There comes a time on every trip when you know it’s time to pull up stakes and head home. For this vacation, that point came when I had to wrestle the rhinestone-studded tweezers from Louises’ hands when I feared she was going to stab a stranger who tried to mansplain to us how to back […]
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Moab
Perhaps not for the first humans, the Moab desert became our oasis. Four nights in this beautiful part of the country–a small town in the middle of two devestatingly beautiful National Parks–was not long enough as we all pushed ourselves to enjoy every single minute while we were there. That meant days spent rafting the […]
4 Corners
Today, we visited 4 Corners National Monument, and while I feel like we should talk about 4 Corners I don’t think 4 Corners is comfortable with us talking about it. To refresh your elementary school history, Four Corners National Monument is located where the only place in the country that four states touch each other, […]
New Mexico
Exploring New Mexico has been an adventure in itself. We spent the day in beautiful Santa Fe visiting the quaint shops and restaurants, the state capital, the Loretto Chapel with the Miraculous Staircase, the Basilica, and San Miguel Mission. We ate a local hotspot and had some wonderful local food–everyone was game to try the […]
Amarillo
This was not a previously scheduled stop on this adventure, but sometimes things work out better than planned. When we made such good time on Day 1, not killing ourselves the next day seemed like a pretty good idea, so we made the four hour trek from OKC to Amarillo. And I must say, our […]
Day 1
We usually like to leave high speed police chases and broken air conditioning units until day 11 or 12, but hey, Day 1 is fine, too, I suppose. We hadn’ teven made it out of Tennessee before we really were witness to a dangerous high speed chase with State Troopers and a car that literally […]
How Adventure is Born
A few months ago, Louise and I were talking about the annual summer adventure for our growing brood. Obviously, summer vacation plans have been a challenge for us all as of late, but when Louise and I talked about the summer of 2021, we were immediately on the same page. Lousie: So, I was thinking […]
The Epiphany
I wanted to begin the year and the re-launch of this humble blog space with a light and airy post–something fun to evoke a smile or even a chuckle if we got lucky. Unfortunately, the events of January 6th at the U.S. Capitol has dictated a different mood for me today. I wasn’t going to […]
New Year’s Eve
I’m not naive enough to believe this will all be over at the stroke of midnight. I’m not foolish enough to think things go back to “normal” on January 1st of the New Year. I am not that unaware of the many challenges both unresolved and not yet realized or articulated. I am not shallow […]
Christmas
Do you remember that old cartoon with the boy with his fingers in the dam trying to stave off it breaking and flooding the whole town? And then another hole bursts open and then another and another until he’s playing Twister holding back the floodgates? That’s how 2020 has felt–a thousand tiny cracks to fill […]