Twenty-Five: June/July 2021

ROVA

The magazine for epic road trips

ROVA2 min read
From The Editor
When I was a kid, for every school vacation my parents would pack my sisters and me into our old Ford Falcon with the Jayco Songbird hitched up to the bumper. We’d drive into the desert, or take coastal roads to remote rainforests. We would eat lunch
ROVA2 min read
Rova In Your Words
Seeing the April/May 2021 issue of ROVA in my clear plastic workplace mailbox has been the brightest ray of sunshine I’ve experienced today. I’m an avid night-sky photographer and the photo essay titled “Good Places to Die” by Mike Mercer caught me q
ROVA2 min read
Why The Road?
Our love of national parks started early in our relationship, with trips to Joshua Tree, Glacier, and Yellowstone. Hooked instantly, we decided not to wait until retirement to start exploring. So, with lots of planning and plenty of fear, we took the
ROVA4 min read
The Scoop On Rooftop Tents
Rooftop tents (RTTs) have exploded in popularity recently, with more models available every year. They provide a happy medium between a ground tent and an RV, and they create a comfortable sleeping space anywhere that your vehicle can go. There are t
ROVA7 min readArchitecture
Home Is Not A House
After a long stretch on Oklahoma’s I-40, we backtracked west from Okemah, hopped on Highway 48 towards Bristow, and merged onto the I-44 heading into Missouri. I had started the day feeling strong, driving the RV with a renewed sense of purpose. My w
ROVA5 min read
Frog Legs
All my life, I’ve been anxious about things I can’t control. When I embarked on my first cross-country road trip the summer before my senior year of college, I worried about a plethora of things—extreme weather conditions, engine trouble, hitchhikers
ROVA3 min read
GONE ON A WHIM A Photo Essay
It was late October; a gentle, early-season snow was falling outside our window when my girlfriend, Alyssa, and I made the split decision to head to the Sierras. Fall had come to pass quickly here in Canada, and we weren’t quite ready to let it go. W
ROVA4 min read
ONE SWEET BEE-GARDEN Beauty and Solitude at the San Joaquin River Gorge
The dog knows first. She takes my trail shoe (always the left one) and carries it around the house until I put on and lace the right one. Then she returns the left shoe—slightly damp—and waits. Cadence is 10 years old, but believes, like any good Lab
ROVA4 min read
THE BIG SMOKY VALLEY Nevada’s Most Underrated Destination
Southern Nevada has Vegas and Northern Nevada has Tahoe, but there’s nothing like a road trip through Central Nevada. The road in question? Nevada State Route 376. This route takes travelers on a high-desert journey through the Big Smoky Valley, wher
ROVA5 min read
An Afternoon In Gruene
As I pulled off the I-35 in New Braunfels, Texas, I could see the glinting point of an old silver water tower. Bold, black letters on the tank, whose steel legs disappeared beneath a canopy of twisting cypress trees, spelled out the word “GRUENE.” It
ROVA4 min read
ODDITIES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA In Wisconsin’s Driftless Area
There is nowhere like southwestern Wisconsin when it comes to wonder. After miles of flat farmland, rivers carve through a suddenly rocky landscape, dense with forests. While glacial movement scraped most of the Midwest flat, the Driftless Area remai
ROVA1 min readEarth Sciences
Picture This...
Big Sur. You can’t quite distinguish between the sound of the waves hitting the shore and that of the wind whipping around you. In the distance, the rich green of the rolling hills seems to blend into the blue depths of the ocean, and spring has deli
ROVA5 min read
Rediscovering The Civil War In The Age Of Covid
The coronavirus made tourism tricky—even lethal. Museums and other indoor attractions shuttered. Flying seemed risky. Like many Americans, I quickly contracted a debilitating travel bug. How could I cure a crippling case of wanderlust yet avoid contr
ROVA2 min read
Gear Up!
Nothing beats the high you get after a good workout—whether it’s hiking up a mountain, pedaling along a trail, or scaling a cliff face—but we could all do without the aching muscles that follow. Recovery is important after any kind of workout, and l
ROVA5 min read
Keys To Survival
Ernest Hemingway found solace and drink in Key West. For more than a decade, the novelist famously made his home in the southernmost place in the US. There, in a cramped writing studio in a carriage house, he wrote several short stories, as well as h
ROVA1 min read
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Gemma Peckham gemma@rovamag.com media@rovamag.com 646-582-2033 Abby Schmidt Giulia Heppell, Kate Hutcheson Kate Hutcheson, Benedicte Grima, Cat Carroll, Jasmine Ledesma, Matt Sebert, Siobhan Bledsoe, Michael Rubenstone, Logan Stallings, Nicholas Spo
ROVA5 min readAutomotive
Ode To The Stick Shift
“Why do you want to drive a stick?” I’ve lost count how many times that question has been aimed at me. My usual response is, “I like to control my driving, to feel the dialogue between my feet and hand. Hell, I can glide to a stop and start up again
ROVA4 min read
Late Night Gas Stations, Explained
You’re tired. More tired than you’ve been in days, with the exhaustion burrowed deep within you. And you’re dirty. There’s a line of grayed grime lingering beneath your fingernails; your face itches. You’ve been driving for too long. Where the bright
ROVA3 min read
Rova Recommends
Starting a new hobby can be daunting—it can often feel like everyone knows more than you and there’s simply too much to learn. If you’re new to backpacking and outdoor adventure, The First 40 Miles podcast will help you feel at home among your fellow
ROVA7 min read
INTIMATE STRANGERS Lifelines During a Pandemic-era Solo American Road Trip
The “Intimate Stranger” concept has long occupied a compartment in my mind. This idea originated while I was living in New York City. What I came to know as “Intimate Strangers” included people, or places—and even, at times, concepts—that helped me t
ROVA6 min readSports & Recreation
(DON’T BE) WITHOUT A PADDLE Watercraft Essentials And Places To Use Them
In 2004, Paramount Pictures released a lousy buddy comedy, Without a Paddle. In it, three estranged friends (greenhorn adventurers, all of them) canoe into the Oregon wilderness in search of D.B. Cooper’s long-lost treasure. On their journey, they fi
ROVA5 min readPsychology
Walking: More Than Just A Stroll
Seven million years ago, give or take, the Hominidae (great apes) began walking upright, tottering around on their two back feet. Somewhere around that time, the first human beings appeared—likely as the apes began to walk as a habit, rather than spo

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