August 1, 2009

Summer Travel and a New Blog

I'm not posting much these days but I would like to take a moment to plug my brother John's new blog, Margin of Victory. In it, he and his friend Russ write about boardgames. Now is an especially good time to start reading because the two of them are heading to the World Boardgaming Championships in Lancaster, PA this week.

John and Russ leave tomorrow morning and I will be joining them for the drive. Once we get to Lancaster on Monday, they start boardgaming and I'll be hopping a train to New York City, where I'll staying with my good friends Matt and Kabrina until Saturday.

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August 7, 2008

Into The Corn: the Plan

Tomorrow my brother and I embark on the last trip of the summer. We'll be driving to Davenport, Iowa tomorrow to see the Smashing Pumpkins, then going to Des Moines on Saturday to check out the Iowa State Fair. On Sunday we'll make a short trip to Marshalltown where my mom's side of the family is gathering. Actually we'll be in a small town south of Marshalltown called Haverhill (population: 170). I last visited Haverhill in 2006 on the Great Plains Roadtrip and, even though I've never actually lived there, my family has deep roots in the town and it's always nice to go back.

My brother will be heading back to Minnesota with my parents on Monday but I'll follow my godmother and her husband back to Omaha and stay with them for a few days. They recently moved from Oxnard, CA and I haven't been to Nebraska since I was a kid so I'm looking forward to visiting the sights.

Stay tuned for posts and photos from the cornfields of Iowa and Nebraska!

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July 14, 2008

Montreal Road Trip

As planned, I spent America's Independence Day in Montreal with some friends (Matt, Kabrina and Kristin). What follows is a brief and long delayed report on our trip. I'm finally posting it today in honor of France's Bastille Day.

We woke up early on Thursday (July 3rd) and took a Metro North train up to the Hertz rental location in White Plains. Renting in the city is very expensive so we opted to take a train to the northern suburb and begin our journey from there instead. The drive north was largely uneventful. We encountered a few spatters of rain but it cleared up by the time we crossed into Canada. I was a bit concerned about the border crossing because my passport had expired, but I had my driver's license and birth certificate on hand so we made it into Canada after waiting in line for about ten minutes.

Our trip coincided with the conclusion of the International Jazz Festival so the city was a bit more crowded than usual, but it was certainly more pleasant than our last trip in February of 2007. Montreal is beautiful in the summer and we all ended up with an even more favorable impression of the city than we had last time.

Beyond a doubt, the most surprising experience of the trip occurred at La Sala Rossa, a Spanish social club on St. Laurent Boulevard. The club serves as a venue for rock concerts by night and Matt and I had checked their schedule in advance and listened to sound clips of several bands playing on Friday night. The bands were playing at the launch party of a local self-described "smut 'zine" called Lickety Split (this link is Not Safe For Work). We thought we were in for a concert but it ended up being much more. The show included some provocative dancing by a local dance group called the Dead Doll Dancers (another NSFW link) and the bathrooms were "gender neutral" meaning it was common to see members of both genders in the same bathroom. We had no idea that it was that type of concert but it ended up being pretty harmless. Oh, and the bands (The Hot Springs, On Bodies, Call me Poupee and Hollerado) were quite good.

Saturday we visited Pointe-A-Calliere, the Montreal Museum of Archeology and History. The museum building itself evokes the old Customs House which stood on the site, and is actually built over its ruins. They have a tremendous multimedia program which gives an overview of the city's history and then visitors go under the building to view the ruins of Old Montreal. It was a unique way to preserve an archeological site and it made for an interesting way to learn about the history of the city.

On Saturday evening we saw a few acts at the Jazz Festival. Rupa & the April Fishes put on a great show on Saturday night. Rupa is a beautiful singer who speaks three or four languages. The show was electric and both the band and the crowd had a great time. The next act, several crowded blocks away, was Beast. The crowd for them was much larger, but we didn't care for the music at all so we left the festival and had some drinks elsewhere.

Sunday morning we went to St. Joseph's Oratory for morning mass. The church is located on top of Mount Royal. It faces the boring side of the city but the church itself is interesting. It's actually several churches built on top of one another. The church at the top of the whole complex is built in a very modern style and involves lots of concrete. In other words, it's big but stark. We went to the English mass in the lower crypt church instead.

After mass we checked out of our hotel and headed back to New York. The return trip did not go as smoothly as the trip up. At some point before the border, as we were driving down the highway, the engine stopped. The fuel gauge indicated that we had about a quarter tank left but this was obviously not the case. We figured the fuel gauge was faulty and resolved not to trust it for the remainder of the trip. Luckily, we were only about a quarter mile from an exit which happened to have a gas station so I walked to it and brought back some gas.

With the car filled up we got back on the road and resumed our trip, thankful that the car didn't have any serious problems. However, we were foiled again when we joined a long line of cars waiting to cross the border into the United States. The U.S. Customs Officers must have been looking for some bad guys because the wait was ridiculous. We ended up spending nearly SIX HOURS in line. There was no way to pull off the road and there was no food or water to be found. Someone with bottled water walking along the highway could have made a fortune. Of course the four of us found various ways to amuse ourselves in the car and at one point I took a walk along the road out of sheer boredom.

After the interminable wait and a successful border crossing, we stopped for food at McDonald's, picked up some snacks at the wackiest convenience store I've ever seen in my life, and hopped on the interstate, thinking we'd be back in New York by 2:00 AM.

Half an hour later, in the middle of nowhere, the engine stopped and we were on the side of the road again. As it turned out, the fuel gauge had been correct all along and we had a much more serious problem than we thought. Basically, the engine was just stopping as we were driving and none of us had any idea why. Thankfully, after about ten minutes, Matt was able to start the car and we made it to the edge of Plattsburgh, NY. We stopped there and Kristin called Hertz who informed us that a new car would be sent out from Burlington, VT. Burlington is not very far from Plattsburgh. As the crow flies, it's only about 20 miles. However, because the trip involved a ferry boat ride across Lake Champlain on a Sunday night, it took THREE HOURS for the replacement car to be delivered. By this time we were feeling just plain goofy. We looked at the stars, killed mosquitoes, sat in the middle of the road and talked to a few locals (luckily for Matt, one even offered to let us use his bathroom).

At midnight, we had the new car and were back on the interstate. I let my three friends, who had to work in the morning, sleep and I drove the rest of the way back to New York City, arriving as the sun was coming up around 5:30 AM.

And that, my friends, is the story of an awesome weekend in Montreal and the arduous journey home. What did we learn from trip? Never, ever, under any circumstances, should you purchase, rent or even ride in a Chevrolet Malibu.

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July 2, 2008

Manyhighways on Eurotrip Podcast

I'm in New York right now, staying with my good friends Matt and Kabrina. Matt is the main administrator for Eurotrip, the big backpacker website. Today he asked me a few questions about photography for the latest Eurotrip podcast.

Download it directly from Eurotrip or subscribe and download via iTunes.

Post a comment and let me know what you think!

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June 27, 2008

Border Security in Northern Minnesota

The United States/Canada border up in the Boundary Waters is a strange thing. In the area that we canoed, the border ran through the middle of Crooked Lake in most cases. Of course, there were no markings in the middle of the lake to denote the invisible line, even though being on the Canadian side of the lake is technically illegal (an offense which we and others committed countless times). On land, however, the border is marked by little .2 meter tall bronze posts (photo), which look like mini obelisks and have strange markings on them. As it turns out, the bronze markers in the Boundary Waters are just one of a dozen different ways of denoting the border between the two countries.

The lack of border security became a big joke during the course of our trip as I insisted on carefully looking at each canoe we passed to make sure none contained suspicious persons. Luckily, we didn't find any. The Minnesota chapter of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps must be doing its job.

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June 26, 2008

"New York City Waterfalls" Now Flowing

I'm excited to be heading to New York next week, not just because it's been six months since I've seen all of my friends there, but because the city is hosting their biggest public art installation since Christo and Jean Claude's "The Gates" which were documented on this site's photoblog (here, here, here, here and here).

The latest art project does not involve bright orange fabric of any kind, but is far simpler. Four large scaffolds were erected in the East River and water began flowing over them this morning. Olafur Eliasson is the man behind "New York City Waterfalls" and he intends to make people aware of the water that surrounds them. After all, four of the city's five boroughs exist on islands - a fact that many New Yorkers are oblivious to, or at least don't regularly consider. I think the project is an interesting concept and I look forward to seeing if the waterfalls live up to the hype. From what I've read so far, people seem unimpressed.

As a side note, I narrowly missed being able to see a neat art project called the Telectroscope (a "tunnel" which linked London and New York) which was just recently taken down. I won't complain too much however, because I expect the waterfalls will make for more impressive photos.

UPDATE: I almost forgot to mention another unusual art project I saw in New York back in 2005: Robert Smithson's "Floating Island".

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June 25, 2008

My First Eurotrip

Almost exactly ten years ago I made my first trip to Europe. I had just turned 18 and just graduated from high school and had some relatives living and working just outside Mulhouse, France. I think it was my parents who suggested I go over there to visit and that's exactly what I ended up doing. I spent about half the time with my aunt and uncle and the other half exploring France and Germany on my own and staying in youth hostels. My grandma even came over to visit while I was there, making the trip even more memorable. It was also a great way to do some independent travel and the entire experience left a huge impression on me. I've been to Europe about a half dozen times since and plan to make many other trips in the future.

Here comes the shameless plug...

One invaluable resource for that first trip in 1998 and the many others that followed was the website eurotrip.com. It declined a bit several years ago but they are back producing new content, including podcasts, under the leadership of my good friend Matt in New York. The forums are especially active and contain great tips and advice for traveling (on a budget) in Europe, just like I did ten years ago.

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June 21, 2008

Out of the Wilderness

I arrived back home from the Boundary Waters yesterday afternoon. In short, the trip was amazing, and I'll be posting some details and photos over the coming week. Stay tuned!

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June 13, 2008

Into the Wilderness

By the time you read this I'll be heading north with four friends to Ely, MN to begin my first canoe trip. We're making the five hour drive today and staying in a hotel tonight so that we can launch early tomorrow morning into the 1.3 million acres of wilderness that is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. I'm a bit nervous, but very excited.

I was talking with my parents tonight about how inexperienced I am with this type of travel. Sure, I've been to Europe numerous times and stayed in hotels, hostels and train station floors. I've been all over the lower 48 states by train and car. But the Boundary Waters are a part of my home state that I've never seen, and the mode of transport - canoe - is one that I have very little experience with. Fortunately, my companions are very well versed in this type of travel.

Wednesday evening I took the list of supplies that they had given me and went to REI in Bloomington, the massive outdoor supply store with the indoor climbing wall that I had never set foot in before. I ended up buying about $400 worth of supplies. This may seem like a lot, but considering that the other expenses of this trip are so low, this will end up being a pretty cheap week-long vacation. Plus, the stuff I bought (rain jacket, pants, etc.) is tough, lightweight and packs down to practically nothing so it will be nice to take with me on future trips, especially in 2010 when I plan to walk the Pilgrimage of St. James in Spain with a few family members.

Yesterday evening we got together and packed up all of our gear. This took a bit longer than I thought, mostly because there is a lot of equipment that we need to bring with us. Here I was concerned about which rain jacket to buy when there are all sorts of other items, big and small, which need to be considered as well. Thankfully, the vets have all of that stuff covered.

Once we finished packing everything up, I hoisted my pack onto a scale: 50 pounds. Now, this is quite a bit heavier than what I brought with me the last time I went to Europe, but I took a walk around the block and found the load to be manageable. Of course, I'll be plenty sore after the first couple of days, but this trip is not supposed to be a picnic. Once our jaunt around the block was complete, I was given a quick tutorial on portaging, the part of the trip which requires one member of the group to hoist the canoe over his head and walk it to the next body of water.

Now all that remains is to actually get started. I'm eager to step outside my comfort zone and experience something new. This trip may become an annual tradition, or it may just be a one time thing. Regardless, it will be a completely new experience, and that's what makes it exciting.

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June 10, 2008

Summer Plans

As usual, my plans for this summer include a lot of travel. Here's a rundown of what I'll be up to over the next few months...

On Friday I'm heading to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota for a week of canoeing. This is a remote region of Minnesota up near the Canadian border which has many of Minnesota's ten thousand lakes. It will be the first time I've ever done something like this and, frankly, I'm a bit nervous. My fellow travelers have been making this trip for the past several years but I was never able to make it because I've always had other plans. Since I'm the least experienced canoeist and camper, they've done most of the planning and I simply have to follow directions which is nice. Fortunately, they've planned a route that will give me a true taste of the wilderness but also includes stops at some historic places that have Native American pictographs. They're counting on me to document the trip in photographs and there will be no shortage of photo opportunities.

In early July I'll be flying to New York then taking a road trip up to Montreal with my friends Matt, Kabrina and Kristin. We'll be spending America's Independence Day in Canada which is a bit ironic. We traveled to Montreal during the winter of 2007 but our trip was cut short by a blizzard and I was sick one of the days we were there. I'm excited to see the city in the summer this time around.

After Montreal I'll be hanging out in New York City for a week, then taking a train 100 miles north up the Hudson River to Poughkeepsie to spend a week learning about Franklin Roosevelt at his home in Hyde Park, NY. That will be followed by a second week-long history seminar in Lower Manhattan where I'll be learning about Ellis Island. The Ellis Island workshop should be particularly good because our group will be given a tour of the unseen portion of the island - the part that has all of the abandoned buildings and is completely off-limits to the public. Unfortunately, I've already been forced to sign a waiver/agreement which limits photography at these sites. This means that any photos I do take cannot be exhibited, sold or even viewed by anyone other than myself. There is nothing that bugs me more than stupid photography rules and this is definitely one of them but I'll take what little I can get in this case.

August is still up in the air right now but might include the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. I'd also like to visit my godmother Sherri and her husband Bruce who are in the process of moving to from Oxnard, CA to Omaha, NE as I type. There may also be some more extensive travels in Iowa if I haven't used up my travel budget by then.

Keep an eye on this space for more posts and photos throughout the summer.

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May 26, 2008

Summer is Here

Today's Memorial Day holiday marks the beginning of the summer which, for me, is what I like to call "blogging season". This portion of manyhighways is usually dormant throughout the fall, winter and spring months and this year has been no exception as I've been particularly busy finishing up my first year at a new job. But now that the summer is here and I have exciting travel adventures on the horizon, it's time to start writing again.

Like last year, I spent a few days of this long weekend with my sister-in-law's family camping down near Rochester, MN. My family never did any camping when my brother and I were kids so most of my experience comes from camping with my friend Dan. Those trips involved tents, fishing and campfires on private land owned by his family. My sister-in-law's family does things a bit differently and brings their nice camper to an actual campground with water and electric hookups. It's not quite roughing it but for someone like me, who is basically a city dweller, it's a nice mix of the comforts of home and the things that make camping enjoyable. It's also a very community-oriented type of camping. Most of my sister-in-law's family's friends spend their holiday weekend at the same campground which means that there are a lot of communal games, good conversations around the campfire and, of course, the Saturday evening pot luck where everyone brings some sort of tasty dish to share. The foods at this thing always contain either meat or potatoes (and often both) with hardly a fruit or vegetable to be seen and there are often just as many deserts to choose from as main dishes. It's a veritable feast of Midwestern cooking.

While much of our time was spent relaxing with cold beverages, I also got to spend some quality time with my brother. We both brought our baseball gloves and it was nice to throw the ball around for a bit. We also teamed up for the annual blindfolded golf cart race. In this campwide event, the driver of the golf cart wears a blindfold and attempts to drive through a course while being told where to go by the passenger. Much hilarity ensues in this event and my brother and I certainly added to it by nearly crashing into another golf cart after crossing the finish line. But, to our credit, we did manage to avoid the forest. I can't say the same for my brother's wife who somehow managed to navigate her blindfolded sister into the trees, eliciting a roar of laughter from the spectators.

Soon after the golf cart fiasco I took off the blindfold for the drive back home. Just as I neared the southern city limits of St. Paul I watched closely as the odometer on my car hit 100,000 miles, an event which I captured in photographs as I was cruising north at 65 mph. Minnesota has a new law which prohibits texting while driving but luckily it doesn't say anything about taking pictures while driving. My car has served me well for tens of thousands of miles and hitting 100,000 was pretty neat.

I'm going to wrap things up here for now but I'll be revealing my summer plans within the next few days. Stay tuned (RSS)!

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April 19, 2008

Four Days in Washington, D.C.

I returned last night from a four day trip to Washington, D.C. where myself and a large group of Minnesotans visited the major sights. Our trip coincided with Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States and, although our group was not able to secure tickets to the mass at Nationals Stadium, several members of our group saw his motorcade from a distance while we were visiting the Jefferson Memorial and we also happened to be at the top of the Washington Monument while the Holy Father was being received by President Bush on the south lawn of the White House.

We also saw several things at Arlington National Cemetery that were not on our itinerary. While we were on our way to the Tomb of the Unknowns we found the path blocked by guards who had secured the road because the President of South Korea was laying a wreath at the tomb. Fortunately, we were waiting right next to three WWII-era artillery pieces which the The Old Guard used to fire a 21 gun salute as the President was leaving the cemetery. Then, after watching the changing of the guard at the tomb, we encountered a full honor funeral procession which passed by us on the road, complete with a horse-drawn caisson carrying a flag-draped coffin and preceded by a military band and honor guard.

It had been several years since I'd been to the Nation's Capital so there were a number of places that I hadn't seen before. The 4,000 stars at the World War II Memorial, each representing 100 deaths, is a touching tribute to those who lost their lives in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of the war. The National Museum of the American Indian has fantastic exhibits curated by members of tribal communities around the country and is a well-designed building containing no right angles because most native tribes believe evil lurks in corners. The recently opened Newseum is a fantastic interactive museum of journalism. Finally, our group marveled at the mosaics at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

I realize that the above paragraph just seems like a laundry list of sights but after four days of whirlwind sightseeing and being responsible for making everything run smoothly, I'm pretty wiped out. But have no fear because I'll be posting photos sporadically throughout the week and I'll be writing about my summer plans in an upcoming entry.

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January 2, 2008

Happy New Year!

I'm in New York this week enjoying the lack of snow and reasonable temperatures (relatively speaking - it's in the 20's here and seven degrees back home). It's great to be back and in many ways it feels like I never left. All my friends are still here and we've been having as much fun as we always did. It's reassuring to know that I can come back at any time and that friendships withstand distance.

One of the things my friends Matt and Kabrina have enlightened me with is this awesome commercial, currently airing on television here in the area:

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December 29, 2007

New Years in New York

Tomorrow, I leave for New York for a week, a vacation which I have been looking forward to almost since the moment I left the city this past summer to move back to Minnesota. For the past four years I lived in New York and spent Christmas and New Years in Minnesota. Now, I'm doing the opposite.

It's going to be a little weird to be be back in New York, especially since I'll be staying with friends in Astoria instead of in my old apartment in Spanish Harlem. But I'm hoping to see all of the old friends that I left behind and that's what I'm looking forward to the most. Of course I'll also be taking pictures with my new camera on the side and that is a nice bonus. Hopefully I'll get some decent shots to post when I get back next Saturday.

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November 18, 2007

Catching Up

A few people have started to comment that my blog has been neglected for nearly three months now so I'm going to cave and write a little update on what's been going on.

Basically, my new job is keeping me very, very busy. This, however, is good because the old job in New York City was quickly draining my energy and enthusiasm. Now, I'm experiencing the opposite effect. I'm more motivated and excited now than I have been for years and the new job makes me feel like I just got out of college again and am bursting with enthusiasm and ideas. It's awesome.

At the same time, I'm looking forward to this week's Thanksgiving break and am excited for the holidays. Earlier this week I made plans to go back to New York for a visit the week after Christmas. During the four years I lived in New York I would spent New Year's here in Minnesota so I figure it's time to reverse that trend and spend it in New York. As great as things have been going here, I really miss the bustle of New York, its subways and bridges and, of course, all the friends I made there.

Other developments include my purchase of a slick alumninum and glass 24" iMac which I am throroughly enjoying with the latest iteration of Apple's Mac OS X: Leopard. I've been nothing but happy with it so far and am beginning to learn Aperture, Apple's photo management and editing application. This has had the effect of making me want to buy a true SLR camera so I will hopefully be purchasing one of those before Christmas.

My reading list has been dominated by non-fiction lately, especially of the Civil War variety. Recent reads (along with my review - lifted from my Facebook profile - of each) include:

Grant & Twain by Mark Perry: This is the first time I've read a detailed account of Grant's last days and it's only made me respect the guy even more. Perry writes simply but knows how to tell the story without getting too academic.

Cry Havoc! The Crooked Road to Civil War by Nelson Lankford: This book is unlike any other Civil War history that I've ever read as it deals not with battles, but with the politics of secession and the often-overlooked events that led the North and South to full fledged civil war. With this micro-history approach, Lankford has composed an intricate, wonderfully written, day-by-day and sometimes hour-by-hour account of the crooked road to Civil War.

Hey Ranger! True Tales of Humor and Misadventure from America's National Parks by Jim Burnett: Although I once worked with Jim, the ranger who wrote this book, his writing style is a bit too conversational for my tastes. It feels like every sentence is being delivered with a chuckle and it gets annoying after a while.

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey: This book really sucked. It was written by a park ranger who kills a rabbit within the boundary of a national park for no apparent reason. That would be a federal crime by the way. The incident basically confirmed my opinion of the author as a complete moron and total asshole.

For music, I've seen three great shows since my last entry: Arcade Fire, Smashing Pumpkins and New Pornographers. At home and work I've been digging the latest albums from Band of Horses, Pinback, Radiohead, Palomar, The Ponys, Voxtrot, Rilo Kiley and The New Pornographers.

Well, that pretty much covers what I've been up to. I really ought to write more often, shouldn't I?

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August 2, 2007

Back Home for Good

Well, the big move is nearly complete. My brother came out to New York on Monday to help me pack everything up. Tuesday morning we loaded up a minivan with all my stuff and, after taking a last look at my empty apartment and turning in my keys, hit the road shortly after 2:00 pm. We spent last night in a motel in Elyria, OH just outside Cleveland and finished up the last twelve hours of driving today. Everything went very smoothly and we didn't hit any snags apart from some heavy construction traffic at the Illinois-Wisconsin border.

Luckily, we were coming in from the east and were not on Interstate 35 because, as everyone has probably heard by now, an entire bridge spanning the Mississippi river collapsed around the time that we were coming into town. As of right now nine are dead, 60 injured and 20 still missing. It is certainly a horrible tragedy for the Twin Cities and for all Minnesotans and I just wanted to assure everyone that I am OK.

Tomorrow morning I'll be at my new apartment in St. Paul unloading all of my stuff and getting settled in. There is a lot of work to do but it's sure nice to be back home for good.

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July 27, 2007

Mark Twain's House

Click here to view the photo gallery.

One of the advantages of spending a whole week at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford is that we were allowed to take photos inside the house. Usually, photos are strictly forbidden because the curators are worried that stuff will got knocked over. I hate it when photography is forbidden and I think the restrictions are a bit ridiculous so I was pleased when I was allowed to take photos on a private tour of the house.

The other advantage of our special tour is that were told a few things that the ordinary visitor doesn't get to hear. For example, we were told how most of the small objects in the house are tied together with fishing line so that it will be obvious when someone tries to snatch something. But the most thrilling part of the tour was being allowed to go behind the ropes in the room where Mark Twain did most of his writing: the billiard room on the third floor. It also allowed us to get a closer view of some of the smaller objects in the room. The neatest thing I noticed was a copy of a check that Twain's publishing company wrote to Ulysses S. Grant's wife, Julia. Twain published Grant's memoirs which basically saved the Grant family from bankruptcy. The amount of the check was $200,000 which was an astronomical sum of money in 1885.

You'll see a photo of the check, along with a number of other photos of the Twain home in the photo gallery.

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July 24, 2007

The First Lady Likes Mark Twain

Mrs. Laura Bush just stopped by our classroom here at the Mark Twain House and Museum to say hello and have her photo taken with us. Accompanying her were Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and the head of the National Endowment of the Humanities, Dr. Bob Cole (he got the biggest round of applause because NEH sponsors all these workshops).

Now I have no love for her husband, but I have to admit that the First Lady is very personable and seems like a nice woman. The White House photographer took a group photo of us all so I'm hoping it will be available online at some point. My photo on the left is a closeup. View the full version at Flickr.

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July 23, 2007

First Day at Twain's House

Today was the first day of a workshop on Mark Twain that I'm attending in Hartford at the Mark Twain House and Museum. Today we took a tour of the house which was nice despite the crabbiness of our guide and photography ban. I'm always disappointed when a place like the Mark Twain House doesn't allow photos to be taken inside, especially when they don't give a good reason for it.

Throughout the week all of the workshop participants will get to use the library and archives at the museum which could yield some really cool stuff. Since I'm a Ulysses S. Grant fanatic, I'll be using much of my free time to look at the correspondence between Grant (1822-1885) and Twain (1835-1910). Since Twain published Grant's wildly popular memoirs, hopefully there is some correspondence between them that I'll be able to pore over, or maybe even an original copy of a letter in Grant's hand that I could look at. I would get a real thrill out of that.

This afternoon we took a bus tour of Hartford in which we stopped at some historic places around town like the Asylum Hill Congregational Church (Twain attended regularly and sat in the third pew on the left), the city's oldest cemetery, the now abandoned Colt firearm factory and the Old State House (site of the beginning of the Amistad trial). Another highlight of the tour was when we drove past the site where the Hartford Dark Blues used to play. The Dark Blues were a baseball team in existence from 1874-1877 and were a part of baseball's first professional league, the National Association (now known as the National League). Not only that, but one of the people hosting our workshop is a member of the modern, recreated Dark Blues that "are a member of the 8 team New England Vintage Base Ball League (NEVBBL), which plays by 1861 rules!" I'm hoping to get a chance to talk to our host and learn more about how the national game was played back then.

Finally, we were all very excited to hear that First Lady Laura Bush will be visiting the museum tomorrow. Now I have absolutely no love for her husband but I have to admit that it would be sort of cool if she popped in to our classroom to say hello. Maybe it will get us on the news again.

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July 21, 2007

A Week in Spartanburg, SC

Every summer for the past four years I've attended workshops on American history at various sites around the country. This year I'm going to two and the first one, on the American Revolution in South Carolina, just finished up yesterday. It was held in Spartanburg at Converse College. Highlights were our visits to Kings Mountain, Cowpens and Ninety Six. We also went to two Spartanburg Stingers baseball games and spent a lot of time at Delaney's, a great Irish pub.

Tomorrow I head to the second and final workshop which is in Hartford, Connecticut and focuses on Mark Twain.

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July 10, 2007

A New Home

My brother's wedding on Saturday (7/7/07) couldn't have gone better. It was a wonderful ceremony in a beautiful church in Chatfield, MN followed by a reception at the Eyota American Legion which was bursting at the seams with friends and family. Since I was the Best Man, I didn't really have to do all that much except hand over the rings, sign the wedding certificate and give a little speech. On Sunday, my brother and his beautiful bride (who I am happy to now call my sister) opened gifts and then took off in a car trailing streamers and soda pop cans and filled with balloons.

Yesterday I was back to preparing for my imminent move from New York to Minnesota by apartment hunting in St. Paul. After lots of false leads I finally found one in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood. It's not far from Summit Avenue and is within the borders of the Historic Hill District which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

I'm very excited about the location because it's within two miles of my new job which means I'll be able to walk or bike past the stately Victorian homes and mansions on Summit on my way to and from work. It's just one mile from the State Capitol, the History Center, the Xcel Energy Center and the Science Museum. It's also literally three blocks from the Cathedral and a few blocks more from two great bars: the Muddy Pig and the Happy Gnome. And I fully expect to bump into Garrison Keillor at some point because his bookstore is just a few blocks away as well. Or perhaps I'll bump into the ghost of author F. Scott Fitzgerald or railroad tycoon James J. Hill who lived in the area. One thing I am sure of is that I will be discovering more about my new neighborhood throughout the year and will have plenty of fodder for the photoblog.

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July 6, 2007

Small Town Minnesota

I'm in Rochester, MN right now preparing for my brother's wedding which is tomorrow in a small town south of here. Honestly, I haven't been very impressed with Rochester so far. It actually reminds me of St. Cloud which I consider to be the armpit of Minnesota. I do really like Eyota (population 1,700) however, the small town that my soon-to-be sister-in-law is from. There is something about small Midwestern towns that really appeals to me. I like their main streets, downtown areas and old houses. Maybe it's the four years of living in New York City that makes me long for the quaint silence of places like this, but more likely it's the hundreds of times my family and I drove through such towns when I was a kid on family vacation.

I guess I don't really have a point here, I'm just incredibly happy and excited for my brother and looking forward to a fun celebration this weekend.

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July 3, 2007

Smashing Pumpkins @ The Orange Peel

Click here to view the photo gallery.

Having your favorite band break up really stinks. Luckily for me, Billy Corgan missed his band, the Smashing Pumpkins, as much as me and reunited the band quite a while ago. I've been keeping an ear to the internet since May 22nd when they played their reunion show in Paris and have been listening to as many recordings from their European festival tour as my BitTorrent client can handle.

The first shows the Pumpkins played here in the United States started two weeks ago in Asheville, NC. It's a nine night stand at the Orange Peel, a little club that holds less than one thousand people. The Ticketmaster gods smiled upon me a few weeks ago when I went online and tried to get a ticket, just for kicks. They were only $20 so I figured that even if I didn't end up making it down for the show, it was worth a shot anyway. I ended up getting a ticket to last Wednesday night's show and came up with a crazy plan to go and see it. Here's how it at went down...

I left my apartment in New York (which I will be moving out of soon) at 4:00 am on Wednesday morning and took the subway to JFK where I got on a JetBlue flight to Charlotte. Luckily, I had a voucher from last year which paid for a lot of my transportation for this little trip. I arrived in Charlotte and picked up a rental car. I had gotten a steal on an economy car by going through Priceline but didn't complain when they gave me a brand new Ford Mustang. I drove the 2.5 hours to Asheville, arriving around noon, and immediately went to see what the situation was like at the Orange Peel.

Not surprisingly, there were already about two dozen people in line. I circled a couple of times and then found some parking not too far away and walked over to check out what was going on. When I got to the Orange Peel everyone from the line was gathered at the back of the building in front of a huge vent. As I got closer, I quickly found out why - the Pumpkins were doing their soundcheck and we could hear everything vividly. Not only that, but they were playing "F-You (An Ode to No One)," a song they hadn't played live since their "final" show at the Metro in December of 2001.

I quickly joined the dozen fans clustered in front of the vent and joined in the speculation of what other gems the Pumpkins would come out with that night for the show. This is also when I met Mike, an awesome Asheville native who I sat next to in line for the next seven hours.

The seven hours actually went by quite quickly. More and more people joined the line and various people came and went. Mike had a friend come by and take his spot at one point while he went to go feed his dog. I took little cat naps now and again and we of course continued to listen to the band soundchecking through the vent. I enjoyed a steak sandwich from Barley's Taproom & Pizzeria for lunch and a couple of hot dogs (with sauerkraut) from Hot Dog King which was just down the block, for dinner.

Finally, we started going into the Orange Peel around 7:30. In order to avoid scalpers, the ticket policy was very restrictive. We had to show ID and the credit card that we purchased the ticket with in order to get in and we had to enter the venue immediately. This way, no one would be able to go back outside and sell their tickets for exorbitant amounts of money. It was handled very well and the Orange Peel staff did an excellent job with everything.

The opening band was Scissors for Lefty and they were not very good. Chia Karaoke, formerly of the Minneapolis band Flipp, jokingly used to call himself the world's worst guitar player but I think the guy from Scissors for Lefty has him beat. Everyone cheered very loudly when they walked off stage.

Finally it was time for the Pumpkins and they put on an incredible show. I had a spot in the second row, right at the center of the stage and the view was incredible. Billy Corgan opened with three new acoustic numbers and then the whole band played The Aeroplane Flies High, a rocker they hadn't played in over ten years which is one of my favorites.

The next three hours were incredible. Highlights of the show included Hummer, F-You, Zero, Starla and Cherub Rock. The final song of the set was Untitled, a song which I had never heard live and really impressed me. It's become one of my favorite Pumpkins songs and I was thrilled that they played it. The songs off the new album sounded fantastic and the even newer songs just written within the past week sounded great as well. (View the entire setlist)

I really only have two complaints about the show. Because I was so close to the stage the mix was way off. Most of what I was hearing was Billy's guitar because it was literally only a few feet away from where I was standing. I'm sure that had I been standing further back I would've been able to hear a better mix of instruments. The only other problem was the lights. Many of them weren't really aligned all that well and I actually felt like I couldn't see Billy as well as I should've been able to. None of the above should be taken as evidence that the show wasn't good. In fact, it was incredible. I'm just being picky.

The final song of the show was With Every Light, probably the one Smashing Pumpkins song that means more to me than any other. In fact, the one time I met and spoke to Billy Corgan, I told him how amazing this song was. Since I'll probably never hear it performed live ever again, it served as the final confirmation that making the effort to come down to Asheville to see the show was a very, very good choice.

Once the show I ended a bunch of us hung out at the Orange Peel a bit longer. We saw all the Pumpkins exit the venue. New bassist Ginger Reyes and keyboardist Lisa Harriton came out and said hello as did Billy Corgan. Once they departed I drove back to Charlotte, returned the rental car at 5:00 am, flew to New York, then to Chicago and took a third flight to Minneapolis in the evening. After getting literally no sleep the night of the show, I was exhausted but it was all worth it and I'd do it again right now if I had the money (and a ticket to another show of course).

permalink | posted at 2:06 AM

June 27, 2007

The Summer Begins

For me, today is officially the start of summer. As I mentioned on Monday, I am moving back to Minnesota but I have a lot of other travel and fun things to do first, starting today.

Right now, for example, I'm at JFK airport waiting for a JetBlue flight to Charlotte. Once I arrive in Charlotte, I'll be renting a car and driving for a few hours to Asheville, NC. Asheville is hosting the Smashing Pumpkins for a nine night stand and I'll be at show #4 tonight. The band is allowing all types of audio and video recording but I haven't decided if I'm going to bother bringing my camera. I may just sit back and enjoy the show. Regardless, I'm sure I'll be writing a glowing review within the next few days. Right now, it's time to board my flight.

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January 16, 2007

A Narrow Escape

It turns out that our escape from Montreal late Sunday night couldn't have come at a better time. The news today had some grim stories about the storm that hit upstate New York and other parts of the northeast yesterday. It turns out that the storm went right across our path (I-87) but luckily we had already passed by several hours earlier. Three people were killed in car accidents and there are tens of thousands who are still without power all over the northern part of the state. Being oblivious tourists, we got lucky that a hotel employee in Montreal warned us of the impending storm on Sunday afternoon. On the other hand, it might've been sort of cool to be stuck in Montreal for a few more days.

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January 15, 2007

Montreal Road Trip

Click here to view the photo gallery.

We got back from Montreal late last night after being forced to leave early due to an impending snowstorm. This cut the trip short by quite a bit but we didn't want to take the chance of being stuck north of the border.

We had a great time anyway. On Saturday we walked around the Old Town and went inside the beautiful Basilica of Notre Dame. I've never seen a church like it. It has a blue theme with lots of indirect lighting which makes the whole interior seem to be glowing.

After walking around the city we had some spicy noodles and then went out in search of nightlife. The three of us prefer pubs to clubs and we found a few laid back bars to hang out at. We found the local beer, Boreale, much to our liking as well. We were hoping to check out the local music scene but couldn't seem to really find anything. We resolved to see some live music Sunday night instead.

Sunday ended up being sort of a wash for me because I wasn't feeling well so I spent most of the day sleeping. It was Sunday afternoon that we heard that there was a bunch of snow on the way. It didn't sound like Montreal was going to get that much but when we looked at the reports for the towns along I-87 they were using the word blizzard so we packed up and headed out of town around 7 pm and arrived back home at 2 in the morning without seeing a single snowflake along the way.

Overall, Montreal seems like a great city and the fact that we had to leave earlier than expected just means that we'll have to go back soon.

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January 12, 2007

Weekend Road Trip to Montreal

A friend and I were talking yesterday afternoon about making a road trip to Montreal at some point but I certainly didn't expect that he suggest we go this weekend. But considering that Monday is a holiday, he managed to convince me that now is as good a time as any. So tomorrow morning I'm heading north with two good friends to spend a couple of days in Montreal seeing the sights and discovering the next big indie rock band (if there are any left). Hopefully we'll find a decent local beer or two as well.

I'm excited - not only because I haven't been to Montreal since I was a kid but because, in my three and a half years of living in New York City, I haven't seen very much of the rest of the state apart from the scenery viewable from Amtrak's Empire Builder train route on a few trips to or from Chicago. I'm expecting the drive alone to be fun, regardless what we see once we cross the border.

Watch for a brief recap and some photos next week.

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October 23, 2006

Photoset: Matthew Edel Blacksmith Shop

I've decided to start putting many of my travel photos in the gallery of this site onto flickr. This saves me some bandwidth but, more importantly, exposes the photos to a wider audience. This means that regular readers have probably already seen these photos of the Matthew Edel Blacksmith Shop in Haverhill, IA (although the flickr versions are larger).

Check it out: Matthew Edel Blacksmith Shop - Haverhill, IA

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October 13, 2006

Photoset: One Week in Rome

I've finally looked at every single photo I took on my trip to Rome back in August. Out of several thousand, I chose 80 and created a photoset at Flickr: One Week in Rome.

Almost forgot... I'm going back in April and this time I'll also be going to Greece.

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September 3, 2006

One More Panorama

This panorama thing is starting to get addicting. This should be the last one.

St. Peter's Square

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September 1, 2006

Rome Panoramas

I know I said an hour ago in the previous post that it was going to take me a while to put up photos but I couldn't resist stitching together a few panoramas using DoubleTake. Click on the images below for larger versions.

Colosseum exterior

Colosseum interior

The Forum as viewed from the Palatine hill

Rome skyline from the top of St. Peter's

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Back from Rome

I arrived back in New York yesterday afternoon. The trip was absolutely amazing. I have 1,500+ photos to sort through so it might be a few days until I'm able to put up some of the good ones. I'll also be extremely busy over the next few weeks so things will probably be a bit slow around here for a while.

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August 23, 2006

Off to Rome

In just a few short hours I'll be on my way to Rome (via Zurich) for a week. There probably won't be any updating of this site in that time since I won't have my computer with me but I will be writing about the trip when I get back and posting photos as well.

In other news, I've been published in print (as opposed to the web) for the first time. This photo was used in this magazine last month. The article isn't on the website but it's a German magazine so the majority of you wouldn't be able to read it anyway.

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August 17, 2006

One Week Until Rome

I'll be arriving in Rome one week from today and I'm starting to get very excited. I picked up a few guidebooks earlier this week (opting this time for more explanatory books rather than my usual barebones, budget guides) and have been making a huge list of everything I want to see. My brain seems to automatically organize massive amounts of information like this into themes and most of the things I want to see fall into the categories of architecture, the Republic and Empire, the Catholic Church, and archeology. Then again, I suppose that's what most people go to Rome to see.

Overall, I'm really hoping to get that "sense of place" when visiting the historic sites. Absolutely nothing compares to being in the spot where something important happened and having the background knowledge to let your mind imagine what it must have been like. It can be a difficult connection to make and it doesn't often happen but I have high hopes for Rome.

This trip will be a bit different since I'll be packing lighter than usual. The laptop and iPod are staying home this time so the only electronics I'll have will be my camera and the 20 GB portable storage device that's arriving in the mail this afternoon. I'll be going the pen and paper route when writing about the trip, but the writings and photos will be up on this site when I get back.

Finally, if anyone has any tips, advice or Italian curse words (just kidding), please let me know.

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August 7, 2006

Lollapalooza

I'm in Minneapolis after enjoying a phenomenal weekend at Lollapalooza in Chicago with my friends Sarah, Stacy and Rachel. We had a blast. It was so awesome that I don't think I can begin to describe it. Great music, great people and a great city.

The Top Five Bands: Death Cab for Cutie, Nada Surf, The Flaming Lips, The New Pornographers, The Hold Steady

Saturday was the best day for our group of four because we had won a tour of the artist area backstage by raising over $50 for stopglobalwarming.org. How did we raise the money? Well, actually I'm not going to get into that right now but it was quite creative and it made a lot of people happy. Anyway, we went backstage and hung out with... well, nobody really. We didn't see anybody we recognized. But we did get free ice cream and we did get to watch the end of Coheed and Cambria's set from the side of the stage which was pretty neat.

The other beautiful moment was when the we joined a train at the end of the New Pornographers' set and danced our way through the crowd. I don't usually dance but the band was so good that I just couldn't help myself and neither could most of the people in the crowd.

Other Bands We Saw: The Subways, Aqualung, Editors, The Raconteurs, Matt Costa, The Go! Team, Coheed and Cambria, Wolfmother, Gnarls Barkley, The Dresden Dolls, Mucca Pazza, The Redwalls, Ben Kweller, Matisyahu, Of Montreal, She Wants Revenge, Queens of the Stone Age, Broken Social Scene, Red Hot Chili Peppers

I think I got them all. The amount of music was almost overwhelming but the festival was well organized and I can't say enough about all the people. Everyone from the employees, volunteers, artists and fellow concertgoers were great. I can't wait for next year.

The photo above is from the Red Hot Chili Peppers set on Sunday night. Lots of other people have posted great pictures on Flickr and Lollapalooza.com.

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August 1, 2006

Layover in L.A.

I'm in Los Angeles again, killing time until 6:45 pm when the Southwest Chief leaves for Chicago. After arriving at Union Station (a few minutes late, as usual) on the Pacific Surliner from Oxnard and checking my bags, I walked over to Calveras St. and had some taquitos in avocado sauce which were very tasty. Then I took a walk around Chinatown where I saw a few interesting things, notably a crime scene complete with yellow police tape, lots of squad cars and a helicopter overhead. I didn't hang around there for very long but looped back towards the station and stopped at a Citibank to deposit some cash (you know, just in case the train gets robbed). Right now I'm sitting in the Chinatown branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. It's quite new, the A/C is cold and my laptop is plugged in to the floor.

I'm going to go outside again soon and walk around a bit more, then I'll go back to the station and be on my way to Chicago, bidding goodbye and good riddance to smoggy Los Angeles.

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Plans Have Changed... For the Better

As previously planned, I will be getting on a train in ten hours and riding the Pacific Surfliner and Southwest Chief trains to Chicago - a trip of about 2300 miles. As previously planned, I will be going to Lollapalooza this weekend. Here's where things go awry from the original plan...

I will not be traveling around middle America. I've been pretty much everywhere in the Lower 48 at some point in my life so I decided a few days ago, with the help of my cousin, to go somewhere else. Somewhere new. Somewhere exciting. Somewhere that I've always wanted to go...

So, on Sunday afternoon, I booked a flight to Rome.

The plan for August now reads:

3-6: Chicago
7-20: Minneapolis
21-22: New York
23-31: Rome
Sept 1: New York

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July 30, 2006

Driving Down the 101: A Day at Dodger Stadium

Click here to view the photo gallery.

I would like to go into great detail about the baseball game I saw at Dodger Stadium last Wednesday but I'm not going to for several reasons:

1. The stadium is the most plain MLB stadium I have ever been in.
2. It was 102 degrees when the game started at noon and it got much, much hotter as the game progressed.
3. I was sitting in the sun.

You get the idea. Just look at the photos.

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July 29, 2006

Driving Down the 101: Joshua Tree National Park

My next excursion out of Oxnard was to Joshua Tree National Park. The park is almost straight east of Oxnard but the sprawl and smog and general disgustingness of LA is between the two. The day started off a bit unpleasant as I drove down the 101 and around the city. I saw a horribly mangled car on the side of the road which I'm almost certain involved a fatality. The entire top of the car had been sheared off and firefighters were standing on top attempting to retrieve something from the driver's side. They didn't seem to be in any hurry which makes me think that the driver probably did not survive.

It ended up taking me so long to get to the park that I didn't get to spend too much time there since I still had to be home at a reasonable time to feed the dog. I did have a little picnic at one of the pulloffs along the park road and I did a short (1.5 mile) hike through Hidden Valley. A storm started to gather to the northwest while I was hiking and I was hoping that it would advance towards me but I ended up waiting for naught; the storm didn't come my way.

The rest of the drive through the park was kind of boring. Don't get me wrong, it's a neat landscape, but it doesn't impress on the scale of, say, the Grand Canyon, or even some of the smaller parks I visited in northern California last summer. About halfway through the park I realized that I was listening to The Joshua Tree by U2 which was a strange coincidence. I must have subconsciously picked that album on purpose when I left the house earlier that morning.

The drive back to Oxnard ended up being worse than the drive there and it's hardly worth mentioning except to point out that I was thoroughly sick of the bad California drivers at this point. But I did have some baseball to look forward to the following day.

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July 28, 2006

Driving Down the 101: The Tehachapi Loop

I arrived at Long Beach Airport on Saturday after a very long delay involving a defective fuel sensor. But, as our pilot said, "I think you'd all agree that it's important to know how much fuel we have on board." He had a fair point.

After finally arriving in Long Beach, I rented a car and drove up Highway 1 to Oxnard. Regular readers probably know that I have relatives up here and I'll be house/dog-sitting for them while they're in Peru. It's a pretty sweet deal for me since I get to play with their dog Homer and use one of their cars.

On Monday I drove north past Edwards Air Force Base, through Mojave and up to Tehachapi which had a few geeky things which caught my interest, notably the Tehachapi Loop which is a railroad that winds through the hills and, obviously, makes a loop at one point. Mostly due to my dad, I have a weird fascination with trains (regular readers know this also) and approximately 50 trains go around the loop each day. The landscape makes for some pretty neat photos, and I got several in the few hours I was there. I also met a few guys who were travelling through on motorcycles, one of whom was from Minneapolis. In fact, he was from NE Minneapolis, an area that many of my friends live in so we chatted about some of the bars and, of course, the Twins who are the hottest team in baseball right now.

The other notable thing about Tehachapi is its wind farm. The hills in the area are covered in wind turbines, which generate a lot of clean, efficient power for the region. It was quite windy when I drove through so the turbines were spinning like mad. It was an impressive sight.

The drive back to Oxnard was relatively uneventful. I stopped at Fort Tejon State Park, a visit that literally took 20 minutes since there were no rangers on duty and little in the way of information about the fort. In fact, the only thing there at all are two original buildings. Being almost completely surrounded by hills, the fort is in a nice setting, but I was disappointed that there wasn't more to see.

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July 26, 2006

Driving Down the 101

I've been in California since Saturday and have been doing a lot of road trips which means I've spent a lot of time on the 101. So much time, in fact, that it's starting to annoy me. The traffic around LA is ridiculous. Anyway, the point of this post was not to rant but just to give a brief update on my whereabouts. I'll have a more detailed post of what I've been up to the last few days coming soon.

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July 14, 2006

Back to New York

I got back to New York on Wednesday night after the most turbulent flight of my life. When we tried to land at JFK the wind sheer was so strong that they had to abort at the last minute. I was looking out the window and seeing the control tower uncomfortably close. So they put the flaps and landing gear back up and went to full power. The only problem was that the bad part of the storm was in front of us so we ended up flying through scary dark clouds with lightning everywhere. The plane was bouncing all over the place and people were screaming. We ended up landing in CT and waiting out the storm for several hours before flying to JFK again and actually landing this time. I finally made it back to my apartment around 1 am.

I'll only be here for a week and a half, then I'm off to California. My plans for late July and August have changed a bit but for the better. I'm planning more cities, more history and more baseball, which is always a good thing. I'll have some details soon.

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July 13, 2006

Great Plains Roadtrip: North Dakota History

After leaving Deadwood last Wednesday we drove up into North Dakota and went to Theodore Roosevelt National Park where we hiked the short Ridgeline Trail. It gave us a great view of the badlands. The park does a good job of linking TR's later life to his experiences in North Dakota as a young man. The park also liberally uses their favorite Roosevelt quote: "I never would have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota." It's probably the most flattering thing anyone has ever said about the state. After a bit more driving we spent the night in Dickinson.

Thursday was the most interesting day of the trip because it dealt with family history. First, we visited Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site which is significant because Toussaint Charbonneau - husband of Sacagawea - is a distant cousin. I have another distant (and I stress the word "distant" here) cousin who committed an atrocious crime in the same region 75 years ago. I won't go into detail here; let's just say that the locals that we met at the nearby museum were quite excited to meet relatives of one of the most heinous criminals in North Dakota history.

After creeping ourselves out by walking in my cousin's footsteps we headed southeast, stopping at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site. The area was home to several thousand members of the Hidatsa tribe until the late 1800s. I was surprised to learn that the Hidatsa were not all that different from the Apalachee who I learned about in Florida. I was even more surprised when I bumped into Dr. Tom Isern, who was one of my professors at North Dakota State University. He was leading a group of teachers into Canada and they had stopped at the villages for a quick visit.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful. We spent Thursday night in Bismarck and then drove I-94 all the way to the Twin Cities on Friday. Many people would consider a road trip through the great plains pretty boring but it was actually a lot of fun. We saw some beautiful landscape and got a good taste of history as well.

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July 7, 2006

Great Plains Roadtrip: Haverhill to Deadwood

On Monday we left Haverhill, IA and headed north. We stopped in two tiny towns, Ayershire and Graettinger, to look for the gravesites of some relatives on my dad's side of the family. The cemeteries were outside the towns, usually bordered on all sides by fields, making for pleasant strolls amongst the headstones.

The remainder of Monday was relatively uneventful. We spent the night in a deserted downtown Sioux Falls. Presumably most people had the day off in expectation of Independence Day. We walked around for a while and I got a few good photos at dusk.

On the Fourth of July we drove west towards the badlands. Of course no visit to South Dakota would be complete without a stop at Wall to see the world famous Wall Drug - a uniquely American souvenir stand which has very little cultural value whatsoever but holds a high rank in the pantheon of roadside attractions - the Zeus amongst large animal statues and other assorted highway oddities.

Our next stop was Badlands National Park, the point where the rolling prairies plunge into striated rock formations. We had all seen Mt. Rushmore before, as recently as last year for me, and we didn't feel like dealing with the Independence Day madness so we spent a quiet Fourth in Rapid City, the so-called "City of Presidents". They've commissioned local artists to create lifesize bronze sculptures of all the presidents. They're placed on the streetcorners in the downtown area and are a nice addition to the city. We had dinner at the Firehouse Brewery where I had a very good stout and a not-so-good steak.

We started north on Wednesday and had to stop in Deadwood. I'm a big fan of the HBO series so it was interesting to see the real town. It's not like it was during the Old West - many of the buildings from that era were destroyed by fire - but it is one of the largest historic preservation districts in the country. Unfortunately, most of the buildings are casinos. The main drag doesn't really have any interesting stores like Virginia City, NV does. We also visited Wild Bill Hicock and Calamity Jane's graves in Mt. Moriah cemetery before heading north to the other Dakota.

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July 4, 2006

Great Plains Roadtrip: Haverhill, IA

Click here to view the photo gallery.

I arrived in Minneapolis late Saturday night and went straight to bed, then hit the road on Saturday for the drive to Haverhill, IA, a very small town which is the ancestral home of my mom's side of the family. It's just outside Marshalltown and, although none of my family lives there now, it's where my great grandparents are buried so it was chosen as the site of this year's family gathering.

Haverhill, although it only has a population of about one hundred people (and that's probably pushing it) has a historic blacksmith shop which was started by a German immigrant named Matthew Edel in the 1880s. It's on the National Register of Historic Places and was one of the sites that we stopped at in a walk around town. The shop has been nearly untouched since 1940 (as the photos will attest) - exactly the kind of place that I love taking photos of. As our family looked around the shop, someone discovered the name of my great-great-grandfather written on a piece of cardboard on the ceiling. There was a metal rod attached to the beam and that's where his horseshoes would've been hung once the blacksmith had finished making them. It was pretty exciting to see a concrete link to my own personal past in this historic building.

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July 3, 2006

St. Augustine Photos

Click here to view the photo gallery.

I'm a bit behind so I've decided not to go through a full recap of my week in St. Augustine. All I'll say is that the Florida Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities kept us busy and entertained. We also managed to learn a lot at the same time. Kudos to the organizers (Monica & Lance) as well as the other participants (the list is long - you know who you are).

I'm in Sioux Falls, SD right now. I enjoyed some quality time with the extended family yesterday and took some pretty decent B&W shots in Haverhill, IA which I'll post soon.

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July 1, 2006

A Brief Respite

I'm back in the Jacksonville airport again, waiting for a flight to Charlotte and then another one to Minneapolis. I've had precious little free time in the past week which is why I haven't written anything and I'm afraid photos and stories of the past week are going to have to wait a bit longer. I need to rest up and sort through all my photos in the next few days. Keep checking back - there should be something in this space soon.

While you wait, you should check out Lance Rowland's 70's Radio EP. I saw him perform twice in the past week and he's awesome. Buy it at CD Baby. I highly recommend it.

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June 25, 2006

Summer '06 Travel Begins

I'm writing today from the Jacksonville, FL airport which kindly provides free wifi for bored passengers like me. I figured this would be a good time to start my annual summer travel writing. Last year it was "Going West" - a drive across the northern US followed by a thorough exploration of California. Previously, in the summer of 2004, it was "Riding Around America" - an 8,000 mile train ride around the country.

This year's travels don't have a particular theme. Instead, they'll be a series of smaller trips with a bit of down time between each. Here's what I have planned so far.

1. I'm spending this week in St. Augustine, FL for a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar which focuses on the Spanish colonization of Florida. I just arrived in Jacksonville (via my first JetBlue flight which was very pleasant) and I'm waiting for my transportation to St. Augustine to pick me up.

2. One week from today I fly to Minnesota and then drive down to Iowa for a family reunion. After the reunion, during the week of Independence Day, I'll be doing a little road trip through SD, ND and Canada (most likely).

3. Back to New York for the Siren Festival and a wedding.

4. A week in Oxnard, CA dog-sitting.

5. A train ride from Los Angeles to Kansas City and St. Louis to see some baseball. The ride will culminate in three days of live music at Lollapalooza in Chicago.

That's everything for now but hopefully I'll have some money left over to do some additional travel in August. It's an ambitious itinerary and I'll be writing about all of it here so bookmark this page or subscribe to the RSS feed and feel free to contact me if you have any ideas about things I should see during my travels.

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June 23, 2006

Miller Park

Click here to view the photo gallery.

I just realized, as I prepare for another summer of travel, that not only did I not write about the last few days of the last trip - Going West - but I also neglected my most recent road trip to Milwaukee with my brother back in April. It's a bit too late to finish last summer's travelogue but I felt Miller Park deserved a few words and a photo gallery, so here goes...

I had the sort of crazy idea to drive all the way from Minneapolis to Milwaukee and back in one day to see a baseball game and my brother was willing to go along so we set out very early on April 22nd, tickets in hand, to see the Brewers take on the Reds. My brother was pretty much dead to the world all morning but that was fine by me since I love driving, plus my iPod was loaded with podcasts.

We got to the ballpark, which looks like an alien spaceship, with no trouble since it's basically right off the interstate and did a little tailgating. I use the word loosely because all we had were sandwiches, chips and maybe a banana or two - no alcohol. The people parked around us, on the other hand, had come prepared. They had grills, picnic tables, coolers, and lots and lots of beer. People in Milwaukee definitely know how to tailgate.

As we made a circuit around the stadium were sad to see that the dome was closed - it would have been my brother's first outdoor professional baseball game. The weather wasn't bad but there were a few gray clouds so I guess they weren't taking any chances. Despite the dome being closed, the stadium feels as if it is in the open due to the gigantic sliding wall in the outfield which remained open throughout the game.

After taking a look around the stadium we found our seats which were excellent as you can see in the photos. We had a great view of home plate and, despite being in the second deck, felt very close to the game. The seats allowed me to snag (well, it fell on the ground first - I didn't catch it on the fly) a foul ball which I gave to a little kid sitting next to us. Someone gave me a foul ball hit by Randy Bush at the Metrodome when I was a kid and I wanted to ensure good karma. I'm keeping the next one, though!

In addition to the great view from our seats, Miller Park also offers a fantastic range of food and drink. Everything from mixed drinks to premium beer (including one of my favorites - Leinenkugel's Honeyweiss). They also have a great food selection which we didn't sample much because of our sandwich feast in the parking lot.

The game itself was crazy. The Brewers won 11-0 behind an excellent pitching performance by Dave Bush. He threw a complete game shutout allowing just four hits and striking out nine. The Brewers tied a MLB record when they hit five home runs in one inning. This gave us a good look at the fireworks and also exhausted the mascot who slid down a slide in the outfield every time a Brewer hit one out.

In the end, the crazy amount of driving we had to do to get there and back was well worth it for the quality time with my brother and another ballpark checked off the list.

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August 26, 2005

Going West: Where Am I?

I'm in Las Vegas's McCarran International Airport and in about one hour I'll be boarding my flight to Minneapolis. I still have a lot of updating to do so I'll be catching up in the next few days and adding entries about Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Manzanar, Death Valley and Vegas. There will be a bunch of photos as well so, as always, stay tuned.

Remaining Mileage (approx): 925 Total Mileage: 5910

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August 20, 2005

Going West: Third Leg Complete

Click here to view the photo gallery.

My time in what I consider southern California comes to end tomorrow and I head back up north to see a bunch of national parks: Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Manzanar National Historic Site, and Death Valley. Then Tuesday I'll be hanging out in Vegas and having a good 'ole time with some friends from New York who will be meeting me there. Stay tuned! There's much more to come.

Total Mileage: 4985

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August 18, 2005

Going West: Angels in Anaheim

I reached Angel Stadium in Anaheim around 7:30, a few minutes late because of, you guessed it, traffic. So I finally got to my seat in the bottom of the second inning. In less than one minute, the guy next to me, John, introduced himself. He was the guy who owned the season tickets, one of which I had purchased yesterday night via the internet. He owned four seats in fact, which meant that he knew everyone within several rows of us. So they sort of brought me into the fold once they realized that I wasn't a Boston fan and kept up a nice running commentary throughout the game once they realized that I was from out of town.

All this made the game very enjoyable, and it also helped that the game was completely sold out and that the Angels ended up destroying the Red Sox. I didn't get a chance to explore the stadium because I arrived late but I did find out from the nice folks in my row that it was built in 1966 and completely renovated in time for the 1998 season. Some of the interesting features include fireworks when an Angel hits a home run, a water feature (fountain) in center field, terraced bullpens in left, and a nice, large scoreboard that updates averages and ERAs during the game. The scoreboard allowed us to literally watch Steve Finley's batting average go from a despicable .222 down to .216 with each passing at bat.

There were a lot of Red Sox fans at the game who were making a lot of noise. At one point, the Boston fans in the crowd spontaneously began chanting, "Let's go Red Sox" followed by "Let's go Angels" from the rest of the fans. This went on for several minutes before everyone in the stadium found something to agree on: "Yankees suck!" I happily participated in that one.

The final score of the game was 13-4 and because the Angels scored double digits, everyone at the game gets free wings at Hooters for the next 24 hours. Everyone seemed very excited about that. Overall, I have nothing but nice things to say about Anaheim, the stadium, and the team's fans. It was a great time and I'm glad I got to sit next to some cool people.

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Going West: Art Day in LA

Happy Birthday Mom!

Although I was a bit late (traffic is insane here!), they still let me into the King Tut exhibit at LACMA this morning. The exhibit is actually worth the steep admission price of $22 and I was pleased with the presentation and quality of the artifacts. Calling the exhibit "Tut" is a bit misleading because it basically covers the entire 18th dynasty of Egyptian history, more commonly referred to as the New Kingdom. This perdiod saw Amenhotep IV, who may have been Tut's father, revolutionize the religious system of Egypt by making it monotheistic. He changed his name to Akhenaten and declared Aken, the disc of the sun, to be the only god. The move was controversial and unpopular and was basically reversed by Tutankhamun, the boy king.

Tut, of course, died around the age of 19 and the exhibit made some use of recent research and findings. The much publicized forensic reconstruction was shown in photographs at the end of the exhibit. Other portions of the exhibit show artifacts that were found in Tut's tomb. Although there is no one premier artifact that overshadows the rest, the numerous smaller pieces give a nice overview of Egyptian life and culture. Symbolism and the gods are especially well represented and I left with a better understanding of the Egyptian's beliefs about the afterlife.

The only drawbacks to the exhibit were that recent discoveries were not shown as much as I would have liked. Surely this is difficult due to the ongoing nature of the research but I hope material will be added throughout the life of the traveling exhibit (on display in major cities until 2007). It would have been nice to have a reproduction of the forensic reconstruction to look at or even touch.

As I walked through the exhibit I found myself wondering what made Tut so well known to us. This is more of a historiographical question outside the scope of the exhibit but I think it should have been dealt with at least a little bit. Was it the discovery of the tomb that made him popular or should he deserve to stand on historical merit alone? Do we know a lot about him because he was a great pharoah or because he died so young? What did his contemporaries think of him? I would have liked to see at least some of these questions answered.

After touring Tut and getting a bite to eat I went next door to the main LACMA building which holds the permanent collection and other special exhibitions. Keeping in mind that I still wanted to go to the Getty Center, I went through this portion relatively quickly but a few exhibits merited special attention. Many works of artist Tim Hawkinson were on display, for example. Hawkinson makes moving sculptures with machines that he builds himself. His work is hard to explain but it moves, makes noise and is generally interesting to look at. I won't go into too much detail but you can listen to an NPR story and check out a gallery of Hawkinson's work here.

The other highlight of LACMA was a look at the work of Renzo Piano, a noted architect. A large room is filled with tables that contain models, blueprints, photos and video of his works which include the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the terminal of Japan's Kansai airport.

After filling up on artwork, I went to see even more at the Getty Center which sits on top of a hill and has a commanding view of the city. The Getty Center is a work of art in itself with its gardens and terraces but the interior holds amazing pieces of art spread amongst four main buildings which are named after the points of the compass. The special exhibition displayed some of Rembrandt's religious portraits and this was the highlight for me.

By this point I had viewed more than enough artwork for one day so I hopped back in the car and began a longer then expected drive to Anaheim to see some baseball which I'll describe in a separate entry soon.

Today (and Yesterday's) Mileage: 390 Total Mileage: 4985

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August 17, 2005

Going West: Commuting to Los Angeles

After Sherri and Bruce went to work this morning I walked a few blocks to the Oxnard airport and rented a Ford Focus from Budget. After picking up some things at the house I got on highway 1 and took the scenic drive down to Los Angeles. It took me about 90 minutes and it wasn't too crowded. There are a ton of nice houses up on the hills and I soon lost track of the Porsches, BMWs and Mercedes that I saw along the road. It truly is a different world down here.

The first museum I went to on Wilshire Blvd. was the Page Museum at the La Brea tar pits. It's very strange to see pits of black tar in the middle of the city but that's basically what they are. The pits have been there for thousands of years and have provided scientists with millions of fossils to study. Basically, animals would wander near the pits, which were often obscured by dust or leaves, and they would get stuck. Then, a larger predator would come along and try to eat the smaller animal, getting stuck itself. This cycle could continue several times, leading to many animals getting stuck simultaneously. Multiply this process thousands of times over the years and you can see why the pits are an archaeological mother lode of cool stuff. One pit was being excavated while I was at the museum and visitors get to look down into it and watch the archaeologists work which is really neat.

After having my fill (not literally) of tar, I went next door to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) which is hosting a National Geographic exhibit on King Tut which I felt fortunate to stumble upon. After getting over the high admission prices ($25-30 for adults) I went to buy a ticket but they were sold out of for the day so I bought a ticket for 8-9 am tomorrow since I'm going to be back in the area.

With Tut ticket in hand I went across the street to the Petersen Automotive Museum which has a nice collection of cars. I liked that each auto was presented in historical context. There would be a car on display but then there would be a sign explaining some aspect of the city in relation to the automobile. This was a good way to show how the city has grown as a result of the car and explains why LA has spawled out so far. The highlight of the museum was the Hollywood collection which had the Batmobile and Batcycle from the original Batman TV series and the jet-powered Batmobile from the first modern Batman movies.

After the auto museum I rode the jammed streets (when are they not jammed?) down Sunset Blvd. and over to the downtown area to see El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the historic part of the city. I parked the car and walked a few blocks to the historic area, only to be turned back at one of the museums because it was 3:00 which is closing time. I was a bit disappointed so I walked around for a while and then went back to the car and drove back up north to Oxnard along a busy highway 101.

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August 14, 2005

Going West: Chilling in Oxnard

After my early morning arrival, there was certainly no need to wake up at a decent time so I enjoyed sleeping in a somewhat familiar bed until around 11:00. For lunch we had my favorite California fast food: In 'N Out. Everything they use in their burgers is fresh and the end result is glorius. It's probably a good thing that they don't have them in New York.

After lunch we went on a short hike to Rose Valley which has a waterfall which cascades from a cliff. Bruce convinced me to follow him in a climb (which was more like a scramble) up to the top. The view was incredible and I'm glad I followed him up, even though we had to literally slide back down to the bottom. As Bruce aptly put it: "Going down is going to be pretty hairy."

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. It's certainly nice to be spending a few days in a place that is not a hotel.

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 11:37 PM

August 13, 2005

Going West: Second Leg Complete

Click here to view the photo gallery.

Today I woke up very early in order to catch my train which was scheduled to leave at 6:35. Luckily for me, it was late so I got sleep in much longer than I thought. I walked to the train station and waited for another hour before the Coast Starlight finally arrived. Upon boarding, I promptly fell asleep after the conductor punched my ticket.

I woke up an hour later just in time to hear an announcement that we were passing a ghost fleet. Looking to the left, I saw over a dozen navy ships of all sizes from all wars. They are placed there for long term storage and often end up being used as target practice. Shortly after the ghost fleet we arrived in Oakland's Jack London Square Station, one of my favorites because the train literally goes right down the middle of the street.

I did a lot of sleeping on this ride so there isn't much else to report apart from the fact that the train was over seven hours late. I finally arrived in Oxnard at nearly 3:00 in the morning where Sherri and Bruce were waiting. Sherri was literally in her pajamas and I don't blame her. It's nice that I have relatives that will come and pick me up at such ridiculous hours.

My arrival in Oxnard basically completes the second leg of the trip, thus the photo gallery here which covers everything from the past week or so.

Next up is southern California and then Vegas!

Today's Mileage (train): 495 Total Mileage: 4595

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August 12, 2005

Going West: Sacramento and State History

I had to get up early today to get the rental car back to Budget by 8:00 and after I did that I walked to Old Sacramento, the historic area of the town which has several museums. Once I arrived, I realized that I was one of the only people on the street and that nothing was actually open yet. The museums that I wanted to see didn't open until 10:00 which meant that I had over an hour to wait. So I walked past towards the more commercial area of downtown and sat outside a Starbucks with some coffee and the New York Times.

Finally, around ten, I went back towards the old town and went to the Discovery Center which had a nice exhibit about California's history. After that, I went next door to the State Railroad Museum, purported to be the largest one in the hemisphere. It was fantastic and I was once again impressed by the state's excellent parks and facilities. The museum also has a great bookstore, and I couldn't resist buying a book about hoboes and a collection of primary accounts of riding on the transcontinental railroad.

The final museum that I went to in Old Sacramento was the military museum, which is basically just a jumble of artifacts in display cases. The main floor was nice, but the basement had even more displays that were organized very haphazardly. I didn't feel when I left that I knew much more about California than I did when I came in, and should've probably skipped this place.

Next I went back to the hotel and dropped off the books then went to the other end of town to see Sutter's Fort. I wasn't expecting much, but the California State Park system came through once again and I was treated to some great exhibits about John Sutter, the fascinating entrepreneur who built the fort. Sutter is most remembered because the mill where gold was first found in the state bore his name. The gold strike changed his life forever, and he got royally screwed once the miners started flooding into the area. I don't have the time to go into his whole biography here, but it is a fascinating story.

The fort also has a great living history program. I counted over half a dozen costumed interpreters and one guy (whose name I've forgotten) was especially interesting. We ended up talking history for almost a half hour and I learned that does a lot of reenacting. Some of the characters he plays are a soldier in the English Civil War, 19th Century gambler, Civil War artilleryman, trader at the fort, Lenoardo Da Vinci and he somehow finds time to do Santa Claus at shopping malls during the holidays! Needless to say, he was a very interesting guy.

Eventually I got back to the hotel after picking up a sandwich and some milk and spent the evening relaxing in the hotel and packing up so that I could get up early to catch my train down to Oxnard, CA for some quality time with my relatives Sherri and Bruce.

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 11:15 PM

August 11, 2005

Going West: Bodie Ghost Town

Click here and here to view the photo galleries.

With my travel plans a bit more solid, I was feeling good today as I dropped my keys in the motel's drop box and got in the car. Then I remembered that I had to get gas and that the only two gas stations in the town (owned by the same person) were both charging $3.39 per gallon. Outrageous, yes, but I had no choice. I bought about ten dollars worth, with the intention of filling up later at a more reasonably priced station.

My disgust with the gas purchase faded relatively fast though, because I was heading to what I knew was going to be one of the highlights of the trip, Bodie State Historical Park, a ghost town in the middle of nowhere. Because this one was an actual park, it was on the map and I knew for sure that I'd be able to find it.

After going south for about a dozen miles on the main road, I turned onto a smaller secondary road which soon turned to gravel just as the signs warned. Eventually, after kicking up a ton of dust I arrived at the front gate of the park, which was still closed for another 15 minutes. The abandoned buildings stood about a quarter mile away, beckoning to me and my camera. There were employees moving around some of the buildings but I was the first and only person in line at the gate. I was going to have the park to myself, at least for a little while. So I got out of the car and had a few triumphant granola bars while I waited for the park to open.

Eventually a few other cars pulled up and then a park ranger appeared and opened her entrance station. I paid my four bucks and drove to the parking lot. At this point a few other people had arrived, so I moved fast to try and get some photos before it got too crowded. The light was still a bit low as I started walking through the town, which made it good for photos (as my dad had said).

Bodie is a pretty amazing place. The buildings are mostly falling down but several are in better condition than expected. The place was abandoned for good in the 1930s and many of the homes have furniture still in them, as if the people suddenly got up and left en masse. The first half of my two hour visit was actually eerie at times. At one point I was on the extreme northern end of town walking around in the tall grass amongst the industrial junk that was strewn on the ground and the lack of noise suddenly hit me. It felt like I was living in a vacuum where I could literally hear nothing but my breathing and footsteps. I turned back and looked towards the town and could see no living thing or hear any noise. It was startling and very peaceful at the same time.

I won't go into details about all the buildings that I saw because it would take forever but I liked the houses the most, followed by their outhouses which I seem to have a strange fascination with. One outhouse had a rear window facing Main Street and I could just imagine some guy sitting there and looking out towards the saloon and the bank while he was relieving himself.

After spending two hours at the town remnants, I turned west for the drive back to Sacramento where I'd be returning the car and spending the night. Getting there required driving through Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park which I worried might be crowded but it turned out not to be so bad. I purchased a sandwich and some chips and found a nice picnic area on a lake in the park and had my lunch.

The only other place I stopped at on the way to the state capital was Jamestown, which had a very disappointing railroad museum.

In Sacramento I checked into the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Today (and Yesterday's) Mileage: 420 Total Mileage: 4100

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 11:33 PM

August 10, 2005

Going West: Searching for Ghosts

I woke up in Reno and started west for a short ride to Lake Tahoe and the Donner Memorial. The famous Donner party left Independence, MO to emigrate to California in 1846. Nearly half of the 86 pioneers died and the survivors may have resorted to cannibalism in order to stay alive.

After going through the small museum and dozing through a very old filmstrip about the Donner party, I got back in the car and went east, back through Reno and south to Virginia City. Virginia City is one of the oldest towns west of the Mississippi and developed as a result of the discovery of the Comstock Lode, a rich silver vein that ran through the region. Virginia City is also where Samuel Clemens first used his pen name Mark Twain.

It was in the Mark Twain bookstore, in fact, that I found two books by the same author which had maps and descriptions of ghost towns in Nevada and California. I bought both, and decided to go looking for some of the abandoned towns in the books.

After a nice BBQ Tri-Tip sandwich at a saloon in the town, I drove further south in search of ghost towns. Unfortunately, the maps in the book were hand drawn, inaccurate, and published in the 1980s. Oops. In the end I didn't find any of the half dozen ghost towns I went in search of but it was fun anyway.

I drove a few miles south to Carson City, the state capitol and visited the state museum. In the bookstore I found a book about a prominent ghost town called Aurora. At the very end of the book, directions were given on how to get to the town, so I copied them down and decided to try and find it since I was going that direction anyway.

To make a long story short, I ended up on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. I thought that the road was the correct one but after driving several miles and not seeing any landmarks mentioned in the directions, I gave up and drove into the nearby town of Bridgeport to find a place to stay for the night. I wasn't too disappointed. After all, I'd be seeing the greatest ghost town of them all the following day.

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 11:50 PM

August 9, 2005

Going West: Climbing a Volcano

Today I drove East from Redding with the intention of seeing Lassen Volcanic National Park and spending the night somewhere near Reno.

I arrived at Lassen relatively early, flashing my NPS annual pass (buy one, they're great!) at the entrance station and getting a map. There is basically only one road that winds through the park, so I stopped at the visitor center to peruse the map and decide what to do. I also checked out the exhibits in the small museum which gave a nice geological history of the area. Lassen volcano last erupted between 1914 and 1921 and it was actually captured in photos by B.F. Loomis who played a large role in making the area a national park in 1916. His photos are reproduced in the small museum at the visitor center: exploding mountain in the background and Model T Ford in the foreground.

After checking out the exhibits and being completely ignored by the two park rangers on duty despite the fact that I was the only visitor in the building, I read a description of the trails available in the park and made note of the two that seemed most interesting: Lassen Peak, and Bumpass Hell.

The first trailhead that I encountered along the route was Lassen Peak, the most strenuous in the park. It's a 2.5 mile climb up to the top of the volcano with an elevation change of 2000 feet which means it's a relatively steep 15% grade. This may not seem that bad to hardcore hikers but I'm not a hardcore hiker. After reading all the warnings about high winds, cold temperatures, etc. I decided to give it a shot. I dumped the gadgets (laptop, iPod, cords, chargers, etc) out of my smaller backpack and loaded it up with nearly two liters of water, half a dozen granola bars, beef jerky and my camera. Then I put on my sunglasses, Twins hat and jacket and hit the trail.

A few minutes into the hike I realized that yes, it was quite strenuous. The first half mile of trail was steep but then it really started to go up the side of the mountain and soon it was switchback after switchback on rough, loose rocks and gravel. The air was getting thinner and I started stopping more frequently but the view was getting better and it felt good to be pumping my legs up the trail. An hour and a half later I was at the top, or the end of the trail at least. Looking to my right, I saw that the very peak (elevation 10,457) was actually another quarter mile, across a snow filled depression and up a jumble of rocks. I knew I had to be up at the very peak so I picked my way across the snow and then up the boulders to the absolute highest point. There, embedded in a rock, was a shiny metal Geodetic Survey marker which meant that I was at the top.

The view was incredible. At this height I wasn't even able to distinguish my bright red rental car from the other vehicles in the parking lot much less individual people. It was bright and clear and I could see for miles, all the way to Mount Shasta to the northwest. Around me, hundreds of migratory butterflies were fluttering past. I was standing, balanced on rocks, just inches away from a drop which would certainly kill me if I stumbled. It was exhilarating and stunning and awesome all at the same time.

I stood at the top of the mountain for nearly an hour, enjoying the view and finally catching my breath. I took some photos, consumed some celebratory (because I was feeling quite proud of myself) granola bars and jerky, and then started back down to the parking lot, 2000 vertical feet and 2.5 miles of trail below.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, and feeling uplifted by such natural beauty, I decided to do a second trail after climbing the volcano. This one was called Bumpass Hell and was a moderate hike into an area which is literally still sputtering and spitting, much like parts of Yellowstone. There is no Old Faithful at Lassen but there are mudpots and boiling ponds and steam rising up from the ground. It was impressive and I'm glad I had the energy to do this second hike.

Bumpass Hell pretty much wiped me out for the remainder of the day, which was fine by me. Recognizing that I would be sore tomorrow, and already starting to feel the sunburn on my calves and neck, I drove through the remainder of the park and continued east.

I ended up in Reno as planned, and stayed at a typical Super 8 hotel. I did my laundry, phoned home, perused my map, came up with a basic plan for the next day, and went to bed.

Today's Mileage: 305 Total Mileage: 3680

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August 8, 2005

Going West: Moving Inland

Today was relatively unexciting. I resumed my drive up the coast around 8:00 and discovered that the weather was exactly the way it was when I went to bed: foggy and cold. At least I was fully rested and had a few things on the agenda for the day.

First, I stopped near Eureka to see Fort Humboldt State Historical Site, which was my hero Ulysses S. Grant's home for four months in 1854. The dreariness and isolation he felt there was one of the main reasons he resigned from the army and now I know why. Although it's not isolated anymore, it is certainly dreary. Only two of the fort's buildings still exist and they each contain a museum, one which deals with forestry and the other that only mentions Grant in passing. I was a bit disappointed but I probably shouldn't have expected much more.

I hit the road again after leaving the fort and finally headed inland towards the Mount Shasta area. Along the way I stopped at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area and hiked around the small Tower Creek Historic District. Along the trail sit the abandoned El Dorado gold mine and the gravesite of an early pioneer and entrepeneur named Levi Tower.

After the hike I travelled a few more miles along route 299 and went into Redding, the only decent sized town in the area, and checked into a hotel for the night.

Today's Mileage: 240 Total Mileage: 3375

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 11:34 PM

August 7, 2005

Going West: Baseball on the Bay

The morning after the wedding we all headed our separate ways. My friends were flying back to Minneapolis and I was going to San Francisco for a Giants game. After finding a semi-secret and free parking area a few blocks from SBC Park, I bought a ticket in the only section available, standing room only. As it turned out, standing room wasn't all that bad. There are a few areas which you're not allowed to stand in, but for the most part I was free to walk all over the stadium. I stayed on the concourse level the whole game and had a great view from several areas.

SBC is probably most famous for the bay which sits just a few dozen feet behind the right field fence. Barry Bonds has launched dozens of balls into the water and despite him being out for the season, there were several kayaks and boats in the water hoping to catch a baseball. The first area that I stood in was on the concourse over which his homeruns would fly. The view was actually very good so I stayed in that area for a few innings, then moved to center and then left field. The best spot I had during the game was in left field, just under the large Coke bottle. I was on a raised platform and had a railing to lean on, plus it was a nice place to people watch.

The game was tied at one for several innings and I was hoping for some late inning heroics by the home team but the Astros broke the game wide open in the eighth inning and the game ended up being a blowout, with the Giants losing 8-1.

Overall, I was impressed with the stadium and the people. Everyone was very friendly and the ballpark is a nice place to watch a game. Like many of the new stadiums, it doesn't have a bad seat in the house. Unfortunately, since it's new, it doesn't have much personality either.

After the game, I drove north again, and after a quick stop at the fog shrouded Golden Gate Bridge for photos, I got onto highway 1 which goes up the coast. The road has even tighter corners than the one I drove a few days ago and I almost got dizzy. It was fun for a while but eventually got to be a little too much. My average speed was probably around 35 so it was taking a long time to go a few miles. Fog started to roll in as it got darker and soon there weren't very many cars on the road. It was actually kind of spooky and it reminded me of the movie "House of Sand and Fog". Eventually I got to a fairly big town, Ft. Bragg, and checked into a hotel for the night.

Today's Mileage: 255 Total Mileage: 3135

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 11:55 PM

August 5, 2005

Going West: Into California

The train ride to Sacramento was uneventful and I ended up getting into the state capitol only a bit later than expected. I walked a few blocks to the Budget car rental place and headed out of town. My ultimate destination for the day was Windsor but my friends weren't expecting me until later in the afternoon so I went to two state parks.

Sonoma State Historical Park is notable for being the northernmost Mexican mission in a system that stretched from Guatemala to North America. The Sonoma mission was built to help stop the spread of the Russians who were starting to move their way down the Pacific coast from Alaska. Later, Sonoma was the site of the Bear Flag Revolt, when thirty Americans made an attempt to create a California Republic.

Next, a short drive on highway 12 took me to Jack London State Historical Park, home of the famous author. The park contains a number of buildings on what was once his property. Most interesting are the ruins of his home which literally burned down right before he moved in. His ashes are buried on the property as well, underneath a rock from the ruins of the home.

Eventually I headed back up to Windsor to meet up with my friends. I'm not going to go into detail about the night's festivities and name names but I will say that we went out for sushi, had some sake and then sampled a bit of local wine. We also enjoyed some Fat Tire which is a beer that's only available in the west. I highly recommend it.

Today's mileage: 519 (train) Total Mileage: 2880

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 11:26 PM

August 4, 2005

Going West: First Leg Complete

Click here to view the photo gallery.

We left Burns, OR at 9:00 this morning and prepared for our shortest day of driving yet. It was refreshing to only have to go about 250 miles to get to our destination and it was even more exhilarating because I got to drive the most challenging and exciting roads of the entire trip: the McKenzie pass.

The scenic pass is about 50 miles of two lane, mountainous, forest-enclosed excitement, at least for me. Trucks are not allowed because the road is so narrow and there weren't many people on the road at all. I had free reign to pretty much as fast as dared and my need for speed was only tempered by Rachel, my passenger, who was obviously very nervous about the road.

It had been awhile since I had been on a road as great as this one and it was one of the highlights of this first leg of the trip. There was no shoulder to speak of and not even any white lines to denote the border of where the road met the forest. It was a joy to drive.

At the summit of the pass was a pullout area and an observation post. This area was almost pure volcanic rock and was just as impressive as Craters of the Moon yesterday. In addition, there were several snow-capped mountains on the horizon. It was a beautiful view and made the already worthwhile drive even more spectacular.

Soon after the excellent drive I turned the wheel over for the last time and Rachel drove the rest of the way into Eugene. We arrived around 2:00 pm and had lunch at the Rogue Brewery where I sampled their excellent Shakespeare Stout, a very dark beer with a slightly chocolate aftertaste.

Now (4:45 pm), I'm sitting in the Eugene train station awaiting the Coast Starlight which will take me down to Sacramento. This marks the conclusion of the first leg of the trip, and I'm now on my own. I'd like to thank Rachel for being kind enough to bring me along on her trip out to Eugene and wish her a safe trip back to Minneapolis.

Today's Mileage: 240 Total Mileage: 2360

permalink | comments (1) | TrackBack | posted at 11:59 PM

August 3, 2005

Going West: Across Idaho and Into Oregon

Today was a day of driving and not much else except for a short visit to Craters of the Moon National Monument. The Craters were volcanically formed thousands of years ago and the park basically consisted of several lava fields of black rock. It's a pretty harsh landscape. We walked a short trail through one of the lave fields but couldn't stay long.

The drive continued all the way across Idaho and into Oregon (we're staying in Burns tonight). The only other notable incident was a large accident on highway 20 that we had to stop for about twenty minutes for. A medical chopper flew in and landed in a field next to the road but they didn't seem to be in a terrible rush. Hopefully everyone was OK.

Tomorrow is a 5-6 hour drive across Oregon to Eugene where I'll catch an overnight to Sacramento. This might be the last chance I have to post for a while. I'm not sure what the internet situation is in Windsor where I'll be staying on Friday and Saturday night to attend the wedding. When I do post again, I hope to also post photos from this first leg of the trip.

Today's Mileage: 820 Total Mileage: 2120

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 11:59 PM

August 2, 2005

Going West: "Hey, This Isn't Yellowstone!"

I'm in a Super 8 motel in Columbus, MT along Interstate 90 right now. It's late and I'm tired so all I'll say is that Devils Tower is awesome despite a lady tripping, falling, hitting her head on the counter in the bookstore and going into a seizure right next to me while I was buying postcards. I hope she's OK, but the NPS rangers on duty were a bit slow to call an ambulance, even after an observant visitor (me) said "call an ambulance" about two seconds after she hit the floor.

We drove west after hiking around the base of the tower with the intention of spending the night in Yellowstone. Unfortunately, we made a slight error and forgot to check what time the gates closed for the night. About thirty miles away from Yellowstone we saw a sign that told us that the gates closed at 8:00. A quick check at our clock told us that we had 15 minutes to make it. D'oh! So we had to abandon the Yellowstone idea, and Rachel's security deposit, and make an alternate plan. We ended up heading north to I90 where we're spending the night tonight.

Unfortunately, this takes us a bit out of our way so tomorrow we'll be bypassing Yellowstone altogether and hopefully spending some time at Craters of the Moon instead. Barring any more clerical errors, we'll be driving across Idaho and staying in eastern Oregon tomorrow night.

Today's Mileage: 520 Total Mileage: 1300

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 11:47 PM

August 1, 2005

Going West: the Black Hills

Today we had a bit of shopping to do so we headed to a mall in Bismarck. We hit Target and loaded up on jerky, peanuts, trail mix and other necessities and I bought a pair of swim trunks and sandals, having forgotten mine back in New York. We then hit the road around 9:30 and headed west on Interstate 94.

After a bit of driving we stopped to see Salem Sue, the largest Holstein cow in the world. She sits on top of a hill a little ways off the highway. So we drove up the hill to get a good look at her and enjoy the view. Western North Dakota is much nicer than the eastern portion, notably because it actually has hills and isn't as flat as a table. After a few photos of the cow we got back on the Interstate, finally turning south onto highway 85 which would take us down to South Dakota.

We stopped for lunch in Bowman, ND after seeing a billboard for the "World Famous" Big J's restaurant. It was a good choice - the food was tasty - although I'm not quite sure why it's so famous. Hint: it's not.

After much more driving along 85 we crossed into South Dakota and eventually made it into Black Hills National Forest. We made a quick stop at Prairie Berry Winery for some wine tasting and then headed to Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore was pretty cool. I was there as a kid and it was as impressive as I remembered it. The granite pavilion is relatively new and it seemed a bit gaudy but the walking trail in front of the mountain makes for a nice walk.

After taking lots of photos of the president's faces, we drove deeper into Black Hills National Forest and found a suitable campground near Deerfield Lake (Whitetail Campground, elevation 6000). The road that we drove to get to there was deserted so it was no surprise that the campground was nearly empty except for the hosts and a few other campers. It sprinkled a bit but we stayed dry and had a blazing campfire. Now if only I hadn't woken up in the middle of the night thinking that the forest was on fire...

Today's mileage: 360 Total mileage: 780

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 11:23 PM

July 31, 2005

Going West: Minneapolis to Bismarck

Today was the day of the interstate. I met my friend Rachel at the Avis in downtown Minneapolis, signed a few papers, and got the keys to our vehicle, a Pontiac Vibe. It's sort of like a station wagon but it sits a bit higher. It's not quite an SUV but has room for cargo and still gets 30-36 mpg.

Before I start describing the day I should probably explain how all of this came about. I was originally planning to go to Alaska this summer, but when I was home in July for the Duluth wedding of a friend, I was convinced to meet them in California for yet another wedding of a high school acquaintance. Coincidentally, it just so happened that Rachel was planning to head out to Oregon at the same time to pick up some stuff she has in storage in Eugene and kindly invited me to tag along on the way there. So that's how I ended up departing Minneapolis today in a bright red station wagon thingie.

There isn't much to say about today's trip along Interstate 94 from Minneapolis to Bismarck. It's a lot of 70-75 mph highway with sporadic construction and not all that much traffic. Not incredibly exciting, although I love being on the road for what will probably be my longest road trip since I was in high school. As a result, I happily did all but about 100 miles of the driving today.

The Vibe is really starting to grow on me. It only has a four cylinder so it's not the most powerful thing in the world, but it is very comfortable and rides well. Ours seems to pull to the left a bit too much which is slightly annoying but not a big deal.

Rachel's dog, Onyx, accompanied us for the first part of the journey. She was sitting on the back of one of the folded down seats which are slick plastic. Whenever I would brake or take a corner she'd go sliding around and scrambling to find her footing. Unfortunately, it's not really feasible for the dog to come with us so she'll be staying here in Bismarck.

We arrived in Bismarck at Rachel's parents' house around 6:00 this evening and were treated to grilled kebabs and some chocolate cake. We just just got back from mini-golf a few hours ago. Rachel won, her dad took second, and I finished dead last. Thank to Rachel's parents for their hospitality, the free night's loding and the round of mini-golf!

Tomorrow we'll be hitting the road around 9:00 am and heading west on 94 until Dickinson, then turning south. We'll be seeing Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse and then camping somewhere in the vicinity. Tuesday we drive through Wyoming and spend the night in Yellowstone. Wednesday we go across Idaho and stay in Boise. Finally, on Thursday, we drive the width of Oregon to Eugene just in time for me to catch an overnight train down to Sacramento.

So that's the plan for the next few days... I hope you'll stay with me!

Today's mileage: 420

permalink | comments (1) | TrackBack | posted at 10:34 PM

Going West: the Plan

After being out of New York for most of the month of July in places like Minneapolis, Duluth and Springfield, I am once again embarking on a massive journey which won't bring me back to New York until early September. Last year, it was "Riding Around America", an 8000-mile rail journey around the country which took me to places like New Orleans, Tucson, Portland, Seattle and Chicago. This year, I'll be covering some of the same territory but riding the train less and purchasing expensive liquid called "unleaded gasoline". Instead of purely urban pit stops, there will be natural wonders and bits of history. There will be backroads and scenic rest areas. Picnics and cheap buffets. Cool ocean breezes and the hot heat of the desert. New travel companions. Then, of course, there will be baseball.

Here's the basic plan, subdivided into four roughly equal parts:
1. Road trip from Minneapolis to Oregon
2. Northern California by car with stops in Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, and more...
3. Southern California by car with stops in Los Angeles, San Diego and more...
4. Three day in Las Vegas and back to Minneapolis for the final week before Labor Day

I leave for the first leg of the trip (Minneapolis-Bismarck) in just a few hours! Stay tuned and check in regularly for updates and feel free to drop me a line any time by using the contact form.

Note: I'm not quite happy with "Going West" as a title for the trip. If you have a better idea, send me a message or list your suggestions in the comments of this entry.

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 1:47 AM

Going West: the Plan

After being out of New York for most of the month of July in places like Minneapolis, Duluth and Springfield, I am once again embarking on a massive journey which won't bring me back to New York until early September. Last year, it was "Riding Around America", an 8000-mile rail journey around the country which took me to places like New Orleans, Tucson, Portland, Seattle and Chicago. This year, I'll be covering some of the same territory but riding the train less and purchasing expensive liquid called "unleaded gasoline". Instead of purely urban pit stops, there will be natural wonders and bits of history. There will be backroads and scenic rest areas. Picnics and cheap buffets. Cool ocean breezes and the hot heat of the desert. New travel companions. Then, of course, there will be baseball.

Here's the basic plan, subdivided into four roughly equal parts:
1. Road trip from Minneapolis to Oregon
2. Northern California by car with stops in Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, and more...
3. Southern California by car with stops in Los Angeles, San Diego and more...
4. Three day in Las Vegas and back to Minneapolis for the final week before Labor Day

I leave for the first leg of the trip (Minneapolis-Bismarck) in just a few hours! Stay tuned and check in regularly for updates and feel free to drop me a line any time by using the contact form.

Note: I'm not quite happy with "Going West" as a title for the trip. If you have a better idea, send me a message or list your suggestions in the comments of this entry.

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 1:47 AM

July 25, 2005

Looking for Lincoln

Click here to view the photo gallery.

I spent last week in Springfield, IL on a business trip of sorts. It ended up being a nice, relaxing week and very educational as well. The town itself is a strange sort of place. I arrived by car on a Sunday afternoon and found it almost completely deserted. It was very hot out but there were few signs of habitation in the downtown area where my hotel, the tallest building in town, was located. Nothing was open even though it was early in the afternoon.

Historically, of course, Springfield has a lot to offer. The highlight is the brand new Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. The museum has garnered a lot of publicity and controversy since opening in April. Some claim that it makes a theme park out of the life of America's greatest president. I found this to be a fair criticism and one which is not unexpected from academians. Dry and boring historians probably do find the museum a bit revolting. Sure it's flashy and has life-sized Lincoln figures sprinkled liberally throughout, but it also captures the imagination. I was entranced by the dioramas and multimedia presentations. I saw kids who were excited to learn about this man who lived 140 years ago. Yes, it bordered on cheesy at times, but it provides visitors with an experience that few other museums can offer. The children will be entertained, the adults can examine Lincoln's life in detail and both will leave the building with new knowledge and appreciation for what the man from Springfield accomplished. Those who criticize this type of museum need to be prepared to see many, many more of them in the future. If we are to keep history alive for new generations of children, we need to start now, with places like this.

I personally realized that Lincoln was a far more tragic figure than I had originally thought. He buried two children, had a sometimes stormy relationship with his wife, guided America through it's greatest crisis, and was killed in the midst of his greatest triumph. Even Shakespeare himself couldn't write a more tragic tale.

Of course, no visit to Springfield would be complete without a visit to the Lincoln Home run by the National Park Service. I spent a good portion of each day at the park and, although it is not flashy or brand new like the Lincoln Library and Museum, it does give a good sense of what Lincoln's life was like. It might take a bit more imagination than the new museum a few blocks away, but there is nothing quite like walking in the footsteps of Lincoln and his family. Visitors to Springfield need to see both to get the full picture of the man.

The third highlight of my week in Springfield was the Dana-Thomas House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It has one of the best collections of original Wright furniture and is the best preserved example of his "prairie style". It doesn't look like much from the outside but the hour long tour of the interior of the house is worthwhile, especially for fans of Wright.

Other notable Springfield highlights include the Old State Capitol as well as the new one and the Lincoln-Herndon Law Office.

permalink | comments (0) | TrackBack | posted at 11:42 AM

July 8, 2005

Duluth Photo Gallery

Click here to view the photo gallery.

I was in Duluth, MN this past weekend for a wedding and spent Independence Day visiting a few spots in the city with some friends. We hit Glensheen Mansion, which is an elegant house that the University of Minnesota maintains. Unfortunately, the tour that we received was mostly a "furniture tour" in which little was said about the people who actually lived in the home. This was a real drag considering that there was a double homicide committed in the house in 1977!

Next we went down to the waterfront area of the city and marvelled at the famous Aerial Lift Bridge - well, at least I did anyway. The highlight of the day for me came when the bridge was raised to make room for a gigantic ship from Delaware which was coming into the harbor.

The photos may not be the greatest but I'm just warming up for the big trip of the summer which is quickly taking shape. More on that later so stay tuned!

permalink | comments (2) | TrackBack | posted at 1:12 AM

October 17, 2004

Riding Around America: Epilogue

Click here to view the photo gallery.

I promised some final photos and thoughts about my trip around the country a few months ago so here they are. Well, the photos anyway. All of the photos in this gallery are shots taken from the trains or are photos of the trains themeselves. Overall, I'm very happy with the way that some of them turned out. In most cases the windows acted as filters and the tint actually enhanced some of the colors.

Withdrawl has been hard, especially considering that I have a view of the Hell's Gate railroad bridge from my apartment here in NYC and occasionally see trains crossing it. But, if everything goes well, there are only nine months until I'll be riding the Trans-Siberian Railroad across Asia.

If you have no clue what I'm talking about in this entry you can read the whole story of my rail journey around America.

permalink | comments (1) | posted at 2:47 PM

September 10, 2004

Planning Ahead for the Next Big Trip

Since the Ride Around America has ended and I am back at work after a fantastic summer vacation, I've started thinking ahead to next summer. This might seem a bit premature, but after planning the current rail journey just five days before departing, I don't want to end up handcuffed by my procrastinating ways next year.

It basically comes down to two places: Russia or Alaska.

I have wanted to go to Alaska for several years, ever since I was offered two jobs in the state, most recently at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, but did not go because I was interviewing (and now have) a job in New York City. I don't regret not going, because it was important for me to be in NYC at the time, but it has been high on my list of places to go since then.

I've had an interest in going to Russia for several years, mostly due to my three Russian friends. I was able to see one of them recently while she was waiting for her New York-Helsinki-Moscow flight and my interest in visiting was piqued again. It always helps when you have friends that live there. Plus, they have the longest railway in the world: the Trans-Siberian Railway. That alone is reason to go there (although it's not as long my recent rail journey.

Technically it would be possible to do both, an idea that I looked into briefly a few months ago. My crazy plan was to go to Alaska, then fly or sail across to Vladivostok, Russia, take the railroad to Moscow and then on to London where I would catch a flight back to New York. With my income, it's merely a dream at this point.

Right now, I'm leaning towards Russia and just bought a phrasebook a few days ago so that I can expand on my limited vocabulary. In the meantime I'll be doing a lot of research to figure out visa details and an estimate of how much this might cost.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 7:19 AM

September 1, 2004

Ten Trips for Travelling by Train

If you're thinking about traveling around the country by train like I just did, here are ten tips you might want to keep in mind.

• Clothing: wear something comfortable like sweatpants or a track suit. Do not wear jeans if you are taking a long journey.
• Blanket: trains are air conditioned, sometimes to the extreme. A small blanket, like the ones used on planes, will keep you warm.
• Coffee: if you buy coffee from the snack bar, keep your cup because refills are free.
• Socialize: talk to people. Go out on a limb and you will meet some interesting people.
• Food: purchase snacks and food beforehand to save money. My favorites are fruit cups, crackers, canned tuna and chicken, chips, trail mix, granola bars and breakfast bars.
• Hygiene: put essential toiletries in a Ziploc bag and keep it in your carry-on. Wet Ones facial wipes come in a nice, re-sealable travel pack and are very refreshing.
• Timeliness: do not expect your train to be on time, especially if traveling across the south. If you have a deadline or must be at a certain place at a certain time, you shouldn't be riding the train.
• Sleep: this is easier said than done, especially for me, but sleep at night, not during the day. Resist the urge to sleep while there is nice scenery passing by your window, even if you're really tired.
• Seating: try to avoid sitting near the front or rear of the car. The train cars are linked by doors, which provide a blast of track noise and air when opened. This is annoying when you're trying to sleep and is even worse if the door is broken and stays open all night long.
• Camera: the trick to avoiding reflections in photos is to keep the lens close to the window. Shooting at an angle may help.

permalink | comments (1) | posted at 1:08 AM

"The Great Railway Bazaar" by Paul Theroux

Writer Paul Theroux goes on a rail journey that must be at least five
times longer than the one I just completed. He starts in London and
travels through Europe, Turkey, the Middle East, India, China, Japan and Russia. I disagree with Theroux's travel style, which seems to consist of taking the train just for the sake of taking the train. He spends little time in cities and towns along the route and spends most of the book describing the trains themselves and the people that ride them.

The best tale of the book comes in the first couple of chapters when he describes the other person in his compartment, Duffill, and then relates how poor Duffill gets left on the platform somewhere in Europe, while his bags remain in the compartment. Apart from that, there are few good bits in the book.

Theroux lapses into a description of every type of landscape the trains pass through and the various types of people he encounters, all of whom he looks down upon rather haughtily. It's worth a read, if only for the descriptions of landscape which many of us may never travel through. Just don't expect much of a plot or humor beyond the first couple of chapters.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 12:56 AM

August 31, 2004

Riding Around America: The End

That's it! It's over. After travelling 8,000 miles around the country on the train, I'm back home. I'd like to thank the NYPD who turned out in force this afternoon at Penn Station to welcome me back, the German Shepherd who boarded the train at Albany to make sure that the train I was riding on didn't have any bombs on it, and the armed soldiers who patrolled that stations and tracks along the Hudson River.

But seriously, I really do want to thank everyone that played a role in the trip: Josh, Sherri, Bruce, mom and dad for providing food and shelter; and everyone that I met on the train and in the cities I visited.

A general wrap-up of the trip and some final photos will be up soon.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:54 PM

August 30, 2004

Riding Around America: Layover in Chicago

Either I'm overreacting because I'm a bit bummed out that this trip is ending or I really did have the most annoying children sitting behind me on the train on my way into Chicago. It was unbelievable. I've never seen such badly behaved children on the train before. Crying and crying and the grandmother doing nothing to stop it. Oh well. It's over now and I'm sitting in Chicago's Daley Plaza. In front of me is a Puerto Rican festival, on my right is a fountain, behind me are workers carving up the concrete, and to my left I have Puerto Rican music blasting from some speakers. It's probably a good thing actually, since my ears need to get used to loud city noise again.

It's a bit depressing to think that this next train ride into New York will be my last for quite some time. I guess I will have to savor it as much as possible. Despite all the travelling I've been doing, I haven't found myself sick of riding on the trains at all. In some cases, like Seattle, it's been a welcome respite from a city that I spent too much time in, and it has certainly never been boring.

However, all this noise here in the plaza is getting on my nerves a bit - maybe it's the jackhammers behind me - so it's time to pack up and head back towards the station, hopefully grabbing some food on the way, then onward to New York and the familiar surroundings of my neighborhood.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 5:00 PM

August 29, 2004

Riding Around America: The Last Ride

It's almost over. About eight hours from now I'll board the Empire Builder once again and ride to Chicago, then it's home to New York City aboard the Lakeshore Limited. When I get to New York on Tuesday afternoon I'll be entering perhaps the most secure zone in America as I arrive at Penn Station, which sits underneath Madison Square Garden. That's the site of the Republican National Convention, in case you've been living under a rock for the last few days. I'm expecting long delays and security checks when I arrive, and will be surprised if I get back to my apartment before dark, even though my train is supposed to come in at 3:25 in the afternoon.

I've done the Minneapolis-New York route once before and the lounge car on that trip (back in January) was the most friendly and sociable atmosphere I've ever experienced on a train before. I'm hoping it will be that way again, since I've yet to experience that on this trip at all, but I'm predicting the opposite due to the craziness in the city right now.

I'll save the big trip retrospective, train tips and rail photos for later this week, when I'm settled back in at home and the massive pile of mail that is undoubtedly awaiting me has been read.

Of course if I'm able to find a wireless access point along the way, there will be entries posted from the train or a station. Now would also be a good time to let you know that my NYC.photo.BLOG, on hiatus since mid-July, will be churning out photos once again in just a few short days.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:23 PM

August 26, 2004

Riding Around America: Minnesota Baseball

Since I've been writing about all the ballgames I've attended during my current rail journey, I think it's only fair to write about the Minnesota baseball experience. If you've been following along, I'm a Minnesota native so I am certainly no stranger to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome and the Twins ballclub. In fact, I can rightly say that I know more about the Metrodome than most Minnesotans because I actually worked there, as a part time maintenance man, for a few months last year.

The Metrodome enjoys the dubious distinction of being perhaps the worst baseball stadium in the major leagues. It was opened in 1982 and is a multi-purpose stadium which means it is used for baseball, football, basketball, concerts, trade-shows, conventions and other big events that come to town. It's most distinguishing feature is the roof, which is made of 10 acres of Teflon coated fabric, held up by air pressure.

The biggest complaints about the Dome are that it's ugly (it's all unpainted concrete and plastic), the generic seating plan provides unsatisfactory views of the action during baseball games, it's a multi-purpose stadium that's not actually good at hosting any type of event, the turf and concrete floor underneath is tough on the knees, the white roof makes it hard to see flyballs, and a host of other things - the list is long.

Most of the major complaints about the Dome are true. However, after spending several months learning the workings of the place as an employee and seeing three Twins games there this season (keep in mind I live in NYC), I've decided that the Metrodome is actually endearing. Yes, you read that right.

First and and foremost, it's unique. There are no ballparks like it and there never will be, ever. Watching a game at the Metrodome is as unique as watching a game at Fenway Park or any of the highly rated ballparks, past or present. Watching a game at the Dome is a completely new experience for a baseball fan who has never been there, just as an outdoor stadium is a new and strange experience for a Minnesotan who has never watched a ballgame not under a roof.

This same theory applies to the opposing team as well, which brings me to reason number two: homefield advantage. There are few teams in baseball who can claim a distinct home field advantage due solely to their stadium. All ballparks in baseball, with a few exceptions, provide the same advantages and disadvantages to both teams who play in them. At the Metrodome, opposing teams can not only lose the ball in the bright white of the roof but they might have try and catch it after it has bounced off of a speaker. At the Metrodome it is even possible for a ball to defy the laws of physics and not come down at all. Another component of this Dome-field advantage occurs during big games, when players are subjected to astonishing volumes of crowd noise. A playoff game in late innings at a jam packed Metrodome is the last place opposing teams want to be, especially when the noise levels are comparable to a jet engine (125db) and are enough to cause hearing damage if sustained long enough. Even during the regular season, opposing pitchers routinely step off the pitching rubber to compose themselves during tense situations when crowd noise is bombarding them from every direction. When filled with fans during a major sporting event it is the loudest stadium in America - possibly the world.

I've seen dozens of games at the Metrodome throughout the years and, despite all it's shortfalls, I love it. Believe it or not, I get that same mushy feeling and quickening heartbeat when I see the flourescent green turf as I did when I saw Wrigley Field for the first time last week. I still, after all these years, look up at the roof and am amazed that air is holding up all those heavy speakers and sheltering us from the rain and snow. When I worked at the Dome I walked past the main control room every day and marvelled at the dials and switches and toggles that control the blowers that hold up the roof. And who doesn't enjoy being thrust out of the building by the release of air pressure when exiting the building?

These are not what you would call "traditional" baseball experiences. Of course the Metrodome is no Wrigley Field, Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium (which I hate). But it's still baseball, and it is most definitely Minnesota baseball.

Plans are underway to build a new ballpark for the Twins. Although the effort is bogged down in the state legislature as of this writing, the new stadium will become a necessity in the next ten years if the Twins are to remain a competitive team. I am OK with that. A new, modern ballpark that gets more Minnesotans excited about the Twins is definitely a good thing. But I'd be lying if I said that I won't miss that big concrete and plastic monstrosity known as the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

permalink | comments (1) | posted at 1:59 AM

August 23, 2004

Riding Around America: Chicago Photos

These have been delayed for days but I've finally put up photos from Chicago. There were quite a few so I divided them into two sets:

• Chicago Baseball: photos from the Cubs game and the White Sox game I attended
• Chicago: these are general photographs taken around the city

permalink | comments (2) | posted at 8:32 PM

August 22, 2004

Riding Around America: Mississippi Travels

I have now entered the family portion of my trip which includes much relaxing at my parents place just outside Minneapolis. Yesterday morning we went out for a drive, heading south along the Mississippi River and into Iowa and Wisconsin.

The first attraction we hit was Spook Cave in McGregor, Iowa. It has 6"-2' of water in it and is fairly small, so groups of eight (plus one guide) are taken in on rowboats powered by trolling motors. At several points we had to duck to avoid scraping the ceiling, and there was a bit of tomfoolery in the back seats when some people splashed the extremely cold water on others - I won't name names. Our guide had a head of flaming red curly hair (like Carrot Top the comedian) and, judging from the way he talked, was very bored. Not only that but both of the tour guides on other boats that we passed in the cave spoke the same script and even used the same bored-sounding inflection in their voices!

After the exciting boat trip we hit the road again and went to Effigy Mounds National Monument, also in Iowa. There we saw a demonstration of the atlatl, a prehistoric throwing weapon, and walked a short portion of their 11 miles of trail, which go to the bluffs above the Mississippi River. The mounds themselves were created by Native Americans all over the midwest, but only in this part of Iowa were they consistently created in animal shapes.

Next we made a beeline up the road to our hotel in LaCrosse, WI because they serve free drinks between 5:00 and 7:00 each evening. All four of us took advantage and managed to put away a half dozen beers plus some vodka, Kahlua and Bailey's. We walked it off around 8:00 and had dinner at a Cajun place - yes, a Cajun restaurant in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

This morning and afternoon we meandered back home and had a nice picnic in Red Wing along the way. It marked the third time I have been in Red Wing on this trip (the Empire Builder passes through) and I'll go through it one more time on my way back to New York at the end of the trip.

And by the way, I haven't forgotten about the Chicago pictures. They'll be up soon.

permalink | comments (3) | posted at 12:26 AM

August 19, 2004

Riding Around America: Backtracking to Minneapolis

There's probably not much sense in writing about my trip from Chicago to Minneapolis because I'm backtracking but I'm putting this up simply to maintain the continuity of the travelogue. Basically, the ride on the "Empire Builder" was pretty uneventful. I found myself thinking of the eight hour trip as "short" which shows how my perceptions of train travel have changed.

I am in Minneaoplis now, staying with my family. It's always nice to be back in the area where I grew up. To emphasize that I am back in my "hometown", I'm attending an eighth grade reunion tonight (my first reunion of any kind) which I'm a little nervous about.

I don't consider the trip over, just because I'm here. Actually, I'll be seeing a few things this weekend in LaCrosse, WI and maybe dipping into Iowa and Illinois briefly. It will be nice to travel with the family like we did back when my brother and I were kids.

Although I won't be riding on a train again until the end of the month when I go back to New York, the travelogue will continue. In the next couple of days I'll be sorting through my Chicago photos and putting up a gallery of selected images. I'll also be writing a little retrospective of the trip and posting ten tips for travelling by train. So, there's much more to come. Stay tuned.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:32 AM

August 18, 2004

Riding Around America: The Other Chicago Ballpark

Yesterday was Pepsi half price night at U.S. Cellular Field, formerly known as Comiskey Park so I picked up a ticket for a seat in the upper deck for a mere $8. Originally built in 1991 to replace the original Comiskey Park, the stadium was renamed last year and has had a host of improvements recently which make it a pretty good place to see a ballgame.

When I arrived, the Detroit Tigers were taking batting practice. They had just finished when dark clouds started to roll in and the few fans in the ballpark were treated to thunder and lightning. Soon, rain was falling and I was experiencing my first rain delay. The grounds crew pulled a large tarp over the infield, the fans ran for cover and we waited. Around game time the skies really opened up and the downpour made it look like the game would be cancelled. After taking some photos of the rain I stood in one of the entrances to the upper deck and watched the Twins game on the big screen in center field. Of all the ballparks I’ve been to, U.S. Cellular has the biggest and best jumbotron I’ve ever seen. Watching the Twins while waiting for the game to end was a pleasure.

As quickly as it had begun, the shower ended and the clouds drifted off over the lake. The grounds crew rolled up the tarp and fans started brushing the rain off their seats. The game started off with a bang when the Tigers hit the second pitch of the game into left field for a home run. There were lots of Tigers fans in the crowd and they all cheered. This made me feel good because I, being a Twins fans, was naturally cheering for the Tigers also.

In addition to having a great scoreboard, the stadium also has some really nice grass. This may seem like a strange thing to say but I am fascinated by baseball fields and the stadium has beautiful deep green grass, neatly mowed in straight vertical lines.

This game was the first time that I’ve kept score, which was a nice way to stay “in” the game. Keeping score also appeals to my obsessive-compulsive side. Although I was concentrating on filling in the scorecard it was impossible not to miss the large group of loud fans in my section. These guys were hilarious. They were all drinking and yelling and screaming. When a kid nearby had his birthday displayed on the big screen in center field, the group, who didn’t know him beforehand, chanted his name and sang Happy Birthday to him in the eighth inning.

Eventually the White Sox bats came alive, the game ended up being quite a slugfest and I was finally able to see the famous exploding scoreboard in action. The term is actually a misnomer however because the scoreboard itself doesn’t actually explode. It did at the old Comiskey Park but these days that’s probably a lawsuit waiting to happen. Today’s scoreboard does have spinning pinwheels and flashing lights which are complemented by fireworks that explode over left field when a homerun is hit, which happened twice last night. The fireworks added a nice touch to the ballgame and the fans love them.

During this game I found several reasons to dislike the White Sox (as if I didn’t dislike them enough already). Basically, they look sloppy. They show no hustle on the base paths or when taking the field which is why, in the end, the Tigers prevailed.

Overall, U.S. Cellular Field is a common ballpark. It’s a nice place to watch a ballgame but it isn’t spectacular like Wrigley Field or Camden Yards. The fans are fickle and didn’t hesitate to boo when the White Sox made bad plays. They also went home in the seventh and eighth innings despite the fact that the Sox had rallied to within a few runs of the Tigers. But despite all this, U.S. Cellular Field is a nice place to watch a Chicago baseball team, especially if you refuse to pay exorbitant ticket prices to see the Cubs.

permalink | comments (1) | posted at 11:03 AM

Riding Around America: Science, Industry and Architecture of Chicago

I still had a lot of things on my list of things to see and only had one day left, but I managed to fit the big things in. First, I went downtown to take an architectural walking tour. The Chicago Architecture Foundation leads about a dozen different tours of the city, highlighting different time periods and buildings. It was tough to decide which tour to take but I eventually picked “Historic Skyscrapers”. I took a year long course in college on the history of architecture which is what sparked my interest so I was looking forward to seeing the world’s first skyscrapers on the tour.

I won’t mention all the buildings that the two hour tour covered, but we probably hit at least a dozen. Almost all of the buildings we saw were some of the first in the world to be considered “skyscrapers”, a term which can be applied only to buildings that are over ten stories tall and have a steel skeleton rather than load bearing walls. The highlights for me were the Marquette, Field, and Rookery buildings.

I would highly recommend the tour for anyone that has even a slight interest in architecture. The guide that our group had didn’t go into excessive detail and kept his explanations simple and in laymen’s terms but was knowledgeable enough to answer more specific questions while walking to and from the buildings. The tours also incorporate a lot of Chicago history because events in the city, especially the Great Fire, are part of the reason that the skyscrapers exist.

The tour ended just after noon and I caught a southbound bus to the Science and Industry Museum. It has changed a bit since I was last there, which was when I was a kid and my dad took me to Chicago for the weekend. I basically remembered two things from the museum: the German U-boat and the coal mine. I ended up seeing neither on this trip. The U-boat is closed because it is being restored and moved indoors to a new exhibit space. The coal mine was in operation but I chose not to go inside. I have an image in my head of what it was like and, in a sort of cheesy and sentimental way, I don’t want to taint that image by seeing it as an adult.

There were a couple of exhibits that stood out at the museum. First is the Pioneer Zephyr, an extremely fast train that ran between Denver and Chicago. It’s a slick, aluminum skinned machine in the style of Gulf Airstream campers and trailers. The Amtrak trains of today are nice, but I would have loved to be able to ride the one on display at the museum when it was in operation. The other cool exhibit was also about trains (you’d have thought I would have had enough of them by this point) and is a gigantic model train layout meant to symbolize the route of the Empire Builder. Both Chicago and Seattle are modeled, skyscrapers and all, in some detail. Trains that run through the layout include the Empire Builder, the Cascades, freight trains, and Chicago’s mass transit system.

The part that I enjoyed most at the museum, however was not any of the exhibits, but the film I watched in the Omnimax theatre. “Lewis and Clark” is a sweeping 40 minute film about the expedition, narrated by actor Jeff Bridges. It’s a documentary with the bird’s eye views of western scenery that Imax films are famous for, interspersed with scenes of Lewis, Clark and their crew. Some of the scenes are simply amazing and the entire production is uplifting, informative and patriotic without being cheesy. It conveys the magnitude of the undiscovered parts of North America and the extreme danger that the group faced along the way.

After seeing most of the museum it was 5:00 and time to catch a bus to Comiskey Park - I mean U.S. Cellular Field, to see the White Sox play the Detroit Tigers.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 9:46 AM

August 17, 2004

Riding Around America: Chicago

I've spent two full days in Chicago now and have seen a few interesting things. Sunday evening after the baseball game I went downtown to the new Millenium Park which just opened in July. The Frank Gehry designed bandshell is somewhat forgettable since it looks like all his other buildings. There are two other pieces of art in the park that captured my interest however. The first consists of two 50-foot tall blocks with a shallow pool between them. One one side of each block, a videoboard displays photographs of everyday people. I saw the sculpture, designed by Jaume Plensa, at night, and kids were playing in the pool and having a great time. THe pool is only about an inch deep which gives the impression that people walking in it are walking on top of the water. The changing video boards providing an interesting backdrop and light up the entire area. I stood watching the sculpture for about 15 minutes and eventually a spout of water shot from the mouth of the people on the screens, much to the delight of the children below who danced around in the spray.

Equally attractive is the large, smooth, unnamed steel sculpture which has been dubbed "jelly bean" by visitors, for good reason. The surface is like a mirror, and it reflects the skyline beautifully. Crowds of people were gathered around the sculpture, posing and photographing themselves and others in the reflection.

A much smaller display of family photographs is displayed off to the side of the park. A photographer (whose name escapes me right now) travelled the world taking photographs of families. Each photo is accompanied by a short description and the exhibit as a whole is fascinating.

Yesterday morning I went up to the Chicago Historical Society which had several interesting exhibits. In the main gallery was an exhibit about Leopold & Loeb, two criminals who kidnapped and murdered a boy named Bobby Franks. I will write a little bit more about the exhibit later (I'm running out of batteries), which features the work of my favorite songwriter Billy Corgan. Another interesting exhibit is "Teen Chicago", which shows what the lives of teenagers have been like throughout the 20th century.

Yesterday evening I took the Green Line train out to Oak Park and looked at a few Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings, including Unity Temple, whose dreary gray concrete exterior was unspectacular.

Today I'm taking an architectural tour, visiting the Science and Industry Museum, and seeing a White Sox game if the weather holds. I'd write more but I'm losing battery power and need to get going. More details and photos will be posted tomorrow morning before I catch the westbound Empire Builder to Minneapolis.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 8:33 AM

August 16, 2004

Riding Around America: Baseball at Wrigley Field

After checking the Cubs schedule yesterday morning and realizing that I would have to see them that afternoon before they hit the road, I got on the red line train and headed north to Wrigleyville. I knew from the website that tickets had been sold out long ago so my only hope was to purchase a ticket outside the field before the game. I arrived at Wrigley at noon, which would give me over an hour to buy a ticket. No problem, I figured.

One hour later I was still without a ticket. I had walked around the stadium half a dozen times and walked down some of the side streets. The cheapest ticket I had found was about $80. The problem with buying tickets for an event in Illinois is that it’s one of the few states that allows ticket “brokers” to resell tickets significantly above face value. I discovered this a few years ago when I was attempting to purchase tickets to the final Smashing Pumpkins concerts.

So I continued looking for a ticket. At 1:20 the game began and I was still outside. Brokers had dropped their prices a few dollars but it was still more than I wanted to pay. A few of the unlicensed ticket sellers had pulled me aside wanting to negotiate. At this point, they were willing to sell tickets for $40 but it was the fourth inning and the game had been going for a full hour. I knew the Cubs had scored a couple of runs due to the roar of the crowd. I started to think that I should probably give up and leave.

I was literally walking down the street towards the El to go back downtown when a guy came up to me and asked if I needed one ticket. He showed me the ticket and said he wanted $40. I talked him down to $30, then $25. I made my final offer: $20. He started to walk away but his partner in crime eventually convinced him to give me the ticket for $20. He wasn’t too happy but I slipped him the twenty and he gave up the ticket. I was in!

I rushed up to the gate, handed over the ticket and walked into 90 year old Wrigley Field. It took me awhile to get my bearings but I eventually started upstairs to the upper deck. I had no idea if the seat was any good and I really didn’t care; I just wanted to see this place before the game ended. I walked up a bunch of ramps, stopped quick to buy a cold beer to celebrate my good fortune, and walked out into the stands along the right field line.

My first impression of Wrigley? It’s tiny! I knew immediately why it’s known as the “friendly confines”. I looked around in amazement for a few minutes and then asked an usher for directions to my seat. Section numbers are on small, unobtrusive signs but I eventually found my section and started hiking up the stairs to row nine. I got to the top of the steps and there was row nine with a chain link fence behind the seats and the Chicago skyline beyond. I found my seat, sat down, and took my first long look at the field.

I must have sat there with my mouth open for several minutes. Although I was in the last row, I was very close to the field. I was sitting in the upper deck but the players didn’t look like ants. From what I could tell, every seat in the place is good. Another great thing about Wrigley is that it actually feels old. Old wooden beams hold up the roof, which is also wood. The wall around the field itself is red brick. Ivy covers the outfield walls. The main scoreboard in center field is hand operated. Every so often you see a number on the board disappear and someone in a red shirt puts up the new one. There are only three small electronic scoreboards in the entire place. There is no Jumbotron. Beyond the ballpark, rooftops are crowded as people watch the game from their homes. The field is actually uneven in places.

As I watched the game I came to the realization that baseball really is timeless. By looking at the field and watching the game it felt like it could have been 1914. There is very little that has changed at Wrigley and that’s why watching the game there was so incredible. The ticket I bought was worth every penny.

In the end the Cubs lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers and the cold wind coming through the chain link fence behind chilled all of us in the top row to the bone - but that was secondary. For me, just being inside the ballpark and seeing the game was most important.

After the game I walked around the stadium. The ushers were in no hurry and they let me walk down to first row, right next to the field. The stadium is so intimate that I was only a few dozen feet away from home plate. The low brick wall in foul territory was barely taller than my knees. Fans lucky enough to sit that close could have a conversation with the player in the on-deck circle and look right into the dugout. I can only imagine what it must be like to sit that close and what those tickets must cost.

I filled my camera with photos and left the ballpark, walking out under the sign that simply reads:

Wrigley Field
home of
Chicago Cubs

Short, simple and too the point. Like baseball is meant to be.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:00 AM

August 15, 2004

Riding Around America: Empire Builder

After one too many days in Seattle, I was looking forward to the 2200 mile ride on America's most famous train, the Empire Builder. The route was named for James J. Hill, the ultimate railroad tycoon, who built the Great Northern Railway. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the famous route and also the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition. I would be riding the entire length of the route - Seattle to Chicago. I prepared by stocking up with the food supplies and by cracking the book I had brought along specifically for this leg of the journey - "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose, a popular book about the Lewis and Clark expedition.

The train was crowded from the start and I was seated next to woman who was very excited to hear about this website ("I love stuff like that"). She was a former park ranger who had worked at Steheiken in Washington and she made me wish that I had done some hiking while I was there. Now I'm going to have to go back sometime and check out everything that she recommended.

The ride east from Seattle was some of the best scenery yet as we sped up, over and through the Cascade Mountains. We passed through wilderness areas and national forests. The train labored slowly up a steep 2.2% percent grade at one point, with a nearly vertical rock face on one side and a pine forested valley on the other. We also went through the longest tunnel in North America which measures nearly 8 miles long. I was going to time how long it took us to get through but I fell asleep just a few minutes in. So much for my chance to see how fast we were going.

I fell asleep before Spokane, and slept well apart from the jolt at 12:30 in the morning as extra cars were added to the train. I woke up as the train approached Glacier National Park. Fog lay low along the river and amongst the trees and slowly burned off as the sun rose higher. A few minutes after I woke up, the train stopped at Whitefish for a 15 minute smoke break. It was still early but I didn't want to miss the chance to get a breath of fresh air so I decided to go outside. I was jolted awake as I stepped off the train by the cold outside air and steam came out of my mouth. I stayed outside as long as possible, enjoying the clean fresh air before the two short blasts of the train's whistle signaled the all aboard and we were off again.

I spent the remainder of the day dozing, reading the paper and starting the Ambrose book. I had lunch in the dining car with a couple who were in the middle of moving from Portland to Vermont, with their four week old baby, Sam, who was very well behaved as the three of us talked and ate.

I fell asleep that night a few minutes after the train went through Devil’s Lake, ND and had an even better sleep than the night before because I now had two seats to myself which allowed me, after much blanket arranging and seat tilting, to get into a comfortable sleeping position. I slept through Grand Forks and Fargo, woke up briefly in St. Cloud and then de-trained for some fresh air in Minneapolis. I dug out some quarters, bought a copy of the Star-Tribune and made the local call to my parents to say hi. They weren’t home, or they were still asleep – I had forgotten that it was Saturday, so I got back on the train and soon we were off again.

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. I got through a large part of the Lewis and Clark book, met a nice girl from Holland who was traveling around the country with her sister as a break from studying to be a teacher, dozed off a few more times, and arrived in Chicago last night only one hour late.

And that’s a brief summary of my pleasant journey on Amtrak’s Empire Builder. Now I have three days to explore Chicago before backtracking to Minneapolis to spend time with my family and then heading back to New York at the end of August. This journey around America is far from over.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 10:47 AM

August 12, 2004

Riding Around America: Goodbye Seattle

Click here to view the photo gallery.

I'm sitting in the library again, killing some time before my train, the Empire Builder, leaves for Chicago at 4:45. I've decided that three and a half days in Seattle was too much. Yesterday there wasn't anything of major interest for me to see. Or at least nothing that I was interested in. I think I may have lost some momentum here in Seattle due to all the traveling I've been doing. Not that I didn't have a good time here, I'm just looking forward to being back on the train again and getting to a fresh city. Chicago has more places to visit and more baseball to watch - both the Cubs and White Sox will be in town. Other things I'll be visiting are the Art Institute, Science & Industry Museum, and the other usual suspects. If any readers have suggestions for more obscure places or attractions to visit, please let me know.

The Seattle-Chicago leg of my trip is the longest and perhaps the most historic one yet. It's over 2200 miles, passes through seven states, and makes up over 25% of the entire journey. Speaking of distances, by the time this whole thing is over I will have travelled 8000 miles. According to an air distance calculator I found online, this is roughly the distance between New York City and Calcutta - or Seattle and Singapore. In other words, it's a long way but I'm stoked, stocked (with food and books), and ready to go.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 1:04 PM

August 11, 2004

Riding Around America: Baseball in Seattle

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I approached Safeco Field with some trepidation yesterday at 5:00 pm to see my beloved Minnesota Twins take on the Seattle Mariners. The outside of the stadium with it's boring brick facade doesn't look like much but thankfully the inside of the park is another story. I entered at the home plate gate, my ticket was scanned by a friendly gate attendant and I proceed inside, underneath a giant bat (of the Louisville variety) sculpture, and up the stairs to the first level.

As I reached the concourse my eyes were immediately drawn to the field where I saw the Mariners taking batting practice and the Twins stretching and throwing in front of the dugout. I walked down and joined the crowd of Twins fans who were watching the team and looking for autographs and there they all were: Hunter, Koskie, Jones, Rivas, Guzman, Lecroy, Ford, Stewart, Santana. The whole team, standing right there, hanging out, joking around and clearly having a good time.

Soon the Twins were up for batting practice and I stayed down by the field, watching them spray hits all over the field. Corey Koskie launched several baseballs into the upper deck in left field, to ooohs and aaahs from the crowd.

Eventually the grounds crew started to clean up the field. The batting cage was pulled away, ground covers were picked up and water was sprayed onto the infield dirt to keep the dust down. There were still a few minutes before the game so I took a quick walk around the stadium. The right field concourse provides an interesting view due to the stadium's retractable roof. When the roof is open, it sits out beyond the confines of the park, over the railroad tracks. I noticed this when I arrived a few days ago when the roof blocked out the sun as my train rolled into Seattle. The roof is interesting from a technological standpoint but it's location above the tracks provide atmosphere as well. At several points during the game the roof made passing train whistles echo into the stadium and the trains could be seen beyond the right field bleachers.

Finally I walked up several flights of stairs to my seats in the upper deck behind home plate. Section 329, row 4, seat 10. For $24 the seat provided an excellent view of the field. The Seattle skyline loomed in the background, the sky was clear and the temperature perfect. A perfect day for a ballgame.

Before the game began a short tribute to Edgar Martinez was shown on the video board in center field. He had just announced that he would be retiring at the end of the season and the crowd gave him a standing ovation for a full three minutes. He was obviously moved as he stood out in front of the dugout tipping his hat to the fans who supported him during his 18-year career. During the first inning he showed why he's a fan favorite when he hit a two run homer to left field much to the crowd's delight.

Sitting next to me for the entire game was Dave, a Mariner's fan who knew a lot about baseball. Dave was a twitchy, analytical fan who had a laugh somewhere between a guffaw and a grunt that sounded like he was trying to clear his throat. He was a nice guy and our conversation covered the downfall of Kirby Puckett, the problem with the last place Mariners, financing for the stadium, September 11th, politics (he was a Libertarian) and education. The woman sitting next to him was Peggy, a friend of his brother's from Connecticut who was a social studies teacher and Yankees fan. Between the three of us we had a lot to talk about which was just as well considering the lack of excitement on the field after the Mariner's four run first inning.

The game ended in a Mariner's victory which wasn't too disappointing to me. I told Dave, "You guys have such a horrible record that we have to let you win once in a while." He smiled and nodded because he knew it was a lucky win, then we sat back down and continued talking until most of the other fans had left. Fwe shook hands all around, went our separate ways, and I was reminded once again why I love baseball.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 2:00 PM

Riding Around America: Seattle History (or not)

Yesterday I went out in search of history. Seattle seems to lack a major history museum so I was forced to search for the history of the city in other areas. I had read about Bill Speidel's Underground Tour in my excellent guidebook and picked up a brochure at the hotel. Since I'm a sucker for anything that's abandoned or underground I decided to check it out.

The tour cost $10 and starts in a saloon called Doc Maynard's. The saloon was jam packed as the presenter began telling all 150 of us a bit about the history of Seattle. The initial presentation was about 20 minutes long and was perhaps the most abbreviated history of a major city that I have ever heard. Between the little bits of history there were a lot of jokes about different types of people, especially those who were from Tacoma. That's all well and good and I appreciate a good joke as much as the next guy so at this point I still had hope that the underground portion of the tour would be better. The large group was then split up into three groups of fifty and we were handed off to our guide, Gael, a funky woman with an annoying voice.

The first stop on our tour was out in the middle of Pioneer Square where Gael decided to start her stand-up routine. I say stand-up because this woman had no qualms about making a joke nearly every sentence. It was ridiculous. I hoped that maybe she was just warming up the crowd, and getting people excited about the tour so I was disappointed when the jokes continued, and even got worse, for the remaining 90 minutes of the tour. Maybe Gael was just trying to be entertaining but this was preposterous. Here's a breakdown of the tour:

• Jokes that had no relation to the history of Seattle 70%
• Jokes relevant to the history of the city 15%
• history of Seattle 10%
• silly audience participation that added nothing to the tour 5%

Yes, it really was that bad. I realize that the attraction is meant to be more entertaining than historical but what people that run places like this don't realize is that the history is entertaining. There are an infinite number of stories in history that don't need jokes to be entertaining and that stand up on their own as being interesting. Gael inserting a joke every 30 seconds was completely unnecessary and insulting to those on the tour like myself who thought they might get a nice, albeit brief, little history of the city.

To be fair, here's a summary of what I did learn:

• Seattle had lots of prostitutes back in the day
• Some parts of the city have underground passages due to the levelling of the ground after a big fire
• There is a tip jar near the exit

Yep, that's pretty much it. I will admit that the underground area was interesting, however, even though we only saw three blocks. After the big fire mentioned above, city planners decided to take the opportunity to level the city by destroying the cliffs surrounding the city, letting all the rock and dirt tumble down to the waterfront, and building everything on top of the rubble. Business owners were instructed to rebuild their structures with grand entrances on the second floor, which would eventually become the ground floor after the streets had been filled in. While the streets were being filled in, walls were built so that people could still walk on the sidewalks which were now below street level. Then brick vaults were built to cover the original sidewalks and new sidewalks were built on the new ground level, formerly the second story of the buildings. On the underground tour we walked along those original storefronts, just underneath the current sidewalk. Unforunately we only walked three blocks of what must be a much larger underground area and had to endure a disgusting amount jokes along the way.

Feeling depressed that I had wasted $10 to hear an underground stand-up routine, I immediately headed to nearby Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park to get the real story. The park is made up of several units (the main one is in Skagway, Alaska) which are located along the trail that prospectors used when they headed north to the Alaskan Gold Rush. The Seattle unit is just a small visitor center but in the small museum, in 15 minutes, I learned more about the history of Seattle than I did on the entire underground program.

I had my doubts about the accuracy of the underground tour so I struck up a conversation with the lone park ranger on duty. I mentioned that I worked for the NPS in previous summers and then pressed him about the underground tour. He lowered his voice a bit and confirmed my suspicions that some of the stories they tell "are just plain wrong". He then recommended a good book about Seattle ("Skid Road" by Murray Morgan) which gives a more accurate account of the city's history. So I'd like to thank the ranger on duty, who shall remain nameless due to incriminating comments about Bill Speidel's Underground Tour, for giving me hope that someone is telling the true story of Seattle.

permalink | comments (5) | posted at 1:29 PM

August 10, 2004

Riding Around America: First Days in Seattle

I left Portland Sunday afternoon aboard the Cascades, which is almost like a commuter train between Portland Seattle. It was a short trip at only four hours and it was the most unique train I've traveled on so far. It makes several trips back and forth between the two cities each day and has an engine and baggage car on each end of the train for quick turnarounds. The cars are regular size, not double deckers like the Superliner's and are much nicer. Each car has several televisions which show a route map and current location of the train, like trans-oceanic flights do. The seats have much less leg room, however, which is justifiable considering the short duration of the trip. I slept msot of the way and missed a lot of scenery unfortunately and the trip was pretty uneventful until the train reached the Seattle-Tacoma area. As we were riding past an airfield the conductor directed our attention to a huge crowd of people looking up in the sky. Apparently there was an airshow going on and the Blue Angels were flying around. I caught a glimpse of them several times as they flew low in the sky, making elaborate smoke patterns in their wake.

I headed to the hotel when I got off the train and eventually found it. It's located right in the center of downtown, a short 12 story building amongst skyscrapers. I unloaded at the hotel and, since it was a nice day and still early, I decided to go up in the Space Needle, Seattle's famous landmark.

The Space Needle was built in 1962 for the World's Fair and looks as good now as it probably did when it was built. It's impressive from all angles, and looks as if it could have been built just a few years ago. I walked around underneath it for about an hour, looking at the other buildings nearby. The Experience Music Project sits next door, in a multicolored blob-like building. It's interesting, but it's still a blob. Another remnant of the '62 Fair is a large, earth shaped fountain. It shoots water over 30 feet in the air, and little kids were dancing around in it.

Finally, I bought a ticket for the Space Needle and went inside. After a short wait in line, a group of us jammed into an elevator and shot up to the top. I say shot because the elevators actually go pretty fast. They also have windows in them and a guide points out some of the sights on the way up. The enclosed platform at the top has multiple levels. The bottom is taken up by a rotating restaurant which is powered by a 1.5 horsepower motor with a very high gear ration. The upper level has a small exhibit about the history of the Needle, and then of course there's an outdoor viewing platform. The view from the platform is simply spectacular. It was a brilliantly clear day and Mt. Rainier stood out clearly, despite being nearly 100 miles away. The mountain is so huge that it looks fake and the view of the mountain and the downtown buildings combine to make Seattle one of the most beautiful skylines I've ever seen. The view of Seattle from the Space Needle is better than the view of New York from the Empire State Building and certainly better than the view of Paris from the Eiffel Tower. It really is that spectacular.

After taking in the view for nearly a half hour I went back down to ground level and then walked along the Seattle waterfront. it was Sunday and late in the day so not much was going on in the city. The famous Pike Place Market was closing down and there weren't many people on the streets so I went back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening. That was Sunday.

Yesterday the first thing I did was walk to the Seattle Public Library. The central branch is two blocks from my hotel which is very convenient because the library has free wireless internet access. The library building itself is brand new and just opened a couple of months ago. I won't say much about the library know because I plan to devote an entire entry to it in the future but I will say this: it is stunning. After a couple of hours of catching up on emails and walking around the library I went down to the waterfront and walked out on some of the piers. I grabbed some "chips and salmon" for lunch which was pretty good and then went back to the Pike Place Market.

Although the market isn't quite as large as I expected, it was much busier than it was the day before and the stalls were filled with merchants selling everything from paintings to fish to fruits and vegetables. I bought a small painting of the Seattle skyline from one of the artists which will look nice on my wall back home.

Next I went to the Pike Place Fish Market which is semi-famous for being the place where the workers throw fish around. There was a crowd of several dozen people standing around watching these guys do their thing. The workers throw big fish to each other for packaging and let members of the audience hold the fish for photo opportunities. It's fun to watch and I got a few good pictures which I will post later.

I walked around downtown for a few more hours and went to a grocery store to pick up some food before heading back to the hotel, and then back to the library before it closed. Can you tell that I really like this library?

Today will be filled with more tourist type activities. I'm going to try and hit three things today: Klondike Gold Rush National Park, a Russian submarine, and an underground tour. Then tonight I'm going to Safeco Field to see the Seattle Mariners take on my favorite baseball team, the Minnesota Twins. So far, it looks like a great day for baseball.

permalink | comments (3) | posted at 11:26 AM

August 9, 2004

Riding Around America: Portland Impressions

Click here to view the photo gallery.

Now that I am in Seattle with a bit more time on my hands I can write little bit more about Portland. Even though I was only able to spend one full day in the city I left with a favorable, and contradictory, impression.

I mentioned most of the positive things before. The transportation system seems to be excellent. The light rail trains are probably the smoothest thing I have ever ridden. They glide along the streets and don't seem to cause any traffic problems, although it was Saturday so I may have a false impression. I also stayed in the downtown area most of the time so I'm not sure how viable public transportation is for those who live in the suburbs.

In addition to living up to it's reputation of having good public transit, the city is also great for walking. Downtown is not a very large area and city blocks are small compared to other cities which makes it very pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

The contradictory aspect of the city is it's people. From what I could see, there are two types of people in the city: the younger population (20s and 30s) is hip, middle class and tatooed, and everyone else is homeless. Of course I'm generalizing here but the number of transients that I saw during my short time in the city was astonishing. I realize that there are homeless in every city but I didn't expect to see so many in Portland.

In general I think Portland is one of those cities that is better to live in than visit. From a tourist's perspective there isn't all that much to see. For me, this was no problem because I like the everday stuff just as much as I like tourist attractions. For example, I spent the better part of my afternoon walking along the river and looking at the bridges, as you can probably tell from the photo gallery.

My impression that Portland is midwestern-ish stuck as I saw more of the city throughout the day. Since I've spent most of my life in or around Minneapolis I couldn't help comparing the two and there are some similarities. They have a similar vibe. The only differences are that Minneapolis is larger, more congested, and has worse public transportation. Maybe they aren't so similar after all, actually. Or maybe Portland is what Minneapolis wants to be.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:31 AM

August 7, 2004

Riding Around America: Wandering Around Portland

My one day in Portland is nearly over and here's a brief recap. Brief because I still need to get something to eat before everything closes around here.

After writing this afternoon I went across the street to go to the bathroom at Nordstrom's. Too much detail? Sorry. No need to mention that I suppose. Anyway, I walked over to Powell's Books and sold some of the books that I had finished. They gave me a grand total of $5.00, but that's better than nothing I suppose. So I bought a couple of new books and a magazine which ought to keep me occupied for the rest of my trip. Powell's deserves the reputation it has because it really is huge. It literally takes up an entire city block and they provide free maps of the store for a reason. After I had wandered around and gotten lost a few times I went across the street and had a slice of deep dish pizza at a place called Rocco's.

Too walk off the massive amount of cheese and dough in my stomach I went to the Saturday Market, which was jam packed with stalls selling everything from magnets to artwork. I bought two small pieces of the latter from an artist who's last name is Work. This makes him very hard to find on the internet especially because I can't remember his first name, and that's why I haven't provided a link to his website. I think the two pieces are the first artwork I've ever purchased.

I walked across the Burnside Bridge next and walked the esplanade along the Willamette River. It provided a great view of the city and I could also see at least half a dozen bridges from that vantage point.

It was actually getting relatively late by this point and I had wandered around quite a bit so I went back to the hotel to rest up for an hour or so, dropped off the paintings, and then headed back out. I went to the same spot across the river and got what I hope are some good photos of the sun setting behind the bridges and the buildings.

I'm not putting up any photos yet because I still have to sort through and resize a lot of them. I'll probably do that on the train tomorrow and then post them tomorrow night if all goes well. I'll also try and write in more detail about my impressions of Portland. I'm writing this in a bit of a rush right now because I want to get to bed at a decent time. My train to Seattle leaves tomorrow morning at 8:45 so I'm going to have to get up a bit early. Apologies for the lackluster post tonight. I'll make it up with the next entry.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 10:20 PM

Riding Around America: Arrival in Portland

I arrived in Portland last night a few hours later than scheduled but that was no surprise. The sun was setting as I checked into my hotel downtown so I didn't go out except to get a late night salad from McDonald's down the street.

This morning I went to the Oregon Historical Society and saw their excellent exhibit of the history of Oregon. Unfortunately, that was really the only thing of interest on display right now in the museum. A Lewis & Clark exhibit opens in September. The interesting fact I learned about Oregon is that it was attacked by the Japanese during World War II. The coast was shelled by a submarine and, more strangely, the forest was firebombed by a Japanese balloon contraption that was launched from a submarine. It's one of the few times in history that America has been attacked from the air.

The museum only took about an hour to walk through and now I am sitting in a Starbucks in Pioneer Square, a public area which seems to be the focal point of the city. Starbucks of course has a wireless internet service which is provided, for a fee, by T-Mobile. However, since the Starbucks is located right in the Square, I'm connected to the free network which is provided by the city.

I think I'm really going to like this city. It seems very midwestern in style and mannerisms of the people. Everything is very clean and the area I'm in right now is a somewhat trendy, but not overly. The light rail trains are running along the street right next to me. Public transportation here in the downtown area is free and there is no sales tax in the entire state. It's going to take more exploring of course but I think I could see myself living here.

Speaking of exploring, there aren't many touristy type things to see here in the city that I'm really interested in, so for the rest of the day I'll just be wandering around. I plan to hit Powell's Books, the esplanade that runs along the other side of the river and the Saturday Market. The city has at least half a dozen bridges that go across the Willamette River so I'll be checking those out as well.

Depending on how late this place is open, I'm going to try and stop in here again later tonight to write more and maybe post some pictures as well. I'll write more about my impressions of the city then.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 12:15 PM

August 6, 2004

Riding Around America: Coast Starlight

This was written while on the train and was posted on August 7th, I just pre-dated it to avoid confusion with today's entry.

Approaching California/Oregon border... 9:30am

I have a window seat so I woke up almost immediately when the sun rose over the mountains at 6:30 this morning. I didn't have my glasses on but I knew the view was beautiful. Red and orange cloud streaks seemed to be coming out of the mountains and I could see green pines trees jutting out of volcanic rock and poking up against the horizon. This was quite a change from when I went to sleep last night.

The scenery of yesterday was made up of gradual, soft mountains and rolling foothills. As always, it was the colors of California that struck me. Brilliant blue sky unblemished by clouds, marked by the light brown grasses of the hills, and then the deep green of crops in the valley: strawberries or lettuce or some other type of leafy plants. It's that well defined color palette that I will remember about California.

After the brieft stretch of pine trees and volcanic rocks and snow capped Mout Shasta earlier this morning, we now slowly ride through a valley, surrounded on all sides by hills, about to pass through the last town in California, then through a tunnel into Oregon.

Approaching Albany, OR... 5:30pm

We're running even later now and I'm just chillin'. I wish my iPod hadn't been stolen.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:50 PM

August 5, 2004

Riding Around America: On to Portland

I'll be leaving in just a few short hours so this will be a short entry. Yesterday Sherri and I went to her favorite dive, a place called the Rudder Room which sits right on the beach. We met a colleague of hers and her husband there for drinks and had some cigars also. It was a good time. They're going back tonight but I will be gone by then and well on my way to Portland. I arrive tomorrow at 4:00 in the afternoon and will try and write a post then if I can find a wireless access point. Portland is pretty good when it comes to wireless so that shouldn't be a big problem. So that's all for now. The next entry will be written from Portland or from somewhere in between if I'm lucky.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 9:56 AM

August 3, 2004

Riding Around America: Channel Islands National Park

Click here to view the photo gallery.

Today Sherri and I went out to Channel Islands National Park which is just off the coast about 12 miles. We started out this morning around 9:00 am on a boat run by Island Packers. It was gray and chilly as the boat cut through the ocean and we saw several pods of dolphins swimming alongside and jumping through the air. Eventually we arrived at Anacapa Island, one of the smaller ones in the chain, and got off the boat.

We had over three hours to explore the relatively small island, which was the perfect amount of time. We took a volunteer-led walk around the island and learned about some of the plants and animals of the island along the way. The guide likened the Channel Islands to the Galapogos and it's easy to see why. The island is a beautiful, undeveloped preserve containing 1400 unique species and is home to a large population of endangered brown pelicans.

The guide made sure not to forget the island's cultural history also which was nice. A native American group called the Chumash used it as a hunting ground and it has been used for a light station throughout the 20th century. But even apart from the natural and cultural aspects of the islands, the aesthetic value is priceless. By the time we reached the western tip of the island the weather had cleared and we had a beautiful view of the other islands in the chain. The photos in the gallery barely do this place justice.

During our stay we had a nice conversation with Bill, the law enforcement ranger on the island, who answered all of my questions about the lighthouse and foghorn. He even showed us around inside the keeper's quarters which is his personal residence. We were literally walking around in his living room! He also mentioned that, where it not for the fear of disturbing the pelicans, he would have let us climb up to the top of the lighthouse.

At 2:00 we headed back down the cliff to the dock to take in the "underwater diving video". For this, three divers went into the water in the cove with a video camera and swam around underwater, telling us what all the plants and animals were as we watched it on three big televisions. I can't even begin to explain how amazing this was. In all the national parks I've worked in and visited I have never seen or heard of a program like this. It was, hands down, the most unique interpretation I have ever seen. It felt like we were almost right down there with him as he pointed out fish, lobsters, sea urchins, kelp and even a shark. I think my mouth was hanging open the entire time. It was one of the most effective and well done tours I've ever seen.

Eventually we had to leave the island but not before cruising around the back for a close up of the sea lions and a gigantic stone arch which stands offshore. It was an experience that I can only hope to explain through the photos, which don't even begin to do the place justice.

On the return trip we briefly questioned the wisdom of consuming beer on a boat pitching and rolling across the channel, but in the end threw caution to the wind, and ended the beautiful day with two cold ones.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:28 PM

August 2, 2004

Riding Around America: A Day at the Beach

There isn't much to report from today but I feel it is my obligation to keep my few readers informed. This afternoon Sherri and I spent a couple of hours at the beach. I had a very bad experience with the sun when I was here last time so I lathered up pretty well with sunscreen and avoided getting burned, except for the tops of my feet. I think I will survive. It was a nice relaxing day which is good because I'm told the boat ride out to the Channel Islands is physically exhausting. But it should be well worth it and I am looking forward to it. We'll be leaving at 8:00 tomorrow morning and will be gone for most of the day, but you can expect a full account here tomorrow evening.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:12 PM

August 1, 2004

Riding Around America: Sunny California

I'm staying with my godmother Sherri and her husband Bruce here in Oxnard, CA and yesterday was jam packed with beautiful scenery and a castle. We headed north up the coast early in the morning and went to Hearst Castle, home of William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper publisher and politician back in the early 1900s. I had been to the castle as a child but had forgotten how beautiful it is. We took a tour, the only way to see the castle, but it almost felt like we were wandering through on our own because the tour guide spoke softly and had so many cheesy jokes that even I was groaning. It was difficult to hear what he said but Sherri and Bruce took up the slack by telling me all the interesting stuff they had heard on previous tours.

After the castle, and an excellent lunch of "tri-tip", the meat cut of choice here in CA, we headed back to Oxnard looking at some beautiful scenery along the way. The day had started cloudy and chilly but in the afternoon the weather was nearly perfect. Blue skies and temperatures in the 70s. The great weather made for some beautiful scenes along the coast and in the mountains. I'll be seeing more of that scenery on Thursday because my train to Portland goes through the same area.

Today we went out for lunch in Ventura and walked around downtown, then caught the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" a whacky MTV production about a very strange high school kid. It was just plain weird.

This evening we had some excellent steak which was cooked outside on the grill and I got to know Homer better. Not the author or the Simpson but the dog. I used to cringe at the thought of getting slobered on by a dog but I've gotten over it now and am having a good time playing with Sherri and Bruce's pet, "Homer-dog", as they call him.

The rest of the evening was very laid back and tomorrow will be also. On Tuesday Sherri and I are taking a boat out to the Channel Islands, a national park offshore. The weather report is predicting strong winds and the trip can be pretty hairy, according to Sherri and my mom, so I'll get the chance to figure out if I get seasick in choppy seas. And of course, you'll be able to read a full account right here.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:22 PM

July 31, 2004

Riding Around America: Tucson Photos

Click here to view the photo gallery.

My current location is Oxnard, CA where I have another steady internet connection and can write more updates about my journey so there are a few photos from Tucson up in the gallery now. I ended up leaving Tucson yesterday morning at around 8:00. The 12 hour delay didn't bother me very much because without the delay I wouldn't have been able to track snakes with Josh in the Tucson desert (see previous entry).

By the time I arrived in Los Angeles I was 14 hours late and had missed all northbound trains so Amtrak put me in a van with a few others and we headed up the road to Oxnard. Good, I thought, this shouldn't take too long. There was a mother and her two children in the van with us who very hungry so the driver suggested we stop and grab some fast food. This sounded reasonable to me considering how long we had been on the train so I agreed that we should grab something quick. The driver headed towards Burger King which was literally across the street from the station but the kids were having none of it. "Mommy, lets go to McDonald's instead," they told her. So we ended up driving several miles down the road in search of a McDonald's. Finally we found one and eventually I ended up in Oxnard around midnight, approximately 12 hours after I was scheduled to arrive. So my warning to all of you is: beware the Sunset Limited because it is never on time. Never.

Enjoy the Tucson photo gallery. There will be more on the way in the next few days.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 1:30 AM

July 30, 2004

Riding Around America: Last Day in Tucson

Josh and I started our day early, planning to get out to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum while it was still "cool" enough for the animals to be out but were delayed for quite a while when I realized that I was missing something - my iPod. It was gone. I either forgot it on the train or, more likely, someone snatched it when I was away from my seat. I put in calls to Los Angeles which is where the train was cleaned and serviced but they did not have anything matching the description. It was in a little case along with a nice pair of headphones and my Belkin digital camera link. The total value is over $350 so it's a big financial loss. I consoled myself with the thought that it could have been much worse, considering all the other gadgetry I have with me. But life goes on.

I had heard of the desert museum from several others besides Josh, including the older couple I had lunch with a few days ago. They said it was the best museum they had ever been too. I probably wouldn't go that far but it definitely ranks high on my list, which is surprising since I'm more interested in history than nature. The word "museum" is a bit of a misnomer. The place is more like a zoo, but not in the traditional sense. The museum is a near perfect representation of a desert environment and it largely outdoors. They go to great pains to conceal any sort of human intervention which contributes to the feeling that these animals are in their natural environment. Virtually all animals that dwell in the desert are represented, from bobcats and bears to spiders and snakes - they have everything. With Josh as my tour guide I learned a tremendous amount of information during the several hours we spent at the museum.

Next on the agenda was a tour of AMARC, the aircraft "boneyard" at Davis-Monahan Air Force Base. The facility holds roughly 5,000 aircraft and they have several purposes. Some are slated for destruction, others for spare parts and still more are kept in flying condition in temporary storage. It's difficult for me to explain the size of this facility. It is entirely outdoors. The desert environment is perfect for keeping the airplanes in good condition and so they just sit there. Rows upon rows of every type of aircraft imaginable, from every branch of the military service. F-4 Phantoms left over from Vietnam, old transport planes, B-52's, B-1 bombers, F-14's, training jets, helicopters, A-10 attack planes and piles of equipment including ejection seats, jet engines, missile parts and fuel tanks. Everything. The most fascinating part of the facility were the rows of planes which are literally chopped into pieces. As part of various treaties with Russia, many planes with nuclear capabilities are being destroyed. The terms of the treaty stipulate that planes be chopped into several pieces to render them unusable. The facility uses a 13-ton steel guillotine which they drop from a crane to accomplish this. Next, the planes sit for 90 days to allow Russian satellites to photograph the severed planes and verify their destruction. Then the planes are melted down and the resulting metals are sold as scrap. It's a fascinating facility and my mind still boggles at the number of planes that just sit out there in the desert heat.

As dusk approached we grabbed some excellent pizza at Josh's favorite spot near the university and, after checking that my train was "significantly delayed" - that's Amtrak speak for "your train is hopelessly late and will be arriving about 12 hours late" - headed up into the foothills for an evening of snake tracking.

Snake Tracking in the Sonora Desert

I suppose it would be a good idea to explain how I ended up smack in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night under a full moon looking for snakes. I never would have had the opportunity to do something like this if it wasn't for Josh, a friend of mine from college. He moved to Tucson last year to work on various herpetology projects. Basically, he is unable to resist any type of work, paid or volunteer, that involves snakes, lizards, toads, and especially turtles. His current project is tracking Tiger Rattlesnakes in a sparsely populated housing development to determine the effects of human development on the animals.

We drove up to the development, which turned out to be not at all what I expected. It's a gated community and apparently some very wealthy people live in the area. The development has maintained much of the natural environment and the houses are spread thinly. Throughout the entire evening we never even got close to the buildings and many of the plots have not been built on yet.

There are about 300 snakes that are being monitored, 22 of which have radios inserted in them so that they can be located for data gathering. Josh and three others go out as often as possible to locate the 22 snakes and enter the data into a spreadsheet on their Palm's. Later, the data will be analyzed to figure out what effect the development is having on the snakes.

We arrived just as the sun was setting and the full moon was already shining brightly. Josh gathered up his equipment: Palm Pilot, GPS locater, thermometer, headlamp, snake tongs and telemetry gear and we started trudging off into the darkness beside the road. Josh took the lead, holding a four-pronged antenna above his head and listening intently to beeps on the radio hung around his neck. The sound of the beep indicates the proximity of the snake.

The moon and stars shone brightly in the cloudless sky as we walked around in the hills. Josh deftly made his away around the cactus with me close behind. After a bit of searching and waving the antenna in various directions, we came across the snake, or a snake. It actually wasn't the one that Josh was looking for but a different one. It lay on the ground, coiled up, waiting for something to come by that it could eat. Although it wasn't the one he was looking for, Josh had to bring it into the lab to gather some information so he pulled a large pillowcase out of his backpack, picked up the snake with long metal tongs and dropped it in. I stood watching in amazement.

Next, Josh resumed the hunt for the snake that he was actually looking for, which he found close by in a burrow. While he began collecting data I, somewhat reluctantly and after a bit of encouragement, crouched down and stuck my camera in close to the burrow and took a few photos. The snake is only visible in one and he's looking right at the camera with eyes glowing from the flash and tongue flicking out.

When Josh finished we drove to a different site to find the other snakes he was looking for. Along the way we stopped to check out a big toad who was sitting in the road. We hopped out of the truck and Josh grabbed him so that I could take a look. It was a Sonora Toad and it was about the size of Josh's fist. He held it up in the light of our headlamps so we could get a closer look. Believe, it or not, it's the type of toad that you can lick to get high. And here I thought that was just an urban legend.

We continued down the road and this was my favorite part of the evening. The other snakes are "controls" which are outside of the development on a hill on private land. To get there, we opened a barbed wire fence and proceeded down a ranch road which was barely a road at all. The previous day's rain had swept sediment down the road and it was a succession of little dips with trees and cactus on all sides. I quickly learned to pull my hand inside the truck as we went down the "road", jostling up and down with cactus and shrubs scraping along the sides. Josh referred to all the scratches on his truck as "Arizona pinstripes". We were far from habitation and as we headed deeper off road it reminded me of the stereotypical horror movie where the villain drives the victim into an abandoned spot far off the road to kill him.

We arrived at Josh's "parking spot", a small clearing, and set off to the find the remaining snakes. It didn't take Josh long to find two only a few meters away from each other. He gathered the data while I got as close as I dared and took some photos. Continuing on, Josh spotted a tarantula walking across the desert floor in front of him and kindly corralled him with his antenna so I could get some pictures.

The last of the snakes took more effort to find. Because they were up on the hill, the signal was bouncing around and it took a while for Josh to pick them up on the antenna. At one point we were at the top of the hill with the desert floor and the lights of Tucson twinkling miles away. Because of the moon, the mountains and tall cactus on all sides of us stood out vividly against the horizon. The night was still and quiet. No traffic or airplanes noise; just a heavy silence and a beautiful desert view. So far, it's been the best moment of the trip and I'll always be grateful to Josh for showing me a part of the country that I never would have seen before, in a way that I never could have imagined.

After finding his snakes and gathering his data, we headed out, back down the "road" and onto pavement again. We had spent part of the evening talking about how Josh had never seen a mountain lion or bobcat while tracking even though others had had several sightings. Then, as we drove along, highlighted in the headlights, we saw a bobcat bound across the road. We came to a quick stop and hopped out of the truck to get a better look. Josh grabbed a spotlight and we walked over to the side of the road. The bobcat was walking slowly away from us but then it turned around and looked right into the spotlight, eyes glowing. It was an amazing sight and it was a beautiful animal. After a while it got bored with us and walked away. Josh walked a few feet off the road to find it but it was gone. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get a picture. We headed back, both of us excited that we had seen the cat, and me very glad that I stopped in Tucson on my ride around America to hike through the desert with my friend Josh looking for snakes. I may like history and airplanes, but the snake tracking has been my favorite thing I've done on the trip so far. So thank you Josh, for giving me a proper introduction to the desert.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 12:00 AM

July 29, 2004

Riding Around America: First Day in Tucson

It's been a busy couple of days here in Tucson so I'll do the best I can to relate everything that's been going on, starting with this brief post about yesterday. Pictures will be on the way in the next day or so.

The train did not make up any time at all as we rode through Texas and New Mexico so I ended up arriving in Tucson a ridiculous 8 hours late. Josh picked me up at the train station at about 5:30 in the morning. We went back to his place where he gave me a quick tour and then I went to sleep for a couple of hours.

Later in the morning we went out for breakfast and then decided to go to the Pima Air and Space Museum, one of the largest in the country. Along the way we started talking about baseball at which point Josh realized that the Twins were playing the White Sox on ESPN. So we took a detour, found a sports bar and watched the Twins sweep the White Sox in the final game of the series.

After the game we headed out to the museum and took a tram ride around the site, while our tour guide told us about some of the planes. Unfortunately, it started raining and our guide cancelled the rest of the tour so we missed some B-52's and the rare Migs (Russian jets). The museum was OK but the price of admission is a bit steep. Before we left we arranged to take a tour of the aircraft boneyard. More about that later.

Next we went and saw a sneak preview of the movie "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle" which one of Josh's friends had obtained tickets for. It was surprisingly entertaining and very funny. Maybe even worth actually paying for. So for a free movie it was pretty good. Time will tell if it does well at the box office.

After the movie the plan was to track rattlesnakes, which is part of Josh's job as a herpetologist here. Unfortunately, he had loaned the tracking gear to someone and couldn't get it back in time so were out of luck. So we decided to do the tracking tomorrow since my train will probably be late again and we can go out at dusk.

We headed back to Josh's place and then decided to go out with a few of his friends. We ended up hitting about three bars and had a pretty good time. In the first bar we caught a bit of live music which was alright. We closed out the evening with some Mexican food at Losbetos. It was pretty good and I haven't had the ill effects the following day that I was warned about which is good. I'd like to thank Josh, John, Mary and Erin for showing me a good time in downtown Tucson.

It will be sad to have leave this place. The scenery here is beautiful. Various mountain groups surround Tucson on nearly every side. There is virtually no grass and residents decorate their yards with gravel and stones. There are prickly pear and Saguaro cactus everywhere and palms trees are prevalent as well. The weather is hot and dry but the evenings are clear, crisp and cool. It's a beautiful place.

I will end this post and summary of yesterday's events here but will write again in the next couple of days to bring everything up to date. Right now I just don't have time due to all the things we have planned before I leave. So stay tuned and thanks for reading!

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 4:31 PM

July 28, 2004

Riding Around America: New Orleans Photos

Click here to view the photo gallery.

As you can probably tell from the previous entry, I'm in Tucson finally and now have a steady internet connection, so here are about 30 selected photos from New Orleans. I'll try and write a little something about Tucson soon and include some photos but right now I am off to see a movie and then going to track some rattlesnakes. Yes, rattlesnakes. My host, Josh, tracks rattlesnakes and we'll be going out tonight if the weather stays good.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 8:39 PM

Riding Around America: Riding to Tucson

The following was written while on the train in the past few days. I did finally make it to Tucson.

Near the Texas/Louisiana border... 11:00 pm

The thing that you need to expect about Amtrak if you're planning to travel with them, is that they are nearly always late. This morning, before leaving my hotel, I called the automated train status toll free number to find out if things were running on time. The automated voice on the other end, "Julie", informed me that the train was six hours late, but that they were expecting to make up time along the way and should be departing New Orleans at 2:15. OK, I figured, that's not so bad. I can handle a two hour delay. So I waited until the last possible moment to check out of the hotel, and headed over to the station.

Guess what time we actually departed New Orleans? 5:45. I finished the Crichton book and read the entire Sunday edition of the New York Times, had a Subway sandwich, banana and a bagel. It could have been worse I suppose, but I wish I had known the train would be that late because I could have found a coffee shop with internet access and posted the New Orleans photos. So it was a waste of a day but not the end of the world. Like I said, you have to expect these types of problems when travelling Amtrak.

It seems that a big part of the problem is, not surprisingly, the lack of tracks. Amtrak has to use the same rails as freight trains and the freight gets the right of way. I'm not sure why this is. Maybe it's a law or has to do with ownership of the tracks. If anybody out there knows the reason, let me know by writing in the comments of this entry (at bottom). This is the type of thing I would usually look up myself, if I had an internet connection that is.

I think this trip will be very nice, however. The cars on this train are double-deckers and are probably a bit newer than what I was riding on before. In coach class, the bottom level holds luggage, bathrooms, and seats for the disabled, while the upper level is where the regular seats are. There are lots of advantages to this. First, the seats themselves are over 20 feet off the ground which makes for a great view. I'm basically on the same level as the rooftop of a one level house. Another advantage is that there is more space for passengers and more space for bathrooms. The bottom level of each car has three bathrooms plus a lounge for the ladies which has additional sinks and a big mirror with stools in front of them. And by the way, I only know this because someone left the door open.

Finally, and this is perhaps the best part, is the double decker lounge car. This thing is awesome. The upper level has floor to ceiling windows and skylights. It really feels like the car is clear plastic. It's like something you'd expect to see in Star Trek with futuristic looking pedestal type seats and all. The lower level of the lounge car contains a very well stocked snack bar and bench seats with tables.

Because we left so late, I didn't get to see much before darkness fell. The big highlight occurred just outside of New Orleans when we crossed the Mississippi over the longest railroad bridge in the world, the Huey Long Bridge, which measures an astounding 4.5 miles from end to end. The reason it's so long is because it needs to be high above the river so that the cargo ships can clear it. Because of it's height the approaches to the bridge are very long so that the train can rise up to such a height. On the bridge approaches it felt like the train was flying through the sky because, from the second level, I could see nothing to either side except the ground far below. It was cool but a bit scary not being able to see what was holding us up.

After clearing New Orleans we passed through southern Louisiana which seemed to me to be entirely swap. In most cases we were riding on top of a little embankment with water just a few feet to either side of the train. To our right, I could see the highway, which is built on pylons above the level of the swamps. The amount of water on the ground wasn't surprising. At some point in New Orleans I learned that the city gets an average of 65" of rain per year. The record was 18" in six hours! The only other notable part of the landscape before darkness fell were the sugar cane fields and rice paddies to the south of the tracks.

So now we are moving along, not very fast I might add, towards Texas. I can see streetlights and houses as we go through the towns. The guy sitting across the aisle from me brought a bottle of Southern Comfort on the train and is mixing it with iced tea. He offered me some but I politely declined. I'll probably be trying to sleep soon and waking up in Bush Country.

Pulling out of Del Rio, TX... 1:00pm

Twice today I've tried to connect to access points in stations, once just now in Del Rio and once in San Atonio. Both times I've been unsuccessful and I'm not really sure why. Each time it's been able to connect to the access point but not to the internet. Oh well. Maybe later.

Last night I slept quite well. I think it was because I had two seats to myself and could "stretch out", if you can call it that. I only woke up a couple of times between 1:00 and 8:30 am which is better than I've managed to do in the past.

This morning has been pretty uneventful. I've fallen asleep a couple times since breakfast, read a little, and talked to the car attendant, Mike. He is doing a good job considering the train is so late and he's gotten so little sleep. When he heard what I do for a living he asked if I was a priest which I found amusing. He's been working for Amtrak since May and doesn't seem to like it very much.

The scenery has changed rapidly in the past few hours. Now we are riding through rolling ground with white rocky soil, little scrub plants, small round cactus, and a few trees. There's a little of trickle water here and there but it's white and murky. The ground has the consistency and color of oatmeal with lots of rocks on it. There are no animals but every once in a while I can see a dirt road or windmill.

The dining car just opened for lunch and I think I'll go and see what they have to offer.

Approaching El Paso, TX... 9:30pm

I should have been in Tucson by now. Instead, we aren't even out of Texas yet. That means there are still two states to go before I'll be getting off this train. I wouldn't be bothered except that my gracious host in Tucson will be very inconvenienced by my lateness. Other than that, I don't really mind.

For lunch I had a burger with a couple from Salinas, CA. They were returning from Little Rock, AR and their 50th high school reunion. We had a good time and I had cheesecake for desert which was nice and filling.

After lunch I enjoyed a movie in the lounge car. I forget the title but it was about a town called Mooseport and a hardware store owner, played by Ray Romano, runs for mayor against a former president, played by... Gene Hackman I think. It also had one of my favorite actresses in it, Maura Tierney, who plays Abbey on ER. It was a pretty good movie.

The scenery has changed quite a bit, and there are now some beautiful mountains on both sides of us. I think I've got some good photos as the sun went down. It's almost completely dark now and I can see the headlights of the cars on the highway in the distance and, beyond that, flashes of lightning on the horizon which silhouette the mountains.

I'm going to shut down now to conserve battery power. Of course I'll try and connect in El Paso so I can post this.

El Paso, TX... 12:00am

Holy delay Batman, this is ridiculous! It's now midnight and we still have many hours to go. Other than that, not much else to write. I'm just chilling, reading the New York Times Magazine which has an interesting article about cockroaches in it. That's pretty much it.

permalink | comments (3) | posted at 8:36 PM

July 25, 2004

Riding Around America: Last Day in the Big Easy

After waking up over an hour later than I intended I had to hustle this morning to make it to the ferry dock in time for my river cruise on the Creole Queen. We cast off from the Riverwalk at 10:30 and started heading downriver. I was most fascinated by the other boats on the river. There were dozens of them, big and small. Tug boats (that don't tug but push), container ships, cargo ships, paddlewheelers. The captain gave a nice narration over the PA along the way and I learned a lifetime's worth of information about shipping which was actually quite interesting.

The whole purpose of the ride was to see the Mississippi but also to stop at Chalmette battlefield, site of Andrew Jackson's victory over the British in 1815. There, we listened to a presentation from a ranger which was very informative. The battlefield is not very large and was practically swamp during the battle, which didn't help the British as they walked across the field seeking a way to get into New Orleans. Of course Jackson wasn't about to let that happen and tore into them with muskets and cannons. A heroic tale that was told well by the park ranger, even if I disagreed with her assertion that the US victory shifted world power from Europe to America. That seemed a bit of an overstatement to me.

I just barely had time to walk around the field a bit before the deep below of the boats horn summoned us back. On the way back I sat in the A/C portion of the ship and let the cold air turn the sweat on my face into a salty crust. Gross, I know but I only mention it to help you understand how hot it is here.

After returning from the cruise I ventured west, away from the French Quarter, to the area around Lee Circle and paid the hefy $14.00 admission to the D-Day Museum on Magazine Street. Simply put, the place was phenomenal. Probably not of much interest to those who don't care about military history, but to me it was awesome. The exhibits are well written and illustrated with large, sometimes graphic, photos from the period. It's not overly patriotic and cheesy but lets the soldiers literally speak for themselves in text and video. The museum also handled the more controversial topics well. It deals with racism on both sides, mentions the Japanese internments, and frankly gives several viewpoints on the atomic bomb, an issue that has raised much controversy in the past several years. I spent a good part of my afternoon at the museum which was good because the other museum I wanted to check out, across the street and devoted to the Civil War, was closed.

Tonight I had a crawfish/shrimp pasta thing for dinner which was pretty good. Probably the most filling meal I've had since I left - for some reason I don't each much when I'm travelling, especially when it's this hot. After dinner I went down the block to Harrah's, the only casino in town, and blew about $7 on nickel slots. I'm a high roller, I know.

So my stay in New Orleans is pretty much over. I've enjoyed it immensely and I've seen pretty much everything I wanted to, which I am happy about. I have lots of photos but they're going to have to wait until I get to a more reliable internet connection. Since I start for Tucson tomorrow (a 1500 mile journey for those who are keeping track at home) and I'll be riding through no-mans land for most of the way (i.e. southern Texas), I don't think I'll be able to hook up with a wireless connection. But, you never know. I'll have some things ready to post just in case so keep reading.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:30 PM

July 24, 2004

Riding Around America: a Hot Day in New Orleans

I walked out onto the street for my first day of sightseeing in New Orleans this morning at 8:45 and started sweating almost immediately. I knew it was going to be hot but this weather is hotter than anything I've experienced since I lived in Virginia. Luckily, I've been carrying a big bottle of water with me all day.

I started out with a 90-minute walking tour led by Jim, a Park Ranger from Iowa. He lead a group of about 25 visitors around the French Quarter and gave a nice overview of some of the important events and the critical social makeup of early New Orleans. Basically, there aren't many ethnic groups that this city doesn't have. Of course it has Native Americans, African-Americans, French and Spanish but there are also a surprising number of Germans, Irish and even Dutch who have immigrated to this city in it's nearly 300 year history. Jim also made sure to tell us all the integral vocabulary that we'd need to survive in New Orleans:

• Go Cup - the plastic cups of alcohol that are legal to carry around the city.
• Devils Pitchfork - Sharp metal spikes on the poles that support balconies and galleries of the houses in the city. The 18th century way of protecting your house from burglary.
• Dixie - Now synonymous with the South (or the Confederacy), the word originally came from "dix" the French word for ten which was printed on money.
• Gumbo - comes from the West African word for Okra, the main ingredient of the thick soup.
• Neutral Ground - a grassy area between streets, otherwise known as a median. This term comes from Canal Street, which divides the French Quarter from the Central Business District.

After the tour I walked to Jackson Square and took a look at the first equestrian statue ever made. It's a funny sculpture of Andrew Jackson, victor of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, waving his hat theatrically. The inscription on the base of the statue reads, "The Union must be preserved". General Benjamin Butler, a Union general had this carved into the statue after he captured the city of New Orleans shortly after the start of the Civil War. Butler also ordered that any female Southern sympathizers in the city be treated as prostitutes. It's no wonder they called him "Beast" Butler.

St. Louis Cathedral adjoins the square and I stepped inside it next. It claims to be the oldest cathedral in America. It's sparsely decorated for a Catholic cathedral but it's quite beautiful inside.

I walked around for another hour or so on the streets around the cathedral, at one point encountering a street performer. He had a toy guitar in his hand and I don't know what his gig was, but I wanted to get a picture of his donation bucket which read "Gots to make money for my honey". So I took the picture and had just barely started to turn around when the guy starts yelling at me to give him some money. I started laughing then turned around and put a dollar in his bucket. After all, I don't want him to go home with no money for his honey.

Next I purchased my ticket for tomorrow's trip down the Mississippi on the paddlewheeler Creole Queen, then took the riverfront streetcar down to the French Market. I wandered through the flea market and the farmer's market and then saw what I knew I had eat: alligator on a stick. For $1.50 I couldn't pass it up and I'm glad I didn't. It was mixed with some pork to make a sort of alligator hot dog and had a nice kick to it. Very tasty. The alligator, combined with the multitude of people carrying their "go cups" of beer around with them everywhere, was making me thirsty so I stopped at an outdoor cafe for a local amber beer, a cup of gumbo, and some live music from a band made up of old black guys with growly voices and gray stubble beards.

I'm back at the hotel now but just to cool off. The heat index is 110 degrees which is hotter than anything I've experienced for quite a while. It should be a little cooler now so I'm going to go back out and walk around some more and take some photos. Tomorrow I'm taking the paddleboat downriver to Chalmette, site of the Battle of New Orleans. then hitting a WWII museum and a Civil War Museum.

Photos were promised today but the connection in my hotel is not very good and there's no way I'll be able to upload all the files. I'm checking into other methods but there might not be any photos for a couple of days.

permalink | comments (1) | posted at 8:42 PM

July 23, 2004

Riding Around America: Intro to New Orleans

I think I'm going to like New Orleans. The train ride into the city involved a long stretch on the causeway across Lake Pontchartrain north of the city. All eyes were glued to the windows as the sun descended below the horizon.

It was only 9:00 pm when I checked into my hotel so I thought I'd see what was happening in the French Quarter. Bourbon Street, actually. The interesting thing about New Orleans is that there is no law against carrying drinks around in public. As long as it's in a non-breakable container, it's perfectly legal to carry your drink around in public. I actually felt out of place for not having a drink in my hand as I walked down the street. It was above and beyond what I expected. Beer, beads, bars and bands on every block. I tried to count the bars that had live music but lost track somewhere around two dozen. Masses of people walking down the street and people watching from the balconies above. The great thing is that it is perfectly safe. People were imbibing, having a good time, and everyone was polite. It was only 11:00 but still, I was impressed. I can't imagine how crazy it is during Mardi Gras.

Tomorrow my plan is to get an early walking tour of the French Quarter from the National Park Service, which has a visitor center a few blocks away and then check out some other sites in the area. Watch for a post tomorrow that includes photos.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:55 PM

Riding Around America: the Crescent pt 2

Posted from the train... just like the previous entry below

Birmingham, AL... 1:30 pm

We were supposed to arrive here in Birmingham an hour ago so we must have been delayed somewhere. I'm not exactly sure where because I fell asleep after Atlanta. We've travelled a total of 1023 miles so far, and we have about 7.5 hours to go before New Orleans, if we're not delayed further. The train is relatively quiet today apart from the kids in front of me who are getting a little antsy to reach their destination: Meridian, MS. A lot of people disembarked in Atlanta and I now have an empty seat next to me again.

The whistle on the train blows and we are rolling again. Off to the left I can see the Vulcan statue looking down upon the city. When I was here as a kid my dad said it looked like he's holding a popsicle in his hand.

Time to start a new book: "The Great Train Robbery" by Michael Chrichton.

Crossing the Mississippi/Louisiana border... 8:30 pm

It's been a pleasant afternoon riding along through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and now, Louisiana. I found out that Kelly, the car attendant, is from Ireland and she likes my trail mix (she was hungry so I gave her a handful). We're still running about an hour behind schedule so I won't arrive in New Orleans until about 9:00.

I just got back to my seat after having my first dining car experience. On most long distance trains there is a lounge car and a dining car. The lounge is where snacks and drinks can be purchased (where I was late last night) and the dining car is for formal sit-down dining. So I walked up to the dining car and was seated... by myself. Now this was not exactly what I had in mind. I had always been told to expect to dine with strangers (and was looking forward to meeting people), but there I was sitting by myself. I was disappointed for a few minutes but then a couple came in from the sleeper car and they were seated across from me. So I ended up having a good meal and a nice conversation with Matthias and Anouk from Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He is a media engineer who specializes in e-learning and she is a teacher so we had a lot to talk about. Like me, they'll be staying in New Orleans for three nights and we'll be riding the same westbound train on Monday.

Found an access point here in Slidell, LA. Gotta go!

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 8:38 PM

Riding Around America: the Crescent

The following has been written as I ride and, thanks to an unknowing home or business with an unsecure wireless network, has been posted from the train in a hurry while stopped at a station.

Approaching Charlottesville, VA... 9:30 pm yesterday

The green trees and lush fields of Virginia have given way to darkness as we speed along next to the Shenandoah mountains. All I can see now are black outlines of trees against the darkening sky. We're pulling into Charlottesville now and will be off as soon as passengers have disembarked or boarded the train. It's been a pleasant journey so far and we are running on schedule.

In New York earlier this afternoon I was the first to board the car I am seated in, and thus have secured myself a window seat. Upon leaving New York, our car attendant, Kelly introduced herself. She is an older lady with an extremely thick Irish or Scottish accent - you'd think I could tell the difference but I still have trouble. She made a few announcements and told us, "Yer all rich Americens so spend some o yer money in the dinin' car won't ye?" She just now went through the car to make sure we all have pillows because "dewn't let aneybodey say that old Kelly never gave ye a pellow". She's been having a great time with some of the kids in the seats behind me also. I wanted to ask her how she started working for Amtrak but her shift is over so we won't be seeing her again until 3:00 am.

This first day of the trip wasn't much for scenery. New Jersey is, well, let's just say it lives up to it's reputation. We had a bit of rain in Washington, and even some lightning but it didn't last long. Maryland and Virginia are pleasant enough as far as scenery goes, but I've done a lot of travelling in this area before, so it's nothing new for me.

I have NetStumbler running (a program that uses my wireless card to detect wifi networks) and managed to pick up quite a few access points so far. The train is going so fast that they only appear for a few seconds before disappearing again. I'm leaving it on, just in case something is accessible the next time that we stop at a station. If I do manage to find one, I'm going to have to be quick if I want to have a chance of connecting, much less checking or sending email. If this message is posted anytime before 8:00 pm on Friday then you can assume that I was successful.

Now it is completely dark outside. So dark that I can literally see nothing outside of the windows. That's right - nothing. Not even lights. From what I saw during the day, trees surround both sides of the tracks, just like they do along Virginia's highways. It's a strange sensation to be hurtling down the tracks, feeling the train sway from side to side, but unaware of what's on the other side of the glass.

Between Lynchburg and Danville...11:00 pm yesterday

It's 11:00 pm now and I am sitting in the lounge car. I've just finished "Red Badge of Courage" and a cup of coffee. The book was excellent (maybe I'll write up a little something about it later), the coffee was OK. We just left Lynchburg a few minutes ago. I still have NetStumbler running for kicks and have picked up a few more access points but we haven't stopped near any. I'd really like to be able to connect at some point along the way but that's wishful thinking.

Compared to my only other Amtrak trip, this lounge car is dead. There are a couple of young girls and their mom watching a movie on a laptop, and an Amtrak employee is doing some paperwork but that's about it. A bit disappointing. When I rode from Chicago to New York after Christmas the lounge was pretty crowded and everyone hung out and talked but that's not the case this time. Maybe things will pick up tomorrow. I'm heading back to my seat to go to sleep.

In Atlanta...9:00 am today

It's a nice morning here in Atlanta. I woke up about and hour ago. Right now I'm on the train and we are stopped at the station. I connected to a wireless access point and am posting this from my seat on the train. We leave soon and I'm about to lose the connection so this is all I can write.

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 8:47 AM

July 22, 2004

Riding Around America: It Begins

I'm off to see the country!

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 12:17 PM

Riding Around America: Waiting to Start

In about four hours I will be starting the first leg of my journey, on the Crescent to New Orleans. Right now I'm just sitting around waiting. There's no point in leaving for the station because I'd just get bored so I'm just trying to kill some time, using the best tool I know to make time go by quickly: Bloglines.

Although I make a conscious effort to remain unaware of what is going around me climate wise, I succumbed to what my genes were telling me to do and checked the Weather Channel to see how things look for the next few days. It looks I'll be seeing some rain today as I ride through Virginia and the Carolinas, but tomorrow and the next few days in New Orleans will be hot and sunny. I guess that's all I need to know for now. The waiting continues...

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 10:36 AM

July 20, 2004

Riding Around America: Changing the Way I Travel

As I continue to plan for the big rail trip (detailed previously), I'm starting to realize that this vacation is going to be fundamentally different than all the others I've taken.

In the past few years I've become more accustomed to sending e-mail and photographs to a select group of people while travelling but this upcoming trip is taking the idea even further. This is the first time that I'll be devoting a substantial amount of time to taking, sorting and displaying photographs of my travels, and it's the first time I'll be writing it as I go. I've written travelogues and taken pictures before, but I've always done it after the fact. Now I'll have instant gratification, or dismay if the photos are bad, unlike what I've experienced in the past.

The other obvious change is that I'm making the whole trip visible to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. Although I don't expect to attract many more visitors than I do now, which isn't much, it is out there for the world to see and I'm sure that will change my view in different ways.

Even more obvious is that I now have more stuff to bring with me on this trip than I ever have before. Up until the past year or so, I rarely brought even a Discman with me when I travelled. Now I have an iPod, camera link, digital camera, laptop, and the many accesories that go along with these items. So these things are literally changing what I'm carrying on my back.

Mode of transport is playing a big role in this trip also. I've almost always done large trips around the U.S. in a car - until now. This marks my first major vacation with no automobile. It took me awhile to come to grips with this fact. I love driving and in many ways still pine for the days when I didn't live in New York and could afford to have a car. Being tied to the tracks so to speak has its disadvantages, but I'm pretty sure that nothing is going to beat whizzing across the landscape on the train.

Oh, I almost forgot. I'll be doing this whole thing by myself. Sure, I'll be staying a with a friend here and some relatives there, but for the most part I'll be travelling on my own. It will be first time I've gone solo on a big trip since 1998 and I'm looking forward to it. Yes, I'll miss the companionship of my usual travel partner, but there's something to be said for striking out on your own on a massive journey around the country.

I don't know what the result of all of this change is going to be. The technology I'm using might sidetrack me or frustrate me. I could become physically ill from the radio waves emanating from all of the free wireless access points I'll be using along the way. Any number of bad things could happen and I may never do a anything like this again. But I don't think that's likely. If anything, writing these entries and posting the photographs as I go will make me think a little bit more about what I'm seeing and experiencing. It will make me go the extra mile to get a good photo, or meet new people, or learn something new. In the end, for me at least, that's the whole point.

permalink | comments (1) | posted at 2:17 AM

July 19, 2004

Riding Around America: the Itinerary

Just a few more days until I leave and I am busy tying up loose ends and getting things ready. Today I downloaded the timetables for every route and added up the mileage. The distance for each segment is listed below with the grand total at the bottom. In the end I'll have travelled nearly 8000 miles!

From	To	Departs	Arrives	Distance
New York	New Orleans	2:50pm 07/22/04	7:50pm 07/23/04	Crescent 1377 miles
New Orleans	Tucson	11:55am 07/26/04	8:17pm 07/27/04	Sunset Limited 1493 miles
Tucson	Los Angeles	8:57pm 07/29/04	6:40am 07/30/04	Sunset Limited 502 miles
Los Angeles	Oxnard	10:15am 07/30/04	11:55am 07/30/04	Coast Starlight 67 miles
Oxnard	Portland	11:55am 08/05/04	3:40pm 08/06/04	Coast Starlight 1203 miles
Portland	Seattle	8:45am 08/08/04	12:15pm 08/08/04	Cascades 186 miles
Seattle	Chicago	4:45pm 08/12/04	3:45pm 08/14/04	Empire Builder 2206 miles
Chicago	St. Paul	2:10pm 08/18/04	10:25pm 08/18/04	Empire Builder NA (backtacking)
St. Paul	New York	??? 08/30/04	??? 08/??/04	Lakeshore Limited 959 miles (from Chicago)

Total: 7993 miles

permalink | comments (0) | posted at 11:07 PM

July 18, 2004

University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Last week I was lucky enough to attend a seminar at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The 30 other participants and I had a great time and learned many things from two fantastic professors: Gary Gallagher and Edward Ayers. UVA was the perfect setting to learn about the American Civil War and I doubt that there is a more historic university in America.

Although I spent a large part of the week in the classroom and the library I was able to get out a few evenings to take some photos which you can view here.

permalink | comments (1) | posted at 12:01 AM

July 17, 2004

Riding Around America: the Plan

Well the trains are booked and the countdown begins... 5 days until I leave for the big rail trip. I'll be hitting half of the states in the country along the way and making stops in New Orleans, Tucson, Oxnard, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Chicago and Minneapolis. This marks the first time I've been further West than North Dakota since about 1996 or so. If all goes as planned I'll be seeing at least four baseball games. By the time it's all over I'll have spent days on the trains, travelled thousands of miles, and hopefully met a lot of cool people. I'll be posting here while I travel and will be including photos as well.

permalink | comments (1) | posted at 5:08 PM

July 2, 2004

Minneapolis: Mill City

View the photo gallery: "Mill City"

The biggest surprise of my trip to Minnesota this week has been the Mill City Museum in downtown Minneapolis (view my photo gallery: "Mill City"). Opened in 2003, the museum showcases the history of the flour industry in the city - a topic which I readily admit sounds pretty boring. Thankfully, the museum is incredibly well produced and is as much a history of the Twin Cities as it is of the industry.

As any good museum director knows, location is critical. Not just in driving visitors to a museum, but by making a connection between the history and the physical site. This museum benefits from a perfect location - the ruins of the Washburn "A" Mill. The mill sits on the banks of the Mississippi River which provided the water power to grind millions of tons of grain into flour and make the mill the largest in the world. At its peak production the mill ground enough flour to make 12 million loaves of bread per day. The Mill closed in 1965 and sat abandoned until 1991 when the rusting equipment inside was destroyed by a fire, the cause of which is still unknown. Only a brick shell remains. Today, the ground floor of the mill serves as the courtyard for the museum. Inside, exhibits explain how grain is turned into flour and how the city of Minneapolis expanded as it became the center of milling in the country.

Visitors who are still bored at this point will want to hop on the "Flour Tower", a multimedia exhibit which takes place on a freight elevator. Visitors enter the elevator at the ground floor and are seated on a raised platform. The elevator then moves up and down between eight floors and showcases a different part of the flour milling process at each level. The presentation makes good use of oral accounts from former mill workers, video, sound and light to immerse the audience in the daily workings of the mill. The elevator comes to a stop at the highest level of the museum where visitors emerge onto an outside observation platform which provides spectacular views of St. Anthony Falls, the stone arch bridge and other Minneapolis landmarks. It's a perfect way to cap off the experience and a perfect place to ponder how the Mississippi gave rise to an entire industry and a beautiful city.

View the photo gallery: "Mill City"

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