A few video clips from paddling the Lower Salt River
I ran across a few short video clips from various trips down the Lower Salt River and thought I’d toss them into a short post here.
Arriving at the river
Getting on the water
Sunset views
Enjoying the birds
A saguaro sunset
The “wild” horses
An endangered Red Colobus monkey in the Jozani Forest in Zanzibar - OTD during last year’s 100-day adventure.
Fish market in Zanzibar - OTD during last year’s 100-day adventure.
Sorta fun map. I guess I’m a US Level 207, depending on how you count. The “levels” are a bit opaque. I’m using “stayed here” to mean visited for a week or more, visiting is more than a day, stopped here is a day. There’s an EU version too.
Joined a buddy for a 5k walk at Papago Park this morning. Always good to spend some time among the creosote.
It’s suddenly become a rather busy 6 weeks of travel starting next week. First trip is 10 days in Costa Rica/Nicaragua, followed by a week long work trip to Seattle, then directly on to Dallas for a week, then home for a week before heading off to El Salvador/Honduras for a week. Whew!
Roadside produce market in Tanzania - OTD during last year’s 100-day adventure.
It’s gorgeous weather outside today, so I grabbed a couple sandwiches to go and brought Jen out for a quick picnic in the park for lunch.
Browsing the buffet - OTD during last year’s 100-day adventure.
Now accepting housesitting applications for our home in Phoenix between mid-Dec 2026 and mid-Jan 2027. No pets to manage, just free lodging for you. Borrow our car. Wear shorts on Christmas. Visit the Grand Canyon. Hug a saguaro. Hike a mountain preserve. Get some tacos. Enjoy a nearly free trip.
Say cheese, Eddie! - OTD during last year’s 100-day adventure.
Visiting a coffee plantation in Tanzania - OTD during last year’s 100-day adventure.
We successfully rebooked our New Orleans road trip—the canceled one we would currently be on—for later in March. I’ll drive over with our camping stuff and Jen will fly in/out for the long weekend. We’ll mark off two national park units, a state capitol, the World War II museum, and some counties.
Checking back in on my Places I’d like to travel to that I haven’t visited—yet post from Nov 2024, it looks like I marked off 3-ish:
- we finally made it to Africa as part of our 100-day adventure
- I managed to visit a bunch of Indiana
- I visited the two newest national park units (re-completing my quest to see all 433), but failed to visit Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, in spite of having three separate trips planned to see it. Still, the park units were the far higher priority for me, so I’m taking at least partial credit for this one.
If our 2026 goes as planned, we should mark off a few more items from the list too: Norway, the Canadian Rockies, and Costa Rica are all already on our travel calendar, and New Zealand is leading the field for our December trip too.
I could also see us squeezing in weekend trips to the Idaho panhandle and Vancouver, but neither is highest on priority list this year so I wouldn’t say it’s at all likely.
The Banana Kid - OTD during last year’s 100-day adventure
“…the rains in Afffrica” - OTD during last year’s 100-day adventure.
Building out Jen’s new travel-focused micro.blog site has given me a ton of FOMO about my own sites. Currently rethinking my plans…
Interesting post on Instagram’s year-end memo. The future returns to the individual—there’s never been a better time to have your own website to post your stuff. Feeds are dying, as is virality + influencer-status (thank fucking goodness!). Let’s abandon social media and return to social networking.
It’s January 1, which means it’s time to grab your 2026 Campfire Permit. You need one to have a campfire or use a gas/propane stove on public lands in California.
It’s free and takes 5 mins to complete—watch a short video, answer a stupid easy quiz—so just click the link to get it done right now.
My wife Jen launched her new travel blog today at JenWiles.com! She has most 2025 trips & photos posted and will slowly add in prior years, too.
How to follow
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RSS: jenwiles.com/rss
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Email: jenwiles.com/email
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Fediverse: @jen@jenwiles.com
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Bluesky: jen@jenwiles.com.ap.brid.gy
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Micro.blog: @jenwiles