The Times and Travels of Nolan
Documenting trips I've taken and places I've seen.
I was newly engaged, surrounded by family, and had a full week ahead to explore two of the world’s most famous national parks. What more could a person want from life? The answer, of course, is food. My family and I had coordinated it so that they would pick up much of the necessary items …
Continue reading “National Parks Trip: Colter Bay Campground, Night One”
At some point overnight, the wind died down. The wind, that pervasive uninvited guest in our first day in Great Sand Dunes, which had shifted the tent all around when I laid down to sleep. It wasn’t gone, but it was quiet. I felt the lack of it when I awoke in the quiet dawn. …
Continue reading “Great Sand Dunes National Park: Day Three”
“I had to wear this vest all day”. The moment had arrived. My heart was ready to leap out of my throat. Both of our families gathered around us at Inspiration Point, and believe me, I felt more heat from everyone’s gaze than the brutal sun beating down on me. Ridiculously, the example I had …
My night of bleh at the worst hotel in existence was finally over. Punctuated by any number of trains going “WOO WOO” right outside our room, Scipio and I had drifted in and out of sleep while Elizabeth slept like a blissful rock alongside us. The dog finally decided he was done resting and insisted …
Without much warning, we had entered Grand Teton. Ahead of us, the Tetons rose from the horizon in bluish-grey splotches. Was the view majestic? Opinions differed. Elizabeth was categorically labelling our view a “dub”, even with no the mountains having no definition. I was significantly less impressed. It took little imagination for me to be …
The big national park trip that I’ve already been writing about for the past few months was a huge, planned ordeal. We worked things out for months to make that trip happen. There were reservations, flights, cancellations, and all sorts of bureaucratic maneuvering we had to accomplish to get to where we wanted to. It …
This is not a storm chase log. October 26, 2021 was my 5-year anniversary with Elizabeth. I am a good fiance. I did not storm chase. However, I did still see a tornado by the end of the night. This will be a quick look into how I called my shot early and lived to …
Continue reading “Storm “Stay At Home” Log: October 27, 2021 Norman Tornado”
I groaned when my alarm went off far too early at the Laramie Hampton Inn. Far from a restful night, I had been unable to sleep from pre-proposal nerves for a large chunk of the night. There was a half hour spent in the bathroom, sitting on the edge of the tub and waiting to …
Continue reading “National Parks Trip: Driving to Grand Teton”
Second season! Mostly a figment of storm chasers’ imaginations, second season consists of the very, very modest uptick in severe weather climatology across the traditional tornado alley in early fall as the jet stream noses southward. Of course, this is balanced against total daylight hours that are essentially equivalent to early March, and often meager …
Continue reading “October 12, 2021 Chase Log: A Spooky Nocturnal Tornado in Clinton, OK”
Two tickets to Laradise. That’s how I’d sold our overnight in Laramie to Elizabeth, anyway. Now I faced the important task of making sure that my overwhelmingly positive experience in town in February 2020 translated for Elizabeth. I put my best Laramie Ambassador face on once we’d checked into our room at the Hampton Inn, …
