Travel with Rolando Chang Barrero

 About Rolando Chang Barrero Painter. Curator. Cancer survivor. Road-tripping rebel. There are people who live one life, and there are people who live several, back to back, each one nearly unrecognizable from the last. Rolando Chang Barrero is the second kind. He was born in Coconut Grove, Florida, and by the time he was a teenager, South Beach had already gotten its hooks in him. He landed there around 1980 and did what a broke, curious kid with an eye for beauty does: bartended, sold retail, drew rock graphics, modeled for a stretch — a run that took him from Ted Lapidus at Bal Harbour Shops all the way to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, working the floor for Torie Steele's boutique. Glamorous, yes. But it wasn't the thing. He came back to Miami to finish what he'd started: art. From Lincoln Road to Cuba He set up his first real studio on Lincoln Road, then picked up and moved to Chicago, landing in what's now the Pilsen Art District and cutting his teeth on ...

Cuyahoga Valley National Park  The National Park Nobody Told Me About Travel with Rolando to our 🇺🇸 U.S. National Parks by Rolando Chang Barrero Google Local Guide and LGBTQ Traveler America's State Parks & National Parks I'll admit it. Before beginning my journey to visit all of America's national parks, I knew almost nothing about Cuyahoga Valley National Park . Ohio wasn't the first place that came to mind when I imagined towering mountains, dramatic deserts, or iconic landscapes. I couldn't have been more wrong. Cuyahoga Valley doesn't overwhelm you. It quietly wins you over. Nestled between Cleveland and Akron, this is a national park that doesn't rely on grand spectacles. Instead, it invites you to slow down, wander a little, and discover beauty hidden in places many people would otherwise drive right past. Bella and I spent the day exploring waterfalls, wooded trails, peaceful wetlands, and historic sites connected by winding country roads. Th...

  B ig Bend National Park Where the River Divides Nations Peacefully Travel with Rolando to our 🇺🇸 U.S. National Parks by Rolando Chang Barrero Google Local Guide and LGBTQ Traveler America's State Parks & National Parks There are places that impress you with their beauty. Then there are places that quietly challenge everything you think you know about borders, wilderness, and the relationship between people and the land. Big Bend National Park is one of those places. For me, Big Bend wasn't just another national park to check off my list. It was one of the destinations I had dreamed about for years. After days of driving across West Texas, the landscape slowly transformed into one of the most remote and breathtaking places I have ever experienced. Bella and I had finally arrived. The first thing you notice is the silence. Not the absence of sound, but the presence of it. The wind through the desert grasses. The distant call of a bird. The Rio Grande quietly carving its...

The Badlands Don't Welcome You... They Challenge You! Some places throw open their arms and invite you in.  The Badlands aren't one of them. Travel with Rolando to our 🇺🇸 U.S. National Parks by Rolando Chang Barrero Google Local Guide and LGBTQ Traveler America's State Parks  & National Parks From the moment I drove into Badlands National Park , I felt as though I had crossed into another world—one shaped not for comfort, but by millions of years of relentless wind, water, and time. Jagged ridges rose from the prairie like the weathered bones of the Earth itself. Every overlook tempted me to stop, yet every step reminded me that this landscape has never belonged to us. The Badlands don't try to impress you. They challenge you. They challenge your sense of scale, your understanding of time, and your place in the natural world. As I stood there with Bella by my side, I found myself thinking less about the dramatic scenery and more about the countless lives tha...

El Malpais National Monument & Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano! By Rolando Chang Barrero Travel with Rolando and Adventures with Bella More National Parks https://travelwithrolando.com/ That was my overwhelming feeling while exploring El Malpais National Monument and nearby Ice Cave & Bandera Volcano in western New Mexico. "El Malpaís" means the badlands , a name early Spanish explorers gave this rugged landscape of ancient lava flows. But after spending a day here, I'd call it anything but "bad." Millions of years ago, volcanic eruptions transformed this region into a dramatic landscape of black lava rivers, lava tubes, cinder cones, sandstone cliffs, and resilient forests. Today, it's a place where geology, history, and nature come together in spectacular fashion. One moment you're standing inside a cool volcanic cave looking up through a collapsed skylight at the brilliant New Mexico sky. The next, you're staring into the surreal green wa...

The Journey I Thought I Was Taking Looking Back at Day One — May 18, 2026 Written July 30, 2026- Travel With Rolando Blog and Notes Date: May 18, 2026 Route: West Palm Beach → Clermont → Micanopy, Florida Miles Driven:  280 miles Overnight: Vollama Acres Farm (Harvest Hosts) Lesson of the Day: Sometimes peace is found in the places we almost overlooked. "Sometimes we spend weeks planning a destination, only to discover that the real journey begins the moment life changes the itinerary." - Rolando Chang Barrero Now that I'm home again—several months earlier than I had expected—I find myself thinking about the morning this journey began. I've discovered that the beginning of a trip often makes far more sense once you've reached its end. When I backed my RV out of my driveway in West Palm Beach on May 18, I believed I was beginning another months-long adventure that would eventually take Bella and me across the United States and into Mexico, ending in Puerto ...

   "People Make Choices" -Rolando Chang Barrero, USA Tour #5  Some places are visited. Others are experienced. Today was the latter.   I left my Harvest Host stay at Doggone RV in Palestine, Arkansas , before sunrise and headed east to Memphis, Tennessee , determined to visit one of the most significant places in the history of the American Civil Rights Movement—the National Civil Rights Museum , built around the Lorraine Motel , where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. From the moment I stepped onto the grounds, I knew this would not be an ordinary museum visit. The museum does far more than recount historical events. It takes visitors on a powerful journey through centuries of slavery, segregation, racial violence, and the long struggle for equality and justice. Walking through the exhibits, reading the firsthand accounts, seeing the photographs, hearing the voices, and eventually standing outside Room 306—where Dr. King spent the fin...