Items

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  2023-01-21

  The Jewel of North Carolina

  The pandemic was a hard time for me. My wife's mental health was poor, I had just separated from the United States States, I became a stay-at-home father, and my father passed away shortly after the travel restrictions were lifted. We needed to get away for a while, so we chose to go to Ashville, NC. My wife and I love the mountains and the outdoors, so we booked a Air B&B in Ashville, NC because we talked about visiting there at some point for our anniversary. Once we arrived, it was love at first sight. The mountain views were breathtaking, and we could not have asked for fresher air. My wife and I make it a point to not look like tourists when we visit somewhere new, so we do our best to blend in. Something we always do when we go somewhere new, is find a local bookstore. Once we did that, we went to the River Arts District and met a lovely man named Jefferey Burroughs who owned a jewelry store called Jeffery. Later, we found and enjoyed a local tea shop and delicious local food. We noticed almost immediately while walking around the city and going in and out of shops was that there were no Covid restrictions anywhere, which was welcoming. What we were looking forward to the most though, was visiting the Biltmore Estate. The picture I am submitting with this log, is of the Biltmore House I took when we arrived. It is a beautiful home and a wonderful piece of American history. While walking through the house, you are in awe of how detailed everything is. The house had refrigeration, a large kitchen with modern amenities at the time, a large library, golden inlaid wallpaper, the first indoor pool, a gym, an indoor bowling lane, etc. It was so incredibly detailed and the thought that went into this house was very well thought out. The house was inspired by European architecture from George Vanderbilts travels. He wanted to create a place where, not only his family could come and enjoy, but also friends and their families. The house acted as a hotel when people were invited to stay. One could truly spend an entire day in that house and probably still not cover everywhere. If you ever have the chance, visit Ashville and the Biltmore Estate.
• 
  2023-09

  My First Solo Trip

  During the events of COVID-19, I was in recovery from a serious illness that attacked some pretty valuable organs and, therefore, was immune-compromised. It was pretty shocking as I had been perfectly healthy up until that point and was just entering my early twenties. Therefore, I did not and could not travel during COVID. So, by the time of my first trip, post-COVID, travel restrictions had been lifted. I am currently as physically recovered as it gets from what happened and living life in a new normal! The first trip I took was to visit my sister in Alaska, where I stayed for about two months. We had a blast, and it was great catching up. I saw the ocean for the first time, and it was a particularly emotionally moving trip to experience. I will be heading out to see her and her lovely puppy, Honey, again in January, and I am excited to see them and explore new places! I am also hoping to rockhound in AK to add to my ever-growing rock collection.
• 2020-03-01

  Ghost Town Adventures

  During Covid, when everything was on lockdown, my wife and I found ourselves with quite a bit of free time. She was running a non-profit an I had recently started to go back to school. So, in order to get out of the house we decided to explore ghost towns. At the time, we lived in Montana and there are sometinh like sixty, give or take a few, within a days drive. So we would pile into our little chevy Aveo and drive out to a ghost town somewhere. What supriseed me the most was that even though Montana lists ghost towns on their state map not all of them are abandoned. More than once we would drive down a long dirt road into an old mining town that was supposed to be abandoned only to see people living in a trailer or in one of the refurbished buildings. Honestly, exploring old and forgotten parts of the state was alot of fun. Without covids restrictions we wouldn't have done it either. The only time we needed to interact with others was at the gas station for provisions and that was fairly standard. Just mask up keep your distance and go. One thing that suprised me about visiting ghost towns (aside from people living in them) was how long many of them managed to stay alive. For those of you who aren't familiar with the settlement of the American West, mining was fairly important in the mid to late nineteenth century. Regardless of whether it was silver, gold, copper, tin or any other metal, towns would form around successful mines. One these places ran dry though the townspeople would move on. But for quite a few, the mine would continue to be explored and excavated for years after it had quit producing. Seeing records of people living in an area in the 1920's and the mine not having produced anything significant in twenty years was fascinating. My wife and I spent quite a bit of time talking about these peoples lives, hopes, and dreams. Then of course if there were vampires hiding in the mines. I don't want the events of covid to ever repeat themselves but I miss the time toghether that it gave my wife and I. We have a child now so any adventure like this would be different but I might try to have us go get lost somewhere together one of these days.
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  2020-04

  New Adventures due to Quarantine

  These two images were taken when my sister and I went to an abandoned train tunnel and explored it. Being stuck in quarantine has brought us back together and outside yearning to explore new places.
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  2020-09-25

  College Friends in a Pandemic

  My first few weeks of college consisted of going to restaurants with new friends and exploring the city outside (masked, of course.)
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  2020-05-05

  How COVID-19 changed my life.

  A personal account of the pandemic.