< more recent | January 2025 | older >
27 January 2025: Maybe still inspired by the trip to the paradox museum, I was playing with photography and transforming the ordinary into the imaginary by the way we frame it. Cool photo out the window via and extreme close up through the curtain fabric of the building across the courtyard…
18 January 2025: Had a lot of fun exploring the Paradoxe Musee, a great place to just suspend disbelief and let the illusions take over. Sensory illusions, optical illusions and spatial puzzles made it feel like a “wonderland” for grownups (though there were plenty of kids there having a great time, too). We got silly and let ourselves go along with the paradoxical for the afternoon…
15 January 2025: Back in Paris and exploring some favorite neighborhoods looking for street art and other very “Parisian” things that I’ve missed since I’ve been away. Of course, mostly I am reconnecting with friends and that is great fun, but I also just want to rediscover the urban ambiance that I always loved here in a “quartier populaire” that has become totally gentrified but still retains a few nods to its origins…
6 January 2025: Snow falling is a reminder that I need to “escape winter” but before I can go to the desert, I am headed “across the pond” to see friends in Paris. Looking forward to catching up and enjoying a favorite city (and escaping the snow)…
THIS MONTH:
Returning to the “city of light” after a way-too-long hiatus and reconnecting with friends, favorite places and some urban exploring to change things up a little bit …
COMING UP SOON:
Joining the Barlow Adventures Rebelle Rally training for an intensive sand dune driving and navigation practice at the Imperial Sand Dunes in southern California. This is a seven-day driving and navigation program that focuses on moving safely and effectively through large dunefields with skills-building exercises intended to improve pace, line choice and vehicle control. There is a full classroom day of navigation instruction focused on mapping and understanding the basics of plotting and route planning on paper maps, as well as increasingly challenging in-the-field practice to develop precision map and compass navigation skills. It all culminates in a final day of “chasing checkpoints” out in the big dunes…
Trail Guiding for the California 4-Wheel Drive Association’s fifth annual Death Valley Experience fundraiser event. Each day will feature a choice of runs to some famous, some infamous and some secretive points of interest within Death Valley National Park. Some of the points of interest we may visit during Death Valley Experience 2025 include Zabriskie Point (famous), Barker Ranch (infamous) and the Racetrack (learn the secret of the moving rocks). Other points of interest include Dante’s View, 20 Mule Team Canyon, Artists’ Drive, Chloride Cliffs, Aguereberry Point, Skidoo, Titus Canyon, and Darwin Falls. All of the trail runs are suitable for novice drivers and SUVs with high clearance and 4-wheel drive…
USnomads.org is very proud to be presenting the fourth edition of the Nomad Overland Virtual Adventure Rally in 2025. This is a unique kind of rally experience — a ten week event that participants can do from anywhere within the continental U.S.A. Competitors design their own routes as part of the rally, then drive it in a points-based online competition that includes optional activity tasks, quests and weekly challenges. The 2025 rally will run from 2 June – 10 August and is open to any driver within the United States who has an off-road capable vehicle — stock or modified. Registration for 2025 is currently open. For more information see the Rally website …
This October JoMarie Fecci of USnomads.org will be joining with Jody DeVere of AskPatty.com to form TEAM CELEBRATION, competing in the 10th Anniversary edition of the Rebelle Rally, as Team 111. Team Celebration will be busy in the coming months, training for the great adventures ahead as they hone their driving and navigation skills and prepare for the mental challenges the Rally will bring …
Nesconset | Paris | Belgrade | Lanoka Harbor | Cape May | Carolla | Mandeville | New Orleans
MORE NOTES FROM THE ROAD:
23-31 December – Holiday Roadtrip
16-22 December – Holiday Roadtrip
18-15 December – New York
8-30 November – New York
1-7 November – Roadtrip South
23-31 October – Roadtrip South
15-22 October – Roadtrip South
8-14 October – Roadtrip South
1-7 October – Roadtrip South
September – New York
August – New York
26-31 March – Eastbound
20-25 March – NM
15-19 March – DVE
9-14 March – AZ
1-8 March – NV & AZ
23-29 February – Glamis
16-22 February – Roadtrip SW
1-15 February – Roadtrip SW
January – Paris
22-31 December – Holiday Roadtrip
15-21 December – Holiday Roadtrip
Archive
ROADTRIP
An epic journey crisscrossing the USA from east to west and back again, exploring some of the beautiful wild spaces that make up our “public lands.” The roadtrip covered almost 15,000 miles, much of it off-grid and off-pavement, focusing on the deserts of the American southwest. Some locations were truly “iconic” while others were little known, and the segments of independent exploration where punctuated with some fun events across the region… [read]
SPECIAL REPORT
All about exploring ghost towns and abandoned places in the USA and beyond, with tips, and information on the many different types of sites to be found across the globe, including detailed guides for eight specific sites… [read]
LOCATION
This installment of a series that focuses on locations around the USA takes a look at some favorite places near our home base in NY. We share a few places we like to explore, where you can experience something of the raw natural beauty of coastal beaches, pine barrens and a little bit of obscure military history… [read]
