The 26 Books I Read in 2021

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was from the editor and founder of Wired Magazine, Kevin Kelly.  Sometime around 2010, I heard him say, “read 10 books a year and you will be a fundamentally better person.”  I’m not sure what Kevin meant by “better”, but I took the advice to […]

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The Dark Side of Meditation

I’m guessing a lot of bloggers at one point or another, fall off the proverbial horse and fail to publish a post over an extended period of time.  Well, this is me getting back on the horse.  What you might not have heard from other writers is the excuse I am going to toss out […]

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Ask and You Shall Receive

I was asked a good question the other day, “what on this trip has surprised you?”  Other than finding it possible to live with and around my kids for 24 hours a day, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how kind everyone we have come across has been.  Back in April, as we got ready to […]

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In the Way of Calm

Is there such a thing as National Park overload?  If so, we might be hitting it. I’m typing this post from King’s Canyon National Park, an absolutely stunning park in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California.  This evening we took a hike through a Sequoia tree grove where literally people from all over the […]

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The 3 Stages of Yosemite

Everyone like pop music for a reason – it’s awesome. Remember the first time you logged onto Facebook and your friend is raving about the new Despacito song?  If you’re anything like me, you REALLY didn’t want to like it.  You wanted your tastes to be refined and “different” from the masses.  But then, you […]

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Going Big in Bend

Supposedly, tons of Californians move to Oregon each year to escape the high cost of living.  I know of a couple Marylanders who would love to move to Oregon…for the summer.  Driving from Portland to Bend, the landscape goes from the forested hills of the Mt. Hood range to something straight outta the moon and […]

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A Bear Story

If you have read the “about” section of this blog, you’ll see that I joke about getting eaten by a grizzly.  Not having many big bears back home, we knew it was a possibility we could run into such a creature on this trip.  After seeing a small grizzly in the Grand Tetons (from the […]

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Doing it all in Oregon

What’s better than having 4 people live in a small trailer?  How about 5 people living in a trailer!  For our trip to the Portland, Oregon area, my mom courageously flew out to travel with us for a week.  Frankly, I’m still surprised she came because she certainly had enough information from this blog to […]

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The Magic is in the Hole!?

Think back to a time when you ate something that was “world famous”.  Something like Geno’s cheesesteaks, Hofbrauhaus beer, or Gatlin’s BBQ in Houston.  The tagline for these foods is usually something along the lines of, “the best ice cream in the world” or “the greatest cheeseburger this side of the Mississippi.”  Now ask yourself, […]

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