May 2026

For Mother's Day weekend, my wife Karen wanted to go camping for the first time with our new Jayco travel trailer. We had purchased a new 2025 Jay Flight SLX 175FQ at an end-of-season sale, but it didn't leave the lot until this spring. Given this was a new, untested camper where anything can go wrong, we decided to stick close to Sioux Falls and reserved camping spots at Palisades State Park.

Yesterday, I wrote in my personal blog that I voluntarily retired from the National Weather Service, departing with full benefits including a pension and my retirement investments. After spending a decade as a meteorologist and more than two decades as their information technology officer, I had done all that I had set out to do in my career as a federal employee. It was simply time for me to move on and accept new challenges.