A New Kind of Endurance

My main goal for 2019 is more writing. It’s been a year and half since I’ve published a blog. This was one of the hardest stories I’ve ever written. I hope it brings meaning to your day. -Susie

There is a story I haven’t been telling. Not because I didn’t want to but because I didn’t know how.  It is a story of struggle and of loss but also of unexpected joy and newfound strength. It is a common story–though one I wish to hear spoken of more often. For this reason, it is a story I must now tell. It is my story of 2018…

How Was the Moon, Dude?

When you’re like me and you return from your first lap around the world, you’re an authoritative expert on basically every problem in the book. You have all kinds of motivation…

The Fear of Forgetting

I have never had someone very close to me die. I won’t pretend to know precisely what that is like. But I can imagine there would be a fear of forgetting…

Dear Patrons

Dear Explore the Edges Patron, If you’re reading this it means… 1) Susie and Chris SURVIVED! 2) We want to congratulate YOU for a successful space-launch into the LAND OF DREAMS. (Even though we may have been the astronauts on the shuttle, surely you all were Mission Command Center, making the impossible possible.) 3) THANK YOU!!!! …

Sights Unseen

You know you’re in a cool place, when you can get your eye poked out, and it’s still cool. Two Mondays ago at Red Rock beach in Melbourne…

A Mountain Is Not Merely a Triangle

We drove the dry, bristly foothills for five hours, enjoying the standard-issue Patagonian bus ride. Silent passengers. Plenty of backpacker BO. Not a building or soul in sight! But then we rounded what seemed like just another scruffy hill in a cosmos of scruffy hills. Except around this corner, Mother Nature stood waiting, silky lingerie at her ankles, shimmering in blinding glory.

The problem with some places, like Patagonia, Chile, is that…

The Price of Church

I’m sitting alone in the only cafe in El Chaltén that accepts credit cards. I’m out of Argentinian pesos…

Edge #1: Things Are Easy Until They Aren’t

To describe Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonian, Chile is like trying to explain, I imagine, the details of heaven to someone who has never been to the afterlife. It is impossible…

Southern Descent: The Journey to Patagonia

I knew my Spanish was rusty when I couldn’t retrieve the words, “Please step aside quickly, I need to throw-up!” Four hours into our longest flight for this continent–New York to Santiago, Chile …

Ultra Tripping Phase Three: Go Time

The redbirds jump from branch to branch in the back yard as the snow seems to lay a blanket on the ground in slow motion. The sky is grey. The trees are grey. I haven’t yet had my morning coffee. My eyes are puffy and bloodshot; my hair a curly unruly mess atop my head as I blankly stare out the window until I hear the kettle whistle.