Author: Cassie

The story behind the Alamo tweets

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Well, the epic vacation that was two years in the making has ended. I had intended to post as we went but there were some extenuating circumstances prohibiting that. One was Internet access. Sometimes it was great, sometimes it wasn’t. Another factor was school work. I had to make sure I got that submitted when I did have Internet access. And the final factor was the Great Tire Blow Out of 2013. So here’s part one of the Cowboy Hunting Story: The day Johnny Cash died. Meet Johnny Cash. He’s a black Hyundai Elantra we barely got to know before he was snuffed out. And by that I mean his tire blew on I-90W in Montana the second day we drove him. It was an epic blow out. One minute everything is fine, the next minute the car is shaking and I see the tire go flying away from the car in the side view. Panic set in when the brakes didn’t respond and we ended up using the emergency brake to stop on the …

Karaoke-hiking (and other bear safety tips)

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There has never been a better time to visit Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. The summer crowds are dying down, the dog days of summer are behind us, the elk are in rut, the bears are about to hibernate and the wildfires are blazing. That’s right folks, Lacey and I are getting an earful on the daily from our respective parents about the dangers of this trip, why we need to be careful and the best ways to go about doing it. (Nevermind we’re almost 30 years old and smart enough not to chase after wild animals.) So I thought I’d do a little research. What exactly are the dangers lurking in these unassuming national parks? How can we protect ourselves? Here’s what I found: A little common sense goes a long way. See a bear off in the valley? Don’t go running after it with camera in tow. Is an elk camped on the side of the road leisurely munching grass? Take a through-the-window shot and keep it moving. Does that big bison look …

We will have pictures!

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Remember the time I said 2013 may be the year I start posting more regularly? That was a good idea. Too bad I’m failing miserably at it so far. I mean, I’ve been working — a lot — and keeping busy with life projects in general. Life projects including working on that Montana respite that I take off for in approximately 23 days, 8 hours and 11 minutes. I think everyone Lacey follows on Instagram has been in Montana this summer and every time I get on Twitter there are about 500 tweets of pictures from Two-Medicine Lake, some mountain or other or something else breath-takingly beautiful that I just can’t wait to see. But the best part of this trip: Barring some unforeseen disaster, I will actually have pictures — and good ones at that. Lets recount some of my camera misadventures, shall we? Flash back to 2010. I have recently purchased my first DSLR, a Nikon D5000. Its something of a reward to myself for just being me. So, I’m in the Scripps …

Less talk and more action

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I’ve spent the better part of this rainy Sunday catching up on reading various travel magazines and blogs wondering why I had to take a path to adulthood that made me a banker full time and a wannabe world traveler instead of someone like Wandering Earl who has been traveling  around the world for several years. But, alas. I have too many bills (read: student loans) that I feel an obligation to pay, and so instead I work and cram all my travel exploits into one week a year. This year, the big adventure is to see Montana and Wyoming, with a glimpse of Denver to see my old roommate. Saying I’m excited about this trip isn’t exactly accurate. Saying this trip is my lifeline to sanity is slightly closer to the truth. You see, I may be a banker but I don’t keep banker’s hours. College gave me enough debt to create my own international economic crisis, so I work overtime whenever I can get it which lately has been pretty much every day. …

Aaaaannnnnddd We’re Back!

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At least 100 times this year I have said to myself, “Self. You need to blog.” And about 75 percent of those times I actually had a blog-worthy idea. Do you know how many times I actually sat down to write? Maybe five. A handful of drafts and one gorgeous Friday evening later, here you have it. The break of my writer’s strike. The conclusion of my writers block. I’m blogging again. Lately I’ve been engrossed in all things travel. I am planning my first really big adventure since the infamous Gypsy Trip in 2010. This as- yet unnamed trip will take me and my long-time, fellow former newspapering friend Lacey westward. We are exploring both Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. And even though we will only have about six days to hit both parks, we’re making the most of it. This spring and summer we are both working on our fitness so we can hike in the wilderness. So, unlike the Gypsy Trip when I got a primer on just about every national park …

Panama City or Bust!

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Above are some pictures from 2008, the last time I visited Florida. We visited Daytona Beach, Huntington Beach and Orlando. If I learned anything from last year’s Gypsy Trip its that the keys to surviving long drives is good music, good directions and good company. Well, and wild berry Skittles. Yesterday I embarked on an 11-hour drive from my home in Walton, Ky., to Panama City, Fla. A piece of cake compared to last summer’s 7,000-mile adventure, but still a long time to be in a car. Thankfully, this time I have some new gadgets at my disposal. I traded in my Blackberry for a Droid last fall, and with it came the never-ending app store. Y’all can have your iPhones. Sh’niqua (only sometimes) lets me down. Here are my top five road trip-approved apps: Pandora Internet Radio Its an endless supply music, as long as your network lasts. My favorite thing about this channel is it plays more than just whats in my library. And the more you listen to it, the more it …

The end of an era

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Looking over my last entry, I kind of get the feeling that I was feeling a little overwhelmed and homesick. It seems that I just fell off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again. You won’t get rid of me that easy. When I returned to the District after Thanksgiving, I was feeling a little down and a lot homesick. The holidays really are the most wonderful time of the year to me and my family. Every weekend we go to a different Christmas display and spend too much money buying each other gifts, baking and cooking stupendous meals. I’ve just finished eating my big Christmas dinner with my family before I sat down to finally post this entry. But I didn’t really crawl under a rock my last three weeks in the city. I spent a couple of days developing a few story ideas and then dug in, barely getting two of the three stories finished by the end of the internship. In my last few weeks I practiced a …

Change of pace

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And now for something completely different. Typically on this blog, I talk about things I do and see, or things I want to do and see, not what I think or how I feel. When it comes to talking about how I feel or what I think about something or someone, or moments that shaped a part of my character, I freeze up. I froze up earlier this evening when I was talking to one of my roommates about how this internship has changed my perspective on some things. She has decided to relocate to DC from the western U.S., and we were discussing what it’s like to be in a city where you know no one. When I got to the part where I tried to vocalize how in the last couple of months I have changed from someone who valued having an exciting career above all else to someone who valued family and friends above all else, I mumbled out, “But, I don’t know.” I couldn’t articulate why I no longer want to …

Maine!

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Portland Head Light, most photographed lighthouse in Maine. As lame as it sounds, I’ve always wanted to go to Maine. It’s not a metropolitan place, its more of a wilderness and that’s just the kind of thing that suits me. I’m happy with a little ocean, a little rocky beach, a few lighthouses and the chance to spot a moose – as long as I’m safely in a car or somewhere the moose can’t get me. Sunday morning around 8 a.m., I finally got to see Maine. The only bad part of the trip is that we only had time to venture in to see one lighthouse, grab a lobster roll and start bookin’ it back to DC. We were in a race to get back before the Metro stopped running. After getting some tips from the best welcome center worker ever, we plotted a trip to go up to see the most photographed lighthouse and then stop to walk along some cliffs and see another lighthouse on our way back out of the state. …

Uncharted territory

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Providence, R.I. Capitol. It took up half the state. All the fist pumping really kind of messed things up for us going into Jersey. I kind of started ignoring Sh’niqua (the navigation system in my Android) and ended up missing the exit for the Jersey Turnpike. But, after a quick detour through Camden, we were back on our way. Fun fact about Jersey Danielle dug up on Wikipedia: It’s the doughnut capital of the world. When someone says “America runs on Dunkin’,” what they actually mean is “Jersey runs on Dunkin’.” Of course we stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts for an afternoon snack and quizzed an employee. She had no idea if Jersey was the doughnut capital of the world and seemed to think we were crazy for asking. The second leg of our journey brought me to places I haven’t been before. New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts were all new experiences for me. I tried not to let Jersey Shore influence my opinion of the state, but still, I think I’ll be …