My husband likes to experiment with cooking a lot more than I do. I wrote in an earlier post how I followed a new recipe, and the results were blah. Well, when my husband cooks, usually without instructions, the results are sometimes better than others, but always bold.

When we went to Alaska last summer, he had pizza soup in a great restaurant outside of Denali National Park. I thought the soup was okay (the pizza was better), but he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

A couple nights ago, he tried to recreate it, and it was way better than the restaurant’s version. It was like eating pizza with a spoon. So tasty.

Deconstructed Pizza Soup probably won’t be the same the next time he makes it since there isn’t a recipe to follow. But as long as it is saucy, cheesy, and filled with pepperoni, I’m sure it will be just as good.

Writing a different post every day can sometimes be difficult. However, I like a challenge, so I follow unusual Facebook pages and receive a lot of e-newsletters on varying subjects to keep my curiosity fed. Today I stumbled upon a question worthy of consideration, and that made me think of another, more important question.

If you fly, you know that you have to place small bags, laptops, wands, jackets, liquids, shoes, belts, and furry monsters (under three ounces please) in gray bins that then go through the scanners. One passenger can easily use three or four bins.

As people gather their items after they themselves go through the “assume the position” scanner, all those now empty bins are lying there, slowing down the conveyer belt. On a good day, a TSA employee is removing the bins faster than you can empty them, but that is the exception. So here is the question:

1. Do you take your bins down to the cart at the end, do you take all the bins you see down to the cart at the end, or do you leave the bins where they are sitting?

This question was tweeted by Meg! Lewis! (I learned about it in a Nat Geo e-newsletter.) No one responded that they left their bins behind. I’m not surprised. Someone who does that isn’t the type to read travel tweets.

However, there was a split between those who only take their own bins and those who take all the bins. I do either, depending on how long I have before boarding.

You can let me know your answer to this question, but I would rather know the answer to the following connected question.

1. Do you take your empty grocery cart to the collection site in the parking lot, or do you just leave it near your vehicle?

2. Do you take other orphaned carts to the collection site?

Not everyone flies, but everyone goes grocery shopping and uses a cart sometimes (I prefer a basket, but it’s not an option when I’m buying cat food.) So, what do you do with your cart?

I always, always, always, return my cart, and sometimes I rescue other carts. Abandoned carts are a huge pet peeve of mine.

Feel free to let me know your answer in the comments. I won’t judge you. Of course, I hope that no one just abandons their cart, but obviously, some people do. I see them all the time.

For those who help others by collecting bins or grocery carts, thank you very much.

That’s what happened when I read a post about the Bering Strait from Alaska Life.

I know a little about the Bering Strait. I know it’s narrow and separates Russia from Alaska. I know that when sea level dropped, it became a land bridge, thus allowing animals and past humans to populate North America.

When I visited the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre in Whitehorse, YT, I learned about all sorts of oversized animals that survived that far north because of a protected area that was not covered in ice.

What I didn’t know is that there are islands in the middle of the Bering Strait. If you want to know about them all, read the Alaska Life article (read it anyway because it has excellent maps.) Today, I want to talk about just a couple of those islands. Big Diomede and Little Diomede.

These two islands are located in the middle of the Bering Strait and are about two miles apart. Big Diomede Island is owned by Russia, and Little Diomede Island is owned by the United States. Since this are the closest point between these two countries, they really can see Russia from their homes.

Nobody lives on Big Diomede Island anymore, but the Russian Military still uses it. About 100 Native Alaskan live on Little Diomede Island.

Here is the most amazing part. The International Date Line goes between the two islands, so Big Diomede is twenty-one hours ahead of Little Diomede. Crazy!!! Big Diomede is sometimes called “Tomorrow Island,” and Little Diomede is called “Yesterday Isle.” That is one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard.

Please read the article to learn more about these remote islands. It’s incredible where people choose to live. If you’re looking to get away from civilization, Alaska is still the place to go. I don’t want to live there, but I’m sure glad I visited.

A new exhibit is coming to the Morocco Pavilion at EPCOT. The Morocco Pavilion is my favorite place in the World Showcase, and usually, the displays show off the amazing art of the country. This new exhibit, “Race Against the Sun,” is about racing, one of my favorite topics.

Two remarkable races happen in Morocco and are featured in this exhibit. The Rally of the Gazelles is an off-road, all-woman desert rally. That sounds amazing, but the one that piqued my interest was the Marathon des Sables (Marathon of the Sands.)

This race may have “marathon” in the title, but it is actually an ultra-marathon. It covers six days and 156 miles through the Sahara Desert in southern Morocco. Since its start in 1986, it has been called the toughest foot race on Earth.

I love learning about crazy long races in insane environments. I hadn’t heard of this one before, so I searched around to see if there was a documentary about it. It turns out there were several. I watched one about the 2000 race that was unreal.

I love watching movies about unbelievably hard races, Barkley, Mount Marathon, Badwater, and others. It’s fun to watch humans push themselves to the limit. But the Marathon des Sables might just be the hardest.

I agree with Anakin Skywalker when he said, “I don’t like sand. It’s coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere.” I would never do a race in the Sahara Desert. The three half marathons on three consecutive weekends that I’m doing next June is tough enough for me.

I do encourage you to watch the documentary on the Marathon of the Sands. It is quite moving how much people can do and how much support they give each other.

I hope the display is still at the Morocco Pavilion when I go to Walt Disney World* in January of 2021. That is how I want to experience that race, in Florida.

*I would love to have three or four people come with me to Walt Disney World. I’m going to run the Dopey, but we’re also going to ride a ton of attractions, and hopefully visit all four parks in one day (you get a certificate if you do.) It’s a lot of fun and January is a great time to go.