Table of contents for Forty-Five: October/November 2024 in ROVA

A shiny new wedding band glittered on my left ring finger as I drove through the desert, alone. Just a few months after my wedding, I went on my first solo trip. My now-husband has always been my favorite person to travel with, but I still daydreamed about what it would be like to travel alone. I imagined the independence of wandering where my feet took me, of setting as strict or as loose of an itinerary as I wanted, of throwing plans out the window and making spontaneous new ones to suit my whims, without anything more than an internal conversation. It turns out I’m not the only one. Data shows that increasingly higher numbers of women are traveling alone, and that married women are among them. In 2023,…

Imagine waking up in your cozy RV bed, nestled under the covers as the crisp air of a fall morning tickles your nose. Lifting a corner of the curtain, you can glimpse a lake in the distance, surrounded by multi-hued trees—this scene could be a painting, but the leaves gently dropping through your eyeline are a reminder that it is real. You’re at a lakeside campground in New England, in the middle of a fall foliage adventure, and the thrill of the cold and the landscape gets you up to make a pot of coffee before you start exploring. Yes, it’s one of those road-tripping fantasies that veers more toward the romantic, but I have news for you: a fall odyssey through New England’s incredible autumn scenery is enough to…

Charmed, Obviously American indie-pop sensation Clairo is back with her third LP, Charm. For the loved-up and the currently crushing among us, “Sexy to Someone” sounds like the teetering anticipation of slinking into the wilderness with a lover. For the single pringles, it’s a fun fall song that is best listened to when soaking up the crisp sunshine and crunching fallen leaves with your boots. Morning coffee with a view is best paired with “Juna,” while road trips along the coast are perfectly accompanied by “Add Up My Love.” Fall just got a new soundtrack! clairo.com Level Up Your Card Game Craighill’s Playing Cards bring a fresh spin to a timeless classic. Designed with a unique cassette tape silhouette and a satisfying magnetic closure, these cards blend nostalgia with modern…

Did you make the switch from an internal combustion engine (ICE) car to an electric vehicle (EV) recently, or are you considering it? Have you called offall future road-tripping plans until a more cohesive electric charging network gets established? Well, if you have, don’t do that. That’s silly. Sure, it’s a bit trickier to road-trip with an electric vehicle, but you can still have electric-powered fun on the open road. Consider Your Rig With more EV options on the market than ever before, you have a full range of choices. If you’re eyeing an EV but haven’t made a final selection, consider your use case. Do you need a $100,000 Rivian truck? Probably not… but, hey, maybe. At the time of writing, Rivian isn’t doing so hot, so do with…

When someone mentions Vancouver, most people think of the largest city in British Columbia, Canada. It is a hub of commerce, culture, and adventure, and one of the great cities of North America. When the famously quirky city of Portland, Oregon, is mentioned, many folks don’t even realize that there’s a whole other city just across the river, in a whole other state, that has plenty to offer. Likewise, if the conversation turns to the Columbia River Gorge, the mind first heads to the Oregon side, on the southern bank of the river, where countless memorable hikes and waterfalls are waiting to be discovered. So, for travelers who decide to visit Vancouver, Washington, and explore the region north of that same gorge, it feels like going the “other” way. This…

A decade of road-tripping, car-camping, and van-living helped make my initial foray into life by bicycle feel almost effortless. I was already well-versed in living with fewer luxuries than I’d have in a traditional home life, had developed a deep appreciation for the ever-changing dinner-table view, and had become moderately addicted to the novelty, exploration, and adventure that only life on the road could seemingly come close to providing. And while I loved the security, sanctuary, and efficiency of riding around in the steel-chassised home on four wheels that my partner, Mathieu, and I had self-converted, we both found ourselves longing for more adventures without a windshield wedged between us and the outside world. When we finally made the call to swap life behind the steering wheel for long days…

I reached over to the cat carrier, which was buckled into the front passenger seat of my car, and unzipped the door. Out popped Cairo: 15 lanky pounds of black fluff with bright green eyes, every inch of him practically vibrating with excitement. I don’t think Cairo appreciated the significance of the “YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE WORLD-FAMOUS ALASKA HIGHWAY” sign in front of us, but I did: it meant we’d made it more than halfway home, with only 1,600 miles of beautiful, remote driving left until we’d reach our home base in Anchorage, Alaska. We covered about 4,000 miles in that trip, fetching a vehicle I needed for work from Memphis, Tennessee, and driving it back home. But for the moment, Cairo’s entire being was focused on standing up…

The mountains are calling, and I must… drink? Colorado, the beautiful Centennial state, is well known for posh ski resorts, protected national park lands, a certain Mile High City, and, increasingly, an inspiring food and beverage scene. Long a craft beer darling, perhaps the most exciting and surprising update to the state is the emergence of Colorado as a wine producer and wine tourism destination to boot. Colorado Wine 101 Colorado wine has a long and storied history, with planted grapes first documented in 1890, and over one million pounds of grapes harvested in the state in 1909. It’s only grown since then; and by 2023, 173 wineries, cideries, and meaderies produced 182,091 cases of wine. The main growing regions are clustered on the Western Slope near Grand Junction, and…

Ah, the Midwest. Where turquoise water rubs shoulders with color-banded sandstone cliffs, sea kayakers pass under rock arches, and 275-foot sand dunes slant down to meet the waves on their way in. Nope, I did not mistype “the Midwest” in a moment of brain fog—the description you’ve just read is of a part of the region of the north-central United States that folks who are partial to stereotyping associate with cornfields, tractors, and boredom. Let me start by saying that boredom is far from my experience of this area. The Midwest is rife with interesting things to see and do: it’s sandwiched between the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains; Chicago is there, with its deep-dish pizza (and plenty of other cultural goodies); you can view enormous presidential faces carved into…