Happy Thanksgiving from Miles2Go

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Happy Thanksgiving from Miles2Go

This year I’m celebrating our American Thanksgiving Day with my brother and his family here in Amherst, New Hampshire. It will be good to be with family this Thanksgiving and to sit around the fireplace, sipping a hot drink and laughing out loud. I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve spent Thanksgiving in a lot of different places over the years. I’ve spent Thanksgiving in Key Largo and Grand Canyon, Stowe and New Orleans, West Virginia, St. Thomas and even in Japan. I’ve worked as many Thanksgivings as I’ve had off in my adult life. I’ve often found myself with 12 international guests on tour and in charge of sharing this wonderful day with people who’ve never celebrated it before. Cooking a Thanksgiving Dinner for 12 over an open campfire is quite a challenge, but a good one.

This year has been a difficult one and it’s important to remember how much we have to be thankful for. I’m thankful for family and friends both near and far. I’m thankful for my health. I’m incredibly thankful for the roof over my head, the food in my stomach and the clean water in my bottle knowing that there are so many who don’t have even that in this world. I’m thankful for all of the opportunities I’ve had in my life - both those which have worked out and those which haven’t. I don’t have much money in the bank, but I consider myself a very wealthy man for the experiences I’ve had, the places I’ve seen and the wonderful people I’ve met over the years. And in this space, I’m incredibly thankful for you, dear reader, for having stuck with this travel blog despite the fact that I’ve traveled less this year than at any point in the last 20 years. I’ll be back on the road as soon as it’s safe and responsible to do so.

Happy Thanksgiving To You

-Mike

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 34

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 34

Hello Everyone! November is coming to a close and I doubt that I’m the only one looking forward to putting 2020 in my rear view mirror. Not that anything will magically change on January 1st, but I definitely believe that next year will be better than this one. Personally I’m looking forward to getting back on the road, seeing some new and beautiful places, catching up with some old friends and making some new ones. I feel like this year I just kicked it up into neutral in April and I’ve been coasting along since them. I remain incredibly grateful for so much that’s happened this year, but I won’t be sad to wave goodbye come New Year’s Day.

One of the biggest joys of this year has been hanging out with my 2 year-old buddy, Mason, who has kept me smiling for a lot of months now. I realized that I’ve now spent over 10% of his life with him. 10% of my life ago, Barrack Obama was still president, so it’s no small amount of time. This week we spent a little more time at the playground than usual. We don’t spend much time there because all the nannies in the neighborhood go there, mingle and let the kids they watch do the same. I don’t want any kids breathing and snotting all over Mason, especially now that cold and flu season is in full swing as I don’t want him or me to get sick. But with colder temperatures fewer people are there, so we’ve at least been able to get the kindergarten playground to ourselves a few times which he really enjoys. He was disappointed when I wouldn’t go down the slide with him, and I tried to explain that I was too big to go or I definitely would. Now when he sees a small playground in someone’s yard he says “Uncle Mike, too big” which I just think is really funny. One of the slides we use I have to pick him up and put him on, which was a nice bicep curl motion to it. I started doing “Mason curls” and counting to ten and he seems to really enjoy it too, so that’s been good for both of us. Beyond that, we’ve been seeing the forest leaves thin and disappear and the change of season has been interesting to watch for both of us. He’s learned some evergreens like cedar, holly and ivy and continues to pull whatever berries he can reach. It was another good stretch hanging out with him.

Last Friday we had a pretty quiet night at home. We had originally planned on heading up to New Hampshire to my brother’s place first thing Saturday morning, so we didn’t want to overdo it on Friday. We had some turkey sandwiches, some pumpkin eggnog and then watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles, one of the only really good Thanksgiving movies out there. It wasn’t as raucous as usual, but it was a fun Friday night with the family just the same…

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Snapshots: Lower Susquehanna Scenic Byway

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Snapshots: Lower Susquehanna Scenic Byway

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I set out to explore Maryland’s Lower Susquehanna Scenic Byway. This beautiful road started at the Concord Point Lighthouse in Havre de Grace where the river meets the Chesapeake Bay. From there, we headed on to the old 19th century Lock Keeper’s House which stands watch over what was once the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal. On to Susquehanna State Park where we explored the historic village of Rock Run with its working grist mill and old Jersey toll house. We learned about the life of Confederate Brigadier General James Archer who grew up in the Archer Mansion overlooking the river. Crossing over at the Conowingo Dam, we cruised into the fascinating old town of Port Deposit before winding up in Perryville where the Principio Furnace and Rodgers Tavern offered up a final dose of history for the day. Standing on the west bank of the Susquehanna River we watched the sun set before turning our headlights towards home. It was a beautiful day cruising the wonderful Lower Susquehanna Scenic Byway in northeast Maryland and I hope you enjoy these photos I took along the way.

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 33

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 33

Hello Everyone! Well late November is here and Christmas decorations are starting to spring up around the city. In a normal year I would complain that they were jumping the gun a little bit, but this year I welcome and embrace them. Anything that can make things a little more tolerable for everyone is something I will throw my support behind. It’s still hard to believe the end of the year is in sight, but I don’t know many people who won’t be happy to put 2020 behind them, myself included. Temperatures have continued to drop in D.C. this week, and I finally had to winterize my van as we’re expecting freezing temperatures tonight. Beyond that, a lot has happened this week, so I’m going to get right into it.

There has been more good news on the vaccine front as there are now two promising vaccines fast approaching approval for distribution. This is great news in my opinion and shows what great minds can do when they work together towards a common goal. From what I understand they will only be able to produce and distribute around 20 million doses a month (still amazing when you think about it), but with the possibility of starting in December that means that at least that ball can start rolling which will be a relief in and of itself. I’m really hoping to get mine by the middle of next year.

Sadly, the numbers of cases are continuing to soar across the U.S. as we still have no centralized plan and governors are hesitant to roll out any new restrictions. That is a huge mistake in my opinion as keeping hospitals below capacity must be the main goal everywhere. The firehouse up the street from here is now doing free Covid testing three days a week instead of one. I can see the line from here, meaning it is more than two full city blocks long. It blows my mind that we still don’t have widespread, convenient testing and that people will literally wait in freezing cold temperatures for hours to get a test. As hospitals continue to reach their capacities across the country we are starting to once again hear about PPE shortages which again is mind boggling. We knew this was coming, we’ve been talking about it for months and yet it still appears to be surprising people. While there are winter waves crashing down around the northern hemisphere, we are definitely less prepared than most. Please take care of yourselves out there.

Some of my mom’s favorite TV shows have started new seasons this week, and it’s been strange to see the characters wearing masks and discussing the virus. I’m sure I’m not the only person who sees a show or movie and thinks ‘oh, no – don’t get that close’. This year has changed the way we interact and view others interacting. I sincerely hope this is something which will soon be behind us and then begin to fade into a distant memory. Someday people will watch these episodes with fascination and questions about the masks and discussions. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating – living through history isn’t always a pleasant or easy experience.

I did see some really good news this week on the work front for me. As you know, my tour guiding company permanently closed their doors over the summer due to the pandemic which brought their income to a halt. While one of the brands I’ve worked with for many years (Trek America) will be shelved for the immediate future, some of the other brands have found a new home with a small company called Incredible Adventures out of San Francisco. They will be expanding their reach this year and have taken the contracts for other companies I’ve worked for like Grand American Adventures and Exodus. Thankfully for me, their entire management team are personal friends of mine and even my last manager is now their General Manager. While I don’t know if I’ll be going back to guiding next summer, it sure is nice to hear that I might not have to start entirely from scratch when I do decide to go back. There is a lot of relief in that, but also a lot of joy in knowing that the brands I know and love will be getting back to business very soon and providing much-needed vacations for people once this is all behind us.

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 32

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 32

Hello Everyone! It’s been a beautiful week here in Washington D.C. with warm, sunny days and cool clear nights. In some ways this is all very familiar to me as I’m usually headed home in October or November, tired from a long year on the road and ready for some “home time” over the holidays. I come home to rest and get my affairs in order and begin to plan for the next leg of my journey, whatever that may be and wherever it may take me. It’s a time to catch up – on my projects, on my sleep and with friends and family. Unlike spring and summer which I’ve rarely spent in the city, this feels more normal to me.

Today also marks the three year anniversary of the journey which became Miles2Go. Three years ago today, I set out for Harpers Ferry, West Virginia with a dream of spending a month in each state over the next 4 years. I soon learned that a month was too short to get a real understanding of a state while also maintaining this blog, so my timeframe changed. There were a lot of tough times and setbacks as I got this thing off the ground, and just when I felt like I knew where it was going and how to make it all work, I hit the cruise control button and then this pandemic hit, turning me towards home and grounding me indefinitely. It’s been a bumpy road for sure, but anything that’s worth it will no doubt involve overcoming obstacles. I don’t know what my future or the future of this project will look like at this point, but I’m grateful for the journey and everything and everyone that’s been a part of it thus-far.

Sadly the reason keeping me here, the coronavirus, has continued to rage across the country with still-worsening conditions being reported every day. As we get closer to a quarter-million deaths from the virus here in the U.S. alone, I wanted to put that number into perspective for you. While 235,000 may be just a fraction of a percent of the population of the U.S. as is often pointed out, it is more than our average annual deaths in this country from any cause other than cancer and heart disease. It’s four times our average annual number of flu and pneumonia deaths (all according to the CDC). It’s also more than the number of Americans who died in World War 1, Vietnam, Korea and the American Revolution combined. It’s more than the single-year casualties from our two bloodiest wars – World War II and the Civil War. Keep these statistics in mind when people tell you that the virus isn’t all that bad. In the entirety of the almost 15 years we were involved in the war in Vietnam, we lost less than a quarter of the number of people who have died from this virus this year, and it’s only mid-November. For some reason people in this country refuse to look beyond our borders to countries which got some level of control over the pandemic through the summer months with masks and distancing and continue to believe it’s all some kind of hoax. 80% of current cases in the U.S. can be traced back to restaurants, bars and gyms.

What should we be doing about this? First and foremost we need to start listening to the experts. This country’s leading medical experts and virologists have laid it out pretty simply from the start, and have been able to make things even clearer as we’ve learned more. And yet people refuse to listen to them, searching out someone, anyone, who will tell them what they want to hear instead of what the consensus of the experts is. I want to get back to my normal life more than anyone, but I’m willing to put that all on hold for the greater good of my countrymen. To me, that’s a pretty good definition of patriotism.

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Autumn in Cloudland Canyon, A Wentworth Wooden Puzzle

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Autumn in Cloudland Canyon, A Wentworth Wooden Puzzle

I am thrilled to have partnered with the Wentworth Puzzle Company in South West England to offer Autumn in Cloudland Canyon, a beautifully crafted wooden jigsaw puzzle which would make a wonderful gift for anyone on your holiday shopping list. For almost 30 years, Wentworth has been producing unique and intricately crafted wooden jigsaw puzzles which have delighted enthusiasts around the world. Made from sustainably sourced wood and cut with precision laser technology, this isn’t your ordinary puzzle. My favorite Wentworth tradition is the assortment of “whimsy” shaped pieces that are a part of all of their puzzles. Autumn in Cloudland Canyon includes animal-shaped pieces and even a waterfall-shaped piece all of which make this puzzle even more of a joy to put together and a treasure to own. This puzzle comes in two sizes: 250 pieces ($49.50) and 500 pieces ($97.50) and can be shipped worldwide.

To read more about this photo, our puzzle and the day I spent in Cloudland Canyon State Park in North Georgia, be sure to read the whole post below.

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 31

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 31

Hello Everyone! Welcome to November! Temperatures took a dip here in our Nation’s Capital this week, but when I see pictures of snow on my Facebook timeline from other parts of the country it doesn’t seem so bad. We had a big weekend celebrating my birthday and Halloween, Mason and I continued our adventures when the weather allowed and of course the 2020 election happened this week as well. It’s been busy, busy, busy here in Washington but we’ve made it through another week and another month and the end of the year is within sight.

It wasn’t a week without sadness though as I also found out that my aunt passed away on Tuesday morning. She has been struggling with Lewy Body Dementia and had been in a care facility since the beginning of the year. She came down with Covid19 last week and quickly deteriorated. She was only 63. I hadn’t seen her very much in the last 20 years except at the odd wedding or on a quick visit, but she was always kind and ready to have a good time. Sadly this brings this pandemic very close to home. While I have friends who have had the virus, this is the first person I’ve known who has died from it. Say what you will about her underlying conditions, but she’d be alive today if she hadn’t gotten the coronavirus. I know none of our family has been able to visit her for 7 months to protect her from this virus, and she ended up getting it anyway. It’s possible that she may have caught it no matter what precautions were taken, but I can’t help but think of all of the parties and gatherings I’ve seen happening in Wisconsin lately which I really hope were worth it. It makes me angry and I don’t get angry often. When only some of the people are serious about containing the virus, other people’s bad behavior affects us all and with no national policy, plan or guidelines, our fellow Americans are going to continue to die. No matter what happens in the election, this president has been more focused on his reelection than on the pandemic and that is very apparent. No matter what, he will be president for the next few months at least, and I sincerely hope he starts listening to the two actual experts on his advisory team who are telling him the truth instead of what he wants to hear. If you’ve got a problem with your sink, you may call in another plumber for a second opinion, but you wouldn’t call in an electrician. The president is currently listening to a neuroradiologist who may be an MD but has no specialty in autoimmune disorders. He is essentially an electrician working on your sink. Currently an American is being diagnosed with the virus every second and someone is dying from it every minute. We need to start taking this more seriously entering the colder months. Wherever you are, please know than your actions don’t just affect you, they affect the people around you and the people around them.

Thankfully the counter to the anger I feel in losing my aunt this week comes from the time I get to spend with Mason who doesn’t know or care about the pandemic or the election. He cares about big trucks, mushrooms, bumblebees, acorns and making me laugh. We had a couple of bad weather days at the end of last week and ended up inside working on his ABCs, building things with blocks and reading books together. On Friday, even though it was cold, we headed down to the creek to throw some acorns and rocks which he really enjoys. He doesn’t like throwing dirty rocks from on shore though, but nice clean rocks which he pulls from the water. As the weather has gotten colder, the water has gotten colder, so we spend less and less time doing this, but we still go when we can. When we were leaving on Friday, I took his little cold hands between mine to warm them up. Yesterday when we were putting his mittens on his stuffed monkey and I told him that Monkey’s hands were cold, he took them in both of his like I had last week to warm them up. It warmed Monkey’s hands, but it warmed my heart. Monkey introduced Mason to a fun phrase last week which he really enjoys: “neat-o mosquito”. Now if I see something which is cool and different, I say “neat-o” and he says “’skeeto” – it really is too cute. Monday and Tuesday were pretty cold, and while he seems to really like the wind on his face, I want to keep him bundled up so we can continue our outdoor adventures as long as possible. It’s a little sad to see him interacting with his favorite mushrooms and berries with mittens on because he’s such a tactile little guy and I know he’s not getting the same feelings from things through his mittens. We also said goodbye this week to all the wonderful Halloween decorations in his neighborhood which he has been chatting with and enjoying for the last month. It’s amazing how he seems to remember each little zombie or skull and where it was because yesterday he kept pointing to the places they had been and saying “ooohh, no skull” or “oooh, no ghost”. We had talked about them going inside until next year most of last week, and he seems to be taking it in stride. Soon enough the Christmas decorations will be up though which is something to look forward to…

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Snapshots: Monument Valley

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Snapshots: Monument Valley

Monument Valley is a place everyone knows, even if they don't know they do. From the early John Ford Westerns to Marlboro and Jeep ads to Roadrunner cartoons, Monument Valley is the wild west of many people’s imaginations. It's a wonderful Tribal Park on the Navajo Reservation on the border of Arizona and Utah, and one of the most beautiful desert landscapes on earth. I’ve spent a lot of time there over the years and have seen it at all times of day and in all seasons. These are some of my favorite photos from my time there.

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Snapshots: Mount Olivet Cemetery

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Snapshots: Mount Olivet Cemetery

By 1852, the central section of Washington D.C. was developing quickly and the local citizenry wanted to be sure what land was available was available for the living. They therefore banned any new cemeteries from being established within the city center. Soon thereafter, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, then the overseer of Washington’s catholic churches, purchased 40 acres in the surrounding countryside and established Mount Olivet Cemetery. This cemetery was and is the largest catholic cemetery in Washington D.C. and was also one of the first racially integrated cemeteries in the city. With commanding views over the city, it is a beautiful place for a wander, and as long-time readers know I very much appreciate funerary art of which there are some stunning examples in Mount Olivet. Mount Olivet is the final resting place of such notable people as White House Architect James Hoban, Supreme Court Justice Joseph McKenna, and Lincoln assassination conspirator Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the U.S. Government.

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Washington D.C.'s Most Haunted Places

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Washington D.C.'s Most Haunted Places

Happy Halloween from Washington D.C. I’ve been out and about these last few weeks gathering up stories and taking photos of some of Washington’s most haunted locations. It’s been a wonderful jaunt around the city and it’s always great to see things from a different angle. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just some of the places I enjoyed most. Please keep in mind that these are stories and I haven’t gone out of my way to disprove them or check for historical accuracy. Halloween is a day to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy a good ghost story, so enjoy this haunted historical trip around our nation’s Capital and the surrounding area. Happy Halloween!

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 30

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 30

Hello Everyone! October is coming to a close and temperatures are set to start dropping here in Washington over the weekend to near freezing. Halloween decorations are up in full force right now which can only mean one thing – I’m about to complete another trip around the sun. If you had told me at this time last year where I’d be and what I’d be doing in 2020, I would have laughed it off as some sort of science fiction nonsense. But here I am at home in D.C. in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. My travel gear is on mothballs, the company I’ve worked for for much of the last 20 years is gone and I spend my days walking through the woods with a 2 year old. The year has had its highs and lows for sure and some of each have been pretty intense, but I’ve made it to another birthday with my health and my good humor and that’s going to have to be okay under the circumstances. Happy Birthday to me! All I want this year is a quick end to the pandemic, national healing after the election and to be able to get back on the road in early 2021.

In big news, my puzzle came out this week. For those of you who don’t know, I had one of my photos used for a beautiful wooden jigsaw puzzle from the great folks at Wentworth Puzzles in the U.K. I got my sample copy in the mail the other week, and it is a really beautifully made puzzle. There are specially shaped pieces like a wolf and an eagle, and it is so nice to see a well-crafted wooden puzzle when you’re so used to cardboard. It was a great photo (if I do say so myself) made even more beautiful by the artists at Wentworth. The puzzle is available on their site (find it here) in two sizes: 250 pieces ($49.50) and 500 pieces ($97.50) with shipping to the U.S. a flat $16.50. I know they are a bit pricey, but they are truly beautiful and unique and would make great gifts this holiday season.

My adventures with Mason have continued this week. We are starting to focus on toilet training which isn’t the most fun thing in the world but it’s certainly an adventure. We continue to enjoy the Halloween decorations and the leaves coming down in his neighborhood. The falling leaves came up in a discussion at the end of last week when we were discussing the difference between horns and antlers. We spend a lot of time reading books about animals, and to me there’s no reason for him not to learn the difference from the get-go. We’ve been talking about how horns are permanent, like the pine needles we see, while antlers fall off like the leaves are doing right now. Mason continues to learn his letters, and it’s pretty amazing to me that he knows almost all of them at this point. We stop in the woods at the Rosetta Sign (my name for it), and he knows every single letter on it. He always wants to stop and look at street signs and try and decipher them, and really loves reading the letters on my shirt in the morning. I even broke out a Montana Grizzlies shirt this week because we don’t encounter a lot of Zs in our walks. His sentences continue to grow in length and complexity and he even called himself by his name today while we were playing a game which I thought was really cool. I’m also thrilled that he will be going as a Nittany Lion for Halloween this year to support my Penn State football team in their rivalry against Ohio State on Saturday (that’s a joke for you, Kozimor Family, I appreciate you following my blog!). Mason’s mom’s side of the family lives in Ohio, and “Ohio” is his word for the letter “O” after which he always tells me his Nana is in Ohio.

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 29

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 29

Hello Everyone! I hope you’ve all had a nice week since last we met. The weather here in D.C. has been spectacular and I’ve enjoyed spending a lot of time outside this week. The fall colors aren’t great here, but the maples in particular have been pretty awesome. My folks and I have continued to try and celebrate life this week while keeping safe and close to home and I even got out for an overnight in my van which was awesome. October has seemed to go even faster than September did and I know that process will continue as the days get shorter. All told it’s been a pretty good week though.

I got a new phone this week, which is always exciting. My iPhone 5s has been slowly dying over the last year or so, and at the end the battery would only last about 20 minutes. I carried around an external battery for the last 6 months which is a pain, but also not a huge deal. I’m not all about the latest gadget, but that phone lasted a solid five years or so and hadn’t been new when I bought it. I’ve gone with the latest iPhone SE which has the newest chip in a reasonably priced phone. I was super happy with Apple’s new phone-to-phone transfer technology which basically migrated everything from my old phone to my new phone (down to the wallpaper) via WiFi. It was amazing and made set-up super easy. So far I’m enjoying the new features and the expanded capacity and capability of my new phone, and while there are a few things my old one could do which this one doesn’t seem to be able to, I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

The news this week is obviously pretty focused on the upcoming election, and I truly hate to see the divisiveness in the country right now. I know it’s been building for quite some time, but it seems too many people are fanning the flames and it’s heartbreaking. I think a lot of it comes from people not traveling enough and experiencing the different parts of the country and spending time with people who are Americans, but Americans different from themselves or their neighbors. I’ve spent almost my entire adult life doing just that, and I’ve found nothing but good people from coast to coast and lakes to gulf. I’ve always said that I think that sitting around a dinner table we’d have more in common than we did different, and with some open-minded conversation we could probably find compromise and common ground. But now more than ever we’re not having that face-to-face discussion, and it’s eating us like a cancer. I know the biggest divide right now seems to be between urban and rural communities and I’ve spent plenty of my life in both and both have enormous benefits and drawbacks. I think city people could use a bit of time in the country or in a small town and country people could use some real time in the city. Texans should go to Seattle and Alaskans should spend some time in L.A. and they all might find that the people there aren’t as unlike them as they think they are. I’ve spent time in my life in truly foreign environments having traveled across many countries all over the world and no matter where I’ve been I’ve met wonderful people working hard to provide for their families and spend a few minutes with their friends at the end of the day. When I personally can find a huge amount in common with a farmer in rural Cambodia, I know that people from different parts of the same country could find even more if they were focused on our common interests and ideals. We’ve got to stop demonizing each other and spend more time together and we’d all be surprised by what we find. I know that for a fact. Sermon over.

Mason and I continue our adventures around Glover Park and the nearby woods. He is really enjoying all the Halloween decorations, and again seems fearless since he has not been given a reason to be scared of the things we see (and certainly won’t get that from me). He waves to the Wolfman and says “Hi Doggie” and carried on a five minute conversation with a headless skeleton sitting in the bus stop. We’ve got a hill that we love to run down together, holding hands because sometimes he makes a misstep and at full speed that could end badly. He loves this hill and laughs so hard and heartily it warms my heart to no end. Remember when the joy of simply running down a hill could bring you that much happiness? It’s wonderful.

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