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What this photo from 1989 says about loyalty

I value loyalty. I hadn’t ever thought of myself as being an especially loyal guy until a friend raised it as one of my personal qualities a couple of years ago. I reflexively disagreed, but upon further reflection and discussion realized that it was probably an accurate statement. Hey, sometimes it takes you a few … Read more

We need an America the Beautiful pass for kids

For the ninth or tenth straight year, Kim and I bought an America the Beautiful Pass (or its predecessors, the National Parks Passport and Golden Eagle Passport). For $80 a year, it’ll get you and your family into every National Park unit and the other federal land management agency lands for free. Given the fabulous … Read more

This just in: John Madden has terrible taste

We’ve stopped in Van Horn, Texas on a few occasions before. Each time, we managed to hear or read about the local Chuy’s restaurant, which is rather infamous. Apparently, the restaurant attracted the attention of John Madden years ago, who has said it’s his favorite place to eat. And Chuy’s has naturally exploited the hell … Read more

Thoughts on New Years Eve in the French Quarter of NOLA

I was fortunate to have an opportunity to bring in the new year from New Orleans. To qualify the following random thoughts, I’m not a partier, not much of a dancer, not a drinker, and I was here with my wife as part of a much-larger national park roadtrip. As a nondrinker, many of the … Read more

uss cairo

Pleasant surprises in the national parks

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about my national park quest is that it pushes me to visit places I wouldn’t otherwise visit. It encourages me to step outside of what I know and am interested in to at least dabble in something new. I may not come away with a deep appreciation of … Read more

one in one out

Adopt the One-in, One-out rule today

It’s Christmas afternoon and you probably have a bunch of new stuff. Cool stuff indeed, and maybe even some not quite as cool stuff, too. Either way, a lot more stuff has entered your life in the last 24 hours. Here’s a simply way you can help ensure that all this stuff doesn’t add to … Read more

Roadtripping without our Forester

It feels like we’re being unfaithful. In less than 72 hours, Kim and I will be departing on another of our national park roadtrips. It’ll be the first time we’ll be roadtripping sans Forester since we got her. It feels a little weird. It’s the right decision to leave her at home – she’s in … Read more

Gathering of the Greens 2009

On Wednesday night, I attended the annual Gathering of the Greens down at the Historic Y building in Tucson. I happened to have several meetings scheduled down there for earlier in the day, and after the prodding of several colleagues, I decided to stick around for at least a bit of the celebration. I’m glad … Read more