Our world opened up again for 2022 in a year of firsts and finallies. We made it to our first North American Travel Journalist Association (NATJA) conference, took our first sponsored trip(s) to Europe, and did a paid short-form video campaign. We also finally made it to North Georgia, Gulf Shores, and Puerto Rico. We’ll get to all of those in due time in our 2022 year-in-review, but first, we’ll start at the beginning with a sneaky little ski trip to California that changed our world.
Skiing in Mammoth and Adventures in Vegas
Jenn was a 20-year ski professional, pro patrolling and teaching at many of the premier resorts in the west. Bad knees (due to bad genetics…lol) forced her down from the mountains to Tucson, Arizona, where we met and started our life 2.0. She hoped to return to skiing after her bilateral knee replacements, but her fast twitch muscles weren’t firing well enough to stabilize her knees in case of impact.
She needed a knee brace that would restrict the range of motion under force. We went to Mammoth, where my daughter worked as a ski instructor. There’s a great story about taking ski lessons from my daughter that we’ll publish soon, but while I was on the slopes, Jenn got an appointment with a specialist who found knee braces that will let her return to skiing.
We are all cued up for a ‘finally returning to skiing’ trip to Park City this February, but we just missed on a ‘finally rafting the Grand Canyon’ from the Mammoth trip. Jenn’s knee brace also enables her to return to white water rafting. She guided white water for seven years. Once, about mid-way through her time as a raft guide, she blew her knee out toward the end of the season. All her guide buddies took off for a rafting trip to the Grand Canyon, but she was stuck at home rehabbing her knee.
We flew through Vegas to get to Mammoth and took the weekend to do adventurous things like glass kayaks in Black Canyon and exploring the West Rim . Working with the Hualapai Tribe almost brought us back to raft in the Grand Canyon over the summer, but that trip fell through at the last minute. Next year perhaps…
We Finally Made it to Gulf Shores
We have failed so many times trying to make it to the beaches of Gulf Shores for scuba diving that it was getting comical. Between multiple hurricanes and the start of the Pandemic, we were curious if we’d ever go to Alabama’s #1 tourist attraction, which is odd, because we live here and love biking, scuba diving, and paddling. Jenn broke the seal with a press trip from the Southern Travelers Explore conference that I couldn’t join her on because of our crazy spring plans. Too bad, too, because her penthouse condo was pretty swanky. Afterward, we returned for biking later in the spring and scuba diving at the end of summer.
We already have plans to return for the Outdoor Writer Association conference in September, but we hope to make it back before that to do some dedicated paddling. On the subject of hopes, we also hope that Gulf Shores will be our showcase destination for a new interactive map project we’re rolling out next year
