Best Of

Across the street and to the left when you leave the UFO museum used to be a local coffee shop. They had a strawberry shortcake coffee that was 100% legit. Best part of the half day I spent there.

ALIEN DONUTS!?

I’m not saying it’s aliens but

Today was a 7-hour drive to Roswell, NM with a couple quick stops to capture Pokemon Go gyms in the few towns in between. We ate Mexican (whaaaaat?) for dinner, then Nicole & I visited the, uh, quaint International UFO Museum (& Research Center!) for an hour and then walked around the downtown.... most of which I claimed in the name of Team Instinct. 😁

(yes I made one right side up)

Oh, do you mean your airbnb is in that general circle? It's safe to walk at night just keeping in mind general big city street smarts. Don't walk around like a tourist, keep to yourself, be aware of your surroundings. I wouldn't , like, walk around at night with your phone out playing Pokemon Go, for example. Other than that, that circle is fine.

Last night, Nicole understandably wanted to turn in after 10 hours of driving, so Perry and I had some adventures. Two internet searches later, our destination was set: Beale St and the river. We set out about 10:30pm, hit a jazz club and a dueling piano bar, caught all the Pokemons, and walked along the river. We got in about 1am local time.

More upside down photos I’ll fix someday:

How did I end up on a 3-week roadtrip to the Grand Canyon as the coda to my work sabbatical?

Nicole has been planning this epic journey for more than a year. Her and the boys (Perry & Kyle) were going to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, arriving via every other point of interest between there and Detroit in a giant loop thru the western US, sometimes camping. Sometime in late October, I was offered Kyle’s place on the trip.

I couldn’t point to the Grand Canyon on a map of the US. Like, I’m pretty sure it’s in Arizona? I can only name 4 of 15+ stops on this journey. But I definitely know how to backpack & winter camp, and heaven knows I could use a hard mental reboot and a few weeks with my son.

The car is packed, the GPS is ticking, and we’ve just exited the city. Our spouses are holding down the fort at ICHQ and humoring my broken dog for the next 3 weeks. When I return, I’ll have one more week to rest and then it’s off to Montreal to see what the future of my job holds.

I’ll update as I think of it and have a signal.

We were driving right thru the Bourbon Trail territory, so I found a small distillery named Neeley Family and we extended our trip by a grand total of 15 minutes to park and let me taste their single barrel bourbon and rye, and purchase the latter.

Spun the nextdoor Kentucky Speedway pokestop and received no gift - brutal dice roll. 😝