The whirling, twirling tour comes to rest on South Padre Island!

The glorious month of February flashed by in a flurry of fun frolicking and travel! We departed from Quartzsite, AZ on Feb. 4th and spent the night in the wilds outside Bouse, AZ. The next day we headed into Pheonix to pick up a trailor, and three passengers, Patrick, Kieth, & David. Slept in a Walmart parking lot outside of Tucson that night. We had hoped to have a chance to explore Tucson a bit and pick up three more passengers, but we didn't anticipate how crazy the gem & mineral show would make driving (and parking, especially with at least a 10 ft trailor attached to an already 40 ft bus!). And after our first night, we realized there was no space for more riders to sleep on the bus. Finally found parking on the outskirts of town, only for Michael to notice that the trailor was so heavy it was cracking our trailor hitch. So THEN we had to call Hiedi and tell her she needed to come retrieve it, and wait for hours while she drove down from Pheonix to get it. So we ended up leaving Tucson & camping at some caverns east of town. Didn't get to see the caverns (too expensive), but we got to hang out with the very cool camp host, also named Michael, also from Portland. Next day we headed out to BLM land near the New Mexico border. Beautiful & remote. A passing RV told us about Hot Dunes recreational area, with hot springs, down the road, so the next day we headed out to see it. It was an amazing little oasis in the desert, and I soaked four times! Then we set off for New Mexico! Went over incredible mountains and entered the land of enchantment (honestly, that's what the sign said!). There was snow on the ground, and an abundance of mud, as well as the first pines we had seen in months. After an attempt to drive down a muddy road to a campground that almost got us stuck, we ended up sleeping in the hotel parking lot in the tiny, charming town of Reserve, New Mexico. The next morning, we met some of the locals; they were all delightful! Then off to Three Rivers and petrogliphs! We stayed there a couple of days to soak in the magic of ancient art, met a cool traveler named Josh, & then back to the road! Went to Roswell, saw no aliens, so we kept on going & found some more gorgeous dunes near the Texas border to camp for the night. Our first night in Texas found us staying in another Walmart parking lot. Then we finally made it to Austin! A city bursting with history and coolness, we made camp in a CVS parking lot (it was surrounded by two empty buildings, & the employees of CVS said it was fine to park out of the way), and proceeded to explore. We left for one night to go camp at the Emma Long Metropolitan Park; we found and ate many pecans. Woke up there on my birthday, Feb. 17th, to frost and the marvelous little lake. Went back to CVS parking lot. Got to hang out with Sarah from Portland; her husband, Tim, was in school. It was good to see a familar face in a strange town. Kieth had left Monday for Corpus Cristi, so the rest of us went out to celebrate Mom popping me out 32 years ago. The next day we headed for Corpus Cristi, and another Walmart parking lot for the night. Finally, the next day, we made it to our destination: South Padre Island. As fate would have it, Michael's photo job fell through due to the lack of students signing up for spring break. And, also as fate would have it, the health food store on the island, Naturally's, had just lost two employees. The manager, Laura, wanted both of us, but not just for a month, for the whole summer! So we're staying here through Labor Day! Spreading the word and making money on a beautiful tropical island in one fell swoop! Life is very good, and this nice universe seems to like us a lot, because it definitely showers the blessings on us! Thank you nice universe!