Aside from the simple pleasures of traveling and visiting old friends, I was keen on visiting some of the more extreme “Deliverance type” areas in America’s redneck South. Mr. Downing had tried to prepare me for the type of environment we were headed into, but words simply cannot prepare one for the experience. One of … Continue reading
Mr. Downing and I were driving back to Atlanta at the conclusion of Day 3 on our adventure and exploration phase when we saw black smoke billowing up in the distance. Frankly, it was difficult to imagine our day encompassing another element of excitement given what we had already experienced, but hope springs eternal. Mr. … Continue reading
Following my exploration of South Florida, I headed to the north again and after spending another night with newlyweds Gary and Sienna, I headed up Interstate 75 to visit Mr. Downing in Atlanta… Just over the Florida border into Georgia, I realized I was hungry and low on gasoline… I was driving through a rural … Continue reading
After a few days in Miami, I decided to head south and check out the Florida Keys… The drive to Key West… I must confess to being a little disappointed in the Keys leading up to Key West. They seemed to consist mostly of trailer parks, gas stations, fast food restaurants and boat parts dealers… … Continue reading
This is the entrance to the massive spillway on the front side of New Bullards Bar Dam. Obviously, water levels were significantly down when this sequence was shot… These gates are just massive – the pictures don’t do them justice… We soon threw increasingly large rocks into the water – requiring the maximum efforts of … Continue reading
This is where you park to hike down to the front of the dam. Well, there are other ways, but this is the easiest way: This is the road down: The road is paved all of the way down, but it is steeper than it looks. Hiking out will give you a good cardio workout: … Continue reading
It feels a little schizophrenic to travel from a war zone in Afghanistan where there were literally firefights in the street when I was leaving (more on that in future posts) to shopping for expensive clothing and hanging out at an ice bar in Dubai just a few hours later… Fortunately, embracing such ambiguities in … Continue reading
The Velvet Rocket 