Happy Green Day!

It started Friday with a computer error on my laptop,  “Can't find hard drive” Fatal error!!  Great start to a weekend!

Saturday morning in the rain, driving up the mountain in need of gas, I stop at the gas station and my credit card gets declined. “Great! What’s next?”

Continuing my drive, just around the corner, I miss a stop sign. Double great!!  Lights in my rear view mirror go on: one red and the other blue.  It’s a black and white … and guess what?  I don't know this officer.  As the rain comes down and camera in my hand, I now need to sign the ticket. Great! What's next?  I should not have asked that question. 

Continuing to my next destination, my tire blows out … and it’s STILL raining. Great! Wow! Holy moly!  NO WAY am I asking myself “what next?”  All wet from head to toes after changing the tire, I figure it can’t get any worse.  The trip must go on … after all, it’s only 9:30 a.m. Well, at least, the “check engine” light did not come on!

With a click of my heels, I must continue down the Never Eat Soggy Waffles road!!!

Rain and the Levee

As the rain comes in from the south, we are heading north on the NESW highway.

With the rain, the levee should be filling with water.  Who in their right mind would build a town in the middle of nowhere? But it was done and now I'm going to find it.

The levee will fill and the run off will go to the open ocean. In a time of water shortage, the state of California should hold this water back. And if not, the government should blow up the levee and allow the fish to return to the river, to the creek and to the mountain. Mother Earth knows that our land needs to return to the past with open water and open land.

The great feeling of the open air and the cold weather is the greatest feeling one can enjoy!

Dorothy went down the Yellow Brick Road, and Joe is going down the Never Eat Soggy Waffles highway.

Jack-O at Five

The Tracks of Hope

Many miners had the hope of wealth and longevity, but in the end, they were penniless and broken from the long hours of hard work.

Like these old miners, the only hope these tracks have are the ghosts from years gone by, hoping that someone will come to visit and remember the past. 

I, too, am like these remnants of yesteryear, but my tracks are the NESW highway.  I am hopeful that just around the corner I come upon the next great photo.

Check out my NESW highway at the next full moon.  With a tankful of gas, packed bags, filled icebox, two pairs of socks, and camera in hand, I’m off to the next road trip.  With the sun and the wind on my back, I know that I'm alive.

Is the Bottom of the Bottle Your Future?

Is the bottom of the bottle your future?

First, we sold the gold and then the coins. We’re living from paycheck to paycheck just to pay the bills.

As if losing everything is not enough, the icing on the cake is when man’s best friend bites his head off! That’s the broken green bottle effect!

Environmental Graffiti

Graffiti, the eyesore of the land!

As I drive down the “never eat soggy waffles” highway, I see the littering of the land. We tend to just look the other way rather than stop and weep a tear for our land. Just like a kid with bad acne, our land is looking as bad!

If we keep turning a blind eye to this, one day we will be overcome with litter. It’s only a matter of time. Please take the time to invest in our land so that one day we won’t be consumed by environmental graffiti.

Never Eat Soggy Waffles

Never Eat Soggy Waffles* was my motto this past year.  As I reflect on the year gone by, with tears in my eyes and in my heart, I am overwhelmed with joy on what I have accomplished and the paths I have traveled.

Sometimes the paths were long and in the end, I got nowhere!  A funny thing about a good hike is that you may not know where you are going until the very end.  I can only look back at hundreds – even thousands – of photos to show where I have been.  Eight pairs of shoes and 14,000 miles later, the doctor now says I have to rest for three months and refrain from running. 

My last two trips were the “best”!  On one trip, the car brakes started to go out in China Lake; and then in San Diego, I got lost for 17 miles.  That was a trip!  But the adventure really starts when everything goes wrong.

With the wind at my back and a camera in one hand, I am off to the last adventure of the year.  Until then … Never Eat Soggy Waffles*

*mnemonic for compass directions

Entrusted: A Whale of a Tail

Without spoken words, Mother Nature has entrusted us with taking care of the earth and its creatures, but some people throw caution to the wind.  Wherever I go, I tread softly.  It's a relationship with Mother Earth, and she is trusting us to make the right decisions.