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Great Lakes State
Dear Friends and Family, Oh! Wait some of you are here! Welcome, my audience 🙂 I left western Minnesota around the 8th or 9th of August, and beat feet pretty quickly back to Michigan. Way back when this road trip started, I had planned to continue westward into the UP, but I was very tired…
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Ramblings and Rain Gauges
Dear Friends and Family, *Siiiiip* *kch-aaaahhh* Yup, I am definitely back in the midwest. As if drinking a beer with a name as ubiquitous as “Grain Belt” wouldn’t tell you, I have returned to the endless deciduous forests of the east, to my ancestral homeland. Well, it’s not exactly my homeland: This is Lincoln County,…
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Gates of the West
Dear Friends and Family, This is the end of the west. This photo is taken at this exact spot (39°42’36.6″N 105°17’41.0″W) on the Mt. Vernon Road overpass of I-70 and US-40, 16 miles west of downtown Denver. This is the view looking west. This is the view looking at all of the west, at all…
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One More Time to the Newest Mexico
Dear friends and family, Well I blew right past my 21 January deadline, huh? Ah well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So the adventures continue! With one more dip into the mountain west: Well, not exactly your normal mountains. These are the 700’+ dunes of Great Sand Dunes National Park. They’re like mountains, just made of sand 🙂 And…
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In Which I Just Gush About Pretty Rocks
Dear Friends and Family, The blog is back! Sorry for the delay, I got busy over the holidays and with the job and stuff. Things are going well, and I still fully intend to finish the blog. I spent 142 days on the road in total and it only seems fair to try and complete…
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The View East
Dear Friends and Family, There is one more corner of Wyoming that is well off the beaten path and well worth seeing: The Bighorn Mountains. The Bighorns are an isolated mountain range in northern Wyoming, southwest of Sheridan. I know that doesn’t really help place it in anyone’s mind, but the interesting thing about the…
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A Story From Nowhere
Dear Friends and Family, SSSSNNNNRRRRRKKKKK SSSSSSSSNNNNNNNRRRRRKKKKK-UUHHH-HUUUUHH HUH??? Where the hell am I??? In the latest step in my rambles across America, I arrive in arguably the most obscure location of the entire trip: Petroleum County, Montana. Dear reader, your question is heard loud and clear: what the hell am I doing here? Well, it’s a…
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Elsewhere in Wyoming
Dear Friends and Family, And so my travels continued. I left Grand Teton and Jackson Hole going east by southeast, once again over the continental divide and into the heights of the Wind River Range. I think most people have a negative perception of Wyoming as a deeply boring and empty state. If you’ve been…
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The Leaving of Heaven (Grand Teton, Part 5)
Dear Friends and Family? How do you leave heaven? Yes, I am asking again; I got a bit bleary-eyed while reminiscing about Lake Solitude in the last post, so making this one helps me gather my thoughts and regather my composure. I don’t have much narrative structure for the last couple photos and memories I…
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The Most Beautiful Place in the Entire World (Grand Teton, Part 4)
Dear Friends and Family, How do you leave heaven? I’m not asking rhetorically. Grand Teton is heaven. I don’t mean “Grand Teton is like heaven.” I don’t mean “Grand Teton is heaven to me.” Simile is not enough; analogy is not enough. I mean “Grand Teton is heaven.” I have been home in Virginia for…