Monarch Mountain Trip Report

Went to Monarch for the first time yesterday. That place is awful. No one should ever go there. Location First off, Monarch is far from everything. It’s not even in the middle, but rather on the outskirts of nowhere. The town of Salida (pronounced Sa-LY-da as if the Spanish language isn’t even a thing) is

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The Earth Was Once a Garden Place, But Now It’s Just Missouri

A few weekends ago headed the 5.5 hours up I-35 to Independence, Mo. to check out church history sites. The best part was the barbecue place and the prayer for peace at the RLDS temple of division. Here are some photos and random, related (?) discussion. So that’s the RLDS (Community of Christ) temple in Independence. On

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Oklahoma Used to Have a National Park and I Visited What Was Left of It

Because it’s what I do. Platt National Park (?!), which apparently was still a national park through 1976. Surprisingly, I don’t remember seeing anything in the paper about its dissolution into the Chickasaw National Recreation Area (I think it’s an NRA) back when I was 4. Was a voracious newshound back in the pre-K days.

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2004 Nissan Titan XE 4×4, 2004-2016: In Memoriam

Not sure it’s a sad day necessarily, but it’s the end of an era either way. Sold my 2004 Nissan Titan. Had owned it for 12 years and it was a pretty vital part of my life for most of that time. 2004. I bought the truck in June 2004, the first year the Nissan Titan

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I Went to Costa Rica This Summer; It Wasn’t That Great, but Here Are Some Photos

At first it seemed like it would be a cheap, easy way to see whether I could be a productive person while spending time in a foreign country. Then the car rental got involved ($80/day, most of which is revealed once you get there), then it turns out there’s not really all that much to

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6 States, 9 Days, Road Photos, No Commentary

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My 6-State Road Trip: Road Photos

Day 1: Norman, Okla. to Gallup, N.M. I can attest to the factualness of the number of construction zones. Breakfast: cold pizza on the road, lunch: Rudy’s Barbecue in Amarillo, dinner: Panda Express in Gallup. Lodging: EconoLodge. Much luxury. Gas mileage was very poor — around 16. Rudy’s’s reliability notwithstanding, least interesting day of the

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Capulin Volcano: Monumental and in New Mexico

The last day of this summer’s road trip started in South Fork, Colo., where Cheeto bag explosions are an epidemic (inferentially), worked its way down through southern Colorado into New Mexico, then across the Okie panhandle and then on to Norman, my supposed home. Had lunch in Taos (New Mexican food and the hatch chili

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Alpine Loop and Animas Forks: An Off-Road (Sort Of) Adventure

I was getting my hair cut one day a few weeks back at the ol’ University Barber Shop (I’d include a link, but I don’t think they have a webpage) and mentioned I’d just bought a Jeep Wrangler and it turned out one of the other barbers in the shop was a real off-road enthusiast

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The Black Canyon of the Gunnison Is Really More of a Dark Russet Color

One of the primary goals of this summer’s road trip was knocking off a couple of theretofore unvisited national parks. Black Canyon of the Gunnison: knocked off (now). It’s one of the newer national parks and, common with other newer national parks, it’s not quite Yosemite or Yellowstone. It’s sort of like a much smaller,

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