Hi Guys, it’s that time of the week again. It’s been another great week on the road in Mississippi, and I’m happy to share some of the highlights with you here. My week started in Cascilla in the rural center of the state, led me on a quick loop through the Delta with night stops in Cleveland, Clarksdale and Greenwood and is ending right here in beautiful but rainy Vicksburg. It’s been a week of beautiful towns, incredible food, good music and some really great photo opportunities. Despite the gloomy weather which has been a pretty constant companion this week, my spirits are high and I’m enjoying myself out here. I’m finding some good balance and trying to stress less and enjoy more. In all, it’s been a pretty awesome week out here.
Storms came hard in Central Mississippi as my week began, with hail, tornadoes and damaging wind. I was grateful to my friend John and his family for giving me shelter from the storm last Wednesday night (and for two nights before that). By the time I left Thursday morning, the worst of the storms had passed although the clouds persisted. Shadow Catcher was a whole different vehicle with new shocks, and we no longer bounce down the road like Tigger. That would come in really handy on the less-than-ideal roads of the Delta. I went with stiffer shocks because it’s a big van, so it’s not a smooth ride, but it’s enormously improved on what it was last week.
Decending from John’s place in the hills and heading west on Route 8, I came out into the beautiful, pancake-flat Mississippi Delta. Cotton fields hemmed in the road, and the familiar sights of rusted out cars in front of old sharecroppers’ cabins made me feel like I was once again on familiar ground…
Hello Everyone,
It’s great to see you, and I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to our new subscribers this week, I’m happy that you’re here. It’s been a pretty quiet week here in Mississippi, but a busy one as well. I haven’t done a lot of traveling, but I’ve been to some pretty cool places and met some wonderful people. This week has brought me from Columbus back through to middle of the state with stops in French Camp, Kosciusko and Winona. I spent a couple of nights Cascilla in a pretty rural part of the state with my friend John and his family, and then wound up the week traveling northwest into the Mississippi Delta. Of all the time I’ve spent in Mississippi in the past, most of it has been in the Delta, so it’s pretty comfortable to me. I love it here, and have always been fascinated by the music and the culture. Sadly, I know that poverty levels in the Delta are high, and that this factor contributes to both the music and culture of the region, but I’ve also seen the region develop a reasonable tourism industry in the 15 years or so I’ve been coming here, and hope conditions continue to improve for the area’s residents. Regardless of any of that though, it’s always great to be back in the Delta.
When we last we spoke, I had just pulled into Columbus, in the far east of the state near the Alabama border. My first impressions of the town were good, but my lasting impressions were even better. I really found it to be a delightful and hospitable town full of history with surprises around every corner.
Hey Y’all,
It is great to be back on the road and it is great to be back writing This Week on the Road. I’ve missed you all, and this weekly post and this journey. While it was definitely good for me mentally to go back to work for a few months and then spend some quality time with my friends and family back at home, I feel really good and very blessed and happy to be back on the road.
I left home in Washington DC last Thursday and aimed for my dad’s place in Charleston, West Virginia. It was a cold and windy ride through the mountains, and snow whirled and blew as Shadow Catcher and I made our way west. The winter blast made me happy we were heading south and it felt good to have months ahead of us and only our plans and our wits to guide us. It was wonderful passing through and past some of the earliest destinations of this journey when we first set out way back in November of 2017. It was cold then too and the days were short, and my dad’s place was definitely a point of refuge as I got all of this off the ground. But driving past exits for Blackwater Falls and Weston and Morgantown and Harpers Ferry all brought a huge smile to my face. We’ve come a long way since then and it was good to take a drive down memory lane.
I spent 2 days with my Dad and Judy, and it was great to catch up with them and enjoy their company. I helped them with a few things around the house and they took me out to a nice meal. It’s always great to see them, and it was my last taste of home for a while.
We set off from Charleston on Saturday, headed west into Kentucky and then south from Lexington into Tennessee. This ride took us past even more wonderful memories from this journey…
Hey y’all,
I hope you’re all having a great 2020 out there and that the New Year has brought new plans and new hope. I know it has for me. I’m just checking in with you to let you know that I’m finally almost ready to get back on the road. I’ve been working hard these last few weeks to get everything done which needs to get done and leaves me with a clean slate as I head back down the highway.
First of all, my photo albums are almost all up to date. You can see these last four State Albums at the links below:
Hello Everyone! As I look ahead to 2020, I wanted to take a few minutes to look back at the years gone by and look ahead at what’s to come in the months and years ahead. Before I get into any of that though, I wanted to send a very big Thank You to all of you who have followed along on this adventure. It’s been a heck of a ride. Over the course of the last two years, I’ve learned a lot, seen and been to so many wonderful new places, made new friends and caught up with old friends I haven’t seen in many years. I’ve loved and lost and laughed and cried. There have been successes and failures, epic highs and tremendous lows. Through it all though, I know I wouldn’t have made it this far without my family, my friends and all of you wonderful people who have decided to come along for the ride. So thank you and a very Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2020 is a wonderful and prosperous year for us all.
The Good
When I set out on this journey, my hope was to be able to spend some real time in each state - to get to know it and find out what makes it tick. Each of our states is an island of sorts and while there are things that are common among them, each has its own history, characteristics, language, food and culture. Each is fascinating and different in its own way, and the best part of this trip for me has been figuring those things out. I would say that while I could have spent so much longer in each of the ten states I visited, I came away from each with a pretty good understanding of the things I went there to find. Not one has disappointed me and not one has failed to surprise me.
Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to wish all of you a very Happy Hanukkah and a Merry Christmas from me! I feel very fortunate to be home for the holidays this year and happy to celebrate with friends and family. I’ve got two new babies in my close friends network, so it has been amazing to see them start out on their journeys. I also had a great opportunity to go visit my brother for a week in New Hampshire and see his beautiful new home. We got two feet of snow when I was there, so I have gotten my shoveling in for the year. With any luck I’ll be very far south of where I am now before any more snow hits. It was truly beautiful and amazing to see, but I also remember why I tend to avoid the cold weather.
I’ve been home for a little over a month now and I’m finally starting to feel like I’m catching up on all the things that I need to do before setting out again. I’ve been to the doctor and the dentist, seen a lot of old friends and gotten to catch up with my family and help out around the house. I’ve also been hard at work on all of my projects and am starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. You can check out these updated photo galleries to see some of the progress I’ve been making:
Happy Thanksgiving y’all. For all of my American friends and followers, I hope you are somewhere warm and welcoming with friends and family around you, or at the very least somewhere where you are comfortable and can find some joy in the day. For my international friends and followers, I wish you a happy Thursday, but hope wherever you are you can find some time today to count your blessings and realize how much you have to be thankful for. This is something I am trying to start incorporating into my everyday routine, not something I reserve for one day in November.
For those of you who have to work today, believe me - I’ve been there. I’ve spent many years working in restaurants on the holidays. It was never a bad thing, but I was always a little surprised that people didn’t tip more on the holidays. If you find a restaurant open, remember that someone has had to give up their holiday to take care of you and you should be sure you take care of them. In my career as a guide, I also spent many years on the road during the holidays. I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving on the beach in Key Largo, in the snow in Stowe, Vermont, at Grand Canyon, in San Diego and probably plenty of other places I’ve now forgotten about. I enjoyed having groups to share the day with and sometimes cooked a traditional American Thanksgiving Day feast if the facilities were available. Cooking that kind of a meal for 14 people is quite the challenge - and if you only have a camp stove and an open fire even more-so. It’ s nice to be able to share your culture with people from abroad though, and Thanksgiving is one of the best days to do that in America.
This year, I’m very thankful to be home with my friends and family and to be able to celebrate the holiday with the people I care most about. I’m also thankful to have some time and internet access to get some work done while I’m here. I’ve been enjoying playing a lot of catch-up these last few weeks, trying to get this site in order, complete some projects that are long overdue and start to plan for the future. One of the things I’ve really been working on is my Gallery pages. I’ve been able to clean up, organize and add to three of my photo galleries over the last week or so, and I’d love it if you wanted to pop over and have a look. Here are the links where you can find them:
Long time, no see. Today marks the 2nd anniversary of me setting off in my van towards Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and the beginning of my life’s greatest adventure. The next 18 months brought me to 10 states which I explored in great depth, trying to gain a better understanding of the people, culture and history that make each special and unique. I was able to travel thousands of miles, take tens of thousands of photos, record 20 episodes of my podcast American Anthology and generally get a better understanding of my country and myself. It was by no means a vacation, nor was it an easy ride. I found myself working long days trying to publish on this blog as frequently as I could while constantly researching my next podcast episode, trying to eat well and get enough exercise and have a little bit of fun along the way. I battled deadlines, weather, loneliness and serious bouts with depression and self-doubt. But I came out the other side a better person with a better understanding of myself and the country I call home. Looking back, it was a hell of a ride.
After 18 months alone on the road, it was time to take a break. While not gone, my savings were seriously depleted as I hadn’t been able to make as much money as I had hoped while on the road. In addition, I desperately needed some conversation and companionship - something more than the fleeting conversation of a roadside tavern could provide. I found during my 18 month stretch that it was often harder to stop and see friends than it should have been - that while it was always wonderful and joyful to catch up with them, it sometimes brought me back lower than I had been when I arrived at the thought of being on my own again. It was almost as if sharing time with my friends reminded me of just how lonely the open road is. I think anyone who has done some any long-term solo travel would agree with that. It’s not the external world that gets you, but the one that revolves solely within your own head.
Hello Everyone!
I’ve had a wonderful week to myself here in Salt Lake City. It has been a week mainly of catch-up, on my work, on my sleep, on my photos, on my correspondences. I would like to think I’ve caught up to some degree, but I know I still have a podcast painfully half-complete and other projects I just didn’t get to. But, I feel rested and ready to set out on a new tour starting tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will set out with 7 people: 2 Americans, 4 Brits and 1 German and head back into the Rocky Mountains. We will be out for 12 days, spending 2 in Jackson and the Grand Tetons, 4 in Yellowstone, 3 in Glacier and then one in Ceour d’Alene before making our way on to Seattle. It’s a great trip full of mountain splendor, fascinating thermal features in Yellowstone, wonderful hikes and hopefully some great animal encounters. I met the group tonight, and they are very excited for the trip. I always take my energy from the group, and this one has gotten me excited to be heading back to the mountains.
It’s been a crazy busy few weeks out here on the road. It’s the peak of the summer season, and I’ve been working hard trying to show people some amazing and beautiful parts of the United States. Time and internet have been scarce, but I promise I haven’t forgotten you all and I’ve been taking plenty of beautiful photos out here.
I returned from an amazing month in Hawaii about two weeks ago and then headed north to Seattle where I picked up a two week tour into the Rocky Mountains. We got to spend a good amount of time in the amazing national parks of Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton, three of my favorite places on earth. We did some great hikes and spotted a ton of wildlife including at least a dozen bears and a pack of wolves hunting a fully grown bison. It was a pretty awesome trip.
Whew, it has been an unbelievably crazy and busy month here in Hawaii, but a wonderful one. I had every intention of posting regularly on this blog while I was here, but I’ve been so busy with work that there just haven’t been enough hours in the day. My apologies. I am back guiding tours for the summer, and after three busy days of preparation in California, I flew to the Aloha State with two days to get things ready here before my first trip began. My first trip was a 10 day, 4 island blitz, and then with just one day in between to prepare I launched into an 8 day camping trip on the Big Island. Another one day turnaround and I am on another 3 island run. Hawaii is so different than what I’m used to as a guide because there aren’t a lot of long journeys as there isn’t a lot of distance to cover here. Our days are full of activities and beautiful sights and sounds and tastes, but it’s a lot to keep organized and moving forward. All three of my tours have been wonderful though, and I’ve really enjoyed them, and never fear - my camera has been snapping away furiously the whole time I’ve been here.
Hi everyone! I want to wish everyone a Happy Memorial Day here in the United States, the holiday which unofficially kicks off our summer season. I spent the weekend here in Washington D.C. barbecuing with friends and family and celebrating close to home. Friday I stayed home with my folks and we grilled some steaks in their back yard and enjoyed a few beers and some good conversation. Saturday I went north to Frederick with some friends to pick strawberries and grill out by the lake, and Sunday I went over to visit some friends who recently bought a house with a pool. It was a wonderful and relaxing weekend and it’s very good to be home.
I did make a wonderful visit to the Library of Congress this week to check out the original photos of Edward Curtis, one of my very favorite photographers. While his work is famous and if you’ve seen a lot of old sepia photos of Native Americans you’re probably familiar with his work, they were originally published as part of a very expensive 20 volume set which is very rare and hard to find. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to go and see his work at the Library of Congress, but I finally made it and had a great time. I just sat there for hours and looked at the wonderful prints in Volume 2 (Volume 1 is out for restoration). It was cool…
