Another Epic Journey Home

Visit us on this one day Epic Journey off-roading at Hither Hills State Park in Montauk, Long Island. As a bonus, at the end of the Video you will get a few tips on driving on the sand without airing down, and without getting stuck.

Some of the communications are though the VHF-UHF Ham Radio, and there's some commentary on the history of Montauk, its first inhabitants and the fishing and summer culture of today.

Tim show how to make a simple, one pot wonder that takes less than an hour to prepare and cook, that feeds four. It’s great for camping and overlanding. Adding rice makes it a Cajon Gumbalaya! Add tomatoes and now you have Creole Jambalaya! Mix it up with what ever’s on hand, make it your own!

The Nantahala Gorge is in the Nantahala National Forest. It is home to world class white water rafting, kayaking and canoeing. The Cherokee translation of Nantahala is "Land of the Noon Day Sun". The Trail of Tears runs along the Nantahala River, through the Gorge. The Appalachian Trail as well as the Bartram Trail past through the Nantahala Gorge.

Beale Street in Memphis is the home of the Blues. Today its a cross between Mardigras and Time Square with live street entertainment, excellent food and clubs with live music. Music Legends such as the Rolling Stones and Elvis were influenced by the Mississippi Blues that were native to Memphis. If you are visiting Memphis, Beale Street is a must see you can not miss. All sound track and live music in this video was used with permission, rights belong to the Ghost Town Blues Band.

The start of the circumnavigation of the Gulf of Mexico. We are surfcasting and fishing from Brownsville Texas begining at Boca Chica Beach all the way to Key West, Florida.
Another Epic Journey in our Jeep, overland camping on the beach when possible, and cooking our catch. We start this journey as close to the Mexican seaside border as possible, and traveling north along the Texas coast line along the Gulf of Mexico. The Rocket man in this video is the Rocket Fueling and Launch facility, Star Gate Rocket manufacturing facility and Star Base Tracking Facility for the Space X Rockets. Much to our surprise we found this at the end of the pavement to the beach access getting on to Boca Chica Beach.

The Docs Seafood and Steaks Restaurant offers delicious waterfront dinning in a casual atmosphere. Its located adjacent to the John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway on the Padre Island Side in Corpus Christi Texas.

Also part of the establishment is the Waterline, offering live music and a full service bar a. The Waterline at the Docs can hold special events for up to 500 people! The seafood and steaks are all locally sourced for the ultimate in freshness.

We stopped by on our way back to the Corpus Christi mainland after a week on Padre Island and it was well worth the visit. If you are in the area, you have to stop by for a meal you will not forget!

Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas is a working collection of vintage Bathhouses which are over a hundred years old. The grand marble architecture of the historic bathhouses are equally matched to the surrounding forests, gorges and hiking trails that surround Hot Springs National Park. The Park is located in the center of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Included in the 4000 plus acre National Park is Hot Spring Mountain. There are 15 foot trails, connecting the Bath Houses, picnic grounds, and the Hot Springs Observation Mountain Tower, which is 216 feet tall. The Gulpha Gorge Trail connects the Gulpha Gorge Campground with many of the parks trails. The Hot Springs National Park is located on Central Avenue in Hot Springs Arkansas, about 50 miles Southwest of Little Rock Arkansas. The Park is open year round 7 days a week.

Once a desert Mission, and Mexican fortress, The 314 year old Alamo, now sits in the middle of San Antonio, Texas. This is a must see attraction for Texas and American History. Unfortunately, because of its location, it is a more of a huge tourist attraction than a living monument and living museum. Surrounded by a huge multistory shopping mall and river walk, with towering five star hotels, and it’s actually hard to find the surprising small fort and mission, now called the Alamo. The name Alamo is Spanish for Cottonwood trees, which surrounded the site 300 hundred years ago.
The original name was The Mission San Antonio de Valero, built in 1718. After 70 years the chapel was abandon, and Spanish solders took over the mission, expanded the grounds into a fortress. It exchanged hands in battle many times over the centuries and the rest is history.
John Wayne starred and directed the Film “The Alamo” in 1960. A duplicate Alamo front was built on a ranch in Brackettville, Texas, and is now called the Alamo Village, which is another tourist location.
Full-size bronze Statues of Davey Crocket, James Bowie, William Travis, of Alamo Fame, and Theodor Roosevelt and his Rough Riders bring the history forward into the imagination of today’s visitors at both the Alamo and the adjacent historic Menger Hotel and Menger Bar.
We also toured the adjacent 163 year old Menger Hotel. The Menger Hotel and Menger Bar are very historic and loaded with surprising history and artifacts from Teddy and the Rough Riders, who were recruited in the Menger Bar.
Tourism aside, San Antonio River walk was both enjoyable and photogenic. Local vendors are selling their wares, and the boat tours along the river that seems to be surrounded by Malls and Hotels provided a little something for everyone.

This video is about a special three-dayevent at the Horton Point Lighthouse with the Jeep and myself on“Another Epic Journey”.
As a FCC licensed amateur radio operator, it was a natural to show up with my self-sufficient Jeep for annual ARRL Field Day. This event is designed as a public outreach to demonstrate to the public and local officials and media how the local the FCC licensed Amateur Radio operators will assist with Emergency Communications off the grid, during hurricanes, snow storms, natural disasters, and national emergencies to assist with much needed communications when normal power and cell service is not operational.
The Horton Point Lighthouse in Southold, Long Island is the perfect location for the Peconic Amateur Radio club to set up for ARRL Field Day. It’s a public park, with unbelievable views 100 feet above the Long Island Sound.Thebeautiful sunsets over the distant Connecticut horizon makes you wonder who’s got it better then us at the Peconic Amateur Radio Club (PARC).
The Lighthouse itself, commissioned by George Washington in 1790, and built in 1857, temporarily holds up one end of the club antenna during Field Day. The grounds are large enough to set up the gigantic club tent, and any antennas we might want to set up.
The public as well as the local officials visit the site while we show off our operating skill which simulate Emergency Communications that will be used during natural disasters. The Emergency Operations Center (OEC) under the tent is completely off the grid running on non-commercial power from generators, batteries and solar panels.
This public outreach is informal, a great exercise to keep our skills sharp, that will be used in case of an emergency. And it’s just plain fun for the club to get together with club members, have a BBQ and operation away from home. And as my first Field Day, it certainly was Another Epic Journey!

As we traveled north along the Texas Gulf coast in search of some descent fish to catch, we came upon Port O’Conner, Texas. Hoping to finally catch some redfish, speckled trout, black drum, sheepshead, fluke or snapper, but all we kept was a croaker. And threw back about a dozen slimy spiny saltwater catfish.
Port O’Conner has a population of approximately 1280 fisherman. No one else would live here. It’s a fine little town with two major activities. Fishin and Drinkin. Drinking is easy; fishing was a bust. Let’s face it you need a boat to get out of the channel and into the Matagorda bay or the Gulf of Mexico.
Nonetheless, its friendly and quite little town to visit and get away from it all. We really enjoyed our visit, and had a great campsite at Fisherman’s Choice RV Park. Any fishing and two bait shops were within walking distance, as was the jetty.

Located at the commercial airport in San Marcos, The Central Wing of the Commemorative Air Force is housed in a World War II era hanger. There are eight vintage warbirds on display and some of these are flown on the weekends. We enjoyed the friendly atmosphere, were able to climb aboard the B25 and enjoyed the nose art and artifacts on display at the museum. This is a must visit location if you are ever in San Marcos, Texas.
We took a walk around San Marcos Town Square, visited the San Marcos Art Center, drove through Texas State University and real Texas Dry Rub BBQ ribs at the Famous Blacks Barbeque in downtown San Marcos.

Take a virtual white water river ride through class four rapids from the eyes of an experienced white water river raft guide down the Nantahala River during this rare high water event.
This video is about a high water event on the Nantahala River with customers who wanted to be self-guided but due to volume of water that day, National Forest Regulations required everybody in the boat be guided by certified white water raft guide and wear a helmet and a personal floatation device.
Four days straight of rain caused the water in Lake Nantahala to be 110% and it needed to be released into the river. This type of event only occurs about every other year.
The professional guides were successfully able to run the largest rapids without losing any customers! It was a fun and exciting day! Nobody took a swim in the river!
The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad out of nearby Bryson City runs along the Nantahala River and can be seen and heard while paddling in this video.

Below is a list of our current videos that can be seen on YouTube. Click on each picture or the description, it will link to our YouTube Channel.

Watch how Tim and Pete of Another Epic Journey ventures right into Hurricane Ian. Before we started this leg of the trip we knew the risk of traveling into Florida in September, especially along the Gulf Coast. Hurricane activity all summer and looked very quite until about half way through our trip. As we fished along the Florida coast, two weeks into our Epic Journey, Hurricane Ian was born as it approached Cuba.
Tim's Mom lives in the St. Petersburg / Clearwater area of Tampa Bay. We had big plans to stay in the Tampa Bay area for a week, fishing on the Old Skyway bridge, visiting Mom, and my Nephew and his family in near by Bradenton.As Hurricane Ian grew in size, crawling up along the Gulf Coast we had a few days to decide which direction to head to dodge the rathe of Hurricane Ian. At first it appeared to be heading straight north in to the Florida Panhandle. That would have made and easy exit strategy for us but as it came closer and seemed to be heading into Tampa Bay, we got extremely nervous.We waited and watched and made a few tentative plans for relocation but we seemed to be getting boxed into a corner very quickly. The story is written now, as Tampa Bay was sparred the brunt of the Landfall.Follow along on this short video as we watched Hurricane Ian move into our Another Epic Journey's path and how we were most fortunate to not sustain any damages to either the Jeep or Tim's Mom's house.