A number of you have emailed me with that question. After all, you got a couple blogs about the trip and then….nothing.
Did the guy fall off a cliff? Get eaten by a Grizzly? Decide to run off and become a hermit?
Well, nothing so dramatic. More a combination of my son getting sick, problems uploading blogs from locations with no internet/cell service…and the fact that I’m getting old. To be honest, hiking up to 10 miles a day and trying to get by on less than 4 hours sleep (that’s what happens when you hike all day, photograph the sunset at 8pm, the milky way at 1am and the sunrise at 5am). When I did have a free hour, I have to confess that my first thought was a nap…not writing a blog:)
You know the old saying?: “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” Well, the original plan was 3 weeks, 22 states, 12 National Parks and 8,500 miles. A few days into the trip Ryan came down with a bad case of nausea, fatigue and killer headaches. Turns out it was a bad case of altitude sickness. So we cut out about a third of the trip, especially the stuff at high altitude. It was a shame, but it means that we can go back next year and hit the places we missed! Our final tally was 2 weeks, 18 states, 8 National Parks and 7,000 miles…which is nothing to sneeze at. Ryan was a trooper and never missed a wake up alarm or slacked off during a hike (heck, it was like hiking with a mountain goat…the kid was always 10 yards ahead of me!) Fortunately he began to feel better as the trip progressed (and we lost altitude).
We had a blast! We saw Buffalo, Beavers, Elk, Grizzly Bears, Prairie Dogs and a lot of other critters that we don’t see in sub-tropical Florida. We hiked up the Virgin Narrows in Zion National Park (our new favorite hike of all time!) Watched the sun go down over the dunes at White Sands . Chanted “USA! USA! USA!” while a guy ate a 3 pound hamburger and 10 onion rings in less than 15 minutes (a new record at the Pioneer Restaurant).
I will share more with you in blogs over the next couple months, but today I just wanted to apologize for ‘going dark.’
Take care,
Jeff
Okay, okay…I can hear you now…”Where are the pictures?…This is a photography blog…you can’t sign off without adding photos!” Fair enough, here are my quick Top Ten Favorites:
Related Images:
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evelyneholingue
16 Jul 2014So sorry to hear about your son. Altitude can be mean, that’s right. Your photos are dead gorgeous and even though you had to cut some of your trip you managed to cover a lot of territory in such a short amount of time. Your sunrise photo is outstanding. The moon one with your son is not too shabby either. Beautiful!
Thank you for sharing.
Jeff Stamer
17 Jul 2014Thanks Evelyne for your compliments. Hey…how is your Maine roadtrip going?