As an Arizona native, Fourth of July in Phoenix has always been a non-event for me. The jello salad melts immediately, the potato salad’s always at high risk for salmonella poisoning, friends look weird when viewed through a wavy heat haze. Everything is just **too darn hot**!! That’s why we were so excited at the prospect of a full-scale, old...
Ahhh, Yellowstone … the mythical, magical, iconic National Park and (most notably) the inspiration for Yogi Bear’s Jellystone. Who hasn’t spent many a Saturday morning in their jammies on the fold-out couch eating Froot Loops and watching Yogi Bear antagonize Mr. Park Ranger Smith? Most importantly, we wanted to see some wildlife, dammit! Cute...
The journey continues. From Zion in Utah, we proceed to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. “Grand Teton” apparently means “large teat” in French (and really, who doesn’t love a great boob pun?) but Philip swears that it means “we didn’t pack warm enough clothes” in English. Dorothy, we’re not in...
Leaving Page, AZ, our next destination was Zion National Park on the southern edge of Utah. Steep cliffs, narrow canyons, and a park that has remained over 85% wilderness (according to our expert source: the front of a t-shirt in the gift shop) had us excited to get to see this park up close and personal! Sheer cliff drops of 3000 feet or more! People die while...
After months and months of planning for our 3,718-mile Summer 2014 Adventure Tour, the departure day finally arrived! Packing an RV for a six-week trip is no easy task. Here is the fridge/freezer — not a square inch to spare! Individually portioned/pre-marinated meats in the freezer make cooking easy. Our first two days were spent in Page, AZ, 270...
Our latest adventure in the Lucky Charm was to Flagstaff in Northern Arizona for the celebration of son Max’s 15th birthday. Our family rocked the Flagstaff Extreme Adventure Course! FlagX, as it is affectionately referred to by all the cool kids, is a series of aerial obstacles that is set in tall Ponderosa Pine trees at 15-60 feet off the ground! Some...
We left Bisbee (if you missed the first half of this trip, you can catch up here) and headed up the road 30 minutes to Tombstone, which is the site of the famous “Gunfight At The OK Corral.” I imagined a kind of tourists’ hell, with every stupid, overpriced, cornball experience imaginable, and carnival-style hawkers accosting us from every...
Spring Break, 2014: The Lucky Charm was pointed to Southeastern Arizona to basically relive the 1860’s-1900’s through visits to Bisbee (mining history), Tombstone (western cowboy history), and Picacho Peak (Civil War re-enactment history). Tally-Ho!!!! View of town from the Lucky Charm At its heyday around the turn of the century, Bisbee was...
A rare long weekend without any commitments beckoned us to Patagonia Lake State Park in Southern Arizona, about 12 miles north of the Mexican border town of Nogales. This is a beautiful, remote region with hilly grassland topography and scenery like nothing else in Arizona! The 250-acre Patagonia Lake and accompanying recreational opportunities are popular with...
What do you get when you combine these boys ….. with this beach ……………..? Why, it’s our “California Airsoft Adventure” trip in the Lucky Charm! ————————————– If you’ve seen our 14-year-old son Max lately, you were possibly wondering...