Take a Walk on the Wild Side

Melbourne, Florida. For the past week, I've been traveling around coastal California. First stop was Monterey, followed by Los Angeles and then returning north to San Francisco. Despite the trip back west and the momentum from the recent television appearances, it looks like I'm going to spend at least another month here in Florida. Life has been good on the sleepy Space Coast and I'm getting a lot of writing done. So, I'm going to stay put for a bit.

Recently, I was considering changing the name of this blog and reformatting it for a wilderness theme. I've always enjoyed posting about my travels as well as sharing thoughts on conservation, exploration and why wilderness is so important. My time here in Florida has really brought this back to the forefront and I thought it might make more sense to streamline the theme for a particular audience (sorry, I don't mean to offend any of you Arlo Hemphill acting/wildlife enthusiasts, but the two are generally distinct interests - lol!). However, Where is Arlo Now?? has also been a great place to share performance clips on my acting and update you on my life in general. Now how could I do away with that?

I couldn't, so I've compromised. I've created a brand new blog dedicated to discussing wilderness exploration and conservation:

Walk on the Wild Side

You can find this at http://walkwildside.blogspot.com or you can follow it via Facebook.

My camera has been busted for the past couple weeks, so at the moment the new blog is primarily story and newsfeed-oriented. However, I do intend to employ more of a vlog or vlog/blog format once the camera is repaired. Also, just as a heads up, there may be posts that I put on both Where is Arlo Now?? and Walk on the Wild Side. In particular, postings that focus on my personal explorations through wilderness areas might be relevant to both sites. Either way, I invite you to check the new site out!

Before I wrap this post up, I do want to comment on the above cheetah photo. I took this picture at the Nairobi Animal Orphanage in 2000. I had been visiting Kenya for a conference on mangroves, held in the coastal city of Mombasa. On the return trip, I spent a day in Nairobi and took the opportunity to visit Nairobi National Park. The orphanage is just outside the park boundaries and I was the only visitor that day. A friendly conversation started up with the facility's director and he invited me for a "special treat". The treat turned out to be a personal visit inside one of the cages where three cheetah cubs were being kept. Their mother had been shot on a local farm the week before and the orphans were brought here for care before hopefully being released back into the wild someday. I was able to spend some time playing with the cubs and this picture was my favorite from the experience.