Road Tripping In America

Edna and Charlotte decide that they can't drive into Death Valley – a more traditional, formal expedition will need to be mounted if they are going to reach their goal. So they go back home, back east, and wait for the hot desert summer to pass. In January, they return to Silver Lake and to their guide, the sheriff. The trio travel by railroad to Beatty, NV, where they rent a cart, a burro, and a horse, stock up on a month’s worth of supplies, and head west towards the valley.

This episode was recorded and produced by Lisa McNamara. Supplemental text is by Lisa McNamara and original text is by Edna Brush Perkins. Visit roadtrippinginamerica.com for more.

Do you know someone who would enjoy this story but who doesn’t do podcasts? The White Heart of Mojave (Annotated), by Lisa McNamara and Edna Brush Perkins, is available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback. For the print version of the story, I dug a little deeper and found even more interesting info, like who Old Johnnie really was. You can find the print version here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XV5JGFT

Edna and Charlotte bum around Silver Lake, chasing mirages back and forth across the dry lake bed, then take a treacherous drive to Saratoga Springs with the town’s sheriff. They get tantalizingly close to their goal in Death Valley, walking when they can drive no further and learning firsthand how the heat, light, and distance of Death Valley gave the place its name.

This episode was recorded and produced by Lisa McNamara. Supplemental text is by Lisa McNamara and original text is by Edna Brush Perkins. Visit roadtrippinginamerica.com for more. 

Do you know someone who would enjoy this story but who doesn’t do podcasts? The White Heart of Mojave (Annotated), by Lisa McNamara and Edna Brush Perkins, is available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback. For the print version of the story, I dug a little deeper and found even more interesting info, like who Old Johnnie really was. You can find the print version here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XV5JGFT

Edna and Charlotte try to get their Death Valley trip underway but face plenty of obstacles. They visit the Imperial Valley and the Salton Sea and gain some healthy respect for the desert. Armed with new determination, they finally arrive on the doorstep of Death Valley in Silver Lake, CA. Will they finally find what they are looking for, or will they give up and head back home?

This episode was recorded and produced by Lisa McNamara. Supplemental text is by Lisa McNamara and original text is by Edna Brush Perkins. More at roadtrippinginamerica.com.

Do you know someone who would enjoy this story but who doesn’t do podcasts? The White Heart of Mojave (Annotated), by Lisa McNamara and Edna Brush Perkins, is available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback. For the print version of the story, I dug a little deeper and found even more interesting info, like who Old Johnnie really was. You can find the print version here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XV5JGFT

First, we talk about how this podcast is going to work. Then, Edna takes over and reveals why she and Charlotte decided to go to Death Valley for a lighthearted break from raising children and fighting for women's rights in the 1920s. Why are two wealthy women from Cleveland so obsessed with going to Death Valley? Let's find out!

This episode was recorded and produced by Lisa McNamara. Supplemental text is by Lisa McNamara and original text is by Edna Brush Perkins. More at roadtrippinginamerica.com.

Do you know someone who would enjoy this story but who doesn’t do podcasts? The White Heart of Mojave (Annotated), by Lisa McNamara and Edna Brush Perkins, is available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback. For the print version of the story, I dug a little deeper and found even more interesting info, like who Old Johnnie really was. You can find the print version here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XV5JGFT

A hundred years ago, it was considered by most to be foolish, absurd, unthinkable for two women to travel on their own, especially to an undeveloped place like Death Valley. A hundred years later, anyone who thinks that idea is foolish – well, they are the ones considered absurd now.

A hundred years ago, in the early 1920s, Edna Brush Perkins and Charlotte Hannahs Jordan, both in their early 40s, went to find the heart of the desert in Death Valley. A hundred years later, in the early 2020s, I, on the verge of 40, found the book Edna wrote about the experience, The White Heart of Mojave. As I devoured it, I wondered why it didn’t have a more prominent spot on the shelf of adventure classics. This is my attempt to make that book and these two women more widely known and to modernize this classic adventure narrative on the centennial of its publication. This is Backtracks, a special series from Road Tripping in America. 

Do you know someone who would enjoy this story but who doesn’t do podcasts? The White Heart of Mojave (Annotated), by Lisa McNamara and Edna Brush Perkins, is available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback. For the print version of the story, I dug a little deeper and found even more interesting info, like who Old Johnnie really was. You can find the print version here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XV5JGFT

After five months on the road, we share a budget update, answer some unanswered questions from previous episodes, and find out what each other’s “ests” were (the bests, worsts, scariests).

1:13 - Budget and spending for five months of #vanlife

This episode was written, recorded, sound edited, and produced by Lisa McNamara, with additional recording and editing by Paul Olson. Visit roadtrippinginamerica.com for more.

In canyon country, we force our bodies through cracks in the ground in places like Buckskin Gulch and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, send the Bobs down tough roads, and struggle with some big questions about land use. After 35 days of this, after enjoying endless canyons, gorgeous dispersed camping spots, carefully timed resupply runs, and achieving furnace temperature perfection, we finally feel like we have hit our stride with road life – just in time to pause for a few weeks.

1:14 - Dayssss of exploration and figuring out how to stay warm

This episode was written, recorded, sound edited, and produced by Lisa McNamara, with additional recording and editing by Paul Olson. Visit roadtrippinginamerica.com for more. 

After previous attempts were thwarted by Maruchan lunches, underpowered rental cars, unusual rainstorms, distracting flowers, flying tents, and snow, we finally managed to climb a big mountain. And why we'll never stop returning to Death Valley, no matter what it throws at us.

1:08 - Finally climbing Telescope Peak

This episode was written, recorded, edited, and produced by Lisa McNamara, with additional editing by Paul Olson. Visit roadtrippinginamerica.com for more. 

We can't live like every day is a vacation – we'd probably die (and we’d definitely blow through our savings). So most of our days on the road are like real life, with a vacation thrown in here and there. Back in more optimistic times, we had planned to spend my 40th birthday in Vegas. But then things went weird again. What was it like in Vegas in September, 2021? We'll tell you what we saw.

1:26 - Why Vegas?  

Link to the wave speech from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1074-strange-memories-on-this-nervous-night-in-las-vegas-five

This episode was written, recorded, edited, and produced by Lisa McNamara, with additional recording and editing by Paul Olson.

Three Wind River, WY stories told by way of the things we saved to Google when back in cell range: from terrifying cows to windstorms to running out of water on a hike, we bumbled through a few misadventures, then double checked to see how we could do it better next time. And the eight things we think about on a daily basis that are second nature when you live in a building.

1:16 - Smashing my phone into tiny little pieces and realizing how dependent we are on internet search

This episode was written, recorded, edited, and produced by Lisa McNamara, with additional editing by Paul Olson.