Big Bend and Hot Chili

Big Bend National Park in West Texas is one of the least visited national parks, but is well-worth the long drive to get there. And if you visit at the right time of year, you can sample the fixings’ at the Terlingua International Chili Championship held a few miles away.



A Texan we chatted with on the way to Big Bend told us “where you’re going isn’t the end of the earth, but if you stand on the roof of your camper, you’ll be able to see it.”

This area is a desert with mountains, beautiful and grand in its own way, but very different than the national parks in the Rockies and the northwest. The 800,000 acre park is located on the Rio Grande, a stone’s throw from Mexico. Terlingua is the closest town to the park, and it is mostly a ghost town. There are a couple of small stores and gas stations, a bank, a post office, a campground, and a couple of cafes in Terlinqua. Each year on the Wednesday before the first Saturday of November the four day chili celebration begins, culminating on Saturday with the Terlingua International Chili Championship which is said to be a cross between Woodstock, Burning Man, and a big tailgate party.

A strange site in Terlinqua is what I think is a private home (a trailer with some unusual yard decorations -- a sailing ship, a full-size submarine conning tower rising from the sand, and the Statue of Liberty), and a sign that says “Passing Wind.” Once I learned of the chili cooking contest, the sign became more understandable.

Big Bend National Park has three park-operated campgrounds as well as a full-hookup concession RV Park. Be sure to check in advance that your rig will be able to negotiate some of the tight roads in the park. There are several off-site campgrounds within a few miles of the park as well. The Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa is a few miles west of Terlinqua and boasts a surprisingly nice RV park, restaurant and equestrian center.

Photos: Lew Pinsker Map courtesy National Park Service.

Hog Island Country Store on Michigan's UP

If you're hungry for a traditional 'pasty' while touring through Michigan's Upper Peninsula this camping season--and you get a kick out of funky little places--draft on into Hog Island Country Store.

Located just 35 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge on U.S. 2, this charming roadside store features unique regional products, such as homemade jams and jellies, smoked fish, and those delicious hot pasties. Then there is an amazing variety of retro items and pig objects of every description.

However, by far the best reason for stopping at Hog Island are the shop owners Sandy and Tom Jacobs.

About eight years ago, Sandy, a former intensive care nurse and Tom, a retired Delphi Corp. worker, left Flint in the Lower Peninsula, bought the place, and re-invented themselves.

While they sometimes feel they are working longer hours now, they still love taking care of the store and the six neat clapboard cottages that have hosted vacationing families since the 1940's.

If you go:

Hog Island Country Store and Cottages
W8294 US Highway 2
Naubinway, MI 49762
Phone: (906) 477-9995
URL: www.hogislandcottages.com
Open: Memorial weekend to December 1.

Photos: Top: Jimmy Smith and Julianne Crane's Lance camper outside Hog Island Country Store and Cottages. Owners Tom and Sandy Jacobs (Julianne Crane). Map courtesy of Hog Island Country Store and Cottages.

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson is a combination zoo, botanical garden and geology exhibit, with specimens from the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and Mexico. In addition to the animal and botanical environments and a cave/geology exhibit, a highlight of the park is a raptor free-flight demonstration that is absolutely breathtaking.

A group of Harris hawks have made the museum home, and through conditioning which started when they were very young birds, they do a close encounter with visitors and the staff. The attraction for the hawks is the food they get when they land on the staff member’s gloved hand. It’s quite amazing to have those big birds fly right over your head during the demonstration. We saw several Harris hawks in the wild along the roads during our travels, but not up close and personal as in the museum demonstration.


These hawks are completely free, but they have made the museum their territory, and let’s face it, handouts from museum staff are easier meals than the mice and other small animals they normally have to hunt for.

At the other extreme of bird life is the museum’s hummingbird enclosure in which visitors mingle with the little hummers. The first one we saw was hanging around outside the exhibit, which lent credence to the sign asking visitors to be careful with the door since the hummingbirds are accomplished escape artists.

The raptor free-flight takes place daily from late October through mid-April. The museum is open year round. Several public and private campgrounds are located near the museum. The closest is the Gilbert Ray Campground which is operated by Pima County.

Families smile by the mile at Bear Country U.S.A.

Very few of us have had a full-grown black bear look at us through the window of our car or motor home but your family can experience this thrill at Bear Country U.S.A., near Rapid City, South Dakota, a mere 15 miles from Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills.

Here you can take a leisurely three-mile drive and encounter elk, reindeer, wolves, cougars, bobcats, rocky mountain goats, bighorn sheep, buffalo and black bears by the dozen. From the comfort and safety of your RV or car you'll watch these clowns of nature frolic in a pool, climb trees and amble across the road right in front of you. They have even been known to mosey right up to the front of motor homes and lick the bugs off of grills and windshields.

In this video tour of Bear Country U.S.A. you'll see some animals behind fences for their own protection and for the protection of visitors. Make no mistake, though, in your drive through the park you will be among the bears with no barrier beyond the walls of your own motor home, truck or car. You'll love it as much as the kids will.

John Cerney: California's Roadside Rockwell

If you have the opportunity to travel through California's beautiful Salinas Valley on state highway 101 take a short detour on highway 68 toward Monterey from downtown Salinas. Just west of town you'll come upon some of the world's most fertile farmland dotted with giant, billboard-sized cutout workers in the fields. They are the work of John Cerney, a local artist whose love of America's agricultural heritage led him to dedicate his life to saluting the farmers and field hands of California and the nation's heartland. This is where it all began for John twenty years ago when he created an oversized roadside mural of a truck loaded with produce and was paid by packinghouses whose labels appeared on boxes on the painted truck.

Today John Cerney has more work than he can handle and his 24-foot tall lifelike creations are beginning to spread to farms across the Midwest.

Here's John, himself, explaining his work, his passion and how he is quickly becoming America's Roadside Rockwell.

For more information visit John Cerney's website: www.johncerney.com/

Floyd (Virginia) Country Store = Traditional Appalachian Music every Friday night

If you find yourself traveling through the Blue Ridge Mountain area of southwest Virginia anywhere near the weekend, take in the musical celebration at The Floyd Country Store.

"The Floyd Country Store is more than a music venue. It has become a traditional gathering place on Friday nights for musicians, dancers, and visitors from all over the world."

This is a place where the whole family can gather and have a great time because the proprietors, Woody and Jackie Crenshaw, operate on 'Granny's Rules' ... No smoking, no drinking alcohol, no bad language, no conduct unbecoming a lady or gentleman.'

The weekly (year round) Friday Night Jamboree begins around 6:30 p.m. and goes to about 10:30 p.m. For only $5 (the night we were there) you are likely to hear gospel to bluegrass. Then on every Saturday, beginning at noon, there is an 'Americana Afternoon,' followed by 'Americana Open Mic' beginning at 1:30 p.m.

If you go:
Floyd Country Store
206 S. Locust St.
Floyd, Virginia 24091
540.745-4563
Open: Tuesday-Sunday
URL: www.FloydCountryStore.com


Photos: The entire family comes out for the Floyd Country Store Friday Night Jamboree. (Julianne Crane). Bottom: Directions to Floyd Country Store.

Mike the Headless Chicken Festival coming next month in Colorado

Mark your calendars for May 20 and 21 for the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival in Fruita, Colorado.

Mike was a chicken who lived for 18 months in the mid-1940s after getting his head chopped off in preparation for dinner (not Mike's, his owner's). But a little bit of brain stem remained. With regular feeding with an eyedropper, Mike refused to die and, in fact, thrived. His owner Lloyd Olson described him as "a fine specimen of a chicken except for not having a head."

Headless Mike went on tour and made Olson mucho money until the fowl choked on a kernal of corn and died. At the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival, you can enjoy music and other entertainment, a chicken dance contest, chicken games, eating contests and more including dining on fried chicken (no offense, Mike). As the festival organizers say, "Attending this fun, family event is a NO BRAINER." Fruita is just a few miles from Grand Junction. Looking for a spectacular place to camp? Head up the bluff above town to Colorado National Monument.

Watch a one-minute video about Mike.

Lucy the Margate Elephant

Lucy the Elephant is one of those places that always brings a smile to every child's face, no matter what their age.

As with the Wall Drug Store, the world’s largest ball of twine or the Jolly Green Giant--this 65-foot pachyderm is worth flicking on your RV’s blinker and pulling off the road.

First built in the 1880s, Lucy has long been part the colorful Southern Jersey seashore history. She stands proudly on Atlantic Avenue near the Atlantic Ocean just a few minutes from Atlantic City.

The wooden elephant-shaped building was the brain child of wealthy land speculator James V. Lafferty, Jr. He wanted something odd and wonderful to attract visitors and potential buyers to his holdings south of Atlantic City.

The largest elephant in the world, Lucy stands six stories, 60-feet long and 18-feet wide. During her career she is rumored to have been a hotel, real estate office and even a tavern (until, it is said, that drunks nearly burned her down).

Lucy was recognized as a national Historic Landmark in 1976, just in time for the United States' Bicentennial. Tours of inside Lucy's belly are fun for the entire family. See details below.

If you go:
Lucy the Elephant
9200 Atlantic Ave., Margate City, NJ
609.823-6473
URL: www.LucyTheElephant.org
Tour Hours: Open daily mid-June to Labor Day
Cost: $7/adults; $4/under 12; free/under 2.
Now Open:
Lucy's Beach Grille: On the beach, next to Lucy, open for breakfast and lunch
Bella Luna: Oceanside dining under the starts, Wed-Sun, 5:30-10 p.m.

Photo: Courtesy of Lucy the Elephant.org

RVers look through the eyes of young Abe Lincoln in New Salem, Illinois

Two miles South of Petersburg, Illinois on Rt. 97, about 20 miles northwest of Springfield, lies Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, a fascinating reconstruction of the village where Abraham Lincoln spent his early adulthood.

The centerpiece of Lincoln's New Salem is the imaginative recreation of the original log village. Built in the 1930s and 1940s as a Civilian Conservation Corps program, the village features twenty-three historically furnished buildings, including several homes, stores, and tradesmen's shops, as well as a tavern, school, wool carding mill, and a saw and gristmill. Scattered throughout the village are log barns and other outbuildings.

Visitors to Lincoln's New Salem are free to walk through the town at their own pace. Signs on the log buildings explain various aspects of the village's history, and on most days, especially during tourist season, interpreters dressed in period clothing may be encountered throughout the village.

At the entrance to the historical village is a visitor center that houses museum exhibits and a 250-seat auditorium. Adjacent to the visitor center is a 500 seat outdoor theater. Theatre in the Park presents Abraham!—a dramatic rendering of Lincoln's New Salem years—as well as other historical dramas and concerts every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during the months of June, July, and August in the outdoor theater. During the remaining nine months, the Chautauqua Series offers plays, concerts, and lectures in the visitor center auditorium. Also located near the visitor center and village entrance is a fast-food concession and small gift shop.


While the village is New Salem’s greatest attraction, most of the site's nearly 700 acres are a wooded park with hiking trails, picnic areas, and playground equipment. Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site also features a modern campground consisting of two shower buildings. There are 200 campsites, of which 100 are electrified. The sites do not have hookups for water or sewer but hydrants are available for RVers to fill their storage tanks. There is a dump station. Reservations are not accepted, it's first-come, first-served.

Lincoln's time spent in New Salem formed a turning point in his career. For the six years that he lived there, Lincoln clerked in a store, split rails, enlisted in the Black Hawk War, served as postmaster and deputy surveyor, failed in business, and was elected to the Illinois General Assembly in 1834 and 1836 after an unsuccessful try in 1832.

The village charges no admission fee but does suggest a donation of $2.00 for children, $4.00 for adults, or $10.00 for a family. For more information, including hours of operation, phone 217-632-4000 or check the Lincoln's New Salem website at www.lincolnsnewsalem.com/ .