Cooper Shortcut Camping Journey Blog

If you ever opened Grandma Cooper’s old Bible, the one with the soft black cover and the pages worn thin from years of turning, you would find something written in careful handwriting on the very first pages. Before the Psalms, before the Book of Genesis,… Read more: Grandma Cooper’s Little Family Tree

“Do you know what the very first travel trailer movie was?” Grandma Cooper would ask that question with a knowing smile, as though she were about to open a photo album instead of talk about a film. Then she’d say gently, “It was The Long,… Read more: The Long, Long Trailer and Lessons on the Road

Grandma Cooper never believed the world moved faster than people could keep up with. She said the world only seemed faster because folks were always in such a hurry to replace what was already working just fine. “Just because something is new,” she would tell… Read more: The Things Grandma Cooper Never Needed to Plug In

I write five different blogs each week, spread across four categories. Some are rooted in the present day, but truthfully, many of them begin somewhere behind me—in places I can no longer visit except through memory. I suppose that is why I continue to share… Read more: When the Milkman Came Calling and Grandma Cooper Was Already Awake

Memories of the Cooper Shortcuts come back to me in pieces—never all at once, never in a straight line. One of the clearest involves Grandma Cooper and her fondness for covered bridges. To this day, I have no idea how she knew where so many… Read more: Covered Bridges and Quiet Laughs

The last few Grandma Cooper blogs have been about food, and it got me thinking again about something simple but surprisingly meaningful. Lately, my family has been sharing recipes with each other — the kind of recipes that don’t just tell you what to cook,… Read more: Pantry Staples and Family Memories Grandma Cooper’s Cupboard