On the Canadian side of Niagara, Scott and I came upon a thin young police officer speaking with some of our fellow Americans. The American father figure, a portly mustachioed guy in a red shirt, walked up to the cop and leaned over to look across his hip. He was surprised- “You’re not armed!” The […]

Sitting in that parking lot, my plan was to call a couple of college friends, work on the bike, dry all my stuff out and find a place to sleep. Not only was all of that accomplished, but also when I called my friend Marc, he (with no notice) upgraded our dinner plans to […]

The second person that I called from that Buffalo Library parking lot was Greg Rainville. This is a guy that I met on the first day of orientation and had made fast friends with. Greg finished before I did at Potsdam and moved to Toronto for grad school. These circumstances, combined with […]

Following our rainy morning, we arrived in Buffalo, NY. I knew that Buffalo was an industrial city and one that was suffering from the de-industrialization of America. What I didn’t know was what that would look like. While there were some nice buildings to see and surrounding communities, the center of Buffalo […]

Brendan has addressed some of our camping but I need to add some details….or deets as the fine Mr. Brian Clark would say. As silly as it sounds, try it out a couple times and see if you can stop yourself. My hammock is a work of art. It’s a mosquito proof, […]

I just finished reading a donated book. “Book donated by”…Todd Euston. For best experience, you need to read the passage in quotes as if it’s being read by the announcer for the Olympics. His voice introducing the Olympics inspired so much humor for me growing up. Spaahhnsaahd baahy!
Anyway, this […]

The day was Wednesday, July 9th and we fell asleep on the soft, comfortable grass that lay beneath a tall majestic tree. Two hours later, at 4am, the rain began. I know what you’re thinking here… They must have gotten really wet. Well you’re kind of right. The truth of […]

I have to say, I am relishing the current setup situation, which is that I can typically throw up and use or pull down a shelter quite a bit quicker than Scott can. That’s because his setup has a higher learning curve than mine does- once he masters the hammock, I’m going to be real […]

Thanks to the Prez, I stimulated the economy by buying a GPS system for my motorcycle. Enjoy, Taiwan! So, this is pretty ridiculous, but I hadn’t installed power hookup for it yet. I tried to get it done in DC but didn’t have enough time to schedule it. So for the past few weeks I’ve […]

The issue that has been most on my mind politically has been the recent compromise on the FISA bill. A couple weeks ago, the democrats in the House denied that they were working on a compromise on said legislation. Days later, with smiles ear to ear, Stenny Hoyer and Nacy Pelosi announced that […]

Of course, it’s not true that watch the weather channel with my Grandpa Vince was “mind-numbing”. When it did happen it was probably actually mind-enhancing, because it got my mind off the boob tube and engaged with my Grandfather and the rest of the family.
It can seem silly in retrospect, because we’re all so addicted […]

When I was a kid my Grandfather Vince used to tune into the weather channel constantly. Not just frequently but continuously- he would watch it play the same forecast over and over again for hours. I suspect he just liked the easy-listening music that would play with it, because to me it seemed like the […]