widow Jackie by his side. The Kennedys were planning to spend the night at LBJ’s ranch on that day when Camelot died. I was eight years old.

Visiting LBJ’s ranch is a strange mix of nostalgia for simpler times and a fairy tale the president created about his own life as a Texas cattleman. You can visit his birthplace, his first school and a living-history farm that gives you a sense of the hardscrabble times in which he was growing up.

LBJ Ranch

German spirit rings familiar in Fredricksburg, Texas

On February 26, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 12 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

Quarried limestone from the surrounding hills was used in most of the buildings in Fredricksburg, Texas, including the library.
Detail of a limestone wall.
Fresh-baked pumpernickel bread at Fredricksburg's Old German Bakery and Restaurant.
Smoked pork chop, fried potatos and sweet red cabbage at Fredricksburg's Old German Bakery and Restaurant.
Spätzle at Fredricksburg's Old German Bakery and Restaurant.
Schnitzle and warm German potato salad at Fredricksburg's Old German Bakery and Restaurant.
The birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz in Fredricksburg.
Windmills dot the sky above Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
One of the cabins on the grounds at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
A doorknob at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum that reminded me of the ones in my grandmother's house.
A dining room in one of the homes at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
A German stein in a schrank, or pie cupboard at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
The teacher's desk in the one-room school at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
German-English lessons on the blackboard in the one-room school at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
A wagon at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
An automated machine to make woven wire fences at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
An antique register at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
A huge fireplace in the kitchen of one of the homes at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
Hand-embroidered shelf coverings brought from Germany at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum. Translation: The housewife fills the chest with treasures and gathers in a richly polished chest.
A grape press used in winemaking at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
An ice-cream cone maker at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
A teapot at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
Fachwerk, or half timber, a traditional form of German construction, in which the frame is filled with chinking, local limestone in Fredricksburg.
Blue plaster made with laundry detergent colors the walls of a kitchen at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
Lace curtains at Fredricksburg's Pioneer Museum.
Some of the items available at Fredricksburg's Farmhaus Antiques. If I had a house, I would have bought most of the store.

My grandparents were German, German-Swiss they would always point out. So the names, Otto, Ida, Ernst, the faces, the food and the artifacts in Fredricksburg, Texas, have a familiar ring for me.

Fredricksburg, Pioneer Museum, Texas

Year four begins slowly: We’re already recalculating

On February 24, 2018 by Judy Nichols With 14 Comments - Blog, Our wanderings

Year four began as we headed out of Arizona on US 60 near Globe.
A historic marker and obelisk in Fort Thomas, Arizona, north of Safford, marked the birthplace of Melvin Jones, founder of the Lions Clubs International.
On Interstate 10 west of Fort Stockton, Texas, we shared the road with a convoy of trucks hauling windmill blades.
As we headed into Ozona, Texas, evening clouds gathered.
The setting sun on Interstate 10 west of Ozona, Texas, colored the receding storm clouds.
A Texas highway wet from the rain.

Best laid plans often don’t work out. Sometimes it’s because you need a colonoscopy. Sometimes it’s more than that.

This life of freedom, of endless road trip, of permanent vacation, hangs by a silver thread of health, ours and that of our family. We’re always acutely aware of it and cherish every day in The Epic Van.

And as we continue to make ambitious travel plans, we recognize that, blowing where the wind takes us, means keeping plans fluid.

That’s how year four of our travels in The Epic Van have begun.

New American Nomads

Minimal home, maximum life

Posts By Judy Nichols