Photo from Vintage 11 Studio 

 

Welcome to Jason's Travels. This is my story about traveling around Colorado and the world. Feel free to leave your comments and let me know what you think! And don't forget to check out my book, The Drive North: A Swing Down Memory Lane!

I also write for The Circumference.

 

 

The Latest Stories 

 

Exploring Arizona's Ancient Dwellings: After driving several miles south on Interstate 17 in central Arizona, it occurred to me that I wasn't going to make it to the Montezuma Castle National Monument. There were no signs directing me to it from where I got on the highway at Camp Verde, so I didn't know where to go. I felt no regret, though, since I had already seen several of Arizona's...

 

Learning About History at Utah's Historic Wendover Airfield: When I was at the bookstore last, I picked up a copy of The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. It is apparently the authoritative book on the events and people surrounding the invention of the atomic bomb and its use. After a recent trip to Utah, of all places - standing where history was made at the Historic Wendover...

 

A Drive Through the Petrified Forest National Park: Stopped at the exit to Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park, the ranger in the booth asked me how I liked my visit. I answered instantly. But all day long I had been thinking about what someone else had told me before my trip. They said the park is a waste of time and there's nothing there to see. After three hours, I knew exactly what I thought.

 

Other Updates:

Treat Yourself with Valet Airport Parking in the UK: Sometimes you need to pull out all of the stops and really treat yourself. One of these occasions is if you are taking the trip of a lifetime that will create fantastic memories for the rest of your life. Take a cruise that you have booked as a celebration for the end of your retirement, for example. This is just one of those times that warrants a little bit of pomp and ceremony with valet parking.

A Tradition of Golden Gopher Hockey: In one of the best rivalries in all of college sports, the University of Minnesota will clash with the University of North Dakota this weekend in a two game hockey series. Both teams - perennial contenders for the NCAA national hampionship - have less love for each other than Cain did for Abel. So a bitter, hard-fought series with vicious hits and spectacularly memorable moments will be a certainty. Such is the tradition of Golden Gopher hockey, which I always try to enjoy in person on my winter visits back to Minnesota.

A Walking Tour of Dresden: A damp clung to my bones. It was mid-afternoon and the morning's fog stuck in the air as a fine grey mist. I took refuge in a hotel close to the famed Frauenkirche - a restored version of its grand predecessor destroyed in the Allied firebombing of Dresden at the end of World War II. I had spent the previous two hours walking the reconstructed cobblestone streets around it admiring the architecture and was not tired and cold. But the afternoon and my walking tour of one of Germany's most beautiful cities was just beginning.

A Guy's Take on Eat Pray Love: For quite some time, I purposefully – and quite successfully I may add – avoided reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia. Before even picking it up, I stereotyped the book as a “chick flick” on paper. And to an extent I was right. It is, as the subtitle suggests, one woman’s search for everything. But what I didn’t expect when I picked up my copy during the Borders Books close out sale was that I, as a guy not interested in touchy-feely emotional journeys, could related to Gilbert’s travels.