It was a beautiful sunny morning as we drove south through the Santa Cruz Valley towards Tumacacori National Historic Park, just about twenty miles north of Nogales on the Mexican border. This scenic valley has a long history of human occupation; the earliest evidence stretches back into the last Ice Age over 12,000 years ago, [...]
When we last left off it was moving day. While simple in concept we approached this move cautiously as it was our first time towing a car behind our RV. Carefully, we went step by step through the instructions, double checking ourselves and all the connections. The last thing we wanted was for the car [...]
Update: We have now changed the name of the new feature to “Visited Places.” We are still adding more every day, so keep checking back to see if your state and city are listed…-Lance, May 22nd, 2008
We are happy to introduce another new feature here on fautrever.com. Visited Places, as we titled it, deals with [...]
We have had the opportunity to explore downtown Tucson on several different occasions recently. The downtown area is roughly broken into two main sections, the Presidio District north of Broadway Boulevard and the Barrio District to the south. We toured the Presidio District first and since it is the oldest part of town (not including [...]
Erin at Monahans Sandhills[mp4 6.4MB, 1 min 1 sec] (Alternative: view on YouTube)
This video shows Erin walking around in her element: outside taking pictures. I tried to be quiet so you could hear the silence; but the resulting audio just sounds like wind noise… oh well. I took this out during one of our evening [...]
These two videos go with our Horsin’ Around in Kentucky post. Both clips are from the Kentucky Horse Park’s “Parade of Breeds” where visitors can watch and learn about a wide variety of horse breeds from around the world.
They typically have two different shows daily—we went to both and were excited to watch and learn. [...]
As I mentioned previously, I grew up in the Tucson area. The city lies in the Sonoran Desert which covers parts of Arizona, California and the state of Sonora in Mexico. The Sonoran Desert is the largest and hottest desert in North America and yet it is also the wettest desert—receiving anywhere from 3” to [...]
The name Tucson comes from a Spanish interpretation of a Tohono O’odham phrase meaning “at the base of the black hill.” An appropriate, descriptive name since the earliest inhabitants did live near the base of a small hill made of dark basalt, a volcanic rock. For us it means home. I have lived here since [...]
Our return to southern Arizona began with a quick stop at my Grandma’s house near Portal. She lives in a beautiful part of the state and the weather was lovely for our overnight stay, warm with a slight breeze. We were also able to visit with my Aunt Paula and her boyfriend Harry. It was [...]
The weather continued to warm as we drove westward on I-20 from the Panhandle Plains into the Big Bend region of Texas. Even though it was late afternoon the temperature was well into the 80s, not that we were complaining. The higher numbers meant we were getting closer to the place we will always consider [...]
We had originally planned to take it easy on the way back to Tucson, Arizona; we usually only travel about 200 miles at a time. But the miles just rolled on by; Sunday evening we were outside of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. Considering that we left Cave City, Kentucky (675 miles away) the night before, we [...]
It would be strange to be in Kentucky and not stop at Mammoth Cave National Park, after all it is the world’s largest cave system. Even though it has been mapped at over 350 miles long, all of the known cave fits well within the Park’s 53,000 surface acres. Through the ages, as slightly acidic [...]
We were in the Commonwealth of Kentucky for two reasons: one, it is due south of Ohio and two, we’d heard good things about the state. The “Bluegrass State” can technically be considered a part of the Midwest but most consider it part of the South. Helping to place it in the South is the [...]
Ohio has many claims to fame, but to me Ohio means family: my mom’s whole side of the family is from there. We visited family many times through the years and Ohio will always be the place where I had many adventures (and misadventures) with my extended family.
Hocking Hills State Park? Oh, that’s the place [...]
Though the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has many enticing reasons to stay and explore we only had time for a brief stop in the northern part of the state. Pennsylvania means “Penn’s Woods” and was named after William Penn who was given the land by the King of England. The tract granted to Penn in 1681 [...]
Niagara Falls[mp4 8.8MB, 2min 21 sec]
Erin and I had a beautiful day to explore the Niagara Falls area. It was a hot, sunny day in late summer, so the mist felt good on our faces. It was like a natural air conditioner—as soon as you left the edge of the falls, you were hot again.
Though [...]
We were in the Buffalo area to visit one of Lance’s many homelands; he lived here with his family in the mid–1980s while his father was attending SUNY. Amazingly, many of the things Lance remembered have stayed the same: his old house, his school, the pond where he used to play. Of course a great [...]
We entered the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York with no preset plan, we just figured we’d find something interesting in the area, and we did. The Finger Lakes themselves consist of either seven or eleven (depending on who you ask) long river valleys that were dammed by glacial moraines at the end of [...]
Our first stop in New York wasn’t far from where we crossed Lake Champlain: Fort Ticonderoga. The strategically located fort stands on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Champlain. The lake was once an important part of a network of waterways; it is near Lake George on one end and connects to the St. [...]
Driving from New Hampshire into Vermont we noticed two things immediately. One, there are no billboards along the highway (a state law). Not that New Hampshire is littered with them but their absence was wonderful; it made the drive more scenic and less hectic (I feel obligated to read all the billboards along the way, [...]
Our time in New Hampshire was spent in the north country, “North of the Notches” as they say. We settled into an RV park just outside of Gorham. Gorham is a small crossroads town; two highways meet here, the train trundles through several times a day, the Appalachian Trail meanders near town and the wide [...]
As Garrison Keillor says, “It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegone”. Technically, we were in western Maine but you know what I mean. It was good to have a mellow week as we needed time to catch up on work and plan out our itinerary. Our goal for so long had been to visit [...]
For our time on Mount Desert Island (MDI) we opted to stay on the “Quietside.” Meaning that we were on the opposite side of the island from the ultra-touristy town of Bar Harbor. Our RV park was tucked in the hills above the small fishing village of Southwest Harbor. When I say hills I am [...]
We entered Maine with a sigh of relief. The difference was tangible: we could see and feel the wide open space, the road widened and straightened. The hills covered in pine trees rolled along with us. After the past couple months in the more crowded states of New England it was a welcome relief to [...]
We are excited to be exploring the Pine Tree State, Maine. It is the largest state in New England and the only state in the United States that borders only one other (New Hampshire). Maine is the least densely populated state in New England. Let’s not forget the completely useless information that Maine is [...]
fautrever.com chronicles the Travel Adventures of Lance and Erin Willett. We are traveling across North America in a 34’ RV—living and working from the road. Contact us or read more about us.
Where are we now? Hayden, ID 83835. 
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