The Myth & The Majesty

If there is one thing I would do differently, it would be spending more time in Kentucky. We made it to Kentucky on Mr. Rogers' fourth day of riding, hitting Breaks Interstate Park at the VA/KY border before noon. At this point, our paths re-converged; his knees were done and, well, my schedule was dependent on his. And so it was that I got an hour to hang out in said park ... and then we hit the road. ... Apparently I have a hammock uniform. Anyway! We aimed for Corbin, Kentucky, home of the original KFC. Why? Well ...  Creepy. ... because we could, I guess? This was easily the kitschiest stop we made, but it was also recommended by a bunch of people and was kind of fun. I mean, we ate fried chicken in a museum. So there's that. From there, we aimed to Frankfort (note: if you map this, we are clearly insane) and the Buffalo Trace Distillery , a bourbon distillery that offered crazy awesome tours. And delicious bourbon cream. Among other things. ...

As it turns out, I'm not great at holding still. Mr. Rogers got an early start on his first day of riding (Monday morning) and I headed back to the motel to pack up, reorganize, and make my way northeast. We had covered a lot of miles in three days ... but now I had a mission that required a couple hundred extra. The evening before, I had perused the brochure stand in the lobby and tripped over something of particular interest. The Green Valley Book Fair  is just south of Harrisonburg, Virginia, and is only open five times a year for a few weeks each time. It is essentially an enormous overstock sale, and ... well. As some of you may remember, I have a book store ... thing. It was the original purpose behind my trip to Portland and I try to work at least one interesting store into each trip. I was in luck: the book fair had opened just a couple days earlier and was within shooting distance of Mr. Rogers' take-off spot. This time, I had to set both a spen...

Once upon a time, I stayed in a five-star Crowne Plaza in Beijing. It was a gorgeous place. No rooms below a junior suite level, linens eight steps above what I buy myself, marble everywhere, enormous meals with every kind of food imaginable. I, of course, walked in fresh off the refinery in clothes I'd worn every day that week, smelling funky and caked in the kind of grime you only find in industrial China. Balance. It is of no surprise to anyone that knows me that if left to my own devices, I will do things a bit differently. Really, the big issue for me is that the hotel is rarely the destination. If I plan ahead, I'll most likely be staying with friends or camping along the way. [I am a well-practiced couch surfer.]  If I don't plan ahead, I'll be driving as far as I can manage and finding a hotel or motel to crash when I get the chance. More to the point, if I'm spending less than twelve hours there, I'm not exactly looking for something fancy. W...

Denver is usually my most predictable stop. That's some of its allure. It's relaxing. Familiar but fresh. When I pulled into town on Thursday afternoon, I was ready for that relaxation. So the first thing? Shorty takes me to his bouldering gym. Expectation: It'd be fun but not really my thing. Reality: It was fun and now I want to buy climbing shoes and Rapid needs one of these gyms so I can go all the time. [Deep, cleansing breath.] We followed with dinner before he dropped me off at Daz's place (henceforth referred to as the DH Hotel) and I got to get caught up with the man himself. Badly needed. Also ... lots of Disney movies. Gosh, I love staying at the DH Hotel. (The coffee is great, too.) Friday evening, after an incredibly lazy day, I met up with Mr. Rogers for dinner. Now, to clarify a few things, Mr. Rogers had gotten his hands on one ticket to the Packers-Broncos game and I had been ... peeved. (Yeah, that's the word.) Over dinner...

Summer is wrapping up around here, meaning that we're headed into our "downtime."   *Snort.*   Okay, okay, okay. Yes. It will be less chaotic. A look at the calendar doesn't have me convinced of that just yet (September is insane) but not so deep down, I know things are settling just a bit.   Which means that my internal compass has clicked over to start seriously considering where I want to go next.   Of course, that list is longer than can actually be attempted in one winter. However, if I break it down just right I might be able to manage a few things.   This, of course, got me thinking about how I define my trips. Which... got complicated quickly. * Mini-trip: It takes less than three hours to get there and I might just go because I can. Also known as "Tuesday."  Fabulous tour. Day trip: I can make it there and back in one day and spend at least as much time at the destination as it took to get there. (I did...

As a general rule, I have been a fortunate traveler. Sure, there have been lots of flight delays over the years. I've ended up on standby when my flight was cancelled and I've waited out thunderstorms, blizzards, and bitter (as in "plane-won't-start") cold. I've stayed in awful hotel rooms. Gotten hopelessly lost. Tried to  break my leg on a couple of lakeshores . Had to fly through O'Hare. Thanks to some weirdly bad luck, I can now add rental car difficulties in the form of minor accidents and recall items rearing their ugly heads to the list. Seriously. I just shouldn't rent cars. The bottom line is that there will almost always be some form of trouble while you're on the road -- and even the minor things can be blown out of proportion very quickly when you're in strange places or running late for a flight. Most of all, many of the minor problems can be fixed or avoided with minimal preparation. A lot of this is common sense, but n...

[Or "And Then Things Took A Turn For The Awesome"] I got lost in Cleveland. It's embarrassing -- I mean, Cleveland?! -- but looking back, it affected the rest of my day ... and therefore the entire experience I had that weekend. My first view. The emptiness did not last. I'd awoken at dawn on Lake Erie with only 108 miles to cover that day. There was space in my schedule from when I'd thought I might have a last-minute companion; since that hadn't panned out, now I had spare time. I dawdled as well as I could -- took my time eating breakfast, went for a walk, geocached, slowly dismantled camp. Despite my best efforts, though, I was ready to go before noon. This was important! It was Cedar Point day ! Cleveland changed things. If I hadn't gotten lost, I would have been significantly early to Sandusky -- instead, I rolled in to the hotel parking lot only fifteen minutes before "official" check-in, a point where I didn't think I ...

My main objective of the trip -- besides Niagara Falls -- was to set foot in all five Great Lakes.   And okay. Maybe they weren't all out to get me, but there were a couple of incidents. Starting with...   Lake Superior   It was a beautiful day when I found my way down to the lake, just outside Marquette, Michigan. This was a simple, just-passing-through stop and a chance to get my feet wet. (Literally.)   Alas, there are various shore reclamation projects that use chunks of old roadway ... which leads to exposed rebar here and there. My first lake knocked me on my butt and got a lot more than my feet wet.   So deceptively serene. And apparently I snapped a picture before that moment. I left Superior with a scraped knee and hand (the back of it, somehow) but not much the worse for wear. Next up was... Lake Michigan My stop by Lake Michigan was also at a random wayside stop, this one ... actually, I'm not sure where. Sandy be...

It was 1:30 (Eastern Daylight Time) on the 16th when I entered Ontario. This was my first foray into Canada and with a target like Niagara, you could perhaps call me jazzed. Over the next two days, I would see so much and do so much that summarizing it here could get downright tiresome. But I'll try anyway. It's gonna be a long one. With a lot of pictures. You've been warned. * Objective 1: See the Falls. Because of course it was the first objective. Objective 2: Find a Brewery in Niagara. I had one in mind and as luck would have it, it also came recommended by the front desk agent at my hotel (Remember -- Lesson 2: Always talk to strangers). Taps on Queen : tasty beer, good pub food, amusing regulars. I ended up sitting near PhilandMike (I don't know which was who), two guys who razzed the bartenders and another guy just passing through. It also happened to be (more or less) walking distance from my hotel, a fantastic perk after a couple long days ...