Link Love

I can’t get enough of these Vintage U.S. Park posters. We see them at national park visitor centers and always wish we had enough wall space to hang a few. Instead we’ve had to content ourselves with the post card size versions. By now we probably have a dozen. Someday we will find a way to display them.

I have a strange obsession with Smokey the Bear. Probably because he’s so darn cute. I mean yeah, his message is important and all, but any bear who wears jeans and a hat is pretty cool in my book. I just found out that there is a Smokey Bear Historical Park in Capitan, New Mexico. We are so going there.

Have you seen this crazy realistic 3D Sidewalk Art?

Tim likes to read travel adventure books. You know the kind where the narrator recounts some true life travel story that is usually steeped in danger and misadventure. He recently finished, Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea, which tells the tale of a guy who spent 76 days floating around the Atlantic Ocean in a life raft after his boat capsized. Anyone up for a boating adventure?

We get our best travel ideas from other travelers. Last week I read about the Biosphere 2 on the blog Rick & JoAnne’s RV Travels. I have no idea why we didn’t go there last year when we stayed in the area. It’s on the list now.

Not sure how these RVs would work for two people full-timing, but how cool are these travel campers made by a former NASA scientist? I love that the description for the Cricket includes the word “athletic”. If we were weekenders this is exactly what we would want in an RV.

As full time travelers we can’t get enough of Google maps. For everything from planning routes to finding the nearest laundromat it is our go to online map. One of the features that makes this resource so indispensable is street view. We use it to look at the size of parking lots before we drive somewhere with the airstream, the curviness of roads on mountain passes, the terrain at potential boondocking spots, and so on. Beyond its usefulness is the cool factor that comes with getting a glimpse of virtually any place on a map. I recently came across an article about a website called Teleporter that randomly takes you to a street view scene somewhere in the world. My first teleport took me to the far northern edge of Canada, then onto Antarctica, followed by Florida. Give it a spin, you never know where you might end up.

Speaking of Google Maps, the overhead view of our old house in Vermont was recently updated (there is no street view in this rural area). What I love about this image is the story it tells. See that long white thing in the driveway? That’s the Airstream in its polishing position. We know polishing was happening because both cars are parked halfway down the driveway, and there is a table next the airstream where we kept all the polishing supplies. Polishing went on for 2 weeks which tells us this photo was taken sometime at the end of May in 2012. Pretty cool right?

More wall art. This one displays a saying we all could take to heart: Think Less, Live More

I consider myself pretty brave when it comes to hiking in high places, but theses photos of the World’s Most Dangerous Hiking Trails had me shaking my head and saying no way.

Once again I have a few new recipes to try this week. One of them is Stuck-Pot Rice with Lentils and Yogurt. It sounds right up my alley since I always burn the rice at the bottom of the pot anyway. I’ll let you know next week how it turned out.

Homemade Naan Bread

By the way, my recipe challenge from last week {Homemade Naan Bread} came out amazing. I followed the recipe & directions to the tee, only substituting olive oil for butter, and with very little effort had a stack of really delicious Naan. The dough, which seemed too sticky at first, was very forgiving and easy to work with after rising. It was easy to roll, and no perfect circles were required (for those of us who are symmetrically challenged). Each piece cooked up in the cast iron skillet in only a few minutes. Next time I will try adding different spices to the still warm bread.