I’m going walking around Sessions Lake, a reservoir in central Michigan. Want to come? It’s four miles long and winds through the woods and along the shore. And look! Finn’s going to join us. While we’re walking, let’s talk about Finn’s work in physics, in a very basic way. Particle physics is the study of […]
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Traditions in Madison
We’ve enjoyed the pleasures of friends here in Madison in so many ways over the last three years. But, I almost boiled this post down by calling it, “Like Kramer Sliding through Jerry’s Door.” That iconic TV scene keeps popping up for me. Hospitality Both Ways Tracy shared an office in grad school with Guy; […]
Coming Down from Alaska
I’m a real sap when it comes to that Kris Kristofferson song, “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” The chorus goes: On the Sunday morning sidewalk Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned. ‘Cause there’s something in a Sunday Makes a body feel alone. There ain’t nothing short of dying Half as lonesome as the sound On the […]
Catching Up through Iowa
Even Banjo is impressed with how the Airstream looks now that we’ve washed it! Since Alaska, I’d despaired it would never come clean, but our favorite campground (because our friend Dave runs it) came through for us. We were able to wash it with clean water (no toting buckets of river water one by one […]
Alberta into Montana: Seamless Prairies and Big Sky
Western Alberta is astoundingly beautiful. Gently rolling grassland—as far as you can see—for hours of driving. I’m sure we saw lots of cattle and horses, but the land is so vast that they seemed like only a handful scattered around. In some places, the grass was so tall when we drove through that they’d look […]
Sharing the North Together
Melanie and Doug and Tracy and I have been playing musical camping locations the whole time we’ve been on our trips to and in Alaska. The music in this game has been a mix of data—where we want to go, where we’ve already been, the weather, road conditions—each factor dominating our decisions differently. When the […]
Musk Ox and More in Fairbanks
We were in Fairbanks for almost a week, but, because it had been more than a month since we’d been in a city, we had so many errands to run that we hardly had enough time to sightsee. We did squeeze in some fun, though. Musk Ox & Reindeer Research Station The Large Animal Research […]
The Price of Adventure (at Tombstone)
On our way to Tombstone Territorial Park in Yukon we drove a short stretch of the Klondike Highway and then the infamous Dempster. Up here there’s constant roadwork in the summer, and by roadwork they mean, “bulldozing the old road and pushing a pile of dirt beside it for a new road.” I was too […]
Strong and Free
That’s the motto of Alberta, and it suits the people we’ve met there. First, let me tell you the story of an unusual friendship. Of all things, an online message board about The Lord of the Rings movies is where I met Jacqui; she lives in New Zealand where those movies were shot. She grew […]
Can’t Believe I Cussed at My Son
I had just set up the board game, Sequence, and was explaining to Finn how to play. As I was pointing out that the order of the cards on the board seems kind of random, he popped in with, “I see it. They go in a spiral.” Good grief, I’ve been playing this game for […]