In media interviews I participated in over the years, such as my 2016 appearance on TV Comedy Central’s Tosh.o, they often ask me: ‘Why do you use rubber chickens in your climate comedy videos?’ 

The short answer is: “I don’t know! It makes me laugh” 

However, in that 2016 Tosh.o interview, the TV host and comedian Daniel Tosh asked me bluntly, “But we’re supposed to just laugh when we see a rubber chicken?” 

My response, ‘I laugh.’ 

The long answer is that I don’t know what to do with the 3 rubber chickens I own since June 2009. At that time, I worked as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park. I was a naturalist or interpretation ranger giving various park programs such as geology talks, historic lodge talks, guided sunset hikes, evening campfire programs, junior ranger activities, and narrating the boat tours. 

For the last three weeks in June each summer, the park required the interpretation rangers to complete 3 weeks of training to be knowledgeable about the park to answer visitor questions, how to prepare a ranger talk, and how to respond to medical emergencies that we might encounter. Each summer, our staff would attend one complete day of first aid and CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) training so we could adequately act if we are the first rangers on scene in such emergencies. The park law enforcement or LE rangers, who were also trained as Emergency Medical Technicians or EMTs, led these medical trainings. 

On June 25, 2009, Cater Lake LE ranger Pieter Sween led this training. Thinking like a park ranger interpreter, he wanted this first aid training to be engaging, entertaining, but most important, informative. In particular, Pieter led a section of training known as triage. This training aimed at helping us make quick decisions if we come across an incident involving mass injuries or casualties of park visitors, such as a crowded bus or boat accident, a multi-vehicle collision, a mass shooting, explosion, building collapse, etc. A very heavy subject for a medical training. Pieter wanted to include humor to lighten the severity of the topic, but also to help cement the vital information of this training in our heads. 

This training could literally save someone’s life in a situation we need to make snap decisions. Thus, the topic was deadly serious, but it needed to be presented in a compelling way that the information would stick in our heads.

Pieter came up with the idea of me playing a snotty French waiter where I would introduce various rubber chickens. The chickens would be labeled with various conditions, such as broken leg, pregnant, unconscious, dead, head injury, or needing CPR. As a group, we then had to decide how we would treat the chickens. The categories were minor, delayed, immediate, or morgue.  

I guess Pieter figured with my animated, lively, and fun personality that I would be the perfect ranger to participate in this training as the uptight and arrogant French waiter. We had over 30 Crater Lake park rangers attend this training. I remember it being a big success and getting big laughs from the attendees as I brought out each chicken individually and I announced their medical ailments. Pieter wrote a good script for me to perform. I happened to have a fancy white shirt, a dress vest that I bought for a wedding years ago, and new black dress jeans I could wear to play this part. 

To prepare for this training skit, Pieter approached me to play this role in early June. He did not own any rubber chickens, so he needed to order some from Amazon. He was too shy to ask his boss, the Chief Law Enforcement Ranger at Crater Lake, to order 6 rubber chickens. 

Pieter humbly requested that I ask my boss to order the rubber chickens. At that time, my boss was Eric Anderson, the Supervisor of Interpretation at Crater Lake. Eric was originally from the Big Island of Hawaii. He had a nickname within the National Park Service as ‘The Mellow Hawaiian.’ Eric was a sweet and caring man with a great sense of humor. He was a tough boss with high expectations, but he had total faith in his staff and me that we could reach his and our goals. I loved working for him. He was one of the best supervisors I ever had in my work career. 

I thought it was a fun and hilarious challenge to inquire to Erik to order 6 rubber chickens. Pieter and I meekly went up to his office to meet with him. After we politely explained our skit and requested that he order 6 rubber chickens, Erik sighed and started looking where he could order rubber chickens on the internet. 

He was a bit worried about throwing away few of his department’s budget dollars on this rubber chicken order and how he might explain this expense to his boss. He then grumbled at us, “Please tell me that we will be using these rubber chickens again.” 

Without missing a beat, I blurted out, “Sure, we will be using these rubber chickens again!” 

Internally, I had no idea how I would be using those rubber chickens again. After this triage skit, they sat on my shelf for a year. I then used them on my ranger led trolley tours starting in 2010. I would pull one out to say, ‘Folks just to let you know this is a very serious ranger program.’ 

I would also use the rubber chicken during the trolley tour when I pointed out Mt. Thielsen, a 9,100-foot prominent mountain located just north of Crater Lake National Park. I shared with visitors on the trolley that I twice hiked up that mountain in 1992 and 1994, but I only made it 10 feet from the summit. It was a place known as Chicken Point. I then held up the rubber chicken in my hand. It got a big laugh from the audience. 

That was my only uses of a rubber chicken at Crater Lake. Was it worth the park expense and our federal taxpayer dollars for Eric to order these 6 rubber chickens? Maybe. I still think so. 

In November 2009, my friend Naomi and I got into an argument when I was housesitting in Ashland, Oregon, located two hours south of Crater Lake National Park. She pressed me hard on what I wanted to do with my life since I struggled to give her a clear answer. Finally, I retorted, “Fine! If I could do anything, I would like to be ‘The Climate Change Comedian’!” 

She nearly fell out of her chair laughing and replied, “I want you to go home right now and grab that website domain!” I followed her advice and did just that. In April 2010, a friend helped me created the www.climatechangecomedian.com website to help promote me as an entertaining climate change speaker. 

Years later, I still had no idea what to do with that title and website. In January 2014, I made a short YouTube video with my then girlfriend, who later became my wife, Tanya, to promote her violin playing and to book me for events as ‘The Climate Change Comedian.’ In February 2014, I shot a video with my mom, Fran Ettling, to advertise her piano playing and me as ‘The Climate Change Comedian.’ One year later, my dad, LeRoy Ettling, complained that he was not in any of my YouTube videos that I created with Tanya or my mom. Thus, we created a video with featuring my Dad and I talking about climate change in March 2015. 

For all these videos, I used the rubber chicken to make the point, “I think I am very funny!” 

Each time, they immediately responded, “No! You are not!” 

These short videos using the rubber chickens caught the attention of Comedy Central’s Tosh.o. The show invited my mom and I to pay for us to fly to Los Angeles in April 2016 to do the video tapping with Daniel Tosh for the show that aired on August 2, 2016. 

Thus, those rubber chickens Eric bought at Crater Lake in 2009 as a humble request from Pieter Sween and me enabled my mom and me to briefly appear on national TV. As ‘The Climate Change Comedian,’ I doubt I will ever top that appearance on Tosh.o. The show invited me back to appear again in November 2020. 

I still don’t have an answer for Eric Anderson, Daniel Tosh, or anyone else why I still have 3 rubber chickens to this day or why I used them as a comedy tool to promote climate action. 

I don’t know. I don’t have answers for what I do what I do. I just do what I can to create a better world and have some fun along the way. 

Maybe we should ask the rubber chickens. Or a professional psychiatrist.

On January 6, 2021, I was at home in Portland, Oregon that day writing when I saw strange alerts about an attack on the U.S. Capitol. As I turned on the TV to see what was happening, I had not felt so nauseous and heartbroken for the USA since the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

I wrote on Facebook during the insurrection, “As an American, I am feeling very sad right now. Donald Trump can’t face reality that he lost his re-election, so he instigated his followers to breech the U.S. Capitol security where Congress was supposed to finalize the Electoral College results. It’s just shocking to see so many people who claim to be patriotic. Yet (they) don’t believe in the rule of law, democracy, and honoring the results of a free & fair election.”

During that day, the news broke that a woman, later identified as Ashli Babbitt, was shot dead by Capitol Police as she attempted to climb through a broken door to enter the U.S. House of Representatives inside the Capitol Building.

I then posted: “Donald Trump’s political career is finished. No way he is the GOP nominee in 2024. He burned too many bridges now. This woman died because of his arrogance and mental issues that he can’t accept a free and fair election. The blood is on his hands. It is such a tragedy that this woman listened to Trump, right wing media, and her peers to be to participate with this unlawful mob today.”

Later that day on January 6th, I posted an old photo of me from November 2018 taken in front of the U.S. Capitol smiling with my Earthball. I then wrote, “My stomach felt like it was kicked in today. I have had the privilege of traveling to Washington D.C. and lobbying Congressional Offices for climate action 8 times in the past (6 years). It is one of my biggest thrills whenever I get to lobby Congress for #ClimateAction. If you ever get a chance to lobby Congress, I highly recommend it. This is a sacred place of our American democracy. It made me sick to see this unruly and unlawful mob desecrate this sacred and hollow ground. These are also sacred grounds to peacefully protest to speak truth to power in a way that respects and honors members of Congress and their staff while they try to do their jobs.”

As an American who loves our democracy and U.S. Capitol Building, I felt assaulted by Donald Trump and his supporters by the violent insurrection on January 6th. It shook my faith that the America had a stable and solid democracy. As I watched live on TV, it looked like the American equivalent to the 1933 Reichstag Fire in Berlin that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis used to consolidate power in Germany that eventually led to World War II.

Fortunately, the U.S. Capitol Police and the U.S National Guard were able to reassert control over the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. Congress was able to complete its duties to certify the 2020 Presidential election. Joe Biden would still be inaugurated as President and Kamala Harris as Vice President on January 20, 2021.

As a result of his actions leading up to and on January 6th, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump on January 13, 2021. 

The U.S. Senate held this impeachment trial of President Trump from February 9-13, 2021. A clear majority of 57 U.S. Senators voted to convict Donald Trump. Sadly, that vote fell short of the two-thirds majority required by the U.S. Constitution to convict Trump. Thus, the Senate found Trump determined to be not guilty on the single article of impeachment. 

On January 30, 2021, the House of Representatives voted to establish the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol that was responsible for investigating every aspect of the insurrection—including the role of the former President. Over the next 18 months, I followed closely this committee’s hearings and proceedings. 

On December 19, 2022, the committee released its final report. It listed a serious list of accusations against Trump: obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the nation; conspiracy to make false statements; and most grave of all, inciting, assisting, aiding, or comforting an insurrection. For the first time in the history of the United States, Congress referred a former President to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Justice ran out of time to hold Donald Trump accountable for his crimes when he was elected President on November 5, 2024. 

As I watched the media coverage of the 2021 Senate Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump and the House January 6^thSelect Committee, one man stood out to me who was involved with both proceedings, Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland. Before entering Congress, Rep. Raskin was a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law for more than 25 years.  in January 2021, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed him as the lead impeachment manager in the second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump. Later in 2021, Rep. Raskin was subsequently appointed to serve on the bipartisan January 6th Select Committee and led its legal and constitutional team. With his actions in those situations to make the strong case why Donald Trump should be held legally accountable for January 6^th, I was very impressed with the arguments and evidence he articulated against Trump.

Though I found I found the January 6^th Insurrection to be a devastating blow to American democracy, I did not let it stop me from traveling to Washington D.C. in June 2023 and June 2024. I went there to attend the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) conference and lobby day on Capitol Hill to meet with Congressional Offices to urge them to pass strong climate legislation. 

On June 11, 2024, I attended the CCL Lobby Day on Capitol Hill to attend meetings with several Congressional Offices. As I traveled inside an underground tunnel connecting the Longworth to the Rayburn House Office Buildings, I heard a joyful commotion. A group of young CCL volunteers barely in their 20s were very gleeful and awe struck to run into Congressman Jamie Raskin. I was stunned to see him in person. I knew of him for years as the lead impeachment manager for the Senate impeachment trial held after Trump’s second impeachment. This was followed by then Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointing Raskin to serve on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021 and 2022. For these last four years, Rep. Jamie Raskin is one of the top defenders of American democracy in the U.S. Congress. 

The young CCL volunteers eagerly took photos with him. Congressman Raskin seemed just as thrilled to get his photos with them. I don’t know who was more excited. I was just a couple of feet away. When he finished his photos with them, I found myself standing right next to him. I meekly said, “Can I get my photo with you?” 

He shot out a big grin, stomped his foot, and responded with an enthusiastic, “Yes!” 

I then quickly took a selfie meeting with him before he bolted to his next meeting. I squeezed in a very brief, “Thank you for all you have done to try to protect our democracy!” He seemed very appreciative to hear that. This very short less than a 30 second interaction made the whole trip from Portland Oregon to Washington D.C. worth it. Jamie Raskin was around my height of 5 feet 8 inches, if not an inch shorter. Yet, this is a man of a big stature. 

With all my canvassing and organizing for climate change over the years, it felt like a very positive reward to have this brief but spectacular moment with Congressman Jamie Raskin. Even more, meeting Representative Raskin was a peak moment of inspiration for me to meet someone who has worked so hard in Congress to protect our democracy. My brief interaction with him inspired me to do more to uphold our democracy and to keep lobbying Congress to pass effective climate policies. 

Thank you, Congressman Raskin, for all your public service. Even more, I will always be grateful how kind you were to those students and me when we interacted with you at the U.S. Capitol.  

For many years, I have felt weird as an American because I don’t like to drive a car. For many of my fellow citizens, it seems to be the American dream to own a car and drive it everywhere. I am always amazed by all the people who drive in the gridlock traffic of rush hour every day, especially to commute to their jobs. I realize that they have limited say in the location of their jobs, homes, and route to work and home. However, the congestion of rush hour traffic each day has always seemed like insanity. This was one of the reasons why I spent 25 years working and living in the national parks. I wanted to live and work close to the outdoors with a very easy commute where I could walk, bicycle, or had a short drive with no traffic to go to work.

I loved the 25 years spending my summers at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon and my winters in Everglades National Park, Florida. Part of me wanted to spend the rest of my life living in these pristine locations. Then something shifted in me. Over 25 years ago, I loved waking up and watching the morning NBC news Today Show on TV while living in the Everglades. Thus, I woke up on September 11, 2001 to watch TV. I saw the terrorist attack of the commercial airplanes hitting the World Trade Center in New York City live on TV. It shook me to the core. To this day, I shudder when I hear a large jet fly low in the sky above me.

According to the FBI 9/11 Investigation, 15 of the 19 terrorists suspected to have carried out the attacks were from Saudi Arabia. They were funded by dark networks of money in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East that financed Saudi national Osama Bin Ladin and Al-Qaeda to commit these horrible acts. Where does Saudi Arabia make most of its money? Drilling oil on their lands and selling it on the global market. Who was one of their biggest customers? The United States. After the 9/11 attacks, I wanted buy and use the least amount of gasoline possible so I would not fund terrorism that killed so many Americans on 9/11.

At the same time, I felt stuck in the Everglades. I worked there for four years straight. I missed working at Crater Lake and spending my summers in southern Oregon. In the spring of 2001, my girlfriend Sheila and I broke up after an eight-year relationship. For months afterwards, she still generously let me use her Ford Ranger pickup truck to get groceries and complete errands in Miami, Florida on my weekends from work. However, I needed my own car to be completely independent. I did not want a big pick-up truck like she owned. I wanted a small compact green car which gave me the best gas mileage possible in 2002.

On February 22, 2002, I bought my brand-new green Honda Civic that I still own to this day, 24 years later! Because of how much I hated the U.S. dependance on Middle East oil, I probably would have liked to have bought an electric car then. However, I knew of no electric vehicles or EVs that were available to purchase back then.

Discovering my passion for climate change advocacy

As the years progressed, I developed another reason to hate buying gasoline for my car. Besides the U.S. dependance on oil leading to Middle Eastern terrorism, plus the disastrous 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the oil industry spent millions of dollars in advertising, lobbying, and public relations campaigns to deceive many Americans that climate change was a hoax.

In 1998, I started giving ranger talks in Everglades National Park. Visitors then asked me about this global warming thing. Visitors hate when park rangers tell you, “I don’t know.” Visitors expect park rangers to know everything. Don’t you?

Soon afterwards, I rushed to the nearest Miami bookstore and to the park library to read all I the scientific books I could find on climate change.

The information I learned really scared me, specifically sea level rise along our mangrove coastline in Everglades National Park. Sea level rose 8 inches in the 20th century, four times more than it had risen in previous centuries for the past three thousand years. Because of climate change, sea level is now expected to rise at least three feet in Everglades National Park by the end of the 21st century. The sea would swallow up most of the park and nearby Miami since the highest point of the park road less than three feet above sea level.

It shocked me that crocodiles, alligators, and beautiful Flamingos I enjoyed seeing in the Everglades could lose this ideal coastal habitat because of sea level rise caused by climate change.

I became so worried about climate change that I quit my winter job in Everglades National Park in 2008. I moved back to St. Louis in the winters to give speeches and organized about climate change. In November 2011, I co-founded the St. Louis Climate Reality Meet Up (now called Climate Meetup-St. Louis) group to discuss, learn, and take climate action.

Meeting my wife Tanya while I organized for climate action

At one of the Climate Reality-St. Louis Meet Ups in early 2012, a beautiful slender woman with long blonde hair sat at the bar drinking a birch beer. Her name was Tanya. We slowly became friends. We started dating in February 2013 and we got married in November 2015. She is always 100% supportive of my climate change organizing.

In December 2015, just one month after we got married, I expressed my frustration to Tanya. I felt like I was not doing enough to organize and write on climate change. To boost my morale, my wife surprised me by booking an appointment with the nearby Tesla store to test drive the 100% electric Tesla Model S. We had a blast test driving this car. Tanya’s action lifted my spirits to see this could be the future for automobiles: 100% electric with no carbon tailpipe emissions.

In 2015, very few EVs were seen on the roads, and they seemed to be too expensive to own. Because of my frugal lifestyle as a summer seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake and a winter climate organizer in St. Louis, we could not afford to own a Tesla or any EV at that time.

In February 2017, Tanya found a job in Portland, Oregon, so we moved here. I worked one more summer as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake, but I decided to become a full-time climate organizer in October 2017. Ever since we test drove the Tesla in December 2015, Tanya and I dreamed of buying an EV. However, my 2002 Honda Civic is still a reliable car to this day. Tanya primarily uses it as a short commute to her job. I nearly always use the TriMet buses and MAX light rail commuter trains to get around Portland to do my climate organizing.

We often talk about purchasing an EV, but we have no need right now. My 2002 Honda Civic still works for all our driving needs.

Traveling to Florida in November 2025 and choosing to rent an electric car

November 1, 2025, was our 10th wedding anniversary. Tanya and I wanted to do something special to celebrate. She wanted us to go to Tampa, Florida for several days to visit her best friend, Bertha. Tanya had not seen Bertha in over 30 years since they attended high school in St. Louis. I was excited because I lived and worked for 16 years in Everglades National Park, Florida. I was eager to show Florida to Tanya since she had never been there before.

It was a long day of flying from Portland, Oregon to Tampa, Florida. We had to leave our apartment around 5:30 am to catch our 7:30 am flight. After a 3-hour layover in Phoenix, Arizona, we arrived at the Tampa airport around 7:30 pm. We found the Tampa airport to be very convoluted to reach the location where my rental car reservation was booked. It was after 8 pm when Tanya and I stood in a line for several minutes to obtain our rental car.

By the time, we walked up to the rental car desk, we were bone tired from flying all day. The rental car agent gave us lots of choices for cars. However, I didn’t care. I just wanted to get in a rental car, drive to Bertha’s house, and fall into a bed. I felt overwhelmed and indecisive with the rental car options. Then the rental agent offered, ‘I tell you what: I have a Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV that I have available for you to rent. This would be great for me if you could rent it. I will include in the agreement that you won’t have to bring it back on a full charge.’

My ears perked up: Rent an EV! Not use and gasoline on this vacation! Get the experience for a few days of driving an EV. I enthusiastically told the rental car agent, ‘Yes! I will do it! Please sign me up to rent the EV!’

After we signed the paperwork, it took Tanya and I a few minutes to find the car in the cavernous parking garage at the Tampa Airport. When we found the car, it looked like a lovely and ideal car for us to rent. It was a grayish blue color. However, when the sun shined on the car during our trip, we noticed that the car looked like it had a touch of a greenish hue.

It was a mid-sized car roomier than my Honda Civic. Tanya and I noticed after we got into the car that it had a battery charge of over 270 miles. As we started driving the car through the maze of the parking garage and then outside on the Tampa streets, we were amazed that the car was much quieter to drive than my Honda Civic. It drove with the silence of being inside a library, unlike the more vocal engine of my Civic.

We had about a 35-minute drive from the airport to Bertha’s house. Overall, it was a smooth ride. It was impressive for us how zippy the car picked up speed when I pressed on the accelerator. This car felt like an uncaged bird at how fast it traveled compared to my 4-cylinder stick shift Honda Civic. I normally travel around 60 to 65 mph in my car because it feels a bit harder on the engine when I go above 70 mph. However, this EV easily traveled at 70 to 75 mph or even at higher speeds. The catch though was that I could see on the dashboard that the miles remaining on the battery charge decreased more rapidly at higher speeds.

At the same time, when I took my foot off the accelerator to slow the EV speed down or apply the brakes, the battery regenerative recharge icons would light up on the dashboard. It let me know that I was gaining few miles back from the regenerative recharge when I needed to slow this car down. I tried to pay close attention to driving at high speeds to the other cars on the road and the curves in the road when I traveled on I-75 on the way to Bertha’s house. However, I found the dashboard indicators of the miles left on the battery charge and the battery regenerate charge continuously updated information to be fascinating. It was even a bit distracting.

Tanya and I made it to Bertha and Gene’s house around 10 pm. Tanya and Bertha stayed up late talking since they had not seen each other in over 30 years. The last time they were together was when they graduated high school in St. Louis in 1993.

November 2, 2025 – Our day trip to Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park

When we woke up the next morning, I was eager to show Tanya some sights in Florida. She had never seen a Florida Manatee. I saw them numerous times when I worked in the Everglades. The closest relative of the manatee is the elephant. They have the grey thick skin like an elephant. Plus, they are a large mammal like an elephant. Adult manatees are usually 9-10 feet long from snout to tail and weigh around 1,000 pounds. But they can grow to over 13 feet long and weigh more than 3,500 pounds.

I knew the ideal place to take Tanya where we had a great chance to see manatees: Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. To drive there, it would take about an hour or a 50-mile drive north of Bertha’s house. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV was a fun car to drive us up there that day. However, we started noticing some odd quirks with the car that we had to deal with while we rented it. First, the side mirrors would automatically fold in whenever we parked the EV and shut off the engine. The catch was that the side mirrors would not naturally fold back out when we started the car and began driving it down the road. Thus, Tanya and I had to roll down the windows and push the mirrors out with our hands. That was the only way I could see the mirrors when driving the EV.

The other annoyance with the EV is that we could not figure out how to get the air conditioning to work properly. November in Florida is still hot and humid with temperatures in the 80s. Car interiors in Florida warm up further as they trap the heat of the sun’s rays. Car air conditioning (AC) is still beneficial to use in the winter in Florida to stay cool while driving. If Tanya and I had more time, we probably would have read the vehicle manual thoroughly enough to understand how the AC properly worked or call a Hyundai service hotline to get answers. However, we were only renting the EV for a few days. Plus, we wanted to focus on doing as much sightseeing as we could. The good news is that on the second day of our trip, the AC started working properly on its own accord. We did not know what we did to get it functioning correctly. The joke between Tanya and me became “Don’t touch anything!” when it came to the touch screen buttons on the dashboard involving temperature controls.

Despite these frustrations, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 got us safely to Homosassa Springs. It was not long after we arrived that Tanya and I walked to a large lagoon that had an enclosed exterior platform a few feet above the water. In addition, the platform had an underwater enclosed observatory with large windows to observe possible sightings of manatees, fish, turtles, etc.

Tanya stayed on the outside observation deck while I moseyed down below to see what I could discover. In just a few minutes, a large manatee swam in front of the windows on the below deck observatory. I was ecstatic to see the 6–7-foot manatee gently swim in front of the window. After I watched it for about a minute and took some photos great photos, I bolted up to the upper observation deck to inform Tanya that I saw a manatee below. I did not have to tell her because she was observing the same manatee. She was looking down on the manatee swimming below the water surface. Tanya was thrilled seeing this animal species for the first time. She took lots of photos.

We then had a wonderful afternoon strolling around on the boardwalk trails to see more wildlife at Homosassa Springs. For the first time, Tanya saw and photographed colorful birds that were showcased and even rehabilitated at the refuge, such as Roseate Spoonbills, Snowy Egrets, American Wood Storks, Brown Pelicans, White Pelicans, and Greater Flamingos. I have great memories seeing all these bird species when I worked in Everglades National Park from 1992 to 2008. I was delighted that Tanya saw these birds for the first time. Judging by the photos she took and the conversations we had that day, she enjoyed looking at these birds.

Late in the afternoon, we decided to drive back to our host Bertha’s house to visit with her and her husband Gene. We wanted to get there in time to have dinner with them. As we drove back from Homosassa Springs State Park to her home in Wesley Chapel, Florida, we noticed that we only had about a third of a charge left or about 80 miles. We decided it was time we learned how to charge this EV, especially since we wanted to have a full charge for our sightseeing the next day. Using the electronic dashboard map inside the vehicle, it routed us to a Flying J Truck Stop on the north side of Wesley Chapel that had EV charging.

When we arrived at the Flying J to see the EV charging stations, we had to quickly figure out which side of the vehicle we needed to plug in the charging connector or plug. We spotted that the vehicle plug in outlet was on the passenger side near the rear of the car. We then had to determine how to pay for the charging. Tanya downloaded an app on her smart phone and inputted her credit card number so we could charge the Ioniq 5 rental car. It took about 10 to 15 minutes to fully charge the car to about 80%, which is the optimal battery charge. Charging this EV probably took more time than to put gas in a car or large truck. However, the went by quickly as I ate a snack and we took turns using the nearby restroom.

When we were happy with the range of around 270 miles and over 80% full, we went to Bertha’s home for the evening. Bertha and Gene took Tanya and me out for a nearby Japanese sushi restaurant. The food was tasty. Tanya and Bertha reminisced about their high school years. Gene and I connected over our fondness of jazz and 80s pop music, as well as 70s rock music.

November 3, 2025 – Our day trip to Siesta Beach and Myakka River State Park

For our excursion the next day, Tanya and longed to go to the beach to go swimming and spend time there. Bertha recommended Siesta Key Beach as one of her favorite Florida beaches near her home. This beach was located about 80 miles or about an hour and a half drive south of Wesley Chapel. It turned to be well worth the drive to go there. It was one of the most gorgeous beaches I had seen in Florida. Tanya and I were grateful for Bertha’s recommendation.

It was a glistening white sandy beach. We had a sunny day, without a cloud in the sky with an outdoor temperature near 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The soft sand was easy and soothing to walk on, but the brightness of the color with the sun made it a bit hot on our bare feet. It was easy to cool off our feet and bodies though once we went into the water. The small waves crashing on the shoreline were pleasant to watch. We liked spending time absorbing their refreshing gentle impact when we swam in the water. After a couple hours at the beach and eating our packed lunches there, we felt that we wanted to explore more nearby parks in Florida that day.

When we turned off Interstate 75 to head to Siesta Key Beach earlier that morning, I saw a sign for Myakka River State Park. I had never been there before. When I lived in Everglades National Park back in 1998, I stumbled across a lecture by famed Florida nature photographer Clyde Butcher. I distinctly remember been raving about Myakka River State Park as one of his favorite places to photograph in Florida. I recalled him referring to this park as ‘the Yosemite Valley of Florida’ with its natural beauty and opportunities to photograph wildlife. I asked Tanya if we could drive from Siesta Key to Myakka River. She was open to experience this park.

It was a 30-minute drive directly east from Siesta Key to Myakka River. We arrived there around 3 pm. Visiting the park was one of the peak experiences for our trip to Florida. Soon after we crossed the park boundary, we saw a sign that warned:

“CAUTION
Alligators are present along the trails and waterways of
this park. They usually eat fish, turtles, and other small
animals but may attack larger animals such as deer.
Alligators have been known to attack humans.

FOR YOUR SAFETY
Alligators are dangerous
Do not approach, frighten, or feed
by state law 372.667FS”

Point well taken! I had a healthy fear of alligators from my time in Everglades National Park. I never saw them be aggressive with humans. However, one time I was walking around a corner on a trail at the Flamingo Outpost in Everglades National Park. Suddenly, I saw a large alligator out of the corner of my eye just a couple of feet from me. It was just lying there trying to warm up from the Florida sun to get energy. After seeing this unexpected sight way too close to me. I jumped up in the air and screamed. I ended up starling the alligator, which jumped up frightened from my reaction. It did not try to lung or attack me. But, that experience of being unexpectedly walking too close to an alligator is something that I never forgot.

Since this was her first time in Florida, Tanya certainly noticed the sign and made a mental note. Driving less than a mile into the park, we crossed a bridge over a large shallow pond. At the edges of the pond, around ten alligators were spread out along the edges to sun themselves. Check! I succeeded in showing Tanya her first wild alligators in Florida. Tanya and I took lots of photos of them just lying there.

Almost right underneath the bridge was a Limpkin. It’s a small marsh bird that stands around two feet tall that has brown feathers with some white streaks of feathers on its upper back, underbelly, neck and head. It has a sharp spear like bill for capturing its favorite food apple snails, as well as other snails, mussels, frogs, crustaceans, and insects. I never saw that bird when I lived in Flamingo, but I saw it several times when I visited other areas in Everglades National Park. It was another one of my favorite Florida birds that I was happy I could show Tanya.

We then chose to walk down a dirt trail through a grove of palm trees. It led further down to the edge the same pond where we could see a few more alligators. The trail was roughly a half a mile one way or a mile out and back.

Tanya and I then drove a mile down the road to another hiking trail. We walkied down the path which led us to the Myakka Canopy Walkway. Before we started walking up the canopy walkway, we read the wayside exhibits listing the 74 other known canopy walkways throughout the world. This canopy walkway with a tower at one end was an impressive sight to admire in the middle of Myakka River State Park.

Myakka River Park website stated this canopy walkway was “Completed in 2000, this structure is the first public treetop trail in North America. The walkway is suspended 25 feet above the ground and extends 100 feet through the hammock canopy. The taller tower soars 74 feet in the air to present a spectacular view of treetops, wetlands and the prairie/hammock interface. You can look down on eagles, hawks, vultures, and the tops of live oak and sabal palm trees.”

The website informs that to walk to the top of the tower “requires walking over 100 stairs.”

Florida is the flattest state in the United States. When I worked in Everglades National Park in south Florida for 16 years, I missed seeing any kind of prominent rising hills that gave a dramatic view of the landscape. A friend and I had to pay for a small airplane ride to get a bird eye’s view of south Florida and the Everglades. Thus, I was joyful to walk on this elevated walkway and take many flights of steps to the top of this tower to get a panoramic view of Myakka River State Park. It was fascinating to see palm trees in every direction to the horizon with a few grassy open meadows mixed in between the forests of tropical trees.

Tanya then took the many flights of steps down the tower. We then walked a mile more on the loop trail past the canopy tower walkway. We had the trail all to ourselves. We don’t recall seeing other people. It was a gift to be in the serenity of natural Florida to lose ourselves in the outdoors and the sounds of our own footsteps, thoughts, and an occasional birdcall.

The trail was completely flat, which enabled us to walk at a quick pace since we hiked the trail around 5 pm. We had less than an hour of daylight left. Even with the flatness, Tanya and I found ourselves taking photos of the groves of palm trees bunched together tightly, The tallest of the Florida Palm trees standing up to 20 to 30 feet above the ground, creating its own shady canopy as we walked through this forest. Intermixed in this palm forest were thick sprawling oak trees extending in every direction wanting to state their dominance in this forest and at the edges of the open meadows.

One open meadow with tall grasses with the forest palm trees and oak trees at the edge caught my attention. I noticed a large full moon that seemed to be wanted to be included in any scenic photo. I took a panoramic photo with my iPhone of the grassy prairie, and the forest in the background of the photo. My long shadow was in the middle of the image with Tanya standing on the boardwalk off to one side of the photo looked pleased to be there.

That evening, I showed my photos of the day to Tanya’s friend Bertha. She loved the panoramic photo and asked for a copy of it. One month later in December, I ordered an 8×24 inch version of that photo on an aluminum backing. A local Portland friend recommended a place in Vancouver, Washington that could print it for me with a high gloss finish on this metal surface. The photo did not arrive in time for Christmas day. However, it was delivered during the Holidays. Bertha was elated to receive it.

After we hiked on this trail, Tanya and I were not finished with Myakka Park. We returned to the car to drive further to Upper Myakka Lake to find out what else we could see with the limited amount of daylight we had left.

When the road converged near the lake, I saw something moving in the tall grasses between the road and the lake. It was a slam on the brakes moment as I drove the rental EV. I even told Tanya, “I am seeing something so beautiful that it is a ‘slam on the breaks moment!’”

I noticed a small group of pink Roseate Spoonbills swishing their bills back and forth in the water trying to feed. They were feeding as a group walking along the water’s edge to make the most of the remaining sunlight. It was hard to get a good photograph of the Spoonbills with the tall Cattails and other tall marshy grasses in the way. At the same time, they were plain to see with the naked eye with their bright pink colors on their backs and sides. I could spot their white heads and distinct feeding style which looked like someone moving a flattened wooden spoon back and forth in a mixing bowl.

While we observed and tried to photograph the Roseate Spoonbills, I spotted the full moon above the palm trees daring me to also try to capture that image in photographs. I never got a satisfying image of the Spoonbills feeding or threatening to take off flying if I got too close to them. At the same time, it was a thrill to see a Limpkin walking behind the Spoonbills seeing what it could feed on with the Spoonbills stirring up life along the shoreline.

The next thing we observed was the sunset happening behind the Upper Myakka Lake. The sun was slipping below the forest along the horizon which made for a great view of the sunset to try to photograph. Even after the sunset, Tanya and I had more to see in this state park. I spotted wild pigs in a meadow by the lake as Tanya and I drove back to the park entrance to start the journey back to Bertha’s house for the evening. Even more, as Tanya and I headed in the EV towards the park entrance, I saw a flock of Wild Turkeys feeing in a meadow. I had times where I saw a lot of wildlife working and living in Everglades National Park. However, with all the wildlife we saw at Myakka River State Park, it felt like Tanya and I spent the day at the African Serengeti.

By the time Tanya and I left Myakka River State Park, the daylight was nearly gone, and the evening darkness started to settle in. Driving back to Sarasota, Florida to connect with I-75 to go back to Bertha’s house, Tanya and I needed a restaurant to have dinner for the evening. Without knowing the good restaurants of Sarasota or knowing what we were in the mood to eat, we ended up going to a Chili’s to eat our evening meal.

After dinner, it was around 8 pm. We still had over an hour’s drive to Bertha’s home in Welsey Chapel, Florida. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV drove so much faster and smoother than my 4-cylinder stick shift 2002 Honda Civic. I normal drive around 60 to 65 mph in my Honda Civic since the car feels loud when I drive it faster and it gets to a higher RPM, which seems like it is a bit harder on the engine. Thus, I drive my Civic at slower speeds to be safer, quieter, and get a bater gas mileage than at faster speeds.

On the other hand, I was eager to get back to Bertha’s place to relax and possibly hang out with Bertha and Gene. Thus, I drove the car at consistent speeds of 70 to 75 mph, and even over 80 mph at times. The EV was still quieter than my Honda Civic when I drove it at higher speeds. With its much higher horsepower, the EV did not mind the higher speeds. At same time, I noticed that the remaining charge on the EV charger was dropping fast as I pushed the car to drive at higher speeds. Looks like we were going to need to fast charge this Ioniq 5 Hyundai EV soon.

On her smart phone EV charging App, Tanya found an EVgo charging station at an upscale fancy shopping mall known as The Shops at the Wiregrass. When we arrived, we saw at least 8 charging ports. This charging station was busy at 9 pm at night, so we had a wait about 5 minutes for a charging port to become available. It was our second day learning how to charge an EV. We were amazed how friendly and helpful the other EV owners were as Tanya and I still had some uncertainties how to charge our EV rental car. The Florida EV owners looked like their own friendly community. This was no typical gas station experience where everyone keeps to themselves and does not chat with strangers.

It then dawned on me that Tanya and I were the only white people charging our EV at this charging station. In my climate organizing in Portland, Oregon, many of my white retired friends who advocate for climate action have electric vehicles. Thus, I have tended to categorize EV owners that I met as white liberal middle to upper income retired Americans. I was too bashful to ask probing questions to these gracious Florida EV drivers. However, they did not seem like they were driving EVs because they were tree-hugging, granola eating, Birkenstock wearing, Save-the-Earth progressives. These looked primarily like prosperous African Americans that just wanted a fun, dependable, fast, and comfortable car to drive.

I wish I had another day or two to be brave enough to ask these EV owners why they chose to drive electric cars. They seemed open to conversation and willing to answer questions. It took around 15 to 20 minute to charge our EV to around an 80% charge. But, the time went fast for Tanya and I to take turns using the nearby restrooms and checking the internet on our phones.

While we were waiting, I had time to walk to a nearby overpriced Belgian ice cream shoppe. I wanted my usual chocolate shake with vanilla ice cream and chocolate or hot fudge syrup blended in. The servers said they could not alter their shake ingredients because their boss would get upset with them. I was craving a chocolate milkshake, so I gave into their refusal to alter their ingredients. The shake ended up costing me over $10. It tasted good, but it was way too expensive. Anyway, by the time they completed my order, I paid for it, and walked back to our car, Tanya was finishing up charging our EV.

We then made it to Bertha’s house to chat with her and see if she had any suggestions for our next day visiting Florida. She suggested another of her favorite beaches: Fort De Soto Park.

November 4, 2025 – Our day trip to Fort De Soto Park

The next day, November 4th, it took Tanya and me about an hour and a half to drive from Bertha’s home in Wesley Chapel to Fort De Soto Park. It is located at the very southern tip of the of Pinellas Peninsula. The park is located directly south of St. Petersburg. It is on a tiny spit of land where Tampa Bay meets the Gulf of Mexico.

When I worked in Everglades National Park from 1992 to 2008, I read positive things about Fort De Soto as a birding hotspot. It is the kind of place for migrating birds in the fall to notice that it is the last tiny piece of land to take a break traveling south on the Pinellas Peninsula before they are traveling for hundreds of miles in the open waters of the Atlantic. Even more, in the spring, it is the first sliver of land that tired birds migrating north see where they could use as a rest area as they are crossing the open Gulf of Mexico waters to enter central Florida to start heading north. Thus, I was intrigued to see it.

When Tanya and I arrived at Fort De Soto Park, it was definitely a slow day for Florida tourists. Hardly anyone was there. It was the first Tuesday in November. I remember working in the Everglades that the peak of tourist season in south Florida was from around Christmas Day in December to Easter in the spring. Another day where Tanya and I did not have to worry about big crowds of tourists in Florida. The huge parking lot was nearly empty when we arrived.

After we parked the car, Tanya and I had to find our way to the beach which was hidden behind a coastal ridge bank or berm. It looked to be up to 15 to 20 feet tall with some trees and vegetation on it further shielding the view from the parking lot. Once we walked on top of the ridge, the bright white sandy beach seemed to stretch down the coast for many miles. We could see very few people walking around or lounging around on the beach. It was the kind of isolated beach that one dreams of seeing when they go on vacation.

Tanya and I wanted to get some walking in to immerse ourselves in this park. We walked down the long concrete pier among the men and women recreational fishing there as well as seeing the Brown Pelicans, seagulls, and other birds trying to beg and steal fish from the fishermen.

As we started walking down the beach, I noticed the presence of one of my favorite birds, American Oystercatchers. They have a long straight bright orange bill, black head, black feathers on their backside, and snowy white underbelly. I loved seeing these birds when I worked in the Everglades. I only saw them a few times. Primarily it was when I worked and visited in Everglades City. As their name suggests, these birds like to pry open the shells of oysters and other mollusks, shelled beach organisms, to get to the soft tasty organisms living on the inside of the shells. The presence of the Oystercatchers was an alarm bell to me that there were oysters and other sharp shells on this beach, especially in the shallow water if we went swimming.

As we walked on the beach, I started noticing the menacing looking shells scattered sporadically on the beach. I really wanted to go swimming in this every inviting Gulf of Mexico ocean waters that day. We were only a few days away from attending my niece’s wedding in Kansas City, Missouri. I promised my mom we would transport her there. The last thing I needed was to slice up my feet and need to get medical attention on the sharp shells of the beach. I noticed a concession store and café by the pier at Fort De Soto. They just happened to sell overpriced beach water shoes with hard soles that could protect my feet. I splurged to buy the shoes rather than risk doing any dumb avoidable injuries.

Before Tanya and I went swimming we looked at the Fort De Soto concrete bunkers, which were accessible from the parking lot side of the beach. The fort was built around 1900, when Tampa citizens demand coastal defenses after the United States entered the Spanish American war. We thought it was interesting to see the 12-inch mortar battery that housed some of the fort’s weaponry, was completed on May 10, 1900. Incidentally, the fort nor the weapons never saw any combat in the Spanish American War or any war since then. It seemed like too remote and sleepy for any area to be involved in any war.

After we walked around the fort, Tanya and ate the snack lunches we brought. We then walked up the beach to a spot where there were a few other people, mostly of retirement age. We thought it would be safe to go swimming in the water near them. We took turns swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, like we did the day before, so one of us could protect our valuables. The water felt fairly warm in the 70-to-80-degree range. I felt safe to swim with my feet covered in my brand-new beach water shoes. Tanya was not worried about any sharp shells tearing at feet and she was fine. Maybe I would have been ok not blowing almost $30 on those shoes. I just did not want to take any chances.

Now that my feet were safe, I still worried about my exposed calf and thigh getting stung by a jellyfish or a random rip current carrying me out to sea. It seems like I can never fully relax when I am on vacation. At the same time, I worked 25 years as a park ranger in the national parks. Therefore, I know that bad things can happen in paradise or in any scenic outdoor areas.

While we spent time swimming and laying on the beach at Fort De Soto, we got good looks of a Black Skimmer. This was another one of my favorite birds when I used to work at Everglades National Park. It looks a bit like an American Oystercatcher. However, a Black Skimmer has a wider bill. The front half is black with the lower mandible longer than the upper mandible. Similar to the Oystercatcher, the Skimmer has a black head and bright white underbelly. However, the Skimmer has a white forehead. I was excited to point out this bird to Tanya. I used to enjoy watching these birds feed when I lived in the Everglades. Like the name suggests, they skim across the surface of ocean waters for their food, mostly tiny fish.

While Tanya and I strolled around the Fort De Soto Beach, we saw other intriguing wildlife, such as a leopard crab, with very distinguishable spots. Plus, we saw a gopher tortoise walking on a sandy path, hoping not to be noticed by people, overly energetic dogs, or other animals.

We had a wonderful exploring Fort De Soto Park. Before we left, we took a selfie with our Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV rental car. We were still giddy that we were sightseeing around the central Gulf Coast of Florida without using gasoline in a spry electric vehicle. We finally left the parking lot at Fort De Soto around 4:30 pm. We knew that it would take us a few hours to get back to Bertha’s home in Wesley Chapel since we would be fighting rush hour traffic. Even more, we had no idea where we would eat dinner. We ended up getting lost in north Tampa Florida before we agreed upon a safe choice of a Cracker Barrel Restaurant for dinner.

When we finally returned to Wesley Chapel around 8 pm, we went EVgo charging station shopping mall known as The Shops at the Wiregrass. This was the second day in a row that we went to this location to recharge our rental EV. Tanya and I felt like we were starting to get a handle on this EV recharging thing. We found that the experience of recharging an EV was not bad. This charging station was also not as busy as the night before. We then stopped at a nearby Publix grocery store since we felt like we needed to replace some of the food items we were eating at Bertha’s house. We got back around 9 pm. Since Bertha is a night owl, Tanya and Bertha had plenty of time to chat about the day and life.

November 5, 2025 – Our day trip to Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge

The next day, November 5th, was our final full day of vacation in Florida. I asked Tanya if she would like to go up to Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge to try to see more manatees. She readily agreed. Tanya was still curious about manatees. She did not have any other location in mind to visit that day. Crystal River was in the vicinity of Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. They were about 12 miles apart, with Crystal River located about a 20-minute drive north of Homosassa Springs Park. It would take close to an hour and a half drive to get to Crystal River from Wesley Chaptel. However, because we drove up to Homosassa Springs just a few days before, we have some familiarity with the route.

After we paid the entrance fee for Crystal River State Park, we started walking to see the crystal-clear river springs that gives the park its name. When we arrived on scene, we were impressed with the clarity of the water to see all the way to the bottom. The watercolor varied from emerald green by the shallow edge to turquoise blue in the deeper sections in the middle. We observed several tourists in kayaks in the middle of the lagoon looking for manatees. However, neither they or Tanya or me could spot any manatees.

Tanya and I then hiked to the Crystal River at the end of the park. We noticed a large group of manatees swimming together there. We saw some people snorkeling and paddling towards the manatees with their kayaks. The rule is that people are not supposed to total surround the manatees nor approach them too close. A snorkeler or kayaker must leave an opening where the manatees don’t feel trapped and they can leave at any time.

We then strolled further down the hiking path where I saw a mother manatee and calf swimming in the Crystal River. Tanya was in her own thoughts shuffling down the park perimeter trail. I successfully waved her over to where I was standing so she could see the mother and baby manatee swimming together. The water was murkier in the Crystal River than it was in the lagoon that we first went to see in this park in the morning. However, we could still see their large round grey bodies in the water as they would come up to breathe air on the surface.

Tanya and I then took the perimeter trail around the park. It was an easy flat trail only about one mile long. We had some nice views of some interior freshwater ponds with a Great Blue Heron, a Snowy Egret, and a White Ibis standing at the water’s edge waiting to catch fish. Bright green cattail plants standing up to 4 feet tall on the other side of the ponds reminded me of some of the natural scenes I used to see working in Everglades National Park.

We then chose to head back to the super clear lagoon to see if we could spot more manatees. A narrow shallow clear water canal connected the Crystal River to the lagoon. Tanya and I stood on the wooden observation deck boardwalk where the canal met the river to look for manatees. In the river, people were in some kayaks and paddleboards, as well as snorkelers in the water trying to get close views of the manatees swimming nearby in the river. Some of the manatees decided to swim into the canal right by the boardwalk where Tanya and I stood. It felt magical because we were safely only a few feet away from these very large mystical mammals looking down on them as they swam in this water that had total clarity.

Some of the kayakers that were paddling with a high concentration to try to see them had a hard time spotting the manatees as they swam submerged next to but almost underneath the kayaks. The park volunteers sharing the boardwalk with Tanya and me yelled at some of the kayakers to keep their distance from the manatees as these animals wandered into and out of the canal. I felt some regret that I did not organize for Tanya and me to go snorkeling or kayaking to see the manatees like these tourists we were observing. On the other hand, Tanya and I concluded that we had the best views of the manatees to fully view them from the wooden observation deck rather than snorkeling or kayaking with them that day.

We then walked on the wooden boardwalk that encircled the lagoon to attempt to get other looks of the manatees. Eventually, as the afternoon progress, Tanya and I felt like we were not going to get any better manatee sightings than we had already seen. We started walking back to our rental EV. Like the previous day, the bright sun shining on the car made its greyish blueish color looked like it had a hint of green. Green is my favorite color. I have owned a dark green Honda Civic for 24 years. We were so proud of renting this Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric car during this vacation. Tanya and I both took more pictures of this car, like we did on previous days on this trip. We hoped to be able to post photos about this EV on a future social media post. Even more, I wanted to blog about this fun adventure renting this EV together with Tanya for this Florida vacation at some point in the future.

We left Crystal River National Wildlife Preserve around 1:45 pm. We still needed to stop somewhere in the town Crystal River for a late lunch. After we ate some food, we left Crystal River around 2:30 pm. We wanted to give ourselves a couple of hours to return to Bertha’s house in Welsey Chapel. In addition, we set aside time to charge the EV at the Flying J Truck Stop just north of Wesley Chapel so we would have enough of a charge when we returned our rental to the Tampa Airport the next day.

Bertha planned for a big family dinner with her parents, Gene, Tanya and me around 6 pm. We aimed to return to her home in plenty of time so we could take showers since we were out in the warm sun, wearing sunscreen, and working up a sweat walking around the Crystal River Wildlife Refuge. Bertha organized a wonderful holiday like dinner for all of us. We enjoyed to meet her parents. Gene and Bertha were fantastic hosts for the trip Tanya and I took to Florida. I was so happy for Tanya and Bertha that they got to spend time visiting after not seeing each other in over 30 years. Bertha has a very kind heart. I felt like I made a new friend meeting her. I liked my conversations with Gene hearing about his expertise in high quality audio equipment.

Conclusion

Thursday morning, November 6th, our trip to Florida was over. Tanya and I headed to the Budget Rental Car Returns at Tampa International Airport to drop off our vehicle and then catch our flight. We were excited to fly to St. Louis, Missouri to see Tanya’s parents and brother, plus meet up with my mom. The next day, Friday, November 7th, Tanya, my mom, and me planned to drive to Kansas City, Missouri to attend my niece Bailey’s wedding. We looked forward to spending time with family. However, we were sad to stop driving our Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV.

Tanya and I could not wait to tell family and friends about our Florida vacation and renting an EV. Nearly every day since then, Tanya and I talk about eventually owning an EV.

The fabulous memories of this trip did not last long. Late November 2025, I read the crushing news that the United Nations COP30 Climate Summit held in Brazil was a failure.

For background, COP stands for Conference of the Parties, basically international countries that agreed to participate in and be bound by the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). Today there are 198 Parties or countries participating in the Convention.

The UNFCCC is a multilateral treaty adopted in 1992 – shortly after the first assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1990 – to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations “at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human-induced) interference with the climate system.”

The 30 in COP30 refers to the 30 of these international conferences held over the years. Berlin Germany held the first COP in 1995. COP30 was held in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025.

According to Reuters, the host of the conference, “Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had launched the summit calling for countries to agree on a “roadmap” for advancing a COP28 pledge to shift away from fossil fuels. 

The result was similar to Egypt’s COP27 and Azerbaijan’s COP29, where countries agreed to spend more money to address climate dangers while ignoring their primary cause.

Nearly three-fourths of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 2020 have come from coal, oil and gas. Demand for these fuels is likely to rise through 2050, the International Energy Agency said in a report midway through the COP30 summit that reversed expectations of a rapid shift to clean energy.” 

For the first time, the U.S. did not send a delegation after President Donald Trump said the country will leave the landmark Paris treaty that committed countries to act on climate change in 2015. He has branded climate change “a con”. In May 2024, Trump pressed oil executives to give $1 billion for his campaign. In return, he promised ‘to do what they wanted.’ 

Many climate advocates felt like this was another Cop wrecked by fossil fuel interests, autocratic petro-states such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, and our leaders’ cowardice.

After I saw this news, I told Tanya that I was done driving a gasoline-powered car. I really wanted us to get an EV. This was a shift in thinking for me because I love my 2022 green Honda Civic. It is over 24 years old now and still running well. For years, I wanted to see how long Tanya and I could drive it before it died. If possible, I wanted to even drive for another 6 years so that I could say that I owned the same car for over 30 years or close to half of my life.

Locally, climate change is showing more of an impact on our weather. In December 2025, record rainfalls from ‘atmospheric river’ weather conditions brought flooding to the Portland, Oregon area. So far in 2026, the opposite happened, Oregon experienced very little rain or snow. We are now projected to have a record low snowpack for this winter.

Locally the red warning lights are flashing, and the alarm bells are ringing loudly that we must act quickly and effectively to reduce the climate change threat. What’s causing climate change? For many decades, climate scientists say it is because of humanity, collectively and individually, burning fossil fuels, such as oil, coal, and natural gas, which emits carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Throwing all that dirty fossil fuel pollution into our air supply is warming up and destabilizing our global and local climate. Most climate scientists think if we act quickly, together and personally, we can reduce the damage we are doing to our planet and to ourselves.

For over 17 years, I have spoken out for the urgent need for effective climate action. I gave climate change ranger talks, lobbied Congressional offices in Washington D.C. over 10 times, organized for an Oregon legislative climate resolution, created comedy videos that led to an appearance on TV Comedy Central’s Tosh.o, was a plaintiff in a Missouri Sierra Club lawsuit against my local electric utility for their over reliance on dirty coal energy, led two speaking tours across my home state of Missouri and one in Oregon, and I gave over 200 climate change talks in 12 U.S. states, Washington D.C. and Ottawa Canada. Even more, locally I use public transportation on almost a daily basis to reduce my car’s tailpipe emissions. 

Driving a gasoline powered car when it is not feasible to use public transportation really bothers me. My wife Tanya and I are eager to buy an electric vehicle when the timing is right for us. Our recent visit to Florida, November 1-6, 2025, showed us that driving an EV is fun and it is easy to recharge it. That trip inspired us that we want our next car to be an EV! 

Thank you Bertha and Gene for allowing us to come visit you in Florida to see the wildlife, natural areas, and beaches near you. Even more, we got the experience that it is a joy to drive an EV and not use a gasoline powered car for transportation. We will always be grateful to you! 

In late April 2024, I received an email from East County Rising (ECR), a local Portland, Oregon area social justice organization. They were hiring field organizers, also known as canvassers, to knock on doors to urge voters to support their endorsed candidates for the May 21st Oregon primary election. I worked for ECR from September to November 2022 for the midterm elections. With my alarm about the state of U.S. democracy, I was eager to knock on doors again to engage with voters to urge them to vote and be involved with the democracy process.

I knew that canvassing was not going to be easy. On April 2, 2024, I published a blog, “For Climate Action, be kind to people knocking at your door.” I enjoy canvassing to be outside on beautiful days, meeting new people in my community, having conversations with voters about candidates and issues that I care about, encouraging people to vote, and friendly cats. The hellish part of canvassing is cold rainy days, people slamming doors in my face, people showing distain in voting and the democratic process, and hostile dogs charging at me. It is not for the faint of heart to be a canvasser.

ECR had a slate of candidates it endorsed for the May 21st primary, such as Eddy Morales for Congressional District seat 03, Willy Chotzen for Oregon House District 46, Hoa Nguyen for Oregon House District 48, and a ballot measure 26-247 for more funding for the Gresham Police and Fire Departments. I canvassed full time around 5 days a week, for these candidates plus others endorsed by ECR.

The most searing memories from this experience were two young women that I knocked on their doors, one in Gresham and the other in southeast Portland. They felt very uncomfortable that an older man (me) knocked on their door, knowing their full name and address. I tried to assure them that I am an ally organizing to achieve many of their values such as equal pay, a woman’s right to reproductive healthcare, safety from assault and violence, and ending gender discrimination. However, they were not buying it. No matter how I wanted to convince them that I cared about their issues and wanted to hear their concerns, my message was not breaking through to them. It is always gut wrenching for me to reach out to people, especially young women, who did not want to trust me.

The woman in southeast Portland told me that I sucked as a canvasser. She was displeased that I mispronounced her name. As I struggled to say her name correctly, I showed her the spelling of her name on my canvassing voter phone app. She was very mistrustful that I had her name and address. I gently tried to explain to her that voter registration is public information, but not how a person votes. She became angrier upon hearing this. She retorted, “Maybe I should cancel my voter registration.”

No matter how I tried to apologize for initially mispronouncing her name or any bad first impressions, it did not lessen her hostility towards me. Both occasions with these young women from Portland and Gresham felt crushing for me. I have always wanted to get along well people, and I am eager for people to like me. It is very sad as a canvasser that some people I encounter knocking at their doors will never like me. That is the heartbreaking part of canvassing.

Fortunately, like all the previous times I canvassed in 2022 and 2018, I encountered people that were kind, thanked me for my canvassing, engaged in wonderful conversations with me, and I had some friendly cats!

Canvassing is like a knife’s edge. It can be either top of the world fulfilling or completely demoralizing. By the time of the May 21st primary election, I was ready for a vacation. I dislike canvassing on election day because most people already voted by this point. Most people who have not voted by this point are simply not interested in voting. I have known fellow canvassers who did have some success getting people to vote at the last minute on election day, but I have not experienced those moments yet.

The May 21st election day turned out to be brutal. It rained hard that day. I got soaked, despite all my attempts to stay dry using a poncho, layers of clothes, etc. I had some homeowners scream at me when I tried to approach them about voting. After I left the campaign literature at one door of someone who didn’t answer, she wadded up the information and thew it at me.

My breaking point was around 2 pm that afternoon. It was pounding rain, and I was walking around in a low-income mobile home trailer park knocking on doors. I used the overhead awnings to try to stay dry, update the canvassing information on my phone, and try to get the campaign literature out of the plastic bags without getting the materials wet. I knocked on the door of a young 20 something Latino man. When he first answered the door, I had the impression he did not speak much English, so I tried to communicate with him with a language translation app on my phone. I struggled to use the app quickly and effectively. Finally, he said in exasperation, “What do you want?”

I responded, “Today is the last day for voting. I am really hoping that you will get a chance to vote today. Did you get your ballot?”

He snarled, “I don’t plan on voting.”

I replied, “Wow! This is an important election. We are voting on police and fire department services so they can respond more quickly when you need them.”

He snapped, “I don’t give a shit! The only reason I am still allowing you to be by my door is because it is raining so hard.”

At this point, I had no interest left in canvassing for this election. I left this man, departed the trailer park, got in my car, and drove home. I then texted my boss Billy to say that I was finished canvassing that day. I reached my limit with the heavy rain, cold weather, and the nasty interactions I received from interacting with people. Billy and I agreed that I could do text banking up until the end of my shift around 5 pm. I received the information to call potential voters, and I texted folks on my iPad. I received some negative text responses not to text them anymore or more information on the Safer Gresham Police and Fire Ballot measure. I answered the text questions to the best of my knowledge, but two people who texted me back were not happy with my information I relayed about the ballot measure.

The negative responses via text were such a breeze compared to the cold rainy weather and hostile interaction I faced earlier that day. It felt soothing to text bank in warm comfortable clothes in my cozy home, in contrast to the pouring rain a few hours earlier. I finally wrapped up the text banking at 7 pm, one hour before voters had to submit their ballots to a designated drop off. Oregon is one of 8 states, as well as Washington, D.C, that allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail. Oregon voters can submit ballots in the mail on election day if they are postmarked by that day. Or they can slide their ballots inside a secured designated drop box by 8 pm on election day.

Most elections I like to attend the election victory parties. For this primary election, I just wanted to stay home and dry with a big cup of hot chocolate to hang with my wife Tanya. The good news is that the legislative candidates I canvassed for in competitive districts, such as legislative candidates Willy Chotzen and Hoa Nguyen won their primary races. Even more, the Gresham Safer Police and Fire Department funding measure passed! My supervisor with ECR was very happy with all my canvassing efforts. He felt like all my door knocking made a difference with that local ballot measure winning.

When I was growing up, my dad used to advise me: “Don’t ever get a job where you have to work with the general public!”

Knocking on doors to urge voters to support candidates and ballot measures is very tough. On my worst days canvassing, I laugh thinking maybe this was a case of ‘Father knows best.’ On the other hand, our climate and democracy feel too threatened for me to stay home and not engage with people, even the folks I encounter that hate what I am doing.

At the end of the day on May 21st, I was exhausted, sad, traumatized from some of these nasty voter interactions from canvassing for the 2024 Oregon election primaries. I was desperate need of a vacation to get my mind off the last two months. Just a day later, my wife and I left for a four-day trip to southern Oregon to go snowshoeing at Crater Lake National Park. I was so glad my canvassing was finished for the spring. Yet, I felt proud I made a small difference for our democracy, planet, and for climate action!

“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
– Helen Keller from her 1940 book Let Us Have Faith

Riding in small airplanes, Skydiving, Parasailing, and Surfing for Peak Thrills

Around the time of my 40th birthday in July 2008, I went through a mid-life crisis. I had worked successfully as a seasonal park ranger in the winters in Everglades National Park, Florida and summers at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. After seeing the documentary about Al Gore in the summer of 2006, An Inconvenient Truth, I knew I had to do something as a career to promote climate action. However, I had no idea how to pursue this passion. I knew of no organizations or individuals pursuing this passion at that time. I loved my job of giving ranger talks in the national parks. In my restlessness, I started pursuing thrill-seeking opportunities in my spare time.

In the spring of 2007, I wanted to see a bird’s eye view of the Everglades. The highest point in Everglades National Park was about 8 feet above sea level. The lower third of the park of this 1.5-million-acre park is the shallow sea of Florida Bay, which is connected to the Gulf of Mexico and sporadically connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Keys. Another third of the park is mangrove trees, which live in the brackish mixture of fresh and salt water barely above or at sea level. The upper third of the park is the freshwater slough of sawgrass with hardwood hammock islands and pine tree ridges mixed in between. That area was just a few feet above sea level. The Everglades has no steep tall mountains providing grandiose scenic vistas.

Thus, my friend Jackie and I found a way to take a short airplane ride in March 2007 to get aerial views of the Everglades and south Florida. We booked a pilot to take us on a 45 minute flight in a small 4 seat plane that flew in and out of the Everglades City Airpark, a tiny airport located directly behind the National Park Service Visitor Center where I worked in Everglades City. While that flight was fun, but I wanted more.

I decided I must go tandem skydiving in April 2007 to get even higher views of south Florida. I wanted to experience jumping out of a perfectly good airplane to live to tell about it. I deeply enjoyed that skydiving experience so much that I wanted to do it again when I worked at Crater Lake, Oregon in the summer of 2007. I talked a group of friends to go tandem skydiving with me in August 2007. It was even more of a thrill than the first time, but damn scary since I am afraid of heights. After two times, I got the skydiving adrenaline experience out of my system.

I still longed to do more thrill-seeking experiences. In October 2008, I visited friends on the Big Island of Hawaii. I achieved a life goal to see all 50 states, plus I turned 40 years old in July. Even more, I did not know if I would ever return to the Big Island. Therefore, I was determined to make the most of this trip. I first bought a ticket from UFO Parasailing so I could parasail above the Pacific Ocean.

Parasailing felt magical to feel like I was drifting in a parachute that was attached a couple hundred feet above the boat that was pulling me along. It was a bit freaky seeing how tiny the boat was below me and how my seat rocked back and forth a bit as I was pushed around by the wind. My bare feet were dangling, and I clung tightly to my parachute harness and wires, nervous I could still fall into the water from this great height. Yet, I loved how quiet it was when I was high up parasailing with just the sound of the wind. The view of the Big Island and the Pacific Ocean from up in the parasail was spectacular. I had a fantastic time. With my fear of heights though, I could check this activity off my bucket list. I did not feel much need to do it again.

The next day, I signed up for a surfing lesson. I had no business surfing since I am not a strong swimmer and I don’t have great balance. Furthermore, I always had a fear of swimming in water where I cannot touch the bottom. I learned quickly when I showed up for my lesson that morning that those are to requisites to surf successfully: strong swimming skills and a good sense of balance. Gulp! I was going to have to swallow my fears to achieve success there.

Once we got out into the water, it took several attempts to try to catch a wave and balance myself properly on the surfboard. My surf instructor screamed at me in a very beneficial way each time I tried to climb on board the surf to ride the wave back to the beach. He worried a strong wave would push me into nearby jagged rocks, not the soft sandy beach where I needed to land. He was a great instructor because he did not give up on me. He was determined I would achieve standing on the board, properly balancing, and surfing the wave smoothly to the beach.

After several failures, a part of me was getting tired and I thought about giving up. However, my surfing instructor was not going to allow me to fail. He was determined I would succeed and I was not going to let him down. Finally, I caught a wave! I stood fully on the board, and I balanced myself with my back crouched forward with my knees bent, one leg in front of the other. I did it! I was so proud of myself! I achieved a peak life experience, like nothing I did before. I hopped off the board in the shallow water at the beach. My instructor was so proud of me and this accomplishment for him that day. I must have been one of the hardest clients he had ever taught to surf. He looked tired from all his efforts to coach me that day. I made sure to tip him well and thank him for his efforts.

I have heard that surfing is one of the hardest recreation activities one could try. Having tried surfing, it felt like a big challenging endeavor for me. I felt worn out and I just wanted to chill out at the beach and hotel for the rest of the day. No need for me to try surfing again. Check! I got that need out of my system.

Zip Lining near Vail, Colorado in May, 2010.

After my Hawaii trip, I was not finished with my adventure seeking. Around this time, zip lining became a popular recreation activity in tourist locations. I looked online for any zip lining near Crater Lake in southern Oregon in 2009. However, none of the local businesses offering zip lining appealed to me. When I spent my winter in St. Louis, Missouri in the winter of 2009-10, it was too cold to zip line. I did not see any zip lining outfitters nearby. When I planned my cross-country trip from St. Louis to Crater Lake in May 2010, I noticed a zip line outfitter near I-70 in the Rocky Mountains near Vail, Colorado. When I checked in April 2010, it was very early in the season for their operation, but they were able to take my reservation for a zip line.

When I arrived at the Zip Adventures on May 3, 2010, I was basically the only car in the parking lot. The owners were very happy to see me because I was their only customer that day. It was an overcast somewhat cold day in this high elevation area in the Rocky Mountains. Not really the typical clear summer day that one pictures to do an activity like zip lining. However, I was dressed in a turtleneck, warm sweater, and winter jacket, so I was prepared for the chill in the air, plus any breeze I would experience while zip lining.

The only rule I remember is that they never wanted me to touch the overhead cable while I was moving on the zipline. First, my hand could get ripped up while I traveled on the cable. Even worse, hand could get mangled by the pulley wheels attached to my harness as I moved down the cable. The business was so light for the owners that they traveled on the zip line several times while I was there for the fun of it.

With my fear of heights, my heart was in my throat as I moved on the zip line from one end of the deep box canyon to the other side. However, I loved the thrill of traveling on the zip line. The owners secured me well on the zip line so I did not necessarily have to hold onto the bright yellow harness with both hands while I zipped down the zip line. But, my fear of heights forced me to always hold tightly onto the harness with both hands like my life depended upon it.

One of the owners offered a fun activity while I ziplined. I could grab a rock before I started to hold in one hand. During the zip line, I could attempt to throw inside an open barrel that was about 50 feet to the side and under the zip line. If I got the rock inside the barrel, I would win a chance for a free zip line at their location in the future. I felt too squeamish with my fear of heights over the canyon, the weird sensation of dangling from a harness, plus the speed of the zip line moving downline. I was not in a comfort zone to throw a rock into a barrel while zip lining, but I was happy I tried the experience of zip lining. Half the fun was hanging with the two owners in their 30s who delighted in owning this business, zip lining themselves, and showing others like me a good time zip lining.

This was another experience that felt fun for me, but I did not feel a need ever have to do it again. I still had other thrill-seeking items that I wanted to do, such as riding in a hot air balloon.

Inviting my friend Lise Wall to ride in a Hot Air Balloon with me

When I arrived at Crater Lake in mid-May 2010 to work as a seasonal park ranger, I had the privilege of working with Lise Wall. We worked together in the spring of 2009 for the Classroom at Crater Lake. We led ranger talks for high school, middle school, and grade school snow shoeing field trips at Crater Lake. Lise and I enjoyed working together and we became good friends.

She invited me to visit her the Illahee Fire Lookout, Oregon in August 2009 where she worked as a fire lookout observer. In November 2009, I was housesitting in Ashland, Oregon and Lise spent her winters living in the tiny town Idleyld Park, Oregon, a 30-minute drive east of Roseburg, Oregon. We decided to meet up in the Roseburg area to go to the Wildlife Safari Park. We had a terrific time driving in my car to see the wildlife roaming there, such as zebras, bison, giraffes, camels, rams, musk ox, reindeer, leopards, wild turkeys, elk, llamas, rhinoceros, black bears, and other animals.

Lise Wall was an attractive woman who was slender to the point of delicate. She was shorter than me had long flowing brunette hair down to her waist and a soft whispering voice. She frequently had a twinkling smile around me, waiting to hold back the laughter until I said something funny. She delighted in my sense of humor and the ease that I told jokes around her. We seemed to have an attraction for each other, but we never knew how to pursue it, so we always stayed on the friendship level.

She enjoyed hearing about my thrill-seeking to sky dive, parasail, surf in Hawaii, hike up and down the Grand Canyon, zip line, etc. She liked my zeal to try new adventures. When I chatted with her one day when we were working at Crater Lake, I mentioned that I wanted to go up in a hot air balloon sometime soon. Lise expressed an interest to join me if I did this. I don’t mind doing these thrills by myself, but it is more fun to have a friend with me. Lise and I frequently laughed when working or hanging out together, so I knew it would be good to have her join me.

I looked online and I found the His Sky Balloons in Grants Pass, Oregon. I arranged with my Crater Lake supervisor Eric Anderson to get a specific day off in June so I could make a reservation for this balloon ride. Lise was still working seasonally at Crater Lake into June. Eric arranged it so both of us could have the day off on Friday, June 11th to do this balloon ride.

Grants Pass is a two-hour drive southwest of Crater Lake. Lise needed to go home the day before to take care of her cats before joining me in Grants Pass. Our balloon reservation was for 8 am the next day. I booked a room for both of us at the Shilo Inn so we could get a good night sleep and not be rushed to drive several hours from our residences that morning.

I arrived at the motel on Thursday evening, June 10th an hour and a half before Lise showed up at the room. It took her so long to get to the motel that I was a bit worried if she would make there ok. When she arrived at the room, she looked lovely with her long flowing brunette air and lovely smile, she looked happy to hang out with me. I will admit I hoped a romantic intimacy might happen that evening.

However, as soon as Lise was comfortable in the room, she grabbed the TV remote, turned on the TV, and was giddy to see what shows were on TV. Lise lived in a remote rural mountainous area without TV reception. She prided herself as an aspiring writer. I somehow thought she had a negative impression of TV like me. I was shocked to see her marveling at the sight of TV, to the point of almost ignoring me. I think she was hoping that I would be amazed by the availability of TV. At that time, neither one of us had access to it in the remote mountains at Crater Lake or at her home in the deep secluded forests at Idleyld Park.

Sitting on my bed, I finally sighed and observed, “I can’t believe you are watching TV!”

Lise responded, “Well, what else is there to do?”

Me: “I can think of a lot of other things to do.”

She did not get the hint. She continued to happily watch TV. It felt like there was an attraction between us. I probably could have sat next to her on her bed to see if anything progressed from there. I don’t think she would have minded, but I was just too shy. I was also still in shock how much this liberal minded, mountain living, nature loving, independent woman was loving watching TV. It was bizarre to me. The TV viewing was a mood killer for me. That might have been her intention. Who knows!

She eventually turned off the TV. We had a pleasant conversation about work, life, and the upcoming hot air balloon experience the next day. Nothing romantic happened. I did not want to make our cherished friendship awkward by going beyond that. If you had bugged or videotaped our motel room that evening, you would have been bored with two friends chatting until they fell asleep on their own beds that you would have fallen asleep too!

Riding in a Hot Air Ballon above Grants Pass, Oregon on June 11, 2010

When we woke up the next morning, we quickly realized we overslept. It was after 7:36 am and our balloon ride reservation was at 8 am. We each quickly changed from our sleeping clothes to the clothes we planned to wear that day. We left the motel room fast throwing our overnight bags in our cars and raced to try to make it to the balloon in time.

When we reached the hot air balloon, it was already a couple of inches off the ground. It was right around 8 am. The pilot of the balloon allowed us to instantly jump into the balloon basket. He then sternly remarked, “If you had arrived any later, we would have left without you!”

Lise and I felt embarrassed and relieved we had cut it so close to barely make it on it. We noticed three other patrons on this balloon basket, which was only about as big as a small elevator. There was not much room to maneuver or turn around in the balloon.

In our rush to get to the balloon. We barely had time to notice how stunningly beautiful the balloon was. It had a multi-color checkerboard pattern of squares of blue, yellow, red, and green. In the middle of the balloon was a giant yellow stripe that went from the top to the basket. Inside the yellow stripe were the vertical letters WWJD. I had no doubt the pilot would tell us what those letters meant at some point.

As soon as Lise and I stepped inside the basket, the balloon started quietly lifting towards the sky like a very quiet elevator. The only sound that broke up the noise was the infusion of the propane blasted like a flame thrower into the balloon, officially known as the envelope or bag.

The view was mesmerizing. We took off from a suburban part of Grants Pass. As we got higher, we could see more rows of these middle-class homes with lots of tall trees dispersed between the houses. While we were up in the air over Grants Pass, another hot air balloon was airborne. It was colored with red on the top third, white in the middle with a large Remax logo and a cobalt blue color in the bottom third of the balloon. It was fitting to see another balloon in the sky on this morning to give us more perspective on this hot air balloon experience.

With my fear of heights, I dared not to look down at the ground as it appeared further away from us. It also felt freaky to me to see all this blue sky and open air around the ballon as we hung out in the sky anywhere from 500 to 1,000 feet above the ground. I tried not to think how there was six of us huddled together inside this small balloon basket, just floating around in the sky. When I did think about it, it felt very weird and I felt vulnerable being this high in the sky. At the same time, I was loving the views of Grants Pass and the mountains surrounding Grants Pass. This felt different than any previous life experience or adventure.

At times it seemed like the balloon was floating in the air, almost as light as a feather. At other times, it felt like the balloon was a white-knuckle ride as it would decrease in altitude, nearly missing the tops of trees or the flood lights of a nearby high school football stadium.

When we were at our highest elevation above the ground, about 1,000 to 2,000 feet, balloon pilot shared why it had the initials WWJD. He told us that it stood for “Walk With Jesus Daily.” The initials also stand for “What Would Jesus Do.” I should have known that abbreviation having a connection to Christianity since I had seen that in popular and religious culture for decades. However, it did not grab my attention when I made online reservations for the balloon. I barely noticed it when Lise and I showed up that morning and saw the balloon for the first time.

The pilot expressed his Christian faith is important to him. He shared where he attended church and hoped we would join him. I did not like going to church when I was a kid, and I still don’t. I am not comfortable with religion, especially organized religion, because I saw too many famous people, especially politicians, express how religious they are. Yet they treat people, particularly the most vulnerable in our society, awful, inhumane, and cruel. Suddenly, I felt like the balloon basket was way too small. I wanted to get off the balloon, but there was no place to go. At the same time, the scenery and experience was so fantastic that I chose to ignore him.

Besides Lise and me, the other folks on the balloon did not seem to mind that he was witnessing his religion. They seemed to agree with him and reacted positively to what the pilot shared about his faith. Lise just ignored the whole thing. She seemed to love every second of this balloon ride. She smiled with delight when we looked at each other several times during the flight.

It was not enough for the pilot to talk about his Christian faith. He then pulled out a religious card about his balloon business that was roughly about the same size as a baseball card. He deliberately let go of the card while we were a couple thousand feet above the ground. The card then flittered in and out of the balloon basket like a butterfly. The wind carried the card differently than it would have on the ground. The jittery free motion in the air of this religious card sent me into a panic. It reminded me how high we were above the ground in a tiny balloon basket. If anything failed at this height, we were falling to our deaths. This realization caused me to duck inside the balloon in a spot where I could not see the floating religious business card or the broad view of the Grants Pass area.

I am glad I overcame my fear and momentary panic attack. The pilot pointed out some locations in Grants Pass that I had not heard about before. He pointed out a Rolls Royce junkyard. Rolls Royce cars that were totaled in an accident or that no were no operational were brought to this junkyard. They were then stripped of their good parts to be sold to auto mechanics and Rolls Royce owners needing to replace parts on their vehicles. The pilot stated that this was one of few Rolls Royce junkyards in the United States. The balloon pilot even found a way to maneuver the balloon about 50 feet off the ground so we would get a good view of the junkyard.

We continued to see the red, white, and blue REMAX balloon ascend and descend from a distance from us in Grants Pass. It was great to be in the sky around the same time as another hot air balloon to get aerial photos at the same level as us, above our altitude and below our elevation. I liked seeing the shadow of our balloon on the ground. It felt we were part of our own balloon eclipse. I would not see a solar eclipse for another 14 years. I have seen a few lunar eclipses over the years, but it was still a fun sight to see the dark temporary shadow of our WWJD balloon on the ground.

After about an hour, it was time for the balloon to land safely on the ground and for the balloon ride to be over. With my fear of heights and the uneasy sensations I felt at times during the balloon ride, I was happy to be the first person off the balloon.

It was great to take photos of the balloon outside the basket. Lise and everyone remained on board to provide weight so the balloon operators and staff could start deflating it. They needed their weight to hold the balloon down so it would not float away. When the balloon was deflated enough that the envelope or bag started to look droopy, Lise and everyone else then exited the basket. The basked was then tipped to the side so the balloon would fully deflate, and they could carefully fold it up for future trips. It was a delicate operation to fold it up to make sure the thin nylon materials that make the balloon would rip and make the balloon inoperable.

After several minutes, the balloon envelope or bag was folded up into a large, enclosed pick-up truck. I then only had my memories and digital photos from this experience.

The aftermath of this Hot Air Balloon Experience and my thrill seeking

This was the last time I went out on an excursion with Lise. Just a month later, I started dating Lesley. I dated Lesley until the end of 2010. In 2011, I felt heartbroken after Lesley broke up with me. For nearly all of 2011, I felt too sad and depressed to want to date anyone else. Lise wrote me some letters when I spent the winters in St. Louis. Lise and I remained as friends. I appreciated her friendship in that dark time in my life after Lesley ended our relationship.

In July 2011, I was still grieving that Lesley and I were no longer dating. It was brutal on my emotions because we worked together as fellow interpretation/naturalist rangers at Crater Lake National Park. I knew I needed to do something to pull myself forward to enjoy life again. For years, I wanted to put together a climate change evening program at Crater Lake National Park. My Supervisor Eric Anderson encouraged me to do that since I expressed an interest in the summer of 2008. The lead naturalist David Grimes supported my interest in putting together a climate change campfire evening program.

In previous years, I was scared to put together a climate change evening program. I felt like I did not know enough. Even more, I worried that visitors who denied the scientific evidence and reality of climate change would want to get into a fierce argument with me about it. By July 2011, I knew I needed to stop procrastinating, hiding behind my fears, and just do it. I needed to start enjoying life again and following my passion for climate action, especially my calling to be “The Climate Change Comedian.”

I started to say to myself: I overcame my fear of swimming in deep water with surfing in Hawaii in 2008. Even more, I overcame my fear of heights with skydiving twice, parasailing, and riding in a hot air balloon. Thus, I could create a climate change evening program.

I spent my free time at Crater Lake in July 2011 creating this climate change evening program. I debuted it in August 2011. To my surprise, the park visitors at Crater Lake gave a positive reception to this ranger program. Very few visitors argued with me about it when I gave it during the summers of 2011 to 2017.

David Grimes videotaped it in September 2012, and I uploaded it on YouTube a few months later. As I enjoyed giving this climate change evening program, it led to many other public speaking opportunities to talk about climate change.

In 2011, I joined South County Toastmasters to be an active member during my winters in St. Louis. I gave 20 speeches about climate change to this group from 2011 to 2017, 8 of those speeches I was voted by my fellow Toastmasters as “Best Speaker.” I miss my involvement with that club in St. Louis. A friend who is still involved says that the group still talks about me and the speeches I gave about climate chance.

The same year I joined Toastmasters, I co-founded the Climate Reality St. Louis Meet Up group, now called Climate Meetup-St. Louis. My life changed when Tanya Couture showed up at one of our Meet Ups in 2012. We started dating in 2013. We got married in 2015, and we moved to Portland, Oregon in 2017.

I will always appreciate my friendship with Lise and the fun times we had hanging out together, such as riding in a hot air balloon together. I simply can’t imagine my life without Tanya. She has always been 100% supportive of my climate organizing.

Around the same time I became friends with Tanya, I began volunteering with Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) in May 2012. A few months later, in August 2012, I attended a Climate Reality Training in San Francisco, CA led by former Vice President Al Gore. He trained over 800 volunteers, including me, to become Climate Reality Leaders to give his climate change presentation. As a park ranger, Toastmaster, CCL volunteer, and Climate Reality Leader, I ended up giving over 200 to 300 climate change talks from 2012 to 2022 in 12 U.S. states, Washington D.C. and Canada. I gave my Crater Lake climate change evening program for an audience of over 200 people at the Grand Canyon National Park in May 2013.

I discovered my life’s passion do want to do something about climate change when I was working in Everglades National Park in the winter of 2007-08. However, for years I did not have courage to speak publicly about it. It was only after I accomplished my thrill seeking of skydiving, parasailing, surfing, zip lining, and, yes, riding in a hot air balloon that I discovered my determination to speak publicly and take climate action.

My advice is to find something that scares you. It could be as simple as public speaking. Find a way to overcome that fear in a fun way. Then use the courage and the thrill of victory you receive from overcoming your fear to change the world in a good way.

If you do that, let me know how it goes.

I still believe that Helen Keller said it best, “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

“No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It’s not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there’ll be
No more turning away?”

From the song “On the Turning Away” by Pink Floyd
Written by David Gilmour and Anthony Moore

This is part 6 of my 6 part blog from 2004-2010 how the EarthBall became my symbol. I conclude these multi-part story how my April 10, 2010 photo of me with my EarthBall at Copper Harbor, Michigan with Lake Superior behind me became my favorite Earth Ball photo.

Part 1: Everglades National Park, Florida in 2004 to Crater Lake Nat. Park, Oregon in 2009
Part 2: My Pacific Northwest spring travels to living in Ashland, Oregon in Autumn 2009
Part 3: December 2009 cross country travels to spending winter in St. Louis, MO in 2010
Part 4: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010
Part 5: Exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in April 2010
Part 6: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010

Part 6: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010

On April 10th, Dan and Cherie first took me to see Haven Falls waterfall, located in Haven Falls Park. I took four photos of this 20-to-30-foot narrow waterfall that flows down a steep rocky hill like a snow sled. It was next to the road and some picnic tables, so we did not have to hike to go see it. We then walked for a while on Point Isabelle Beach, located on a lower northeastern bulge of land with eastern facing views of Lake Superior and the interior westward looking Bete Grise Bay. No other people were there as we strolled on this red clay beach interrupted by some large random stones. All three of us got lost in our thoughts in the serenity of the area. The only sound was the spring breeze making the Lake Superior water have small ripples.

We then drove a couple of miles west to see the Lac La Belle Lake with Mount Bohemia, a 1,467-foot mountain nestled on the back side of the lake. From there Dan drove many miles on a dirt backroad as far as he could get to the eastern most part of the peninsula, Keweenaw Point. It felt like we drove through many miles of forests, but we could not get to the edge because another forest stopped the dirt road before we could go any further.

We then backtracked to drive to Copper Harbor, the northern most point of the Keweenaw Peninsula and the U.P. We spent some time hanging out by the rocky shoreline admiring the Copper Harbor Lighthouse a short distance across the Copper Harbor Bay. This was a small lighthouse with a black top cupola, black gallery, beige tower and attached building with a reddish roof. I took several photos of the lighthouse zoomed in to see it more up close and zoomed out to see more of Copper Harbor and Lake Superior next to the lighthouse.

At the rocky shoreline by Copper Harbor, I decided to inflate my Earthball. I then asked Dan to take my photo holding it while I stood on the brown rocky shoreline. The dark blue waters Lake Superior and the blue spring sky was behind me. We took several photos, so I had options to choose from to create an iconic photo of myself.

When I looked at the photos afterwards, I was most pleased with the landscape photo of me at this location. It was late in the afternoon, around 5 pm. The sun was low enough in the sky to create an ideal photo of the sun illuminating me. A year later, I chose this photo for my Facebook Profile photo and as the image for my business cards. I think it is the best symbol of me. Although that photo is now almost 16 years old, I don’t want to change it. I was so happy to see Lake Superior on this trip. I like using a photo using a large body of water meeting the sky, representing that over 70% of the planet is covered with water. Yet, standing on this brown rocky ground represents the solid ground of the Earth were almost all humans live.

The only odd part of the photo is that the horizon is noticeably uneven. However, I accept that as part of the quirk of the photo. I kept it uneven for my Facebook profile photo. In my climate change presentations since then when I used the photo, I edited it to make the horizon even so it would not be distracting.

In the years afterwards, I took my photo with the Earth Ball in many of my favorite places. I was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Thus, I had my photo with taken with the Earth Ball with the Gateway Arch and the St. Louis downtown skyline behind me in January 2018. The day after my wife Tanya and I moved to Portland, Oregon in February 2017, I posed with the Earth Ball on top of Council Crest with the downtown skyline of Portland behind me. Over the last 10 years, I lobbied for climate action in Washington D.C. for Citizens’ Climate Lobby. In November 2018, I held my Earth Ball in front of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Tanya is Danish American. My mother-in-law is originally from Denmark. I love traveling to Denmark with her to see her aunts, uncles, and cousins. In October 2017 in the middle of Copenhagen, held a Climate Planet Exhibit. It was a 30-seat theatre inside a large Earth Ball showing a short documentary to create more awareness about climate change. My wife Tanya took my photo with my inflatable Earth Ball with the giant Earth Ball theatre behind me.

I worked as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park from 1992 to 2017. I used my Earth Ball for numerous ranger talks. I posed for numerous photos with it for various promotions. Tanya and I took a photo of the Earth Ball soon after engaged in December 2014. We had the Earth Ball featured in our ceremony wedding on November 1, 2015. The official wedding photographer took a photo of Tanya and I holding the Earth Ball as part of our official wedding photos. I had the Earth Ball with me when I taped my appearance on Comedy Central TV’s Tosh.o in April 2016 for the episode that aired on August 2nd of that year. On September 21, 2025, I showed up, marched, posed for photos, and even shot of quick video of me walking with my Earth Ball for the nationwide Third Act Sun Day Marches to promote solar and clean energy.

I first started using the Earth Ball back in 2004 when I worked as a seasonal park ranger giving ranger talks at Everglades City Visitor Center in Everglades National Park. Sadly, I don’t think I have of myself with my Earth Ball then. However, it has been part of my life in countless photos since then. My favorite to this day is the photo in Copper Harbor Michigan with Lake Superior behind me. The U.P. of Michigan is one of the most beautiful places on planet Earth I have seen. I have wanted to return there since then, but the opportunity has not presented itself yet.

As far as the rest of this trip to the U.P, we did a bit more sightseeing after we captured the iconic photo. I was curious to walk east down the road past Copper Harbor to see what was there. I encountered a small clear pond surrounded by a few pine trees and a gentle sloped mountain behind it. It was called Mud Pond, but the water was completely still with good clarity to see the shadow bottom. The pond was so calm that it reflected the trees and the brown tall still hibernating grasses and bushes along the shoreline. The still water also acted like a mirror showing the clear bright blue afternoon sky. We then walked by another inland lake, much bigger that did have a ripple of disturbance on the water surface. This lake was so large that we did not have time to walk around it. We had just enough time to admire the pine trees that ringed and surrounded the lake with the pine tree forest continuing up a forested long ridge.

As we left Copper Harbor, I noticed a sign indicating it was the beginning of U.S. Highway 41 and stating that Miami, Florida was 1,990 miles away. When I worked in Everglades National Park, I spent my last four seasons working at the Everglades City and Shark Valley Visitor Centers. They were located off U.S. Highway 41 and about an hour drive from Miami, Florida. I now felt like I came full circle. Everglades National Park was where I first learned about climate change, decided I wanted to dedicate my life to educate others to act, and I first started using an Earth Ball in my ranger talks. It was surreal that I was at the other end of U.S. Highway 41, nearly 2,000 miles from Everglades National Park and Shark Valley. I had no idea on this day that I would end up at the northern terminus of Highway 41. My friend Cherie Barth was working with me in the Everglades around the year 2000 when I first started learning about climate change.

My ideal EarthBall Photo Set me on my life’s path to be a Climate Change Organizer

Now I was at the other end of the road getting my perfect photo of me holding an Earth Ball to try to promote climate action. In future blogs, I will share where the road of life took me next for the rest of this trip to the U.P. of Michigan and Wisconsin. Soon after I returned to St. Louis, Missouri from this trip, my friend John Dantico help me set up the www.climatechangecomedian.com website that I use to this day. I practiced my Climate Change Comedian PowerPoint with my ranger friends at Crater Lake National Park that summer. I then showed it to other friends on my cross-country drive from Crater Lake to St. Louis that autumn of 2010.

In February 2011, I started this blog and I joined South County Toastmasters to be a better climate change public speaker. In March to May 2011, I worked at the temporary Climate Change Exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center. In August 2011, I gave my first climate change evening campfire ranger program at the Crater Lake National Park campground amphitheater. In September 2011, I attended the Earth to Sky V: NASA, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Park Service training for Communicating Climate Change in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

In November 2011, local businessman Larry Lazar and I co-founded the Climate Reality St. Louis Meet Up group, now called Climate Meetup-St. Louis. In December 2011, I attended the American Geophysical Union or AGU conference in San Francisco. My friend and fellow climate change organizer, Tom Smerling, who I first met in Washington D.C. in October 2011, encouraged me to attend the AGU conference. It was a rewarding opportunity to meet the top climate scientists of the world, such as Dr. James Hansen, Dr. Michael Mann, Dr. Richard Alley, and others and see their climate change presentations.

During the monthly St. Louis Climate Reality Meet Ups in early 2012, Tanya Couture showed up at these meetings. We struck up a friendship, started dating in 2013, and got married on November 1, 2015. Tanya has always been very supportive of my climate organizing, and a joy to be around. I was finally free of awkward dating experiences and the frustration of being single!

In April 2012, I wrote an article published in Yale Climate Communications, “Communicating Climate Change in a National Park.” In May 2012, I first became involved as a volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby. In August 2012, I attended my first Climate Reality Project Training led by former Vice President Al Gore in San Franciso, California. I became a Climate Reality Leader and then a Climate Reality Mentor in August 2013. I eventually gave over 200 to 300 climate change talks in 12 U.S. states, Washington D.C, and Ottawa, Canada. Two of my most memorable experiences was speaking at the Shine of the Ages Auditorium at Grand Canyon National Park in May 2013 and speaking at my alma mater William Jewell College in October 2018.

I took many climate actions over the years. However, I will always feel like this was a key moment for me: capturing the ideal photo of me holding the Earth Ball standing on the rocky shoreline with Lake Superior behind me at Copper Harbor, Michigan.

As a climate organizer for almost two decades, I have thought about Greenland over the years.

According to the website AntarcticGlaciers.org, “The Greenland Ice Sheet is one of two continent-scale ice masses on Earth, with the other being the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest ice mass in the Northern Hemisphere…Almost 80% of Greenland’s landmass is covered by the ice sheet.”

A recent NPR article stated that “Greenland is the world’s largest island that is not a continent, covering more than 836,000 square miles.” Greenland about three times bigger than the size of Texas. At its thickest point, the Greenland Ice Sheet measures almost 2 miles thick and contains about 696,000 cubic miles of ice. The Greenland Ice Sheet holds about 10-12% of the world’s glacier ice, making it the second-largest body of ice on Earth after Antarctica.

Greenland first came to my attention in 2006 when I saw Academy Award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. In that film, former Vice President Al Gore spoke passionately about the need to address human caused climate change. He ran the alarm bell how fast Greenland’s ice sheet is melting because of burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas. He stated “If (the Greenland ice sheet) melted or broke up and slipped into the sea – or if half of Greenland and half of Antarctica melted or broke up and slipped into the sea, sea levels worldwide would increase by 18 to 20 feet.”

Gore showed striking visual images of the resulting sea level rise with south Florida disappearing, the water in San Francisco Bay greatly expanding, and most of the Netherlands underwater. Furthermore, he had visual images of the impacts on Bangladesh; Calcutta, India; Beijing and Shanghai, China; and lower Manhattan in New York City. I never forgot the gasps in the studio audience in the documentary and the gasps in the movie theatre when I first saw those images.

The movie was a wakeup call. We must do everything we can to act on climate change and stop burning fossil fuels to prevent the loss of the Greenland Ice Sheets and the catastrophic impact it would have on coastal areas worldwide.

After the film, many people, including me, wondered what they could do to use less fossil fuels to tackle climate change. For years after the film was released, many people talked about reducing their individual carbon footprint or emissions they produce. Incidentally, the fossil fuel industry, particularly BP or British Petroleum, that created the concept of the personal carbon footprint. They wanted to shift the attention to make the individual consumer feel guilty for their sole carbon emissions rather than the responsibility of the fossil fuel industry for their role in extracting, selling, distributing, and making the global society overly dependent upon their products. Climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann reports about this BP deflection campaign in his 2021 book, The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet.

Since I moved to Portland Oregon in February 2017, I almost exclusively take public transit and do not drive my car to reduce my carbon emissions or footprint. Over the years, many sources, including Columbia University Climate School, reported on ways you can reduce your carbon footprint. One of their 35 tips was to “If you fly for work or pleasure, air travel is probably responsible for the largest part of your carbon footprint. Avoid flying if possible; on shorter trips, driving may emit fewer greenhouse gases.”

That’s good advice to avoid flying if possible, because of all the carbon pollution from commercial airline travel contributing to climate change. Sadly, individual guilt to reduce personal carbon footprints led to carbon shaming or even flight shaming, which is just as bad as fat shaming. Dr. Mann wrote about the problem of carbon shaming in his book, The New Climate War.

Carbon shaming involves carbon advocates shaming others doing activities such as flying in airplanes. In December 2011, I flew from my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri to San Francisco, California to attend the American Geophysical Union Conference, one of the largest annual scientific conferences in the world. I went to see climate change presentations from the world’s top climate scientists. Plus, I wanted to meet other climate change communicators and organizers. After the conference, a Facebook friend kept carbon shaming me for taking a commercial flight to this conference. The shaming was so hurtful that I blocked and unfriend this person. His beliefs were extreme because he would not even fly in an airplane to visit his grandchildren.

I will admit that I like to fly commercially. I fly once a year to Washington D.C. to lobby Congressional offices to urge members of Congress to pass strong climate legislation. My wife Tanya and I have lived in Portland, Oregon for nearly 9 years now. However, my elderly parents, her parents, our siblings, and my adult nieces and nephews all live in the St. Louis area. Thus, we fly back to St. Louis about twice a year to visit them.

My wife is Danish American. My mother-in-law is originally from Denmark. My wife likes to fly to Denmark every two to three years to see her aunts, uncles, and cousins. I traveled with my wife to see Denmark 4 times over the last 9 years. I love to see Tanya’s relatives, stay at the family summer house that is on the Baltic Sea, walk around the nearly old Danish towns and small cities, and experience the Danish culture. My wife intended to go to Denmark on these vacations, with or without me. However, she wanted me to go with her, and I love going to Denmark.

The only downside for me is that it is a 9-and-a-half-hour flight from Portland, Oregon to Amsterdam, Netherlands, plus another short flight to Denmark. That is a long time to be couped up like cattle in the economy class of a commercial jet. It is hard to sleep in those very cramped airline seats. Even worse, with the lack of sleep on the airplane, plus the 9-hour time zone difference, the jet lag is brutal once I arrive in Denmark. It takes several days for me to sleep normally. Thus, part of me is great with flying to Denmark every 2 to 3 years.

On the way back from Denmark on April 23, 2019, Tanya I had an early morning flight from Amsterdam to Portland. I lucked out with a window seat on this flight. Most of the time, Tanya and I are seated in the middle section, since they were the only seats available on the transatlantic flights. No clouds were in the sky when we flew that April morning. The video screen in front of my seat had an option of movies and TV shows for me to watch. In addition, it had a flight tracker map to show the airplane route from Amsterdam to Portland. It indicated we would be flying right over the middle of Greenland.

I am not sure if I will have the opportunity to visit Greenland during my lifetime. It does not seem easy to travel to since it does not have any large cities, frequent flights, or other convenient ways to travel there. This might be my only opportunity to see it. I became eager with anticipation as the flight went across the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Then I saw it. This massive sheet of bright white ice everywhere. Greenland looked enormous as the flight took 2 to 3 hours to cross it. The land looked so different than anything I had seen in my life. Just a glistening white ice sheet with rolling deeply snowed rounded mountains rising in between the ice, especially near the coastal areas. The brightness of the ice contrasted greatly with the dark blue sky and Earth’s daytime atmosphere.

It looked like an area that needed to be left alone, even protected as much as possible. It felt premoral, an icy area left over from the last Great Ice Age, also known as the Pleistocene epoch, dating from about 2.6 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago.

Greenland gave the impression we don’t want to melt with climate change. Scientists have warned us for decades that melting it could raise global sea levels up to 20 feet if we continue to burn fossil fuels with business as usual for the foreseeable future. Greenland looked like it belonged to no one, but it belongs to all of humanity. It was a sacred part of Planet Earth that I was so lucky to see from a jet airplane window at over 33,000 feet in elevation on that clear sunny day. It’s not a place in January 2026 for President Donald Trump to threaten to invade and conquer just because he can or his excuse of national security.

As I reflect now of that aerial view of Greenland from April 2019, I can’t stop thinking about those memories since Greenland is in the news so much these days. Today, in January 2026, all of us must do what we can to protect Greenland from climate change, honor the sovereignty of indigenous people who have lived there for thousands of years, and refuse to allow it to be conquered by an egomaniac world leader like Donald Trump.

“I’ve seen the world, been to many places
Made lots of friends, many different races
I’ve had such fun around the world it’s true
African skies with a Nairobi mood, ooh
I fell asleep in Tuscany and dreamed
The one thing missing was you…”
– from the song “Runaway” by Janet Jackson

This is part 5 of my 6 part blog from 2004-2010 how the EarthBall became my symbol. I conclude these multi-part story how my April 10, 2010 photo of me with my EarthBall at Copper Harbor, Michigan with Lake Superior behind me became my favorite Earth Ball photo.

Part 1: Everglades National Park, Florida in 2004 to Crater Lake Nat. Park, Oregon in 2009
Part 2: My Pacific Northwest spring travels to living in Ashland, Oregon in Autumn 2009
Part 3: December 2009 cross country travels to spending winter in St. Louis, MO in 2010
Part 4: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010
Part 5: Exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in April 2010
Part 6: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010

Part 5: Seeing the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the First Time

On April 8th, Dean Shumway and I went to a diner in Sister Bay, Wisconsin to meet with a friend of his for breakfast. It was snowing lightly with some of it sticking on the ground to form a fresh white cover. It was another reminder from Mother Nature that she did not want to give up her winter hold on this area yet. I felt a bit uneasy that morning hoping the roads would be safe as I traveled north into Michigan on the next part of this adventure. I ate a hearty breakfast of pancakes and Bernie packed a lunch for me for the road. After a good conversation with Dean and his friend over breakfast, it was time for me to hit the road to see new places that day.

As I drove south to try to leave Door Peninsula, the snowy weather persisted. I wanted a beautiful sunny day for this road trip, but Mother Nature insisted that it should snow throughout that morning. I had to drive south to go around Green Bay, Wisconsin. It felt odd to drive south to Green Bay. This is the home of the Green Bay Packers National Football League team. Their mammoth football stadium, Lambeau Field, dominates the Green Bay skyline. With the deep cold weather that the Packers play during their football season in November into January, Lambeau Field, has the nickname of “the frozen tundra.” With the snowy weather I encountered driving through the city of Green Bay on April 8th, that nickname seemed appropriate to me.

From Green Bay, I drove an hour north to Marinette, WI to cross into Michigan. The road paralleled within a few miles of the northern shore of Green Bay. During that hour, it was interesting to see northeastern rural Wisconsin. At the same time, I was full of anticipation to cross into Michigan to experience the Upper Peninsula or U.P. As I drove through the town of Marinette and crossed the Menominee River, I finally saw the sign I was eager to see. It was blue sign shining brightly on this overcast snowy day. It proudly beamed the words “Pure Michigan.”

I did it! I crossed into the U.P. of Michigan. I reached a new goal for this trip. I had been to Dean and Bernie’s house before in Door County. Now I felt like a traveler experiencing uncharted territory for first time. Fortunately, Michigan Highway 39 hugged the Green Bay shoreline for the next hour or 64 miles up to Gladstone, Michigan. I then headed straight east on U.S. Highway 2 through the Hiawatha National Forest to Manistique, Michigan. I don’t remember the forest driving through this part of the U.P. However, I looked forward to seeing Manistique since it was nestled on the north shore of Lake Michigan. The view did not disappoint. From the highway, I could spot a bright red lighthouse that seemed to stand out on this overcast snowy day. The lighthouse only connected to Michigan with just a narrow strip of land.

The scene was ideal for me to pull into the Carl D. Bradley Lakeview Memorial Park to take multiple photos of the lighthouse with Lake Michigan behind it. The snow on the ground and on the vegetation made the view even more spectacular. I was glad to see winter was not over in this part of the country. It was another cold blustery day on this spring break trip. Yet, I was thrilled to see what nature wanted to show me of the winter scene of this area. I ate my lunch inside my cold car while I enjoyed the view. While I was there, I went on a 20-minute walk to get as many photos and views as I could enjoy before I felt the need to explore further east that day.

I then had a 45-minute drive through the interior of the U.P to get to Naubinway, Michigan, which lies at the northern most point of Lake Michigan. From Naubinway eastward, I had views of Lake Michigan as the road stayed close to the water’s edge for the next 44 miles or 50 minutes. The road twisted with the lakeshore all the to Saint Ignace, Michigan, the northern shore where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron met. This was my next destination to see what the view was where these two Great Lakes met. As I journeyed along Highway 2 towards St. Ignace, the road would climb up tall cliffs giving me wide birds eye views of the forest behind me with Straits of Mackinac in the most northeastern parts of Lake Michigan in front of me. The scenery was too awe inspiring to drive. I had to pull over at some of the overlooks to just take in the views and capture the beauty in photographs.

At a pullout a few miles west of St. Ignace, a bridge started coming into view. It had two tall crème colored spanning towers like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco or the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York City. It was the Mackinac Bridge. I loved bridges like this since I was a child. I had picture books of the Golden Gate Bridge as a young kid that I looked at frequently. I was enthralled to see that bridge when we drove across it on a family vacation to San Franciso when I was 9 years old in 1977. Three years later, my dad drove our family across the Verrazano Bridge when we traveled to New York City in 1980. This bridge looked just as majestic as those bridges. Unlike those bridges, it did not have a big city skyline on one side of it. The Mackinac Bridge just had Lake Michigan on the west side and Lake Huron on the east side with the forests and small towns of the Upper and Lower Michigan peninsulas at either end of the bridge.

The goal of this trip was to see the U.P. of Michigan. However, I had to drive across this bridge just to experience it. As I drove south across it, I did something dangerous of taking a couple of photos with my point and shoot digital camera while driving my car. Looking back, it takes full concentration to drive across that bridge with the other traffic and the winds of the Straits of Mackinac tugging at your car. The photos while driving on the bridge turned out well. However, I shudder to think of all the things that could have gone wrong driving a car while trying to get photos with my digital camera at the same time.

After I drove south across the bridge, I stopped at Michilimackinac State Park on the shore of Lake Michigan, just off I-75 in Mackinaw City. There was a lighthouse there I did not even notice. I was on a mission to take more photos of the Mackinac Bridge from the southwest shoreline sandy beach. This was my only time in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan during this trip, which was just for a few minutes. I then drove across the Bridge again, admiring how Lake Huron was on one side of the Bridge and Lake Michigan was on the other side of the bridge. I tried to take in the whole view of the area while driving as safely as I could to make it to the other side.

When I reached the U.P. on the north side of the Mackinac Bridge, I then drove an hour on I-75 to spend the night in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. I easily found a hotel on the east side of town. I would have liked to have crossed the St. Mary River to see Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. However, I did not have a U.S. Passport at that time. Thus, I was going to have to enjoy staying in the U.S. and experience as much as possible in the U.P. of Michigan. This was a full day with a lot of driving and spectacular scenery. Now I was full of anticipation for the next day to drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Houghon, Michigan on the western part of the U.P. I would be seeing Lake Superior and the northern shore of the U.P. for the first time in my life. As country singer Willie Nelson sang years ago, ‘I could not wait to get on the road again.’

Seeing Lake Superior for the First Time

I woke up on April 9th similar to the anticipation of opening gifts on Christmas morning. This was the pinnacle for this trip: the possibility to look at Lake Superior for the first time. I saw Lake Michigan several times as a child when my parents took trips to Chicago. I viewed Lake Ontario on a family vacation in 1983 when we visited Toronto, Canada around the time of my 15th birthday. But I was curious for decades afterwards to see Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes. It is bigger by volume of water than all the other Great Lakes combined. It has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world. Even more, Lake Superior holds around 10% of all the fresh water in the entire world. I longed to see this gigantic freshwater sea.

I was meeting my friends Cherie Barth and her boyfriend Dan for dinner and staying with them. They lived in Houghon, Michigan, on the northwestern part of the U.P. Thus, I had to make the most of the day and the daylight. It was going to be a 4-and-a-half-hour drive without stopping to get to Cherie’s house, so I had to get up early to make the most of this day. From the beautiful sights I experienced that day, it was one of the most memorable days of my life.

My first destination was Whitefish Point, Michigan. It was an hour and a half drive west of Sault St. Marie, Michigan. The land around Whitefish Point juts out like a shark fin for the eastern U.P. Whitefish Point sits at the very top edge of the protruding land. The way it sticks out into Lake Superior this location would give me a panoramic view to see the lake for the first time in a more meaningful way. It snowed about an inch overnight. The ground was covered white with the snow, but it was too warm for the snow to stick to the payment. Thus, it was an ideal day to drive to take photos of the U.P still impacted by winter, but warm enough to not worry about driving in icy or snowy slick covered roads.

On my way to Whitefish Point, I drove through the town of Paradise, Michigan. The name acceptably fit the area with its quiet location. I saw no one or no traffic as I passed through this rural bedroom community. I stopped to take photos of the picturesque view of the snow on the ground, no leaves on the trees, and gazebos looking out into Whitefish Bay, the eastern most part of Lake Superior. From Paradise to Whitefish point, the road stayed close to Whitefish Bay, giving me my first glimpses of Lake Superior. It looked impressive, but not much different than the previous memories I had of Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario.

I could not drive any further at Whitefish Point when I got to the parking lot of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. When I pulled up to the parking lot to take photos, I was listening to Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” several times on my iPod connected to my car stereo. At one spot driving up to Whitefish Point, I had the song playing as I quickly left the car running to run out to get a quick photo. If the locals saw me, they probably thought I was another stupid tourist. Lightfoot’s song commemorates the November 1975 tragic sinking of the American cargo ship the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The Edmond Fitzgerald happened not far from here. As Gordon Lightfoot sang in the song,
“The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
if they’d put fifteen more miles behind ‘er.”

When I arrived at Whitefish Point, it was just me and a couple other cars with visitors in the parking lot. In front of me was a white lighthouse with a white residential house next to it with an orange roof. The orange roof stood prominent with the snow on the ground, the lighthouse keeper’s house and lighthouse were white, and it was a mostly cloudy day with some blue sky. The inside of the lighthouse and the Shipwreck Musuem were not open. The summer tourist season was still many weeks away for these buildings to be open to welcome visitors.

Behind the lighthouse, I had to walk on a long beach to get to the edge of Lake Superior. From the edge of Whitefish Point, Lake Superior looked massive. The winds blew strongly bringing a frigid chill to the air. I bundled up in my winter coat, hat, scarf, and gloves. The winds created numerous whitecaps on the water and small breaking waves on the shoreline. The winds churning up the water of Lake Superior gave it a grumpy appearance that morning. My first impression of Lake with the white caps and shoreline tidal waves is that the lake seemed to be saying to me, “Don’t fuck with me! I am not in a good mood today!”

With the cold winds and choppy disturbed water that day, Lake Superior demanded respect. It was not a day to irritate her with swimming, boating, sailing, fishing, or any activity on her waters. I dared not to do anything foolish to make her angrier that day. I was elated to see Lake Superior for the first time from the safety of the sandy beach. I found another visitor to take a photo of me with my digital camera to capture the moment.

From Whitefish Point, I drove 40 minutes southwest to Tahquamenon Falls State Park to see the waterfalls there. I read beforehand that Upper Tahquamenon Waterfalls, over 200 feet wide, is one of the largest in the eastern United States. After I parked my car in the parking lot, I walked on the short trail to see the falls. It was one of the most splendid waterfalls I saw in my life.

Because of the river’s brownish hue is due to tannins from the surrounding swamps, the water looked like Coca Cola going over the waterfalls. Soda, such as Coke or Pepsi, was a treat my parents bought occasionally when I was a kid. I still love the taste a cola soda, even though I don’t drink much soda now because of all the sugar content. I loved the natural beauty of this area. At the same, the tannin in the river and seeming a bit bubblier going over the waterfalls, made me crave a Coke. I was not having a Coke though because I did not bring one. Even more, there was no concession stand, store or restaurant open in this park this time of year. Besides that, it was too cold to drink a Coke or any kind of soda that day.

With its 50-foot drop and steady partial horseshoe flow, Upper Tahquamenon Waterfalls looked like a mini–Niagara Falls. I walked on the forested paths with no leaves on the trees to see the lower and upper falls with an inch of snow blanketing the ground. It felt refreshing to be in nature that day. I still had a three-and-a-half-hour drive west to Houghton MI to meet Cherie and Dan for dinner and stay with them. However, I did not want to leave this park. As I write this 16 years later, I long to return to see these waterfalls and hike in the forests again.

In the parking lot, I spotted a red fox. I worked 25 years in the national parks, but this was one of my top wildlife experiences in my life. The red fox looked bewildered. I was basically the only car in the parking lot. It looked used to having the area to itself. I took numerous photos of it with my digital camera. It was like it was posing for me like a fashion model. Maybe it was fed by humans the way it observed and was curious about me. At the same time, it was leery and it did not want me to get close to it. I was lucky to take many photos of it with my digital camera. A middle-aged woman in the parking lot also saw the red fox and took several photos. We both marveled seeing the red fox. I shared with her that I worked 18 years in the national parks and had never seen an animal pose like this for me. She was too caught up in the moment to acknowledge when I shared my national park background with her.

Tahquamenon Falls State Park was small compared to national parks I visited, such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, North Cascades, etc. It is close to 50,000 acres stretching over 13 miles. However, seeing the large waterfalls, hiking on the trails, and photographing the red fox, ranked up there with the experiences of some of the national parks I visited. This was the only time in my life I visited this park, but I wanted to return ever since then.

From Tahquamenon Falls State Park, I had a close to a two-hour drive to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The National Park Service managed it. It is known for its towering cliffs with amazing views of Lake Superior. Heading towards seeing the lakeshore cliffs, I was impressed seeing robust waterfalls flowing in the park, such as Miner Falls, which drops over 50 feet. When I reached the Miner’s Castle overlook, I had a blue sky with no clouds to get a broad view of Lake Superior. The winds lessened much since I visited Whitefish Point that morning. Lake Superior looked like a bright blue freshwater ocean extending to the horizon to join with the light blue sky. Below and in front of me was with the white sandstone round rocks of Miner’s Rock. This shoreline rock with the expansive waters of Lake Superior behind it is the ultimate iconic photographic location for Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and the U.P. of Michigan.

This was the clearest weather I had so far on this trip to Wisconsin and Michigan. There was still a chill in the air, but it felt like spring was starting to get a toehold in the U.P. I am so glad the weather cooperated at this location. I wanted to spend more time at Pictured Rocks hiking in the woods, seeing the waterfalls, and admiring the views of Lake Superior from the vantage points on the tall cliffs. I was running out of time that day to make it to the home of my friends Cherie and Dan in Houghton.

After leaving the Miner’s Castle Overlook, I then stopped by to see Munising Falls, another 50-foot waterfall. I walked a paved 800-foot trail to see it. This waterfall is located at the very southwest corner of the park, next to the small recreational town of Munising, Michigan. From there, I still had a 3-hour drive to Houghton to connect with my friends Cherie and Dan. I reached their home as it was getting dark close to 7 pm. From her 10 years of knowing me, Cherie figured I would do a lot of sightseeing from Sault Ste. Marie to Houghton. Cell phone signals were limited that day, but I might have tried to call from Munisang or elsewhere to give Cherie my estimated time of arrival. Or, maybe I didn’t call in advance. I don’t remember.

The main point was that I made it safely to Cherie and Dan’s house that evening. They were happy to see me. After I visited Cherie and Dan at Sequoia National Park in March 2009, they found jobs working at Isle Royale National Park later in 2010. Isle Royale is in the northern part of Lake Superior. Even though the island is closer to Canada and Minnesota, it is part of Michigan. The only way to access Isle Royale is by ferries or by a sea plane during the summer season. The transportation to the island would not be running for a few weeks yet. Otherwise, Cherie and Dan might have been able to assist me to get access to the island. I would have loved to have seen Isle Royale, but on a different trip. This trip, I was focused on seeing the U.P. of Michigan for the first time and friends in Wisconsin.

Like when I visited all my fellow ranger friends working in national parks, it was fun to swap park stories and learn more about the park where they lived and the area where they resided. Cherie and Dan agreed with me that there was a lot to see in the U.P. of Michigan, even if they expressed regret that they could not show me Isle Royale. Both of were off work the next two days to explore around the Keweenaw Peninsula. Houghton lies in the middle of the Keweenaw Peninsula, which is a land area connected to the northern most part of the U.P. of Michigan. The Keweenaw Peninsula looks like a bent index finger sitting on top of the U.P. of Michigan. Thus, it is a smaller peninsula connected to a much larger peninsula.

I hoped to achieve a quality of photo of me holding my Earthball with Lake Superior behind me when we explored the Keweenaw Peninsula the next day. Stay tuned for Part 6 of this blog to find out what happened the next day.

Stay tuned for part 6 of this blog: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010.

Hearts afire creates love desire
Take you high and higher to the world you belong
Hearts afire creates love desire
High and higher to your place on the throne

We come together on this special day
Sing our message loud and clear
Looking back, we’ve touched on sorrowful days (well)
Future, past, they disappear

You will find (you fill find) peace of mind (yeah)
If you look way down in your heart and soul
Don’t hesitate ’cause the world seems cold
Stay young at heart
Ah, ’cause you’re never, never old at heart

That’s the way (that’s the way)
Of the world (of the world)
Plant your flower (gonna plant your flower)
And you grow a pearl
Child is born with a heart of gold
Way of the world (gonna plant your flower)
Makes his heart so cold

Hearts afire creates love desire
Take you high and higher to the world you belong
Hearts afire, love desire
High and higher
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Hearts afire, love desire
Ah, higher

We’ve come together on this special day
Sung our message loud and clear
Looking back, we’ve touched on sorrowful days
While future disappear

You will find (you fill find) peace of mind (eh, eh)
If you look way down in your heart and soul
Ah, don’t hesitate
‘Cause the world seems cold
Stay young at heart
‘Cause (’cause you’re never, never, never)
You’re never, never, never

That’s the way of the world
Plant your flowers and you’ll grow a pearl
Child is born (child is born)
With a heart of gold (listen now, with a heart of gold)
Way of the world (way of the world)
Makes his heart so cold (makes his heart so cold)

– “That’s the Way of the World” sung by Earth, Wind, and Fire.
The track was produced by bandleader Maurice White, who also wrote the song along with his bandmates Charles Stepney and Verdine White.

This is part 4 of my 6 part blog from 2004-2010 how the EarthBall became my symbol. I conclude these multi-part story how my April 10, 2010 photo of me with my EarthBall at Copper Harbor, Michigan with Lake Superior behind me became my favorite Earth Ball photo.

Part 1: Everglades National Park, Florida in 2004 to Crater Lake Nat. Park, Oregon in 2009
Part 2: My Pacific Northwest spring travels to living in Ashland, Oregon in Autumn 2009
Part 3: December 2009 cross country travels to spending winter in St. Louis, MO in 2010
Part 4: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010
Part 5: Exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in April 2010
Part 6: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010

Part 4: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010

Around this time, everything was aligning for me to visit Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan in April 2010. My friend Cherie Barth and her partner Dan at that time shared a house in Houghton, Michigan near the northern tip of the UP of Michigan. My friends Dean and Bernie Shumway lived in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, near the end of the Door County peninsula. Ty and Carna Manthey were in the process of moving to Baraboo, Wisconsin. They planned to be settled in my April 2010. All these friends were excited for me to come visit.

On April 5th, I would first drive from St. Louis to Sister Bay, Wisconsin to spend a couple of days with Dean and Bernie in Sister Bay, WI. I then would head to Green Bay, WI to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to see if I could get glimpses of upper Lake Michigan. From Sault St. Marie, I would go to Houghton Michigan to see what I could of Lake Superior and visit Cherie and Dan for several days. From Houghton, Michigan, my next stop would be Baraboo, Wisconsin to see Ty and Carna Manthey. From Baraboo, I would return to St. Louis on April 14th. I would be on the road for about 11 days. Somewhere along this trip, I hoped to get a photo of myself holding the EarthBall with a scenic view of nature behind me that will promote taking care of our planet.

With my trip to Hawaii in October 2008, I had traveled to all 50 states. Since then, I was interested in visiting what I called ‘the nooks and crannies of America’ that I had not seen yet, such as the U.P. of Michigan. When I was a child growing up in St. Louis, my parents took my sisters and me on a couple of trips to see Chicago Illinois. It was a huge megacity compared to St. Louis. I was equally impressed with the size of Lake Michigan. It looked like the ocean compared to the small lakes I in Missouri. After seeing Lake Michigan, I developed some intrigue about the Great Lakes. I especially wanted to see Lake Superior, the largest by far of all the Great Lakes.

I planned to start my cross-country drive from St. Louis to Crater Lake National Park, Oregon at the end of April. I would be working at Crater Lake from May until probably the beginning of October. After that, I had no idea what I would do next. The stars were aligned for me to visit the U.P. of Michigan and see Lake Superior then. I did not know when I would get another chance like this. With having my friends living in Houghton Michigan, this trip would fulfill a lifelong dream to see Lake Superior. As I started preparing for this trip in March and April 2010, I could not wait for this adventure.

Meeting Dean and Bernie Shumway and staying with them in Sister Bay, WI in 2005

By 2010, I knew Bernie and Dean Shumway for 7 years. I met them during my first winter working seasonally in Everglades City, Florida for the National Park Service (NPS). This was my first job working as an Interpretation/Naturalist Guide Ranger in the national parks. They were volunteers mostly working at the Visitor Center Desk answering questions to tourists planning their visit to Everglades National Park. Dean was an opinionated old curmudgeon who saw the world in simple black and white terms. He was a retired FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) agent who spent his career in law enforcement. He was quick to fire off his beliefs, but he still wanted the best for everyone. Bernie was the opposite of Dean. She was reserved, slow to criticize, and let Dean do most of the talking. She nearly always had a smile and wanted to share kindness with the world.

In Everglades City, there were about 8 of us rangers plus volunteers working out of the NPS Visitor Center (VC). The NPS had 3 seasonal housing units a half a mile up the road from the VC. I can’t remember if Bernie and Dean lived in their own RV (Recreational Vehicle) or in one of the seasonal housing units. Either way, I enjoyed working with them at the VC desk and when we would socialize monthly with our employee potlucks. Dean was more on the conservative side. Working at the bookstore in the VC was primarily Wendy who was a progressive feminist atheist and outspoken in her opinions. Dean and Wendy would get into shouting matches about politics, feminism, and their views on the world. The funny part was that both of their views veered sometimes towards conspiracy theories. It was tough to know who to root for in their nonsensical arguments during our social gatherings, while being entertaining at the same time.

Dean would apologize to everyone the next day that he got too spirited in his comments. Wendy would never back down from her beliefs. Throughout the season, Dean and Wendy held some grudges against each other because their strongly held views were so different. Working in the national parks develops bonds like family. We work and live in the same area and had a love for the national parks. We socialize over holidays since we are not with our own families. Long term deep friendships are built. Over the season, I felt a special bond with Dean and Bernie, along with my other co-workers.

Dean and Bernie delighted in talking about their home in Sister Bay, Wisconsin in Door County. Their home sits from a short distance from Lake Michigan with Green Bay on the other side. In the national parks, the employees like to talk about our hometowns when we are not talking about work, park management, our day off excursions in the park or in town, or what’s going on in the world. The way Bernie and Dean talked with fondness about their home in Sister Bay and Door County, I had to get out a map of Wisconsin to see where they lived. I saw that it is that skinny peninsula that sticks out from Wisconsin jutting into Lake Michigan. Sister Bay was near the northern tip of the Door Peninsula. I loved seeing Lake Michigan growing up. On the map, with Door County surrounded by water from Lake Michigan and Green Bay, they had me very curious to see their home and Door County. When I shared that that I would like to come up to see their home in Sister Bay, they enthusiastically responded, “Come visit us anytime, Brian!”

Dean and Bernie worked in Everglades City for only one season, but we stayed in touch and exchanged a few letters in from 2004 onwards. In 2005, I dated a woman Marie that lived in Chicago, Illinois that I met when we were working at Crater Lake that summer. After she left the park near the end of August to return to her teaching job, we had a long-distance relationship that felt miserable for me. The good news was that I was dating someone. The bad news is that we would get into heated arguments on the phone. We liked each other, but our relationship was not jelling well. When I left Crater Lake for the season in October, my plan was to drive across country to visit Marie in Chicago for several days. I would drive down to St. Louis for a few weeks to see family before heading to Everglades City for the winter.

On my 2005 cross-country drive from Crater Lake to Chicago, I planned to stop in Madison, Wisconsin to visit my friend Hilary that I met in 2004 at Crater Lake. Hilary and I were strictly friends. We exchanged a few letters. She invited me to go back packing with her in South America in 2005, but I planned to work at Crater Lake and the Everglades. Hilary was enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Wisconsin. I wrote to see if I could visit her in Madison and she said yes. When I arrived in Madison, I was stunned by the beauty of the city sitting between two lakes with the white dome of the state capitol building in the middle of the urban land bridge between the two lakes. I enjoyed walking around the city with Hilary and having a pleasant conversation about our families, life, and hopes for the future. We had dinner at a local Thai restaurant and watched a rented movie at her apartment. I slept on the fold out couch.

The next morning, Hilary said she felt no chemistry between us, not even on a friendship level. She did not want to stay in contact with me, and she wanted me to leave. I was flabbergasted that she did not want to be friends with me. I never had a woman do this to me before this. It stung bad. Between all the drama with Marie and Hilary deciding out of the blue that she didn’t want to be friends with me, I needed to go somewhere to clear my head. I was not due at Marie’s house for another day. However, I was in no mood to see her, at least not yet. I wanted to go somewhere, but I was not sure. I then remembered that Dean and Bernie lived several hours away in Door County. I called them up to ask if I could stay with them. They were excited and told me to “Come on up! We are looking forward to seeing you!”

This was mid-October. The fall leaves were at their glorious vibrant yellow peak. Door County was an area known for the “Leaf Peepers,” people who like to travel to scenic wooded areas in the autumn and photograph the fall foliage. I happened to be hitting Door County at a peak time for leaf peeping. I was so grateful to see this and spend time with my friends Dean and Bernie. I shared what happened with Hilary and how I was miserable in my relationship with Marie. They were like loving parents or grandparents interacting with me giving me advice and cheering me up. I then went down to Chicago to have a rocky visit with Marie. The turmoil of our relationship was too much. She broke up with me a month later. I didn’t know how to end this stressful relationship with Marie. However, my body was so relieved, I comfortably slept for long hours for days afterwards as the tension dissipated.

My relationship with Marie ended, but my friendship with Dean and Barbara endured. I saw their home in Sister Bay in October 2005. Now I was eager to see it in April 2010.

Seeing Door County in April 2010

April 6th was my first full day in Sister Bay on the upper part of the Door County Peninsula. The weather was overcast and blah with temperatures in the upper 40s. The area still seemed more in moody weather of winter with little to no signs of spring yet. Bernie and Dean took me to see local sights, such as a small rocky cliff looking out into Lake Michigan, with a rock out cropping that jutted out just a few feet above the waters edge. We then walked along a sandy beach area in Newport State Park. After that, we had lunch in a small wooden café in the Bailey’s Harbor.

Just a few miles from Baileys Harbor, Dean and Bernie eagerly took me to see Mud Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The freshwater marshes reminded them of Everglades National Park. I could see the similarity when we were there. It was too wet to hike there with all the standing water of the marsh. The wetlands looked like a shallow lake that stretched into the distance. Fortunately, a long wooden boardwalk gave us great views of the area. A Great Blue Heron stood at the water’s edge hoping to catch fish, which reminded me of the Everglades. Winter still made its presence here with some ice still on the ground in the grassy edges of the marsh.

Dean and Bernie then took me to see Cana Island Lighthouse. It looked abandoned this time of year with zero tourists, except for the three of us. The lighthouse was the north facing view from the parking lot. The south side of the parking lot had a beach with a mixture of sand, hard rock shoreline, and some hardy brown plants determined to thrive in between the sand and rocks. The overcast sky and frigid temperatures with the light wind blowing across the water seemed like winter did not want to give up its grip on Door County yet, even if it was April, according to the calendar.

The overcast frigid weather stubbornly hung around the next day as we took a car ferry to Washington Island, off the north tip of the Door County Peninsula. We took the 30-minute ferry ride in the morning to spend a full day on the island. We were all bundled up in our warmest winter clothes, especially for the ferry ride. The movement of the boat and the light wind across the water made it feel frigid, like it was a better day to just be inside by a warm fire than to do exploring outside like a tourist. When we arrived on Washington Island, it looked deserted and lonely. It was way too early in the season for any tourists or the few residents of the island to be joining us. Yet, it was peaceful to have the island nearly to ourselves.

As the ferry arrived on the island, a humble and small white lighthouse greeted us that reached barely above the forest of trees. As we drove onto the island in Dean and Bernie’s car, we had a white wooden sign “Welcome to Washington Island” in front of us to welcome just the 3 of us to the island that day. Such a lack of people that day that it felt like the beginning of a Stephen King novel to an abandoned vacation island where trouble awaits. During our visit we walked by the appropriately named Bitter End Motel. It was a simplistic looking white wooden quaint motel ready to be written about for a horror novel or film.

We first found a beach with many pebbles to walk along. We made sure to get photos of ourselves dressed bundled up in multiple layers for this brisk winter like day. It was too cold for the sun to come out. Another overcast day for my Door County visit. The wind was strong enough to push small waves along the shore at a steady pace that Lake Michigan gave a tidal noise like it was a small ocean. We ate lunch at a local pub in town. We finally saw a few other human inhabitants on this island. A few locals and a bartender content to stay inside on this chilly day. It was a beautiful island of mostly tall trees with zero spring leaves and ringed by a picturesque shoreline to view Lake Michigan.

After lunch, we climbed the steps to the top of a tower in the middle of the island. It gave us a panoramic view of the forests broken up by fields and Lake Michigan surrounding us in the distance with far horizonal views of the land of Door Peninsula to remind us that we were still connected to Wisconsin. When we when walked to a sandy beach, I took advantage of the opportunity to get my photo with my Earth Ball. It was a good photo, but not the perfect promotional photo I wanted to promote myself as the “Climate Change Comedian.”

However, it was still great to capture the joy of this day to experience this island on this blustery day. It was one of those days as a tourist that you just wanted to stay inside a warm car to see the sights. Yet, in spite of the cold temperatures, you still wanted to be outside enjoying this day in this northern natural setting.

Soon afterwards, we loaded the car onto the ferry to head back to Door County to warm up in Dean and Bernie’s cozy and comfortable two-story home in Sister Bay. It was about a 20-minute drive from when we got off the ferry in Northport to their house. From my excitement of experiencing Washington Island, I probably dozed into a comfortable nap during that car ride back. We then had a lovely dinner at Dean and Bernie’s home. They had a large room in their upstairs attic for me during their visit. I felt so at home in this space and spending time with them that I did not want to leave. At the same time, I was eager to set off the next morning to see the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Stay tuned for part 5 of this blog: Exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in April 2010.

“If I could tell the world just one thing it would be
That we’re all okay
And not to worry ’cause worry is wasteful
and useless in times like these
I won’t be made useless
I won’t be idle with despair
I will gather myself around my faith
For light does the darkness most fear.”

– from the 1998 song “Hands,” written and performed by Jewell

This is part 3 of my 6 part blog from 2004-2010 how the EarthBall became my symbol. I conclude these multi-part story how my April 10, 2010 photo of me with my EarthBall at Copper Harbor, Michigan with Lake Superior behind me became my favorite Earth Ball photo.

Part 1: Everglades National Park, Florida in 2004 to Crater Lake Nat. Park, Oregon in 2009
Part 2: My Pacific Northwest spring travels to living in Ashland, Oregon in Autumn 2009
Part 3: December 2009 cross country travels to spending winter in St. Louis, MO in 2010
Part 4: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010
Part 5: Exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in April 2010
Part 6: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010

My December 2009 cross-country adventure driving from Ashland O to St. Louis MO

On December 10, 2009, I left Barbara’s house for my cross-country traveling adventure to spend the winter in St. Louis MO. I started this journey with a variety of emotions tugging at me. I loved living in Ashland, Oregon for two months, yet I felt so lonely there living most of the time in a two bedroom house all by myself. I felt I had made a commitment to Barbara to housesit for her for the winter. Yet, I felt betrayed that she came home from her RV excursion in early November. She now wanted me to leave her house after I planned to stay there for the winter.

I came to Ashland OR at the beginning of October uncertain what to do with my life and how to follow this climate change passion. I was now departing Ashland with a firm idea of pursuing this Climate Change Comedian role. My friend Naomi advised me that receiving this new vision for myself, I got what I needed from my time in Ashland. It was time to move onto the next thing. My parents were eager for me to come home for the winter to spend time with them in their new home. I missed family living by myself in Ashland, so I was looking forward to seeing them. Even more, Naomi and I felt I would be more productive in St. Louis for the winter developing my Climate Change Comedian PowerPoint, website, and marketing for myself.

I had partaken in many cross country drives in my life, so it seemed like a bit of a drag to have to do this again, when I was not expecting it. I loved spending my summers working and living in the Pacific Northwest. It was always a bummer for me to leave Oregon in the autumn each year after my seasonal job ended at Crater Lake. On the other hand, I looked forward to seeing friends on this journey and experiencing new U.S. locations I never traveled to before. I had some new places I chose to drive to see, such as the central California Coast. This trip might offer some unexpected thrills that might happen. You never know! Let the adventure begin!

Leaving Ashland OR, the sky was blue with some fresh snow on Mt. Shasta as I drove around the mountain on Highway 97 and Interstate 5 by Weed, California. The mountain dominating the landscape with its high rising cone summit and Little Shastina volcanic butte nestled against the west side of it. With this clear view of the Mt. Shasta, it felt as if it wanted to say goodbye to me as I left the Pacific Northwest to head home to St. Louis for the winter. I had several hours ahead of me to drive to get to San Francisco. However, I stopped at a pullout to admire Mt. Shasta and take a couple of photos of the mountain. I wanted to wish it a farewell since I would miss seeing snowcapped mountains when I stayed in the Midwest for the winter.

As I left Weed CA to merge onto I-5 to head south, I noticed a large deer jumped onto the interstate hoping to somehow cross this very dangerous highway with a steady stream of cars, pick up trucks, and large 18 wheeler trucks. Even more, a concrete divider was in the middle of the freeway, which made a safe passage for the deer even more slim. Sure enough, I saw a large truck hit the deer, killing it instantly. It was one of the most gruesome scenes I witnessed in my life. The carcass spun around several times heading not far the direction I was driving. Somehow, I avoided getting into an accident or the remains damaging my car. It was a reminder to me that these cross country drives are dangerous. I must continue to be vigilant for potential dangers when I drive and I was fortunate for all the times I drove across the U.S. safely.

I stopped in San Francisco to stay with my friend Dana Ostfeld. She was another female friend that I had a crush on for years, but we always kept our friendship on a platonic level. I first met her when we worked as rangers at Crater Lake National Park in 2002. Dana and I, plus two of her friends went to an evening holiday celebration at the California Academy of Sciences downtown San Francisco. The museum had an excellent climate change exhibit. It was another indication that I needed to pursue this path. Two years later in the summer of 2011, I applied for a job there. I told the manager interviewing me that I loved their climate change exhibit. Sadly, she told me that they were going to be getting rid of the exhibit soon. The other bad news: they decided later to hire someone else as a museum docent position that I interviewed.

The next day, on December 11th, after I said goodbye to Dana and left her home. I needed to start my road trip down the central California Coast. However, I was not ready to leave San Francisco yet. I serendipitously choose to I hike up a nearby tall hill to get an expansive view of the city skyline of San Francisco. It was a foggy overcast cool day in this city but it still had its charm standing on this high hill. The high rise buildings rose in the distance with numerous houses, apartment complexes, and businesses highly packed together under the scene of this hill. The fog barely allowed any look of the tower spires of the Golden Gate and the Oakland Bay Bridges behind the tall downtown buildings.

In the late morning, I departed the San Francisco metro area. I drove on Highway 1 south stopping in Monterey, California to walk on a beach. I then continued driving further south about 15 miles south of the last developed city on this route Carmel-by-the-Sea. I pulled over to see and photograph the iconic Bixby Creek Bridge. I saw it in numerous photographs over the years that I yearned to see it in person. The bridge hugs close to the mountain it is on while straddling high above the beach and ocean with its underside white arching concrete supports. I stopped and parked my car to admire the bridge and snap lots of photos. Several young men were jumping off the bridge with parachutes. One asked, half joking and half serious if I wanted to jump off the bridge with a parachute. I have a fear of heights, so the answer was an easy, “No!”

Besides, I could see me donning a parachute and jumping only to land aways out in the Pacific Ocean. Thus, jumping off the bridge was not happening for me.

I then drove down spectacular scenic Highway 1 with tall coastal mountains on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other side. There were no towns the 70 mile drive from Big Sur to San Simeon. The road was basically on a high cliff, with a dramatic drop off to the Pacific Ocean just to the right of me as I drove south. Even with the guard rails next to the highway, it was an intense driving experience. I loved the sweeping ocean views, but I was glad I made it safely to San Simeon, California to spend the night.

The next day, I achieved another life goal seeing Heart Castle, the former home of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. It was a gloomy, rainy, foggy, blah December day. As impressive as the architecture was for the home, it was not conducive to take outside photos that day. It had the feel of an American attempt for a European style castle. The tour was memorable for the stories of the grandiose personality of Hearst, especially how he had a special door to slip in when he hosted dinner parties so he could be the center of attention in his own way.

The following day, I headed east across California. I saw a sign at the intersection where California State Route 41 and Highway 46 converge near Cholame, California. The sign noted the spot where movie star James Dean hit another car and died in a fatal car crash. He lived way before my time. He only made three movies, but my parents talked about him now and then when I was growing up since he was a well-known actor of their teenage years. It was a sad reminder that life is temporary and fleeting.

The next stop on my trip was Death Valley National Park to visit my friend Stephanie Kyriazis. I worked in Death Valley in the spring of 1994. I like living around trees and water, so I felt very uncomfortable living in a desert with almost no plants, trees, rivers, and lakes. I could not leave quick enough to head back to Crater Lake for the summer. It was interesting for me to visit Death Valley a couple of times since 1994 to appreciate the subtle beauty of the brown and tan desert. I especially like hiking in Golden Canyon where a couple of scenes from the original Star Wars was filmed in 1976. Stephanie took me to an isolated box canyon to hike that had some steep terraces to climb. I appreciated her hospitality on this long road trip.

After Death Valley, I spent the night in Las Vegas, Nevada. I had an interesting time walking down the Vegas strip in the evening to see the neon lights of the mammoth towering casinos. I had not written a roller coaster in years. I took advantage of the opportunity to ride the Big Apple Roller Coaster that circles around the exterior of the New York New York Casino.

My next stop was Flagstaff, Arizona to visit with my friends Steve and Melissa. Flagstaff sits at almost 7,000 feet above sea level. Steve and Melissa’s neighborhood had a couple of feet of snow piling up all around their streets, which made it hard for me to try to find a place to park. It was a little over a week before Christmas, so their area looked like a winter wonderland in the holiday spirit. Melissa gave birth to their son Heny just six weeks before I visited. They took me hiking to a desert slot canyon south of Sedona during my stay. However, it was hard for them juggling taking care of a new baby, plus Steve’s sister was there to meet Henry for the first time.

Out of the blue, Steve asked me if I wanted to hike down the Grand Canyon. Steve worked at that time as a backcountry law enforcement ranger at Grand Canyon National Park. He could easily set me up with the gear to hike to the bottom, plus make arrangements for me to stay at the ranger station at the bottom of the Grand Canyon at Phantom Ranch. I am always game for a new adventure, so I immediately said yes!

With less than a week before Christmas, I went on a two-day overnight hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It was a sublime peak life experience to walk to the floor of the canyon. The top of the canyon was sprinkled with snow, giving it a holiday winter look. I wrote an entire blog to my Grand Canyon visits. All I can say is that the canyon is so huge and all-encompassing to be there that I have longed to return to this day.

When I finished hiking in the Grand Canyon, I only had about four days to make it home to be with my family to celebrate Christmas. I got an oil change in Flagstaff before the long drive. I ran into heavy snow showers as I drove across Missouri on Christmas Eve. I made it to my parents’ home that evening. They were thrilled to see me and excited for me to see their new home. I was exhausted from the long car ride.

Spending 2009-10 winter in St. Louis to work on my Climate Change Comedian persona

After spending the holidays with my parents, it was time for me to start thinking about developing this Climate Change Comedian thing. I spent weeks putting together my own climate change PowerPoint presentation. I utilized taking photos of my nieces and nephews to put them in my PowerPoint. When my 13-year-old niece Rachel and my 9-year-old nephew Andrew came to visit my parents when they were off from school on Presidents’ Day in February 2010, I was in the middle of creating my first climate change PowerPoint. I struggled trying to think of a way to illustrate the greenhouse effect at the beginning of my talk. One of the best examples I heard putting more fossil fuel pollution in the air was like putting more blankets around the planet.

Thus, I took photos of them sitting on the couch comfortably. Then I photographed them freezing on the couch pretending the Earth had no atmosphere. Then I took subsequent photos of them where I piled on blankets in each photo and looking more unhappy to demonstrate the greenhouse effect or impacts of burning fossil fuels to create climate change. They were the perfect willing fun models to show climate change in an easy and understandable way. I snapped photos of them that I used at the end of my climate change talk for years afterwards. I envisioned ending my climate change talks on a positive and uplifting note. My nephew Andrew held my Earth Ball and my niece Bailey held a sign that read, “Thank you for saving our home.”

Near the end of my PowerPoint, I had a photo with all four of my nieces and nephews, Andrew, Bailey, Sam, and Andrew, plus me, to show that our kids future was at stake with climate change and that was my reason for giving this talk. I spent several months from January to March 2010 creating this PowerPoint by researching the science as I knew and attempting to sprinkle humor throughout this talk. I gave it the title, “Let’s Have Fun Getting Serious About Resolving Climate Change.”

During the winter months of 2010, my sisters Mary Frances and Lisa kept me busy by booking me to give brief talks about what it is like to be a park ranger at my nieces and nephews’ schools. My very first talk outside of the national parks was at my nephew Sam’s second grade class on February 5, 2010. To try to make it more relatable to the students, I had a couple of images of Sam in the PowerPoint. Afterwards, Sam came up to me to meekly and half heartily say that I embarrassed him a bit. At the same time, he seemed to take it in stride and soon forgot about it. The highlight of the program was that I made 20-foot fountains with 2-liter cokes and 7 Mentos in the backyard of the school to show how volcanoes, such as Crater Lake erupts.

One month later, I gave a similar program but upped the complexity a bit speaking to my niece Rachel’s 7th grade class. I had a few images of her in my presentation like what I had for the talk I gave at Sam’s school. Toward’s the end of the talk, Rachel raised her hand to ask, “Can you please share that you are my uncle because no one here knows how you know me?”

I thought everyone knew that and possibly recalled the teacher introducing me as Rachel’s uncle at the beginning of my talk. However, Rachel’s friends kept asking her who I was during the talk. Like Sam’s talk, the highlight for the students, teachers, and me was the combustible fountains of 2-liter cokes and Mentos in the school’s backyard. Climate change is a complicated subject to engage with kids before middle school and high school. However, giving a presentation at my nephew Sam’s second grade class and Boy Scout troop, speaking to my niece Bailey’s Girl Scout Troop, and speaking at my niece Rachel’s 7th grade class, I was able to share about the importance of protecting nature.

In the spring, my first climate change PowerPoint was ready to give to someone or anyone. I first shared it with a family friend who knew me my whole life, John Dantico. He did not think it was that funny. He was still quite skeptical if the science of climate change was real. At the same time, he gave me a lot of tips to help me improve my talk.

In March 2010, I knew I needed promotional images of me with my Earthball to promote my talk. When I attended Oakville High School in south St. Louis County in the 1980s, my best friend was Scott Manthey. I admired his parents Ty and Carna Manthey. Scott and his father Ty were excellent photographers. Ty and Carna lived in Oakville Missouri in March 2010, but not much longer. They were in the process of moving to Baraboo Wisconsin, the town where they both grew up. When I contacted them in early March 2010, I offered to help them pack up some of their belongings. At the same time, I asked Ty if he could take some outside publicity photos outside in nearby Bee Tree Park of me holding the Earth Ball. Ty was happy to oblige taking promotional photos of me in return for my assistance helping them pack.

Ty did a terrific job of getting serious and goofy photos of me holding the Earth Ball for future publicity photos for a website, promotional ads, etc. However, I knew these photos were not enough. I wanted a dramatic photo of me holding the Earth Ball with a spectacular scene of nature behind me in the photo. I was not sure where I wanted this photo yet.

Stay tuned for part 4 of this blog: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010