Originally published June 14, 2017, on Jepsonfiles.com This past week, my mom and dad treated me to an awesome adventure. It was a gift for graduating from high school. I wanted to go somewhere in a foreign country and somewhere by the ocean so we decided on Costa Rica. My dad had heard that it was a cool place and not as touristy as some places like Mexico. So, we got our passports updated and made our plans. The plane rides were kind of painful because we had long layovers getting down there and the seats were uncomfortable. But, we made it without any issues. As we got there, we…

Originally published July 18, 2016, on Jepsonfiles.com A long time ago, my ancestors on the Jepson side moved to a place that was out in the desert of Southern Utah.  I am not sure how they survived the heat and the lack of water but somehow, they turned an arid place into a town that they called Hurricane.  I guess that it was windy there and it felt like they were going to blow away.  My great, great, great grandpa James was instrumental in digging a canal that brought water from the Virgin River to the town of Hurricane.  It took several years to complete and most of the people…

Originally published July 18, 2016, on Jepsonfiles.com My family and I went on a trip to Southern Utah last week.  On the way back, we went to Mesa Verde in southern Colorado.  It was amazing.  It has an incredible collection of the ruins of the Pueblo and Anasazi Indians from about 600 A.D. to 1200 A.D.  There were various stages of development of houses in the same areas, sometimes built right in the crevices of a cliff.  Can you imagine going out for food and water and having to carry it all back up the cliff?  I was really impressed with their ingenuity and resourcefulness.  The Native Americans have a…

Originally published June 22, 2016 A rough start and a bucket of pinecones. This week, my dad took me on my very first real backpacking trip. We started out after driving to the trailhead on Monday afternoon. My dad was getting the stuff ready in the packs, and I decided that I needed to go gather pinecones in a big bucket that I brought from home. My dad didn’t know where I had gone. He was worried and angry that I had disappeared. He went looking all over down by the river which was raging very hard from the winter snowmelt. He was gone for just a few minutes. My…