The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

Gilgal Gardens is both a city park and a weird place. It was smaller than I thought it would be, but still good. This is the sculpture you always see pics of...  But this one with the body parts strewn all over was my favorite. It’s based on a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had that Daniel interpreted.  These were strange, too.  Actually, they were all strange! The most normal part was the beautiful flowers and plants.  (What is this plant?? I couldn’t get over how perfect the stripes were!)  This is a place I would bring out of town visitors, but it only takes about 15 minutes to see. It is not a main attraction.  I also visited the Anderson Tower Monument, which was quite disappointing. Some guy built a little tower with a nice view of the city and thought he’d make money off of it, but no one wanted to pay for a view they could see for free (I mean, this city is surrounded by hills), so then he made it free for a while and then the city got rid of it in 1932.  You actually can’t see

Imperial Park It was a dud.  Cottonwood Park was a winner! Cool playground... Nice long walking path... Access to the Jordan River Trail... And this cute piece of art.  Meadows Park was another dud.  Warm Springs Park was pretty, but not a good place for walking. Lots of good trees for hammocks. I was actually somewhat disappointed though, because this park sounded really cool. It’s the site of a warm spring that the Native Americans, and then the white settlers turned into a bathhouse, and then that building was turned into a children’s museum, and now it’s all blocked off and rundown.  What I want to know is, WHERE IS THE SPRING??? Is it flowing underneath this building?? Was it formally part of this water fountain? Did they just fill it in?  I guess we’ll never know, since SOMEONE STOLE THE GODDAMN SIGN.  The website promised interpretive signs.  FALSE ADVERTISING. I did see this little monument from the DAR, but that was it.   Finally, Washington Park. Very pretty, but this is chea

This has been a rough year. I had hip surgery in November, and it's felt like my life has just been frozen in place since then. Covid made things worse, and now I'm back to being in a lot of pain and found out I'll most likely need another surgery. I had high hopes for a trip to Alaska this summer, or at least some vagabonding and hiking, but my life remains just... stuck.  I needed some ideas for things I can do that don't involve hiking. And I like to check things off lists. I had a very productive Zoom meeting with my friends Scott and Jen the other night, where he came up with some brilliant ideas for quests I could go on this summer, and Jen told me all about her three hip surgeries, which were very similar to mine. It was actually like a therapy session... we talked about all the emotions I'm having while dealing with health issues, and devised a treatment plan. Scott is a pro-level quester. He's visited all 419 national park units, and he has tons of othe

Paula and I spent a fabulous day in Portland. We visited the Japanese gardens.... ...did some shopping, and had “lunch” at Salt and Straw. Alex met up with us at Powell's, where I was doing some serious damage. He found me in a whole section of books about rivers, my arms completely full of books. I think Powell's might be my favorite place in the world, besides Disney World. We met Rich for dinner at Deschutes to celebrate his birthday, then went to Alex's favorite neighborhood brewery for drinks. It was so fun for two of my best friends to meet! And Rich and Alex totally hit it off and are still friends; just last month Alex was over at Rich and Paula's and they sent me a selfie and I had some serious FOMO. Anyway, another thing that happened in Portland was that Paula helped me paint.  And Abra and I went out for brunch, and then hiked (this is a hike IN PORTLAND!), and then went to Powell's, and sang Hamilton the whole time.  There was so much more I wanted to d

I cannot believe how much we crammed into a two day weekend. Alex and I met up in Roseburg on Friday night. Saturday, we started by hiking to Hanging Rock. It was a long drive on dirt roads, but in an area neither of us were familiar with, so it was fun to explore.   Alex titled this picture: "Lookin' Bangin' on Hangin' Rock."  Unfortunately, the day took a difficult turn when I got a flat tire and Alex discovered that I was missing a lug nut and some of the other ones were terribly rusted. Les Schwab was able to fix it, but I was really cranky by the time that ordeal was over. We didn't get to our hotel in Crescent City until late that night. Normally Alex and I have an 8 hours of sleep rule (this is why he's one of my very favorite people), but we decided it was worth sacrificing some sleep to spend sunrise among the redwoods.  It was overcast, so we didn't actually see the sunrise, but no one else was there so early on a Sunday morning. Wandering ar

Another early morning start, so I pretty much had the trail to myself on the way there. The only people up earlier than me were the fishermen. The scenery almost looked too perfect to be real. Unfortunately, any time I stopped to take a picture I was attacked by swarms of mosquitoes. Nature is never perfect; it's always just a little messy or uncomfortable! The Eastern Sierras are full of hot springs. I considered soaking, but that's not as much fun when you're by yourself. So I hiked to this interesting geothermal feature instead.