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This Week Off The Road - January 26th - February 2nd

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This Week Off The Road - January 26th - February 2nd

Hello Everyone! If you’re reading this on Wednesday night, Happy Groundhog Day to you. One of my college friends was from Punxsutawney, PA so I always think of him today. Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog) did, in fact, see his shadow today, and in so doing he has predicted six more weeks of winter. That can only mean one thing – it’s definitely time for me to head south. This Sunday is the day, if all goes according to plan. I’ve spent this week packing, finishing up what I can of my projects while I’m here at home, and spending as much time as I could with friends and family. It’s always bittersweet to leave and as much as I’m looking forward to all of the adventures ahead, it’s always tough to say goodbye. To help pick myself up, I have contacted a few people who I will be seeing in the beginning of the week, and I definitely hope to be in New Orleans by the following weekend with plenty of friends to catch up with there as well. On a completely unrelated note, our football team here in Washington has a new name, the Washington Commanders, and I wish them well in the coming years. May their moral compass be a little truer than it has been in recent years.

Packing up my van is always quite a project as there is a place for everything and everything needs to be securely in its place. Every time I am home I unpack completely so I can get in and clean the inside out really well and then repack everything with some adjustments where I believe better efficiency can be achieved. I feel as though this time it’s packed particularly well and even though I’ve got pretty much everything loaded up, there’s still plenty of room. I’m thrilled it’s not jam packed and I think everything is going to work out really well with the way it’s loaded. And I’m still days away from taking off which is even better so that I can make adjustments before I hit the road. Omicron has given me a little extra time here in DC and I’ve tried to use it wisely. Meanwhile it’s been particularly cold and icy in the south so maybe it will all work out for the best in the end.

I have made two adjustments to my media strategy this week and I’m feeling good about both of them. As I have been writing about for several weeks, I’ve been (slowly) building my photography storefront on a separate site which I will integrate into this site as much as I can. While it’s still not where I want it to be and has very few photos on it, I’m thrilled with how it is coming and am happy to offer you all a sneak peek. While you can’t connect to it from anywhere on my site just yet, have a look here and let me know what you think. As always if there is any particular photo you would like me to add, please let me know and I will do so ASAP. Secondly, I’ve officially launched my TikTok channel this week, something I’ve been talking about for over a year now but finally went ahead with. TikTok is a neat form of social media which I’ve enjoyed myself for a while now and which is completely driven by video content but in shorter form than YouTube. If you’re on TikTok, you can find me @miles2gobeforeisleep.

I have gotten out a bit this week even though it’s been so busy. Last Thursday my folks and I headed out into the city for a nice adventure. We headed through Georgetown and the Navy Yard to see what’s new in those neighborhoods and then paid a nice long visit to Congressional Cemetery, one of D.C.’s most famous cemeteries and one which was simply too hot to appreciate when we last visited last May.

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This Week Off The Road - January 19th-26th

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This Week Off The Road - January 19th-26th

Hello Everyone. This is going to be another short but sweet one this week. I have been keeping busy here at home which I’ll get to in a minute, but first I wanted to share a couple of things with you at the top of this week’s post. I’ve set a tentative departure date of February 6th and I’m very excited about getting back on the road. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at numbers and data this week and since I’m vaccinated and boosted and generally in good health despite my diabetes, it looks like my chances of getting a severe Covid case which requires hospitalization are extremely low. They’re not zero (and maybe never will be), but I feel like the risk is acceptable to me. My bigger worry is how overcrowded the hospitals are and what would happen if I needed emergency care for some other reason. Those numbers will hopefully be going down over the next few weeks, but I am always cautious and the reality is that I haven’t made an emergency hospital visit in almost two decades so again it’s a risk I’m willing to accept. I will be keeping my mask handy and taking care to avoid crowded places and will likely be moving quicker than I had originally planned to towards New Mexico. I’m comfortable with the statewide precautions they are taking out there and plan on spending more time outside and alone than inside and in groups anyway. I’ll be leaving about 3 weeks after I had initially planned to, but I should still have plenty of time to see what I want to of New Mexico and Arizona this winter.

Leaving here, I plan on heading southwest through Virginia, Tennessee and Mississippi and all the way to New Orleans, catching up with a few friends along the way in whatever capacity they are comfortable with. If all goes according to plan, I will be in the Big Easy the following weekend and able to catch the first few real parades of the Mardi Gras season, which are small but hold good memories for me. Then I’m off to Texas for a week or two on my way to The Land of Enchantment. I’ve made some good plans for my time in New Mexico and I think we’re going to see some awesome scenery together, but if you have any suggestions or tips, I’m all ears.

My second bit of news this week is that I’ve accepted a job to return to guiding tours this coming summer. I’ll be guiding small group, overland trips for a small tour company called Incredible Adventures which is based in the Bay Area. I will be working for the same manager who I worked for at my old company and will be running tours for many of the same brands I’m comfortable and familiar with. My hope is to spend much of the summer in the Rocky Mountains and I’m pretty sure that will be a good possibility. It sounds like a really great opportunity and I’m definitely looking forward to it. While going back to guiding means putting some parts of this project on hold, I need to make some money so I can move ahead and at least I will still be on the road and taking pictures. We’ll see how it works out, but I’m definitely excited about it.

Lastly, I know I mentioned last week that I would be sharing links to my new photography storefront this week, but it’s not quite ready. I’m happy with the way it is shaping up, but I want to give it another week before I let you see it. It’s going to be a constant project going forward, but it will be far enough along by this time next week to be able to give you a sneak peek. That all being said, let’s take a look at what I’ve been up to this week.

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This Week Off The Road - January 6-13

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This Week Off The Road - January 6-13

Hello Everyone! It’s been cold here in Washington this week, but we’ve been celebrating the beginning of the Mardi Gras season so we’ve been staying warm, festive and well-fed. While the cold weather makes me want to get out of here and start heading south, the news from the states I’m headed for hasn’t been very good this week. Record case numbers, doubled hospitalization numbers and staff shortages are what I’m reading. While New Mexico has ramped up their public safety campaign, Louisiana and Arizona have both declared a state of emergency. Texas is still holding back, even though they are asking the federal government for more testing facilities and treatment doses. As much as I believe we should provide as much assistance to all of our fellow citizens as we can (and to everyone around the world when possible), Texas sure could start by helping themselves. As much as I’m loving spending time with my family and friends here at home, I’m also ready to be back on the road and heading for new adventures. It seems the prudent, though, to hold tight for a while and see what happens. I’m not interested in getting sick on the road or getting turned back again. I will spend the next couple of weeks getting my plans together and my van packed, though, so that when the time is right, I’m ready to go. Hopefully sooner rather than later. While I’m here, I’m going to make the most of it, keep hitting the gym every day and spend as much time with my family and friends as I can.

This past Thursday was Twelfth Night, the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas and the first day of Mardi Gras. Twelfth Night is also called Epiphany or Theophany in different traditions, but it commemorates the visit of the three kings or the “magi” to the baby Jesus and also the day of His baptism. In Louisiana, it’s the first day you can buy King Cake in the stores and bakeries and in New Orleans the Phunny Phorty Phellows kick off the Carnival season with a ride on the streetcar. This year, Mardi Gras will fall on March 1st, making the season almost two full months long. I do love Mardi Gras season and while I sincerely hope to be much further west than New Orleans by March 1st, I do hope to pass through there on my way to get some crawfish and king cake. Here in Washington, we celebrated beginning Thursday and went straight through the weekend. The Christmas decorations are down and the Mardi Gras decorations are up. My mom baked her first King Cake of the season on Thursday, and it was her best one to date.

Friday night, my folks and I headed back to the basement, a space we utilized almost every Friday during the heart of the pandemic. During the year plus that I was home last year, we weren’t going out anywhere and we needed some way to mark the end of the week and the start of the weekend. It was nice to use a different space than the ones we used the other six days of the week, and the basement became our little retreat. As cases climb here in Washington, it seemed that the basement was once again a good option. We drank some Abita beer, enjoyed some good Louisiana music and I cooked up a loaf of Crawfish Bread (which is more of a Jazz Fest tradition, but it sounded delicious in my head, and it was). We chatted, played some games and had an enjoyable evening. It was just like old times, but hopefully this outbreak will be short-lived and the basement can go back to just being a basement.

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This Week On the Road - December 23rd-January 5th

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This Week On the Road - December 23rd-January 5th

Hello Everyone. Happy New Year to you all – may 2022 be everything you hope and dream it can be. I apologize for this newsletter not going out last week, but my folks and I were out of town on a little trip I will tell you all about later in this post. I had hoped to get my newsletter done before we left, but it just didn’t happen. Then the New Year came and went and then a snowstorm hit us on Monday and now it’s a whole week later. I’m sure you all had plenty to do as well this past week, but I missed writing this post nonetheless. It was definitely a festive week here at home and we enjoyed spending a lot of time together. We got out and saw some very cool places these last couple of weeks which I’d love to share with you here.

The Thursday before Christmas, we all headed down to Old Town Alexandria for lunch at Gadsby’s Tavern which was opened in 1770 and hosted two of George Washington’s birthday celebrations. It’s a great little colonial inn and our lunch was really good. From there we wandered around the Alexandria waterfront a little bit and then made our way back to downtown D.C. We had a nice visit to the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House and to the Capitol Christmas Tree at the U.S. Capitol. On the drive between the two, we were really struck by the beautiful tree at the Canadian embassy as well. Downtown Washington is a beautiful place every day, but it’s especially nice at Christmas and a really nice day really put us in the mood for the holiday weekend.

And a wonderful Christmas weekend it was, with lots of cooking and eating and music and fun. It was wonderful to get together and cook all day on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and turn out both an excellent breakfast and dinner on both days (no lunch was required, believe me). Everything came out well, and I was very proud of my first cheesecake which was delicious. While I don’t really want or need anything in the whole world, my mother really surprised me with a wonderful gift this year. I had mentioned in my blog a few weeks ago when I was out in Minnesota how much I had wanted an Indian pipestone pipe carved from their sacred quarries, but simply couldn’t justify the purchase. I don’t get a lot of souvenirs on the road, but that was one I had wanted and was disappointed about not getting. My mom found a really beautiful pipe online which had been hand carved by Roy Redwing of the Santee Dakota Nation from the quarry I visited while I was there and it’s something I will really treasure. I got a Roku for each of them so that when they are watching TV they can watch what they want as opposed to what’s on, and they are enjoying them so far.

After Christmas we lay low for a couple of days and then headed north and west to Pennsylvania. We had visited the National Historical Sites of Western Pennsylvania before, but it had been a bit rushed and we hadn’t had the chance to really dig into them as much as we would have liked, so this trip set out to remedy that. Our first stop was Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS, which tells the fascinating story of the first continuous transportation link between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh (and also, therefore, between the eastern seaboard and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers). The biggest challenge on this route was over the mountains between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. In 1834 a system was completed by which canal boats could be towed onto railcars which could then be towed up the mountain by being attached to cables which were powered by steam powered engines. It was quite the engineering feat and was utilized for 20 years to make the crossing. Charles Dickens passed this way on his travels, as did the bodies of two presidents (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor) on their way west for burial. With the opening of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, this route became obsolete in the 1850s and not much of it remains today, but it is a fascinating place and the National Park Service does a great job of interpreting the site, as usual.

From there we headed on to Johnstown Flood National Memorial which commemorates the tragic 1889 flood which occurred following the failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River.

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This Week Off The Road - December 15th-22nd

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This Week Off The Road - December 15th-22nd

Hello Everyone! ‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the land, the Omicron variant was getting out of hand. First and foremost this week I want to wish all who celebrate it a very Merry Christmas (and a Happy Christmas to all of those outside of the U.S. who think “merry” is a funny way to say it). I was chatting with one of my traveling friends this week and we were discussing where we had each spent Christmas in the past. My list included Barcelona, Newcastle (Australia), Siem Reap (Cambodia), Japan, St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands), Myrtle Beach, Key West, New York City, Los Angeles, New Hampshire and San Antonio. Some have been good, some not so good and one or two downright difficult. I’m very happy to be here at home in D.C. this year, off the road and not at work. Wherever you are this year, I hope the season finds you safe, warm and healthy. We will be sticking close to home over the weekend, cooking deliciously complicated meals together, laughing, listening to music and watching a few more Christmas movies. It will be somewhat low-key with just the three of us for Christmas and one of my mom’s friends joining us for Christmas Eve but that suits me just fine. It’s very good to be home.

This week has definitely put the Coronavirus and the Omicron variant front and center in the news and in my life. A very good friend of mine lost his 48 year old brother to Covid this week, reminding me in a personal way that this is all far from over. Mask mandates are back here in D.C. and hospitals across the country are filling up to dangerous levels. I’m sad to see that Michigan and Minnesota, both of which I obviously spent a lot of time in this year, are both hotspots right now and struggling - and that is coming not just from the news but from my friends on the ground there. I was very happy to see that Donald Trump got his booster this week and encouraged others to do so as well. I really wish other people would join him and realize that this isn’t a game and people are dying unnecessarily out there. The NHL has postponed its season and there have been many other cancellations as well. My friend Chris, who I was supposed to hang out with on Monday, came down with something and we decided to postpone out of an abundance of caution. The friends I was hanging out with over the weekend took a pre-holiday-travel home Covid test on Monday and both came up positive. They went for a clinical test and my folks and I tested at the Fire Station up the road and all came back negative which was a relief. I definitely feel better being vaccinated and boosted than I did at this time last year, but I’m starting to tuck back in a little bit as well. I’ll be keeping my eye on the news before I decide whether or not to set out across the country again in January. Because of my southern route with plans to get back to California and back to work next summer, it all seems very familiar to where I was in the beginning of 2019. I sincerely hope that this winter will pass easier than last year or the winter before. Please be safe out there and if you haven’t been vaccinated or boosted, please discuss it with a doctor and not a YouTube character.

I’ve spent my mornings this week at the gym, trying not to put on any holiday weight. My afternoons have been pretty quiet and restful, but I have been out and about in the evenings. Last Wednesday I went back to music night at my friends’ house to watch them jam out like we were still in high school. My buddy Joe brought some of his famous homemade eggnog…

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This Week Off The Road - December 8th-15th

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This Week Off The Road - December 8th-15th

Hello Everyone. This is going to be a quick one this week as I’ve been taking it real easy for the last few days here in D.C. It’s nice to be home and I’ve been enjoying spending time with family and friends and while I haven’t been completely unproductive, I must admit that I’ve been pretty lazy this week – and fully intend to be in the coming week as well. It’s nice to have some down time and I know that when I leave here next month, it’s going to be pretty full-on through the fall of 2022. While I have been getting to the gym pretty much every morning, my afternoons have been quiet and naps have been common. I’ve been enjoying reading my books with a cup of tea and the simple pleasure of home life. My evenings have been pretty busy, though, so let me tell you what I’ve been up to this week.

Last Wednesday night, I went over to my friends Don and Molly’s house for their weekly jam session. Don plays the guitar, and my other friends round out the band with Joe on bass, James on keyboard and Pete on the drums. It was great to see these guys as they are some of my oldest and best friends and to listen to their musical endeavors. We enjoyed a few beers together and Molly cooked us up some fresh-baked cookies. It was a nice way to spend the evening.

On Thursday, my folks and I headed downtown to Fords Theatre to catch an afternoon matinee performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. We have been going to this production every year it’s been possible for over 30 years, and while last year they did a radio show during the pandemic which was better than nothing, it was great to see them back at the historic theatre this year. The show was shortened and modified quite a bit into a 75 minute production with minimal sets and props, and there were no children in the cast for safety reasons. That being said, many of the cast members were returning performers from years past and they all did a wonderful job with the show. I do hope that it will return to the full production in the future, but this was enjoyable under the circumstances. After the show we went for a late lunch down the street at the Old Ebbitt Grill, the oldest saloon in the city. This has also been a part of our holiday tradition for many years and is one of our favorite Washington D.C. institutions. The food was great and it rounded out the day quite nicely. Back at home we played a few rounds of Lattice Hawaii, one of our old pandemic lock-down favorite board games.

Friday we headed out to Rockville in the evening for dinner at Miller’s Ale House followed by the Rockville Civic Ballet’s performance of A Nutcracker…

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The Road Ahead

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The Road Ahead

Hello Everyone!

My departure is getting closer by the day. It’s been a very busy week of trying to get everything ready and organized and packed, but I’m getting there. So far I’ve gotten many of my belongings loaded up and it still feels like there’s a ton of room in Shadow Catcher to spare – which is definitely the plan. Over the last year I’ve rethought a lot of my organizing strategy and so far it all seems to be coming together quite nicely. I have had a few family things come up this week which may delay my departure by a day or two, but I have every intention of being on the road by this time next week. I’m writing this post to make a very brief introduction of myself for those who have joined us recently, to take an introspective look back at some of the things I’ve learned and decided over the last year and a half and to look at the road ahead and where it’s going to lead me from here.

A Brief Introduction

So especially for those new to this blog: welcome. I’m thrilled that you’ve decided to come along for the ride. My name is Mike and I was born and raised here in Washington D.C. where I’ve been waiting out this pandemic for the last 14 months. I am a Penn State graduate with a degree in Wildlife and Fishery Science and a minor in American History. Putting those two interests/passions together, I became a small-group adventure camping Tour Guide back in 2000 at the age of 24. Since then, I’ve spent 14 years on the road guiding tours to every corner of the U.S. and Canada – from San Diego to Nova Scotia and Key West to the Arctic Ocean. During the early part of my career, I took my winters off to travel the world. At some point I looked up and I was 30.

Not too long thereafter, I decided to settle down a bit and see what life was like off the road. I moved to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to help reopen the public school system there. I spent two years in the Big Easy and then continued teaching for a bit here at home in Washington before heading off to teach in rural Japanese public schools for two years. I enjoyed teaching and I loved working with children, but I didn’t love being inside all the time and I didn’t find that the M-F workweek suited me too well. I didn’t like counting down the hours of the day or week and I couldn’t get much of a break over the weekend (especially as a teacher as there was always something that needed to get done before Monday). I started to think of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and what came out of that very long internal discussion was this blog. I began planning and working on it in Japan and it started to come more clearly into focus. I decided I wanted to buy a van and live in it while I traveled to each U.S. state and spent at least a month learning what made each unique and individual. I bought my first DSLR camera (at a pawn shop in Japan) and started taking photography a heck of a lot more seriously.

From Japan, life blew me down to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a year and a half and then I returned home and started guiding tours again, saving all of my money to try and get this project and my dream off the ground. Sometime in there, I turned 40.

I bought Shadow Catcher, my beautiful 1998 Coach House 192KS Class B Camper Van, in 2017 and got to work outfitting it and getting it ready to hit the road - which I finally did in November of that year. Over the next 18 months I traveled to 10 states in the Deep South and Appalachia, taking photos, exploring, producing my history podcast American Anthology, and trying to live out the dream in my head. It’s been a challenging but amazing time.

I thought that I would be able to make enough money to keep this project going through advertisements and selling photos and maybe some freelance writing gigs or photo shoots along the way. That turned out to be an almost total bust, but I’ve been grateful to go and pick up some guide jobs when the money has gotten tight and be able to stay on the road. At the end of the day, it turned out I was pretty okay with being an unsuccessful travel blogger!

In January of 2020, I headed out again with the goal of crossing the country through the southern states to California, working the summer tour season out there, and then making my way back through the next layer of states up. I had an amazing month in Mississippi and had begun my long journey around Texas when the pandemic started turning up the heat. Through a lot of thinking, conversations with friends (including one who had gotten the virus early and really struggled through) and with my mother who is a nurse, and some serious soul searching on the beaches of South Padre Island, I decided to turn my headlights towards home. And here I’ve been ever since.

What I’ve Learned From My Time At Home

It’s sure been an interesting and challenging year for us all. I had no idea when I came home that I’d end up being here for as long as I have been, but I feel very blessed to have had somewhere to land during this time. As much as this wasn’t where I planned to be this year, I certainly tried to make the most of it and got to spend a lot of time with my mom and stepfather which has been great. Traveling around the area with my mom every week has helped keep me calm, let me keep practicing my photography and definitely allowed me to explore my own hometown and surrounds more deeply than I ever have before. I have been telling people for years both in this space and elsewhere that there is always something new to explore and it can be closer than you think. This year we’ve tested that theory and to be honest there are still plenty of places we never got to this year and look forward to visiting in the future.

Over the last 10 months, I got to be the best friend to a 2 year-old boy. This has been a life-altering experience for us both. I’ve dedicated plenty of space to my adventures with Mason on this site over the last year, so there’s no need to go into any great detail here. Getting older and with no kids of my own, it’s been truly special to be able to watch someone grow and learn and laugh on a daily basis for so long. We got to see the seasons change all the way through and discover things about the world and about ourselves in the process…

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D.C. Chronicles - Final Update From Home!

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D.C. Chronicles - Final Update From Home!

Hello Everyone. It’s wonderful to be writing to you all today. The weather is warming up here in Washington, and I’m getting everything ready for my departure which is rapidly approaching and now just under two weeks away. This will be the last of my updates from home as by next week I hope to be writing about the journey ahead, for which I am very excited. I’ve talked to some of my Michigan friends and gotten some great recommendations (and some from you guys as well), and can’t wait for a summer full of hiking, photography, small towns, state parks and the beautiful lighthouses that run up and down the coasts of the Great Lakes. It sounds divine right about now and as temperatures creep up to 90 here in DC, it’s about time for me to head for a cooler climate anyway. It’s certainly been a busy few weeks here at home, but a good couple of weeks as well.

We celebrated Eastern Orthodox Easter on May 2nd according to the old calendar. We had a wonderful surprise with a last-minute visit from my brother who took the train down from New Hampshire to be with us. We watched the midnight church service online as we did last year and had a wonderful meal together as well. Although we missed having my niece and nephew here, it was nice to have my brother join us.

That weekend we also went to Revolutionary War Days at Mount Vernon in Virginia. It was a very busy, but also very well done Revolutionary War reenactment on the fields near George Washington’s home. In addition to all the marching and shooting, there was food and music and stunning views out over the Potomac River and we had a really good time.

Later that week, my folks celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. I cooked them up a nice meal featuring fresh trout and scallops and my stepfather got a delicious cake from a bakery down in Virginia and we had champagne and a nice evening. The next day we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with Mexican food, music and a fun game of Mexican Train (dominoes). The following Sunday was Mother’s Day and I cooked us up a delightful Sunday brunch for the occasion. It was definitely a week full of cooking for me, but I really enjoyed it and we had some delicious meals for sure.

For Mother’s Day I got my mom a night out of the city which we all enjoyed last week. We packed up the car and headed out to Lost River State Park in West Virginia where I got us a really nice old log cabin for the night. On the way there we stopped at the Hunter’s Head Tavern out in Upperville, Virginia, a delightful farm-to-table English-style country pub. When we got to the park we checked out Lighthorse Harry Lee’s old cabin near the old spring, and then settled in for a few beers around an afternoon campfire

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Updates From Home

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Updates From Home

Hello Everyone! Long time, no see. I can’t believe that three weeks have gone past since I sent my last newsletter. It felt like 2020 lasted for 5 years, but now 2021 is blowing past as May is right around the corner. I’ve missed writing D.C. Chronicles these last couple of weeks, but I’ve been so busy with all of my other projects that it has been good to back off from that a little. I did want to check in with you all though and update you on what I’ve been up to and some of the places I’ve been and things I’ve been doing.

First and foremost, I did get the second dose of my vaccine and have had enough time pass since my shot to be considered fully vaccinated. My second shot left me fatigued for half a day, which seemed like a small price to pay. If you’re on the fence about the vaccine, please go discuss it with your doctor or pharmacist but from my perspective it was quick and relatively painless. Most of my family and friends have gotten at least one shot at this point, and for that I am very grateful.

Mason and I have continued our daily romps around his neighborhood. Spring is in full effect here in Washington with current highs in the 70s and 80s and he’s enjoyed getting his water shoes on and his feet in the creek. We are both thoroughly enjoying the flowers, bumblebees and butterflies that have come back into our lives. Mason really enjoys blowing the dandelion seeds we find out into the world, and I am enjoying it too. We have added several new walking trails to our portfolio, some of which are really great – especially Dunbarton Park which has some nice quiet meadows (in the heart of the city). Our biggest highlight of the last couple of weeks has been turning over logs in the woods. We have found a bunch of salamanders, millipedes, worms, roly-polies, centipedes and even a shrew (which scared the bejesus out of me). It’s been pretty cool and Mason has gotten his hands as dirty as I’ve ever seen them but he’s sure enjoying it. This will be our last full week together as he starts school next Tuesday. I will miss his company tremendously, but it’s time for him to make friends his own age and for me to get what I need to get done so that I can back on the road in 5 short weeks.

Speaking of which, that is still my plan – a June 1st departure from Washington with a quick stop to see my dad in West Virginia before continuing on to Michigan.

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 52

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 52

Hello Everyone! Welcome to the last weekly installment of D.C. Chronicles as Episode 52 will bring us to a full year discussing life at home for me here in Washington D.C. in the midst of the worldwide pandemic. If you’ve been following closely, you know that this is actually a bonus week since I did do one installment of This Week on the Road in the midst of it all when we went to visit my brother in New Hampshire. It’s been a year of ups and downs, highs and lows, but we’ve gotten through it together. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to those of you who’ve stuck by me through all of this. I hope that in the next couple of months I can get back to the journey this was supposed to be all about and I sincerely hope you’ll come along for the ride.

It seems like a fitting week to end on as by this time next week I should have my second vaccine dose in my arm and be ready to turn my attention full-time to getting myself and my van ready for a June 1st departure. Most of the people in my inner circle of family and friends have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine and I know it will be available for everyone who hasn’t very soon. On the other side of things, I lost a very old friend of mine this week to complications due to Covid. He wasn’t a close friend, but someone I had worked with at summer camp over 20 years ago who I stayed in contact with via Facebook. When I got the devastating news of his death (he was only 53), I sure was happy I had made an extra effort to go to his 50th birthday party and catch up in person after many years. I hate that this happened, and so close to the finish line, but it has definitely reminded me that life is precious and to live it while we can and to make the effort to attend people’s special moments whenever possible. In the future, when I look back on this past year, it will be impossible not to remember that this pandemic took the lives of my Aunt Jayne and my old friend Mike (who we all knew as “Mud”). May all of those we lost this year rest in peace.

While I can and will mourn the lives claimed by the pandemic, I will also look back at this year with a great deal of fondness. I got to spend the year with my mom and stepdad, celebrating what we could, when we could and as often as we could. I know that Washington D.C. is not where my destiny is and it will soon be time for me to go, but we’ve made the most of it and I’ll never regret the time I’ve gotten to spend with them. I’m especially glad I was here to help them with my mom’s recovery from her recent hip replacement. I know they would have gotten through it without me, but it was still good to be able to lend a hand. My mom got me out of the house 2 months into the pandemic when I was losing my mind and we took a quick trip to Manassas National Battlefield in Virginia. That trip inspired an in-depth exploration of the eastern theater of the Civil War, a look at Washington’s oldest homes, and winding trips down Maryland’s scenic byways. We’ve always been able to go on trips together and explore and chat and have a good time and it’s been wonderful to do that as often as we have this year. I will miss our weekly adventures together. This past week we journeyed out to Point of Rocks, a small rail-town in Maryland. It has a beautiful Gothic-style train station, sits on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and saw some action during the Civil War. It was fun to walk around the area (slowly on her new hip), and have so much background knowledge to the things we saw and read.

Of course, as you know, the most wonderful part of the last year was spending so much time with young Mason. We’ve been together pretty much every weekday for the last 9 months, and we make quite the team. I’ve taught him a lot this year, and he’s taught me at least as much in return. He starts each day with a fresh slate and seems to live completely in each and every moment. He’s not regretful of the past or scared of the future, he lives for today. He’s insatiably curious about everything we come across in our daily adventures, and hardly ever complained as we ventured out in heat and cold and snow. He loves books…

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 51

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 51

Hello Everyone. It’s been a year now. A year this past Monday to be exact. A year at home here in Washington D.C. That wasn’t the plan, but life is what happens when you’re making other plans, right? I don’t regret coming home and it’s actually been a great year, all things considered. It’s been a year of exploring the region with my mom and learning a lot of things I never knew about my own hometown. A year of Friday night parties in the basement, movie nights and watching the seasons change. I’ve spent 8 months of that year watching Mason grow from 2 to 3 and laugh and learn and fall down and get back up. I’ve also been able to watch the young man I tutor build his academic confidence and helped in some small way to move him toward his goals. It’s been a year of rethinking and retooling my plans going forward and deciding to put my own personal happiness above any other measure of success (more on my plans coming soon). It hasn’t all been great, though. My personal health, both physical and mental, has suffered through all of this. My van sat unused for many months because of a broken brake line, but has gotten a lot of love and attention since. My podcast has gone dark for over a year now, but I hope to revive it in about two months. Looking back at the end of the year, though, this time will only be somewhere between 1-2% of my life – just a flash in the grand scheme of things, another chapter of many from a very blessed life. Also at the end of this year I’m very aware of just how fortunate I am to have had what I’ve had this year. It’s certainly been a strange year to try and run a travel blog. I’ve travelled when and where I could and tried to share those trips with you here, but it certainly wasn’t what it would have been without the pandemic. I certainly appreciate you all for sticking with me through all of this and while next week will mark the end of this series, soon thereafter I will start fresh with new features and plans for my upcoming departure. Pandemics and politics will disappear from this space and be replaced with beautiful photos and interesting history. I can’t wait.

This week Mason and I welcomed the bumblebees back into our lives. We’ve been talking about them since they left us last October, looking forward to the day when they returned. These last few weeks it’s been “almost” and “not yet”, but on Friday we walked out into a beautiful sunny morning and there were a half-dozen bees right there in the front yard of his new house. That same day we saw a butterfly, a spider and some water-bugs as well, all very good indicators that spring is upon us. He’s learning the names of some of the flowers that are coming out, too, and I’m happy I have a great consultant (my mom) to make sure I get them straight myself. He’s starting to make some associations, too, which are pretty cool – he called buttercups “cups butter” and dandelions simply “lions” (which they resemble when he pointed that out). We were able to get into the water that day, too, and we both had so much fun watching the fish, throwing rocks and enjoying the sun. The day before, Mason got his first time-out from me though. He hit me in the face in a less-than-accidental way which I couldn’t overlook, so I sat him in the corner facing the wall for 5 minutes. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen and broke my heart, but I think that it’s a lesson he has to learn. We talked about it afterwards and hugged it out, though. Growing up sure is tough.

This week, we’ve returned to his old house for a while so their new house can get some necessary work done before they can move in for good. It’s been good to be back in the old neighborhood, see our old friends the stone animal lawn ornaments, and visit our old haunts now heading into spring. Today he was back in the water, splashing around and throwing rocks and as happy as a clam.

The cherry blossoms are in full bloom here in Washington, which is always one of my favorite times of year to be here. While the ones everyone wants to see are downtown near the monuments, there are wonderful cherry blossoms all over the city. They make me feel happy. In addition, the magnolia in our front yard has bloomed magnificently this year. Some years the cold and wind will keep it from a full bloom, but this year everything came together just right.

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 50

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 50

Hello Everyone. I’m officially halfway to being fully vaccinated! I’m very happy and excited about that and it certainly has been the highlight of my week. I got my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine yesterday at the Washington Convention Center, and it was smooth and easy and I already have my second dose scheduled in just three weeks. I feel very relieved at this having happened and just a week shy of my one-year anniversary of being home here in Washington. I was happy to read today that one in four Americans have now gotten at least one dose of a vaccine and was overjoyed that this long year will soon be behind us to some degree. Beyond that, Mason’s parents sold their old house this week, Mason and I continued on our adventures in Barnaby Woods and spring is most definitely in the air here in Washington.

This week, Mason’s parents and I began discussing the inevitable end of our adventures together. He’ll be 3 in less than two months, and with my pending departure from the city it will soon be time for us to go our own ways. As happy and excited as I am to be back on my own and back on the road, it won’t be easy to leave him. Spending the last eight months with him has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. Challenging, yes, but rewarding beyond my wildest imagination. On Monday, he and I were down by Rock Creek and he pointed and said “Uncle Mike! Ducks!”. I asked him what kind of ducks they were and he told me they were mallards and that the daddy had a green head and the mommy had a brown head. It was a pretty awesome moment and caused me to reflect on how much he’s learned and how much we’ve experienced together this year. We have only had our books and the park as inspiration, but I think we’ve done pretty well together. Just today, we were sitting on the front porch swing at his new house and he pointed to a wind chime I hadn’t seen before and showed me there was a deer on it. He then showed me the antlers and it made me smile because I know a lot of adults who don’t know the difference between horns and antlers, and he does. He can also tell the difference between a dog track and a cat track, between a cherry blossom and a magnolia and between a red-headed and a pileated woodpecker. We’ve watched the changing of the seasons together. And while I’ve taught him many things about nature, he’s taught me a lot about construction and big trucks and reminded me how magical the world can be when you’re experiencing it for the first time and your eyes are only 3 feet above the ground. Somewhere in there he’s learned to count, learned his ABCs, and how to use a toilet. All-in-all, I’d call it a year to hang our hat on.

For the last few weeks, whenever Mason hears his parents walking around the house, he looks me dead in the eyes and says “I hear cheetahs”. It’s the funniest thing and makes me laugh every time. His parents have set up a sandbox for him in their backyard which is definitely a winner. He loves shoveling sand from one place to another and then dumping it out. He also has his own slide and swing set back there which we’ve been making good use of. This week he’s started using one of my catch-phrases “how wonderful” which comes out as “how won-de-duh” but still makes me laugh and I think it’s a great expression for anyone. I’ve also been reading him some Disney books this week which my parents read to me as a kid and the images bring back a lot of memories from my own childhood. We’ve carved out a special nook in the attic to read on rainy days and it’s been amazing.

The weather has been pretty great this past week here in Washington. The cherry blossoms have started to bloom in this part of the city, though they are still in their buds downtown by the memorials. My mother’s magnolia in the front yard is about a week away from full bloom. Her forsythias are out and the daffodils are doing well too. Spring is such a wonderful and hopeful time, this year more than most. I’ve spent as much time as I could outside this week, enjoying sunny days, later sunsets and the fresh air the season brings.

I’ve also been spending some time this week making real plans for my June departure, with Michigan set in my sights as my first destination…

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