Shortly after the lockdown started, we began watching movies in the evenings, and sometimes they were movies I enjoyed 20+ years ago that I couldn’t quite recall whether they’d be appropriate for children or not, but we watched them regardless, and one of those may very well have been “The […]
Author: dadcation
the attack
She lunged at my face; I raised my arms to shield the attack, and her incisors clenched my right forearm as she shook her head from side to side, driving a canine deep into my flesh near the elbow. I came up to my knees and grabbed at her neck […]
more Covid Camping near Atlanta
My Eagle scout friend Jody (whose ceremony I attended nearly 30 years ago) planned a family camping trip to Cloudland Canyon State Park in northwest GA for his birthday weekend, so being a good friend, I invited myself (plus my 3 children, wife, and dog) to join. We enjoyed it […]
our rockin’ road trip through Muscle Shoals and Memphis
We saw the film “Muscle Shoals” earlier in the summer and decided we needed to go, much like we did with Yosemite after “Free Solo” last summer. On Friday of Labor Day weekend, we headed west on I-20 to Alabama. We pulled off I-65 in Cullman to see something I’d […]
a weekend in Chicago during Covid
I haven’t flown on a non-Delta aircraft in over a decade, but when a travel newsletter I get said American had round-trip flights to Chicago for $49 a few months ago, I bought 5 for the weekend of Sept. 11. Why that date and that city? In 1997, I graduated […]
Zion National Park
I have a National Parks bucket list, and hiking The Narrows and Angels Landing at Zion National Park have been near the top of said list for at least as long as there’s been an Instagram. We concluded our tour of the Utah National Parks with visiting my most anticipated […]
Teaching Kids Empathy
I was supposed to make a video for a brand a few months ago that instructed children how to be more empathetic. The client rejected it for “copyright infringement” and an “inappropriate reference to my giving a golden shower 35 years ago or so.” And so, I’ll just post it […]
Bryce Canyon National Park during Covid-19
I’ve had some amazing experiences at the 33 U.S. National Parks I’ve visited: rock climbing in Yosemite, biking through snow above the Grand Canyon, paddling under snakes at Congaree, hearing a ceremonial flute serenade at Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde. At Bryce Canyon, however, I had 2 experiences that rival […]
Socially Distant Utah at Capitol Reef National Park
We awoke at Capitol Reef, Utah’s least visited of its 5 national parks, and had a lousy breakfast at Pioneer Kitchen before going by the visitor center for junior ranger workbooks and hiking the 2.25-miles-each-way Grand Wash trail in the bottom of a canyon with 800′ sandstone walls. It was […]
Socially Distant Utah, from Canyonlands to Capitol Reef
We stopped at Lin Ottinger’s Moab Rock Shop on our way out of Moab, where we saw dinosaur fossils and gems from all over the world strewn about dusty shelves both inside and outside the store. A Japanese man interviewed the elderly shop owner as a lighting crew and cinematographer […]