Category travel
Opt Outside (#OptOutside) as often as you can to improve your health & outlook
Opt Outside (#OptOutside – promoted by REI for the Friday after Thanksgiving) and National Take a Hike Day (held each year on Nov. 17) are reminders to get outside and enjoy nature. Being outside and in nature should not be a slogan or campaign for just a few select days. That’s a worthy goal for […]
Grand Canyon is ‘grand’ from South Rim
After my post about hiking in the Grand Canyon, several of my blog readers who haven’t visited the Grand Canyon asked me if a visit to the Grand Canyon would be so “grand” if they weren’t hikers. Yes! Grand Canyon National Park — as with other national parks – is designed to provide a wide […]
Hiking the South Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon
When you reach Ooh-Aah Point on the South Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon, you know why it got that name. What a view! As I looked out over the Grand Canyon, I felt like I was airborne but without a plane. Ooh-Aah Point is a 1.8-mile round-trip on the South Kaibab Trail, and hiking […]
Tips to avoid getting sunburned at the beach
I recently drove to Dunedin, Florida, to meet two of my friends from Kentucky who were vacationing in the Clearwater area. We were having lunch before I took them to explore Honeymoon Island State Park. As we ate our lunch in air conditioning, sipping iced drinks, one of them asked: “What is it that you […]
LeConte Lodge – cabins, llamas & mountaintop views
My recent hike to Mt. Le Conte marked my 51st hike there. I first hiked to Mt. Le Conte with my church youth group when I was in high school. I’ve been fortunate to able to hike Mt. Le Conte almost yearly – and sometimes several times a year – since that first hike. Most […]
Celebrating running on Global Running Day
I didn’t know it was Global Running Day until hours after I’d run. I’d run because, well, that’s what I do most days. I’ve been running about three or four days a week for more than 30 years. [For years, I was running six days a week, but I’ve incorporated more cross training with cycling, […]
Too soon for Christmas displays
I’m all for the spirit of Christmas but… It’s the beginning of August. This display and a big display of Christmas tree ornaments and large Santas were in the local Cracker Barrel, along with displays for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I imagine the Easter display will be added soon.
Atop Mt. Le Conte
A “highlight” of the year for me is hiking to Mt. Le Conte, the third highest peak in the Smokies. The only way to get to Mt. Le Conte is hiking one of five trails. My favorite is the Alum Cave Trail, about five miles (up, up, up). This was a view at sunset. Not […]
Fundraising for public radio
On the air I joined Donna Green-Townsend on the air today to fundraise for WUFT-FM and WJUF-FM, the public radio stations that are housed in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida, where I’m on faculty. We worked during “Fresh Air,” one of my favorite programs from National Public Radio. “Fresh Air” […]
A good reason to stay on the trail
A walk along the La Chua Trail in Paynes Prairie can give you the chance to see the University of Florida’s mascot namesake — a real gator. A park volunteer was patrolling the trail in a truck, using a pole to nudge a few gators off the trail to give all of us walkers a […]
Julie Dodd 