Geo: 44.2911, -121.548Since we had already done Smith Rock State Park and had no desire to visit it again, we moved up our plans to hike another section of the Pacific Crest Trail. This trailhead was about 20 miles west of the town of Sisters at the summit of McKenzie Pass on Hwy 242. The highway, also called the McKenzieHighway, passes through a large lava field that flowed from two volcanoes, Belknap Crater which erupted 1,700 years ago and Little Belknap which erupted only 1,600 years ago. The Dee Wright Observatory is in the middle of this lava field about a quarter of amile before McKenzie Pass. It is a structure built using the lava rocks that consists of a small room atop a mound of the lava. The room has view ports through which one ... read more

Geo: 45.3308, -121.71Our flight left GSP at 5:30 AM, which meant getting up at “0 dark thirty” on Tuesday for the drive to the airport. The early departure from home allowed us to arrive in Portland around 11 AM (PDT) and then drive on to the Timberline Lodge where we would spend the next two nights. The author of the book “Wild” had described the sections in Oregon in such a way as to make the trail seem like a good one for day hikes, with relatively easy access to scenic sections at several points . The most promising was access from this iconic, historical Timberline Lodge on the south flank of Mount Hood where she had rested overnight before her final 50 miles to the Oregon/Washington border where she ended her hike. The trail crosses ... read more

Geo: 44.8975, -85.9853Saint Ignace is on the UP where theMackinac suspension bridge which spans the Straits of Mackinac to connect the upper and lower peninsula is. It crosses the body of water that connects Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. We spent Friday night in Saint Ignace at a neat old hotel called the Boardwalk Inn. The inn was just across the street from the city's boardwalk which followed the water front along the shore of Lake Huron. We arrived fairly early and after checking in and needing to “get our miles in,” we decided to walk along the boardwalk. The upper end of the boardwalk starts at an old chapel, now a museum, where the body of Father Marquette is buried. Father Marquette was a French Catholicmissionary to the Native Americans in the early days of ... read more

Geo: 17.0833, -61.7Here is a recap of what we did on our time on Antigua: Arriving earlier than planned on Saturday at the VC Byrd Airport in Antigua, we drove to our B&B arriving around noon. After settling in we drove to the nearest restaurant, Mama's Homemade Pasta, at Long Bay beach. We had lunch and a then got a take out order of fettuccini and meatballs for our dinner that evening since the restaurant closed at 5:00 PM. Sunday we drove to Indian Town National Park and did a bit of hiking around the Devil's Bridge coastal area and then along the shore of a small bay. Found a stash of hundreds of Conch shells on the shore there and got a few as souvenirs. Ate lunch on the shore of the bay - Anne ... read more

Geo: 34.7243, -82.7812We flew from Greenville via Atlanta to Antigua where wechanged planes and flew on to Dominica where we pickedup our rental car and drove to the village of Calibishie wherewe checked into our rental cottage at Sea Cliff Cottages. Driving on the left on narrow roads still recovering from the damage done by the tropical storm that eventually became hurricane Erika in 2015 was a challenge. Compounding the difficulty was the fact that we arrivedjust at dusk and by the time we left the airport, it was pretty dark, and the headlights on the car left a lot to be desired. Low beams were pretty useless so I developed a practice when meeting another car of dimming the lights, slowingto a near dead stop, and waiting for the car to pass me on the ... read more