Again, I was awake by 6am, but this time without having gotten the chills, so I had a good night's sleep. And again, by the time I woke up, my wife was back with a fresh hot cup of coffee for me. Just another of the many reasons I love her. Since we had a 6 1/2 hour drive to our next location, and wanted to spend some time along the way at the Craters of the Moon National Park, getting up and on our way was important. The drive to Craters of the Moon was very scenic, but also pretty desolate, with very few towns or signs of civilization a lot of the time. It was about an 80 mile drive, taking about an hour and a half. We pulled into the Visitor Center around ... read more

This year for vacation, I had originally planned on walking the Camino again, this time with my wife! Unfortunately, Spain and most of the places along the Camino were not fully open, nor were military space available flights... available. Pardon the seeming redundancy. Instead, my wife had expressed a desire to either visit Alaska or the United States Northwest. We opted for the Northwest, and I spent a good bit of time exploring possible sights. After showing this info to my wife, along with locations of nearby KOAs, I started making reservations and developing web pages for each place. A quick rundown before I really start Day 1. We fly out of Greenville/Spartanburg International Airport on July 12th at 6am, change planes at Dallas/Fort Worth, and arrive at Boise Idaho's airport around 11am, Mountain Time. We ... read more

We started our second day, after a trip to the local Shell station for coffee, by heading to the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. It was a fairly long trip from the motel, but well worth it. The entrance is quite a ways from the actual buildings or gardens and parking seemed somewhat limited, but we found a place. The Magnolia Plantation and Gardens seems more gardens then buildings, although we didn't opt for the manor tour, feeling the gardens were large enough to be fulfilling. There were so many different flowers and trees, along with a number of "collection" sections, like camilia, azalea, etc. We spent almost 2 hours just walking along the paths and taking photos. A portion of the gardens border either the Ashley River or the plantation's Big Cypress Lake, adding to the ... read more

In May of 2018, I decided to try a 3-day hike on the Palmetto Trail here in South Carolina. If you haven't read that account, here is a brief synopsis. On May 24th, I started what was intended to be a 3-day, 2-night, hike along the Palmetto Trail, starting in the small town of Walhalla. All went well the 1st day, walking from Walhalla to Oconee State Park, where I spent the night in a tent. The next day, I started the 2nd segment, from Oconeee State Park to Keowee-Toxaway State Park. Although I got up and going at a reasonable hour, feeling pretty good, the directions provided by the Park Rangers left something to be desired. For over an hour I couldn't find the trailhead, then it started raining and I had to wait it ... read more

I woke up this morning in no particular hurry, since I didn’t have to check out of the hostel until 11am and my bus didn’t leave until 4pm. After gathering my stuff up a bit, I went to the nearby café to have my morning cup of café con leche, coffee with milk, in case you’d been wondering. I had looked in the nearby minimarket the night before for some more instant coffee packets that came with powerdered milk and sugar, but could only find the K-cup variety and jars of instant coffee. One wouldn’t work, and with the other I might have to buy both sugar and milk, depending on what the hostel had hanging around. After my coffee, it was about 10am, so I went back to the hostel to organize and repack in ... read more