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This Week on the Road - April 5th-12th

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This Week on the Road - April 5th-12th

Hello Everyone!

I’m writing to you this week from grey and chilly San Diego. I began this week with a trip to Catalina Island and have spent the rest of it moving down the coast and catching up with friends along the way. It’s been great to see so many familiar faces and catch up on what they’ve been up to, but I haven’t gotten any photos edited or published this week as a result. I do have some great photo posts lined up though and I will definitely get to a few of them this week. I’ve had some fun adventures this week but it’s also been fairly quiet.

I was up early on Wednesday and off to Catalina Island from Long Beach. Parking at the terminal wasn’t cheap, but it was quick and easy and very convenient to the boat. The Catalina Express is huge and very comfortable and stable. It was a beautiful sunny morning, so I nabbed a seat on the top deck and got a little bit of sun on the way out to the island. When we arrived in Avalon (the main town on Catalina), I was a bit overwhelmed with how crowded it was. There was a cruise ship in that day so there were hundreds of people going here and there and everywhere but the crowds would die down as the day progressed. I had a room booked at the Catalina Island Inn, so I popped in to see if I could leave my bag there for the day. They couldn’t have been nicer or more accommodating and even took my number so they could call me when my room was ready. I left my bag, took my camera and headed out into the day.

I very quickly started to feel the charms of Avalon despite the hustle and bustle of a busy day. Catalina is known for its glazed clay tiles and they adorned buildings, benches and fountains in colorful mosaics. I wandered down the waterfront and past the Tuna Club and the Yacht Club, both open to members only but both housed in beautiful old buildings that I enjoyed looking at. Then I came to the Casino which towers above the town of Avalon like the Coliseum in Ancient Rome, visible from almost everywhere you go. Built almost a hundred years ago, the Casino has never been a place for gambling, but rather takes its name from an old Italian word for a small house, but which generally meant a place to socialize and dance. I took a tour of the Casino which, while it cost more than my visit to the Hearst Castle, was excellent. Downstairs is home to a grand theater which was the first theater in the country built specifically to show “talkies” or movies with sound. It’s still used as a theater today, showing movies on Friday and Saturday nights. My tour also included the dressing rooms and the incredible upstairs ballroom – the largest circular, free standing ballroom in the world which has a 180 foot diameter dancefloor and can accommodate 3,000 dancers (which it does on New Year’s Eve and other special occasions).

The Casino was built by William Wrigley Jr. who had purchased almost all of Catalina Island back in 1919 with money made from his chewing gum empire. Wrigley was responsible for most of what we see on Catalina today, including the 85% of the island controlled by the Catalina Conservancy which will remain undeveloped in perpetuity. Wrigley owned the Chicago Cubs who played (and still play) at Wrigley Field and for many years they had their Spring Training on Catalina Island…

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An Update from the Road - September 29th

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An Update from the Road - September 29th

Hey y’all! Gosh, it’s been awhile. My summer has been really busy and hectic, but it’s finally starting to slow down a little bit. I just got back from a two week trip to Montana and Wyoming and the leaves are already changing up there. Football is back on the television and pumpkin-spiced everything is showing up in stores and on menus. That must mean fall has arrived. While I’m going to continue working through November, my trips will be more spread out and I’ll have a little bit more time to catch up with you guys and on some of my other projects. It’s been a busy summer, but a good one and it’s taken me to beautiful places with wonderful people.

When last I wrote, I was on my way to Northern California for a reunion with a bunch of my old tour guiding friends. It was a truly magical 5 days in the redwoods in a beautiful, secluded, private camp with a hundred really wonderful people. Some were old friends I haven’t seen in 20 years while others I knew only by reputation. We laughed a lot and shared stories of our similar but vastly different experiences on the roads of North America (and beyond, for some). It’s been rare that I’ve felt so much a part of something, and my 20 years of involvement with the company meant I could bridge a lot of gaps and fill in a lot of missing chapters to the story. The founders of the company were there, and they shared their story about the humble beginnings of TrekAmerica way back in 1972. It was fascinating to hear how it all began, and we had tour guides there from every season from the very start to the very end, when the company closed its doors during the pandemic. I’m glad we had a full five days out there as a weekend just wouldn’t have been enough.

I took an extra day after the reunion to make my way back down the coast and be sure that Shadow Catcher put some miles on. She handled like a dream and it was nice to be driving her down the Pacific coast. As far as I know, it was the first time she’d seen the Pacific and it meant that after 5 years we had finally made it all the way across the country together from sea to shining sea.

After the reunion, I returned to San Francisco and ran a quick little tour out to Yosemite. While on the trail, I ran into two friends I had taken on tour way back in 2015. It was great to see them and to catch up for a few minutes and reminisce about our trip together.

My next trip was an enjoyable San Francisco/Yosemite/Lake Tahoe combination with a fun group of British passengers in their 30s and 40s. The trip included a full day of sightseeing in the city, a great sunset cruise on Lake Tahoe and a stand-up paddleboard lesson

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This Week on the Road - March 30th - April 6th

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This Week on the Road - March 30th - April 6th

Hello Everyone! It’s been another amazing week out here in New Mexico and I can’t wait to tell you about it, but I’m going to start out this week with my most exciting news. As most of you know, I will be going back to my regular gig as an overland tour guide this summer. I’ll be working for a company called Incredible Adventures which is currently being run by my last two managers from my old company. I got a call from one of them yesterday with some thoughts on my start-up tour and I will be heading to Hawaii next month. Of all the places I thought I might go this summer, Hawaii was not on my list and I am so excited for this opportunity. It will be in the midst of my time in Arizona, but I will fly out and then back and be able to finish up my time there before heading on to San Francisco to begin my season in earnest. I am definitely looking forward to walking barefoot on a white sand beach and swimming in beautiful turquoise water. So with mai tais and sea turtles dancing in my head, let me tell you about my exciting week here in New Mexico.

When I left you last week, I was planning on heading to a place called Meow Wolf the following morning. Meow Wolf was an incredible experience which is really hard to explain. It’s essentially a big funhouse, full of fascinating and beautiful art installations. You enter it through the front door of a Victorian house and then you choose your own adventure from there. You can go through the fireplace into an ice cave with a mammoth skeleton which you can play like a xylophone. You can go through the refrigerator which takes you to a strange vacationland. You can go through the bookcase and come out in a circus-like room. You end up in treehouses and lighthouses and flying buses. It really is quite a place to experience and I was there for probably three hours and continued finding new rooms and passages right up until the end, and I’m sure I missed some along the way. It was weird and wonderful and I would definitely recommend it if you are ever in Santa Fe (or Denver or Las Vegas).

My Thursday afternoon was definitely one of ups and downs. I got a call from my dad telling me he had fallen and broken his ankle. He’ll be okay and is in a recovery facility, but I worry about some of these places and what floats around in them with Covid only being one such worry. On the flip-side, I got a nice email telling me one of my photos has been accepted to be published in a book of hiking trails from National Geographic called 100 Trails, 5000 Ideas. As a photographer, National Geographic is obviously one of the biggest names in the industry and while it will be a small photo in a big book, I’m still very happy to be included. In the afternoon I headed over to visit the Montezuma Masonic Lodge, where the gentleman I met in Taos told me I could find Kit Carson’s rifle. I met several of the Masons who were a part of the Lodge when I walked in, and they were incredibly warm and welcoming. The Secretary, Don, told me the whole story of the rifle and how Kit himself had instructed that it be hand delivered to the Lodge upon his death. It was, and they’ve been caring for it ever since. I had to put on a pair of gloves to hold it, but it was amazing to have this piece of history in my hands. I’m very grateful to the gentlemen of the Montezuma Lodge for their hospitality and all of the fascinating stories they shared with me while I was there. I decided to celebrate the day with a few beers at La Fonda, a wonderful must-see hotel right off the central Plaza in downtown Santa Fe. Mark has been bartending at La Fonda for years and it’s always a pleasure to stop in and say hello and have a drink in historic surroundings. From there, I said goodbye to Santa Fe and headed up the highway to the Buffalo Thunder casino for the night.

I started my day on Friday at Bandelier National Monument, not far up the road. Due to its proximity to Santa Fe it’s a busy park and it was fairly crowded when I was there, but there were some great old ruins to poke around at the base of some beautiful cliffs. When I had had my fill of the ruins, I had some lunch and then set off up the other side of the canyon on the Frijoles Rim Trail. It was a wonderful and beautiful trail and, in contrast to the valley, I didn’t see a single person along the whole hike. The trail took me up to the top of the canyon and along its rim for a mile or so and there were wonderful views down the canyon and off to the mountains in the distance. When I made it back to my van, we were off and running to Los Alamos to have a short look around Manhattan Project National Historical Park before it closed. I had been to another section of this park several years ago in Oak Ridge, Tennessee where they had enriched the uranium which was then transported to Los Alamos and built into the atomic bombs. They tested their first bomb at the Trinity Site down near what is now White Sands National Park…

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This Week on the Road - March 23rd-30th

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This Week on the Road - March 23rd-30th

Hello Everyone! It’s been a wildlife viewing week out here on the roads of Northern New Mexico. I’ve seen eagles and hawks in the air, deer, bighorn sheep and pronghorns in the fields and lots of prairie dogs running around searching for their underground tunnels. I like seeing wildlife. These animals make me smile. I’ve actually done a lot of smiling this week as I’ve found myself in wild places surrounded by beautiful landscapes and breathtaking sunrises and sunsets. I’ve managed to keep most of the demons in my head at bay this week and have felt pretty good all around. The weather has generally been great this week as well which hasn’t hurt. Warm, sunny days and cool, pleasant nights work really well for me. I do find that I need to change from shorts to long pants very soon after the sun goes down – it doesn’t take long to cool down in this dry air. It’s hard to believe I’ve been in New Mexico for over a month at this point, but I’m starting to make plans for the final stretch of my time here and then I’m off to Arizona for the rest of my winter/spring. My month in New Mexico has been special and memorable and I definitely understand why they call it The Land of Enchantment.

When I left you last week, I was in tiny Clayton, New Mexico in the far northeast of the state. I did head out to Clayton Lake State Park that evening which has a fascinating “pad” of over 200 dinosaur footprints from when the area was the muddy shoreline of a vast inland sea. Some of the footprints were very pronounced in the evening light and while it was very windy out there it was still really cool to see. I decided to spend the night at one of the campgrounds by the lake and ended up having the whole place to myself which was really nice. It was windy and cold, but I stayed out to watch the sunset and then popped out periodically to check out the stars which were really bright and mesmerizing.

Thursday morning I stuck around my campsite for a bit, enjoying my coffee and the warm sun on my face by the lake. I’ve been rereading the book Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides which essentially tells the history of early American New Mexico. It’s an excellent book, and I’m enjoying it even more now that I’ve been to a lot of the places he writes about. A pair of bald eagles were cruising around the lake while I read which was awesome. Eventually I pulled up stakes and headed back into town to take a few more photos and then got on the road west to Capulin Volcano National Monument. I had noticed on my way out to Clayton Lake the evening before that the landscape was much more volcanic in that part of the state and it became even more pronounced as I went west. I drove past Sierra Grande, which is an incredible example of a shield volcano and then headed towards Capulin which is one of the country’s best specimens of a cinder cone volcano. This volatile and quick-forming volcano (which looks like what you imagine in your head when you think of a volcano) formed sometime around 60,000 years ago. The fertile soil it produced made for some fine grazing land so ranchers have used the land around the volcano for centuries and its distinct and easily recognizable shape made it a landmark on the Santa Fe Trail. Today, you can drive right to the top which is pretty cool but probably not for the faint of heart as there is a pretty severe drop-off and not many guardrails on the road. Once you get up there, though, you are rewarded with remarkable views in all directions and you can hike around the rim and down into the crater. You can look east at the seemingly endless plains stretching to the horizon and west to where they run into the Rocky Mountains. When I left the park, I headed north to Folsom and planned on taking the road over Johnson Mesa to Raton so I could drive past the Folsom Man Site, an archaeological area similar to the Clovis Man Site I talked about last week when I visited the Blackwater Draw museum. Somehow I took a wrong turn and ended up going a half hour down the wrong road but it was a beautiful road and a nice detour. When I finally figured out I had gone astray, I returned to Folsom and found the road I wanted to take. It was poorly marked and when I made the turn, I found it was also closed. Two hours later, I was back at Capulin but thankfully it was only a short drive from there to Raton. Raton is a cute little town on the railroad line with an old theatre and an older train station. I did wander around town a little bit but I was pretty tired and didn’t find out much about it. I stopped in for a great craft beer and one of the best burritos I’ve ever had at the Cellar Brewery (which is actually on the first floor, but they brew the beer in the basement) and then called it a night.

On Friday morning I headed just down the road to the town of Cimarron. Their sign reads “Where the Plains Meet the Mountains” and you can look west from town and see the Rockies emerging from the flat plains. Cimarron is also home to the Philmont Scout Ranch, a massive wilderness area donated by oilman Waite Phillips to the Boy Scouts in 1938. Way back in 1992, I came to Philmont on my very first trip to New Mexico and my first trip anywhere west of the Mississippi. My Boy Scout troop spent 10 days backpacking through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and covered about a hundred miles on foot if my memory serves. It was an amazing experience for a city kid like me and a formative one…

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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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A Look Back at 2021 and a Look Ahead at 2022

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A Look Back at 2021 and a Look Ahead at 2022

Happy New Year Everyone! I wanted to take a few minutes this week to take a look back at the year gone by and a look ahead at what I’m planning for 2022. It’s definitely been a year of ups and downs, but despite the many challenges, 2021 was a pretty good year for me. I’m hoping to build on that momentum and make sure the year ahead is even better. Before I get into the heart of this post, though, I wanted to take a minute to thank you all for your support over the years and especially through this last stretch. I didn’t know how I was going to keep my little travel blog going through the pandemic as I was at home in Washington for well over a year. Publishing this newsletter every week pushed me to try and get out and do something every week as I tried to make the most of the situation. Your comments, notes and emails really helped me through those trying times, and I wanted to say thank you very much. We did get out to see some pretty interesting and beautiful places this summer and fall, though, didn’t we? And hopefully I’ll be hitting the road again soon to even more beautiful places out west. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

2021 began in the midst of the pandemic. By the time the new year rolled around, I had been home for almost eight months. I even convinced my folks to stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve for the first time in many years to wave goodbye to 2020 and all of the challenges it had brought us. From the previous July until this past May, I spent my days with my friends’ two year-old son, Mason, going on adventures near their home in Glover Park. He was such a little trooper and we would go outside almost every day, no matter what the weather was like. We had dozens of different routes which took us to hundreds of different places, all within about a mile or two of his house. He was usually one step behind me with a fistful of worms and a brain full of questions. It was amazing what we got into during that time, but we both learned a lot about the world during those 10 months. I’ve done a lot of different things in my life, but the year I spent helping raise Mason was definitely the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had. I will always remember the sound of his little feet in the morning running out to greet me and the feel of his little hand in mine. Meanwhile, my mother and I would try and get out of town every week and go on at least one adventure of our own. We saw more of Washington D.C. than either of us imagined existed and traveled to small towns and down back roads in Maryland and Virginia as well. We watched movies every Wednesday and had parties in the basement every Friday. We brewed beer, played games and cooked all kinds of different foods and I got back to playing the violin after 35 years. I got a new compass and ran some orienteering courses for the first time in 30 years. Both felt really good. At home, we celebrated everything I could come up with, from Christmas in July to Up Helly Aa. Looking back, there are a lot of projects I wish I’d gotten to and a lot of other things I wish I had spent more time on during those pandemic months, but at the end of the day I got to spend a lot of time with my best friends, my family and a wonderfully curious little boy who really needed a friend through it all. They were some of the best days of my life…

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This Week on the Road - September 16th-23rd

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This Week on the Road - September 16th-23rd

Hello Everyone! First and foremost this week, thank you all for your concern over my health last week. It was definitely just a cold and passed in a couple of days. It’s not fun to be sick on the road, but I was happy it was neither too hot to hang out in my van nor too cold to hang out outside of it making it far easier to get past. It’s been a beautiful week up here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and a much quieter week than I’ve had all summer. As you all know better than anyone, I’ve been going pretty full-on since the beginning of June and while it’s been a wonderful summer, taking it easy for a few days has been really nice. It’s mostly been a week of fishing, reading and relaxing which I’ll get to in a minute, but first a couple of things that have been on my mind this week.

I saw a sign outside a restaurant this week which said “Money is not free!! This is NOT the American way! Please go to work. Be an American! Help your community, get a job!” I found this particularly offensive outside of a restaurant. You may not know that I spent a good chunk of my life working in restaurants, so I know a fair bit about the industry. Minimum wage in restaurants in the U.S. is $2.13 an hour with Wisconsin’s minimum wage slightly higher at $2.33. That means for a 40 hour week, a restaurant pays a server less than a hundred dollars. That money goes to pay that server’s taxes so in however many years I worked in restaurants, I never once received a paycheck that didn’t have $0.00 on it. You are dependent on a custom of tipping in this country and people’s individual upbringing, understanding and whim. That custom dictates people leave 15-20% of their bill to their server (which is taxed). From those tips, the server has to give a percentage to the bartender and the busboys. More recently, restaurants have decided to dip even further into their servers’ pockets and have them tip out the host, food runners and even the kitchen staff (and have cut those other employees’ salaries accordingly). Instead of a more equitable and reasonable sharing of their own profits (which would cause people to work harder and be more loyal) they’ve decided that servers should share around money left for them by their customers instead. The last time I worked at a restaurant, I was expected to “tip out” 5% of my sales or a quarter to a third of my tips, depending on how generous people were that day. And now restaurant owners have the gall to complain that servers don’t want to work under these conditions and for these paltry wages. They are calling them lazy and un-American. I find it highly offensive and you should too. I have seen “Help Wanted” and “Now Hiring” signs on pretty much every restaurant I’ve walked past this summer, but none are offering $10/hour (some may be, but if they were they would advertise it) and I guarantee that none are offering profit-sharing or benefits. A reckoning in the American restaurant industry is long overdue, and maybe it’s actually upon us. Unlike factory jobs, service jobs can’t be outsourced to other parts of the world (or believe me, they would be). People might take to ordering off of an iPad at their table, but I don’t see that working out so well even at McDonalds. If restaurants want people to work for their business, they may just have to pay people more than slave-wages and stop dipping so deep into their employee’s pockets to pay their other staff. Or they can continue running short-staffed and losing money hand-over-fist which is what they’re doing now, waiting for federal pandemic unemployment to run out so they can get their servants… I mean servers back. I feel for people who are struggling keeping their businesses going, I really do. But in an industry which pays someone two dollars an hour and expects their loyalty and dedication I have my issues. I saw this sign in the parking lot of a restaurant and pulled right out again taking my business elsewhere.

My second issue which came up this week had to do with masks and businesses (I know, you’re probably as tired as I am of hearing about it so I’ll make this short). Here in Northern Wisconsin, the only places I’ve seen mask “mandates” are at the post office and the library. The Indian Reservations have them as well, but those are governed under Tribal Law and there is no arguing them. I have, however, seen many businesses which, in typical Wisconsin fashion, kindly request that all customers wear a mask. They’re not forcing anyone to do anything, just asking that people respect their wishes to enter their business. I have been shocked to walk into many of these places (with my mask on, of course) and see nobody else in the whole place wearing one. If I ask you to take off your shoes when you come into my house, you don’t have to do so but it makes you a real a**hole if you don’t. The same goes for going unmasked in a store that requests you do so. I don’t remember ever seeing anything else in my life that turned so many decent people into stubborn jerks.

See what happens when I slow down? Too much time to think about these things for sure. After writing last week’s post, I did spend some more time in Rhinelander and really enjoyed it. They’ve definitely gone “all-in” on their love for the mythical beast the hodag. There’s Hodag Park and the Hodag Festival and their high school mascot is also the hodag. You can get Hodag Blood Ale at the brewery and there are whole stores dedicated to selling hodag memorabilia. It’s fun, but a little over-the-top, especially in a town with more to offer. But seeing the hodag around wherever I looked made me smile and I enjoyed my time in Rhinelander.

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In Focus: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

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In Focus: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Stretched between the towns of Munising and Grand Marais along the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a magical place filled with breathtaking scenery. From historical lighthouses to picture-perfect waterfalls, this small and often overlooked unit of the National Park Service is sure to have something for everyone. I enjoyed hiking many miles of trails along beaches and through the woods, past the waterfalls and overlooks that have captured peoples’ attention for hundreds of years. During the lumbering era, the area was clear cut, but the forest has regenerated in the last hundred years and is healthy again. It’s no wonder that Pictured Rocks was America’s first National Lakeshore, gaining this new designation in 1966. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a must-see while visiting Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and a definite highlight of my time in the state. To truly see the rocks themselves, you do need to get on a boat and see them from the water. I chose the Sunset Spray Falls tour with Pictured Rocks Cruises and while I think the boat could have been better suited to sightseeing, it was a wonderful cruise nonetheless. If you’re ever traveling across northern Michigan, definitely plan on spending a day or two in beautiful Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. You’ll be glad you did. I hope you enjoy these photos from my visit.

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This Week on the Road - July 15th-21st

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This Week on the Road - July 15th-21st

Hello Everyone! It’s hard to believe another week has passed here in the Great Lakes State. They really seem to be flying by and while I am seeing and doing a lot, the time is really moving. I’ve finally crossed the 45th Parallel (midway between the equator and the North Pole) for the final time here in Michigan and am only heading north from here. I spent a little more time than I would have liked to have in Traverse City this week, but it was a nice town and I was able to catch up on some work. I finished another episode of my podcast (out now – listen to it here or by searching “American Anthology” wherever you get your podcasts), which is always a bit of a chore even if it’s something I really enjoy doing. I also spent a night out on far-flung Beaver Island, Lake Michigan’s largest island and an interesting place to visit. The weather has been holding up pretty well, but we’ve had some hazy days here which hasn’t made for the best photography conditions. All in all, it’s been a pretty good week on the road.

When last I wrote, I had just arrived in Traverse City. Traverse City is a very pleasant town with a good variety of services which allowed me to get some work done. In addition to the library which had good internet access, they also had a gym to shower at and plenty of shops to restock my supplies. On Thursday night, after I finished up last week’s This Week, I headed out to the Traverse City Pit-Spitters baseball game. The Pit-Spitters are a part of the Northwoods League which is a summer league for college players. The game was a lot of fun and it was $2 beer and hotdog night which you really can’t go wrong with. I also have to applaud whatever genius came up with the name “Pit-Spitters” because I absolutely had to buy a t-shirt at the game. And the Pit-Spitters won, so that made it even better.

On Friday morning I toured the old Michigan State Asylum in Traverse City. At $30 for a ticket, it was a bit pricey for a walking tour, but it was really good and I would say definitely worth it. Our guide grew up in the area and had several connections to the hospital when it was still active (which it was until the 1980s). He intertwined his personal stories in with the history of the building and what they accomplished there. The central idea by which they operated was “beauty is therapy”, which meant that the campus was full of ponds and flowers and walking trails and the buildings had big windows to let in plenty of sun and it was well appointed with nice furniture and plenty of art. Patients were expected to work, and the hospital was self-sustaining for much of its early existence, producing enough food that there was a surplus which was sold to the local community. When the hospital officially closed, the community banded together to save it from being demolished. Today the campus is getting a second life as a mixed-use complex with condos, restaurants, studios and low-income housing. The whole place was really cool and definitely worth seeing. After my tour, I enjoyed a nice lunch in one of the restaurants there. When I finished at the hospital, I embarked on an afternoon drive up the Old Mission Peninsula which took me to the Old Mission Lighthouse and past some wonderful farm stands and wineries. They’re coming to the very end of the cherry season here in Michigan, and it’s been great to eat so many cherries and taste different varieties. I’m probably about cherried out though. Heading back in Traverse City, I went to a nice winery just outside of town for some live music and a few glasses of wine and to finish writing the last bits of my podcast.

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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 Volume 8

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 8

Hello everyone, another week has come and gone and it’s certainly had its ups and downs. More ups than last week, so that is at least something. The weather got warm here in D.C. for the weekend, and we enjoyed sitting outside in the sun. It’s turned significantly colder again as the new week began, which I’m okay with because I know the oppressive heat of D.C. in the summertime is not far away. It’s normally about this time of year that I’m making plans to head north and away from the heat. North to the Rockies, north to Alaska, north to the Great Lakes - somewhere where summer is a little bit easier to cope with and it’s actually a wonderful thing to be outside. I think it’s the knowledge that I’m likely to be here in D.C. for most of the summer which made my cabin fever boil over a bit this week. I miss the road. I miss my friends. I miss the opportunity to pick up and go when and where I want to. I miss new adventures and experiences.

We had a nice weekend here in the old homestead. My mother took charge of the social calendar for a night on Thursday and we enjoyed an evening in a colonial tavern. We had a wonderful meal and listened to some lovely fife and drum music from Colonial Williamsburg. It was a lot of fun and definitely different.

Friday, we had a nice barbecue outside, minus the barbecue. My old gas grill wasn’t working right, so we cooked inside instead, but at least we sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather and some good music…

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