Brooke Geery

States #39-40: West Virginia and New Mexico

circa 2005 Yes, you are right, these two states are no where near each other. But I hit them both on the same road trip, so deal with it. State #39: West Virginia (NO PHOTO TAKEN) West Virginia is one state I sort of feel like I didn’t experience. I have only been there once, and only to the little skinny top part. I think we stopped for gas, just so I felt ok about checking it off the list, but no amazing moonshine stories or anything to share here. State # 40: New Mexico My cousin lives in NM, so when Sarah Morrison was moving back to California for…
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State #41: Texas

Circa 2006 For a while I claimed I’d been to Texas when I’d really only been to the airport. But then I started having to go there for work and I’ve since been to Austin, San Antonio and Dallas. I don’t hate it as much as I think I should, as it is the home of Dubyah. In fact, I sort of like Texas, spare the weird frontage roads and the chiggers. [gallery=22]
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Hump Day Goes Shooting with Dave Lehl

Ahh, snowboard photographers. Chicks love them, dudes want to be them. Oh wait, that's the actual pro snowboarders. Snowboard photographers are the ones with cold fingers and (probably) massive debt who, let's face it, probably weren't very good at snowboarding. But a few lucky and talented individuals have had the pleasure of living the dream (at least for a little while) thanks to a camera and a photographic eye and Summit Country-based Dave Lehl is one of them. That's not to say he goes home and rolls in piles of money, but Dave is what many want to be: a professional snowboard photographer, traveling the world and (usually) getting paid…
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States #42-47: OK, AR, AL, MS, GA, TN

Circa 2006 Doing fifty posts (one for each of the states) seems a bit excessive, and as I said, most of them were hit on long distance road trips. That said, I'm going to keep going back in time in the order I hit the states by combining each road trip into one post. A few might get mixed up (like GA, which I visited before this particular trip) but close enough. (more…)
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State #48: Alaska

Circa 2006 For a while I flew Alaska Airlines and ended up with a bunch of miles I needed to use before they expired. For 40k miles I bought two tickets to AK and figured, why the fuck not. But when my original companion flaked on me, I was ready to write the miles off as a loss, until randomly, I thought of another friend who would have money and free time. The trip was spent on the Kanai peninsula, visiting Seward and Homer, going on whale watches and deep sea fishing, hiking up glaciers, eating salmon and otherwise figuring out how to fill 20 hours of daylight. [gallery=18]
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State #49: Louisiana

Circa 2008 Louisiana was my second-to-last state visited, always just out of reach of my cross-country routes. But like Florida, and Texas, since ending up there once, I’ve been back plenty of times. I’ve taken multiple wakeskate trips to ride the buttery bayous and enjoy some serious southern hospitality. I also went on “vacation” to New Orleans last year, where I hung out on Bourbon St, photographed cemeteries, and found myself sobered by the amount of destruction still left from Hurricane Katrina three years later. Read the full blog about my New Orleans trip here [gallery=17]
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Lunch on Hawthorne’s Hawaiian Vacation!

Never fear loyal Lunch on Hawthorne readers, we haven't given up on our mission. No, Jared and I just went on vacation! Being the dedicated blogger I am, I obviously took photos of every meal I ate, and am taking this opportunity to post a some-what unrelated Hawaii food super post! Overall, our Hawaii food experience was a good one, although some of the meals fell a bit flat. I was surprised at the availability of Jared (veggie) Food; we only hit one place where he literally couldn't eat anything. That's not to say the overall meals weren't meaty, in fact several places boasted menu items such as "Beef with…
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State #50: Hawaii

Circa 2009 Last week I reached a life goal that I happen to be sort of proud of: I've officially made it to all 50 states. I don't count airports, I have to have actually spent time in the state, breathed the air, walked on the ground etc. Obviously making it to Hawaii and Alaska was the biggest challenge, as most of the states were hit on long-distance road trips. Technically I hit Alaska before Louisiana, but Hawaii was the final frontier. I was so excited I even debated getting a Hawaii #50 tattoo while there (don't worry mom, I didn't.) Over the next few weeks, months, however long it…
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The Art of the Backyard Park

It’s not that hard to come up with a list of complaints about most ski resort snowboard parks. Too crowded, too small, too many jibs, not enough jibs -- listening to many snowboarders you’d think park quality is a global crisis. But what if your local resort is hours away, and then has only limited Midwest-style park offerings? What could you do besides complain? Nick Trotochaud has an idea, and it’s called Hirschy Lab. The 17-year-old from Venon Hills, IL has, for the past four years, created an ever-growing snowboard park, right in his backyard. It might not be getting him ready for the X Games or whatever it is…
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Fan Mail (People Really do Win)

I am currently on "vacation." This apparently means I am sitting in my hotel room in Hawaii, posting this on YoBeat. I am not just posting it because it is a genuine letter from the recent winner of our Sticker Giveaway that makes us look somewhere near saintly. No, I am posting it because I awoke to find NOTHING new posted on the site. My dedicated number two is deep in finals week but seriously, I left him a well-worded draft in the back end and all he had to do was draw a few pictures and post it. That's it. I don't blame him if Mr. Richards is having…
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