Twisty, Curvy Roads

Max an I pulled out of Round Rock  on Monday, July 18. I did not have an exact plan, only that I needed to be at Sly Park, California by the following Sunday, July 24, for the Sacramento Jazz Camp. The camp would run for a week. After that we were free to go where we wanted with no time limit other than I needed to be back in Round Rock for a gig on August 26. We had a great time and I am having fun reliving the trip through photos and my GPS track on Google Maps. Zoom in on the map and you can see exactly were we were each day!

I wrote this arrangement of Ellington's "Creole Love Call" for the Second Line Jazz Band. This is not a recording of the band, but a mp3 file that I generated with the composition software, Musescore. It sound considerably better with live musicians, but it is considerably easier to use the computer. Ain't technology great?  Oh, well! Creole+Love+Call" by Jim Ivy

My little Casita is only 13' from tip of the hitch to the rear bumper. Just enough room inside for me and my traveling companion, Max, who weight maybe 7 pounds soaking wet. I had a high axle and larger tires installed so that it has as much road clearance as my truck. I can get it into some pretty interesting places!  Last year I made a couple of trips to Colorado and did some exploring along the Continental Divide. This year, I am pulling out to the mountains around Sacramento, CA to play some music. On the way back, I am going to try to get the trailer over Stony Pass and into the headwater area of the Rio Grande. I drove that trail in the truck last year but, wisely, left the trailer set up in the lower altitudes for a base camp. Here are a few photos: This is my rig. On the way, Max and I spent the night at the Rio Grande Gorge near Taos, NM. The smell of the sage and desert air is exhilarating when you wake up in the mornings.  Camping at...

I am sort of used to waking with strange melodies running through my head, but this morning was pretty unusual... I found myself in what must have been a dusty small colonias - a subdivision with no running water or sewers - standing beside an ugly stucco colored building. To the west, an azure sea stretched into the distance. But between where I was standing and the sea, there was a small, round-topped hill with almost vertical sides. A single weedy looking tree on the crest hung over what appeared to be a dark, English-style cottage rapidly rotting away. I seemed to be speaking with, or at least being talked at, by a builder-type person dressed in khakis. He seemed to be trying to sell me the ugly building which turned out to be a semi-finished duplex. Suddenly there was a diesel engine roar on the single caliche street on the other side of the building. I looked over and there you were. You were driving what appeared to be a very large glass tour bus. It was made of glass but acc...

Lot's of work, but it looks much better! This Casita group on Facebook is such an inspiration! After all these years, thanks to your posted examples, I finally decided to actually do something about the definitely grubby and chalky exterior of my '89 Patriot. Up until now, I have always told myself that having a "well-used" look to my equipment was a sign of true outdoorsman sophistication. None of that newby gloss and shine for old Jim! I mean, does anything communicate true "campfire savoir faire" better than a well worn pack and smelly sleeping bag? But your helpful posts and photos soon convinced me that, au contraire to my long standing prejudice, a grubby Casita was more of an expression of extreme anti-social tendencies than it was of manly know-how and experience. So soon I was up to my knees in bottles of Meguiars, Poly-Glow, applicators, wiping cloths - every possible tool and gadget that might somewhat smooth the Herculean task of cl...

When I am traveling I often park for the night in places where I do not want to call attention to the fact that I am there. It may be the parking lot of a truck stop or a big box store, or it may be a roadside pull-off in the middle of nowhere. If I am sleeping in a well lighted parking lot, I do not want the light creeping into my Casita. If I have stopped in a lonely spot alongside the highway, I want to be able to cook, read, etc. with no light leaking out of the Casita to draw attention to the fact that I am there. Above all, I do not want anyone to be able to look into my Casita through the windows day or night. The blinds that were in my Casita when I bought it did not appeal to me. At night, anyone passing by could tell that I was in the trailer and if they got close enough, they could peep around the edge of the blinds and see where and what I was doing. I wanted more privacy. Also, I am not an aficionado of frilly decor - Everything in my Casita is plain a...

Getting lost is something at which I am quite handy! I had heard that Arkansas was a beautiful place, so I pointed myself in that general direction. Ended up somewhere around Mena, Arkansas. I liked it a lot. When it was time to head back toward Texas, I saw a little road that looked interesting. It was paved and looked well maintained, so, "Why not?". Gradually the pavement turned to gravel. The the gravel turned to dirt. The the dirt turned to..., well, let's just say that  those who live a sane existence, would have found a place to gracefully turn back toward whence they came. Eventually I came to a fork in the road. The Forest Service had helpfully posted a map on an old fence post. That gave me some assurance that eventually I would find my way back to civilization. I snapped a photo of the map with my phone, and so continued onward. That night I camped at Shady Lake Campground. Marvelous spot, and if you ever find your way to where ever I was, I am ce...