Next Trip Now Whole!

This weekend we've been replanning our next trip: the one we leave for on Friday! For a while things were looking... not good. We canceled our 4 days in Pensacola Beach, Florida. That made sense because they were duplicative with another trip we've got in May. But that left me wondering if the rest of the trip the trip held together. Yesterday we explored a few alternatives to fill out the trip again, but none of them worked. Today we had one last idea to try... and it clicked!

We're replacing our 4 days at the beach in Florida with 4 days at a resort in Phoenix. It's another splashy-pools resort like we visited two weeks ago. Except this one has an even bigger waterpark. (it was recommended by some folks we shared a hot tub with at the other hotel.) And it's not merely a repeat of something we did two weeks ago because we'll be going there with friends.

We were over at these friends' house today. They were already planning a trip to this resort because we'd mentioned it to them. They were talking about going in May. "What do you think about going in late April instead, and we meet you there?" we asked. They jumped at the suggestion. We checked flight and hotel reservations together from the dining room table, determined it was doable, and started booking.

So now our trip starting this coming Friday morning is:

• Fly to New Orleans, spending 4 days there


• Rent a car to drive to Mississippi, hiking a few trails over the course of 2 days


• Return the car and fly to Phoenix


• 3-4 days of splashing around in the pools in Phoenix, plus maybe do other stuff


• Fly home

I'm glad we're back to a full 10/10 days with this trip instead of 6/10. And as a bonus, it's an even better 10/10 now because we'll share part of the trip with friends.

Tragedies of the Weeks

My blog has been fairly full the past few weeks with writing and photographs about outdoors trips I've enjoyed. While I've now (almost) cleared the backlog on those fun things, I've accumulated a backlog of sad and infuriating things I need to acknowledge. Among these is the Tragedy of the Week. ...Or, since it's been a few weeks, the Tragedies of the Weeks. 🤬

• Three weeks ago, on March 27, a shooter entered a private school in Nashville, TN and shot multiple people. Among the dead were 3 teachers and 3 students. Example news coverage: BBC.com article, 28 Mar 2023.


• One week ago a shooter opened fire at a bank in Louisville, KY. He killed 5 people and wounded 9 others, including two police officers who responded to the situation. Example news coverage: CNN.com story, updated 16 Apr 2023; Louisville Courier Journal story, 11 Apr 2023.


• Last night shooting erupted at a Sweet 16 birthday party at a dance studio in Dadeville, AL. So far the toll is 4 dead and 28 injured, most of them teens who attended the party. Unlike the other mass-shooting events listed above it's not clear who the shooter was in this one, or if more than one person fired guns. Example coverage: AL.com article, 17 Apr 2023.

I'll note (sadly) these are only the major mass-shooting events of the past 3 weeks, the ones that have made national headlines. For each of these there are several shootings involving multiple people injured that don't make the news.

Mandalorian S3E5 Finds The Way Again

Season 3 of The Mandalorian has gotten off to a rocky start. The first two episodes suffered juvenile writing and seemed like fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000. Late in ep. 2 the writers found their way back to laying out a classic epic storyline for the season but then backslid to cheesy, juvenile plotting in ep. 3. Ep. 4 was no better, and I felt it necessary to defend why I'm not ready to quit this series yet. Finally the writers have found their way— I mean, The Way— in ep. 5, "The Pirate".

The Pirate spins a classic Space Western style tale. ( Episode spoiler )

This is how you write a good show.

This Is The Way.