Roadtrips
I've always enjoyed traveling and what could be better than the roadtrip. I've taken a number of them since retiring in 2007. I like to travel light; camping and moteling as I travel. If something interests me I check it out even if it means turning around several miles later. I keep my itineraries loose to give me the freedom to take a little extra time in places or to change my mind or course.
Roadtrip Photos
Temporarily down
A month in France
Images from a month I spent in France. I enjoyed my time immensely and contrary to many reports I was treated especially well. The city of Paris is fantastic with art everywhere.
Travel in the SW
About Mike
I recently retired from the Forest Service. My forestry career provided me an opportunity to work in two small African countries, Liberia as a Peace Corps Volunteer and a Forest Service detail in Sierra Leone. In the US I worked in Oregon, Washington, and in Mississippi. It was a great way to make a living as I was paid to work in areas with wonderful scenery and a variety of forests .
I'm 
currently living in Vancouver, Washington. My daughter, Isabel lives here with her children Mercedes and Mary Lynn. My other daughter, Audry, has returned from her deployment to Iraq,and is back at Ft. Lewis, Washington, less than 2 hours away.
Audry is married to Gabe Torres and has two children, Gabriel and Regan. Sharing a house with Audry is my son Geoffrey, his significant other, Stefanie, and daughter Mia. I enjoy traveling and have made it a point to travel frequently since I retired. I spent a month in France, two weeks in Italy, and three weeks in Liberia. Last year I spent 5 weeks on roadtrips in the West of the US.The big news for me is my recent marriage to Jane Wright. We traveled to Peru for our honeymoon in July and were in Washington DC for the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. This fall we traveled to Hawaii, a first for both of us to attend a reunion of other Liberia Peace Corps Foresters we are friends with. Next trip is France in July, 2012.
Liberia
I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia in 1974-1975. I did forestry work and worked with a regional forester in the town of Tappita. The experience was one of the best of my life. I had been married only a year and a half when my wife Mary Lynn and I made the big change from our comfortable lives in the US to living in a third world village. After our Peace Corps time in Liberia we came back to the US and began raising a family and starting our careers.
Return to Liberia
In 1997 I returned to Liberia as an Election Observer as Liberians went to the polls to choose a government and end seven years of war. It was truly a moving experience. Although the elections were peaceful the war began again several years later.
In 2004 during a period of peace with a teacher training group.
In May of 2009 I returned to Liberia for the 4th time.
The group Friends of Liberia sponsored a return to the country now that the wars were over in Liberia and safe to travel in. I helped with arranging transportation for 27 people and led an environmental project in the north of Liberia. Afterward I traveled to my Peace Corps town of Tappita and joined several others as they viewed the Liberia they had once lived in.
Once again this was major experience in my life. I met for the last time a man who I had befriended during my days as a Peace Corps Forester. An article was written in my hometown newspaper about the experience.
I have several galleries of photos from that trip.
My Liberia 2009 website gallery
Friends of Liberia return trip gallery
Mt. Jefferson Hike 2006
Images from a hike in the central Cascades of Oregon with my son, Geoff, and friend Kathleen Williams. We hiked from Brietenbush Lake to Jack Lake.
The McComb Enterprise Journal in Mississippi printed my hiking story in their fall outdoor travel section.
Italy 2009
Jane and I spent several days in Rome and hiked in the Cinque Terre coastal region of Italy.
