One Shoe Diaries

5 years goes by in blur.

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:17:15 +0000

Myself putting on a brave face just moments before handing over the keys to the Ark to the woman in the background.

I almost don’t even know where to start with this post. It has been a whopping five years since I did a One Shoe Diaries blog post. I guess I’ll start by saying that I am still photographing Lost Soles. I think it might be a lifetime thing at this point. Even though so many people think of me when they see a shoe out there on the road, since I have not been actively promoting the OSD project like I used to, several friends that I have acquired in the last few years barely know I photograph Lost Soles. To me that seems odd. My identity has been so closely tied to this project, it feels like just a part of who I am.

I have found that I no longer dedicate the Lost Soles to people. Honestly, it started to depress me. We have lost so many people in our lives over the past five years; grief weighs on us daily. I’ve lost my mom. Sharon has lost her sister, her Pops, and her mother. We lost Jack and Jinny. We lost our good friend Ian. Our friends have lost several parents. It’s just been too much.

However, not everything has been a tragedy. We have gotten to travel to Europe on a cruise with friends and traveled to many other great places, visiting with friends and family.

I can’t lie though — the ups and downs of raising a teenager have taken their toll on us. We tend to just survive and not push any boundaries lately.

A recent event that has been really weighing on me is that we sold Nora’s Ark. Getting it ready to sell, then handing over the keys to someone else and watching it drive away, was gut-wrenching. It was time though. Things were breaking down on it, and I just didn’t have the resources, both financially and time-wise, to keep it going. Nora had also outgrown her bed in there. I was also having an ongoing struggle with the City of Pensacola over parking, with it being “stored” on the street. Although I did get a sit-down with the mayor in his office and we reached an agreement. I would no longer make him the ire of the Pensacola social media and news outlets, and he would leave The Ark alone.

I still cannot believe it is gone. I see its empty spot on the street and my heart aches. I have so many great memories tied to The Ark. The final day before it was being picked up, it looked so good inside from my cleaning and panic restorations. I sat one last time at the Ark’s table for my 2 o’clock coffee and fought not to break down, but when Nora came out and sat with me, with tears in her eyes, we both hugged and broke down. That amazing van meant so much to all of us.

Then a few days later, my One Shoe Diaries web server had a fatal error, and I lost my entire site, including all my blogs. Everything from Hurricane Ivan to present day. All my Arkventures were wiped out. Fortunately, through piecing together backups over the years and some help from the Wayback Machine, I got all my entries back. It was then that I realized I had not done a blog post since 2020. And I needed to get an update posted.

I don’t know if I will start posting regularly again or not. Perhaps. I just don’t feel that inspired by life lately. Who knows, maybe I wasn’t blogging because I wasn’t inspired, or I wasn’t inspired because I stopped blogging 🙂

Day trip to the Little Grand Canyon in the Southwest . . . of Georgia

admin — Thu, 07 May 2020 15:52:23 +0000

Once the stay-at-home order was lifted in Florida and Georgia, I weighed the potential risks of venturing outside my front door and becoming instantly infected by the Covid-19 virus and decided, that if I bathed in sanitizer, wore a mask, large sunglasses and stayed at least 20 feet from any human it was worth the drive away from the safety of our house.

Okay, that was all made up except for the part about the orders being lifted in Georgia. Those being lifted allowed campgrounds and state parks to be opened up giving us the freedom to satisfy our growing wanderlust. And it just so happened that Sharon had shared with me a post she saw on Facebook about the very little-known, but awesome, Providence Canyon in Georgia that was less than a 4 hour drive from us. It is one of the “Seven Wonders of Georgia.” That was all the inspiration weeeded. Within a few days after seeing that post we had the Ark packed and ready to head out.

We drove to the campground in Eufaula, Alabama arriving around sunset. The pondext to the campground was surrounded by a fence around it because there were several large resident alligators. When we drove by one of them was lounging out the shore of the pond. On the drive we drove along the inlets of Lake Eufaula, which I hadever heard of, but is a very large lake and a popular destination with boaters and outdoor enthusiasts. Worth coming back to the area just for it.

We heard that the Providence Canyon State Park fills up quickly and officials close the gates to entry when it does. Additionally we learned that they had closed the gate at 10:00 am that morning. We planned on getting there when it opened at 8:00 so we would haveo issues. But there was a tiny issue that I didn’t realize, while the Park was only 30 minutes away, it was in Georgia, which meant a different time zone. That put us an hour later than we wanted when we got there. It wasow 9:30, but fortunately for us, the park wasot full yet.

Seems we picked a perfect day to visit the canyon. The morning was still somewhat cool and the skies were bright blue from low humidity. We found a shaded spot for the Ark and geared up for the hike. The view from the trail around the canyon rim was incredible. The red and orange colors of the canyon juxtaposed against the vibrant green trees with a backdrop of blue skies made for gorgeous scenery, almost surreal, especially since we were in Southwest Georgia andot in Arizona. And what was even more amazing is how this was all formed by erosion due to irresponsible farming practices.

After a pretty long downhill trail we came to the entrance to the canyon. There were 7 different canyon trails, each leading to a dead end usually consisting of a canyon wall to climb up for a view, or several. It was this several walls that made my legs sore for a few days. According to my Apple health I climbed 379 floors that day! They probably would have been more sore had 2 of the canyon trailsot been closed due to collapsing ridge lines.

While there were people out on the trails exploring the canyon, we were able to have space to enjoy the outdoors. Nora became obsessed with picking up chunks of clay along the trails until she had enough to mold a cup from them. I will say, there was so really cool clay to be found, and some was even purple.

We hiked and climbed for about 2 hours until we got hungry for lunch. In order to find a quiet spot to have lunch headed out on the longer back country trail for a bit where it didn’t seem many wanted to take on. Before this trail we hit a few wet areas, after all, this is a trail set along the floor of a canyon formed by water runoff.Butone of those areas were threat to get Nora’s feet wet since she was the one that didn’t have waterproof hiking shoes on. This back country trail was literally a shallow creek for the first mile or so. Sandy andot muddy, so as long as water didn’t get over the top of our shoes our feet stayed dry. I carried Nora a lot of the trail until we found the perfect spot for lunch.

We picked, for a lack of a better term, high ground. This meant it was a sand bar a few inches higher than the creek so it was dry. Perched up on found logs we pulled out our MREs. If you haveever had the fun of having Meals Ready to Eat while hiking you reallyeed to. We hadot eaten MREs since Hurricane Ivan when the Red Cross was passing them out to the many homeless residents trying to salvage what little remained of their belongings in their ravaged homes.

I find the best part of MREs is that they come with heater packs that cook your food with just a little water added to them. Sharon had spaghetti with meatballs, Nora had vegetarian taco pasta and I had chosen the chili with beans. They also come with treats such as Skittles or M&Ms. Nora got orange drink mix and Sharon got fruit punch. I was blessed with cappuccino, of course!

We hiked back up the trail to the rim, got into the Ark and headed home. After aice drive, we were home by 5:00pm. It was a very short trip, but went a long way to recharge our batteries. Ourext Arkventure will most likely be to the Alabama Gold Camp to pan the streams for gold. Take a look through our gallery of images from this trip, and hopefully it will inspire you to get out and enjoy this planet again!

Adventure during the Pandemic: Lost Soles on the Rail

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 20:52:09 +0000

So being stuck in one place is something I don’t deal well with. I crave adventure. And I have always been resourceful on finding adventure in placeso one else would. Usually finances is my main limiter in adventure but this time it is a global pandemic. The Chinese Coronavirus has the U.S. in lockdown. Some affectionately call it the Kung Flu. Fortunately our local govt. has had the wisdomot to try and force us to stay in our homes. We are free to roam for exercise purposes. So I looked around on Google maps and found something I wanted to do.

For a whileow I have thought about this mini-adventure. It is a 4-mile hike starting at the Scenic Bluffs park to my house in downtown Pensacola. It involves walking the railroad tracks that traverse along the Pensacola Bay coastline witho crossings for most of the walk. The Scenic Bluffs park was at one time a hidden gem, but since this pandemic hit and the Florida’s governor forced all state parks to close, it is causing people to find other places to get outside. And the word isow out on this park. It has about a mile or so of boardwalks and stairs, along with a mile or so of trails that wind past large red clay bluffs. The real attraction is thearrow stretch of beach along the Pensacola Bay since all the other Gulf and Bay beaches are temporarily closed.

The tracks are bordered by high bluffs covered with thick vegetation to one side and the expanse of the Pensacola Bay to the other, you feel somewhere remote from civilization when walking here. There areo crossings for the first 3 miles and is very peaceful. The walk in total took about 90 minutes. I listened to my Adventure Podcast which lasted the entire 90 minutes. the end,othing exciting happened. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable walk but I got to coverew ground, which made it feel like I was somewhere other than just a few miles from home.

As a bonus I found and photographed several Lost Soles, and let me tell you, they were very weathered old Soles.

During the trip I had wished I had started furtherorth on the tracks at the base of the I-10 bridge where the train also comes across the bay on a bridge. This would allow me to traverse the entire Scenic Highway section of the railroad tracks. This would be another 4 miles.

This time I parked my car at the Bluffs Park and had Sharon shuttle to me to the start of this leg of my route. Again,othing eventful happened to write about. Other than walking passed a few back yards of homes, it was fairly the same scenery as the first leg I completed. However the tracks did veer away from the shoreline for a bit carving through a thick forest of trees for a mile or so.

I did a side stop at Chimney Park, the only remnant of an old sawmill that was destroyed by a retreating Confederate army in 1862. Once back to walking I got to my destination of Bay Bluffs Park. Instead of following the tracks to the boardwalk and stairs that lead to the parking lot I opted to take a trail that winds up and over the sandstone bluffs. This area is tough as the steep hills areothing but soft sand, but the reward is worth it as the red and orange sandstone formations remind me of somewhere in Arizona. Definitely unlike anything I have seen anywhere else in Florida.

Like I had said from the outset, this adventure wasothing too exciting, just wanted to explore somethingew. To feel like I wasot trapped. I cannot recommend this hike to others as I found out that I was in fact trespassing on CSX property. Butot sure who would even say anything. Just wanted to point it out for anyone wanting to follow in my footsteps.

Euro-style traveling through Florida

admin — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 18:49:34 +0000

Lost Sole found at the Sunrail train station in Orlando.

I returned recently from my first trip to Europe and found myself enamored with the easy to use public transportation over there. I managed to go travel from Paris to Munich to the Alps, back to Munich, then to Rome and then to Naples all utilizing the train and bus systems they have in place. We even tookight trains with sleeper compartments on two legs of the journey foregoing the expense of hotel rooms. And it was quite inexpensive. For instance, the tickets on a train with a private sleeper compartment from Munich to Rome were purchased for $129.00. That rate was for my daughter, my wife and I combined.

Recently my wife and daughter were traveling to see family, and I had to stay home for work and planned to meet up with them mid-way through their stay in Tampa, FL. And if you follow my travels you know I don’t like to do thingsormally. I like to make things an adventure. And this opportunity was perfect to try and travel like I did in Europe via public transportation. I researched to see if this could even be done as most people here in the U.S. doot think of public transportation. We either drive our own cars, rent a car or hire an Uber. We rarely think in terms of buses and trains. After looking I found some great options. So I made a plan and implemented it.

I left my home around 7:00 am with just a backpack for luggage and walked to downtown Pensacola and grabbed the public express bus to the airport. I did feel a little like Forest Gump sitting at the bus stop waiting. Several different people sat downext to me and started up conversations and then, oddly got and left. None of them were passengers like I was. Just passerbys. The bus showed up just a minute or so late and I was the only one on it. Since it was the express bus witho stops, I got dropped off right in front of my gate within 15 minutes.

My flight was taking me to Orlando because it was a lot cheaper to fly there instead of Tampa. I wasot in a huge hurry so I decided to visit a friend for theight who lives just outside Orlando. Plus this made for more opportunities for transit adventures. Once I landed at Orlando I grabbed a city bus to a Sunrail train station where I hopped on the fairlyew Sunrail train system.

The Sunrail trains reminded me a lot of the European trains. It was very clean and modern looking. The ticketing was very efficient. I was impressed. I rode it to downtown Orlando. The time was just after 1:00pm and I was starving. Orlando has public bikes, both standard and electric. I grabbed a standard pedal bike and ventured to find the brew pub, Orange County Brewery, I found good reviews for online. After a beer and a delicious gourmet personal pizza I went for a walk around Lake Eola Park. I honestly hado idea downtown Orlando was soice! Whenever you hear Orlando, you think theme parks,o one ever talks about the great downtown area they have. Time to get a bus to my friends house.

The bus got me to within a short walk of his house where I got a greatight sleep. The following morning Ieeded to pick up the Sunrail back to downtown, but instead of opting for a bus ride to the station I “bummed” a ride with him because he was headed past the Winter Park station on his way to dropping off his daughter at her school. I reasoned that by hitching a ride with him, I could keep my vagabond adventure still on track.

Winter Park was another pleasant surprise. The small upscale community was reallyice and quaint, veryew and very clean. I ate breakfast at a sidewalk cafe before boarding. The Sunrail took me right to the Amtrak station so I could get my train to Tampa. After the train arriving right on time and me hopping aboard we were off for the 2 hour ride to Tampa. My seat was large, and I had plenty of space. There were charging ports and free Wifi aboard. Everything a travelereeds. Before I knew it I was pulling into Tampa station and reunited with Sharon and Nora. The agenda for today was the Tampa Aquarium.

Originally I was going to hop on a bus once I arrived at Tampa and go to Clearwater Beach to pick up a free trolley to travel the final miles to the actual condo where Sharon was staying, However they wanted to go to the Aquarium and the Amtrak station was just around the corner from it.

Overall my public transportation experience in Florida was exceptional. Everything I rode on was on time, clean and comfortable. The ease of getting tickets was great. I highly recommend it.

This Soul turned 50

admin — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 19:20:21 +0000

So there I sat. On the 50th anniversary of being born into this world, in the center seat on a full flight to Denver from Pensacola. Cramped is an understatement. In my attempt to do this expedition on a very tight budget, I packed everything Ieeded into a small, yet perfectly sized, piece of luggage known to airlines as a personal item. Since the bag was so small I sat there wearing a long sleeve undershirt, a heavy zip-up alpine wool sweater, a large down jacket, and an insulated outer shell. A mountaineering hobo is the best description that comes to mind. My toes wereumb from my large hiking boots and three pairs of socks. Playing on my phone was a podcast which featured John Krakauer talking about a failed attempt to climb theorth face of the Eiger in Switzerland. It put me in the mindset of the quest I was about to undertake.

However before I climbed my objective, The Fly and The Spider Peaks, I was going to spend the day skiing the freshly snowy slopes of Vail. I had been obsessing over Vail since I booked the trip. Looking over maps, weather reports and webcams every day for the last month. Eager with anticipation of every additional lift and run that became open.

Originally this whole trip was going to be a totally solo event. But my longtime friend, Mark joined me out there to ski. And since he had many hotel points earned from his travel for work, he afforded us a first rate place to stay in Vail Instead of the sleep pod at a hostel where I initially planned to stay. I had also planned on taking public transportation from the airport to the greyhound station to grab a bus to Vail. He wasow going to pick me up right outside my terminal in a luxury AWD Audi SUV. Which was good because snow was piling up in the Rockies.

I made it to Denver without incident where Mark was waiting for me. Theext stop before heading to Vail was my friend Catfish’s place to get all the gear I had shipped to him; snowshoes, trekking poles, boot spikes, snow gaiters, mittens, camp fuel and a wool alpine hat. Unfortunately the hat didot arrive in time. It was just a quick stop and off we headed up I-70 into the Rocky Mountains with old school music playing to bring back old times. Mark and I had made several drives through the Rockies back in college with this same music. The snow was really coming down as we got deep into the mountains, and it was accumulating up on the roads quickly despite theumerous snow plows working to clear the highway. It was setting up to be an epic powder day of skiing in the morning.

I was filled with so much excitement that I could barely sleep. I got up very early and started getting my all my gear together. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we grabbed our skis and headed to the slopes. The snowever stopped throughout the day. The surface conditions were excellent, although visibility became pretty bad at times. Havingot skied in almost 20 years I took a few tumbles butothing bad.

We skied until the lifts stopped running. And according to Mark’s phone tracker we covered about 26+ miles of runs over the 8 hours we were on the mountain. My right leg was so tired I could barely stay upright on the last run. We finally came to a stop at the base,arrowly avoiding complete leg failure from overuse. I don’t know if the Jim Beam we were takingips of on the lifts contributed to theear-leg-failure, or helped me push through the pain.

We sat in the hotel room like zombies trying to muster the energy to go out and have dinner. Vail village is designed to mimic the look and feel of a small village in the Alps. The atmosphere transported me back to the German Alps, which I fell in love with when I visited it them just a year ago this same time. We chose the Almresi restaurant. The menu was German and Austrian inspired, lots of pork and potatoes. Delicious!! Theext day I still intended on making a trek to summit the peaks so we made it an earlyight. Plus our bodies were exhausted!

It was 5:00 am when I woke up to once again pack gear for a big day ahead. My half-a-century-old legs were feeling every bit of their age. Skiing the day before really took a toll on me and I was very worried aboutot being about to do the strenuous hike up the steep valley trail to the the summit. It was a beautiful day,o snow, and few clouds. Mark dropped me off at my trailhead around 7:00 am before his drive back to Denver. This was to be a solo expedition.

For the past 5 years or so I have been obsessed with watching documentaries and movies of mountaineering exploits. Everest, Denali, the Eiger, K2, Manasulu, Anna Purna, youame it. If there is a something involving mountaineering that is worth watching I have probably seen it. A personal goal I have been keeping secret was to climb a snowy mountain peak on my 50th birthday. Iever really pushed for it because financially and logistically it seemed like a pipe dream. However, given this chance to go to Colorado, I decided to try to find an attainable peak to attempt to fulfill that dream. I scoured and researched the internet relentlessly. I found the double peak mountain, The Fly and The Spider. Both summits just over 12,000ft high, located in the rugged Gore Mountain Range. The route to the peaks was up the Booth Creek Trail, which I could barely find any info on for winter hiking except one article did say, doot attempt after October. Which made it sound more challenging, therefore, more appealing to me.

The hike started easily enough. After hiding a bag with all the things I brought to Colorado but didn’teed for the hike under a fallen tree I began the ascent. The trail had just a slight layer of packed snow. I opted for microspikes to increase my traction. They worked like a charm. I quickly got very warm from the exertion so I shed off my down layer and hid it too under a fallen tree to get when I came back down the trail. The snow continued to get progressively deeper. The spruce trees with thick buildups of snow on their branches made me feel as if I had been miniaturized andow walking through the landscape of my christmas train village.

I made a few errors in my preparations and the first one I wouldotice is that I failed to account for the freezing temps that would transform the water in my hydration hose leading from my backpack into a solid ice so I couldot drink from it. Fortunately I had an unlimited supply of freshly fallen snow all around me to “eat”. As I walked I either scooped up snow in my hands or ate it off the branches.

The snow was up to my waistow as I trudged along, lifting my feet higher and higher to take steps over the fluffy white powder. It was time to strap on the snowshoes. I hadever snowshoed before, and I was just hoping I could figure out how to put them on. Luckily it was quite easy. Let the tromping begin.

It was slow going, but I was making steady advancements. I got to Booth Falls which were frozen and snow covered so unfortunatelyot much to look at. I continued on. The blue sky was so saturated with color in contrast to the white of the snow, that it didnt look real. The air was so clear everything looked high definition. It was a simply gorgeous, postcard-esque, winter wonderland.

With the revelation I couldot cover the distance to The Fly and The Spider, I could see aice peak just about a mile or so up on my right that I made myew goal. I figured it would afford a fabulous view of the bigger peaks in the Gore Range and the valley I hiked below and be a suitable destination although I hado marked route to get there. And speaking of marked routes. I wasow the only hiker to have come this route since the big snowfalls had descended on the valley. In front of me there waso discernable trail, only thick fresh fallen snow between large stands of spruce trees, magical, but didot make for finding my way very easy. I was continually stopping to pull out my phone, take off my gloves and check my position. It made for very slow progress.

Unfortunately the snow eventually got so deep and so soft it became hard to make headway, even with snowshoes. They sunk about 2 feet on every step making them hard to take strides in. The worst part was that my poles would just sink into the snow and wereot long enough to find solid ground to help balance myself. I estimated they would haveeeded to be about 10 feet long to serve any purpose when standing on 6 feet of snow like I was. If I fell over at this point I would be swallowed by the snow drifts around me. And that would be bad.

When I set out on this trek I told myself I wouldot push too far as Ieeded to be off the mountain by sundown which was around 4:00 pm. It wasow 12:00 pm, and I was only about 2 miles into the 10-12 mile hike I had planned. I felt a bit dejected. I knew I wouldever make it to Booth Lake let alone the summits of The Spider and The Fly. And reaching the un-named peak I had been eyeing wasot going to happen either. I gave it my best try yet I still felt disappointed. I could goo further. A sense of failure was presento matter how hard I tried to force it away.

To salvage the day and raise my spirits, I cleared off a boulder and broke out my camp stove to cook myself a hot meal amongst the snow covered forest. But, here is where I met another preparation error. I failed to check my matches. They were so old they wouldot strike. They wouldot even yield a spark! I was feeling angry and more dejected about my failure to properly prepare for this outing. “Rookie mistakes!” I thought to myself.

At first, I couldot think of anything I could do to get the flame going. Even the flint stick had fallen off the bottom of my match case that is my backup. Then it hit me, perhaps I can get one of my AA batteries to create a spark. I couldot carry my Leatherman’s tool on the plane so in order to use my charger cord stuffed in my bag as a wire donor, I would have to chew it apart. I managed to get two lengths of wire out of it. I taped each to an end on the battery with duct tape (at least I remembered my duct tape). I cranked on the stoves’s gas and tried to ignite it however the spark was too weak. I then taped all four batteries I had together. I cranked up the gas and tapped the two wires together. I got a great spark and then got a satisfying, WHOOSH, as a flame roared to life. I felt so vindicated as I like to pride myself on my resourcefulness.

It was the best bowl of beef stew I ever had (except of course my wife’s homemade beef stew.) I felt a renewed energy. Once again Ioticed how gorgeous the day was, and the incredible views I had in every direction. A sense of achievement overcame meow. I mayot have made it to the top of a mountain, but at least I waso longer in my office chair just dreaming about trying. I was living it! I began to remember my mantra, it’sot always about the destination, but the journey.

Because I turned around earlier than I had planned, it afforded me plenty of time to slowly descend and absorb the wonderful world that surrounded me. I took plenty of pics and played in the snow. At one point I became mesmerized while walking along a ridge watching the snow balls being created in my wake roll down the side of the hill. Growing from the size of a pea to a baseball-sized snowball as they tumbled ever further down before abruptly stopping from being too heavy and sinking into the powdery snow. They left small trails as they went. Sort of like terminal velocity I thought. They start small and go faster, eventually becoming bigger with each rotation but then slowing because they get bigger. Eventually they become too big to continue and stop in their tracks to eventually melt. Even their trails showing their paths disappear. All becomes one again.

I got lower on the slope and took off my snowshoes. By retracing my steps I found both my jacket and my bag. I came out of the trailhead and back into the real world where there was a bus stop to get a ride back into Vail Village. I was early to catch my shuttle back to Denver airport so I explored a bit. It was around 3:00 pm. There was a coffee shop at the base of the mountain by the Gondola where I grabbed my daily “two o’clock” machiatto and watched the skiers and boarders come down their last runs of the day. The sky still a vibrant blue, and with the sun shining, it felt perfect to sit outside and enjoy the rest of my vacation. I sat there until the sun started to go down and so began the golden hour. The snow covered rugged mountains took on their full majesty at that point, bathed in the warm sunlight from the extinguishing daylight.

During this reflective moment at the base of a mountain, alone and drinking my coffee, I have to fight the urge think back on my life. It would cause me to get depressed about the fact that my time on earth is, most likely, over halfway complete. This is a thought I fight to thoroughly suppress. I just willot allow myself to go there. Because that thinking can lead to being mentally paralyzed, causing me to live my life in the past and the future, andot in the moment.

The sun went behind the mountains and darkness fell quickly so I made my way to the transportation center. My shuttle showed up on time and took me back down to Denver where I planned to sleep theight in the terminal until my 6 am flight was ready to board. Before I went through security and called it aight, I took a train into town to have dinner with my friend Jeff and get my alpine hat from him. I had forgot to bring a hat other than my ski cap and my hair was a mess under it! Not that wearing a Bavarian alpine hat complete with a feather outside of an alpine setting looks much better.

When I got to airport security, I had forgot to get rid of my camp fuel. So I was stopped, given a stern scolding, and then set free on my way. They also confiscated my hiking sticks 🙁 Once inside the terminal I began searching for my “accommodations”. I got lucky and found a row of chairs witho arm rests which afforded me the luxury of lying straight out. Not that I could really sleep through the constant announcements, the crying children and all sorts of other airportsoises, but I believe I slept about 4 hours total. The flight home was uneventful thankfully. You always want your flights to be uneventful right? Sharon met me at the airport to pick me up. I was excited to see her and tell her all about my journey. It wasoon so we were able to pick back up on our daily lunch outings.

I went with her to pick up Nora from school, and it warmed my heart the way she ran into my arms with a big smile. She was so happy to see me. Before I left she had almost cried because she was so worried I would get hurt skiing or snowshoeing.

One of my greatest satisfactions and a proud papa moment was when I was telling Nora about my adventures and I got to the part about my matchesot working she stopped me and asked, “was it a sunny day?”

I stopped and looked at her quizzically and replied, “yes, it was beautiful blue skies that day.”

“Did you take your rescue whistle?” she inquired.

“Yes” I answered. Iow knew where this was going as we had played with all the gadgets on the whistle a few months earlier.

She excitedly said, “Well you could have used the magnifying glass on a dry leaf or piece of paper to start a fire to light the stove.”

I didn’t want to deflate her by telling her I tried that but it didot work because the sun wasot strong enough, so I just told her, “you’re so right Nora, that is a great idea!”

We both beamed proudly.

But the icing on the cake was when I told her I was unable to make it to the top of the mountain. She placed her hand on my shoulder and looked me right in the eye and said, “thats okay Dad, someday we will do it together, I want to climb it with you.”

Now Nora isot a perfect child, but in that moment, she was the most perfect daughter I could ever hope for 🙂

I can see how turning 50 can be a tough thing mentally, but I amot letting it get to me. I KNOW I am that snowball that has hit it’s terminal velocity so to speak. I just hope the slowdown can be extended for as long as it can be before I stop rolling. The hardest thing to do, but the best thing I can do in life, is make sure I live life in the moment.

My long lost grandfather might be my muse?

admin — Thu, 02 May 2019 12:15:47 +0000

muse (noun) \ ˈmyüz \

1 : a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.

So throughout the years I always thought maybe there was something directing me to find Lost Soles, some sort of a mischievous guardian angel. I felt it was a relative that was lost and Iever knew. Not only did this entity just show up and bestow me with lost shoes, but had been a poltergeist hiding stuff and playing jokes on me my entire life.

For instance, one event really stands out from my past where I was locked out of my van. I had just gotten out of my van and always left the keys in it and NEVER locked it, plus it didn’t have power locks, so I would have had to go around the whole van and lock the doors individually. But sure enough when I got back to the van, it was locked! I then called my girlfriend at the time to have her bring me my spare set that was on the dresser. I had just seen them earlier. She too had see them but when she went to get them they wereot there. Eventually I was able to use a coat hanger and break into the van. When I got home, the spare set was sitting right where I thought it was. She was adamant that they wereot there when she looked, but there they were when I went into the room. I wonder if I was justot meant to get into my van at that point and drive, like something was protecting me?

Other things, like my wallet showing up in the oddest hiding places made me wonder if someone was playing tricks on me. For a long time I thought it was my grandmother Hazel, born in 1906, whom Iever met, and maybe this was her way to “bond” with me. I felt maybe she liked to play jokes on people like me, maybe that is where I got it from despite her reputation for being a very tough and fiesty person.

And when I got the inspiration to photograph shoes, it seemed something was helping me locate them, even guiding me to certain specific and meaningful shoes.

It was just recent that I thought I had a pretty good sign it was Hazel. Our beloved dog, Jinny, had just passed away. And one day I found a random flash drive in my pocket. I didn’t think much of it, until a few days later I looked on it to see what was on there. It was full of photos of our dog Jinny! I thought it was so bizarre. Thatight when going to a photo session I came across a lost sole at location I was to shoot. And the little girl I was photographing wasamed Hazel Jane. Jane being theame of Hazel’s daughter, my dad’s sister.

SO I just assumed maybe it was a sign it was Hazel that had been my guardian angel, or poltergeist. Which, I had a medium a long time ago, give me an unsolicited “heads up” to.

But I am rethinking that in light of what I have learned recently.

My fatherever knew who his dad was, Hazelever told him. Recently I was obsessed with my genealogy and was determined to find out who my grandfather was. Thanks to DNA testing and online historical documents, I was able to pin it down to Oliver Chester Carlisle born in 1907, and during the year Hazel got pregnant, they lived on the same block in Augusta, Kentucky.

Chester as he was known as, died when my father was about 7. His house burned down, with him still in his bed, on Christmas Eve, 1940. This was pretty disheartening. He had a wife but hado children. No one that I could try to connect with to find out more about him other than my second cousin. And dont think herame, Ginny, being the same as my dog I lost has escaped me. Just adds to the “coincidences.”

Taken around the time my Grandfather Chester worked there, I wonder if he is in this picture somewhere. if so, it would be the only picture I have located of him.

The only info I could get about his life was off of the census reports. But it did yield something very interesting. It showed that he worked at a shoe factory, the L.V. Marks and Sons Company Shoe Factory in Augusta, Kentucky. Of all things, he worked with shoes! A fact that really struck a cord with me. Could he have been the force behind my inspiration for the One Shoe Diaries, was he my muse? Perhaps the Hazel references was his way to try and show his connection to me since I hado idea who he was. I know it all seems like something from a spiritual medium’s infomercial. But how do we know there isn’t another side. Or do our minds just take random coincidences and turn them into aarrative that makes us fell better about death? At the very least it is one of those things that make you go hmmm.

Aren’t people who die tragically most often the people that are spirits that stay in this realm? Apparently it does run in my family. My 14th great-grandfather, Lady Janet Douglas was burned at the stake for the crime of witchcraft outside of Glamis Castle in Scotland, and has supposedly haunted the castle for centuries,ow referred to as the Grey Lady. So maybe Chester’s death caused him to be stuck here as well, and chooses to beear family, perhaps Imot the only one he “haunts.”

I must admit, I like the thought of it all. A poltergeist who was my grandfather, who feels more like having a playful guardian angel, just like the way I would be in the afterlife. Only one way to even possibly know the answer, but that will be a while hopefully, as Nora has me predicted to live until I am 112!

The factory as it sitsow. Almost ghostlike.

A Lost Sole in ruins among the ruins

admin — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 23:22:17 +0000

Theext country we visited after Germany was Italy. We took aight train from Munich to Rome which was a great adventure in itself. I had always dreamed about the romanticotion of traveling by train overnight through distant lands, so this was a literal dream come true for me. The only part I wish I could have changed was that we started when their was still daylight so I could see the towering Alps that were certainly surrounding us as we sped through Austria.

I thought I had booked a private compartment for us but the train company put a man in with us since there were 4 beds. We wereot happy, it was such close quarters we just wanted to be able to relax and we just couldn’t feel comfortable. I spoke with an attendant for a bit and 30 Euros later we were moving to a private compartment. Itsot that the guy that was stuck with us wasn’t interesting and likable, we just wanted privacy. The man was a biologist that was studying the effects of climate change on birds in Siberia and Patagonia. We heard some unsettling stories about the thawing of Siberian permafrost, and the releasing of mass amounts of methane gas.

After moving all of our luggage and stuff to theew cabin, we set in for the journey. We slept fairly well. There wereumerous stops and such. Some of the glamour of train travel while sleeping was unfortunately tarnished a bit for me. The tunnels were incredible, and hitting them at 200 MPH changed the air pressure in the train, so you could always tell when we hit one. However it was reallyeat to sit and sip coffee while we sped through the early morning Tuscany Landscape destined for the great city of Rome. And looking back, I really did enjoy that train journey and would love to be back on it tonight.

We pulled into Rome Termini around 9:30 AM and were ready for our touristic assault on the ancient city. It took us a little bit to figure out lockers and then transportation to the Vatican which was our first destination. The Vatican was somewhat crowded, it took about 30 minutes to get into St.Peter’s Cathedral, we optedot to spend the time or the money to tour the sistine chapel. Touring a city such as this in one day means making sacrifices.

We had good friends from Pensacola whoow livedearby in Naples, Italy and drove up to guide us through Rome. And thank god for them, as that place was huge and chaotic. The dad and the daughter made the trip to join us, Nora and her were best buddies when they lived in Pensacola so it was a fun reunion.

We saw the Spanish Steps, The Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, The Forum Ruins, The Coliseum, The Arch of Constantine and more. We managed to get tiramisu, gelato, paninis, and coffee. Ohhh the coffee! I fell in love with Italian Macchiatos. Luckily I found a coffee shop in Pensacola that does a great one as well.

It wasear the Forum ruins and the Coliseum that I found this Lost Sole. It was in a state of ruins itself. I was very happy with this discovery and will be my trophy show for this European trip. As you know, Iever move Lost Soles, its like desecrating a gravesite to me. So this is where it sat, complete with the backdrop of the Roman Coliseum.

This is pretty much where our day in Rome ended. We had a short distance to drive to get to Naples and the Amalfi Coast. I did find some Lost Soles there as well so stay tuned for myext entry as it will be quite an adventure.

NightJet breakfast

This was our breakfast on the train traveling through the Tuscan vineyards.

St. Peter’s Basilica

Inside the St. Peter’s Basilica

Italian Food

Sort of like a mix of pizza and a stromboli, good stuffn

Fontana della Barcaccia

Most people dont know that it is permitted to enter the fountain.

The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

There is a great spot to get gelato and rest for a bit along the fountain’s edge

The Arch and Coliseum

You can see both the Arch of the Constantine and the coliseum.

Roman Ruins

Nora and Ellie checking out the Roman ruins and sunset

Nora AND Noah go to München

admin — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 20:13:35 +0000

Some things just seem to be more than coincidence, and many of those things in our life seem to involve Noah. During our recent trip to Munich, Germany we were walking around the Marienplatz area when we seemed to be drawn into the courtyard of the Rathaus that is home to the famous Glockenspiel. And in that courtyard in a far dark corner was an entrance to the Ratskeller restaurant via a set of stairs going below ground. It beckoned us to go in. It was so ornate inside, full of gothic arches and old paintings, just amazing, but it was too early for lunch and we didn’t have time to sit anyway as there was so much weeeded to see that day. All we had time for was to get a picture of Nora outside of it, with the two lions. Which looking backow, should have given us a clue to the theme of the restaurant.

The timing wasn’t right for lunch yet so we moved on from it but kept seeing entrances to the restaurant all over the building, it felt like we should eat there, but like I said, time wasot our friend. We moved on and explored the city and theext day headed to into the Alps for a few days. We were due to come back by train to Munich to catch theight train to Rome after the Alps. Originally I timed it so we stayed longer in the Alps but we saw that there was a Christmas Market open in Munich that day which was one thing we really wanted to experience. So we headed to Munich in the morning to spend some more time.

I felt a little sad as we departed from the Bavarian Alps, but we made it to Munich witho problems. I loved being down there. We got to Munich and stored our luggage and headed back to Marienplatz to visit the Christmas Market at the Royal Residence. First weeeded to eat, and once again we found ourselves once again drawn to Ratskeller, so we figured we would give in this time. The food was really good, and I had a fantastic beer there.

But it wasot until after we got home from our trip that I wanted to research theame Ratskeller. It translates to Hall Cellar. It was in the cellar of the town hall of Munich. And to my surprise and dismay the entire theme of the restaurant was Noah’s Ark. We hado idea as we wereot in the main dining room plus we were in such a rush that we didn’t check out the decor of the main dining room. It was as if Noah was wanting to tell us he was there in Germany with us, but we didn’t hear him. I felt so bad. Yet at the same time I felt uplifted that we finally figured it out. Itow explains the 2 lions at the front.

In all of our traveling in Germany the only Lost Sole I found was one I saw while on a train when we had made a stop at train station. I did the best I could before the train headed back off again. I apologize, as the photo isot great.

Ratskeller Entrance

One of many entrances to the Ratskeller restaurant in Munich

German Lost Sole

The only Lost Sole I found in Germany

Lost Sole Germany

The only Lost Sole I found in Germany

Noah’s Ark

Noah’s Ark painting at Ratskeller, Munich

Rathaus Courtyard

The courtyard of the Rathaus building where Ratskeller was located.

Rathaus from Above

This was taken from the St Peters Church bell tower.

Glockenspiel

From the St Peters Bell Tower

Christmas Market

The Christmas Market we visited at the Royal Residence

The One Shoe Diaries is going to Europe.

admin — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 18:27:25 +0000

We are very excited for aew adventure we are undertaking. We are going to Europe this November! The itinerary includes Norway, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden. We will be updating as much as we can, mostly with Photos. And hopefully with photos of lost soles 🙂 Stay tuned as I am sure there will be some hiccups on the trip as we haveever been to Europe.

The photo that accompanies this post is of the Neuschwanstein castle outside of Füssen, Germany. A place we are going to be visiting.

European Destinations:Oslo, NorwayParis, FranceMunich, GermanyGarmisch-Partenkirken, GermanyFüssen, GermanyZugspitze, GermanyRome, ItalyPompei, ItalyAmalfi Coast, ItalyNaples, ItalyCopenhagen, DenmarkLondon, EnglandUPDATE:Our flights got shuffled around andow we are going to go to London for a day before flying to Orlando. Should be awesome to tour London in an open-air double decker bus. Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament!!

Hurricane Michael delivers a harsh blow to our Neighbors to the east.

admin — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 22:15:37 +0000

Yesterday I was hired as a photographer by Beverly Boy Productions, for a mobile refueling company, Atlas, to ride along with a driver in theirewest edition to their fleet and document the day. It was a huge Ford F350 Super Duty truck, equipped with a winch, super lighting, and a huge fuel tank, and able to drive through 4 feet of water. It was a beast as you can see from the images! My driver was Kevin from Detroit whom I enjoyed riding with. We had a great rapport and worked as a team trying to survive the day. Somehow my phone was the only phone to get signal. ATT came through. We were assigned to the Weather Channel, and it was our job to maneuver through the destruction and deliver fuel to their crews in the field for their vehicles and generators.

I headed out at 5am from Pensacola to our meeting point. They had lost contact with Kevin so I wasn’t sure if he was going to even be at our meeting point, but I geared up and headed that way. As I drove into what I call, the “war zone”, what struck me first in the early glow of the sunrise, was an overwhelming scent of pine. Like a huge car freshener was hung in the sky. The smell was from the thousands of pine trees that were snapped in half and their millions of pineeedles that were strewn everywhere! The first hour of driving in was through a state forest, and I had to dodge trees laid across the road. Thank goodness for who ever came through with a chainsaw and cleared a path oro one would ever been able to drive through that mess.

Within a few minutes of arriving at the meeting point, a heavily damaged Chevron, Kevin thankfully pulled in. After some last minute preparations and loading my gear into the truck we headed off.

The traffic getting into the “war zone” was at standstill. No one could get in without clearance to do so. It would have taken hours to get through that checkpoint. We did have the clearance but still would take forever to get to the checkpoint and weeeded to be in there quickly. We saw a military convoy going down the opposite side of the highway so we pulled over and snuck in the middle of it and followed them in. Our truck was impressive so it could easily be mistaken for military grade. The police guarding the entrance just waved up through.

What I sawext as we entered into Lynn Haven blew my mind. Ill let the pictures tell the story. I feel so bad for the residents of those areas,ot only did they probably lose a home, personal belongings, but most likely lost their jobs, their kids lost their schools, and they all lost the life they were used to. Their worlds have been turned upside down.

I did even manage to find a lost sole in the rubble of downtown Marianna.