A Winter Wonderland Aboard Amtrak's Empire Builder

Join your GypsyNesters aboard Amtrak's iconic Empire Builder as we head through a winter wonderland in luxury!

See Glacier National Park out the huge windows of the Sightseer Lounge, celebrate Veronica's visit to her 48th state over crab cakes (for breakfast!) in the dining car, share a fun-filled wine and cheese tasting, and enjoy tours of our sleeper car and all the fabulous amenities that you never knew Amtrak provided! ... CONTINUE READING >> 

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Fear Conquering & Whitewater Rafting

In my never-ending quest to push the envelope, I figured my next challenge would be to tackle whitewater rafting.

My trepidation wasn’t what most people would expect. I love to swim, I love being out on the water and am generally fearless when boating. What I was frightfully anxious about was the coldness of the water.

I like my water warm. When I use the word "bracing" it is always in a negative context. Never the one to just dive into a pool -- no -- I... CONTINUE READING >>

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What Do You Want on Your Tombstone?

We hitched our wagon in Tombstone, Arizona and had a rip-roaring time! A reenactment of the Gunfight at OK Corral, a historama narrated by Vincent Price (sounds like the "Thriller" Video!), Boothill Cemetery (No Les, No More ) and a night of music and authentic frontier gibberish at Big Nose Kate's Saloon... read more

Fear Conquering & Whitewater Rafting

In my never-ending quest to push the envelope, I figured my next challenge would be to tackle whitewater rafting. My trepidation wasn’t what most people would expect. I love to swim, I love being out on the water and am generally fearless when boating. What I was frightfully anxious about was the coldness of the water.

I like my water warm. When I use the word “bracing“ it is always in a negative context. Never the one to just dive into a pool -- no -- I... read more

What in the Sam Hill is a Yosemite?

OK, show of hands. How many of us first heard of Yosemite from Looney Tunes? C'mon, reach fer the sky fragnabbit! On those childhood Saturday mornings Yosemite Sam introduced us to the name but he had nothing to do with the National Park. Friz Freleng just liked the plumb western sound of California's premier park for his loud-mouthed, sourdough, going-off-all-half-cocked, six-shootin' little fella. Fifty-odd years of Saturdays later yer flea bitten GypsyNestin' varmints finally met Sam's namesake... read more

Balls to the Wall

Ever since I was a kid growing up in the Colorado Rockies, I have heard the lore of the “oysters” but never had the balls to try them. Suddenly my opportunity was just over the horizon.

Pressing across Montana, we began to travel through another dimension -- a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind, mountains and cooked animal parts... read more

Big Heads, Badlands & Bear Claws

After the seemingly endless trek across the windswept northern prairie, the landscape suddenly changes. On second thought, suddenly hardly describes it.

Abruptly, immediately, instantaneously the topography dramatically goes from flat grassland besieged with billboards to the spectacularly gnarled Badlands.
Out of nowhere the South Dakota plains give way to layers of soft shale, clay and limestone that wear away at a rate of about an inch a year... read more

Antelope + Jackrabbit = Jackalope

Once the mighty Mississippi disappears in the rear view mirror, there's not much to look at for the next thousand miles except corn. An insane amount of corn. It goes on and on and on and then, the corn turns to wheat. An ocean of wheat. Amber waves of grain. Then, a few hundred miles farther West, the wheat turns to tumbleweeds and we can drop the “mid,” we are in the West.

To break up the monotony along the way, or perhaps because of it, there are signs. Millions of signs. This is the home field of the billboard. Every business garishly competes for attention. Out there, you've got to have a gimmick. See the World's Largest this, five-legged that, First Ever this or two-headed that. Almost any collection becomes... read more