It has been a year for odysseys, hasn’t it? We’ve rambled around the Florida panhandle, spent an epic 55 days in the wildness of Bears Ears, floated the uncharted (nearly so, after hurricane Helene) and untamed Nolichucky river with the family, and have just returned from Hobnail Trekking’s two-week Ecuadorian Odyssey! All bring tales to be told for years to come.

Homer’s famous tale of Odysseus dates back to at least to the seventh-century B.C.E., maybe even to the second millennium! Ah, once again, it is the stories that endure and bring along truths that we ponder and allow us to reflect and be enriched. And laugh along the way…and sometimes not.

Not sayin’ that our odyssey stories have any of that kind of permanence, at least maybe not for you. But in these adventures there are always moments, sometimes poignant ones, that we love to remember and share. We learn so much about our world, some grand things, but also so many fascinating and interesting little things.

For example, did you know that all Panama Hats are actually made in Ecuador?

So follow along as I try to pull together the fruits of yet another life-affirming chapter in our lives.

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  The Amazon Basin
  The beginning of  the series. Well, maybe I’m getting a little head of myself. Why are we even here, in the jungle, with the rain and humidity, the anacondas and piranhas and all the other scary things? Our year was to be a little different. We had plans this fall to do an Alaskan “uncruise” with… Read more: The Amazon Basin