What's going on here? Come join us on our adventures through the Texas State Parks, the Nationals Parks, and the 50 States.
As the famous 19th century American essayist and nature enthusiast Henry David Thoreau once said, “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” Nature is what you make of it. It is a healer for some and an activator for others. That’s the beauty of nature. No single person has the same idea of what nature is to them and what nature’s beauty entails. Nature is what you make of it.
If you haven’t had a chance to check out the ‘About Us’ tab on the site, I am Bryce Wyatt and alongside me is Kaylee Cogbill. We are two college students who very much enjoy being in each other's company. The main voice of the blog posts you will be hearing is mine, Bryce’s. Kaylee will be a supplemental writer and she will be chiming in wherever she sees fit. Kaylee is the photographer. She has had a passion for photography for many years, and I am very thankful to have her skills with us as we explore everything we want to. Obviously, if you see a picture with just her in it, you know I took that picture. Now, it may not be as high quality, but just know I tried my best. It has been an item on my personal bucket list for a while to visit every state park in Texas (we are native Texans) and if I could, hit up as many national parks as I could. Since meeting Kaylee at Texas A&M and becoming so close, she has adopted my dream of visiting all Texas State Parks, all National Parks, and she added to go to all 50 states. It’s a big goal and very costly, but that’s what we want to do.
First off, I would like to say that this is not going to be a rating system of the places we go and visit. This is just a way for us to put our thoughts on technological paper and reminisce about our adventures. Both of us are very shy and quiet. To the point where many of our family and friends question if we ever even talk to one another. We are using this as an outlet to relay our thoughts and open up to others. For us, writing is a much better way to formulate our thoughts because sometimes talking is hard. Though we hope that many people end up reading this, we don’t care if it just ends up being our parents. This is for us, something we can do together. So, why start it now? To put it frankly, we got bored. We are starting this amongst the coronavirus pandemic. Quarantine and lockdown has had us cooped up inside for a long time, and there’s only so much schoolwork we can do (I hate school, thank goodness I graduate in May). State parks even closed there for a few weeks, so we couldn’t even go visit any. But they recently opened back up, so now it is all systems go with our operation!
We have already visited 7 Texas State Parks. The goal is to have one blog post per week about an adventure we take. With this being said, there will definitely be some lulls in our exploration. The posts will maybe, probably, most likely become sporadic at that point. There also may be some filler posts just about life updates or something else that’s taking part in our lives if nothing naturewise is going on.
Before I conclude this inaugural entry, I want to talk about our name and logo. ‘Howdy to the Outdoors’ - it was a combination of our (not really) clever imaginations to include our love for Texas A&M and the Aggie culture and all things nature. If I am being honest, she is the big Aggie. A second generation Ag, she was raised on the Kool-Aid and has always wanted to attend Texas A&M. Myself, I didn’t even know if I could go to college until junior year of high school. On a whim chose A&M over UT (t.u. for the Aggies out there) and Baylor. So anyways, ‘Howdy to the Outdoors’ it became. Now the logo, it is nature themed with the trees and rugged look… but why is there a pair of sunglasses in there? Well, funny story. I guess it all started with my grandpa giving me a pair of aviators that he used to have back in the Marine Corps. They finally broke last fall and I was devastated. Ever since then I have wanted a replacement pair. Me, having champagne tastes, advocated for Kaylee and I to get a nice pair of Costa aviators that matched. After a bit of attacking her, I finally wore her down and we dropped way too much money on matching pairs of Costas. Let’s just say that looking at the pictures from the Stephen F. Austin State Park and on, you will be seeing a lot of those Costa sunglasses (please sponsor us @CostaSunglasses) in order to get the value out of them. I personally designed the logo, and there’s one thing you should know: I am basically a 50 year old man in a 21 year old’s body. My tech-savviness is lacking, but as with the photography, I tried my best.
Lastly, we want to thank everyone (hopefully more than two people) for tuning in. Kaylee and I hope y’all enjoy reading about our adventures and I hope that we have the willpower to continue writing and posting in this thing. We will write again soon with our first actual content, so gear yourself up for Pedernales Falls State Park! Thanks guys and remember that nature is never too far away.
Comentários