Dad was born in 1919 into a Louisiana factory-working family who barely made ends meet. He joined the navy on his 18th birthday. Back in the 1950's and 60's, a kid could run loose in Louisiana while visiting relatives throughout the state. Even in New Orleans, I was allowed to go anywhere I wanted except Bourbon Street because my Aunt Marie said, "…

Henry Louis Gates Jr. calls Montgomery, Alabama, "The Epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement" in his book, The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song. In 1955, Martin Luther King Jr. was the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery when, Rosa Parks , just down the street, refused to surrender her seat on the bus to a whit…

We recently shared the post, The Magic of Number Nine, our completion of 8 years of full-time travel and the start of our 9th year. Today is another milestone: 3,000 days on the road, as we live in Beauty. This big day conjuncts with my 70th birthday. Yep, I've hit the big seven-o today, October 4th! How has traveling 3,000 days changed us? Click t…

We could be in New Orleans right now. Journaling our travels is like a two-fer. First, we get to go there, and later while creating the blog, we kind of get to go there again to say a proper goodbye. But, whenever we think about New Orleans, it's not about closure, it's about planning our next stay. Something keeps calling us back to The Big Easy. …

We're here! We're ok! You haven't heard from us in a while, but that's because we've been out adventuring. Oh boy, have we been adventuring – but more about that later. For the next few ... however long it takes ... I will be handling the blog solo. That's right, Living in Beauty will be the "Jim Show" until Carmen writes a first draft of her scree…

Today we start our 9th year traveling full-time in our 2001 30' Airstream. Grooving on numbers and designing colorful infographics based on analysis is my thing – not so much for Carmen. Every Living in Beauty Anniversary, she steps aside as I release the pretty shiny numbers. Even if you don't like numbers, you can depend on them. I mean it doesn'…

"What's the most amazing place you've ever seen?" We're asked this question so often we should print the answer on our t-shirts. We always respond with something impressive: "The Canadian Rockies," "Autumn in Vermont," "Yukon," "Denali," "The Outer Banks," "The Upper Peninsula," or "Canyonlands!" And, with all sincerity, any one (or every single on…

In honor of the upcoming Juneteenth National Independence Day, we are publishing our latest blog post on our Civil Rights Trail journey in the deep South. As we drove north toward Mound Bayou, on our way to the King Biscuit Blues Festival, we expected to visit a Museum, but we soon discovered that the entire town is a museum. If you've ever heard o…

"So, what's it like to live in an Airstream?" The answer to that question changes about every two weeks. The short answer is, "It's magical." We just released a short documentary about living in Beauty, pursuing moments that add up to dreams. The post A Day in Beauty appeared first on Living In Beauty.…

Merging onto The Blues Trail from the Civil Rights Trail and the Emmett Till Memorial was effortless, and necessary. We've heard that when life gets heavy, The Blues can soothe woes. It was almost Opening Day of the annual Clarksdale Juke Joint Festival, and we needed to blow off some steam. The post Civil Rights Trail – Chapter Three: Juke Joint F…

Our Civil Rights Trail tour began with the Emmett Till Memorial – a good place to start, for several reasons. First, the murder of Emmett Till launched the Civil Rights movement. Second, our destination for the night, The Emmett Till Intrepid Center was a scenic Sunday drive from Dad's house in Decatur, Mississippi. Third, it was Spring – the most …

Every year of Living in Beauty is memorable and different. Some years are spectacular and adventurous from start to finish. Other years are simply focused on relaxing color and scenery, or romance and celebration. Spring, Summer, and Autumn '23 on The Civil Rights Trail with side trips through The Great Smoky Mountains and The Blue Ridge was defini…

Pitching a tent on Christmas Eve under the stars is an old tradition we picked up from a family of refugees. You’ve heard the story. In a time of war and occupation – a man and his pregnant wife – are forced to travel long-distance on foot to register. Arriving to their destination the woman falls into labor and every room in the city is occupied. …

This is the North Carolina Civil Rights Trail podcast. A series where historians and experts help us explore significant events in African American history that happened in the state. This is the third and final episode, where we take you to protests and movements across the state inspired and energized by the Greensboro Four sit-in in places such …

This is the North Carolina Civil Rights Trail podcast. A series where historians and experts help us explore significant events in African American history that happened in the state. This is the second of three episodes. And in it, we’re going to learn about how four young men protesting at a department store lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, influ…

This is the North Carolina Civil Rights Trail podcast. A series where historians and experts help us explore significant events in African American history that happened in the state. This is the first of three episodes. And in it, we’ll tell the story of the events leading up to the famous A&T Four sit-ins in Greensboro in 1960, including the stor…

The North Carolina Civil Rights Trail podcast is a series where historians and experts help us explore significant events in African American history that happened in the state. It features well-known events from larger cities like Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh. It also tells stories of how everyday citizens joined together to make change in th…

"When we first started out, it was a very good beer. It was a very good beer for nomadic types On soft summer nights. We’d try specialty flights paired with pub food bites, In our very First Year." - Adapted from Frank Sinatra's "It was a Very Good Year" We brake for microbreweries. Locally owned breweries are a safe place to enjoy the ancient elix…

When passing through, some places are too beautiful to leave ... so, sometimes we stay. Thanks to Harvest Hosts – a membership club for complimentary overnight camping based on a European model – RV travel is experiencing a resurgence of hospitality not seen since the bygone era of the American Auto Park of the 1920's-to-50's. Resourceful Americans…

There are two campgrounds near downtown San Diego where we love to stay. One is the private luxury resort, Sun Outdoors San Diego Bay, and the other is an inland county campground, Sweetwater Summit Regional Park. These two RV parks are as different as Cape Cod and Big Bend. That's largely due to the chameleonic character of San Diego where the sce…

Most tourists take two weeks to see Alaska. That's a mind-bender for we slow travel enthusiasts. From down here in the lower 48 – as we look back on our 246 day trek with two-months in Alaska – it all seems like a whirlwind two-week expedition. Where did the time go? Is Alaska's mysterious energy threshold a portal to another dimension? Or was it a…

Our Alaska overland adventure, beginning in San Diego, had finally come to an end - but endings don't come fast in Alaska. The adventure isn't really over until you reach the lower 48, almost 2,000 miles away. It's like that time you hiked up to Half Dome and looked down into the valley from the summit and realized you were only halfway home and it…

Hi, this is Jim with the annual report. I will be brief and to the point. Today, we wrap up our 7th year of full-time travel. Tomorrow we enter our 8th year on the road. It's been an amazing 7 years. You, our 8,535 followers, guide us, discover and rediscover with us. So, we want to say thank you for being a part of this journey. Click "Read more t…

If we were young, we'd probably sugar-sprinkle our Alaska exit saying, "We'll be back." But as we pulled out of Chena Hot Springs we weren't whipping up any comeback sauce. We knew the score. There would be no reprise of our Alaska overland tour. We had a wonderful adventure, but the floods, fires, rain, and bad roads wore us out. We were tired. Th…

Alaska's growing season may be short, but the flowers are worth the wait. Fanciful late summer plumage soothed our nerves as our frontal lobes surged with executive processes. We were playing Russian roulette with the weather. It was almost September, and we had yet to complete our sightseeing goals. Cooler weather had chased off the bugs, but ever…

We are all born with a mountain in our heart. Call it passion, ambition or soul – this mountain compels us to rise. Even before taking first steps, your tiny arms stretch toward something in the far distance. This mountain of longing is not in your imagination. It's bigger than that. You can't always see it but you know it's there. You see the sign…

After a full year of preparation and months of travel, Alaska was almost finished. For us, at least. In Victoria, we left summer comforts behind for a solo North Country expedition. Due to our age and the physical demands of the journey, we knew this would be our first and last road trip to this latitude. If you're following our story you know this…

Atmosphere is way over our heads. We can't tell a cirrocumulus from a stratus, but we know what we like. A good cloud show is a thing to behold. I was hooked from the moment Mama first laid me down outside on a blanket, face up. In Alaska, the sky is the Greatest Show on Earth, and clouds are the elephant parade, dominating every scene. Beauty and …

It was time to come clean. Pulling out of Valdez, heading toward Anchorage (in the rain, as always) my sore tooth throbbed to the rhythm of the windshield wipers. “I have a toothache.” The rig swerved slightly on the wet road as Jim turned to look at me. “How bad?” he asked. “Pretty bad. Root canal bad, feels like.” “Since when?” “I almost told you…

She always said it in threes, with a soft Italian accent, “Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.” First, she’d gasp, Ah!,” and then slowly, “Bee-yoo-tee-fuuul, …" with a little squeak on the yoo part. Forty years ago, I figured her for a centenarian, but looking back from the mature side of my life, she was probably an healthy seventy-five to eighty-yea…

Alaska, land of myth and mystery. It's Shangri–la, Xanadu and Tír na nÓg. It's Through the Looking Glass ... Where The Crawdads Sing, The Fortress of Solitude, and Beyond The Wall. Before the cruise ships found it, getting to Alaska was a heroes journey of purpose and destiny – a trek that required talent, experience and superior genes. Getting the…

"You are a catastrophist." Ruth, my editor friend, wearing a "I am silently correcting your grammar" T-shirt, captured and labeled me with the benign efficiency of a seasoned naturalist before tightening the lid on a killing jar. She's good! Touché, shoe-fits, call'm-like-ya-see 'em. I accept the characterization. In fact it's my favorite emoji 😱 I…

Long dusty roads. Midnight sun. Thick wildfire smoke. Rivers rising to the breaking point. Cell signal outages. Moose crash hot zones. Every morning we untangled our weary bones from the mosquito net ... to resume the ongoing discussion, "Should we turn back?" The post Airstreaming to Alaska – Chapter 11: Yukon appeared first on Living In Beauty.…

Overwhelmed with after-school hunger, I stuck my finger into the contents of the electric mixer and landed on the other side of the kitchen, suffering shock by mashed potatoes. Stunned, I lay on the floor, hoping the surge from the ungrounded mixer would manifest my body with super powers. Fifty-five years later a similar thing happened when our in…

The Alaska Highway was born to be a military supply route but it grew up to be a story-teller. This unforeseen attribute – like an E-ticket ride at Disneyland – had us riveted from Mile-0. Built for war, this 1,187 mile (1,910 km) road opened to the public in 1948. Since then, driving to Alaska is a surefire epochal adventure for any traveller who …

Pop! We both heard it, the sound of someone opening a bottle of bubbly in the next hotel room. But we were not in a hotel. We were driving the Beast up a scorched highway in the Mojave desert with Beauty in tow. "Blowout! Pull over!," I shouted. Jim slowed down, activated the emergency lights and showed back, “There’s no room!” The post Blips and B…

The beauty of driving overland to Alaska is getting there. Like Heaven Tramps tripping along from glory to glory, each new leg of the journey prepared us for the next pearly gate. I once saw this ad: "Seventh Heaven Travel - because the urge to go to a better place is older than Moses." The lively brochure went on to explain that heavens 1 to 6 are…

Hello, Victoria Transported by ferry across the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Port Angeles, we arrived to Inner Harbor within 90 minutes. While waiting in line at Customs, I called my sister, Deborah, who reminded me of her honeymoon road trip from San Diego to Victoria with film star, David Miller in 1975. "Pardon me if it slipped my mind, but you d…

Today we are celebrating our 6th "On-the-Road" Anniversary (2,191 days). Tomorrow starts our 7th year. Journeying overland to Alaska at our own pace, taking side-roads, detours, and changing plans as we go along, would be a disaster without our magic-kit of digital resources. RVing for recreation, and the Forever Camping lifestyle are experiencing …

Captain Kirk or Jean Luke Picard? Vienna Sausages or Spam? Alligator or Bear attack? Lively debate eases the frustration of road closures, detours and delays due to flooding and wildfires as we journey to Alaska. It's a silly mental exercise, but the conversation shortens the drive and relaxes Pico. Disney World or a hot air balloon ride? The Lonel…

This episode takes us to the town of Clinton in the eastern part of the state. Following the pivotal U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, a judge ordered the desegregation of Clinton High School. On August 26, 1956, a group of African American students – the Clinton 12 – attended their first day of class, marking the first inte…

The Tennessee Civil Rights Trail podcast explores the most significant aspects of the Movement in the state. This episode takes a look at the integral role college students played in the city (from Fisk University, American Baptist College, Tennessee State University and elsewhere) especially as they participated in significant protests, such as th…

As we move north toward Alaska, we never know what we will be up against. Conditions are rarely what the guides project. Currently, we are dealing with flooded campgrounds due to the early Spring melt. Entering southern Oregon in early March, we were prepared for harsh weather but not the thrashing we took. The Oregon coast drew us in from Californ…

The Tennessee Civil Rights Trail podcast explores the most significant aspects of the Movement in the state. This episode offers a sketch of the city’s overall history before bringing us into what it was like there in the 1950s and 1960s. We learn about the city’s Sanitation Workers’ Strike in 1968, the cause that compelled Martin Luther King, Jr. …

The Tennessee Civil Rights Trail podcast explores the most significant aspects of the Movement in the state. The episodes will take you from the cities of Memphis and Nashville to the town of Clinton. And they will feature the voices of veteran foot soldiers who stood strong against oppression. You’ll also hear from historians and experts who expla…

The dream of going to Alaska is almost instinctual, a kind of migration that is reborn within each new generation. My folks made the drive without a cell phone. Using public pay phones they checked in once a week from Out There. Now, with the Canadian border reopened after a two-year closure, we expect to share the Alcan Highway with a record-break…

Magnificent bridges, beautiful public gardens, the oldest Chinatown in North America, an old island prison, and we don't know a soul who lives there. That's all we had on San Francisco. We figured The City would be cold, foggy, crowded and expensive. Not so. The post Airstreaming to Alaska – Chapter 4: Santa Cruz to San Francisco appeared first on …

In this episode, “Meeting Places, Organizing Protests & Confrontations, pt. 2,” historians and experts help explain the role of the civil rights movement in Louisiana’s rural towns such as Plaquemine, Jonesboro and Bogalusa. You’ll hear the heroic stories of the Deacons of the Defense and learn about the influential 105-Mile March from Bogalusa all…

In this episode, “Meeting Places, Organizing Protests & Confrontations, pt. 1,” historians and experts help explain the growth of the non-violent protests that helped desegregate Louisiana. You’ll hear the story of the nation’s first bus boycott in Baton Rouge. And you’ll learn about the student-organized sit-ins and protests in New Orleans, Shreve…

In this episode, “Desegregation,” historians and experts help explain some of the most pioneering moments in desegregation in the state of Louisiana. You’ll learn about the key role that the 761st Tank Battalion at Camp Beauregard played during World War II. You’ll hear the story how a coach fought to integrate the basketball team at what is now kn…