Hitched and Rolling

This morning we woke up in New Orleans. Pleasantly, we were more well hydrated and rested than one might expect. Claire’s credit card provided a hospitality stipend at the hotel restaurant which Claire generously shared with us honeymooners in the form of breakfast. A couple showers and a packed bag or two later we were ready to call an uber to the suburb of Metairie where Duke and the van patiently waited. 

After gathering our vehicle and its canine occupant, Hitched and Rolling was officially back to Rolling. Leaving the greater New Orleans area, it was clear that our surroundings had quickly become substantially more coastal and Florida-like. 

After we entered Mississippi we took a small detour on route 90 to see the coast. We ended up in the town of Waveland, MS which has signs referring to itself as the “ground zero” of hurricane Katrina, presumably where the storm made landfall 20 years ago. With that context, our drive around Waveland was painted somewhat grave, and we couldn’t help but notice the lack of mature construction – everything was fairly new. Bre read the first hand account of a Waveland resident’s experience with Katrina that she found online as we drove through town. It was a bit haunting in the fog. 

Our destination today was the Hideaway RV Park which was just beyond and through Alabama in the Sunshine State. This park had come highly recommended to us by Jiffy. 

Jiffy is stationed at the Air Force base in Biloxi, Mississippi and has lived there for a couple years. As he has explored the region he has been keeping a running list of saved recommendations, in the form of an extensive network of dropped Google Maps location pins, a resource which he kindly shared with us. 

This made choosing a lunch spot significantly less difficult, and we settled on a place called “The Shed” which was just off i10. We would later learn that The Shed has been featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives and a bunch of other food-centric programs.

As we pulled in we realized that this place was more like a compound than a restaurant. There was the main area that had a BBQ restaurant, there was a rambling addition where live music could be hosted, another which was seemly geared toward seafood, and then an RV park. We elected to investigate the seafood area given our coastal location. When in Rome, right? 

This proved to be one of the best culinary decisions of the trip so far. Bre and I both like to try local cuisine wherever we end up, and neither of us has spent much time in the gulf coast region, so we pretty much deferred to Will, our bartender, and ordered what he suggested. Will is a scientist, specializing in oyster habitat and rehabilitation, so our experience was colored by his knowledge. We “started” with a bucket of roasted oysters and and sandwich that I can only describe as an alligator cheesesteak. As the food started coming out, and because we were the only people at the restaurant, my attention was drawn across the bar to the very-active backyard smoker around the corner, and Will, who was enjoying his role as our culinary tour guide, encouraged me to go investigate. 

Apparently once a defunct pizza oven, the smoker was in full swing curing fish into what’s known as “Biloxi Bacon”. Trace, the operator, was pleased to give me a tour of his command center. Having toured the operation and returned to my seat Will smiled and told me that Trace liked us, and that Trace was going to “really feed us” now. 

And boy, was he right. We had ordered two items of the menu but every few minutes for the next hour or so, Trace brought over another piece of something. “Biloxi Bacon”, “Sauce Picant”, “Fondue Grits”, “Crawfish Bread”, each item was like out of a movie. All unordered, we were just along for the ride. The more we enjoyed the dishes the more this homegrown chef wanted to bring over and share with us. It was like a self perpetuating cycle spawning authentic Mississippi coastal cuisine right out of a professional smoker and onto our plates.

It is experiences like this that make this mode of travel so rewarding. A huge thank you to Will and Trace for sharing a sampling of coastal Mississippi cooking with us. 

But the day was not over. Back in the van and eastward we went. We entered and left Alabama, the third state of the day, before cruising into Florida as the sun was setting. We made it to the campsite around 6:30 and after checking in (and letting the car sit for around 10 minutes with the windows closed) we noticed a strong rotten egg smell. As of writing this is still unresolved. We made friends with some neighbors at the RV park, decades more experienced automobile travelers than we are, who were kind enough to investigate. They suspect that it might be a dead animal in the dash. Uneasy about the diagnosis, as we were reluctantly accepting our smelly quarters for the evening, the propane alarm started going off, despite the windows and side door being open. Then it went off again. That was it. After two propane alarms plus the rotten egg smell we decided to go to walmart to get a second alarm. Maybe ours is broken. They were out of stock at walmart and it was right around midnight so we went with the nuclear option – we drove right to the fire station.

Our suspicion that the fire station would have some kind of tool for propane detection was correct. They used the mechanical handheld sniffer around the vehicle but it came up 100% negative for propane, none at all, not even a slight whiff. Having ruled out the most harmful of scenarios, we went back to the RV pack and have laid down next to open, screened in windows away from the smell, which has lessened from driving around with the windows open. Another eventful and fun day on hitched and rolling. 

We left Austin at 8am Friday morning and drove pretty much all day. The main event of the days drive was stopping at Buc-ees for some fresh beef jerky. 

We were lucky enough to find a dog sitter in the suburb of Metairie who was also willing to host the van in her driveway for the weekend. A win win. We dropped off the beast and the vehicle and walked across the street where none other than our Appalachian Trail friend Jiffy picked us up. 

Jiffy lives about 90 minutes east of New Orleans but his girlfriend is getting her PhD at Tulane so he is in the city quite often. It just so happened that the stars aligned and Jiffy and his girlfriend Claire offered to pick us up and hang with us for the night. Our first stop was a Po Boy spot off of magazine street. It was great to catch up with Jiffy and meet and get to know Claire. 

Next we headed to the French quarter where we dropped our bags at the hotel before hitting the town. We walked over to Frenchman street to listen to some live music and I remembered how much I love New Orleans. There is just no place on earth like it. It was a pleasant evening and the music and drinks were flowing in and out of bars into the streets. I find it difficult to articulate how wonderful and special New Orleans is. As anticipated, Bre loved it. Not to be confused with Jiffy’s girlfriend Claire, Bre’s friend Claire (from Virginia) also made an appearance. 

Claire had flown in to join the hitched and rolling tour for the weekend, and came to meet us on Frenchman street where she made an easy addition to our bopping and culturally-absorbent crew. 

After some late night pizza we parted ways with Jiffy and Claire, and headed back to the hotel with Claire. 

On Friday night we had a blast. Surprisingly, we felt great the next day. We met Claire (Jiffy’s Claire, not Virginia Claire) at Cafe Du Monde for a quick breakfast where we arrived just in time to beat the line, and enjoyed beignets to the sound of live jazz. After breakfast we walked around town, unsuccessfully trying to find an apple-wallet-compatible ATM to solve the lack of cash problem. After a nice morning stroll we said our goodbyes to Claire and went back to the hotel to meet up with the other Claire (Virginia Claire).

Around lunch time, having met up with our second Claire of the day, the three of us walked over to the Napoleon House, which, like many establishments in the French quarter, feels (and probably is) casually a couple hundred years old. After brunch we took an uber over to magazine street to walk around and enjoy the afternoon. We ate red beans and rice and sauntered through the shops.

Not wanting to do anything TOO crazy for the evening, Bre, Claire and I elected to go on a ghost tour of the French quarter. The tour itself was a bit discombobulated, but strolling around at night amongst the Caribbean colors and kerosine lamps and street musicians was just downright wonderful nonetheless.

How lucky are we. 

As I ended the last post, Hitched and Rolling is mostly about people. No place is a better example of that than Austin, Texas. I used to live in Austin so I know a few people here, and seeing them, catching up, and spending time was pretty much the top priority for this stop. 

We woke up at a beautiful scenic picnic area exactly-about 4 hours outside Austin and pretty quickly hit the road, stopping in Fredericksburg for some fetch with Duker. We got to the hotel around 3pm and rested in the room for a couple hours. Prior to our arrival, I think it had been the longest stretch of days-without-a-shower since the Hitched and rolling tour began. The number of days could still be counted on a single hand, but it had been too long, and the hotel’s (hot and well-pressured) shower was quite a welcomed luxury. 

As evening dawned, our friends Aubrey and Marcella came and picked us up at the hotel, and we headed to a dog-friendly Brewery to meet some other local friends, Zack and Haylie. As is sometimes the case, we were having too much fun for anyone to register that we might want to take a group photo, and so none exists. You’ll just have to take my word for it. 

On Wednesday we woke up at the hotel and went over to South Congress street where we met Bennett and did some walking around and shopping. Bennett got his secret Santa gift and we had sandwiches at the Tiny Grocer. In the afternoon Bre and I went over to the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar and walked around admiring the art. We met up with Dom, who is a friend of mine from when I used to live in Austin.

When dinner time rolled around we went over to Kelly’s pub where I had arranged a gathering of some Austin friends for dinner. I got to see Janella and Evan, and their two young children which was really fun. Simms, Bennett, and my friend Mary were there too. We had Guinness and wings too numerous to count and it was a fantastic evening. 

On Thursday we met up with Haylie and putzed around north Austin’s array of thrift stores. We were searching for frames and didn’t really have much luck but it was fun to have a mission and drive around and hang out. Finally, Thursday night we went out to one of my favorite food spots, Ramen Tatsu-Ya. We met at Simms’ sprawling palace of an apartment before heading to ramen, which was fantastic as always. After ramen we went downstairs to their tiki bar, where a blender full of mostly-whipped cream exploded on Bre. Spirits were not diminished in any way, and it was another fantastic set of days on hitched and rolling. 

Leaving San Diego’s beach and surf we entered into a fog dense enough such that everyone had their hazard lights on. We crawled along at half pace following signs for i8 and eventually and found our way there, only to find the fog abruptly clear which revealed a phenomenon totally foreign to us: the sun in our morning eyes. For the first time since the trip began that we were heading… East! Having come south down the west coast, we had finally basically taken a left, forming the southwestern elbow of our trip. 

I found it striking how quickly the beach surf vibe of San Diego turns into desert. I think around 40 minutes after leaving the coast we were fully sounded by Mars-like terrain. 

Our destination today was the Phoenix Arizona area, around 5 or 6 hours away. Bre drove most of the day and I worked. We stopped in the early afternoon in Yuma, Arizona. Bre had worked in Yuma as a travel nurse some number of years ago, and was excited to show me around the town she remembered fondly. We walked around Main Street and stopped into a couple shops and got some lunch. Next to our lunch spot was the tourist visitor center, and we stopped in to grab a postcard. While inside, I saw a bunch of gear for the “Yuma Criminals”. As it turns out the Yuma Highschool mascot is the criminals, which I found really amusing. 

The story (which I will include in full in photo form below) is basically that in the early 20th century the school building burned down and so the school was moved into the previously-abandoned prison for some time, during which the nickname was adopted. 

We headed further east towards phoenix and started corresponding with Bre’s friend Julie. Julie is a flight nurse which means that she works on a helicopter transporting people who are in highly emergent situations. In other words she is a total badass, but I digress. 

Julie lives in the phoenix area and she and Bre had discussed camping when we came through town, but had not planned out any specifics. Using the variety of RV and camping apps to which I have access (namely harvest hosts and iOverlander) I was able to identify a campsite that might not be too crowded. Our concern with crowding came from the fact that all of the regional state parks were fully booked, which we suspected might be related to it being the weekend and the fact that a once-in-a-century meteor shower was forecasted. 

The campsite that I found was remote such that one had to drive 25 minutes after the end of the pavement to get there. We shared the coordinates with Julie, stopped at the grocery store for some supplies, and drove into the desert to find the campsite. After about 6 miles bumping down the dirt road and praying we didn’t get a flat (we don’t have a spare), a white Toyota raced up next to us and Julie popped her head out of the passenger side window. What fun! 

Julie’s boyfriend Scott was the driver of this decked out off-roading Tacoma, and after saying hello they followed us the rest of the way to the site. When we got there we found about eight camp sites, only one of which was occupied. Success! 

Due to it being the middle of December the sun quickly set. We had a couple of beers and donned headlamps and sweatshirts as we set up our cook stove and got camp ready for the evening. Our new stove, which was a wedding gift from my friend Jack, worked beautifully, and we enjoyed a nice spread of fajitas complete with roasted onions and jalapeños. A delicious and filling camping staple. 

After the sun went down the four of us set up our sleeping mats and sleeping bags by a neighboring empty campsite, creating two roughly full sized outdoor mattress configurations from which each couple could watch the sky. The meteor shower was called something like Geminid, and the show was great. We saw dozens and dozens of shooting stars as we listened to Pink Floyd on the Bluetooth speaker and chatted. 

At some point Julie and Scott wisely migrated to Scott’s truck’s camper bed but Bre and I ended up sleeping out all night. It got COLD such that even the fur-coated poodle with which we travel curled up under the sleeping bag with us. In the morning everything was covered with the thinnest layer of rigidity, indicating that the dew and condensation on our bags and cloths had frozen (albeit briefly) in the Arizona mountains. 

By 8 or 9 AM the sun had stuck back, and we were now warm as our bags sunned dry in the neighboring campsite and we packed up the van. After the long and dusty drive back to town, the four of us assembled in cave creek at a bunch spot (aptly named “Brunch”) for some pancakes and eggs. No complaints here!! 

After brunch we walked around town and checked out various shops. Cave Creek is a cool little town. We went into a gem shop where I sat in a crystal throne that was for sale for over $100,000. The sign encouraged sitting and taking a photo so we obliged. 

In the afternoon Julie and Scott headed back south to Gilbert and Bre and I met up with Jill and John, friends of my parents (and mine) that happen to live in cave creek. We met at a restaurant called the Horny Toad and caught up about the wedding, life on the road, and Jill’s rekindling of her former life as a champion rodeo barrel racer. It was great to see them and catch up. 

As I have said (and possibly written) before, hitched and rolling is all about people, and our stop in the phoenix area left our hearts full having gotten to spend such nice time with so many friends. 

We woke up at vinyl vineyards and did a sweep to ensure that everything was orderly (the campsite rule: leave it better than you found it) before getting back on the road.

We went into downtown Paso Robles where Bre and Grant grabbed some coffee and pastries and we walked around. Paso has some cool art galleries and it was fun to admire the various mediums of expression. I stayed in the car because I had a phone call to make and I missed their muffins.

We headed back to the coast to a little town called Cambria where we had an Indian-inspired lunch in a little garden restaurant. Today it was my turn to be a little cranky, having missed the snack, as I wanted to go to lunch instead of popping into what felt like every store. As is almost always the case – nothing a little lunch couldn’t fix.

I had some work to do in the van and Grant and Bre took a stroll on the coast and after a few minutes of problem solving I walked out to join them. The views were spectacular. After admiring the coast for some time we got back in the van and continued south.

We stopped at a beach for another sunset stroll and spoke with a nice couple on a park bench while the last of the daylight drained beautifully. After that we went to St Luis Obispo for dinner and we found accomodations in Avila Beach for the evening – Grant at the Avila Inn Hotel and Bre and I taking the van to Avila Hotsprings which had a simple RV park in the back.

In the morning Bre and I took a dip in the hot springs, an activity that was “included” with our night of camping. Very luxurious. The pool was very shallow and somewhat smelly but quite pleasantly warm.

We picked up Grant and played fetch on Avila beach. I accidentally sailed Duke’s soft orange ball into the parking lot above the beach. I searched but could not find it, but my wife put me to shame by finding it in less than 2 minutes.

We headed to Santa Barbara where we stopped at an awesome dog friendly brewery. Finally we pulled into Santa Monica. We dropped Grant with his friends and found a residential street that allowed overnight parking. A no nonsense post about a normal-amount-of-nonsense set of days.

December 5 and 6

By Grant Raffel

 I was honored to be a part of the one and only Hitched and Rolling Tour, and even more so to contribute a guest post to the blog. So here it goes.

The van got a predictably late start after a big night out in San Francisco but eventually made it down the peninsula for a quick stop where I grew up. My mom and I greeted the travelers with lunch in the backyard. Duke especially enjoyed this stop, where he could roam freely. He explored parts of the small backyard off limits to humans due to space constraints. He also sniffed lots of plants. I can only imagine the excitement Duke feels as he explores the country and its many different smells.

 We got going before long to head south to Carmel, our home for the next two nights. I had taken the lead on organizing the next few days, which seemed to suit Brad and Bre just fine. I could sense a growing weariness in the last few days during our frequent phone calls as they delt with a bit of decision fatigue. Having no plan and few constraints can be a bit overwhelming. But the planner that I am, and my interest in having somewhere to sleep given I was riding in a van already at capacity meant I had reserved us a hotel in Carmel. I hopped in the van and we took off down 101 South.

We arrived in Carmel just in time to catch the tail end of the sunset on Carmel Beach. Duke got in some glow-in-the-dark fetch and everyone was happy. We had a great dinner in town and went to bed to get some rest for a big day tomorrow.

The next day was to be spent driving down Highway 1 to Big Sur and exploring what I think is one of the most beautiful areas of the country. Growing up in the Bay Area, I’ve spent a good amount of time in these parts and was excited for Brad and Bre to experience them too.

As we drove out of Carmel, we went along Scenic Drive for some nice ocean views. Duke could not resist a quick stop at River Beach for some fetch. We continued on to our first stop, Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur. I had never been but have wanted to go for a while. Nepenthe is famous for its outstanding views and capturing the coastal hippie spirit of Big Sur. If the story on the menu is to be believed, the owners of what used to be a home decided the views were too spectacular not to be shared with others, so they opened a restaurant. We were happy to benefit from this, especially on another gorgeous day. 

 

 

Following an outstanding meal, we headed a bit further south to McWay Falls. This brought us almost as far as we could go on Highway 1 before it is closed due to a landslide. If not for the landslide, we could have continued south on 1 to our next destination. Instead, Big Sur was a day trip, and we would circle back up to Carmel and head down 101 to our next stop. The drive along Highway 1 is rightfully considered one of the best in the country.

We had been trying to find a hike that hit a few objectives: a bit of a workout, nice coastal views, and dog friendly. Hitting all three of these marks proved to be a challenge. I had suggested a hike starting at Garrapata State Park just south of Carmel that seemed like our best bet, but the short daylight hours and its 5-mile length meant we would probably finish in the dark. As we turned back north, Brad did some research on his computer and found a shorter hike nearby. The challenge was that, instead of a state park, this hike was on a private ranch that required reservations and liability waivers. Same day reservations were not allowed, according to the website. Being the innovative problem solver that he is, Brad made us a reservation for the next day and we figured we would go up and see if we could do it today. This proved to be a great decision.

We turned off of Highway 1 and drove through a canyon shaded by redwoods. There were a smattering of houses in this grove, which we immediately were drawn to. Bre expertly navigated the van up the tight and winding road to the ranch, where the gate code they had provided granted us access. We pulled in and didn’t see anyone else.

As we were figuring out where to park, a gray-haired man rolled up in a golf cart. The first few seconds of our interaction made me think we may be asked to turn around, but the man quickly warmed up to us thanks to Brad and Bre’s typical charm. (I was of course no help in this category). It was about 3:15 pm and he said we had to be out by 5 pm. No problem, as this was a relatively flat 2-mile hike. He guided us to a parking spot and the trailhead and pointed out a bathroom we could use. We were now high up in the hills, having driven uphill away from the ocean.

This was the Glen Deven Ranch, somewhere I had driven by many times without knowing of its existence. But we were in for a treat today. We went out on the appropriately named Ridge Trail and were greeted by some spectacular golden hour views. It also served as perhaps the most scenic fetch spot Duke has come across to date.

We reached the end of the trail and your cameraman got some shots of the honeymooners, the pup, and the stunning coastline with the famous Bixby Creek Bridge in the distance.

 

We enjoyed the view and made our way back towards the van, where we ran into Jim, the gray-haired caretaker of the ranch who had greeted us earlier. He was very friendly and told us about the history of the ranch and the interesting programs it currently runs, including some for underprivileged kids in the area. He also told us about taking in horses from the SPCA. It seems this ranch tries to do a lot of good. We continued chatting and he took us to meet Jack the horse.

 The views and welcome at Glen Deven Ranch were second to none. Brad had explained the Hitched and Rolling Tour to Jim and as we said our goodbyes, asked Jim if he would like one of the limited-edition t-shirts.

 “Doggone right!” Jim said.

A memorable and successful day on Hitched and Rolling. Thanks for reading, and thanks to Bre and Brad for letting me crash their honeymoon.

We woke up in San Francisco in somewhat less than spritely fashion and took an uber (with a driver) to a little diner for breakfast and a Bloody Mary to help soften the landing.

It didn’t really work. We went back to the hotel, showered, and took another uber to go pick up the car and Duker Dog in Daly City.

By the time we got there it was noon. Doggins was happy to see us but it was clear that Kathy had done a wonderful job.

Today was a first for the hitched and rolling tour: we were to pick up our first guest passenger – Grant.

My friend Grant from law school is from Palo Alto, a town about 40 minutes south of San Francisco. Once we had secured the van and the dog, we headed to his house to pick him up.

Grant had been invited to join us on our leg from the Bay Area to LA, around four days of travel time. Being from the region, Grant assumed the role of tour guide and itinerary-maker, which was almost totally appreciated despite your author’s anti-itinerary tendencies.

Grant lived in DC and has been a close friend of ours for years. We met him at his charming house in Palo Alto and got to have lunch there with his mom. It was nice to see her and catch up, and to see Grant’s childhood photos on the wall. After lunch and a quick neighborhood stroll to stretch the legs, the hangovers had mostly evaporated and it was time to hit the road.

The first stop on this leg was Carmel-by-the-sea, a picturesque-and-hyphen-forward town that basically feels like a movie set for its climate, environs, and quaintness. Carmel was only a couple hours from Palo Alto and we arrived just as the sun was setting. We went straight to the beach and played a long overdue throw of fetch with our young beast as nightfall set in, breaking out the glow in the dark ball to exhaust the session.

After fetch, we found a great parking spot for the van among the narrow, hilly, Europe-like, dark streets of Carmel (the town banned street lights, a concept which would end up growing on me), and left a now-exhausted Duke in the hotel room before setting out to find some dinner – a task that we accomplished quite successfully – and walk around town.

Grant was a welcome addition to the hitched and rolling tour.