馃憢 Well, hey there!

My name is Joe and I am a web developer focusing on Drupal with the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA.

  • I am also a husband and father of two. I enjoy biking, beer and discovering ways to keep it simple. I was born and raised in Iowa City and graduated from the University with a B.S. in Geography.

2022 Switzerland Pack List

I recently had the fortune of going to Switzerland to visit with my friend in and around Bern. Using my friend鈥檚 place as a home base, we did several bike loops out of Bern, including a few train assisted sections and an overnight trip. There was also several miles of hiking and one day of kayaking down the river Aare. The weather was near perfect (end of May, beginning of June) and my friend was able to double as my translator and the itinerary was light on the touristy sightseeing....

July 8, 2022 路 5 min 路 Joe Whitsitt

From Android back to iOS: Why I bought the new iPhone SE (2022)

The web has had some harsh words for this phone before it even shipped. Now Apple is scaling back production based on weak demand. I had pre-ordered new iPhone SE the morning of March 11th and it was shipped to my home on March 18th. Previously, I had been a pretty happy Android user. I first switched over with the Samsung Galaxy SIII way back when and then bought the Google Pixel 2....

April 2, 2022 路 6 min 路 Joe Whitsitt

Moved to Hugo from Gatsby

With this post, I can say that I have successfully completed moving my website from GatsbyJS to Hugo and in the process did some neat things with it. First off, a quick note about why Gatsby wasn鈥檛 quite right for this website. The last move was from Jekyll to Gatsby and a lot of what originally drove that transition was getting away from Ruby and starting to investigate decoupled websites as it related to Drupal which I use for work....

February 26, 2022 路 5 min 路 Joe Whitsitt

RAGBRAI XLVIII Recap

I just got back from another year of RAGBRAI. Wasn鈥檛 sure if it would actually happen because of the new wave of COVID-19 cases. It was cancelled last year. I only did three and a half days of riding from Parkersburg to Clinton. Originally, I was going to bike out to the route and back and meet up with my team, but when my friend Mike said he was going to come all the way over from Switzerland, I adjusted my plans so that I could help him get to the route/team and share any gear with him that he may have needed....

August 7, 2021 路 4 min 路 Joe Whitsitt

2021 Boundary Waters Canoe Area Trip

At the beginning of June this year, I went on a five-night canoe camping trip with family members in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), specifically the Shell Lake area off entry point 14. This was my first canoe trip and my first time visiting the BWCA. Because of that, I had a lot of questions going into the trip. Normally, on canoe trips, folks have a tendency to pack more similar to a car camping trip because the hikes, or portages, are short and the canoes instead carry most of the weight....

August 7, 2021 路 3 min 路 Joe Whitsitt