Everyone who knows me, knows that I like snakes. I’ve kept dozens of different species, and every time I see a snake in the wild I stop whatever I am doing to look at it. Here are some of the snakes I have photo’d during my travels around the country.

The open-air US Post Office in downtown St Petersburg FL is the earliest of its kind in the US. St Petersburg FL was founded in 1888 when a Russian immigrant named Peter Demens built a railroad pier at Tampa Bay that allowed ships to unload without entering all the way into the Port of Tampa. … More St Pete’s Open-Air Post Office

[NOTE: I’ve blogged all these “how-to” posts before, but am gonna re-run them on occasion, since folks may have missed them, and many of them have been updated or expanded since they were first posted.] If you live in a van, of course, the simplest way of getting around to the places in the city … More Life in the Van: Getting Around

For the past few nights I have been poking around in all the photo files that I have shot since I began traveling around the country in 2015 (so far I’ve shot over 125,000 photos), and I began setting aside some of the ones I liked. So here’s just some of my favorite wildlife shots … More Some of My Favorite Critter Pics

The big silver flying saucer on the roof of the Odyssey strip club in Tampa FL is a familiar landmark to passers-by. Most people think the UFO is just a marketing gimmick, but in reality it is a relic from a futuristic housing design from the 1960s. Tampa Bay is noted worldwide for its sunny … More The Flying Saucer and the Strip Club

[NOTE: I’ve blogged all these “how-to” posts before, but am gonna re-run them on occasion, since folks may have missed them, and many of them have been updated or expanded since they were first posted.] Most people can’t live without their TV or DVD. I don’t have a TV set or DVD player in the … More Life in the Van: Entertainment

Dragonflies are like flying little jewels. These are some of the dragonflies I have photographed around the country during the past seven years of traveling. I can’t identify them, but some of them appear to be the same species. They range from Florida to Arizona to Michigan.

In 1948, mysterious footprints appeared on the sand of Clearwater Beach in Tampa Bay, Florida, which convinced many that a prehistoric monster had come ashore. Early one morning in February 1948, residents of the sleepy little Florida beach town of Clearwater, just north of St Petersburg, found something strange on the shoreline. The wet sand was … More The Clearwater Beach Monster

[NOTE: I’ve blogged all these “how-to” posts before, but am gonna re-run them on occasion, since folks may have missed them, and many of them have been updated or expanded since they were first posted.] Back in my younger days as a backpacker, we used almost no electricity at all. I sometimes carried a small … More Life In the Van: Electricity

As a group, the ferns were some of the earliest plants to leave the ancient sea and invade the land. Fossil ferns have been found dating back to 390 million years ago, and DNA sequencing indicates that they may have first appeared over 430 million years ago. During the Carboniferous period 300 million years ago … More Some Florida Ferns