I’ve spent a long time building out a home lab that, frankly, generates more security-relevant noise than I have time to personally review — firewall logs, intrusion detection alerts, DNS oddities, the usual pile that anyone running a real network at home eventually accumulates. For a while my answer was “check it when I remember to,” which is not a strategy, it’s a hope.

This past week, my wife and I made the drive to Idaho to celebrate a special milestone—our son’s 36th birthday. Unlike some of our other road trips, this one was straightforward with no detours or sightseeing along the way. The goal was simple: spend time together as a family and enjoy each other’s company without any big agenda.

Kicking Off the 2025 Camping Season – 3,400 Miles, 7 States, and a Whole Lot of Memories # Our first big trip of the 2025 camping season took us through seven states—New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming covering more than 3,400 miles in total. Along the way, we hit a few major highlights that made this journey unforgettable:

GRAV to Hugo Migration # I know it has been quite awhile since I have posted anything here on my website but I am hoping to change that. When I decided on diving back in I was not happy with the performance of my page loads even from my local network. This was the main driver for this migration.

This was our first trip of the year for 2022 and was the first time we have gone camping on the early shoulder of camping season. In Colorado camping season kicks off Memorial day weekend. This trip also served as a shake down for the mods and additions that we had acquired during the winter.