Welcome to CosmicAdventure!

10/07/24
Hello everyone! The 2023 collage is finally here, better late than never... Usually I make captions in a clockwise circular motion, but there are so many pics in this collage it seems easier this time to go from left to right like reading a book, with a few exceptions that are noted in the captions to keep the pics lining up. 2024 is flying by and looking like a great year of change for us. Hope you are all having a great year as well and Happy Holidays!

1. Charlotte and Immy hiking close to home.
2. Immy and I rock hopping at Joshua Tree National Park.
3. Immy showing off her temporary tattoo.
4. Charlotte taking pics at Joshua Tree NP.
5. The "Bear Ears" at Bear Ears National Monument. Thanks Obama, for designating this as a NM in 2016 using the Antiquities Act, and thanks Biden for restoring it again in 2021 after some poseur president in 2017 reduced it by 85% just out of spite. Here's to hoping in 2024 there is a responsible president that will keep this amazing National Monument as is and add many more.
6. Owachomo Bridge in Natural Bridges National Monument, southern Utah.
7. Snowboard day at Lee Canyon just north of Vegas.
8. Roy's Motel and Cafe on Route 66 in Amboy California. Truly a step back in time.
9. Lake Erie from downtown Cleveland. Somehow this was the only great lake I hadn't visited before, until this trip.
10. Lake Powell, AZ, or what is left of it. This is the second largest reservoir in the USA after Lake Mead just outside of Vegas. Both are fed by the dwindling Colorado River which supplies water for around 40 million people in the Southwestern US. Nobody wants to talk about what happens when the water dries up. My guess is the Southwest turns into a Mad Max wasteland and Vegas becomes the Thunderdome.
11. Our annual Christmas Pic.
12. This year Aunt Tara and Immy's cousins Kane and Skylor visited us in Vegas, fun times!
13. Charlotte's Childhood friend Gian and her husband Mike visited also visited us from Singapore.
14. The picture just below is Charlotte and I at Lucille's BBQ celebrating our 20th Anniversary!
15. Next picture to the right is a beautiful sunset at Shenendoah National Park in Virginia along 105 mile long skyline Drive.
16. Trostletown Covered Bridge in Pennsylvania.
17. Charlotte and Immy playing air hockey in Big Bear California.
18. Charlotte playing some guitars at Guitar Center.
19. Immy at the library with a Cat in the Hat hat. She really seems to like hats, no idea where she picked that up from.
20. Charlotte and Immy posing for a picture somewhere in Big Bear.
21. Desert View Watchtower at the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park.
22. Our Big Bear Lake family picture. We went there for Immy's 9th birthday.
23. Family pic at Joshua Tree National Park.
24. Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park.
25. Immy at Big Bear Lake.
26. Immy hiking in Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area just outside Henderson, NV.
27. The one and only Horseshoe Bend, close to Page AZ.
28. This is what your car will look like after driving the offroad 17 mile Valley Drive in Monument Valley National Park in Navajo Nation.
29. Immy's Halloween costume.
30. New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia. Previously I had only been to the border of West Virginia, but for this trip I made sure to let the country roads take me home, just like John Denver sang about.
31. The infamous Mothman in Point Pleasant West Virginia.
32. The 100-mile White Rim Road loop in Canyonlands National Park, Island in the Sky district. a true 4WDR like a Jeep is required for this road, no exceptions. Unfortunately my AWDR wouldn't pass the ranger test here, but someday...
33. West Mitten Butte in Monument Valley.
34. Had the opportunity to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio. So much cool stuff there, this was the David Bowie exhibit. Back in the 80s and 90's I went to probably over 100 concerts and Bowie in 1990 was one of my favorite shows.
35. The Cleveland Script sign, on the Lake Erie waterfront close to the Rock Hall of Fame. Fun fact, there are six of these signs around Cleveland, at the time of this pic I thought this was the only one. This trip was also my first visit to Ohio, which was the 50th state I've visited. Mission Accomplished, now for a new mission, maybe all the national parks...
36. Randyland in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Randy bought this house decades ago and turned it into a tourist attraction helping to revitalize a rundown part of the city that is now pretty hip. I got to chat with Randy for a while when I visited, quite a character.
37. Doing a little hike in Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Utah.
38. Landscape view of Coral Pink Sand Dunes.
39. The famous view driving into Monument Valley.
40. Forrest Gump Point. It's where he stopped running in the movie, so of course everyone stops here to take pictures. I would never do such a touristy thing :-)
41. Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument in Utah, just outside Canyonlands Needles district.
42. Just below the Newspaper rock pic is North Window Arch, at Arches National Park.
43. Moving right is an overview of the Moki Dugway dirt road in Southern Utah. This road is a bit legendary, someone mentioned it to me when I was staying in Mexican Hat, UT. I thought oh cool but it didn't really click as to what this road was about, and it wasn't on my agenda. The next day I was going to Natural Bridges Monument and the hwy just seemed to dead end into a steep mountainside. I kept expecting the hwy to go left or right around this steep wall of mountains but as you get closer it becomes clear that this is the unpaved road over it. It was the only way there without an hours long detour and I really wanted to see those arches, so up and over I went, and back down it on the way back for good measure. I've certainly been on far worse roads than that, but it was a fun and unexpected CosmicAdventure.
44. I didn't even see this sign until the way back down, then it was like oh that's the road people are talking about. I could imagine trying to drive an RV down that road or driving in the dark or bad weather could make this quite a bit more difficult.
45. Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio. I didn't expect much from this park but it was very pleasant and peaceful. I liked it so much I went back a second day to see more sights there. It's quite different from parks out west, but I appreciate the way the land was revitalized and all the historical places in the park.
46. The Tower of voices at the Flight 93 National Memorial. This entire site is very really well done and worth visiting and I recommend visiting all the areas of the memorial including the flight path walk. The museum inside was particularly moving with all the photos and newscasts playing for that day when everything happened. I was in NYC just a month before 911 and even have a picture with my dad and the twin towers behind us, a month later they were gone. I think a lot of people who are old enough to remember that event tend to compartmentalize it, but coming here brings it all back and it can be pretty emotional.
47. Looking out over the Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands National Park.
48. Just below the Canyonlands picture is my trusty old mountain bike hitting the local trails around Blue Diamond, NV.
49. One of my favorite pics of the year of a bike rental shop at Grand Canyon National Park. I did get quite a few pics of the canyon, but it's really hard to get a good pic there because it's so vast and the lighting is always very contrasting and harsh. So I took some night photos and this one came out great, then I got lost and took a few hours to find my car. I had no idea the village at Grand Canyon was so big, and it gets really dark and cold there at night. After running into a few Elk on the trail I finally found the car, drove back to Vegas, then went to work the next day. Not recommended- working the next day that is. Next time I'm calling in sick and hitting more National Parks!