
As a child of hippie parents, I know all too well the stories of how the extremely creative, musical, and peace-loving young people of the 1960s went West in search of a better life. The Gold Rush of the mid-1800s was very different in that the people heading West then were doing so to claim…

My cousin and I were born only four days apart from each other and grew up in a camping/traveling family. Our first excursion, according to family lore, took place when we were only a few months old. As we grew older, beginning in our late teens, we started camping together with our friends. Most notably,…