One Stupid Decision

Part 2: How I Worked on my Mental to Improve my Physical And How the Hell do I Hike with Neuropathy? –– Disclaimer: this is a long and personal story. Many of you know parts of it; very few know the whole thing. I'm not putting this out to start a pity party, I've done enough of that on my own. This is the story of my life, for better or worse, since 2017, and I feel it is important context to understand where I'm at and why I'm doing what I'm doing. Additionally, I'll discuss my own mental health in part 2, and I believe that the more stories like this are shared, the more people will feel comfortable addressing their own mental health. I've separated this post into 2 parts. Part 1 – " My feet are fucked up" –  might be considered a bit of a "downer", but it provides background on what you're about to read. Part 2 will sum up part 1 and delve into my journey over the  past couple years, leading to this trip. –– I have neuropathy in

Part 1: My feet are fucked up The series of questionable decisions that led to Neuropathy –– Disclaimer: this is a long and personal story. Many of you know parts of it; very few know the whole thing. I'm not putting this out to start a pity party, I've done enough of that on my own. This is the story of my life, for better or worse, since 2017, and I feel it is important context to understand where I'm at and why I'm doing what I'm doing. Additionally, I'll discuss my own mental health in part 2 , and I believe that the more stories like this are shared, the more people will feel comfortable addressing their own mental health. I've separated this post into 2 parts, and what you're about to read might be considered a bit of a "downer". Part 2 (How I Worked on my Mental to Improve my Physical)   is more uplifting and will take you through my journey the past couple years, leading to this trip. –– The Hodi (plural of Hodes) are an interesting cla

 Yellowstone Superlatives Recapping a jam-packed 5 days at the best stop yet. So here I am, sitting on a couch at my friend’s place in Yakima—the Palm Springs of Washington. I’ve had a few days to recharge, grab a few showers, use a real kitchen, and even sleep on a pull-out bed; what luxury! I’ve been enjoying posting updates to this blog, but from here I’m going to make things a little more interesting. Gone for now are the posts that tell you what I did at each stop on my trip. These are fun for me to make, but the content market these days is asking for more. Don’t worry, I’ll still manage ways to tell you what’s going on in my life and on the trip, but I’m going to try to make things more engaging, with different unique themes to each post. I’ve had many long days on the road with nothing but music, podcasts, audiobooks, phone calls, and my own thoughts to keep me company. Content ideas are flooding my brain—some more closely related to the trip than others—and I’m excited to shar

A Little Smoke Never Stopped a Good Time  Grand Teton National Park As I drive towards Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, my excitement is building. South Dakota and Minnesota had been wonderful (generally), but let’s be honest: this is where the trip really gets going. A beautiful drive through Bighorn National Forest that morning only adds to the anticipation.  First view of the Tetons The father west I go, I start to realize that smoke is going to be a factor to contend with. It’s sadly been among the worst wildfire seasons on record throughout the West, and apparently smoke had been a problem all summer in the Tetons, drifting from the still-raging fires in California and Idaho. Nevertheless, the haze created quite a dramatic experience as I drove closer and closer. I kept checking the GPS, 20 miles away, 15 miles away, 12 miles away. Still, no view of the mountain range. I’m driving on an open road, and as I would come to know, the things are imposing and should be viewable fro

South Dakota! Who Knew? Certainly Not Me. Badlands National Park & The Black Hills Like many, I had never heard much in the way of positives about South Dakota. It’s all grass plains and boring highway truckstops. Oh, and Mount Rushmore is there. I’ve seen it lumped in on list-icles of the “Worst States in the US”, right up there with Indiana and Arkansas. As it turns out, these posts were woefully uninformed, as the western part of South Dakota is really quite beautiful, and it has plenty of variety to fill multiple days. After the Minneapolis debacle, I was eager to get back on track. I was a couple days behind schedule, so I decided to cut the 3 days I planned to spend in South Dakota to just 2; one for Badlands National Park and one for the greater Black Hills area. "Yellow Mounds" in the Badlands