We’re still here.
It probably doesn’t look like it from the state of my Web presence, but we ARE.
These last couple of years have been momentous, if much less than pleasant, here at the Wandering Blog / The Other Texas base camp.
I won’t bore you (or myself) with the details, since the important part here is that the long-awaited Houston exit has happened. We’re semi-nomadic now, based in a suburb of Fort Worth, and we’re trying to get miscellaneous problems and annoyances (lackamoola chief among them) dealt with and locked down. We’ve had more than enough crisis and confusion for a decade, or maybe this century.
All of which is to say that it’s time to crank up this Wandering Blog and The Other Texas dot net again. I need to get things tuned up and running a little more consistently than the last couple of years.
We’re sort of going home again to do this. I would never have planned doing things this way, but the Road takes its odd twists and loops, and we missed an exit ramp a while back, so here we are.
I grew up in East Fort Worth, about five miles from where I am now, but I moved away in 1978 and haven’t spent much time in this part of the state since. There have been just a few changes over those 40 years, so I’ll be exploring this region for a while. I’m betting the results will be interesting enough to write about, and I hope that you’ll put up with the insanity for just a little bit longer while I get things running again.…
Since this is supposed to be at least partly a road-photographer’s blog, have a road photograph:
November 16, 2019. Our first On The Road morning: The Andromeda II at the Walker County Rest Area just outside of Huntsville, Texas.
Bright, sunny, and 28° F. It got a wee bit nippy at weird o’clock, there in the cockpit…. Happily Mr. Ringo and the crew have enough winter gear to deal with an east Texas norther, so we curled up in the Captain’s Chair all cozy and warm and slept like bears in winter.
With all the changes, we’re moving in some new (old) directions now, dusting off and remounting the wheels on some old dreams. I hope fairly soon to be adding a new bit of kit, as my British friends say, and going full-on digital nomad for a while. I’ve spent too much of my life in small places…
I have an eye open for a small late 60s or early 70s camping trailer. Ideally he’s a Serro Scottie Highlander or maybe a Shasta Airflyte, and he’ll be home (or home-on-the-road) for the next phase of my life. The Wanderin’ Star is out there somewhere, waiting for us to come hook up with him.
There’s a certain type of writer, of which I am one, who just can’t do research into a topic “just a little.” We go full-on OCD “let’s learn enough to write books” about things. I’m going to get a small vintage trailer , and that particular dream chase brings with it an interest in all things related to vintage campers and RV travel/life in general, plus a side order of things tied to camping, outdoor living, and campfire cookery.
Dad was the Boy Scout in the family, but I learned a few things from him. I’m at least reasonably competent living in a tent and cooking over a campfire outside. (If the Wanderin’ Star has a microwave, so much the better!) I don’t much enjoy being in a kitchen, but I DO actually enjoy campfires and cast iron, and being in the back of beyond, so look for me to talk your eyes off about out-away-from-civilization stuff, mostly over on the Star’s blog and in other markets.
I’ll close this for now with another picture.
This is the view from my campsite about a month ago. It’s not the giant magnolias I loved in Houston, but it’ll do until I get to the actual forest or the desert. And it’s WAY better than the brick wall view I had in my office there.
(On IG, Rommie and I (rys or the Old Wanderer, @rcmwandering) use hashes:
#AndromedaII
#Howtostopatruck
#AtTheEndOfThePavedRoad
#ontheroadagain
@TheWanderinStar will be using:
#TheresAdventureInTheOffing
#HappyCamper
#DownTheRoad
#SometimeAgain
Come find us. We won’t bore you, much, though we may drive you crazier…)