This is another time lapse I made during the new moon of June 2022. Not as many frames as I would like, the lens fogged over while I slept in my van. Talk about lazy.
Time Lapse Milky Way Galactic Center New Moon June 2022
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Time Lapse Milky Way Galactic Center New Moon May 2022 Driftwood PA
I made the below time lapse video of an overnight I spent in Driftwood PA for the new moon in May 2022. I love it so much.
Driftwood PA, Top of the World, New Moon May 2022
HERE are a bunch of pictures if you are interested.
What a whirlwind 36 hours I had for last month’s new moon. The new moon at the end of May 2022 will be one I remember always. The skies were perfectly clear for days. I wanted to take some pictures. I spent
the holiday weekend 5 hours south of home in St Mary’s County Maryland. Then I drove home to work for the end of the month. After a full day of work on Tuesday, I drove 5 hours north of home, from Newark DE to Driftwood PA. I Have been wanting to visit Bucktail Overlook, Top of the World, since my buddy Nate told me about it. The skies are dark there. I left work at 5pm and arrived in Driftwood at 10pm. I took pics until 3am, then slept until 
5am. I got up to shoot the sunrise. I had this entire amazing place to myself for 8 hours. Everything went perfectly. After sunrise I drove back home, another 5ish hours. I stopped for breakfast at Bings Diner.
St Marys County Maryland, new moon May 2022
I was not planning on going away this particular weekend, definitely not traveling anywhere on the Memorial Day holiday weekend 2022. Then my wife told me she had plans to horse around all weekend, and encouraged me to take a couple of days away in my CAMperVAN. She must have horsin’ around plans with her boyfriend.
I know CAM is over but I just can’t stop myself from continuously Caching Across Maryland.
I happened to notice the other day that Sunday 5/29/2022 was going to be the 10th year anniversary of my first geocache find. My wife and I had heard about geocaching years before, and had done it. But I had never made up an Internet account for it until that day. I left out of Cecil County early Saturday and it took me 14 hours to get 3 hours from home. My favorite kind a road trip. I ended for the evening at Point Lookout on the tip of Maryland to photograph the night sky…new moon. I stopped a lot along the way over 14 hours. I targeted old
CAM hides, old in general, FYC, and question marks pre-2010 for a challenge I was working on. Lots of other stuff got in my way as well.
That’s the whole truth. I know it’s true. I made it up myself. And I impart it to you.
Tennessee Smokies & Horsin’ Around in Kentucky
We packed up all our stuff for my wife’s first getaway in my campervan. We started in Lexington Kentucky for some fancy horse dancing event that she loves. It was the Kentucky 3-day 5-star event.
A real equestrians dream. In my house we call it Rolex not Rolex. After that went to spend some time in the Smokies.
Day one was spent getting to Western Maryland where we spent the night in a very quiet rest area. A couple of gentlemen in the car next to us were there all night also. I don’t think their wives would have been happy.
Day two was a leisurely morning getting up, followed by driving most of the day to Lexington Kentucky. We made the usual pitstops for tinkling and geocaching. Travel days are great days to fill 
in calendar dates with unusual types of hides. Throughout the trip I was able to check off question marks and multis during all travel days.
Once we arrived in Lexington the real horsing around fun began. We spent Saturday and Sunday watching horsie jumpers at the horse park. I had much more fun than I imagined. What a fun and unique experience I was lucky enough to experience. In between horse jumpings, I found a bunch of nearby caches. This was definitely a 5-Star weekend for The Kid!
On Monday after the horse event, we climbed all over the Via Ferrata in Kentucky. That is 3 that we have done in the US, with hopes to one day do all the Via Ferrata’s in the US. It was amazing, and definitely the most difficult of the 3 we have done. We spent the night in Compton before heading to Tennessee for a week in the Smokies.
While in Tennessee we did all the perfect tourist stuff. We saw 2 of the shows, ate at the famous places, spent a day in Dollywood, and spent a bunch of time in Smoky National Park. I spent 2 nights in the park in my campervan, taking night time and sunrise pictures, while my wife stayed at the Dollywood hotel. Lucky girl.
One day we spent driving Cades Cove, and it was amazing! The
weather was perfect, and we had 3 different bear spottings. I was finally able to use the widow’s peak on my adventure van for photography purposes! It was a dream come true.
There are a bunch of pictures in a photo album if you click somewhere around HERE.
PA Grand Canyon getaway April 2022
HERE is an album of pictures I took, mostly waterfalls.
Wow! What a great weekend away in my campervan with my best
non-geocaching buddy, Chappy. We left home on a Friday morning with a weekend planned at the PA Grand Canyon. It was an amazing weekend of outdoor fun, with an amazing friend, all happening under the umbrella of perfect spring weather. We left Maryland Friday and took our time getting to Leonard Harris state park. This is where we would sleep with each other in my campervan for 2 nights. On the drive up we stopped for some fun sites, a meal, and a few geocaches. Chappy is not a geocacher, but he indulged me in my obsessions.
On Saturday, our first full day, we started early with the hike down and back on the east side of the Pine Creek Gorge Turkey Trail. After that, out to the overlooks. I took waterfall photos and am very happy with how some of them turned out. Regroup for a quick snack and then onto bike 
riding on the Pine Creek rail trail. We did 25 miles total on bikes, just over 12 out and back to where we parked. From the parking we then went another mile north on the rail trail, finding the 3 geocaches from Darling Run parking and north. Chappy is not a geocacher, so he could not care less, but also was very understanding and indulging about my addiction and personal needs. 25 miles of riding my bike, and 3 geocaches. That has to be a record for a geocacher.
After a long day on this side of the creek, we crossed over to Colton State Park. We drove along the creek side road to Chimney Hollow waterfall. I wanted to be here to get some pictures of the waterfall just before sunset. I think they turned out great. We never did find the trail up to the top and simply walk the creek all the way up. We did see a
semblance of a trail to get us down 100 times easier. It was quite an adventure just to get some waterfall pictures. Well worth every second.
After this unbelievably fun and adventurous day, it was time for a steak dinner in the nearby town of Wellsboro.
Back to our campsite and a night’s sleep in my camPERVan.
The next morning started lazily with some breakfast and coffee at the campsite. After that we went back across to Colton State Park and walked a bunch of the miles of trails over there. We ran into a Boy Scout pack from New Jersey on the orange trail, and learned all about the possible overnight backpacking options in the future.
Throughout the weekend I found mystery caches and multi caches on days I needed them to fill the calendar. That’s one nice thing about traveling further away from home.
I had a great weekend of fun, excitement and adventure while camping and playing outside with one of my best pals and my favorite thing, my CAMperVAN!
Catskills New York with a Dog in a Van=Perfection
In October 2021 I took my best girlfriend and my new Storyteller Overland Van to the
Catskills in New York. Emmy Lou the Puppy was such a trooper. I hope she had a nice time, and wish she had a way to tell me. We set off from home with plans to take sunrise pictures at Overlook Mountain near Woodstock, New York. From there we 
went further north, and into southern Vermont. We stopped for a lot of fun geocaches along the way, and played frisbee golf in another new state. If ever there has been a success story, this is it. I took some pictures of sunrises, pictures of our visit to the land of Oz (yes, from the Wizard of Oz), and Emmy Lou being extra pretty.
Interested? Those pictures are HERE.
McAfee Knob and a Juggalo Wedding
Recently I was invited to a wedding in the mountains of West Virginia. I was not going to miss it. A beautiful place, the most magical time of year, autumn with the leaves changing, and a chance to take a road trip in the Storyteller Van. Sign
me up. The wedding was adorable, a cute little family of Juggalos. It was absolutely perfect by all standards. These young kids today kill me with their creative ideas. I spent a few days in the area, around the 
wedding date. I woke and hiked in the dark up to McAfee Knob in Virginia for sunrise one morning. The Knob is spelled Mc and not Mac, so it is pronounced with the common Irish Mc pronunciation. Some of my idiot friends say it with Mac in front, like some kind of Scottish garbage people. McAfee Knob is one of the most iconic and photographed spots on the Appalachian Trail. I
have seen all kinds of pictures and I wanted to make my own. I did OK with the photographs, but I had a blast doing it. I also played a few rounds of frisbee with some other wedding-going pals. It was a 100% successful trip. There are a bunch of pictures located HERE.
Alaskan Frisbee Meese
I was recently in Alaska for a trip that got canceled while I was
traveling to Alaska. Bad timing. That left me with some days to run amuck in Alaska with no one to answer to, and nowhere specific to be. Of course, I wanted to play frisbees in Alaska. I headed to Kincaid Park on the edge of Anchorage, and apparently the edge of Planet Earth. I got a few holes in and I threw a perfect toss off the tee. My initial reaction was fantastic. Right where I wanted it to be. I get close to where my frisbee and the basket are, and I see another frisbee right next to mine, someone left one out in the open. It would not have been hard to find, it appeared 
almost…abandoned there. Left behind for no reason, or maybe there was a gigantic reason. The first thing I thought of are those homes that people walked out of in gold mining towns. Perfectly working homes and communities, walked away from. A perfectly good throw, a kick in birdie, and someone just “walks away” ?
All of this happened in a second in my mind. The next second I glanced further along my walking path and past the frisbee basket.
There was a giant moose laying there paying no attention to me at all. I was within 20-30 feet of this moose before I realized it was there. He watched me walk toward him the entire time. It appears that moose would have had the upper hand, if it came to a fight.
I knew I was not going to get my frisbee in that moment, I was hopeful to get it later in the day, when a moose was not laying on top of it.
My instincts on what to do next kicked in. I walked all the way back to the car, got my photography gear, and returned to the scene. It was about a 20-minute stroll, the moose did not move a muscle. I was able to take some pictures from all angles. From one angle, I noticed a second moose, almost as close. I would never be that close to a moose on purpose! These Alaskan Meese are sneaky! I again seek safety and finish taking pictures.
I realized how great seeing moose in the wild and taking pictures of them were later that night. I was playing frisbees on the edge of the land, with an airport nearby. I had the opportunity to make a picture of a plane taking off in the background, with a frisbee basket in the foreground, and views of the ocean and mountains in the same scene. That would have gotten me at least 20 instantgram likes from frisbee golfers. I had it all planned out, it was going to be an amazing shot! I saw moose and forgot to do this airplane plan, altogether.
Worth it.
All the Alaskan pictures are HERE if you want.
Alaska Northern Lights October 2021
I was recently in Alaska for what was supposed to be a 4 night Northern Lights photography
trip. The night skies were mostly terrible for the week I was there. I was lucky with 1 great night to see the Aurora. Other than that I had nothing to commit my time. So I wandered Alaska between Anchorage, up to Fairbanks and beyond, then almost to Seward. I can’t wait to do it again.
I took a bunch of pictures, and have a few great memories I am 
trying to get the courage to share. Pictures are HERE if you are interested. Thanks for reading.
