I only spent a rainy afternoon in Mount Rainer, pretty much driving through, so don’t have a lot to say about it. It deserves more time, but I was driving north from Oregon to Bellingham, Washington, and it was essentially a short detour. I got there a bit after noon, paid $30 to enter, then stopped at the Nisqually Ranger Station to get a map of the trails and talk with a ranger. There are no trails for pets in…
I thought Redwood was “just” another park in the National Park System, but was surprised to find it’s a combination of 3 California State Parks and a National Park. California created their protection for the redwoods in the 1920s but it took until 1969 for the federal government to create a National Park. California fortunately acted “early” to protect these forests saving some of these trees, but outside the state parks, 95%, NINETY-FIVE PERCENT, of the trees were logged before…
I was here many, many years ago with my parents and sisters. I know that from family pictures but really didn’t remember visiting. I’ve been wanting to return to Crater Lake and Oregon for several years. I made reservations at Mazama Campground on the park grounds before leaving but unfortunately they were cancelled when I was en route. They were performing hazardous tree removal and it was taking longer than expected. I found another campground just south of Klamath Falls….
I returned to Denver in late September 2018 to visit my friends Elizabeth and Lauren. We decided to go to the Great American Beer Festival again. We had attended in 2016 and had a great time. So I drove out to Denver a day early and spent the night with them. We did the member session from 12-4 at the convention center and stayed downtown for the night. After all our day-drinking, we returned to Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs. I…
I planned a busy two weeks in Colorado. I was going to attend the Great American Beer Festival with my friends, Elizabeth and Lauren, who lived in Longmont. I wasn’t going to go all that way just for a day of drinking, however, so planned time in Denver and Rocky Mountain National Park, too. I left Thursday, September 29th, for the Quad Cities and had dinner with my daughter, Alex, and her boyfriend, Mike. I spent the night there then…
Mike, my daughter’s boyfriend, now her husband, was talking about racing in the Tour Divide when they visited, Christmas 2014. This is a self-supporting bike race from Banff, Alberta, Canada along the Rockies to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, 2745 miles. He was talking about flying up and wondering how to pack his bike and his supplies. I, mostly joking at that point, said, I’ve never been to Banff so if you need someone to drive you there, I will. He…
Miami Kelly and I booked a week long trip to Ecuador with Go-Today. Since most flights to Quito were through Miami, we decided to spend a couple nights there on the way. We arrived Saturday afternoon. After visiting the beach, we had some Mojitos, a late dinner, and then just walked around enjoying the South beach area. The next morning, we booked a on-off bus tour of the city. We got off at Vizcaya, the beautiful home and gardens of…