We’ve shifted our upcoming camping trip from Banff/Jasper to the PNW instead. We’ll tackle a number of quest items—including re-completing the Treasured Places quest —and revisit Yosemite, Olympic, Mt Rainier, & Bryce Canyon. Excited for OLYM/MORA, as it’s been 20+ yrs since my last visit! 🙈
Welp, that didn’t take long…
Hello again old friend.
Bummer to hear that EchoFeed is shutting down . I’ve always been happy with Micro.blog’s rss cross posting, but it was a great option for others. (If you’re seeing this one Bluesky, Mastodon, or Threads, my posts all originate from rsjon.es and are automagically copied to those platforms).
In 2021, I got the chance to meet up with Charles McCool for a beer or two or three (with wife Julie joining a bit later). I didn’t interact with Charles frequently online, but had always felt like we were kindred spirits nonetheless. I had good reason to feel that way. Our conversation that day lasted much longer than expected and touched deeply into our shared life philosophies. It easily…
I’m usually frustrated when people wander right out into a shot I’m trying to take, but it seemed to work out just fine in this case.
Crazy to see that, since 2024, I’ve been to exactly 1043 US counties, which is a full 33% of the US. Of those, 630 of those have been my first visit to that county, exactly 1/5th of the US. Wow! 🤯🤯🤯
Updated some of my travel quests after our recent trips: 50 Countries by Age 50 (now 63/100) Drink a Guinness in an Irish Pub in 32 Countries (66%) 100 UNESCO World Heritage Sites (61%) UNESCO World Heritage Site in 50 Countries (60%) National Parks in 50 Countries (38%) US Counties (79%)
I was constantly on the lookout for beer cheese soup during our last road trip, finding only a single mediocre bowl at a brewery. So my wife did some digging and found the only spot in Phoenix that seems to be serving it and surprised me with lunch out today.
Today we tracked down the simple gravesite of Scotty Philips, who is often regarded as the guy who saved the bison from extinction. When only a few hundred bison were left in the US, he made the decision to grow a herd to more than a thousand, which he distributed to ranchers around the country specifically to help rebuild the population. If you’ve ever seen a bison in the wild, there’s a very…
Wowza!
Smoke from the wildfires in Canada forced us to skip our time on Isle Royale National Park, but we did find a dive bar with a bunch of weird taxidermy diorama scenes. 🏷️26.07A
This Love’s Truck Stop has its own RV park. Huh. 🏷️26.07A
Found a new favorite brewery in New Mexico 🍻
Hitting the road on my first camping roadtrip with our new Grand Highlander. It’s also our first trip with our new electric cooler and battery setup. Let’s see how it all goes on the road. 🏷️26.07A
We’re en route home after our 3 weeks in Norway. But I won’t be home for long—I hit the road this weekend to make my way up to Isle Royale National Park. Jen will be joining me in Milwaukee and we’ll have a couple days on the island with friends. Afterwards, we’ll hit a few more park units, dip into Canada a bit, and probably colored a few more counties. I’m also threatening to bring Jen to a…
I haven’t posted anything here, but we’ve been exploring Norway for 3 weeks. Well, tonight we found ourselves joining several thousand new friends marching to the royal palace to wake up the king and celebrate Norway’s World Cup win with some synchronized rowing and singing songs with unknown words.
Added some premium nanoceramic IR tint (LLumar FormulaOne Stratos) to my new Grand Highlander. It should keep things much cooler than the generic tint during the hot Phoenix summer.
Our favorite meal of the trip was a stop at Burger Bench in downtown Escondido. Great burger, great craft beer selection, great atmosphere. Jen said her grilled cheese was the among the best she’s ever had. Highly recommend. 🏷️26.06A
It didn’t take too long to hit 1000 miles on the new Grand Highlander—it’s day eleven. 😂
Angles 🏷️26.06A
This place had (new) shag carpeting tacked to the wall. 🏷️26.06A
Green Cheek Beer 🏷️26.06A
This rug really ties the whole room together. 🏷️26.06A
First big drive with Mac! 🏷️26.06A