Category: National Park Service
-
It’s raining here and I’ve been sitting inside looking at Zillow, mooning over a cheaply priced farm in the upper snow belt, with the full knowledge that I have never raised cows, sheep, goats, chickens, or bees. I’m also fully aware that several years of Boise’s and Denver’s mild winters have made me forget how…
-
I touched seaweed and let its slimy tendrils slip through my fingers, explored its air filled buoyancy bladders/pods, peeked at the marine world living beneath it all, and found it fascinating. This is a big step for someone who could barely stand to touch cooked spaghetti for decades. The Atlantic was just a short walk…
-
*** We passed the 1 year anniversary of living in the HMS Beangle on Sunday and it feels so natural by now that we didn’t even remember until well into yesterday afternoon. I want to say a very public and loud Thank You So Much to Joe & Chris for their support in letting us…
-
It’s 163 years since the three day battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) concluded and Lee’s army slipped back into Virginia (July 4, 1863). The following are my thoughts related to the battlefields we visited in Virginia and Pennsylvania. I admit that by the end of them, I was a bit battlefield and Civil War’d…
-
On opening the hour long tour of select pieces at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, our tour guide made a compelling argument that the artists who capture other people and events for posterity have a strong and lasting impact on how we frame our understanding of those subjects. In this way, a talented sculptor has an…
-
Hi, I’m Jamie, he’s Jeff, and we’re traveling full time in a small teardrop trailer we call The HMS Beangle. Ok, it hasn’t been that long since my last post, but it’s definitely been a minute. The last few weeks have involved much reading, much relaxing, and some very wonderful days spent camping with Bob…
-
A lot of people out West like to talk smack about the Appalachians and other eastern mountains, and we admit to it as well. But after spending almost 4 months at or near sea level, it was a little thrilling to see the word Mountain in a campground’s name again. While hiking, biking, and driving…
-
First and foremost, I have a grievous error to acknowledge. I have been misleading you all about Longleaf Pines for some time, and for that I apologize. What I often thought was a Longleaf (Pinus palustris) was instead a Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda). I know. I know. It was a careless, but I also learned…
-
At first I was going to write about three different forts individually. Then I decided that three forts in a row, when they all followed the same basic design and were part of the Civil War conflict, was asking a bit much of anyone’s patience. So I’m going to mostly write about Fort Pulaski, which…
-
When I say the temperature dropped the last night we stayed near Cape Canaveral, I mean it dropped. The temps slid downward all day Sunday and the winds climbed steadily upwards. Overnight, wind gusted up to 50mph and the actual temperature fell to 20°F on Monday morning. Our camp hosts were so concerned about us…
