Just a Little Further

The driving distance between Needles and San Bernardino on US-66 is only about 212 miles and 3+ hours if you drive straight through without stops and assuming you don’t hit any traffic snags (or take wrong turns). Our mileage was more since the route is not always well signed through several towns, and the trip was significantly longer time-wise because… well… we never drive straight through and there were quite a few things to see along the way.We arrived in Needles mid-afternoon and decided…

Happy 55th Birthday, Marcie! We interrupt our California Route 66 tour for a special announcement. July 20th is Peanuts’ Marcie Day, and I’m celebrating with my namesake. Over 70 distinct characters were introduced in the Peanuts comic strip during its 50-year run. My favorite, of course, was Marcie. She’s a studious character, known for her appreciation of the arts, nature, and truth, and a best friend to Peppermint Patty. Marcie was first introduced on July 20, 1971, so at age 55 this year,…

Had events unfolded just a bit differently, America's most famous highway might have followed another route entirely—or carried a number like U.S. 60 or U.S. 62. Somehow, I doubt Bobby Troup's song would have been quite as catchy if it had been called (Get Your Kicks on) Route 62.How U.S. 66 got its name is actually one of the more interesting—and surprisingly little-known—chapters in Route 66 history. Here's how it happened.A New Way to Number HighwaysBefore the 1920s, most long-distance roads…

After our usual morning walk, we left Las Vegas early and arrived at Kingman’s Visitor Center, ~100 miles away, around 0930. We’ve stopped in Kingman a zillion times before on our way to and from US-40, and I’ve already written several blogs about our stops there, but we really never tire of seeing it all again. Plus, we’ve never visited Kingman as the first stop heading west on Route 66. We’re excited to be celebrating the Mother Road’s centennial birthday.With 16 Tesla Superchargers, it was a…

One road trip that’s always been on our bucket list over the years has been driving the entirety of Route 66 from beginning to end... Chicago to Santa Monica... but we’ve never managed it. This year, however, is Route 66’s 100th birthday, and it only seemed right to make this the year that we cruise along the Mother Road.

There are several ‘holidays’ to celebrate today. It’s National Kitten Day, Nikola Tesla’s birthday, National French Fry Day, and World Kabab Day among others. So much to choose from. I do enjoy wacky, weird holidays; the more obscure, the better - but Clerihew Day? What the heck is a Clerihew?

Three years ago, I wrote a series of blogs trying to determine which EV would be the best fit for us. I spent far too much time evaluating just about every electric vehicle on the market. Our criteria, however, were a bit different from what Car and Driver or Road & Track considered important. We thought range and comfort mattered far more than shaving a second off the 0-to-60 time, and rear-seat legroom was considerably more important than how spiffy the wheel covers were.Back then, my…

We had a pleasurable 4th of July weekend with a visit from our nephew, Dan, and his family. Fireworks thundered all along the Strip and elsewhere in town; booms, snaps, crackles, and pops could be heard for hours. The night sky was alive, bursting with vibrant, dazzling colors and deafening sound. Random firecrackers shattered the usual evening quiet in our neighborhood. It was definitely an explosive evening.Last Friday night, however, was spent celebrating in a different way. We attended a…

I’ve been reviewing some of our Camino photos, and there were some I didn’t use because they just didn’t fit in with the Camino route or the city we were visiting, or I didn’t have room in a particular blog for more photos. I thought I’d share some of them with you… just because. Cows, chimps, giraffes, bugs, lizards… what’s not to like?In Porto, a life-sized Holstein at the entrance of Ale-Hop, a Spanish retail chain famous for its bovine mascot. If you look closely, the cow appears to be on…

It was 103°F (39.4°C) when we left Las Vegas, and the thermometer was continuing to climb. It’s been triple digits here for days, with more in the forecast. The highest temp so far this year? 109 °F a few days ago, and June is typically not the hottest month; July is. There’s not much to do about it, and we really can’t complain. We choose to live in the Mojave Desert, and deserts get hot in the summertime. Though we can’t change the nature of the desert, we can do our best to cope with the…

When we lived aboard Nine of Cups, we did a lot of baking—especially during long ocean passages. Any store-bought bread was usually gone within the first few days, so baking our own not only kept us supplied with fresh bread, it also helped pass the hours during those long night watches.I made French bread, Italian bread, focaccia, croissants, pizza dough, and pretzels, while Marcie specialized in scones, brownies, cakes, and English muffins. I even tried making bagels—but only once. Bagel…

Trying to break a Guinness World Record? Really? Yup, you read that right. We recently had the opportunity to break a world record… wait for it… “Most People Performing CPR in 12 Hours” using hands-only CPR (chest compression-only, no rescue breaths). Whew… that’s a mouthful. According to KSNV, “The event, organized by the

Heading back home from camping in Cathedral Gorge, we intended to stop in Caliente for just a minute, planning to take a couple of photographs of the town’s historic railroad station. Then we met Rick Phillips, the volunteer docent at the town’s Heritage Boxcar Museum, and we ended up spending two hours.The historic train station is now the centerpiece of Nevada’s smallest incorporated city, and it’s an impressive building as you whiz past it on US-93. Caliente’s history is closely aligned with…

Marcie, in her last blog, wrote about our visit to Pioche, Nevada—a quiet little town tucked into the mountains of Lincoln County. We strolled past historic buildings, admired old mining relics, and snapped photos of the famous Million Dollar Courthouse. It’s hard to imagine that this peaceful place was once considered one of the bloodiest towns in the American West.During the silver boom of the early 1870s, Pioche exploded from a remote mining camp into a thriving boomtown. Along with miners,…

Approaching from the south on NV-321, we saw the sign welcoming us to Pioche. Our free subscription to Travel Nevada has inspired us to visit lots of towns and out-of-the-way places that we’d never have known about or visited otherwise. Many times we’ve whizzed past a town on our way to somewhere else, unaware of what there was to see there. So, on our way back from Cathedral Gorge State Park, we decided we’d stop in Pioche after having just read an article about why it might be worth a visit.…

Home again, home again! After five weeks traveling in Portugal and Spain, we were glad to be sleeping in our own bed once more, glad to have clothes to change into other than those in our backpack, glad to have a washer and dryer handy. We were not so fond, however, of the triple-digit temperatures that greeted us in Las Vegas when we arrived. After a week of catching up on piles of mail, routine medical appointments, paying bills, and unpacking, the heat was getting to us, and we were already…

On the move again, we boarded an early morning Flix bus in Lisbon headed south for a 3-1/2 hour ride to Lagos in the Algarve, the southernmost region of Portugal. Influenced over the centuries by the Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, and Muslims, ‘Algarve’ derives from the Arabic ‘Al-Gharb’ meaning ‘the west’. The western Algarve extends from the city of Portimão to the western Atlantic coast. Dotted with small fishing villages and towns and one large city, Portimão, the coastline here is notably…

During our travels through Portugal, we encountered countless monuments, museums, and coastal landmarks dedicated to the nation’s remarkable Age of Discovery. Spanning the 15th and 16th centuries, this period of maritime exploration transformed a small European kingdom into a far-reaching global empire. It established the first all-water route to India, reshaped world trade, and marked the early stages of globalization.Driven by economic necessity, religious zeal, and geopolitical ambition,…

If you’ll remember, when we first arrived in Lisbon, Catherine and Michael met us at the airport and whisked us away to their home for de-jetlagging and outstanding hospitality. That said, we hadn’t had the opportunity to explore Portugal’s capital city at all, so we thought it was about time to check it out.Our bus from Tomar arrived on time at the Oriente Bus Station, a rather impressive bus/train station near Lisbon’s city center.

Few organizations in medieval history have inspired as much fascination as the Knights Templar. Warrior monks, crusaders, financiers, and eventually victims of political and religious persecution, the Templars have become legends far beyond their historical reality. I was fascinated by the Order long before we visited the Templar castle in Tomar. To prepare for the visit, I read Michael Haag's well-researched book, The Templars: The History and the Myth. What follows is an exploration of the…

The morning dawned dark and gray with intermittent showers and drizzle as we set out to visit the Templar Castle. During the 13th century, Tomar was one of the most powerful and influential towns in Portugal. Gualdim Pais, a nobleman, knight, and Crusader, founded Tomar and, as Grand Master of the Knights Templar, built the castle and convent between 1118-1160. His statue stands proudly in the Praça da República (Plaza of the Republic), Tomar’s large central plaza, which we passed frequently in…

We don’t really remember why Tomar came up on our radar. Maybe it was a discussion we had with Michael and Catherine when we visited with them before we started the Camino. Maybe it was a conversation with John and Pam, American ex-pats, whom we met in Ponte de Lima. Maybe it was simply the lure of the Knights Templar history, legends, and legacy. As we discussed the possibilities of where to head after Porto, Tomar made the short list and became our next destination. We booked a ‘direct’ Flix…

After finishing a long trek, one of the first things we do is sit down and compile the statistics from our walk and reflect a bit on the trip. The NumbersThe official length of the Camino Portuguese from Porto to Santiago de Compostela is approximately 150 miles (240 km). As usual, however, we managed to find a few extra miles along the way. Between exploring towns, locating lodging, wandering off to see interesting sights, and occasionally taking the scenic route by accident, our total came to…

We pondered whether or not to return to Porto. With just under two weeks left to explore Portugal, our list of possibilities was long. Whittling down the list was a nighttime discussion for several days. There was so much to see, but quite honestly, we were becoming a bit travel-weary. One can only absorb so much during a short period of time before everything blends and blurs. Rather than trying to see everything, we decided we’d confine our Portugal explorations to 3-4 places for 2-3 days…

It’s Finisterre in Spanish, in Galician it’s called Fisterra. It is that mystical place with sea-monster-infested waters that the Romans called the end of the world. We could have walked; it’s an extension of the Camino. We booked a 9-hour bus tour to Finisterre instead. The tour described seven major stopping points and ticked all the boxes for highlights of the area. We don’t mind riding buses, but bus tours are notably not our favorite way to visit an area. The guides generally talk too fast…

The "Compostela" is the official pilgrim's certificate awarded by the Catholic Church in Santiago de Compostela upon completion of the Camino de Santiago. It is more than just a certificate, however. The Compostela is a centuries-old symbol of perseverance, faith, exhaustion, blisters, shared meals, wrong turns, and the quiet determination that carries pilgrims all the way to Santiago de Compostela. Written entirely in Latin, the document officially recognizes that a pilgrim has completed the…

In the morning, we retraced our steps from Casa de Cruceiro back to the Camino and walked the last few miles of the Camino Portugues to Santiago de Compostela. We ascended a hill along the highway, wended our way through a wooded park, and finally caught a view of misty Santiago in the distance. Santiago in the distance We followed the last of the yellow arrows and scallop shell markers to the Cathedral, then threaded our way through crowds of pilgrims who had plopped down on the ground in the…

Rather than rushing the last couple of days on the Camino, we opted to split the usual two stages into three. We wanted to savor the last couple of days of walking and enjoy the anticipation of arriving in Santiago de Compostela.Our plan worked out well because our colds were blossoming. Our pockets were full of soggy and soon-to-be-blown-upon tissues (read that toilet paper because we haven’t seen a tissue in weeks), our noses were red and chafed, and we alternated taking turns coughing and…

It rained hard during the night and it was damp and raw as we left Pontevedra headed for Caldas de Reis in the early morning. Colorful murals bid us adieu as we walked out of town. The streets were wet and the cobblestones a bit slippery as we wended our way through the city streets. We weren’t alone. The closer we get to Santiago, the more crowded the path has become.

Whether you’re a minimalist pilgrim with a backpack held together by rope and duct tape, or someone who believes hiking is best rewarded with Egyptian cotton sheets and a hot shower, the Camino offers a lodging option for every style and budget. Over the years, we’ve stayed everywhere from crowded hostel bunk rooms with symphonies of snoring (and other bodily sounds) to elegant suites in charming villas. On the Camino, we’ve leaned toward a little comfort—namely private rooms with en-suite…