When It's Springtime in Alaska....

TrailBlog has Moved

Pictures now being updated here----->.

A Case of Tecate Blues (or "The Ballad of the Champagne Ranger")

Hank and I made it down to Guerrero Negro just in time to catch the last boat of the season.  The good news is we had this mommy and baby ballena all to ourselves.

Twenty-third Psalm Major Domo, Reserve me a Table for Two

I must say, it feels really good to be back in the desert after spending the summer out East... 

Spiders, Why Did it Have to be Spiders (and Also, Snakes)

Now, I've lived amongst the grizzlies in the frozen Northland, I've slept with scorpions in the desert, and I've seen the dragons of the malarial isles, but nowhere else have I found such inhospitable wildlife as in the hospitality state.  Name a kingdom, phylum, and order and I'll name something from southern Mississippi that will try to kill you.

I've Gone South (Since my Baby's Gone North)

One of my favorite spots to hang out in town is the Mississippi Welcome Center right off the I-20 bridge.  From here you can watch the trucks on the interstate, barges going up the river, and trains coming over the old US 80 bridge.  (Also, they've got free coffee and wifi.)

Gibraltar of the South

VNMP is regarded as a world-class art park, with over 1300 plaques, markers and monuments.  I've chosen to show Alabama's state monument because it hits the war-memorial trifecta: guns, flags, and tits.  Presumably it was considered cost-prohibitive to have the thing play Skynyrd continuously.

Yes, I Think it can be Very Easily Done...

Here's my first view of the port of Vicksburg, Mississippi.  During last year's flood, about half of that sign on the left was underwater.  Take a look at the map, and you can see that nature accomplished what Grant failed to do.  Shortly after the war, the river changed it's course, largely bypassing the city.

Adios California: Big Trees and Big Foots

Colby (an old friend from Washington) stands in front of General Sherman, in Sequoia National Park.  The General is over two thousand years old and the largest living thing on Earth (if we're not counting clonal organisms, and we're not.)

Here There be Dragons, Part III: Escape from Komodo Island

"You'll never take me alive, you damn, dirty lizards!"