Month: February 2011

Out and Back Across America

Post author By TravisGood
Post date February 19, 2011
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San Xavier Cathedral — How to chose a picture that captures the essence of this trip? Not possible so here is one of my favorite shots of Mission San Xavier del Bac. I visited this while doing extensive travel in Arizona.

Can you say “hodge podge”? That’s what this trip turned out to be but not in a bad way, simply in a multi-themed way. Wide variety pervaded this trip!

The initial reason for travel was my cousin’s wedding in Portland. Tagging on to the theme of family was working with my uncle on his business and spending time with my sister visiting from England. Then there was the incubator theme, visiting organizations that help start-up businesses succeed. Oh, and let’s not forget the goal of completing my circumnavigation of the continental United States or visiting all the Presidential Museums!

Get the picture? This trip was all over the place.

Historical Mountain Museum River Road Travel

A Varied Path Home

Museum of the Appalachia — Museum of Appalachia is a living village of farming life. It reflects the simple but difficult life of those eking out an existence in mountains of eastern WV, Kentucky and Tennessee during the 19th century

Often the last leg of my trips is simply about getting home. However, this time I wasn’t shooting to break land speed records so I wove in a few interesting distractions into each day. Given the new path I had chosen for my return, finding new things wasn’t difficult.

Bike Hike Mountain Road Travel

Where Prairies Meet Rockies

Post author By TravisGood
Post date February 16, 2011
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Air Force Academy Chapel — This striking building is the Chapel at the U.S. Air Force Academy. When the ambition is to build a national-monument calibre school in little time then including architecture such as this can go a long way toward accomplishing the goal.

Boulder … Denver … Colorado Springs, all major Colorado cities sitting at the edge of the Great Plains with their backs to the Rockies. All relatively close to one another and all very worthy of exploration. Here I paused for two days in my cross-country drive to get exercise and enjoy the uncharacteristically warm weather.

Historical Mountain Museum River Road Travel

Touring Western Living

Two Headed Cow — Everyone needs to see the two-headed calf. This kind of oddity would get talked about and draw people into businesses. In this case, the stuffed contrivance was used by a pub in Boise to attract patrons.

Time to meander home. Why “meander”? The fact is that all the primary east-west routes via the Interstate Highways I’ve already explored. Sure, there’s alway more to see but they’re not the rich passageways as they once were. By taking secondary highways and especially diagonal highways I come across abundant new veins of discovery to mine.

Not in keeping with the above, I started down the Columbia River Gorge which I love, love, love to drive. However, once I emerged on the east side of the Cascade Mountains I jumped on a quiet road, the John Day Highway, to the National Monument I had once visited too briefly. Then I cut east through the Blue Mountains to historic Baker City.

Family Travel

Family Time Around a Wedding

Post author By TravisGood
Post date February 9, 2011
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Mount Hood from The Dalles — As I drove away from Portland on a day with clear blue skies, I could see Mount Hood clearly in the distance. The picture above was taken from over 100 miles away. Great places loom large in our minds, and in this case, on the horizon as well.

Chris, my cousin who I had not seen since he was eight years old, got married to

a lovely lady named Amanda. I still don’t know her at all and oddly I don’t know him either but I plan to remedy this next time I’m in Portland. The wedding was remarkably tasteful and well done and provided an opportunity to see lots of family. Very nice.

The next day I attended a Superbowl party. “What? Travis Good watching a football game? What’s up with that?”

Bridge Ocean Road Travel

Hangin’ Again in San Francisco

Post author By TravisGood
Post date February 5, 2011
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Aerospace Museum of California — While visiting my friend Sonny, he expressed an desire to visiting all the air museums across the U.S. Now, when ever I visit or pass by one I send him pictures which I hope will inspire him forward.

I will look for ANY excuse to spend time in San Francisco and this trip I had plenty but primarily Macworld 2011 and visiting incubators. In addition, I’d committed to doing more urban hiking while in good weather and there’s no place like the Bay Area to find good weather. From here I’d head north for my original primary goal, to attend my cousin’s wedding in Portland.

Animal Bridge Mountain Museum Ocean Sunset Travel

California’s Glorious Middle Coast

Post author By TravisGood
Post date February 1, 2011
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Monarch Butterflies — For a long time I’ve known about the Monarch migration to Guadalajara in Mexico. However, it turns out that Monarchs west of the Rockies head to Pismo Beach where I went and saw thousands!

Normally I drop into a rut when I drive up the California coast: relax, enjoy becomes hurry up, running late. To reset where my rhythm kicks in I reached the coast via a new route. Now I had the luxury of suffering the same pattern but starting at a different spot on the coast.

Back when we lived in Los Angeles, Beth and I talked about living in San Luis Obispo some day. Why? It’s not too complicated an answer. SLO lies along the glorious stretch of California coast, has a large enough population to have all necessary services and benefits from having a local university: Cal Poly.