Thirty: April/May 2022

ROVA

The magazine for epic road trips

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From The Editor
The dark spaces of landscapes at night used to make me afraid. I’d wonder what or who was out there (summer camp horror movies have a lot to answer for!); I’d imagine wandering off and getting lost or injured; or I’d just feel a little lonely as I ga
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Rova Recommends
Showing up for the Earth is a no-brainer when you love the outdoors as much as we all do. In 2022, Earth Day falls on April 22nd with the theme “Invest in Our Planet,” and you can get involved with hundreds of events across the country, from cleanups
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Gemma Peckham gemma@rovamag.com media@rovamag.com 646-916-2599 Abby Schmidt Giulia Heppell, Eden Cox Morgan Bernard, Lizzie Wilson, Ola Kalejaye, Thomas Brentwood, Melinda Wright, Megan Marolf, Jessica Else, Chuck Graham, Daniel Hayes, Spencer Durra
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Gear Up!
Soon, we’ll all be spending time by the water as we soak up the spring and summertime rays. Lakeside, beachside or poolside, you’ll want a distinctive towel so you can spot it easily on your return to shore; but you also want something that’s compact
ROVA2 min read
Why The Road?
We travel full time with our two border collies. We didn’t always dream of RV life, but knew that we wanted to see more of God’s beautiful creation. It was like one day we suddenly realized that our distant dreams of traveling could be our reality fu
ROVA4 min read
Risk-taking And Personal Growth
Travel is not the blind step into the unknown that it once was. Regardless of how adventurous our endeavors may be, we are tethered to the familiar by the devices in our pockets. Still, the new and the unfamiliar retain the power to transform us for
ROVA6 min read
Hope Floats: Canoeing And Kayaking On The Road
Picture this: You’ve just spent the day driving along roads that wind through dense deciduous forests full of trees that spread their branches across the road, providing that perfect mix of dappled sunshine and glimpses of deep-blue skies. You’re lis
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Kayaking the Road Less Traveled
I’ve been kayaking in my home state of Oregon for years, and I love to check out the Instagramfamous views from the lakes and rivers around Mount Hood. But there’s something special about stumbling upon a view you didn’t even know existed. I never kn
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Creating Inclusive Spaces In Van Life (and Beyond)
From the very moment that my partner and I first saw a kitted-out Sprinter pull into a visitor center parking lot at Yosemite National Park, van life has captivated me. From the discovery process (Wait, people like, live in these things?) to the Inst
ROVA5 min read
On The Road With Ornithology
The first time that I noticed birds (I mean noticed them with interest—I wasn’t living in a bird-free world until this point), I was around nine years old. I was on a four-month adventure with my parents and sisters, living out of a Jayco travel trai
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Pop, Top And Fold
Shopping for a compact camper has become something like attending a magic show. Say you’re at an expo with displays of tons of different types of vehicles, and you pop your head into a cool-looking van: compact and well appointed, but undeniably smal
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A Bed With The Birds
It doesn’t matter where you are in the United States, you’ll always have birds to spot. But setting up camp in a birding hot spot means you’ll have access to sighting areas at dawn and dusk, and everything in between, increasing your chances of spott
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Keep Your Cool
While getting around in an RV is a great way to follow temperate weather, there will be times when you can’t avoid the heat. Without an effective way of cooling your rig, when you try to retire inside to escape the sun and soaring temperatures, you’l
ROVA7 min read
A New Kind Of Family Road Trip
My dad was probably the one to bring up the idea of a family road trip down the Pacific Coast. It was winter a few years back, and I needed to get my Jeep, named Jenny, down to sunny Orange County from the gloomy Washington coast. I was desperate to
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Blackwater Hacks
Part of RV life is carrying everything with you, and that means absolutely everything—your home, your water… and your waste. It’s what makes that vagabond life a such sweet dream, and a bit of a nightmare. You get to see new landscapes, explore and a
ROVA2 min read
Where The Mountains Meet The Grasslands
After leaving my coastal home in Carpinteria, California, I head northeast on Highway 33, then east on Highway 166, and finally take a left-hand turn on Soda Lake Road and into the Carrizo Plain National Monument. Every time I do it, it feels as if I
ROVA6 min read
CHASING WILD ORCAS A Day Trip from Seattle to the San Juan Islands
Since hitting the road 10 months ago, my wife and I have had our first in-the-wild encounters with moose, grizzly bears, wolves and bison—to name just a few. And while all of our wildlife encounters have been exhilarating, one stands out from the res
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SEDONA RED: A Journey to Colors You Can’t See
”I’ll bet you a can of Coca-Cola that Sedona Red becomes your favorite color!” My cousin sang out boastfully as he danced around his living room in Phoenix, clearly more excited than I was as I told him about my family’s upcoming road trip, which was
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FISHING FLAMING GORGE ...where The Fishing Is Just As Good As The Scenery.
I was 11 years old the first time I visited Flaming Gorge. I remember cliff-jumping and floating down the Green River in an enormous raft with a dozen other Boy Scouts. I remember the blazing heat, the surprisingly cool nights, and the wonderfully qu
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The Midwest Main Street
In the middle of the American heartland, Interstate 70 spills out from Saint Louis over the barge-logged Mississippi River, bolts through Illinois in a nearly straight line like an imperfect arrow, then flies over the silty Wabash River into Indiana.
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Quaintness And Quirk In Northern Florida
This is Florida, so at 6:30 a.m. on a September Monday, we took our bikes off the back of the truck to beat the oppressive heat. Despite the soupy humidity and the occasional mosquito, it was hard to believe that we were cycling in Florida. The paved
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BURLINGTON, VERMONT Common by Name, Unique by Nature
As anyone named John or Sarah—two of the most common names in the United States—will know, you have a lot of work to do if you want to stand out among same-named folks. The same could be said of cities. Vermont’s Burlington is one of 34 American town
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Picture This...
Ridge Parkway when you start to have a strange sensation. Are you in North Carolina, or are you in the English countryside? Wildflowers in a rainbow of colors gather at the sides of the road, cordoned off by rickety wooden fences—it’s like you’re in

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