For a lot of years, I worked with Leslie Kelly and her husband, John Nelson, in the features department of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. We had a great boss and a good time there, but eventually all three of us went on to other jobs in different locales.
Leslie and John's adventures included newspapers — The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal and The Seattle Post Intelligencer (known as the Seattle PI) — as well as dream jobs at Microsoft Corporation and Allrecipes.com.
Read about one of Leslie's career highlights during her time at Allrecipes.com.
Since 2018, they've been on an adventure of a different sort, traveling around in their 23-foot Thor Gemini mobile home, writing articles and meeting a wide range of fun and interesting people. This adventurous pursuit has had plenty of high points that included camping in a fancy RV park in New Orleans' French Quarter and the memorable experience of attending the Luck Reunion on Willie Nelson's land in Texas, where they also stayed.
They've had their challenges as well, most notably dealing with mechanical problems (their RV apparently wasn't built for daily wear and tear) and the closeness of living in a space that Leslie describes as "about the size of some people's walk-in closet."
Read John's story about their RV travels in the Los Angeles Times.
In this episode, Leslie covers several aspects of their journey including the "life-affirming human connections" they've made on the road. For example, she had a delightful time interviewing world-famous drag queen Trixie Mattel and her partner David Silver, co-proprietors of a Palm Springs motel that's been rehabbed in 16 shades of pink.
Leslie's story about the Trixie Motel is on Forbes.com, where she's been a contributor of food and travel stories since the beginning of the Kelly-Nelson RV journey.
The couple also has a Going Mobile column, which appears Fridays in The Spokesman-Review auto section and is available on the paper's website.
Leslie enjoys hearing from readers and welcomes their own road warrior stories and travel tips. She can be reached by visiting the S-R's Going Mobile page or either of her two Instagram accounts: ourgrandtour and lesliedines58. Her email address is leslie.dines@gmail.com.
With an upcoming swing through Nevada, Leslie and John are particularly interested in what to see and do there. And, of course, any food recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!
The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
