Winters of late have served as a time of rest for me with a focus on projects around the house. So after several months of mulling about the house, the arrival of Spring brought with it another season of opportunity to travel and explore the West. When Colorado was still locked in Winter’s hold, the […]
gps, photos, stories
There comes a point in time when you realize that you’ve done it—you’ve accomplished your goal. Hot on the heals of my recent kitchen remodel, I put the finishing touches on the remodeling project of my bathroom and just like that, I reached the conclusion of a decade’s worth of home improvement projects on my […]
house, photos
In May of 2011, I embarked on several projects to improve the functionality of my 1985 VW Vanagon Westfalia camper. After installing a Bostig turbo charger and designing & building an Arduino-based battery monitor, I designed and installed a solar panel system to keep my beer cold all summer long. But of course, just as […]
photos, van, video, Westfalia
The thoughts we carry in our minds can be a blessing or a curse. When we cage them, our lives are filled with disappointment and an overwhelming sense of what could be. The thoughts must be set free and this can only be done by making them real. In October of 2002, I toured a […]
house, photos, ramblings, stories
On June 3, 2012, Jon “JB” Boling died while rafting the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. Among the many facets of JB’s life, he had a particularly strong love for whitewater rafting and his friends in the whitewater community. On the weekend of September 22, 2012, many of his closest river friends […]
kayak, photos, stories
Although the 2012 drought has been less than ideal for kayaking, the upshot has been that I’ve been able to get out on my mountain bike more this year than in the past several years combined. So when my good friend, Scott, suggested a Labor Day weekend bike trip from Buena Vista to Crested Butte, […]
digital, gps, mapping, photos, stories
The grass is always greener on the other side. No where does this expression hold more truth than Antarctica where grass has not existed for eons. Not surprisingly, visitors to the white continent spend much time daydreaming of their return to a place where the grass is greener both literally and metaphorically. And since Christchurch, […]
Antarctica, New Zealand, photos, stories
The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf not only in Antarctica, but the whole world. In contrast to sea ice that is formed when sea water freezes on the surface of the ocean, ice shelves are created when glaciers flow from their land-borne origins to the sea. Upon reaching the sea, they maintain […]
Antarctica, photos, stories
There has been a distinct change in the air around McMurdo the past few weeks. While the cracks in my dry skin have been racing those in the sea ice of McMurdo Sound, the arrival of the Russian ice breaker, Vladimir Ignatyuk, advanced the break up of the sea ice in a way that I […]
Antarctica, gps, photos, stories
My anticipation for this moment had been building for 6 months, yet I found myself in a panic ridden state as the whine of the rotors increased in pitch directly over my head. The immense bulk of my Big Red parka and the Lilliputian dimensions of the cabin restricted my motions while the multiple legs […]
Antarctica, gps, photos, stories