If you have three days in a spot, you’d better make them count. Elizabeth and I were halfway through our first day in southwest Colorado, and it really felt like there was more to see from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Somehow over the last few years, I’ve become kind of a travel/parks snob, …
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Alaska Diary: Conclusion
After a month spent on one of the greatest adventures of my life, I’m finally back in Norman. What is there even to say about my time in Fairbanks? It was a time I’ll never forget. Hopefully one day Elizabeth and I will bring our kids to Fairbanks, and we can take them to do …
Alaska Diary: Update 2
It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted one of these. The simple reason there hasn’t been one lately: I have been going, going, going non-stop. For essentially 10 days now, life has been a blur. There was: Yeah, it’s been a whirlwind. The first two weeks here were sort of lonely, but I …
Alaska Diary: Week 1
It turns out that being here has left me way too busy for anything like a daily diary. You’ll have to forgive the relative lack of posts. That just means I have a lot to talk about! The Job Working here at WFO Fairbanks has been an enjoyable challenge. I’m up here as a lead …
Alaska Diary: The Beginning
What a start to this trip! If the next 3 and a half weeks are anything like the last 24 hours, I’m going to have the time of my life in Fairbanks. First of all, I should state the obvious: it was really, really hard to leave home yesterday. Scipio spent a rainy morning wanting …
Life Update: New House, New Opportunities
I’m a homeowner now. That’s so weird to say! Next week, I’ll be a lead forecaster (temporarily) at NWS Fairbanks, Alaska. That’s so weird to say! Life can sometimes throw curveballs at you. I never imagined that Elizabeth and I would be buying a house in 2024. Heck, I can remember sitting in our bedroom …
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Arizona 2024: Montezuma Castle National Monument
A sunny afternoon, an open interstate, and an official NPS unit in the GPS. There aren’t many better ways that Elizabeth and I could draw up a Sunday afternoon. On February 4, 2024, we were just in the process of finishing up our weekend getaway to Arizona by driving back from Sedona to Phoenix. Just …
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Arizona 2024: Cathedral Rock
This summer, I’ve gotten really into watching people thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail. There’s a lot of interesting tics and behaviors that the thru-hiking community does. Some of it elicits that typical reflexive human scorn when you’re watching it – “Oh, no way I’d do _____ if I was out there hiking!” One of those …
Arizona 2024: Subway Cave
Golden sunlight poured down on the streets of downtown Sedona. The sun was dropping rapidly as it tends to do in early February, and Elizabeth and I were still just a little bit drunk. I hope that when I look back on this blog 40 years from now, I can still remember the bliss of …
Colorado 2024: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Before I jump into it: this post covers my trip to my twenty-first American national park. That’s insane to me. When Elizabeth and I first conceived of our trip to Guadalupe and Carlsbad 6 summers ago, I’d been to 9 of them with my family. Even as recently as the middle of 2020, my count …
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