Welcome to my travel blog begun in 2004 when I spent 6 months in Antarctica. At the top of this page you can also access my publishing company Ranger Doug’s Enterprises or jump directly on board my 1899 tugboat, Katahdin, currently under its second restoration. Directly to the right is an archive which now contains about 250 posts ranging from Barrow Alaska to the South Pole so scroll away and enjoy!
Latest Blog Posts
Amtraking to Tucson
King Street Station, once the hallmark of South Seattle is now dwarfed by two massive sports stadiums and tall buildings that would be the envy of Batman. I've always been a train buff and can still recall distinctly the whistle blowing from the 1950's E7 trains that...
Abercrombie’s Ranch
When I was little, my mamma always reminded me that I had an uncle out west with a ranch. When you're young, you don't pay attention and as I grew older, I had always assumed that this uncle and his ranch was a simple two-acre hardscrabble plot somewhere in Nebraska...
A brief walk through the Pike Place Market
The Pike Place Market was established in 1907 when Kent and Puyallup Valley farmers got fed up with the middle man vendors and drove their wagons up to the bluff overlooking Elliot Bay and set up shops. It has always been a polyglot of immigrants: Italians,...
Tow Winches, Pig Wars, and Butte Montana
The 52 year old Alaska ferry Columbia nudges into Petersburg's dock at 9:45pm Tuesday evening. To make the trip to Bellingham, it needs to capture two narrow passages at slack high tides: one here in the Wrangell Narrows and a second at the Seymour Narrows near Port...