March 8, 2026 -- Today, I am celebrating fourteen years of creating my sosAssociates.com blog. Last year, on my blogiversary, I wrote the following:
Some big plans for 2024 did not happen, so now I have even more on my calendar for 2025. There is never certainty in life, but I like to plan big.
Well, that prediction did come true, with two month-long backpacking trips, some great vacations with my wife and co-blogger, Julie, and a great array of fun activities in Northeast Ohio.
Four Featured Blog Posts
Of course, all our blog posts have interest to us, but what follows are four blog posts that Julie and I want to feature here. The first two are our travel blog posts that also include photos and information about my two month-long backpacking trips. The third post is about our family's involvement with a special place in Cleveland -- Euclid Beach Park.
The fourth featured post was actually mostly written in mid-August 2024, but was published on New Year's Eve to celebrate an active year in 2025. If you jump to the bottom of this seventh hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) blog post, to the "PART TWO: Recovery Again" section, you will see how my second successful surgery in 2024 led to me being able to do so much in 2025.
Blog Date: September 16, 2025 - Colorado 2025: Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, and Denver
. . . trip to include Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, and the Denver area.
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Before going into the details of our Colorado trip, we want to note that this vacation trip was in addition to two long backpacking trips that Stuart had already planned for himself for 2025:
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First, in May, we visited Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania, en route to taking Stuart to where he began a month-long thru-hike of the 311-mile Allegheny Trail in West Virginia.
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After returning from Colorado in June, Stuart went on a month-long backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail.
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Saturday, June 14, 2025 - Northeast Section of Rocky Mountain National Park
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Sunday, June 15, 2025 - High Country of Rocky Mountain National Park
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Monday, June 16, 2025 - Estes Park Riverwalk and Bear Lake Road Corridor of Rocky Mountain National Park
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Tuesday, June 17, 2025 - Rocky Mountain National Park
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Wednesday, June 18, 2025 - Carousel of Happiness and Dinosaur Ridge
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Thursday, June 19, 2025 - Molly Brown House Museum
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Friday, June 20, 2025 - Hammond’s Candy Factory Tour
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Saturday, June 21, 2025 - History Colorado Center
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Sunday, June 22, 2025 - Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge and Lakeside Amusement Park
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Monday, June 23, 2025 - The Buffalo Bill Museum and Red Rocks Park
Blog Date: September 23, 2025 - Exploring New Hampshire, Vermont, and the USS Enterprise!
. . . when Stuart finished a month-long backpacking trip in southern New Hampshire, Julie joined him for an August 17-23, 2025, vacation in New Hampshire, Vermont, and on the USS Enterprise. We put this blog post together to share some of what we explored during this trip.
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. . . Stuart's month-long Appalachian Trail backpacking trip, where he finished the final few miles in Massachusetts before hiking all of the Vermont section, and 50+ miles into the New Hampshire section.
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We are sharing our photos and trip observations with you here to encourage you to explore the places we visited:
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Sunday, August 17, 2025 - Franconia Notch
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Monday, August 18, 2025 - Pinkham Notch
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Tuesday, August 19, 2025 - Crawford Notch
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Wednesday, August 20, 2025 - The Three Parts to this Day:
1) Reported Alien Abduction Location
2) Hiking Basin Cascade Trail and Appalachian Trail/Cascade Brook Trail
3) Julie's Fall and Trip to Hospital
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Thursday, August 21, 2025 - Thank-You to Thru-Hikers and Travel Day
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Friday, August 22, 2025 - Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour
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Saturday, August 23, 2025 - Presque Isle State Park - A Last Stop on the Way Home
Blog Date: October 30, 2025 - End of an Era? 20th Annual Remembering the Sights and Sounds of Euclid Beach Park
Is this the end of an era? After 20 years of the Euclid Beach Park Now organization hosting Remembering the Sights and Sounds of Euclid Beach Park, their board voted to discontinue this annual event after this year. Julie was the only board member to vote for continuing this Cleveland tradition in the future. This event has taken place every year at what is now the Cleveland Metroparks Euclid Beach Park. This year's event, on Sunday, September 28, 2025, from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm, took place exactly on the 56th anniversary of this now-defunct amusement park's closing on September 28, 1969.
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Euclid Beach Park Now has in recent years recruited the next generation of historic amusement park enthusiasts. The memories of these former Northeast Ohio family entertainment venues will continue through younger board members. Our son, Kevin Smith, is currently serving as vice president of the board, and owns one of the largest amusement park memorabilia collections in the area. Board member Troy Parsh has a large and growing collection of ride cars and parts, and other memorabilia from former parks.
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The memory of the former Euclid Beach amusement park has a bright future in the form of an enlarged Cleveland Metroparks Euclid Beach Park and a new City of Cleveland Euclid Beach Arch Park.
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Here is our photo from July 17, 2025, of several Euclid Beach Park Now board members who attended the Euclid Beach Park Arch relocation watch party.
Blog Date: December 31, 2025 - My HCM Part Seven: 2024 Odyssey from Pain to Recovery
From My 2023 Recovery from Surgery to My 2024 Chest Pain Journey to Recovery Again
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After writing my last three HCM recovery blog posts (WKYC TV-3, Spectrum News 1, UH patient story), I did not expect to ever write about my heart condition again.
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At first, I debated listing this as my seventh HCM blog post, since at the time I write this, my current chest pain and occasional breathlessness has been confirmed to not be caused by my ongoing HCM cardiac condition. As you read this HCM blog post, you will learn how my chest pain does, most likely, relate to my April 27, 2023, open-heart surgery, which I needed due to having HCM (Learn about my surgery in the blog post: My Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Part Two: Surgery). I write "most likely," since I write this while still in the middle of actively seeking treatment that will be successful in stopping my chest pain.
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After writing everything above this point before Tuesday, September 3, 2024, I wrote the following on Monday, December 15, 2025, as I prepare for the end of the year on these last 16 days of 2025. It has been one full year and three months since my Friday, September 13, 2024, surgery to have the sternal wires removed.
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Recovery -- What recovery has meant to me now in 2025 is that I am back to my normal, active lifestyle, which in 2025 included two month-long backpacking trips (Allegheny Trail and Appalachian Trail) and active vacation trips with my wife.
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As I write this at the halfway point of December 2025, I am already planning some big trips for 2026. I will publish this blog post on December 31, 2025, as my way of celebrating the end of the year feeling that I am fully recovered -- back to my normal life -- just as I planned.
2025 Blog Posts
I want to say thank you to the people responsible for all the great things I was able to do in 2025 that I wrote about in my blog posts. I will continue to share in my future blog posts the good times in the Cleveland/Akron area, and in my travels at sosAssociates.com/Blog
Last year, I wrote that I expected to write fewer blog posts in 2025 due to plans that would keep me away from the keyboard -- this prediction came true.
Please scroll across the images/links below, and please click to read some of our 18 blog posts from 2025. Normally, we would also have a couple of 2026 blog posts by this time of the year, but 2026 is different. Unfortunately in this, the 250th year of our country, I have been attending many protests to stop the felon in the White House instead of going to the positive community events that normally start the year.
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