Blog Posts

Here are all of my blog posts.

Thirty Years with Schlumberger

Why do I describe my career on an adventure blog. First, the job itself was quite the adventure, and it inspired many other adventures through the travel it led…
Diving the Oriskany and Lionfish Hunting in July 2020

My research for diving adventures led me to Brady Hale’s Ocean Strike Team which organized lionfish hunting trips out of Pensacola Florida. The dives required the Deep Dive specialty,…
Motorhome Rental

On our journey to motorhome ownership, we have rented units three times: once in the UK and twice in the US. The UK rental was in 2008 when the…
Buffalo Bayou Paddling Trail: Briar Bend Park to Woodway Memorial Park

This is a “catch-up” post from May 2020 to describe our second outing on the Buffalo Bayou. Having successfully completed a solo outing the previous week, I persuaded Samuel…
Buffalo Bayou Paddling Trail: Woodway Memorial Park to Allen’s Landing

This is a “catch-up” post from April 2020, when COVID was just starting to get real. The legacy of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 remained strong. We’d bought our bright-green…
The British Virgin Islands by Sailboat in 2020

We had booked a dream holiday for March 2020. Over the previous year, I had taken courses to qualify as a yacht skipper and Samuel had qualified as crew.…
The Outer Mountain Loop and Guadalupe Peak in 2019

The fifth installment of my West Texas adventures takes Samuel and I back to Big Bend’s Outer Mountain Loop (OML) and to “The Top of Texas,” Guadalupe Peak. The…
A Six-Day Tour of Lake District Peaks

This is a “catch-up” post, written in July 2022, of a fantastic loop trek that a 14-year-old Samuel and I completed in June 2019. When we had lived in…
Diving at Sea Base in March 2019

The catalyst for Samuel to learn how to dive was a trip to Florida’s Seabase with scouts in March 2019. These were his first dives after qualifying the previous…
Our Trip to Israel in 2018/2019

As Janet and I prepare for a trip to Greece in October 2024 to retrace the Apostle Paul’s footsteps, I write this post describing our trip to Israel to…
Ten Days in Colorado

This is the last of my “catch-up” posts for now, and this adventure with Samuel from 2018 is perhaps the most memorable trip we have done. While we have…
The Outer Mountain Loop in 2017

This is the fourth chapter of our experiences in West Texas. While our 2016 trip to Big Bend had been an epic collection of adventures, completing the Outer Mountain…
Big Bend in 2016 With a Pre-Teen

Now for my third visit to West Texas. After an awe-inspiring summitting of Guadalupe Peak, Samuel and I were ready for our next challenge. Spring Break 2016 gave us…
Guadalupe Peak in 2015

This is the second of several posts that describe our multiple exciting adventures in West Texas. Ten-year-old Samuel’s interest in hiking and camping was growing and I was very much…
Pop-Up Camper

A pop-up camper was a memorable step toward our imminent RV ownership. Our hotel-based road trip to DC visiting National Parks inspired us to want a pop-up camper. Janet’s…
Car-Camping

As we prepare to take ownership of our first motorhome next month, I reflect on how we got to this point. One part of that journey has been our…
The Llangollen Canal in 2011

One of the most remarkable canal trips in the UK is the Llangollen canal. First proposed in 1791, it takes you between England and Wales. The route includes the…
Cruising the Norfolk Broads in 2009

The Norfolk Broads are wetlands in eastern England that are best accessed by boat. In May 2009, we rented a boat for a week long holiday. Such boats have…
Flashback: Update on the Kids (from Janet)

15 Sep 2005 Ni hao or hello to all, We realized after reading through the last update email (China update #3) that we hadn’t even mentioned how the kids were…
Flashback: Beijing Blog #6

[This is the last Beijing blog. I can’t remember why we stopped after only four months of our twelve months there.] 6 Nov 2005 It seems appropriate to write…
Flashback: The Beijing Bike Blog

11 Sep 2005 Bi-de’s Beijing Bike Blog Having only ridden about 100 miles on my bike in Beijing – that is commuting to work about 5 times – I hardly have enough…
Flashback: China Update #3

10 Sep 2005 It’s now been nearly 2 months since we arrived, and I think we can say we have now settled in. The main indicator for that was…
Flashback: China Update #2, nearly 2 weeks

24 July 2005 Friends and family, We’ve been here nearly 2 weeks now. I’m not sure how this reads, as we had a few responses saying that we sounded down. …
Flashback: Our First Five Days in Beijing

A recent note from an old blogging site about my posts from China in 2005 has prompted me to repost them. The blog was a convenient way to give…
Big Bend National Park and More in 1999

This is the first of several posts that describe our multiple exciting adventures in West Texas. I start with our first trip in March 1999. Janet and I had…
Our Honeymoon in Costa Rica

The highlight of our honeymoon was a Costa Rican adventure. We whitewater rafted, rode in a hot air balloon, visited a volcano, toured a cloud forest canopy, and chilled…
Belize with Coral Cay Conservation in April 1995

In my passion project of writing up adventurous activities from my past, the time that I spent in Belize has the fewest records and dimmest memories. I have ten…
Irian Jaya (West Papua) in 1992

One of the great attractions of working in the Middle Eastern desert was the amount of time off. As well as short (2-3 week) breaks every few months, there…
Exploring the Auyan Tepui in February 1991

Close to Venezuela’s border with Guyana and Brazil lie many table mountains called “tepuis” in the local indigenous language. They are remote, largely unexplored, and inspired Conan Doyle’s “The…
Hiking the Sierra Nevada de Merida, Venezuela in 1991

After the completion of the Cambridge Columbus Botanical Survey expedition, Mark, James, and I headed to Merida in February 1991 for a backpacking trip in the Andes. Hilary Branch,…
Cambridge Columbus Botanical Study Venezuela 1990

I participated in two amazing expeditions when I was a student. The first involved investigating the effects of oil pollution on the coral reefs in the Gulf of Suez…
Gulf of Suez Reef Survey 1989

This is another catch-up post, written in July 2022, to describe the first post-worthy adventure in my life. In July and August 1989, a team of six SCUBA divers,…