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These Weeks Off the Road - December 5th-18th

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These Weeks Off the Road - December 5th-18th

Hello Everyone,

Sorry I didn’t get this post done last week, but it’s been a busy time since I got home at the beginning of the month. I wish I could say it’s been a fun kind of busy, but it has mostly been continuing to clear out my uncle’s house in Virginia and dealing with my dad’s estate (tasks my good friend, Gillian, refers to as “sadmin duties”). Last week I took a whirlwind trip to West Virginia to drop off my dad’s probate papers at the court, go to the bank, pick up some of his things that I want to get to my brother’s house next week and come back. I hit some serious snow in the mountains, but it was beautiful and didn’t slow me down too much. In other exciting news, I’ve also been to the dentist, several doctors and the Department of Motor Vehicles, all thrilling adventures for sure (but thankfully all routine, so I am counting my blessings). I have been able to spend a little bit of time with my friends, gotten together with my Monday night music group and had some good times with my family, so I’m grateful for that. I also took a nice trip to Delaware last weekend which I’ll tell you more about below.

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Hello Friends!

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Hello Friends!

Hello Friends!

Long time, no see. I hope you’ve all had a wonderful winter, stayed warm, gotten out for some cool adventures and are looking forward to the coming spring and summer. I am writing to you today from home in Washington D.C. after an amazing couple of months in Europe and North Africa. I’ll be here for a few more weeks and then I’ll return to California early next month. I have a couple of trips to the Rocky Mountains scheduled for late May/early June and I’m really looking forward to getting back up to Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons and Glacier National Parks. Who knows where the summer will lead from there.

When last I wrote, I was getting ready to fly out to Ireland. I arrived in Dublin with no problems and enjoyed a few days of catching up with old friends, knocking back a few pints of Guinness and hearing some great live music. I’ve been to Dublin before, but many years ago and it feels like such a distant memory at this point. It was nice to get out and do some exploring while my internal clock adjusted and I got used to sleeping in dorm rooms again. I was in Dublin for a few days and then caught a flight on to Porto in Portugal.

I spent about two weeks in Portugal in total. I was in Portugal way back in 2000, but really only spent a few days in Lisbon. My friend Julie has been raving about Portugal all year, so I thought I’d go see some more of it for myself. I spent my first day there out in the Douro Valley, the main wine region in the country, and had a lovely time. The next day it started raining and raining hard and it didn’t really let up for almost a week. I did my best to explore Porto, Aveiro (“The Venice of Portugal”) and the University Town of Coimbra, but the rain really brought me down. After a couple of days in Lisbon which included a trip to the incredible fairy tale town of Sintra and a quick visit to Europe’s Westernmost Point, I flew off to the beautiful island of Madeira. Madeira is still in Portugal, but it’s about 600 miles off the coast of Morocco and a world away from the rainy gloom of the mainland. It was beautiful and sunny out there and I had a blast exploring a little corner of the island and soaking up some rays.

After a few days on island time, I headed back to Lisbon and then swung south through Lagos and Faro before cruising on to Seville in Spain. Seville is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve been to in Europe and I really had a wonderful few days there. It’s vibrant and clean and churning with history and culture. The central cathedral there is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and also houses Christopher Columbus’ tomb. I also enjoyed plenty of tapas and wine and music and just wandering through the narrow alleyways of the city. In Seville I started to explore the history of the region in depth as my next six weeks would delve into the Muslim culture which ruled that part of Spain for more than 800 years.

Happily knowing I would return to Seville in a few weeks, I set off on a bus for Tarifa, where I boarded a ferry and bound for Morocco…

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This Week on the Road - December 21st

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This Week on the Road - December 21st

Hello Everyone. Christmas week is upon us! It snuck up on me pretty quickly this year, but I’m very grateful to have been able to spend the holiday season with friends and family at home. It’s always nice to be home in Washington this time of year as I truly think it’s the best time of the year to be in our nation’s capital. I’m writing to you this week from my brother’s house here in New Hampshire where I’ve only just arrived this evening. I figured it would be good to spend a few days in New England before heading off to old England for the New Year.

It’s been a fun and festive week here and I hope you are all enjoying the season however and wherever you celebrate it. We’ve certainly been busy and I’d love to tell you what we’ve gotten into this week. Last Tuesday my folks and I took a wonderful candlelit tour of the Tudor House, one of Washington’s oldest homes, the oldest parts of which date back to the late 18th century. We drank cocoa, ate mince pies and pound cake and heard the story of the family which called Tudor House home for 6 generations. Many of the furnishings are original to the house and the whole house was decorated for Christmas which was really special. After our tour we had a great dinner at Farmers, Fishers and Bakers on the Georgetown Waterfront while watching ice skaters cruise around the rink.

Wednesday we got up early and headed up to Columbia, Maryland to check out an afternoon matinee at Toby’s Dinner Theatre. We started with a really delicious buffet brunch and then enjoyed a fabulous production of the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life performed in the round. The actors were great and the adaptation was incredibly well done. This was definitely a highlight of the season and I will absolutely be returning to Toby’s in the future. After the show we took a spin around Historic Ellicott City, a town I’ve really enjoyed visiting over the last couple of years. The town was decorated for the season and it was fun to wind around the hills and rivers for an hour or so. We wound up the day with a few craft beers at the nearby Sapwood Cellars Brewery.

On Thursday I spent the day cleaning and packing and then headed over to my friend Sandy’s house for dinner. Sandy was my date to my senior prom and has become one of my very good friends over the last thirty years.

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An Update from Home - December 13th

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An Update from Home - December 13th

Hello Everyone! I know it’s been two months since last I wrote, and I’m sorry for the long pause between posts. As my tour season wore on, I began to wear out and had less and less energy to focus on anything but the job at hand. While not an exceptionally long season time-wise at six months, I ran 18 tours since May which was significantly more than I normally would. Some tours were 2-3 weeks as they would have been in the old days, but many were only 2-6 days. Each tour has a life of its own and shorter tours require a burst of energy which never really settles into a comfortable rhythm. Looking back at this past season, as I sit here warm and cozy on the other end of it at my mother’s dining room table here in Washington DC, it was amazing. I met hundreds of wonderful people from all over the world and took them to some truly awesome places. I got to see some old favorites and had plenty of new experiences as well. The summer was full of laughter and stories and joyful poses in front of the camera after long hikes led us to spectacular vistas. I found nothing but support and understanding from my new company and am already looking forward to working for them again next season. But first I have a winter full of my own adventures to plan and enjoy as I have no intention of going back to work before May.

When last I wrote, I was preparing for a 6 day tour through Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Yosemite gave us an easy and familiar start, and the smoke from summer fires had finally cleared from the valley. From there, we travelled to Sequoia National Park which had some beautiful vistas but was horrifically scarred by major fires in 2020 and 2021. I felt like a government fire assessor as we hiked through burned out forest to the lookout on Big Baldy and one of my passengers commented (humorously) that it felt like “hiking through Armageddon”.  Our drive down into Kings Canyon was excellent, though, and I enjoyed this short tour with a small group of just four people.

My next trip brought me on another 6 day adventure, this time to Napa and Sonoma for a “walking and wine” tour. Eight of my nine passengers on this trip were a group traveling together from New Jersey which made for an interesting dynamic. They were all wonderful people, but it was definitely different to have such a big group within my group. We did some magnificent hikes though, especially out to Tamales Bay on the coast where we spotted coyotes and elk along the way to fantastic overlooks of the Pacific Ocean. I also enjoyed getting back to Muir Woods after many years away on this trip. I found us some delicious places to eat out in wine country and my group enjoyed several wine tastings as well.

The final trip of my season took me back to the desert for a nice eight day loop taking in Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. We spent Thanksgiving in Grand Canyon and were treated to a real feast at Yavapai Lodge. I also had the opportunity to climb Angels Landing in Zion, a hike I haven’t done in many years…

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This Week Off The Road - January 26th - February 2nd

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This Week Off The Road - January 26th - February 2nd

Hello Everyone! If you’re reading this on Wednesday night, Happy Groundhog Day to you. One of my college friends was from Punxsutawney, PA so I always think of him today. Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog) did, in fact, see his shadow today, and in so doing he has predicted six more weeks of winter. That can only mean one thing – it’s definitely time for me to head south. This Sunday is the day, if all goes according to plan. I’ve spent this week packing, finishing up what I can of my projects while I’m here at home, and spending as much time as I could with friends and family. It’s always bittersweet to leave and as much as I’m looking forward to all of the adventures ahead, it’s always tough to say goodbye. To help pick myself up, I have contacted a few people who I will be seeing in the beginning of the week, and I definitely hope to be in New Orleans by the following weekend with plenty of friends to catch up with there as well. On a completely unrelated note, our football team here in Washington has a new name, the Washington Commanders, and I wish them well in the coming years. May their moral compass be a little truer than it has been in recent years.

Packing up my van is always quite a project as there is a place for everything and everything needs to be securely in its place. Every time I am home I unpack completely so I can get in and clean the inside out really well and then repack everything with some adjustments where I believe better efficiency can be achieved. I feel as though this time it’s packed particularly well and even though I’ve got pretty much everything loaded up, there’s still plenty of room. I’m thrilled it’s not jam packed and I think everything is going to work out really well with the way it’s loaded. And I’m still days away from taking off which is even better so that I can make adjustments before I hit the road. Omicron has given me a little extra time here in DC and I’ve tried to use it wisely. Meanwhile it’s been particularly cold and icy in the south so maybe it will all work out for the best in the end.

I have made two adjustments to my media strategy this week and I’m feeling good about both of them. As I have been writing about for several weeks, I’ve been (slowly) building my photography storefront on a separate site which I will integrate into this site as much as I can. While it’s still not where I want it to be and has very few photos on it, I’m thrilled with how it is coming and am happy to offer you all a sneak peek. While you can’t connect to it from anywhere on my site just yet, have a look here and let me know what you think. As always if there is any particular photo you would like me to add, please let me know and I will do so ASAP. Secondly, I’ve officially launched my TikTok channel this week, something I’ve been talking about for over a year now but finally went ahead with. TikTok is a neat form of social media which I’ve enjoyed myself for a while now and which is completely driven by video content but in shorter form than YouTube. If you’re on TikTok, you can find me @miles2gobeforeisleep.

I have gotten out a bit this week even though it’s been so busy. Last Thursday my folks and I headed out into the city for a nice adventure. We headed through Georgetown and the Navy Yard to see what’s new in those neighborhoods and then paid a nice long visit to Congressional Cemetery, one of D.C.’s most famous cemeteries and one which was simply too hot to appreciate when we last visited last May.

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This Week Off The Road - January 19th-26th

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This Week Off The Road - January 19th-26th

Hello Everyone. This is going to be another short but sweet one this week. I have been keeping busy here at home which I’ll get to in a minute, but first I wanted to share a couple of things with you at the top of this week’s post. I’ve set a tentative departure date of February 6th and I’m very excited about getting back on the road. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at numbers and data this week and since I’m vaccinated and boosted and generally in good health despite my diabetes, it looks like my chances of getting a severe Covid case which requires hospitalization are extremely low. They’re not zero (and maybe never will be), but I feel like the risk is acceptable to me. My bigger worry is how overcrowded the hospitals are and what would happen if I needed emergency care for some other reason. Those numbers will hopefully be going down over the next few weeks, but I am always cautious and the reality is that I haven’t made an emergency hospital visit in almost two decades so again it’s a risk I’m willing to accept. I will be keeping my mask handy and taking care to avoid crowded places and will likely be moving quicker than I had originally planned to towards New Mexico. I’m comfortable with the statewide precautions they are taking out there and plan on spending more time outside and alone than inside and in groups anyway. I’ll be leaving about 3 weeks after I had initially planned to, but I should still have plenty of time to see what I want to of New Mexico and Arizona this winter.

Leaving here, I plan on heading southwest through Virginia, Tennessee and Mississippi and all the way to New Orleans, catching up with a few friends along the way in whatever capacity they are comfortable with. If all goes according to plan, I will be in the Big Easy the following weekend and able to catch the first few real parades of the Mardi Gras season, which are small but hold good memories for me. Then I’m off to Texas for a week or two on my way to The Land of Enchantment. I’ve made some good plans for my time in New Mexico and I think we’re going to see some awesome scenery together, but if you have any suggestions or tips, I’m all ears.

My second bit of news this week is that I’ve accepted a job to return to guiding tours this coming summer. I’ll be guiding small group, overland trips for a small tour company called Incredible Adventures which is based in the Bay Area. I will be working for the same manager who I worked for at my old company and will be running tours for many of the same brands I’m comfortable and familiar with. My hope is to spend much of the summer in the Rocky Mountains and I’m pretty sure that will be a good possibility. It sounds like a really great opportunity and I’m definitely looking forward to it. While going back to guiding means putting some parts of this project on hold, I need to make some money so I can move ahead and at least I will still be on the road and taking pictures. We’ll see how it works out, but I’m definitely excited about it.

Lastly, I know I mentioned last week that I would be sharing links to my new photography storefront this week, but it’s not quite ready. I’m happy with the way it is shaping up, but I want to give it another week before I let you see it. It’s going to be a constant project going forward, but it will be far enough along by this time next week to be able to give you a sneak peek. That all being said, let’s take a look at what I’ve been up to this week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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This Week Off The Road - January 6-13

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This Week Off The Road - January 6-13

Hello Everyone! It’s been cold here in Washington this week, but we’ve been celebrating the beginning of the Mardi Gras season so we’ve been staying warm, festive and well-fed. While the cold weather makes me want to get out of here and start heading south, the news from the states I’m headed for hasn’t been very good this week. Record case numbers, doubled hospitalization numbers and staff shortages are what I’m reading. While New Mexico has ramped up their public safety campaign, Louisiana and Arizona have both declared a state of emergency. Texas is still holding back, even though they are asking the federal government for more testing facilities and treatment doses. As much as I believe we should provide as much assistance to all of our fellow citizens as we can (and to everyone around the world when possible), Texas sure could start by helping themselves. As much as I’m loving spending time with my family and friends here at home, I’m also ready to be back on the road and heading for new adventures. It seems the prudent, though, to hold tight for a while and see what happens. I’m not interested in getting sick on the road or getting turned back again. I will spend the next couple of weeks getting my plans together and my van packed, though, so that when the time is right, I’m ready to go. Hopefully sooner rather than later. While I’m here, I’m going to make the most of it, keep hitting the gym every day and spend as much time with my family and friends as I can.

This past Thursday was Twelfth Night, the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas and the first day of Mardi Gras. Twelfth Night is also called Epiphany or Theophany in different traditions, but it commemorates the visit of the three kings or the “magi” to the baby Jesus and also the day of His baptism. In Louisiana, it’s the first day you can buy King Cake in the stores and bakeries and in New Orleans the Phunny Phorty Phellows kick off the Carnival season with a ride on the streetcar. This year, Mardi Gras will fall on March 1st, making the season almost two full months long. I do love Mardi Gras season and while I sincerely hope to be much further west than New Orleans by March 1st, I do hope to pass through there on my way to get some crawfish and king cake. Here in Washington, we celebrated beginning Thursday and went straight through the weekend. The Christmas decorations are down and the Mardi Gras decorations are up. My mom baked her first King Cake of the season on Thursday, and it was her best one to date.

Friday night, my folks and I headed back to the basement, a space we utilized almost every Friday during the heart of the pandemic. During the year plus that I was home last year, we weren’t going out anywhere and we needed some way to mark the end of the week and the start of the weekend. It was nice to use a different space than the ones we used the other six days of the week, and the basement became our little retreat. As cases climb here in Washington, it seemed that the basement was once again a good option. We drank some Abita beer, enjoyed some good Louisiana music and I cooked up a loaf of Crawfish Bread (which is more of a Jazz Fest tradition, but it sounded delicious in my head, and it was). We chatted, played some games and had an enjoyable evening. It was just like old times, but hopefully this outbreak will be short-lived and the basement can go back to just being a basement.

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This Week On the Road - December 23rd-January 5th

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This Week On the Road - December 23rd-January 5th

Hello Everyone. Happy New Year to you all – may 2022 be everything you hope and dream it can be. I apologize for this newsletter not going out last week, but my folks and I were out of town on a little trip I will tell you all about later in this post. I had hoped to get my newsletter done before we left, but it just didn’t happen. Then the New Year came and went and then a snowstorm hit us on Monday and now it’s a whole week later. I’m sure you all had plenty to do as well this past week, but I missed writing this post nonetheless. It was definitely a festive week here at home and we enjoyed spending a lot of time together. We got out and saw some very cool places these last couple of weeks which I’d love to share with you here.

The Thursday before Christmas, we all headed down to Old Town Alexandria for lunch at Gadsby’s Tavern which was opened in 1770 and hosted two of George Washington’s birthday celebrations. It’s a great little colonial inn and our lunch was really good. From there we wandered around the Alexandria waterfront a little bit and then made our way back to downtown D.C. We had a nice visit to the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House and to the Capitol Christmas Tree at the U.S. Capitol. On the drive between the two, we were really struck by the beautiful tree at the Canadian embassy as well. Downtown Washington is a beautiful place every day, but it’s especially nice at Christmas and a really nice day really put us in the mood for the holiday weekend.

And a wonderful Christmas weekend it was, with lots of cooking and eating and music and fun. It was wonderful to get together and cook all day on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and turn out both an excellent breakfast and dinner on both days (no lunch was required, believe me). Everything came out well, and I was very proud of my first cheesecake which was delicious. While I don’t really want or need anything in the whole world, my mother really surprised me with a wonderful gift this year. I had mentioned in my blog a few weeks ago when I was out in Minnesota how much I had wanted an Indian pipestone pipe carved from their sacred quarries, but simply couldn’t justify the purchase. I don’t get a lot of souvenirs on the road, but that was one I had wanted and was disappointed about not getting. My mom found a really beautiful pipe online which had been hand carved by Roy Redwing of the Santee Dakota Nation from the quarry I visited while I was there and it’s something I will really treasure. I got a Roku for each of them so that when they are watching TV they can watch what they want as opposed to what’s on, and they are enjoying them so far.

After Christmas we lay low for a couple of days and then headed north and west to Pennsylvania. We had visited the National Historical Sites of Western Pennsylvania before, but it had been a bit rushed and we hadn’t had the chance to really dig into them as much as we would have liked, so this trip set out to remedy that. Our first stop was Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS, which tells the fascinating story of the first continuous transportation link between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh (and also, therefore, between the eastern seaboard and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers). The biggest challenge on this route was over the mountains between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. In 1834 a system was completed by which canal boats could be towed onto railcars which could then be towed up the mountain by being attached to cables which were powered by steam powered engines. It was quite the engineering feat and was utilized for 20 years to make the crossing. Charles Dickens passed this way on his travels, as did the bodies of two presidents (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor) on their way west for burial. With the opening of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, this route became obsolete in the 1850s and not much of it remains today, but it is a fascinating place and the National Park Service does a great job of interpreting the site, as usual.

From there we headed on to Johnstown Flood National Memorial which commemorates the tragic 1889 flood which occurred following the failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River.

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This Week Off The Road - December 15th-22nd

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This Week Off The Road - December 15th-22nd

Hello Everyone! ‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the land, the Omicron variant was getting out of hand. First and foremost this week I want to wish all who celebrate it a very Merry Christmas (and a Happy Christmas to all of those outside of the U.S. who think “merry” is a funny way to say it). I was chatting with one of my traveling friends this week and we were discussing where we had each spent Christmas in the past. My list included Barcelona, Newcastle (Australia), Siem Reap (Cambodia), Japan, St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands), Myrtle Beach, Key West, New York City, Los Angeles, New Hampshire and San Antonio. Some have been good, some not so good and one or two downright difficult. I’m very happy to be here at home in D.C. this year, off the road and not at work. Wherever you are this year, I hope the season finds you safe, warm and healthy. We will be sticking close to home over the weekend, cooking deliciously complicated meals together, laughing, listening to music and watching a few more Christmas movies. It will be somewhat low-key with just the three of us for Christmas and one of my mom’s friends joining us for Christmas Eve but that suits me just fine. It’s very good to be home.

This week has definitely put the Coronavirus and the Omicron variant front and center in the news and in my life. A very good friend of mine lost his 48 year old brother to Covid this week, reminding me in a personal way that this is all far from over. Mask mandates are back here in D.C. and hospitals across the country are filling up to dangerous levels. I’m sad to see that Michigan and Minnesota, both of which I obviously spent a lot of time in this year, are both hotspots right now and struggling - and that is coming not just from the news but from my friends on the ground there. I was very happy to see that Donald Trump got his booster this week and encouraged others to do so as well. I really wish other people would join him and realize that this isn’t a game and people are dying unnecessarily out there. The NHL has postponed its season and there have been many other cancellations as well. My friend Chris, who I was supposed to hang out with on Monday, came down with something and we decided to postpone out of an abundance of caution. The friends I was hanging out with over the weekend took a pre-holiday-travel home Covid test on Monday and both came up positive. They went for a clinical test and my folks and I tested at the Fire Station up the road and all came back negative which was a relief. I definitely feel better being vaccinated and boosted than I did at this time last year, but I’m starting to tuck back in a little bit as well. I’ll be keeping my eye on the news before I decide whether or not to set out across the country again in January. Because of my southern route with plans to get back to California and back to work next summer, it all seems very familiar to where I was in the beginning of 2019. I sincerely hope that this winter will pass easier than last year or the winter before. Please be safe out there and if you haven’t been vaccinated or boosted, please discuss it with a doctor and not a YouTube character.

I’ve spent my mornings this week at the gym, trying not to put on any holiday weight. My afternoons have been pretty quiet and restful, but I have been out and about in the evenings. Last Wednesday I went back to music night at my friends’ house to watch them jam out like we were still in high school. My buddy Joe brought some of his famous homemade eggnog…

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This Week Off The Road - December 8th-15th

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This Week Off The Road - December 8th-15th

Hello Everyone. This is going to be a quick one this week as I’ve been taking it real easy for the last few days here in D.C. It’s nice to be home and I’ve been enjoying spending time with family and friends and while I haven’t been completely unproductive, I must admit that I’ve been pretty lazy this week – and fully intend to be in the coming week as well. It’s nice to have some down time and I know that when I leave here next month, it’s going to be pretty full-on through the fall of 2022. While I have been getting to the gym pretty much every morning, my afternoons have been quiet and naps have been common. I’ve been enjoying reading my books with a cup of tea and the simple pleasure of home life. My evenings have been pretty busy, though, so let me tell you what I’ve been up to this week.

Last Wednesday night, I went over to my friends Don and Molly’s house for their weekly jam session. Don plays the guitar, and my other friends round out the band with Joe on bass, James on keyboard and Pete on the drums. It was great to see these guys as they are some of my oldest and best friends and to listen to their musical endeavors. We enjoyed a few beers together and Molly cooked us up some fresh-baked cookies. It was a nice way to spend the evening.

On Thursday, my folks and I headed downtown to Fords Theatre to catch an afternoon matinee performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. We have been going to this production every year it’s been possible for over 30 years, and while last year they did a radio show during the pandemic which was better than nothing, it was great to see them back at the historic theatre this year. The show was shortened and modified quite a bit into a 75 minute production with minimal sets and props, and there were no children in the cast for safety reasons. That being said, many of the cast members were returning performers from years past and they all did a wonderful job with the show. I do hope that it will return to the full production in the future, but this was enjoyable under the circumstances. After the show we went for a late lunch down the street at the Old Ebbitt Grill, the oldest saloon in the city. This has also been a part of our holiday tradition for many years and is one of our favorite Washington D.C. institutions. The food was great and it rounded out the day quite nicely. Back at home we played a few rounds of Lattice Hawaii, one of our old pandemic lock-down favorite board games.

Friday we headed out to Rockville in the evening for dinner at Miller’s Ale House followed by the Rockville Civic Ballet’s performance of A Nutcracker…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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