Seeing Italy Up Close and Personally We recently returned from a 36-day trip where we spent 21 days riding the trains in Italy to visit:
Then we boarded a ship (the 8-month-old Explorer Journeys Explora 2) at Civitavecchia that took us on a 14-day cruise through the Mediterranean to visit lots of exciting locations to include:
Here’s a map of what our trip looked like:  During our trip we traveled over 2,900 miles - riding the trains in Italy and on the Explora 2 cruise ship. We also hiked over 190 miles - averaging 5 1/2 miles each day. During the first 17 days – before we arrived in Rome or boarded the ship - we walked an average of almost 8 miles a day. We had wonderful and interesting food along the way. But best of all we had good company and got to see so many of the “Classic” Roman and Greek sights up close and in person. It was another "trip of a lifetime". As always, we took thousands of photos of the museums, artwork, cathedrals, cities, monuments, vistas, and nature that we managed to see. – so, we’ll be editing and posting them as soon as our schedule lets us get around to it. Here are a few teaser photos to give you a brief overview of some of the sights we saw until we get around to posting the photos from each location on our Adventures page: (click on any photo to start the slideshow) 
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Getting Outdoors for Your Physical and Mental Health One of the things that we like the most about the “outdoor community” is their willingness to share their knowledge with everyone else that enjoys being out in nature. This week we received an email from Aurora James from DogEtiquette.info about the benefits of getting outside and being active. Aurora graciously asked us to post her thoughts on our HCS website – and since Spring is right around the corner, we thought that she had a great idea. So here you go – Aurora’s thoughts about “Exploring the Great Outdoors: Activities to Overcome Nature-Deficit Disorder”. She’s included lots of links to other websites so there’s a wealth of great information.  In today's world dominated by screens and technology, your children may find themselves increasingly estranged from the natural environment. This shift, identified as nature-deficit disorder by Richard Louv in his influential book "Last Child in the Woods," significantly impacts their physical and mental well-being. By incorporating outdoor activities into daily routines, you not only bridge this gap but also strengthen your family ties and instill a lifelong appreciation for nature in your children. Understanding Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD) Nature-deficit disorder affects children isolated from nature. It leads to sensory decline, attention issues, and health problems. This condition highlights significant behavioral concerns.
Simple Outdoor Activities Introducing children to nature can be as simple as stepping outside. Even basic activities can deeply enhance their health. This has a profound impact on their well-being.
Nature Crafts and Projects Crafting with natural materials is a creative approach. It's an affordable way to connect with the outdoors. This method brings nature closer to home.
Educational Outings Educational outings offer a great opportunity to broaden a child's environmental understanding. They help cultivate a deeper appreciation for nature. These trips also nurture a child's curiosity.
Technological Tools When used correctly, technology can enhance outdoor experiences. It can also stimulate further interest in the natural world. This makes it a valuable tool for exploring nature.
Nature-deficit disorder, while not an official diagnosis, poses real challenges to modern children’s development and well-being. By incorporating regular, enjoyable outdoor activities into their routines, parents can help mitigate these effects. These activities not only promote healthier, happier children but also cultivate a deeper, lasting connection with the natural world. The key is to start simple, stay consistent, and most importantly, have fun together as a family in the great outdoors. If you want to read more from Aurora – please check out DogEtiquette.info. Here’s an Interesting List of Movies to Keep You Occupied During the Current Cold Winter Days (or even on a Beautiful Summer Day) As people that love the outdoors - we also love outdoor movies. This week we received an email from Terra, the Outreach Coordinator from Octane Seating, about a list of “Disaster and Prepping” movies that they pulled together for their customers. Terra thought that we, and our readers, might find their movie list interesting. And she was right; we've seen most of these movies and they have some great viewing ideas.  To quote Terra’s note to us: “Cinema can be educational and thrilling explorations of survival, disaster, and backcountry exploration for those new and experienced in the survival and disaster preparation communities. Our guide, Prepping and Disaster Movies, delves into what prepping and disaster films are, what sub-genres they entail, as well as a list of movies that survival and prepping enthusiasts might enjoy, from cartoons that can be enjoyed with young children, to horror survival, to real-to-life, semi-educational films.”  We read through their article, and agree with what it says: “Prepping and disaster movies combine all the emotional elements which entice audiences: fear, sadness, happiness, relief, and sometimes, even humor. They are among the most epic categories of film and television, and often have the most complex sets and advanced special effects, creating a truly wow-factor experience for people watching them. But, with so many real-life problems out there, why are we so drawn to disconcerting fictional depictions of disasters? Scholars and researchers speculate that society are drawn to construct narratives which revolve around chaos and loss because they help us escape genuine issues, while still having a level of resonance to the characters and plot.  Their list of “Prepping and Disaster” movies includes 24 movies - with 3 from each of the following categories – each with a brief movie summary, list of who stars in it and release date – so that you can easily find it wherever you stream or purchase your movies from:
Their write-up also includes a listing of their "Top 15 Survival & Disaster TV Shows" and their point of view about “What Can Disaster and Survival Movies Teach You About Real-Life Prepping?”  So. if you’re like us and enjoy watching movies about the outdoors when you’re not able to be in the outback, you should definitely check out the article that Terra sent us. (Note; As always, we’re not being paid to say this – we just think that it’s true). You can find the article, and all the other details about this curated movie listing here. https://octaneseating.com/blog/disaster-movies Our 2025 Hiking, Camping, Disaster Preparedness and Shooting Gear Checklists Everybody that's been Hiking, Camping and Shooting for a while has a list of gear that they always take with them on their adventures. For some people their method of keeping track of their gear is to keep it all in one place. Others make a checklist to ensure that they have everything that they need. We do both. Based on our experience the gear that you need for Hiking comes in 10 categories, Camping has 10 categories, Disaster Preparedness has 9 categories and Shooting gear comes in 17 categories:  To make it easier for you we have updated and added downloadable PDFs of the Hiking, Camping, Disaster Preparedness and Shooting gear checklists that we use. The checklists include the types of gear that we think you need in each of these 46 categories.  Our website has all the details on the specific gear that we use (536 items from these 46 categories at last count), the reasons that we selected it and links to Amazon, or other locations, where you can buy the gear. Our gear checklists have 54 Hiking items, 122 Camping items, 123 Disaster Preparedness items and 237 Shooting items. You can find these downloadable PDF checklists on our Hiking, Camping, Disaster Preparedness and Shooting pages. Keeping Children Safe When Firearms Are in Your HouseRight before the Christmas/New Year holiday season we received an email from Ada, one of the homeschooling students of Ms. Anna Lee, about a project they had been working on related to gun safety. While performing research for their project they ran across our HCS website and found the information contained on it useful. They also found an article about gun safety that had some great information – so they passed it along to us and asked that we add it as a reference to our website. So, here's an overview of the 23 October 2024 "Kids and Gun Safety" article.  As everyone that owns firearms knows – a responsibility for safety comes with the territory; when shooting at a range, when carrying for everyday safety and when storing your firearms at home. Being safe is complicated when there are children in your house. So, what’s the best approach to making sure that we protect the people that we love. Well, in our opinion, and in the opinion of the article that Ada sent us, the best approach is to be proactive and to “Empower your child with knowledge” since gun safety starts at home. It’s important to teach gun safety to your children as soon as they are old enough. That way they know the risks and what to do if they see a firearm. The article details three initial main steps to take:
In addition to these three steps, it’s important to talk to your children. As the article says, “Having an open discussion with your kids about gun safety can make a difference.” Personally, we find this to be a critical step to take since our children see “make believe” firearms every day in video games, movies and TV shows. So, they need to know the reality of the risks associated with firearms and how to act around them so that they don’t think they are toys. The article advocates teaching children the following three things about what to do if they find or see a gun:
The last two areas that the article touches on are related to “Lockdown Drills and Emergency Preparedness” and “Reporting School Safety Concerns”; great areas to teach your children about given the tragic occurrences of the past 25 years. In addition to discussing why reporting concerns about dangerous actions is so important, the article also advocates taking the following 5 steps with respect to lockdowns:
Finally, the article lists some other good sources for information to help answer the question “Does your child know what to do if he or she finds a gun?”:
We’re glad that Ms. Anna Lee’s students are learning about firearms safety, and that Ada sent us the article on the topic. If you want to read the entire article that Ada and Ms. Anna Lee passed along, here’s a direct link to it: "Kids and Gun Safety” What a Great Year of Growth! As with previous years, during 2024 we continuously tracked our Hiking, Camping and Shooting (HCS) website traffic. Because 2024 just ended we wanted to share some of the yearly statistics with all of you so that you can see who our readers are, where they’re located and what they read. In 2024 our readership increased by 144% and came from 130 different Countries from around the world. During the year we really increased our international readership. Throughout the year 61% of our readers came from the United States and 39% came from the rest of the world. The largest concentrations outside the US were from the following 20 Countries:
  Once again, we had readers from all 50 of the United States - with the largest concentrations being in the following 20 States:
  In 2024 we saw an increase in the number of people reading our blog posts – something we like since it means that people are finding value in the original content that we generated over the year. The 35 pages and blog posts that people read the most during 2024 were:
As with last year, since we have readers from around the world - there is constant activity on the site during the day – with no single day really seeing significantly more readers than any other time; although there is slightly more traffic on Saturday and Sunday than the other days of the week.  Most of our readers find us either by searching on Google (67%) or by previously having been to our website and coming directly to us (28%). A smaller percentage (5%) find us through a wide variety of other sources to include our Hiking, Camping and Shooting Facebook page. It’s interesting to note that in 2024 the number or readers coming to our HCS website directly increased by 167% from 2023, and that the sheer number of sources other than Google had a correlated decrease from 46 to 41 as readers from all over the world searched for content that our website contains.  The majority of our users view our website from either their mobile device (50%) or their desktop computer (49%). In 2024 there was an 8% increase in the number of people reading our content on their desktop computers; perhaps due to the level of detail in our product descriptions and blog posts.  Hopefully this data shows you that in 2024 you were once again in good company as you read through our Hiking, Camping and Shooting gear write-ups and blog posts. We hope that they gave you some information that made all of your adventures a little more fun. Wherever you’re from, we’re glad that you stopped by to look over our HCS website and look forward to seeing you again in 2024 as we grow even larger and add more gear write-ups, blog posts and adventure photos. The Revolutionary Past Lives on in New England During the year there are several activities in the area that celebrate our Colonial and Revolutionary War history. This year we attended the Patriots’ Day and Memorial Day ceremonies, and the Colonial Faire and Fife & Drum Muster. Patriots’ Day is a state holiday in Massachusetts commemorating the first shots fired in the American Revolutionary War, at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, on 19 April 1775. On 18 April 1775 the British Military Governor of the Massachusetts Colony, General Thomas Gage, ordered Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith to seize the arms and powder being stockpiled by the Concord militia. The skirmish that started at Concord's North Bridge had been brewing for some time since the tensions in Massachusetts had been escalating due to the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Intolerable Acts. But the Battles of Lexington and Concord marked the actual first shots were fired between the Patriots and British regulars, beginning what would eventually lead to the American colonies Revolutionary War against the British Empire. Every year on Patriots Day, the local militia companies that fought at the Battles of Lexington and Concord back in 1775 March from their towns to the North Bridge to commemorate the occasion. Memorial Day is a US Federal holiday that honors and mourns the country's deceased service members and women who lost their lives while defending the United States. It is celebrated on the last Monday of May (27 May in 2024) and is often considered the unofficial start of summer. The local militia company provided the salute to all those who sacrificed their lives so that we may enjoy our freedom today. Colonial Faire and Fife & Drum Muster: In the days preceding the Revolutionary War, the local militias would usually muster to drill twice each year, once in the spring and the other in the fall. Following their drill, the militia would be joined by their families and celebrate with good food and drink, music and games. On September 28, 2024, the local Companies of Militia & Minute and Ancient Fyfe and Drum Companie hosted a full day of events at the Wayside Inn (which was established in 1716, making it one of the oldest continuously operating inns in the United States). As noon approached, fifes and drums could be heard in the distance as 24 companies from all over New England assembled to parade from the Wayside Inn to the muster field. After the parade, each fife and drum company returned to the muster field to play for the audience. The Wayside Inn is also the site of the one-room schoolhouse from 1798 made famous in the “Mary Had a Little Lamb” poem Here are a few photos from the events celebrating our Colonial history from throughout the year: (click on any photo to start the slideshow) The Colors of Fall This year we had a spectacular Fall here in New England. Because it was drier than normal during the Fall, the colors in the trees really popped and the leaves stayed on the trees longer than usual. Here are a few photos showing some of the spectacular sights that we saw as we hiked around – to include going out to Wachusett Mountain and the Wachusett Reservoir. The day that climbed to the top of Mount Wachusett it was clear enough that you could see the Boston skyline which is over 40 miles away. (click on any photo to start the slideshow) Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Last week we were lucky enough to see a celestial event that could be seen across our entire northern sky; the Aurora Borealis. Last night, 19 October 2024, we experienced a celestial event that was much harder to see; comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS; also known as Comet C/2023 A3. The comet came from the Oort cloud and was only discovered on 9 January 2023 by the Purple Mountain Observatory in China when the comet was ~7.3 AU (1.09 billion km; 680 million mi) from the Sun. The first naked eye observation of the comet from Earth was reported on 23 September 2024. It made its closest approach to Earth on 12 October, at a distance of 71 million km (44 million mi). When visible the tail was reported to be 10 degrees long under dark skies and 17.5 degrees long photographically. By 2 November the comet had faded to below magnitude +6 and was no longer visible to the naked eye. Based on astronomical calculations the Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet came from the Oort Cloud - which lies far beyond Pluto and the most distant edges of the Kuiper Belt. The Oort Cloud is believed to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the Sun, planets and Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). It's like a big, thick bubble around our solar system, made of icy, comet-like objects.  Because of the comet's orbit (a retrograde orbit, lying at an inclination of 139°) Tsuchinshan-ATLAS did not approach close to the giant planets of our Solar System. Consequently, the comet is only weakly bound to the Sun and it is calculated that the outbound orbit will become a hyperbolic trajectory that will most likely result in the comet being ejected from the Solar System - never to return.  Here are some of the photos of the rare sight that we saw last night between 6:30 PM and 7:30 PM here on the East Coast: (click on any photo to start the slideshow) In addition, here’s a 1-minute time-lapse video of the Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS captured from space by Astronaut Matthew Dominick onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The Northern Lights Made a Second Rare Appearance Here in New England The past two nights the conditions were good for potentially seeing the Northern Lights here in New England once again. One chance to see the Aurora Borealis as far south as the Boston area is very rare; twice in the same year is unheard of. So, on the nights of 10 and 11 October 2024, we ventured out in the late evening and luckily got to see some amazing sights. As with the last time earlier this year (on 10 May 2024), prior to heading out we consulted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/) to check the forecast to find out if the conditions were actually good for seeing the Northern Lights in our area – since they’re the authoritative source for solar and space environment data. 
We also checked our “Sky Live”, “Moon Calendar” and “Lumnos” apps once again to see what the sky conditions were, the phase of the moon, and the location of the moon in the night sky. The air was crisp, the skies were clear, and the moon was in the Southern sky – so the viewing conditions were excellent. As mentioned in our previous Aurora blog from earlier this year (11 May 2024), we found that our cameras “saw” the lights (which are caused by charged particles from the Sun interacting with the Earth’s electromagnetic field) much better than our eyes. So, we had to shoot lots of photos and then see what showed up on our cameras. Again, we were surprised many times because the faint colors and striations that we saw in the sky were much brighter and more pronounced in the images that our cameras captured. Here's a great write-up by Ewen Bell explaining why this occurs: "Why Auroras Look Different on The Camera" The gallery below shows photos of the Northern Lights that appeared in our town’s skies during the two nights – along with a couple photos of our Town Center that was coincidentally lit up that week: (click on any photo to start the slideshow) |
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