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I just added an extra day to my “Don’t Get COVID-19 and Die Tour.” If you saw my post this morning, you know I was attempting to drive from Price, Utah to home in Victor, Montana today. My wife and some Facebook friends in Montana all warned me not to try it, because of the […]
Marty’s photo(s) of the day #3408: I took these two self-portraits in the green room last night, moments before going on stage at Eastern Arizona College. As mentioned in my previous “Don’t Get COVID-19 and Die Tour” posts, this was the only in-person show I planned on performing during the pandemic (I’m performing lots of […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3407: Today is day #3 of my 2,600-mile roundtrip “Don’t Get COVID-19 and Die Tour.” Yesterday was a relatively uneventful travel day from southern Utah to Sun City West, Arizona. Since I only had 8 hours of driving, I kept an eye out for some desert to explore, but didn’t […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3406: Today is day #2 of my 2,600-mile roundtrip “Don’t Get COVID-19 and Die Tour.” I’m driving from Montana to Arizona. While there I will pick up some items of my late mother’s that have been stuck in storage (in Sun City West), and then proceed to the southeastern part […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3388: Since Deb and I moved to Montana’s Bitterroot Valley in 1996, we’ve had multiple dogs, including three adopted from the local animal shelter. We’ll never know for sure what our adopted canine family members went through previously, but they’ve given us a pretty good idea. Our first, Annie, (a […]
I feel almost guilty saying it, but Deb and I have adapted quite well to life in the year 2020. While we mourn the massive Trump-induced deaths, racial injustice, out-of-control cops, and the slow murder of our planet, curling up in a corner and whimpering isn’t our style. We’re doing what we can to bring […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3381: I had wanted to visit the Amazon Rainforest ever since I was a kid. So when Deb and I traveled there for an adventure to be included in my first book, “Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents,” I was excited to head out on my first Amazon […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3373: I miss live music! This is Grace Potter, photographed at the Wilma in Missoula a few years ago. The next concert I plan to attend is Nightwish at the Wiltern in Los Angeles at the beginning of October 2021. Will October 2021 be too soon? I guess it depends […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3356: My sixth book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, is complete and will be published sometime next year. In that book, I share a hilarious story about Montana’s Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer “coercing” me into paying way, way too much for a signed Hillary […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3352: Today is National Dog Day, so of course I have to feature a photo of Nellie. We adopted Nellie from the local animal shelter, and she is approximately nine months old. During the three weeks we’ve had her, Deb and I are in agreement on two things: 1) No […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3348: Here’s a short excerpt from my second book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico: When we planned our hike to the farmhouse, I immediately thought of the two-story farmhouse my grandparents had owned in northern Minnesota. I knew the Costa […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3320: Bats do not like baths! Every summer, I move my office/writing room out onto the front porch. (The porch runs the width of the house and is covered, but not screened in.) This year the flies were a bit pesky, so two days ago my wife, Deb, bought me […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3251: This is a Cape buffalo, photographed in Zimbabwe. From my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents: Brian carried a high-powered rifle as a defense against animal attacks. He paused to warn us about animals that could force him to use it: “Contrary to what you […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3249: From my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents: Even though we were hundreds of miles away from any significant landmass, our Drake Passage voyage was never boring. I spent much of my time outside on the bow enjoying the crisp Antarctic air and photographing the […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3207: Those who regularly follow my posts know about all the far-right Republicans that live within a few miles of Deb’s and my house. We do have one liberal family a quarter mile away from us, however, and the husband, Aaron, and I do most of the maintenance on our […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3200: Back in the 1990s, I had a side business selling No Newt is Good Newt T-shirts and sweatshirts. When Newt Gingrich resigned as Speaker of the House in 1998, no one wanted the shirts anymore (or, to look at it more positively, the shirts worked!), and to this day […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3197: If you’ve read my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, you know the story of Deb’s and my near-death adventure backpacking with the Iban tribe on the island of Borneo. Later we spent a day at an Iban longhouse to rest and recover. The COVID-19 […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3191: Being self-employed often means seldom taking a vacation. Before Deb and I traveled to all seven continents in four years, we had gone ten years without taking a vacation, other than occasional long-weekend backpacking trips. Even then, our seven continents of adventures were technically work, because I turned them […]
Having been a radio station DJ and a manager for rock bands, my ears took a beating—especially in my teens through mid-thirties. Now that I am um . . . a little older, I can still hear fine, except for, apparently, the distant sound of crickets. Consequently, I now try to balance my love of […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3190: This is my wife, Deb, north of the Arctic Circle, demonstrating social distance. Other than me behind the camera, there was likely no other person within fifty miles. The two of us were talking last night, and life during the COVID-19 pandemic won’t change much for us. We live […]
