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This Week on the Road - March 17th-23rd

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This Week on the Road - March 17th-23rd

Hello Everyone! First and foremost this week, I want to say how much my heart goes out to those affected by the tornadoes yesterday in New Orleans and across Texas. The Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans suffered enough for a lifetime with Hurricane Katrina and I’m heartbroken by the images coming from there today. I wish them well with their recovery. As for me, I’ve spent most of this week traveling across the Llano Estacado or the “Staked Plains” of northeastern New Mexico. This is not an area that sees a lot of tourism, but there is actually quite a bit to see out here and I’ve been enjoying it. The winds, however, have been blowing hard at me all week, which makes it hard to drive and since no matter which way you turn it never seems to be at your back, it doesn’t help with my gas mileage. When I pulled into Clayton an hour ago though, gas was at $3.70/gallon, the cheapest I’ve seen in over a month! It would have seemed expensive 3 months ago, but for today it brought a smile to my face. I’ve spent a lot of the week dodging suicidal tumbleweeds which wait until the last second and then make a beeline for my undercarriage. The beautiful pronghorns I’ve seen out in the grasslands have made up for it, though. I’ve actually been feeling really good this week and have been enjoying seeing this region of the state. Even though towns are few and far between and the wind makes me feel like I’m captaining a boat instead of driving a van, it’s been a really good week out here.

When I left you last week, I was on my way out to take some photos around Santa Fe, but clouds had moved in and it was a bit gloomy. I tucked into a little bar and met the most cantankerous person I’ve met thus far in New Mexico. Since he was the bartender and owner, it seemed like a good sign to call it an early night and get a good jump on my Thursday.

I hit the gym first thing Thursday morning and came out to find it snowing pretty heavily out. Since I couldn’t take my camera out in the snow, I went for an early lunch at a spot called Horseman’s Haven which my friend Estilla had recommended. When I got there, I double checked my phone to make sure I was in the right place because it was a little plain-looking spot tucked into the corner of a gas station parking lot. I’m sure glad I didn’t judge the book by its cover, because it turned out to be a really great restaurant. I had some chicken adovado, a New Mexican dish of chicken marinated and cooked in red chili, and I also got a side of their famous green chili which was as good as I had been promised (Anthony Bourdain apparently said it would “melt your face off”). It may be the best restaurant I’ve been to thus far in the state.

From there I headed back downtown and went to see the New Mexico History Museum and the Palace of Governors. The museum was pretty good and set out to tell the history of the state from the earliest Paleo-Indians to the modern day. I must admit my ignorance on a lot of the details of this region. Even though the names were all familiar from guiding tours here for many years, I didn’t have a good chronological understanding in my head and this museum really helped with that. I also enjoyed their in-depth look at the Harvey Hotels, an early chain of hotels and restaurants that grew up with the railroad, of which Santa Fe’s own La Fonda was one. I’ve been to La Fonda many times, and El Tovar and the Bright Angel Lodge at Grand Canyon, but I’ve always been interested in the brand, which was also one of the first big tourism operations in the Southwest. After early run-ins with locally hired employees, Fred Harvey decided to hire mostly young, single women - lovingly remembered as the Harvey Girls. In doing so, the Harvey brand may have had more responsibility for populating the region than they intended by bringing single, adventurous women to the Southwest. The Palace of Governors, which is attached to the museum, has been on the plaza in Santa Fe since 1600. It’s been occupied by the Spanish, the Pueblo Indians, Mexico, the United States and even, briefly, the Confederacy. The building has been altered, expanded, contracted, and was even given Victorian flourishes at one point. When you learn all of this, it’s amazing that this adobe building has survived for 400 years. Sadly, there isn’t much to it on the inside except a bunch of whitewashed walls and I wish they would furnish it from its many different periods. It was still interesting to see and I’m glad I went.

It being St. Patrick’s Day, my next stop was Boxcar – a very un-Irish bar, but seemingly the only game in town for the big day. To be fair, they did try and they all worked very hard to make it enjoyable. There was corned beef, Guinness and green beer…

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This Week on the Road - February 2nd-9th

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This Week on the Road - February 2nd-9th

Hello Everyone! I am thrilled to be back on the road after a wonderful two months at home in D.C. It’s definitely tough to leave my folks and my friends, but it’s time to get back to it and I’m very excited for the road ahead. I left on Sunday afternoon and have been making tracks to get south to warmer weather, which I have found here in Northern Alabama where the sun is shining and temperatures were in the mid-fifties today. While I’m sure you all know by now that I prefer the back roads and scenic byways, the interstate is definitely a nice option when you’re trying to hustle. I do love seeing all the exit signs on the way which remind me of some amazing times I’ve had in these southern states. My drive to New Orleans could have taken months, as it has in the past, but I do want to get out west sooner rather than later.

It is always nice to be back in the South, where the food and music are great and people hold doors and wave a ‘thank you’ when you let them in in traffic. I’ve been somewhat surprised at the number of people I’ve seen with masks on, but I’m also well aware of the low vaccination numbers and high hospitalization rates down here as well. It breaks my heart, really, because I know and have met so many good people in these parts who, because of whatever news they are reading, have decided not to get vaccinated. And now so many are getting sick and dying unnecessarily. I wish they knew as many doctors and nurses as I’m fortunate enough to know who could tell them, as they’ve told me, that vaccination is both safe and effective. But I’m not here in this area or here in this newsletter to preach, I just want people to be safe and healthy.

I certainly had a great few days at home this past week before I took off on Sunday. On Thursday my folks and I headed out to the Surratt Tavern in Clinton, Maryland for a tour of this fascinating historic building. My mom and I had been there before when we were on the Trail of John Wilkes Booth Scenic Byway last year, but it had been closed. We were happy to get back and see the inside of the place. Our guide was a wonderfully informative and we enjoyed or conversation with her. She realized that we knew the basics of the story of Mary Surratt and her son John and the role they played in the assassination of President Lincoln. Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the federal government. Since we already knew most of that story, she wanted to tell us more about the property itself and the role Mary may have played in the death of her own husband. She also wanted to share what she knew about the enslaved people who worked at the tavern and on the property. We were able to take our time wandering around the building and my mother was thrilled to look in all of the closets, nooks and crannies. It is certainly an interesting place and worth a visit if you’re in the area. From there we drove back into the city and made a quick stop at Mount Olivet Cemetery to show my stepfather where Mary Surratt is buried. We stopped for a beer at the relatively new Other Half Brewing Company in Ivy City. Their beers were good, but whoever named them needs a class in creativity and they were awfully expensive, even for D.C. Then we went around the corner for another beer at Atlas Brewing Co., an old favorite of ours. While we were there, the man in charge of their trivia night recognized my mother from her time working with the Boy Scouts. I was really glad he came over to ask because it really made her night. For dinner, we headed over to the Panda Gourmet just down the road. Tucked away in the Days Inn at the corner of New York Avenue and Bladensburg Road, this is the restaurant Chinese President Xi Jinping ate at during his visit to Washington. It’s a pretty great spot although it’s not what it was before the pandemic. I’m sure they’ve been doing mostly takeout and delivery as there was only one person working the front of the house when we were there. The food was still good though…

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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 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 - 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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This Week on the Road - September 29th-October 6th

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This Week on the Road - September 29th-October 6th

Hello Everyone and greetings from Minnesota. I crossed over at Duluth on the first of October which seemed like and appropriate day for a new beginning. It’s always a bit strange crossing into a new state because over the last however many weeks I’ve become accustomed to wherever I was. Within a state there are certainly regional differences, but crossing the state line isn’t a gradual change from north to south or east to west. Grocery stores are one way in Superior, Wisconsin and are something completely different 10 minutes away in Duluth (no booze in MN stores). And while people obviously move freely between the two, you can see differences in the culture immediately too. Packers green and gold gives way to Vikings purple and white and the maps on peoples’ t-shirts change as well. Spend enough time in one state and you’ll forever after recognize that state’s shape because you’ll see it everywhere if you’re really paying attention. It’s fun. Also apparently they call port-a-johns “biffies” in Minnesota. Oh, and the Twin Cities become just “The Cities” when you cross the state line. I have definitely been a little bit surprised by how many clothes people are wearing up here. Temperatures have been in the fifties and sixties and I’m still in shorts and a t-shirt but the locals are wearing jeans and coats and hats. Mark Twain has often been quoted (erroneously, apparently) as saying “the coldest winter I ever spent was summer in Duluth” and I know winter temperatures around here can get down to 50 below, and I just can’t imagine how cold these people must feel in the middle of winter if they’re so wrapped up in the beginning of October. I also got a kick out of a local radio ad which was telling employers to book a fun day out for their employees with a no bag-limit pheasant hunt “reserve your birds today”. Of course if it weren’t for these differences, traveling around the country the way that I am wouldn’t be nearly as fun.

So I have a fly which has been in my van for a few days now. I envision him thinking he is my dog because he seems to want to play all the time. He’s also very Midwestern in his mannerisms. He doesn’t bother me, but he wants me to know I’m not alone either. He keeps me company and comes and lands on me when I hop into bed. He doesn’t bite and he leaves me alone if I swish him away enough, but every time I get him out the door, he flies right back in again. He doesn’t move very fast and I could whack him with a flyswatter pretty easily, but he’s not really causing me any problems so for now, he can stay.

After I finished up this post last week, I headed out to Amicon Falls State Park which is about 15 minutes east of Superior. It’s a beautiful state park with quite a few waterfalls around to see, all within an easy walk of the parking lot. Like so many of the rivers in Wisconsin, there are a lot of tannins in the water from the trees which line their banks, leaving the water a brown, cola-like color. I don’t know where the Amicon River flows from, but it was raging when I was there. There was so much water going over the falls, and there hasn’t been much rain here recently and obviously no snow-melt in quite a while. It was pretty cool to see that much power in the water. That evening I went to celebrate my time in Wisconsin coming to a close with a beautiful cut of prime rib at Hammond’s Bar and Steakhouse which of course had to be accompanied by a brandy old-fashioned. I only made it to a few of Wisconsin’s storied supper clubs, but they made a big impression and were a wonderful part of my experience.

Thursday morning dawned foggy and grey, but I had one last place I wanted to see before I could leave Wisconsin: the state’s highest waterfall: Manitou Falls, at Pattison State Park. It was also only about 15 minutes out of Superior, and definitely worth the drive. I was actually really surprised by how high it was as most of the waterfalls I have seen around the state have been pretty small (it’s a flat state). Manitou Falls was impressive by any standard and I enjoyed eating my breakfast and watching the cascades. After breakfast I went on a little 3 mile round-trip hike to Little Manitou Falls which was also a pretty good sized waterfall. The sun came out and the fog burned off and by the time I returned to my van it had turned into a beautiful day. I decided to hang out there for a while, work on my podcast and enjoy the weather. I ended up staying at the park far into the middle of the afternoon and then headed to the library for a while to try and catch up on some of my photos from last week. By the time I was ready to go, it was late so I decided to hang on in Superior for one more night instead of crossing over late and when I was tired. I went for a burger and the Anchor Bar in Superior which came recommended by a friend. It was a decent burger at a very good price, but the people working there looked and acted the way most servers and bartenders feel but don’t show. I ended the night back at the Thirsty Pagan in the old railroad station with a nice beer and some good live music. That’s definitely a place I will return someday.

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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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This Week on the Road - September 9th-15th

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This Week on the Road - September 9th-15th

Hello Everyone! It’s been a little quieter out here on the road this week than the last few weeks. I’ve tried to slow down a little and get some fishing in while I’m here and the warm weather is too. Unfortunately, I’ve also managed to catch a cold this week which has only slowed me down further. I’ve caught this cold even with all the hand-washing and masking and being careful which just goes to show how easy it is to pass things along. I’ll be laying low for a couple of days, hydrating and getting some sleep and hopefully it’ll pass on through sooner rather than later. This week brought me from the middle of Wisconsin’s section of the Great River Road to the heart of the Northwoods, and it’s been a really wonderful week which I can’t wait to tell you about.

When I left you last week, I was in La Crosse which really is quite a nice little city. There are lots of old buildings and corner bars and with a reasonable sized student population it felt very vibrant and alive. Last Wednesday night I went for a cruise on the La Crosse Princess, a sternwheel paddleboat that does several different tours on the Mississippi River. I went on a short 90 minute beer and pizza cruise which was definitely a bargain at $21. It was nice to be out on the river, and that length of time was just about perfect for my attention span. The weather was perfect and I really enjoyed it. After the cruise I went and saw some live music at Big Al’s downtown which was great and sat with a wonderful older lady who was very into the live-music scene. It was very kind of her to ask me to join her. We had a nice chat and enjoyed some good music and she invited me out the following night to a different venue.

Thursday I spent a good chunk of time in the library, trying to get a jump on some work for this week. In the afternoon I drove up Grandad’s Bluff, La Crosse’s most well-known geologic feature. The road took me right to the top for wonderful views out over the city and the Mississippi River. It was cool and quiet up there and I stayed up on top for quite some time. Later that evening I went for a stroll along the Mississippi and then to a wonderful night of live music at the amphitheater right there on the river. It’s getting a little cooler out and it was nice to just sit outside and have a beer and enjoy the music. The band was good and I stayed right up until the end. Afterwards I joined my friend from the previous evening at the old train station for a really good grandfather-grandson duo and met her boyfriend and granddaughter. When the band finished up, I took one last stroll around town and then called it a night.

Friday morning I was up and off and headed north along the Great River Road. I stopped in the small and charming river towns of Trampealeau and Alma for a while and found a nice apple orchard along the way to pick up some fresh apples which are just coming into season up here. Then I headed on to Nelson for lunch under the Twin Bluffs and an ice cream at their wonderful creamery. From there, I moved on to Pepin which is best known as the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

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This Week on the Road - July 22nd-29th

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This Week on the Road - July 22nd-29th

Hello Everyone! How are y’all doing out there? I hope everyone’s summer is going well and you’re getting out and having adventures of your own out there. I can’t believe it’s almost August and I know it’s going to be cooling down here in the north in just a few more weeks so I’m trying to soak up the sun and enjoy the summer while it lasts. Even Lake Superior is pleasant to swim in this time of year up here, so I’m swimming every day I can. It’s been a busy week here in Michigan as I’ve finally crossed over into the Upper Peninsula. It’s definitely different here from what I was finding “down south” – the towns are smaller and less polished, but the people are friendly and very passionate about their region. These “Yoopers”, as they call themselves, weren’t connected to the rest of Michigan until the completion of the Mackinac Bridge in 1959, so they’ve developed independently of the rest of the state. It’s interesting to see. I’ve had a great week of lighthouses (surprise!), history and some really beautiful sights and I can’t wait to share with you what I’ve been up to this week, so here we go:

When I finished writing last week I headed out of Petoskey and hopped on Michigan 119, the Tunnel of Trees Scenic Byway. It was a beautiful road, barely two lanes wide, which bobbed and weaved up the coast through some cute little towns and beautiful scenery. I imagine it would be quite spectacular in the fall when all those deciduous trees have changed colors. The Scenic Byway ended in tiny Cross Village which is home to the Legs Inn, one of the more well-known off-the-beaten-path restaurants in the state. The Legs Inn was built by Polish immigrant Stan Smolak almost a hundred years ago and it’s still owned and run by his family today. It gets its name from the old stove legs which run the length of the building’s roof. The rest of the place is a work of art in its own right having been carved out of whatever wood or other materials Stan and his mostly Odawa Indian friends could come up with at the time. A lot of the tables are two tree stumps with a plank between them (cleaned, sanded, stained, varnished and looking really good, though). The food is from his native Poland and in a regular summer they would bring Polish students over to work at the inn. My server was from Poland, here on a student visa since before the pandemic. I had a taste plate which included a cabbage roll, hunter’s stew and pierogis, and I washed it down with a refreshing Polish beer. My lunch was very good and the atmosphere was great and it was definitely well worth the stop.

From Cross Village, I headed clear across the state to Cheboygan on the banks of Lake Huron. I went out to the State Park for a quick swim and then came back to town in the late afternoon. I visited the old Crib Lighthouse, which was very cool and made for some good black and white photos, and then just wandered around downtown for a while. Although there is definitely tourism there thanks to nearby Mackinac Island and the lake itself, Cheboygan felt more like just a regular town than most I have been in on my way up the Lake Michigan coast. To be honest, I found it quite refreshing. In my time in the Deep South and Appalachia I felt like regular towns were the norm and touristy places were the exception. Here in Michigan I’ve felt quite the opposite. That being said, there was some great public art on display including a wonderful mural of the town’s history. I stopped in the Cheboygan Brewing Company for a quick beer and they had a great fire pit outside which made conversation with strangers quite easy. From there, I had to make a quick stop into Pub 27 up the road because they had a great neon sign outside and it looked like a regular people’s bar in a regular people’s town. I was sure glad that I stopped in. The bartender, Taryn, is a 3rd generation Cheboyganer and the bar is owned by her parents who own several other business ventures in town as well. Her boyfriend, Alex, was very friendly as well and they were interested to hear about my travels and what I thought of Michigan. I enjoyed chatting with them, but I had an early start the next morning, so I called it an early night.

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This Week On The Road - June 2nd-9th

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This Week On The Road - June 2nd-9th

Hello Everyone! I am back on the road and very happy to be here. It’s been a week with some ups and downs, but overall it feels really good to be back in my van and back out on the open roads of America. I’m thrilled to get back to This Week on the Road and am writing to you this week from Dearborn, Michigan. It’s been hot here – like, really hot – and that’s definitely caused some struggles living the vanlife, but it’s supposed to cool off this week to something more reasonable which will be good. So let me tell you all about my week and what I’ve been getting up to.

First, the struggles! The heat has been oppressive, reaching the low 90s with high humidity, and because the sun sets after 9pm here in June in the north it doesn’t cool off until pretty late in the day. I’ve often said as long as it gets down to the low 70s by the time I go to bed, I’m okay. This week it hasn’t done that. I did plan ahead for this and brought an extra fan with me to use in case it got hot. Unfortunately, my house batteries just sat idle too long this year and don’t have anywhere near the staying power they used to. That’s okay, I can afford to replace them, but because I want the exact same batteries, I can’t just run to the store and pick them up, Because they’re so heavy I can’t send them to an Amazon Locker and get them there. That means they’ll have to wait until I visit a friend sometime next week and can get them sent to his house. It’s one of those things I wish I had known at home because it would have been a quick and painless fix. Same goes for my bathroom door which I rehung just before leaving. There was only one latch as opposed to the two there used to be, and I wanted an exact match so I didn’t have to drill new holes but I can’t seem to find one. That one latch wasn’t nearly enough to hold that heavy door closed so it’s been swinging around like crazy. It’s bungee corded to its neighbor so it’s not opening far, but it bangs around a lot. Again – this would have been an easy fix at home, and one I really should have done, but out here I will have to rent a drill this week and take care of it. It’s just more of a problem than it should be. Lastly, I’m leaking transmission fluid which I would have loved to have had my mechanics at home take care of a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t notice it then. Now I will have to find a shop to do the work which is always a pain, especially because I have to wait with it and can’t just leave it somewhere. These are all challenges to living this lifestyle, and I will get them fixed, but it’s a pain to have to deal with them right out of the gate.

The roads in Michigan so far have been terrible. I’m not saying this lightly, but I’ve seen better roads in most of the developing countries I’ve visited in the world. They are beyond bad and desperately need repair. It seems our politicians can’t get a bill passed because it’s too big and all-encompassing. I wish they would pass a roads and bridges bill and then continue to argue about the rest. We all know that we need it and even if it passed tomorrow, these roads wouldn’t get repaired for years, but I sure wish they’d get on it. Everywhere I’ve been in this country has had disgraceful roads which need repair and I think it’s something we could all agree on. Taxes are an investment, and one of the returns on that investment should be decent roads for us to drive on.

Beyond those things, I’ve been having a really good time. I wanted to write to y’all last week, but my last day in D.C. was a struggle. I stayed an extra day to be there when the internet men came to run my folks’ new internet cable into the house. Even though I knew it would be a challenge, I hoped it would take them less than 2 hours. It took them 6 ½. I was trying to help and pack and finish up some things and it all just became a bit much. I finally left about 6:30 and made it as far as Cumberland, Maryland where I crashed for the night. It rained the whole way.

Thursday was better though as I made my way north, through Pittsburg and western PA, and into Ohio via Youngstown. I got in to Chagrin Falls right at 4:30 to meet my good friend Mike Vasko, at whose house I was staying that night. We went out with a couple of his old friends from school for some amazing (and huge) sandwiches and a few beers. Then we went back to his house and played video games with his kids for a while and then chatted until way too late. I did pay off the bet I owed him from last year’s Penn State – Ohio State game though, with some Pennsylvania beer!

I had been to Chagrin Falls before, during my visit to Ohio, and thought it was such a cool little town that I went in in the morning to take some photos and have a wander around the downtown area. You can see the photos I took while I was there at the link here.

From there, I headed up to the shores of Lake Erie and started heading west. It was a sunny day and taking a long, leisurely drive along the coast was blissful. I stopped often, got out to take photos and wander around, listened to some great tunes and smiled a lot…

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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 18

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 18

Hello Everyone, well another week has come and gone and here I sit and wait. I can’t believe it’s been 18 weeks since I got home and started writing these particular weekly posts to temporarily replace my This Week on the Road column. When I got home I was still hoping to be back to work guiding tours by the end of the summer and to be starting to think about what states I would spend the fall and winter in. Eighteen weeks later and my company has closed for good, my industry is basically dead and I don’t feel safe getting too far from home because the response to this pandemic has been horribly botched across the country. Cases and deaths continue to rise at ever increasing rates as states push ahead with reopening plans despite all evidence that we are making things worse instead of better. Meanwhile those who are complaining the loudest about reopening businesses are the ones who seem least likely to wear a mask which will let these same businesses stay open. I find myself frustrated because week in and week out I’m trying to keep from slithering into a pit of despair, and every week it’s nothing but more bad news with no end in sight. I find it more frustrating because my Facebook friends list stretches to all 7 continents (yes I have friends working in Antarctica), and everywhere seems to have done a better job of containing this pandemic than we have. While other countries are reopening safely and managing outbreaks properly, we push forward boldly and stupidly in a time when brashness and ignorance are costing lives. My patriotism lives strongest in my love of my countrymen and I wish everyone would think about others instead of only themselves. I’ve never seen America as a selfish place and have found kindness and generosity at every turn in my travels around the country and I hate to see the ugliness that plays out every day across the nation. I know in my heart that the people we are seeing on the news are outliers and most people are doing the best they can, but it’s still sad to watch.

Meanwhile I’m trying, as I have from the start, to keep going and keep looking towards that distant light on the horizon which will eventually come. I continue to treasure being able to spend this time with my family. I continue to work on my projects and myself with the hopes of coming out on the other side healthy, organized and ready to face the world again with an open heart and mind. In that new world I will set aside more time for reading, for international travel, for making music and for friends and family. If nothing else, I am coming to a better understanding of what matters most to me and remembering that time is precious.

I’ve continued to work on my book this week which is great, and it’s starting to gain some momentum. I’ve continued to play my violin and guitar and I’m actually playing full songs on my violin now which is pretty cool (it still sounds terrible, but it’s coming along). I’ve decided to try and double up on some of my walks each week despite the heat. I got up at 6:30 this morning and, with my Camelback loaded with water, set off on a two hour walk around the neighborhood. I miss the gym terribly, especially in the middle of summer, but I can’t keep carrying around this extra weight and I can’t wait until fall to get working on it. Waiting to go back to the gym is now officially over and I am moving ahead in my own direction for the sake of my fitness. And also this week I’ve continued to explore the area with my mom and continued to keep my folks somewhat entertained as we go. So on that front it’s been a good week.

Last week I wrote about a Gullah meal I was going to cook that night and it came out smashingly. A delicious shrimp gumbo…

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