Cornering Consciousness

This trip was scrubbed two weeks ago when it was originally scheduled due to the unplanned surgery reattaching my left biceps tendon. So it's with great relief to get to a point where we could make this little overland trek in a minimum of pain. As with any adventure that takes us east out of St. George, this Grand Staircase trek took us through Zion Canyon. The idea was to drive to Escalante, Utah, where the trailhead to the Smoky Mountain Road can be found down a side street not far from the BLM offices on the south side of town. We're always glad to get back on the road or back on the water, to move, explore, share, talk, eat, sleep and drink in the proximity of each other. Mindy was able to get off work earlier than expected giving us a head start and putting us in Escalante a couple of hours ahead of time. The plan was to camp at Escalante Outfitters, a barely-an-acre parcel set up for tents, not RTTs. So we camped in the parking lot, fully warned that a weddin...

We're establishing a tradition in the family where upon graduation from college we take our now grad-student on a road trip to the Pacific Coast Highway, California's Highway 1, the greatest road in the world. You can see our last adventure for Katie here .  First stop, though, on this multi-purpose adventure was The International Culinary Center in Campbell, just outside of San Jose, Ashley's next stop on her academic journey. She spent the morning there on Monday attending a class and getting a feel for the institute. After we found a camp in Half Moon Bay, Mindy and I made it back to the Center for a tour, including extraordinary tastes of student prepared cuisine, and an orientation to how this is going to work for Ashley. This is her element, her portal to a long and successful career in the culinary arts.    We left the Center and made for the City for a quick visit with my nephew. He's been storing a box of family history, slides and 8mm film fro...