The Youth Leadership Camp has been a staple in developing the Deaf youth of America since 1973. It is a month long session in which campers discover their identity as well as their strengths and weaknesses as individuals. The camp has been in several locations, including Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Oregon, South Dakota, and finally, in Florida. [...]

All Orlando really is is one big resort. Billboards for countless amusement parks cast shadows over the palm trees that line every road. Exotic putt-putt places and go-karts can be found on every block, and an infinite amount of hotel rooms and camping spaces fill the city. If you thought Washington, DC was a touristy [...]

Southern Louisiana is mostly covered in swampland and much of the interstate driving in Louisiana is on a raised bridge driving over the endless swamps. We had an extremely long drive coming all the way from Austin to New Orleans where we were going to meet a native of New Orleans, Jesse Jones. According to [...]

We continued on to day two of our two-day Texas Deaf club tour when we stopped in Austin, home of the Texas School for the Deaf. Austin is a beautiful mid-sized city in the heart of Texas and frequently wins “Best Place to Live” awards. While the school is considered by many as the heart [...]

The Dallas Association of the Deaf is located on the outskirts of downtown Dallas beneath a Captain Morgan’s billboard. The building is entirely blue, and their freshly paved parking lot is fenced in cast iron. The parking lot is almost empty as we arrived on a Friday night and stepped out in the heat.
We were [...]

The National Association of the Deaf biannually hosts a convention which is about as large as any Deaf convention could get. An average of 2,500 people gather for a week of many events that include the College Bowl, the Miss Deaf America Pageant, as well as an expo that educates people about the newest technologies [...]

The last few days have been a holiday for us just like any other. Everyone loves a good cook out and fireworks on the 4th of July and we are no exception to the rule. After touring the Nebraska School for the Deaf, we still had no idea what our plans were going to be [...]

For years they had hoped this day wouldn’t come, but it was inevitable. They had been officially notified one year ago, and by now the pain had numbed. It was a hopeless cause that voided years of battle and the decision was all but written in stone. The 129th and final commencement of the Nebraska [...]

The Rathskellar performance we were scheduled to see would mark the fourth time that we’ve seen them this summer. Each time, we’ve seen them from the audience, and by now we each know almost half of the routines by heart. We yearned for something new, and got it. The three of us would spend the [...]

Our RV desperately needed its 15,000 mile oil change because we had already gone 900 miles over the expected limit. The nearest available Camping World who could take us in was in Louisville, Kentucky just a two hour drive away from Indianapolis where we were in. To make matters worse, they couldn’t take us in [...]

The Deaflympics are just six months away and our US teams are busy practicing and preparing for the upcoming games. Many training camps for team sports are being hosted across the country and these camps are a way for players to develop the cohesion necessary to succeed in international play. One of America’s favorite sports [...]

We were hoping to visit Flint, Michigan after skydiving because Flint, many people say, is the heart of the Michigan Deaf community. The Michigan School for the Deaf is there, as well as the Michigan Association of the Deaf clubhouse. The only problem was, there was nothing planned in Flint for us to see when [...]

The thing that caught us off guard the most was really how fast they rushed us into it. Just 45 minutes after walking in the tandem dive classroom, we were already airborne and watching the airstrip disappear beneath us. Inside the plane, all 24 jumpers sat quietly with their eyes front, almost as if they [...]

Lisa Dramin says that to truly get an idea of what her business, Scrapbook Wonderland, is all about, we need to visit the basement of her Jacksonville home which once belonged to her husband Bob’s grandmother. The stairways that lead you into the basement lets the roof hang low. Low enough for me to have [...]

Football is life in Green Bay, Wisconsin. A city of just 100,000 people, Green Bay has one of the most storied histories of football which dates back more than 75 years. The Packers are the only publicly owned team in the National Football League, and the season ticket wait list is more than 60,000 names [...]

Almost every state and city that has a notable Deaf population has what we like to call Deaf stores. These stores sell all the latest high-tech gadgets that allow Deaf people to have vibrating or flashing alarms, the newest pager or TTYs. Madison, Wisconsin is no exception with Jack Barr’s Barr Productions, where ASL instructional [...]

One of the events we have been looking forward to this summer is Campvention, a week-long RV/Trailer camping event where Deaf campers from all over the United States gather for a week of camping, tradeshows, entertainment, and friends. Held bi-annually and last in California, this year’s Campvention took place in the Amana Colonies in eastern [...]

One of the most commonly asked question we get these days is simply one of logistics. Since almost 100% of our time is devoted to getting from one place to the next, touring different facilities, meeting people, and going to the bathroom, people often wonder how we find not only the time, but the technology [...]

Our drive east is extremely different than our drive west. Rather than skimming through the South-West and going through many different cities, we are resigned to spending the next week driving through God’s backyard: the Midwest and all the farmland that comes along with it. We spent almost 10 hours driving before arriving in Boise [...]

The drive through Washington was a very scenic one as we drove though mountains covered with beautiful green trees. The city of Seattle is a beautiful one, especially from approach. Driving closer however, the city only becomes more interesting and its true identity of being a liberal open-minded city comes out. We crossed the Seattle [...]

The Mary Augusta has not moved for three days because we have been parked at the JGW RV Park in Redding, California recuperating from our 40 day tear across the United States. We have seen 23 states, met thousands of people, and paid a king’s ransom for gasoline. In the past 10,000 miles, I have [...]