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Fresh water is hard to come by in the western US. There are huge fights between states about who gets what access to fresh water, most especially the Colorado River. Most fresh water is held in lakes, however. Lake Tahoe is one of them. Fortunately, for now at least, no major entity is tapping Tahoe's water and draining it. This was our third visit to this natural wonder, and we enjoyed it once again. Driving to the lake from the west takes you up and up and up into the Sierr

There are 475 wineries in Napa Valley. In four trips there over the years, we have been to about fifteen or so, several of them more than once. Some of the best wines America has to offer are produced here and we enjoy the opportunity to sample a wide variety of them. Pretty much everywhere you drive in Napa Valley there are vinyards on both sides of the road. It is also one of America's great food destinations. Michelin-rated restaurants like The French Laundry, Press, Must

From the beginning of our planning for this trip, we decided that we would fly home the first week of May to be present for the eighth birthday of our granddaughter. She lights up our lives and we love her dearly, so we didn't want to miss it. The break provided a natural transition from the desert and dry weather days of Part Two to our foray into the Sierra Nevada's, Cascades and the Pacific Northwest. We left the car at the San Francisco airport, flew to Dulles airport, st

We discovered we had a taste for good wine decades ago and have been chasing it ever since. It's led us to California many times, as well as Oregon, Washington, and many wineries on the East Coast in Virginia, Maryland and elsewhere. We took a river cruise in the Bordeaux region of France some years ago and went to a couple of wineries in Tuscany in 2024. So it was a natural fit to drive through the Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez region of southern California on this trip. They've

Humans aren't really supposed to live in the desert. It's not an environment in which we evolved to exist. Long-term human survival in the desert requires significant modifications to our natural way of being. It requires more water than naturally occurs. It requires bringing in almost all one's food from somewhere else. It requires building shelter that will provide at least some ability to be cool on terrifically hot days. Yet millions of us live in the desert anyway. We ha

Mountains are pretty cool. However, in April, they are downright cold! We didn't arrive at altitude as prepared as perhaps we should have been, clothes-wise. Pagosa Springs Phil's uncle and his wife built a second home in Pagosa Springs, Colorado back in the early 1980s that has been a magnet for all his children and various other Smiths over the years. But since Phil had moved with his parents to Pittsburgh before the house was built, he had never been there until we met

We have traveled to New Mexico three times now, and although we haven't been everywhere, we like the places we have been. This is especially true of Santa Fe and other parts of the northern New Mexico. The geography is stunning, with mountain and rock formations not seen anywhere else. Santa Fe We've stayed at a VRBO on the outskirts of Santa Fe a couple of times now. It's essentially a mother-in-law suite in a large home overlooking mountains and desert. It's comfortable for

We originally planned for there to be four 3-week parts to this road trip. After some tweaking, the third and fourth parts got extended a bit. But Parts One and Two are still almost exactly three weeks each. Today was the beginning of Part Two of the trip, through the American Southwest from Austin to San Francisco. We headed out from Austin to Lubbock, because you can't make it to Santa Fe all in one day. Had to stop somewhere. West Texas is pretty much prairie, making it s

I (Phil) was born in Amarillo, Texas while my father was organizing a steel fabrication plant there for the United Steelworkers. I lived mainly in the Houston area until I was almost 13, with a few years in small-town East Texas. My mother's family has been in Texas for generations, as mentioned earlier. My grandfather was the County Judge (for non-Texans that is the highest elected office in a county, essentially the same as a Chair of a Board of Supervisors or County Commis

We've been to New Orleans before. We went there on our honeymoon for a couple of days and had several interesting experiences. We went for Jazzfest 11 years ago and had a great time with great friends. Phil has been for business a few times and visited as a young man, the events of which will not be recounted here. So it's not a new thing for us. At least, we didn't think so. But we did different things this time. Went to different parts of town and ate at different restauran

Let's start here: A good chunk of the states of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi is just one big lumber farm. The pine forests stretch forever, and you can see from the highways how they are carefully managed to be continually harvested and produce wood products year after year. We also drove through miles of pecan and peach groves in Georgia. We were disappointed when we passed Vidalia, GA, and didn't see any onion fields . They aren't next to the highway, apparently, Conf

There is history here The guy who named Hilton Head in 1663 (named Hilton, of course) never set foot on it. He was looking for a location to raise cattle to feed the enslaved people working the sugar cane fields on Barbados. He didn't find it suitable, but others did 70 years later. We did a history tour of this island today that revealed so much about it that the millions of golfers and beachgoers who come here every year never see or likely care about. There are thousands o

We watch Top Chef. We've watched every season, and recently binged every season all over again . You could say we're a little obsessed with it, as well as some other cooking shows. So one of the things we decided to do was look to see if there are Top Chef contestants who operate restaurants in the places we are going. Turns out there quite a few. The first one was a quick almost drive-by lunch in Charleston, SC, at a restaurant called Church and Union . The Executive Che

And We're Off! So we kicked off our trip yesterday and our first stop was Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We started coming to Myrtle Beach in the early 1980's. There were no big entertainment venues, no outdoor malls or water attractions. There was the Pavilion arcade downtown with carnival rides, the beach and lots of golf courses, including mini-golf for the kids. That was pretty much it for entertainment. Almost no restaurants took reservations, you had to stand in line for

So much to do! Took the car to a mechanic shop I trust to get checked out. Changed the oil, changed the brake fluid, found a leaky gasket in the transmission and replaced it and changed the transmission fluid. Spent some bucks but not as many as if we broke down on the side of the road in the Sonoran Desert! Could still happen. But we've done what we can to prevent it. Put all the safety things we can think of in the car. First aid, a tool kit, something to reinflate flat ti

We have wanted to do a cross-country road trip for years. So much to see, but we haven't had the time. Now we do. Planning the route Part one - NOVA to Austin Phil did a preliminary plan and route in the summer of 2025, then Ann took it from there and started getting specifics about where we could stay, how long we would be in the car going from place to place, and most importantly, the budget. We fine-tuned the route, then contacted family and friends about staying with them

Going across the continent and coming back will take a while, especially because we want to see favorite people as well as places known and unknown. We'll visit at least seven national parks, see lots of historic places, hang with family and friends across the country, play some golf and eat what should be some great food along the way. Stage One: Virginia to Austin, TX Stage Two: Austin to San Francisco Stage Three: San Francisco to Friday Harbor, WA Stage Four: Poulsbo, WA