ross and jamie adventure

The Dole Whip Dilemma

| jamiefeinberg

I would be remiss if I didn’t update you soon on the fun we had en route to central Florida, but I can’t resist sharing that we’ve made our first video! 

Ross and I have annual passes to Disney World (a major perk of being new Florida residents) and on a recent visit to the Magic Kingdom, I was excited to try the vanilla soft serve and pineapple juice drink I’d heard so much about. But it turned out to be a much more exciting challenge than we anticipated! 

Watch the short video and let us know what you think – and if you’d like other updates here on our Disney-ventures, tell us that too! 

A Quick Taste of Austin, TX

| jamiefeinberg

Austin, Texas has been on our list of places to visit for a long time. A liberal mecca in a conservative state, Austin is known for its food, music and for being “weird”. We’re weird musicians who love to eat so it’s obvious why we wanted to check it out. 

Because we were on an extremely limited budget and I’m on a very limited diet, we chose to make Austin a quick visit and to return later. In fact we might have skipped it completely if it wasn’t for the fact that we wanted to participate in the Women’s March and realized Austin would be our best location for that. 

The logistics of our visit proved to be surprisingly challenging. It’s a very hilly community, and our first sign of challenge was when we could barely fit in the Lowe’s parking lot, our chosen location for Ross to teach as we headed into town. I also realized quickly that at least the outskirts of town make walking from place to place challenging. (It always makes me sad when new developments don’t encourage walking or biking.)

Our next challenge? We found an adequate Walmart to set up shop for the night, but we didn’t feel safe leaving the RV alone while we marched. As I called campground after campground (our top choice was booked up weeks ago), I realized we might not find any vacancies within an easy walk or Uber/Lyft ride or the march. This would significantly increase the cost of our visit and kind of defeat the purpose. 

Luckily, when I reached out to my mother’s cousin’s son about meeting up, he suggested we park on the street near his home. I’m so glad we gave that a shot. Although we weren’t completely level, we felt very safe parked on the street and it seemed to be allowed by the city, both from what I read and in practice. This location was actually amazing – we walked about 3 miles to the march and back without any issues! Our host let us use his shower and we got to spend a little time (not enough) getting to know him and his girlfriend and seeing his amazing custom guitar company, Moniker Guitars. (Ross was in heaven with that.) We also visited Prohibition Creamery for a fun ice cream and alcohol adventure.

We hoped to take our hosts to breakfast but we had to settle for coffee due to their schedule. Instead we drove to a local supermarket, bought a couple of groceries and walked a little over a mile to Picnik, a gluten, corn and soy-free restaurant where I had an entire menu of food specific to my diet to choose from! We had an outstanding local, healthy meal (Brussels sprouts with bacon, cassava pancakes with chocolate chips and a side of amazing vegetables for me) and the atmosphere is lovely too. Well-worth a splurge! 

Traffic in Austin isn’t fun but it beats Dallas, and we managed to avoid driving in it too often. We will definitely be returning to the area, but we highly recommend booking an RV park far in advance. There are plenty of Walmarts but since they don’t have great reviews I wouldn’t want to walk away from my home and hope for the best. 

Next up I’ll explore our quick taste of New Orleans. We’re currently settled in Florida for two more months. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Making the Most of Midland, TX

| jamiefeinberg

We were delighted this January to get a phone call inviting us to spend a week or two at a campground in Midland, TX. We had passed through Midland as we headed to Arizona (staying at a local Walmart) and while it was clear that it’s a large city, it’s in the middle of the oil fields and we weren’t too motivated to explore it as we couldn’t picture ourselves staying for the long-term. That being said, it has plenty to do, and nearby San Angelo is full of super-nice people and a thriving arts scene too.

Midland RV Park invited us to take advantage of a campsite – full hookups, pay showers, decent internet for emails, nice if not fancy – in exchange for work on their website and organizing a community campaign to bring internet to the park. Without a separate car, we stocked up on groceries and planned to stay there for the week. They also invited Ross to give a concert at a dinner for the local residents. In fact, the area is very limiting to visit in this way. Walking the streets isn’t a great idea here. But across the street made an incredible difference in changing this from a basic RV park, great for our needs but not exciting (after all, I had to record about 40 piano tracks for a project) to a beautiful place I didn’t want to leave.

The 1-20 Wildlife Preserve is an almost 1.5 mile walking loop where you’ll find tons of birds, rodents, butterflies, lizards and even bobcats around a gorgeous body of water that will make you feel like you’re on the ocean. It is truly an oasis and besides Mondays, you can explore it daily for free.I made a point to take a walk every day we stayed in town. Whether it was in the 30s or the 80s (yes, both happened), I was out there. Only one day with lots of rain and flooding kept me inside.

The people in Midland were extremely nice and welcoming to us – one employee even gave me a ride to and from Walmart for groceries – and we loved our stay. If you need a place to pause and recharge for a few days, don’t overlook Midland!

Las Cruces Love

| jamiefeinberg

It was practically love at first sight…but first, how we got there. 

As I mentioned in my last post, our visit to El Paso, TX was super-short due to weather and the lack of a car. It was the first time I have been in a Walmart and didn’t see any other white people! We were impressed by how art is everywhere in El Paso – even on the highways! Here are a few photos to give you a taste. 

We originally had plans to visit White Sands National Monument for some sand-sledding, but Ross was nervous about getting enough music prep time in, so at the last minute we decided to settle into Las Cruces, NM for a couple of nights. We’re so glad we did!

Their library was surprisingly easy to fit a smaller RV into – at least on a Saturday – and I was overjoyed to see that we were within an easy walk of downtown! So after a few hours researching campgrounds and settling on an expensive KOA with amazing views of the mountains, we took a walk downtown. 

After showing Ross the music store (one of three, it turns out) and the phenomenal used bookstore (they also carry sheet music, albums, comics, theater books etc.; It’s a mess but it’s a fabulous treasure hunt you could spend weeks exploring) I went off to visit some of the FREE museums downtown. 

I started with the Nature & Science Museum. Although these aren’t usually my favorite museums (I prefer history and art typically), I hadn’t gotten a science lesson in recently and I thought I was overdue to learn about the region. Not only did I get to see amazing reptiles and amphibians with the fossils – I was also invited to enjoy a private behind the scenes tour of the museum! Here I saw LOTS of additional animals, learned how they are fed and cared for, including a Gila Monster, and I got to get up close and personal with the creatures I had previously seen behind glass. It was such a unique experience! 

There are three other free museums. I skipped the Railroad Museum, which is a bit of a walk from where I was, but I loved the Art Museum (it’s small but had a phenomenal contemporary exhibit), and the Cultural Center offered exhibits on the region, including the use of quilting by Native Americans and one on military costumes, in a historic and beautiful building that I was glad I made time to visit. 

When we weren’t enjoying downtown, we were learning about this awesome university town, barely 90 minutes from El Paso. It has farmer’s/crafter’s markets twice a week that are one of the best in the state. It has great programming for its residents. Dance classes were dirt cheap – $2-$4 – at many local studios. And it has two downtown theater companies, one more mainstream and one Black Box (A New Brain was on the docket there). And of course anything you couldn’t find in town would be found in El Paso. 

We drove to the KOA, where we were greeted with the best views yet. 


We spent two nights surrounded by mountain ranges and beauty everywhere we looked. The gorgeous showers didn’t hurt either! 

Monday morning, we packed up and headed to Mountain View Market Co-op, where I struggled to stick to my budget (but did) and was impressed by their offerings, especially the wide variety of local honey products. Ross meanwhile visited a comics shop with fun collector’s items. On our way here, I had been brainstorming where to get Ross a taco – he’d been craving one and we hadn’t had one in Texas or New Mexico – when we passed Bosa Donuts & Burritos. So after I ate my own lunch, we walked to get Ross a donut and a taco plate. The donuts are moist on the inside but crispy on the outside, and after a bite of a taco, Ross said, “Yup. I wanna live here.” This institution has been around for twenty years or so and I really hope I will be healthy enough to eat it when we return!

Everyone was incredibly friendly in Las Cruces. Everyone! We felt incredibly safe walking around and driving was easy to navigate, even for me. Hubbard’s, another music store, was so friendly that they invited Ross to their regular Monday night jam. And we read about an LGBTQ choir, a ukelele group, theaters and a film society in town, so it seemed like we’d fit right in. 

Like Missoula, MT, Las Cruces is surrounded by mountains and completely gorgeous. We would prefer to learn Spanish, but unlike El Paso, we didn’t always feel like the minority here, so we felt we’d be fine without the second language. 

Suffice to say, we will be looking up their university offerings. Arts seem to be pretty cheap here, which may mean it’s hard to make a living in them, but the cost of living also seems low based on what we were seeing. Lots of mixed use communities we would be happy in. The bus system is pretty extensive and cheap ($1/ride, with other discounts available for frequent users) and buses to other parts of the region and El Paso are also available – particularly good for airport options I imagine.  

As we headed West, we passed the Continental Divide, enjoyed 180 degree mountain views in Arizona and New Mexico (it was like a sea of mountains) and passed a Geronimo Surrenders monument. 

We will be back, New Mexico. As soon as we can! 

Catching Up and Passing Through

| jamiefeinberg

After our visit to the Dallas area, including Denton and Lewisville, it was time to head west. Unfortunately we didn’t feel comfortable bringing a rental car across the state, so we had to return it – leaving us without a car. We are still hoping to get another rental next week if I can get through to my insurance company (don’t ask) but in the meantime, this has made our sight-seeing much more challenging. So I’m sharing initial impressions to get you caught up on our travels. 

The Dallas highway signage – and traffic – is atrocious. I was so glad Ross was driving because I just couldn’t have handled it. And I was really thankful we could return the rental in Lewisville and avoid that insanity in an RV. The GPS was really confused too – it felt worse than Boston to navigate. At least they had bike lanes five miles from downtown!

We drove through Boyd, Texas, which Ross’ family should get a kick out of. (We didn’t stop though, Ross said he was Boyd enough.) 


Runaway Bay into Bridgeport Lake was one of the most gorgeous sites we’ve seen, with water on both sides of the divided highway. Hubbard Creek Lake was also gorgeous and immediately followed by the Plaza Motel, which I found amusing. Albany had a very cute old west feel downtown; and the next notable site was Abilene, TX. If we had had a car, we would have walked downtown (they have statues of storybook characters throughout) and I would have visited Abilene Christian University for a walk (it’s a great campus), but the campus wasn’t RV-friendly so instead we spent the day at the library and visited a What-A-Burger so Ross could experience it! (I had a tiny bite, a few sips of chocolate shake and one fry. I didn’t die!)


I chose a branch library that was in a strip mall. Tons of parking and the fastest upload speeds I had seen since my mom’s house! We picked another spot in town for the evening and headed out the next day. Abilene seems to have everything you need. But it could use way more sidewalks. 

We’ve noticed that Texas has lots of interstates parallel to state highways. Maybe these towns have been built up along these corridors? You can drive parallel to the interstate a lot – not something we have seen elsewhere. 

Our next stop was Midland, TX. The area is full of Spanish architecture (and Spanish-speaking people of course) and had lots of empty storefronts in this childhood home of G. W. Bush. We noticed buses and lots of sidewalks, multiple theatres and what looked like a cute natural foods market. But this area is bizarre. It’s surrounded by oil fields – not pretty – and it’s an odd, industrial place. I also noticed self-serve water stations, $1/5 gallons, which I had never seen before.


Before and after the oil fields we did see a lot of natural beauty in Texas. This was the first area we saw vandalism on highways. We passed the International Memorial Wall and a bridge to Mexico, and we were near the Rio Grande. After some last-minute repositioning in awkward traffic in El Paso, we settled in for a night. El Paso is clearly an awesome city but with pouring rain and Saturday crowds the next day, we decided to keep moving. 

That almost catches you up. I will save our drive from El Paso for the next post. Thanks for reading! 

Giving Thanks in Plano, Texas

| jamiefeinberg

I had very specific goals for Thanksgiving this year, and my husband was kind enough to agree to accommodate me in making them happen. I’ve been following the Auto-Immune Protocol since July in an attempt to reverse some of my auto-immune symptoms, and because it is such a strict diet, partaking in Thanksgiving without making the meal myself wasn’t an option. 

So when my friend Charlie offered to host us for Thanksgiving while we were in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I didn’t want to get my hopes up. But after much back and forth, it was clear this would work for us. Three nights camped in their driveway with electric hookups and showers; a chance to cook my own menu (with assistance on turkey, sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts); and the chance to socialize a bit with friends. Their home in Plano, right next to Dallas, is gorgeous and in a lovely neighborhood, and it was a great place to spend a few days. (I will be sharing the full details on my menu successes and surprises here.) They have a wonderful group of friends and neighbors that we enjoyed spending time with. 

While we were in Plano, I attended a screen acting class, which was fun. I also took some nice walks and picked up a rental car, courtesy of our insurance company. And I loved having a full kitchen to spread out in and cook. 

So far the Dallas area has beautiful weather – we ate outside on Thanksgiving – but it isn’t a very attractive city. Our campground is more than a half hour away though, on a lake, and it really couldn’t be more beautiful. 

We plan to visit downtown Fort Worth today and we might explore in the coming days as well depending on how inspired we are. We’re feeling thankful for this beautiful campground and for friends and family, and we are using this time to regroup and plan what’s next. 

My theater company in NH is performing before Christmas, so I have lots of prep work to do for that, and Ross has work to do to prepare for his gigs as well. So we will need to leave time for work as well as play. 

Thanks for reading! I will share more photos and stories in the coming days. Hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. 

O-klahoma!

| jamiefeinberg

Yesterday was a long day, with showers and wind interspersed with some beautiful scenery amidst what was mostly nondescript Oklahoma towns. 

One of the first we passed through, after a great night’s sleep at Walmart, was Afton, Oklahoma. The downtown’s buildings looked almost entirely gutted or long vacant or fire-damaged. It was really sad. We also noticed a few ads on junk cars dressed as police cars that read “Been Bad? Call Brad!”. Apparently it’s a bail bond service. Sad that that is such an in demand industry. On the other hand, there were lots of video stores in Oklahoma, including Family Video, which is hiring! So if you miss the days of Blockbuster, try Oklahoma!

This was our first time really seeing American Indian nations. Different tribes have their own license plates and it was neat to get a glimpse as we passed through. Of course there are many casinos but the Choctaw Casino is like a gorgeous city unto itself in the middle of nowhere! Anyone want to see Franki Valli and the Four Seasons there in a few weeks? 

The best part of the drive was driving over Lake Eufala. I knew NH mountains would be hills out here, but I didn’t realize our lakes are like ponds in comparison! This one goes on for many, many miles, and the combination of hills, foliage and lake was incredibly gorgeous, even on a cloudy day. 

Churches (and sometimes schools) were very different in Oklahoma. They often looked like strip malls! We haven’t seen any like that in the Midwest or the Northeast. I wonder if anyone has photographed the churches of the U.S.? And today Ross taught his first Skype lesson from the RV which was awesome. I found us a town with excellent cell signal (Verizon) and we parked at Loew’s, which had usable internet for emails from our vehicle without a booster!

Some of the hills we passed yesterday reminded me of Tennessee. Other things struck us as different though. Apparently “Bag of burgers” are a thing at multiple places here? Braum’s looks like a cute, quaint chain with their own cow’s dairy and ice cream. Oklahoma also had some weird highways where cars could enter and exit from cross streets (and occasionally you’d have to stop completely) which felt really unsafe. 

So far, Texas seems like suburbia in steroids. Everyone drives incredibly fast and the ramps aren’t built for slow drivers. So far we haven’t seen much if any sign of public transit either. Just strip mall after strip mall with too many cars. My friend told us a plus and minus out here – you aren’t a close drive to the ocean or mountains. BUT everything is open almost 24 hours, which is handy. 

Last night we socialized with our friends (I went to a screen acting class while Ross enjoyed drinks and conversation) and today I will be picking up a rental car and baking and preparing for tomorrow. I will be preparing almost all of the meal for 7 people (not the turkey and probably not one of the veggies) so I definitely have some work to do! Our insurance company has been giving me headaches so I hope it all goes smoothly today. 

Cross your fingers that my key lime pie is not only edible but vaguely reminiscent of my grandmother’s. It’s going to be fun!

The Best Rest Stop Ever?

| jamiefeinberg

Yesterday was a long day, but we powered through and we are hopefully within a day’s drive of our destination today. Moving forward we would like to limit the driving to more like 5-6 hours plus stops, but the car issue definitely set us back. On days where we sightsee, we want to drive even less. 

Although the internet was only useable during the evening when the Visitor’s Center was closed, the Lamoni, IA rest stop makes the most of its location in a way I haven’t seen before. Art permeates the building, with the Mormon Trail as a centerpiece. The gorgeous design includes lots of comfortable seating, and against the wall are booths with Internet and seats so that you can work with electricity (and heat!) in comfort. The rest rooms are really nice too.

Outside you’ll find a pet area, tons of picnic tables and some historical information in the area. An outdoor patio invites you to linger. Two additional walking trails are worth a look. One leads to an overlook of the river. It’s a nice walk, even if the foliage is a bit overgrown like it was when I was there. And the other leads to an absolutely incredible spot on the lake with a picnic table to enjoy the views. There are also walking trails (not handicapped accessible) that look like they go around the lake, but I wouldn’t explore that without an orange vest at this time of year.

I absolutely loved waking up to the sunrise here. What beautiful (and free!) views.

Other things we did yesterday:

Got gas in Kearney, MO (and resisted the excellent Krispy Kreme displays)

Crossed the Missouri River

Walked downtown of historic Independence, MO, home of Harry S. Truman and his library; full of beautiful homes and sidewalks and diverse residents (at least one that didn’t seem thrilled we were visiting!)

Drove through Kansas, including a few city areas that were crazily busy

The highways had “exits on exits” which weren’t our favorite

Drove the Frontier Military Historic Byway

Enjoyed the look of Fort Scott, KS (future trip?) which seemed fun and historic

Enjoyed this pretty state with lots of lakes and trees 

Visited Missouri for literally another minute before entering Ohio

Stayed warm although it got down to 25 degrees outside our RV (40 in)

We had hoped to stay at another rest stop last night, but they actually close it down after hours so we found a different free parking lot (Walmart) to crash in. Miami, OK is home to eight American Indian nations and it is kind of fun to be in Miami! We were also charged the car rate when we exited to pay a toll, $.75, so that was fun. 

Today we will head toward a friend who lives outside of Dallas for Thanksgiving. No grand sightseeing plans for today. We are ready to relax our pace after this. Thanks for reading!  

Dining in Des Moines

| jamiefeinberg

We had originally hoped to leave Iowa on Monday, but after a ton of frustration with our car insurance, we didn’t get the word that the car would be totaled (and hence no reason to stick around) until late Friday. After getting our electric step adjusted (will need to order a new motor, but at least it’s all the way in now), we drove back to our friend’s in the crazy wind before some snow came in. So we planned to leave Sunday morning, after the wind fest was over. 

We had an admirable goal of 9 am but by the time we were actually ready to depart it was closer to 11:30. We said our goodbyes to Dan and Aoife, to their cats Buddy and Zoe, and to my adorable dog friend across the street, a collie. We were off. 

We stopped an hour or so in for a quick break in Mason City, which looks walkable from the brief bit we saw. I visited my first Hy-Vee grocery store. They’re quite the experience! This one has pizza, Italian, Asian cuisine (all in mini stores along the outside) as well as a pharmacy, a huge alcohol selection, great deli and bakery and everything you’d expect. I grabbed some additional Thanksgiving essentials since a friend of mine in Texas has invited us to join them!

We passed through Ames, IA, as well, which has a university and a bus system for public transit as well as lots of lakes and nature trails. We didn’t explore, but maybe next time we pass through. 

Our main goal for the day was to visit a food co-op or natural food store. Since we hadn’t been in Des Moines yet, we headed there, only a few miles off our route.

Gateway Grocery was beautiful, with a market cafe attached. Parking was a challenge in the RV but we made it work. Don’t bring a big rig here unless you want to park on the street. The little glimpse we had of Des Moines showed us some very nice neighborhoods worthy of further exploration. 

The Grocery was quite overpriced for most things, but the food was really high end which helped make up for it. Ross was tired and had worked hard all day, so I treated him to some Spicy Pork Belly Ramen. He loved the pork, enjoyed the spicy dish and kept raving about it, so I think I did good!

After our food adventures I grabbed some dinner and we headed to our destination, a rest stop in Lamoni with wifi and walking trails that other RV-ers had found really welcoming. We had quite the adventure getting there – we tried following one of my apps for a gas station and spent way too long amidst corn fields and deer – but we worked it out and got back on course, found gas and found the rest stop. It gets dark so quickly now. We were settled into bed before 8 am! 

The temperature dropped to 25 degrees last night (winter weather camping isn’t our favorite but we are very capable) so we are glad to be heading out of Iowa!

Today we might make a quick stop in Kansas City as we pass through. Time will tell how far we get. We can stay in Texas tomorrow night but we can also wait until Wednesday if we don’t want to rush, so we will see how the driving goes. Thanks for reading!