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Bandelier National Monument

by Brian on January 9, 2012 in New Mexico, Travel, United States

With a cataclysm of fire and ash, the earth began preparing a home for the Ancestral Pueblo people more than one million years before they arrived. The eruption of Valles Caldera in Northern New Mexico rained cinders over a 1,500 square mile area and created ash flows up to 1,000 feet thick. The ash eventually cooled into a soft rock, called tuff, suitable for carving into the cliff-side dwellings found at Bandelier National Park.

Using hand tools, the Ancestral Pueblo people enlarged natural holes in the rock to form “caveate” shelters, often accessed by ladders. In some instances, they also constructed apartment-like facades along the cliff wall.

Photo of the Day: Denver State Capitol

by Brian on January 6, 2012 in Colorado, Photo of the Day, United States

Everywhere Once: Around the World

by Brian on January 4, 2012 in Travel

: (c) Simon Howden

Occasionally someone asks if we’re keeping a journal of our adventures. Naturally, I direct them here, thinking this blog is a pretty fulsome account of our travels. Every once in a while I’m floored when they respond “Yeah, but are you writing it down?”

I admit that there is something unique about the printed word. It is tangible and real. Words written on papyrus 2,000 years ago are still being read today. 2,000 years from now, what will become of this? Nothing much, I expect.

But in some ways, digital media is more real than its predecessors. Eloquent prose of flowing script carefully written in a journal and tucked safely in a nightstand is absolutely tangible, it may even be beautiful; but it is almost certainly unread.

The Buddhist in me wants to ponder whether a story written but unseen has actually been told. I think the answer is no. Does that make it unreal?

EverywhereOnce, meanwhile, has gone global. This week one of the fastest growing travel brands in Asia, Take Me to Travel, featured us and our 24 Hours in Custer State Park post. Overnight, they introduced us to 150,000 of their followers, halfway around the world.

Two decades ago only the most accomplished writers could even hope for that kind of exposure. Today, thanks to the intangible vapors of the digital world, it is simply a beginning.

A Toast to Taos

by Brian on January 4, 2012 in New Mexico, United States

It’s one of the first things we noticed when traveling overseas: how much older the rest of the world appears. From Medieval castles and Roman ruins to Egyptian Pyramids, the marks of ancient civilization are everywhere. It’s something the “New World” noticeably lacks.

The U.S. has so few ancient relics it’s easy to forget that our history predates the Mayflower. Fortunately there are still some places that remember.

Everywhere Once: Central America

by Brian on January 2, 2012 in Travel

A storm brews over the Rocky Mountains

We strive to make blog posts worthy of our audience. We expect them to be more than just diary entries of where we’ve been and what we’ve done. Instead, we try to craft stories that are as interesting in the telling as they are in the doing. Sometimes we succeed and other times we don’t. But the effort usually requires reflection; it often requires research; it always requires time.

Careful observers may have noticed that our writing trails our travels. In truth, the blog is about a month or so behind us. I don’t expect it will ever catch up. We simply need that time to make each entry a worthwhile read. Normally that hasn’t presented much of a problem, aside from some mild confusion about why there isn’t more Rocky Mountain snow at this time of year.

More recently, though, people who know that we’re about to embark on a two month backpacking trip through Central America have asked whether they’ll be able to follow our whereabouts on EverywhereOnce. The answer is no, not in real time, anyway. Like all of our posts, dispatches from Central America will be delayed by about a month or so.