“The mountains are calling and I must go.”
— John Muir, Letter to his sister, Sarah Muir Galloway, September 3, 1873

Artist Walter Simon seeing Yosemite for the first time. By Glynn Wilson

Tales From the MoJo Road –
By Glynn Wilson –

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. – The mountains were calling this weekend, so our amazing journey continues as the artist Walter Simon joins us in California, the new Art Director of the Yosemite Arts and Crafts Center on Historic Main Street in Coulterville, less than an hour’s drive west of Yosemite.

It was with great joy and pleasure that I got to be his guide for his first voyage to the park he studied in grad school, learning about the grand, romantic paintings of Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt that helped convince the American public to protect some of the most beautiful and special landscapes in the United States from capitalist development. Wait until you see the fine art work that comes from this. You will be amazed.

As luck would have it, our timing was good as the camping season is slowing down for the winter. There were a few campsites available in the Hodgdon Meadow Campground Sunday night, so we booked site 60 and arrived at the entrance to the park close to check in time at noon.

After setting up Walter’s tent and occupying the site with my blue camp chair, we drove the additional 24 miles into Yosemite Valley and photographed Half Dome from the first overlook, then onto El Capitan rising 3,000 feet from the valley floor like a giant captain or chief over seeing the other cliffs and meadows.

We drove over Sentinel Bridge and into the North Pines Campground. I wanted Walter to see what I saw on my last camping trip, the view down the Merced River toward Yosemite Falls from the back of the campground. It’s not that famous a view or photograph, but as a long experienced camper, to me it is one of the best views in the park.

A view of Half Dome behind the Ahwahnee hotel. By Glynn Wilson

We headed over to check out the view of Half Dome from behind the Ahwahnee hotel, and finished the driving tour by stopping for a snack in the El Capitan meadow, where people were out in numbers to watch the climbers and await the sunset.

El Capitan. By Glynn Wilson

As the sun was going down on Sunday, we made it back to the campground at dusk and got a fire going and prepared dinner with drinks before dosing off to sleep in the cool evening air.

Until a couple of weeks ago, when Walter made the long drive from Alabama, we had not seen each other since nearly six years ago in that crazy time in the spring of 2020 when Covid hit the Florida Gulf Coast with a chaotic bang. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was refusing to close the beaches for Spring Break.

Coronavirus Hits Gulf Coast Just In Time for Spring Break

Schools were out, however, and the kids were roaming the neighborhoods of Milton, Florida with no masks or gloves, and everyone was acting crazy. I had to get out of there.

Long time friends, fans and followers know what happened next. I camped in a science cabin on Lookout Mountain in north Alabama for the month of April and covered a congressional campaign, then headed to Western North Carolina for the summer where I planted a 1,000 square foot garden in my cousin’s backyard.

From the Sock Capital of the World to God’s Country

Of course I made it back to Washington, D.C. in time to celebrate the 2020 election when Joe Biden won. We thought we were rid of Trump. But it was not to be.

Hellscape 2020: Year In Review in Words and Pictures

You may recall the big trip Walter and I took out west in 2016, 6000 miles in 28 days.

Expedition of Rediscovery Western Journey Timeline

Now as we get ready to celebrate Halloween 2026 and vote in the midterm elections on Nov. 3, I can’t help but think back on the work of Washington Irving, the first American writer to make a living with pen on paper to be acknowledged by critics the world over.

Johnny Depp. NAJ screen shot

Of course he is most famously remembered on Halloween for the Headless Horseman in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and various movie versions will be shown nonstop on streaming services this month. Perhaps the most famous depiction of Ichabod Crane was turned in by Johnny Depp in the 1999 film Sleepy Hollow.

But on a trip to New York in August, 2019, I found out there was more to Washington Irving than most people know.

Washington Irving: The First Acknowledged American Writer

And unbeknownst to most readers, in 2022 while camping in the Catoctin Mountains in Maryland, I penned a followup short story to Irving’s Legend of Rip Van Winkle.

The Untold Story of Liam Van Winkle

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