I solicited travel advice from jeweler Meredith Ott at a Christmas craft fair in downtown Comfort, a small town in the picturesque hill country region of Texas.

Ott has a home in Canyon Lake, northest of San Antionio, but travels the craft fair circuit much of the year in a Volkswagen pop-top camper with her cats.

"I love the Texas hill country in winter and Colorado in summer," she says. "I have a rule: when there is frost on my little port-a-potty, it's time to come back to Texas."