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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 12th-19th

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This Week Off The Road - January 12th-19th

Hello Everyone! January is passing quickly here in Washington. The short, cold days have not been inspiring this week, but I’m trying to stay positive and productive. I’m still keeping a close watch on case and hospitalization numbers across the south and when they start to go down, I’m going to be ready to hit the road. I’m definitely thinking the beginning of February. I do feel like I’ve been dodging and weaving as more of my friends come down with Covid, but I’m still managing to avoid it. Between my diabetes and the age of my folks, I definitely am not in the “just get it over with” camp. I feel like if I can head south and into warmer temperatures, I can spend most of my time outside like I did this summer and I still think my risks are acceptable if I’m outside. I have been hitting the gym every day and punching away at some of my projects this week, but I’ve mostly been hanging out at home and trying to stay warm. I did finally finish (for now) my gallery pages from this summer and fall’s trip to Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. It was fun to look back at these photos and the memories of the last six months as I got these together. I hope you get the chance to check them out – you can find them at these links:

Last Wednesday after I finished this post, I went back to music night with the boys. It was apparently British Invasion Night and the Beatles were heavily featured. It was nice to be there and I just wish I was good enough at playing an instrument to join in. I should have spent more time this summer and fall practicing, but I have a feeling in the months to come I may have plenty of time on my hands for just that. It’s unlikely that I’ll ever play a concert or a gig, but I would like to be good enough to join a jam session and just make some nice music.

On Thursday I went downtown to have lunch with my friends Estilla and Joby. Unfortunately the place they wanted to go was closed so we ended up wandering into Chinatown for some sushi. It wasn’t the best sushi I’ve ever had, but the company was good and we had a fun time. I hope to catch up with them in a couple of weeks in New Orleans, but we’ll see how it all goes.

Friday night we had our neighbors over for a few beers. They both like beer, so I had brought a 12-pack of New Glarus back from Wisconsin to share with them, but we just haven’t had the time to sit down and enjoy them. It’s always nice to chat with them as they are interesting people and bring shared values but a different perspective to the table. We chatted for a few hours talking about the pandemic, politics, travel, baseball, family and probably several other topics I’m forgetting. It was an enjoyable evening…

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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 - 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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This Week off the Road - December 1st-8th

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This Week off the Road - December 1st-8th

Hello Everyone! It’s been a quiet and lazy week here in Washington D.C. I had hoped it would be more productive, but it’s been nice to get some rest and not worry about anything too much. It’s always great to be home, to spend time with friends and family, to work out at my local gym and to know where I’m going to sleep every night. Those things aren’t as sweet when they are your everyday normal, but after six months on the road they are a welcome respite. I’ve been trying to clear most of my stuff out of Shadow Catcher this week as I plan on bringing much less with me when I depart in January. I definitely brought too many things I didn’t need and didn’t use with me in June and I plan on cutting it down by half over the next few weeks. I’ve also been catching up on my photo editing and I think I’m just about done with my Minnesota photos. This week I hope to get those photos into my existing galleries and into state-specific ones as well. I also started taking a look at the road ahead – at some of the places I want to visit in Arizona and New Mexico and also at where I will be working next summer (as by then it will be time to refill my coffers). The weather has been pretty good this week as well, but again that is less noticeable and less consequential when I’m off the road. I have gotten out to see and do some cool things this week, though, so let me share some of that with you here.

Last Wednesday I went with my friend Carolina to see the Garden of Lights at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton. This is a wonderful holiday light display in an outdoor, walk-through setting. It was much bigger than we imagined it would be and we really enjoyed it. It definitely put me in the Christmas mood and it wasn’t so cold out that we had to rush through it.

On Thursday I headed down to see Bob Dylan perform at Anthem, one of Washington’s newer music venues which I’d never been to before. Before the show, I went to check out another new-to-me spot, the TNT Tiki Bar at The Wharf right down the block from the venue. As far as tiki bars go, it wasn’t great, but it was a nice enough place to stop in before the show. I got some happy hour snacks which were tasty but really tiny and one cocktail which was pretty ordinary. The bartenders were friendly and attentive, though, the atmosphere was pleasant enough and the beers were cheaper than most of the other bars in that neighborhood. Anthem did a great job of getting people in the door, but it was far bigger than I imagined it would be. Washington D.C. is a great place to see live music because we have some awesome mid-sized venues that accommodate between one and two thousand people – enough to attract bigger names, but small enough to still feel like an intimate setting. Anthem seats up to 6,000 and with the standing-room ticket I had, it was anything but intimate. They also had a small army of security staff who moved me along from any spot I found where I could actually see the stage. If it had been a bigger band, it probably still would have been alright, but Dylan just seemed to get lost in such a big place. He put on a good show for an 80 year-old, but it would have been much better in a significantly smaller venue. I’m glad I saw him, but I would really hesitate to go back to Anthem. Give me the 9:30 Club any day of the week. Having spent some time in Dylan’s childhood town of Hibbing, Minnesota this fall, it was great to tie up my summer/fall travels with this show.

Friday evening, my folks and I went to a holiday celebration at Dumbarton House in Georgetown, one of Washington D.C.’s oldest homes. Now owned by the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America, the house has been restored to its early 1800s appearance when the first Register of the Treasury, Joseph Nourse, lived there…

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This Week on the Road - November 24th-December 1st

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This Week on the Road - November 24th-December 1st

Hello Everyone! I can’t believe it’s December, but it certainly is. Happy Holidays to you all. A very Happy Chanukah to everyone celebrating it around the world this week. And Christmas is definitely right around the corner as the stores are decorated and Christmas trees are starting to show up in the windows of peoples’ homes. I really love the Christmas season and am happy to be home for it again this year. It is sweeter for me to come home for it than just to be home for it like I was last year. I’ve spent a lot of Christmases and New Year’s Eves working, either on tour or at a restaurant somewhere, so it’s always nice to not have to work this time of year and I’m definitely grateful. I’m looking forward to spending the holidays with family and friends, attending Christmas events and enjoying it as much as I can. This is going to be a pretty short newsletter this week as I haven’t been doing a whole lot. I spent Thanksgiving and the following weekend with my dad in West Virginia and then made the drive home to D.C. on Monday in one shot. It’s been more off the road than on the road this week, which is fine with me.

It was great to pull into Charleston last Wednesday and see my dad and his partner, Judy, as I hadn’t seen them since before the pandemic started. They’re both well and in good spirits. Unfortunately, my dad’s macular degeneration has only gotten worse so he can’t see much at all which really limits what he can do. That’s just one more reason for me to keep doing what I’m doing for as long as I’m able to. I’m sorry because all of his retirement plans went out the window with his eyesight, but sadly there’s nothing that he or I or his doctors can do about it. I was definitely surprised that their dog, Sadie, remembers me after so many months. Sadie was rescued from a pretty bad situation and basically hates everyone except the two of them. A few years ago, when we were all visiting my brother in New Hampshire, I thought that Sadie looked like she couldn’t breathe and was having a heart attack. Well my dad couldn’t see her obviously and Judy came down on the side of better safe than sorry so we rushed her to the all-night vet. She was having a heart attack and they kept her overnight. We picked her up the next day, she hasn’t barked at me since. This week she actually came and curled up on my lap. I don’t know how dogs know or how they remember, but she certainly does.

It was a quiet Thanksgiving with just the three of us, but we did have a delicious ham, some great sides including a delightful broccoli casserole and of course two varieties of pie. We all slept in in the morning and we all enjoyed an afternoon nap as well. In fact, I slept quite a bit while I was there. Living in my van, no matter how safe a spot I am parked in overnight, some part of my subconscious has to be alert and aware. When I finally get to a warm, safe place I sleep really deeply and really well…

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This Week on the Road - November 17th-24th

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This Week on the Road - November 17th-24th

Hello everyone and a very Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends out there. I have made it to my dad’s place in Charleston, West Virginia for Turkey Day and will be here through the weekend. It’s nice to be in out of the cold and with my family and I’m looking forward to a few weeks off the road before setting off again early next year. This week has been about making my way east, catching up with friends, warming up at some of the Midwest’s finest tiki bars and catching some great (and not so great) live music along the way. I’ve slept a lot this week as the long nights and cold weather have inspired early bedtimes and late mornings, but I’m also coming down from a busy 6 months on the road and need a little extra sleep. When I pulled out of Minnesota, I considered my 3 state mission complete and shifted my focus to some down time. I still have plenty of photos to get to and a podcast that’s been gathering dust, but it was time to enjoy myself and the long ride home. It hasn’t been the busiest of weeks, but I’d love to share with you what I’ve been up to.

When I left off last week I was in Milwaukee and headed out with my cousins for the evening. Sadly, one of the two of them had just gotten her booster shot and was not feeling up to it, so it turned out to be just myself and Emmalyn and we joined her husband, Brian, a little later in the evening. It was great to see them and hear what they’ve been up to these last few months. I’m very grateful for the time they’ve shared with me this summer. While we’ve been Facebook friends for years and kept in touch that way, it’s nice to connect with them and know more about that side of my family.

Thursday I woke up to snow swirling around my van. I hit the gym and then headed to the grocery store in the morning to pick up some things for my dad. He grew up in Milwaukee, so I wanted to get him some brats, sausage, cheese, a Racine kringle and a few other things from his home state since I was on my way to see him. I also picked up some New Glarus beer (which you can’t buy outside the state) to share with my friends back at home. Then I headed south to Illinois and stopped at the library to get some work done and let the traffic in Chicago die down. I knew I would be up late in the Windy City, so I also took a nice long afternoon nap. When I got up, I ordered a deep-dish, Chicago style pizza from Pequod’s on the recommendation of one of my Chicago friends. Chicago pizza takes about 45 minutes to cook, so I ordered it before I left and then headed on down to the city. It wasn’t quite ready when I got there, so I got it right out of the oven which was the plan. I really love Chicago style pizza, and while I don’t think this was the best one I’ve ever gotten, it was still really good. With a couple of slices of pizza in me, I headed on to Kingston Mines, Chicago’s oldest and largest blues club. They have live blues on two alternating stages 365 days out of the year and are always a great bet for good music in Chicago. I was happy to find the club alive and well after having not been there for many years and I was happy to see many young people in the audience as Blues usually attracts an older crowd. Some young theatre kids were even showing off their dance moves which was fun, although one couple looked more like they were having synchronized seizures than dancing. The music was great on both stages and I would have loved to stay until their 3am closing time, but I knew that wasn’t going to be a good idea under the circumstances. The best time to get through the city of Chicago is between midnight and 5am, so I only had two beers while I was at the club and headed south just after twelve. From Lincoln Park, which is on the north side of Chicago, all the way to the Indiana border only took me 35 minutes which is a near miracle. The road along the Lake Michigan shoreline was clear and quick and I enjoyed nighttime views of downtown and the Navy Pier. While I got to bed pretty late, I knew it had saved some serious time for the next day so I wasn’t too worried about it.

Friday morning I headed out to Indiana Dunes National Park on the south shore of Lake Michigan. It was great to see the lake again and I enjoyed a visit to the Century of Progress Homes in the park. These model homes were on display at the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago and then were moved via barge across Lake Michigan and set up on the shoreline there.

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This Week on the Road - November 10th-17th

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This Week on the Road - November 10th-17th

Hello Everyone! Greetings from Milwaukee! I have made my way out of Minnesota after a wonderful 6+ week stay and am on my way home for the holidays. I’ll admit I’m pretty tired after the last 5 months on the road and am looking forward to a few weeks off, catching up with friends and catching up on some sleep. I’ve been pushing hard these last few weeks to get through what I wanted to see and get out before winter really set in. There’s definitely been snow this week, the sun is setting at 4:45pm and nighttime temperatures have dropped below freezing every night. All the signs are there that it’s time for me to follow the geese and head south and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. All of that being said, it’s been another great week on the road. I spent this week exploring the Twin Cities and then cruising down the Great River Road and checking out the historic Mississippi River towns along the way. It’s been overcast and snowy and has made photography challenging, but it’s also cleared up at times and given me some beautiful winter lighting to shoot with. I still have plenty of photos to edit and publish, so you’ll be seeing Minnesota photos for a few weeks to come, but I have officially left the Gopher State.

When I left you last week, I was headed to lunch with my old friend, Rich. I met Rich almost 22 years ago in New Jersey when I was interviewing for the tour company with which I would spend most of the intervening years. When that company shut its doors for good last year during the pandemic, Rich was the one locking those doors behind us. It was good to see him, catch up on the few people we’re both in touch with and share a meal and a few laughs. After lunch I headed on to the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul and took the last guided tour of the day. Our guide was great and told us all about the history of Minnesota’s three Capitol buildings. I was particularly interested in all of the materials they had used in its construction, from local granite to the incredible pipestone I mentioned last week to fine Italian marble. None of the government bodies were in session, so the building was quiet and we had the run of the place. We even got up on the roof for commanding views over the city and a close-up look at the gold-plated Quadriga (four horse chariot) on the front of the dome. After the tour I spent some time wandering the empty building and looking in the nooks and crannies and remembering the pre-September 11th days when I could do the same in our U.S. Capitol. That evening I headed over to First Avenue, one of Minneapolis’ premier music venues, and used the 7th St Entry to get to their smaller, underground club. When I got there, Darrin Bradury was just coming on stage with his quirky tunes about life on the road. The headliner was Minneapolis-based rock band Nato Coles and the Blue Diamond Band, who rocked the small room and got everyone’s toes tapping. It was a good show and so good to see live music again after way too long. I was also happy they were checking vaccination cards at the door which made the small club feel much safer.

Thursday morning I made a quick trip to the Mall of America in Bloomington, which the country’s largest indoor mall. I wandered around for a little while, checked out the amusement park in the middle of it all and the free parts of the aquarium which were both pretty cool. Beyond that, it was just a really big mall. I could definitely imagine it being a nice place to go in the middle of winter to escape the snow and find some fun options with your kids, but I’ve been to malls before and had better things to do with my day. I headed on to the Minnesota History Center which was much more my style. This is the state’s central history museum and I found it fairly progressive, but thought it walked that line well and seemed to present a reasonably balanced look at the state’s history. The main exhibit in the middle was really good, and looked at the different regions of the state and the people that have lived there through the years. I also enjoyed the temporary exhibits on Minnesota weather, the Greatest Generation, Sinclair Lewis and Women’s Rights. I was in the museum for several hours and then headed over to my friend Mark’s house for the night. Mark and I taught together at Francis Gregory Elementary School in New Orleans way back in 2008. It was my second year at the school and his first and I was impressed that he made it through the year (very few teachers there did). While he was fighting different battles than I was, it was an incredibly challenging year in one of the country’s worst schools. He went on to teach in New Orleans for many years before returning home to Minnesota. He’s still teaching now, in fact, and still facing challenges but with a whole lot more experience under his belt. He invited me to stay at his home and then took me to a great dinner at The Blue Door for a beer and a burger. While we were eating and chatting, the snow began to fall but it wasn’t quite the heavy snow that had been predicted. After dinner we went back to his house and sipped some delicious Roknar whiskey (which is made in Minnesota) and chatted long into the night. It was very cozy to sleep in a warm bed in a warm room while the snow was falling outside and also great to catch up with my old friend…

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This Week on the Road - November 3rd-10th

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This Week on the Road - November 3rd-10th

Hello Everyone! When many of you will be reading this, Shadow Catcher and I will be celebrating the 4 year anniversary of this project. We set out together on November 11th, 2017 from our home base in Washington D.C. to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. At the time, the plan was to spend a month in each of the 48 contiguous states, which, if done in one long stretch, would have put an end date right around now. I learned very quickly that a month isn’t very long when it comes to really getting to know a state and while I still try and move right along, six weeks seems like a more realistic timeframe. My dreams of financial success with this project have been all but a complete bust, so I have had to stop and go back to guiding to replenish my coffers. Thankfully, it’s a job I love and it’s fairly easy to put away money in a short time and keep going. And of course who could have predicted a global pandemic, which grounded us for 15 months at home? That time was a blessing as I got to spend it with my folks and watching young Mason every day on his journey from 2 to 3 years old. On the plus side, I’ve seen and done so much, learned more than I ever thought possible and met many truly wonderful people along the way. It’s been everything I hoped it would be and infinitely more and I’m grateful every day for this project, this journey, and all of you who have chosen to share in it. Like any journey, it’s had its ups and downs, but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. As I wind up my time in Minnesota, my 16th of 48 states, that would leave me 1/3 of the way there. I don’t know if I’ll finish this project, but I’m definitely planning to keep going for the near future. Thank you all for coming along for the ride.

It’s been a very busy week blazing across the prairies of Southwest Minnesota. With daylight savings time ending and snow in the forecast, it is definitely time to start making an exit plan, but I didn’t want to miss out on a whole region. I’ve definitely driven more this week than I usually do and I’ve seen some pretty amazing places but it’s also been pretty fast and furious. That being said, I’ve driven past some fascinating things this week that either gave me pause or a good chuckle. When I drove through Brainerd again this week, I passed by the Warriors Early Childhood Learning Center. Their school team name is the Warriors, but to an outsider I thought this was pretty funny. I also drove past the towns of Nimrod, Sleepy Eye and Weetown – all of which made me smile. I saw a Sasquatch Reporting Station in Starbuck and a street called Oink Joint Rd. The Starbuck High School mascot is the Bucks, the Fergus Falls (county seat of Otter Tail County) is the Otters and of course in Pelican Rapids they went with… the Vikings! It was wonderful to see Amish buggies driving on the roads and tumbleweed tumbling down dusty city streets. It was a wonderful week of clear sunny days and I tried to make the most of it. Here’s what I got into:

When last I wrote I was headed clear across the state of Minnesota back to the western border. Along the way I stopped in the cute little town of Wadena to take some photos and have a wander. I ended up popping into the Little Round Still Distillery and talking with the nice folks there for a while. They gave me a lesson on Minnesota’s complicated liquor laws and it sounded like there is a lot to overcome when starting a brewery or distillery in the state. I ended up buying a 375ml bottle of their Gunflint whiskey which was quite good and the biggest bottle they could legally sell me. From Wadena, I headed on to the even smaller town of New York Mills to check out the Regional Cultural Center there. For a small town, this center is pretty well known and has a wonderful gallery and shop and hosts classes, workshops and events. There was a nice display of “wet felting” wall hangings by Kristen Anderson in the gallery when I was there which were beautiful and told an interesting story. There were also some other smaller pieces from previous exhibits upstairs. I was there for longer than I thought I would be but really enjoyed it. From there I headed on to Perham where I jumped on the Otter Trail Scenic Byway. This beautiful loop road took me through small towns and past some amazing prairie scenery as I made my way around Otter Tail County. I stopped in Pelican Rapids to take a photo of the world’s largest pelican and pulled into Phelps Mill right as the sun was setting to get some great photos of this historic mill now owned by the county. It was a great place to end my day and then I headed on to Fergus Falls for the night. I went downtown and found it pleasant but empty without a single bar or restaurant around. I really find it strange and sad when towns roll up their sidewalks after dark like that. I headed out of town and stopped for a quick beer at their brewery which was actually really tasty but way overpriced. I was sad that my only option for dinner at 8pm was Applebee’s which was on the low side of mediocre. For a town of 13,000 people I had expected a little more, but it was still a nice place to spend the night and it would redeem itself the following day.

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This Week on the Road - October 28th-November 3rd

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This Week on the Road - October 28th-November 3rd

Hello Everyone! I can’t believe it’s November already. That means it’s almost 5 months since I left home and that it’s almost time to turn my headlights back in that general direction. I turned 46 last weekend in the Twin Cities and really enjoyed the weekend. I caught up with some friends and found some Halloween festivities as well and even went to the Vikings game at U.S. Bank Stadium. After a fun-filled but tiring weekend, I traveled up the St. Croix River through some really cool historic towns and have once again turned west for my final run across Minnesota. There’s been a lot of sun this week which has made the freezing and near-freezing temperatures pretty easy to bear, but with the sun coming up at 8am and going down before 6, it’s been a challenge to get everything I want to accomplish done during daylight hours. Daylight Savings Time is ending this week and while I’m looking forward to getting up with light in the sky, it will be dark by 5 and that’s not so easy. There was even a little bit of snow this week which was fun, but definitely a reminder of what is right ahead of us. I’m going to be pushing hard this week to see and do the things I want to get done so I can get out of here before the real snow flies. It’s been a busy week, so let’s get right into it.

After finishing this post last week in St. Cloud, I told you I was looking forward to an open-mic night in town. What I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know was that it was an open-mic comedy night which was quite something to see in a mid-sized Minnesota town, especially since most of the comedians were in some form of costume. On the whole, they were pretty terrible and bombed pretty hard if they could even remember their jokes at all. Some read directly off of their cue cards while others blanked entirely and wished they’d brought some. As far as hilarious stand-up goes - this was not that, but as far as observing life in St. Cloud, it was fascinating. Some people just spilled their guts and I wondered if there was supposed to be any jokes in it at all or if it was some form of humiliation therapy (although I sincerely applaud their courage to get up on stage at all). My favorite was probably Large Marge, a 40-something drag queen who had the best delivery and was actually pretty funny. The crowd was small, but generally supportive and I had a great time. The $4 craft beer pitchers didn’t hurt. Before the show I went across the street to Pioneer Place, an old theatre which was having a live radio performance. I wish I had known it was going on because it’s been a long time since I’ve attended such an event, but I did catch a little bit of it and it was also a lot of fun.

Thursday I headed out of St. Cloud and made a beeline for the Twin Cities. I had a great conversation with my old friend Peter as I drove. Peter lived near me when I lived in Japan and it was nice to catch up with him. When I got to Minneapolis, I ran around and did a bunch of errands and then spent the afternoon with my friend, Val. The last time I saw Val was at her place in Dallas on my drive home from South Texas at the beginning of the pandemic. It was good to see her and we spent the whole afternoon just hanging out and catching up.

The next day was my birthday and I started the day with a delicious breakfast at a little hole-in-the-wall called Junior’s. Then I headed up to the town of Anoka, which bills itself as the “Halloween Capital of the World”. There were banners on the light posts in town declaring the same and a giant pumpkin down by the river. The stores along the main street were all decorated, but mostly in a very subtle way and I was surprised how little decoration I saw around town seeing as it was 2 days before Halloween. While their big Halloween parade was on Saturday, I was there to see the schoolchildren’s parade. It was really wonderful with all of the different schools in town participating and hundreds of costumed kids marching down the street.

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